When Sandhya Sriram took over because the group chief monetary officer at Narayana Well being, she anticipated to depend on the identical Excel sheets that had been her lifeline all through her profession in finance. Nonetheless, there have been none. As an alternative, every little thing was built-in into a knowledge software known as Medha.
“After 20 years of my profession, I’m taking on as CFO of a listed firm with no Excel sheets. I believed they had been setting me as much as fail,” Sriram defined whereas speaking in regards to the data-led technique at Narayana Well being at The Rising 2025.
She revealed what she didn’t realise on the time was that Narayana Well being was already forward of its time—working in a future the place data-driven choices had changed the tedious guide processes of the previous.
Letting Go of the Outdated Methods
For finance professionals, management usually comes from managing numbers in Excel and PowerPoint. At Narayana Well being, nonetheless, monetary critiques weren’t ready over weeks of back-and-forth information assortment. As an alternative, every little thing was dynamically out there on Medha. “No PPTs, no firefighting, simply clear information in real-time,” Sriram mentioned.
This transformation wasn’t nearly comfort—it was about precision. The platform enabled real-time monitoring of income, price efficiencies, and operational bottlenecks. “Healthcare income isn’t one thing you possibly can manipulate—it is dependent upon affected person influx. However prices and high quality? These we are able to management,” she defined.
Narayana Well being was based by Dr Devi Shetty with a mission to make healthcare extra inexpensive. One of the crucial spectacular methods they’ve achieved that is by utilizing AI and predictive analytics to handle stock.
“In FMCG, stock write-offs are widespread. However after I joined Narayana, I discovered that we hadn’t taken a single stock write-off for 3 years,” she mentioned. This was as a result of Medha might predict which pharma stock was about to run out and guarantee it was utilized in time.
Predictive AI additionally performed a vital position in operational effectivity. For instance, Medha optimised the usage of working rooms by analysing patterns and suggesting scheduling enhancements. “Each digital intervention has a price—not simply in cash, but in addition in change administration. Folks resist new methods, so we had to make sure that each funding in tech delivered actual returns.”
Medha Does it All
Past operations, Medha has reworked Narayana Well being’s advertising and marketing efforts. “Advertising and marketing was once a black field—you spent cash and hoped for the very best. At the moment, digital instruments permit us to trace ROI for each rupee spent,” Sriram defined. Finance groups that when struggled to quantify the impression of selling spend can now measure it with data-backed key efficiency indicators (KPIs).
Furthermore, budgeting has additionally advanced. As an alternative of pulling information from totally different sources manually, Medha runs detailed monetary situations at each stage. “As a CFO, I wish to know: what if income dips by 5%? What if a price centre overruns? Medha lets me check these situations immediately,” Sriram defined.
The flexibility to simulate monetary outcomes in actual time provides management a big benefit in planning and threat administration.
Constructing a Information-Centric Tradition
For any information initiative to succeed, management buy-in is essential. Narayana Well being ensured that enterprise leaders—not simply the tech group—owned the digital transformation. “Each rupee invested in information analytics needed to ship a tangible impression, whether or not in price discount, income development, or operational effectivity,” she emphasised.
Nonetheless, some challenges remained. “Initially, each operational committee overview had somebody questioning information accuracy. However we made a rule—no exterior information sources could be entertained. The numbers needed to come from Medha, even when there have been points. We needed to belief the system for it to work,” she mentioned.
Narayana Well being operates with a income per affected person considerably decrease than opponents, but its profitability stays sturdy. “We don’t concentrate on extracting most income from sufferers. We concentrate on operating an environment friendly operation. Information is our key enabler,” she mentioned.
The strategy has been recognised globally, together with a Harvard Enterprise Faculty case examine and a Netflix function on Narayana Well being’s mannequin.
On the core of this transformation is Medha, Narayana Well being’s in-house information group. “They aren’t simply constructing dashboards; they’re driving impression. Each new dashboard should present measurable worth, whether or not in price financial savings, income enhancements, or productiveness good points,” Sriram concluded.
By eliminating reliance on Excel sheets, shifting monetary decision-making to real-time analytics, and embedding a data-driven tradition, Narayana Well being has set a brand new normal for a way companies—particularly in healthcare—can leverage expertise to drive effectivity and affordability.
Furthermore, for CFOs like Sriram, it’s proof that, generally, letting go of previous methods is the one means ahead.
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