Mobile applications are undoubtedly the next wave in the evolution of e-business: Rajendra Deshpande, CIO, Serco Global Services

How has been the trend in terms of IT spend in the IT-ITeS/ BPO industry over the last few years?

Over the last few years the IT- ITES/ BPO industry has reinvented itself internally and optimized its internal IT infrastructure to bring in efficiencies and adapt to a new technology world order. Most organizations have today adopted some form of SMAC technology in order to maintain relevance in this fast-paced, technology-driven competitive market. At Serco, our prime focus has been on adapting to these technological innovations in order to make our services more customer-centric. We have put into place innovations such as enterprise mobility platform called the Business Pulse, towards achieving this end. We have dedicated IT spends on adapting our processes to emerging technological trends such as SMAC, automation, big data analytics, etc.

What are the IT challenges for the companies operating in the IT-ITeS/ BPO sector?

More and more companies are now becoming customer-centric and hence it is important for businesses to upgrade their existing infrastructure, innovate with emerging technologies, and offer solutions and platforms that not only benefit the customer but also bring increased business value. It has become essential for businesses to move from consolidated approaches and scale delivery centers and move on to globally distributed delivery models. For instance, cloud computing is being adopted widely because of the immense benefits it offers. However, it is essential that businesses understand how they are building their IT infrastructure and have a holistic view of cloud computing to deploy cloud effectively. Data integration and data bottlenecks are also challenges that need to be addressed.

Please give some details of the software solutions being adopted internally at an enterprise level?

Mobile applications are undoubtedly the next wave in the evolution of e-business. Serco created a mobility solution called Business Pulse that can provide near real time MI by integrating with geographically scattered CMS systems, this mobile application has been designed for senior business users and management to monitor their process performance irrespective of their location and time. Business Pulse Mobility Solution allows business users to view their data in a way that enables them to effectively monitor business performance. It also provides users, an at-a-glance perspective of the business scenario. It is a perfect mobile application aligned to dashboards, scorecard and reporting methodology. It has enabled the management to take proactive steps to control and improve performance by providing data ‘real time’. It changed the management view and focus from just monitoring to management. It has enabled the client to experience the benefits of mobility such as instant availability and access.

This web based and mobile applications designed for iPhone, android phone and iPad and android tablets, integrates with data from multiple CMS systems based at multiple call centers/locations into a data mart optimized for near real time reporting. It can be extended to all business processes that use Avaya CMS system and provide a secure, web-based and mobile platform to publish, distribute and manage relevant historical and real-time information. Business Pulse is a hhighly customer-specific performance management metrics that leads to operational excellence.

How are the technologies like social media, mobile, analytics, or cloud (SMAC) impacting the IT-ITeS/ BPO business line?

SMAC is one of the major influencers determining the dynamics of the industry today. In the future too, SMAC will impact the IT/ITeS and BPO industry in a big way. Going forward, automation and technology adoption will be the key differentiators among players. BPOs are now equipped with technological tools that can help them cater to the evolved demands of consumers. SMAC can help a BPO business grow in several ways. The mobility component can offer two pronged growth by way of enterprise mobility and consumer mobility. Analytics can drive growth by providing intelligence through big data, etc. Analytics-based BPO solutions are helping companies across verticals to generate higher-impact business outcomes and the cloud computing is able to accelerate IT-enablement of BPO organizations.