We have successfully morphed into an information solutions company

If you were to take a macro view of the industry how would you go about?

I think right now we are entering into a most disruptive phase in the IT industry. I use the word disruption because there is disruption happening on the demand side and on the supply side as well. And a lot of things are being dictated by what is happening on the demand side of things. And if you look at what customers are really looking at now - they are very clearly focused on business outcomes and that has become the key conversation point.

When you talk about business outcomes, it is not just about technology, it is much beyond. We are taking on granular issues in enterprise IT. In the bargain, we are talking deliverables like how as a vendor I can enable the IT organizations to harness the power of information and usher in a competitive advantage.

The second thing is how are you going to help drive revenues. It’s not about reducing costs but optimizing costs. And finally, the most important thing is how are you enabling your clients to innovate. The thing is, these conversations does not involve just the CIO- a whole lot of other business stakeholders are involved and most of it are coming from the CXOs who are increasingly coming into the picture. The third critical piece is the innovation part. If you as an organization not innovating, you will become irrelevant soon. So enabling organizations to be relevant tops the agenda for us as well as to the technology decision makers.

As a supplier, every vendor has to address the demand-supply disruption and be relevant to the market demands.

So what has changed?

In tandem with the disruption what has changed is that the pyramid has become upside down. The conventional IT sourcing is the thing of the past. Today apps dictate the infrastructure, and the vendors need to build an infrastructure that is always available and is able to scale quickly. Bottom-line is, we need to give them a secure, fluid and agile infrastructure. They do not bother much about the product - they just need these critical infrastructure enablers.

You mentioned about the demands coming from the CXOs. In that context can you reflect on the IT  decision-making patterns?

Two things are happening. If the CIOs goals are aligned with larger business goals then the decision making by and large falls into their domain. But the CIO being the custodian of the digital infrastructure fails to innovate or there is a mismatch with technology and the business objectives, then, they are told what to do. Here is where the CEOs and CFOs and other business heads come into the picture.

I think any IT decision-making needs to be done with its impact at the ground zero. For instance, if you are a  CIO, you need to factor in so many parameters that have a direct impact on the business. For instance, managing the huge data to creating a digital infrastructure to gain insights or creating an on-demand strategy or leveraging analytics for better business outcomes. So it has become a lot more granular and that is the biggest change.

So how do you pitch in with your value proposition?

I think, a CIO today faces a lot of unpredictability. He is putting in place a long-term road map wherein the tech backbone can evolve in tandem with the disruption and the trends. Companies like us unbundle the unpredictability with our class leading solutions. We give them the platforms that help them scale, be nimble, able to manage the myriad information and stay relevant in the marketplace.

One of our biggest value propositions is our product depth and our reliability and innovation quotient. So we have successfully morphed into an information solutions company from a storage only play. Our acceptance in the marketplace has been phenomenal. A testimony to our success comes from the fact that our Indian business is growing 43% y-o-y and if you look at our portfolio 55% of revenues comes from software and service which very clearly say that we are selling more software. Our core value proposition is product depth sustainability and innovation.

How did the transformation to software and services happen?

Well, it’s an interesting story, started almost eight years back. We made a conscious decision that software and services will be the key element that will drive enterprise IT. We started building from ground up and assembled our services play and we thought from the customer standpoint and gave them the flexible option in managing siloed IT environments without sun setting old infrastructure. Our ability to enable infrastructure modernization in the most cost effective way was due to software and services transformation.

What are your segmentation and vertical play?

The market segmentation is long gone. It’s all about industry solutions and business of all sizes today demand the same kind deliverables. Even a startup today demands enterprise class reliability. Our vertical play is diverse and the hot verticals for us are technology, BFS, government, and telecom among others.

What are your top priorities for FY 17?

I have three priorities for this year. Cost optimization- giving our clients best of breed solutions nd enabling them greater RoI. The second priority is to drive more revenues. The third important one is innovation.