Source: ET Bureau
All companies were becoming technology and platform companies in their own right, as they figure out what business platforms they will compete on and the technology that will drive their businesses.
Companies using cognitive technologies for core business functions rather than just peripheral ones are helping drive most new growth at IBM Global Services, a senior executive said.
“The end-to-end transformation of mission critical activities is driving a lot of our growth around the world. In banking, it would be about the core payment solutions, or the supply chain in manufacturing,” said Mark Foster, senior vice-president, IBM Services and Global Business Services.
All companies were becoming technology and platform companies in their own right, as they figure out what business platforms they will compete on and the technology that will drive their businesses.
“We are helping build those new platforms and transform every process using some combination of artificial intelligence, blockchain, and enabled massively by cloud-based architectures,” he said.
In India, a similar transformation is under way, with demand coming from multiple business transformation requirements.
Berger Paints in India has worked with IBM to create a virtual reality experience on its consumer apps to drive outreach and engagement. Users can look at multiple options in 3D, helping them make informed buying decisions. This helps reduce sales convergence, in addition to increasing brand engagement.
The other change, said Foster, has been towards smaller engagements.
“It’s about delivering value on more mission-critical and holistic solutions in shorter timeframes rather than a big transformation journey. That’s the way clients are looking to partner,” he said.
In India, demand is also being driven by the shift towards automation.
“Industries are looking beyond their market to expand their portfolio and look at adjacencies and create new value streams and business models,” said Kamal Singhani, Managing Partner, Global Business Services, IBM India/South Asia.
The company is working with Sriram Transport Finance (STF), an NBFC with a strong presence in commercial vehicle financing, on its digital transformation exercise. With the segment under stress, STF was looking to enhance fee income and increase productivity of existing relationship executives, among other things.
IBM helped it create a platform that would enable executives cross-sell and be more productive as well as target the allied needs of the client. This, in turn, would increase potential fee from customers and help disrupt the traditional financing industry.
The software major had to make employees ready for the shift in technology, in order to help clients leverage the technology. IBM’s services business employs 250,000 people.
It is a massive amount of capability to harness, but that capability needs to evolve in terms of skills. “We have to be more granular in terms of how we build our capabilities in new areas and help them actively skill themselves. It’s also about how teams can come together under new models,” said Foster.
