Business Platforms – BPO meets Technology: February 2010 Archives

« January 2010 | Main | March 2010 »

February 28, 2010

Business Platforms: the complete ecosystem in a box

Increasingly, the organizations and clients are looking for ecosystem integrators rather than system integrators or process outsourcers. Given the need for speed and responsiveness, having a simple governance model with a single provider who plays the role of the ecosystem orchestrator is what the clients are seeking for. The Business Platform model is nothing but the complete ecosystem in a box with the managed service provider playing the role of the ecosystem orchestrator. This model facilitates the synchronization and symphony of the various moving parts within the ecosystem. The managed service provider takes the ownership for business outcomes and service levels of the entire ecosystem, and provides the added value of simpler governance & scale for supporting both organic and inorganic growth for clients.

So the new era of ecosystem in a box through Business Platforms has commenced.

Posted by Anantha Radhakrishnan at 1:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

February 15, 2010

Multiply your supplier collaboration effort using Platform

I had an interesting comment in one of my blog entry that - we need to be cognizant of the fact that while supplier consolidation offer better negotiation power and control on supplies in addition of host of other benefits, there is another school of thought that drives de-risking of supplies by using more suppliers’. While there’s no one-size-fit-all approach while attempting supplier rationalization (read consolidation) in the present economic environment it is also important to have a rigorous supplier risk management plan in place while taking a decision on supplier rationalization. On one hand the idea of supplier rationalization is extremely effective in improving relationship with a focused supplier base and thus helping you in increasing your sourcing effectiveness, I have also seen instances where organization after consolidating its supply base continue the business-as-usual with the remaining suppliers attempts no improvement in collaboration, partnership or try to come out with a new road map and such supplier rationalization is certainly not good for organization’s health in the long term. Organizations those truly leverage supplier rationalization as an opportunity to infuse strong collaboration with their suppliers through better communication, exchanging detailed forecast, sharing product design and resolution of financial crisis are bound to achieve sustainable business value in the long term. The suppliers because now they are getting much larger pie of the business would be more enthusiastic in sharing cost issues, potential savings, capacity information, supply chain concerns and other key information that will provide far greater visibility into your potential supply risks thus helping to address the usual dichotomy between supply rationalization and supply risk. This would enable them to have an early risk warning framework in place by proactively identifying any potential supply interruptions. To achieve this end state it is important to extend the procurement technology automation to extended supply base rather than taking a myopic view by automating internal source-to-pay process only. It is important that one should continuously watch and review if the underlying procurement technology is keeping pace with changing business need of external collaboration and thus not becoming a constraint in adapting to the extended collaboration need. Technology platform on a managed services model can help organization to accelerate external collaboration automation in a smooth way and thus ensure achieving seamless sharing of supply information. Having said that depending on the strategic nature of supply, one may still want to evaluate an alternate supply after taking into consideration its criticality and business impact. For example no level of collaboration can safeguard you from natural disaster, trade barriers or adverse geo-political events.

Posted by Gurjeet at 1:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

February 12, 2010

Business Platforms: laying the foundation for the future agile enterprise

As I see more clients onboard and go-live on Business Platforms [Bundle of Process, Technology (Application + Infra) and People delivered through a managed services model] – it is becoming obvious that they have in one significant paradigm shift moved from the motley baggage of applications and splintered processes of the past to a new simplified and harmonized end-to-end process, supported by a single platform and with trained people provided by a single provider.

This is like a whiff of fresh air, which will be the stepping foundation for their future success, agility and growth. To bring this to life, a recent client who moved onto the HRO platform, now realizes the significantly enhanced and empowered employee experience been created for their associates.

The basic employee data like leave is enabled online, the employee is able to see their pay slips with the details (rather than having to look up the bank account for the credit). Given employee cross company movement is needed for the growth of their business, the single unified HRO platform –provides them this ability to harmonize and commonly reflect the terms of employment for the various employees, facilitating ease of cross company transfers or employee movements.

The business Platform model while being new and needing a change in the client mindset to adopt, also releases significant pain of carrying the baggage of the past. This is the True value of moving into a Business Platform based service as it frees up leadership bandwidth and provides a great spring in the step and speed to carry out the much needed business changes for explosive growth .

Business Platforms remain the key choice for building the foundation of an agile future !

Posted by Anantha Radhakrishnan at 7:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)