From an IT Auditor to a tech driven CFO: How CA M P Vijay Kumar played a key role in the transformation of Sify Technologies

• Meet M P Vijay Kumar (MPV), a Chartered Accountant, Cost Accountant, and Company Secretary. Since 2007 MPV is the CFO of Sify Technologies – one of India’s largest Information & Communications Technology (ICT) companies.
• His career path started as an Investment Banker, later as a Practising Chartered Accountant, and for more than a decade now, as the CFO of Sify Technologies.
• MPV is also an Author of over 10 popular titles on Financial Reporting, Advanced Accounting, AS, Ind AS, ICDS, and Audit Standards. He is an exception in that while in the industry, he manages to be active as a Council Member of the second largest accounting body The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and is also the Chairman of the Accounting Standards Board ICAI.
• In addition, he is a member of the IFRS Advisory Council, the advisory body of the IFRS Foundation, IASB, and IFRS SMEIG.
• As part of the Digital Transformation series powered by Dell Technologies, we spoke to MPV to understand his perspective on digital transformation and how he has used technology and transformed the business model from B2C to B2B.

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

I started my career in Investment Banking at Sundaram Finance Services, one of the largest and most respected financial services companies in the country. I eventually was entrusted with the responsibility of heading the team.

However, I always intended to be an entrepreneur as I wanted to build something where I could leave an indelible mark. So, I quit the job I was so comfortable with and joined a CA Firm, Yogananda & Ram. This was in mid-1999.

Here I focused on audits, specifically, IT Audits and over the years we built a name for ourselves. In fact, we were one of those very few Indian firms registered with the Public Companies Accounting Oversight Board US.