Business Platforms – BPO meets Technology

Business Platforms: It is all about when and where you want to make the shift

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:49:16 +0000

The business platform model is clearly emerging as the front runner choice for client corporations to manage their outsourced services (IT & Business Process). There is still a considered and well thought through shift which customers need to make. Continued incremental approach and getting wedded to the sunk cost is indeed a hurdle to jump over. This would need a mindset change, the ability to look ahead, see the curve coming and the ability to change lanes to make the shift without business discontinuity.

I am reminded of the elevated expressway (to Electronic City - the Silicon Hub of India) of 9kms which is now operational and is used by us

Business Platforms: the complete ecosystem in a box

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 13:05:39 +0000

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.

Multiply your supplier collaboration effort using Platform

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:15:03 +0000

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.

Business Platforms: laying the foundation for the future agile enterprise

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 07:59:36 +0000

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.

Platform innovation for effective change management

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:58:04 +0000

Imagine a situation wherein you are leaving for a business trip at a short notice for an important business event. You have checked-in at the airport, well settled in your seat for a 24 hours flight and now comfortably seated on a reclined cushioned seat with refreshment on the tray, gazing at your favorite business magazine on an article you have been yearning to read for weeks and now only you have got free time. Suddenly … a flight attendant approach you to exchange your seat with some other passenger and you are suddenly in a discomfort zone with your mental harmony completely shattered. All in all, you would require considerable effort on your part to get you back on track and get into your comfort zone again. Imagine if this change is happening when aircraft is passing through a turbulent storm and now not only your effort to settle down will be much more intensive you would also feel unsettled for a long time in a unproductive mode.

Leveraging Business Platforms To Drive Higher Business Value

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:10:34 +0000

As more market awareness, client interest and new deals start playing out in the market place for Business Platforms, it is imperative to understand that this new engagement model clearly can unleash phenomenal business value.

Some of the areas of business value unleashed by Business Platforms are:

Simplifying process, technology and people experience with an easier or robust governance model provided by a single partner
Builds the Foundation for growth, both organic and inorganic
Enhancing Employee, Supplier and Customer experience with higher empowerment & self sufficiency
Continuous benchmarking on both efficiency and effectiveness dimensions to ensure the process supported by the platform is best-in-class
Higher level of sustainability by creating significant optimization of resource consumption (e.g infra)

Overall, the Business Platform model adoption has the potential to unleash phenomenal business value to customers for sustainable growth and profitability.

Leveraging Business Platforms to become a Smart Enterprise

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:59:42 +0000

As we march into the new year with the strengthening green shoots of global recovery, client corporations enter into their planning for this year and the next decade. Business Platforms which is the nirvana state of managed services in cloud will clearly emerge to be the new business model for the next decade.

While they are already a few early adopters for this model, we believe the rapid adoption will come from those clients corporations which are not wedded to their sunk cost. We expect fortune 300–2000 to be the pioneers in adoption of the new model. The fortune 300 will also adopt the platform model in emerging markets and geographies and in the areas where renewal opportunities come by. The business model makes the client corporation become a smarter enterprise, simplify their processes & technology landscape and enhance their agility to respond to the market opportunities.

Unified technology is vital for managing Supply Risk effectively

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:06:41 +0000

The rapid embracing of globalization during last few decades has created an extremely profitable complex network business environment and on the other hand it has also made the global supply chain extremely vulnerable to any adverse event even in the remotest part of the world. You may ask any CPO and one of their biggest concerns today is supply continuity without disruptions and organization’s ability to manage any supply disruptions. While prevention is always better than cure, in managing supply risk you actually need a balanced combination of both. Today’s supply chain needs to be much more agile and adaptive to both external & internal events and should have the ability to react quickly to any negative signals popping up anywhere down the supply chain. With slow recovery though the number of bankruptcies have been abated and there’s an ease on liquidity, today’s global supply chain is bound to face newer kind of risks in the form of trade barriers, sustainability regulations, fluctuating currency rates, volatile commodity market etc, which mean that we need to gear up our supply chain eco-system beyond the myopic view of supplier monitoring alone. There’s also a need to evaluate supply risk from a multi-tier perceptive for any risk event at supplier’s supplier supply also that can impact our supply chain, and so access to diverse and fragmented sources of supply information is absolutely critical.

Should You Build, Buy, Host, Rent or Managed while addressing your underlying technology?

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:29:15 +0000

The emergence of Application software during last few decades has addressed one of the most common business dilemma - ‘buy versus build’ with ‘build’ clearly becoming a default and preferred choice for most of the organizations. However this panacea was short lived and organizations grapple with yet another challenge of heterogeneous and fragment technology landscape multiplied over years. This happened especially in supply chain area where these applications are unable to communicate with each other resulting in sub-optimized underlying technology. While consolidation of different technology applications into a single & common instance is the most common acceptable approach, which however is a costly endeavor in current state of capital crunch. The recent economic downturn has also seen the fast emergence of yet another option – ‘Rent versus Managed’ riding on cloud computing wave and providing serious options to business and contemplate yet another model to keep pace with adaptive supply chain and remain competitive.

‘Cloud services’ delivered through Platform Model

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:21:27 +0000

The fast maturing cloud computing concept is going to disrupt and change the way organizations would use and leverage technology as a strategic tool in managing their businesses. Organizations are seriously evaluating cloud applications along with underneath computing power due to its ability to provide agile, flexible and adaptable services. In its simplest sense cloud computing will eventually involve into like simply dialing into the cloud exchange, connect with right helpdesk support & gets immediate expert response on the phone and the caller will eventually pay based on time duration. However the significant business value really lies in the bundling of business services plus cloud computing plus cloud application through a third party which will take cloud computing to the next paradigm i.e ‘cloud services’ wherein organizations would look to offload their non-core processes to providers who can deliver the cloud services in the most efficient and effective way.

While there are many different ways these cloud services can be delivered, the two main conduits are ‘Public cloud’ and ‘Private cloud’. Public cloud typically is the service which is available to everyone with a standard offering and you pay a fee based on computing power usage while Private cloud on the other hand is available to specific organization only on a platform model. For eg. not anyone can plug into to spend analytics service provider say at Infosys cloud and can buy the spend report based cloud services from Infosys. However the real test of cloud services provider would be their ability to evolve this platform model on a multi-tenant architecture. Shared infrastructure thus would not only bring economy of scale but would also be a good breeding ground in driving innovation due to its ability to get a real time access of customer behavior, business need and cross pollination of best practices within the private cloud and let organization drive non-core business processes managed through the cloud services using platform model.

Vertical Business Platform Services – Pushing the Envelope on the cloud !

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:23:18 +0000

Even as early adoption occurs of the Traditional Business Platform services in the enterprise process areas of Procure to Pay, Hire To retire , Order to cash and Master Data Lifecycle Management, there is more opportunity and traction in vertical industry based Business Platform services.

Some of the Areas are Newspaper-in-a-box – Infosys NiAB offering which focuses on the publishing industry specific processes like circulation orders, advertising Orders and digital Orders. This is a paradigm shift for the capital starved Newspaper industry and allows them the ability to consolidate both operations and technology and also push towards more of managed shared services.

Business Platforms are nothing but Managed Services on the Cloud !!

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:03:19 +0000

The different jargons floating around in the outsourcing industry for the evolving new services model are Platform BPO, Business Services Cloud, Managed Services, SAAS, SAAS + BPO , Software on demand et al. As I had mentioned before, Business Platforms are not just bringing technology( read ERP) and BPO together, but bringing along with it a value-added layer of cloud based managed services. This means deep domain knowledge in an horizontal functional area and /or, vertical industry process area is successfully configured and encrypted on to a technology tool along with hosting of the same.

Business Platforms: Cascading Horizons in Outsourcing

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:15:04 +0000

Over the last 2 months, through my travel across North America and United Kingdom, I experienced clients are well into concept understanding, acceptance and wanting to try out the business platform model of outsourcing. Be it a Head of Shared Services in a large retailer looking for a HR platform, or a Global Head of HR looking for an integrated core HR and payroll Business platform , or a CPO of a large European bank looking for a centralized end-to-end procurement platform, the common driving factor is all about doing more with less. It is about conserving CAPEX dollars and undertaking large scale transformation with a partner who is willing to share the risk by providing a pay-as-you-go option.

As the green shoots emerge from the current downturn, client captains simply cannot afford to follow more of the old outsourcing model and have to try newer ways of optimizing business process & technology bundled together. Business Platforms is fast emerging to be that innovative alternative model, which can help in the bounce back and in driving sustainable business value. Some of the areas of business platforms adoption are in procure-to-pay, hire-to-retire, item data lifecycle management, order-to-cash and in vertical process areas like advertising order management in newspapers, customer relationship management in retail banking, customer billing in telco and claims management in insurance.

Business Platforms is that emerging model which can help clients cascade into the next horizon of outsourcing.

eAuction is just one aspect of eSourcing strategy

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:13:49 +0000

eAuctions erupted into sourcing scene with lots of hype later failed to live up to the high expectations, and organizations slowly realized that other modes of negotiations are equally essential as well to sustain healthy supply relationships and cost competitiveness. In many instances we have seen that the over usage of eAuctions ended into fiasco primarily due to lack of supplier acceptance and inability to cut down the cost beyond certain level. This has resulted into many organizations eschewing their eAcution tool and relook at traditional negotiation strategy like RFx, Cost model, Face-to-Face negotiations as well to drive viable & sustainable cost savings, which became important during these tough years when we saw a string of supplier bankruptcies resulting in immense supply chain risk. Having said that organizations in early stages of eAuction adoption curve, for instance in Asia region where eAuction penetration had been low due to cultural reasons, continue to reap initial success and saving benefits. Most of the eSoucing tools available in the market are pretty matured with stable functionality and differentiate very little in terms of attributes.

While evaluating eSourcing tool organization needs to consider two very important factors as well – one: Ease of use, two: Customer and training support. It is vital to keep following in mind while choosing eSourcing tool:
1.      Focus on business aspect than technology superiority: It is important to consider ‘ease of use’ and this need to be from the perspective of internal users as well as external users to accommodate change management on the supplier side also.
2.      Look for business value of feature than just availability: It’s a known fact that organizations typically use only a fraction of functionality available in any package. So the evaluation of solution should be based on business value the feature would actually be providing rather than just availability and complexity.
3.      Effective Customer Support: It is absolutely essential to have support from your eSourcing tool vendor in terms of high responsiveness and resolution of customer queries. This is a key to successfully conduct sourcing event and achieve the end objective.

Fortunately now organizations also has option of managed services for Sourcing which focuses on realized savings as an outcome rather than underlying eSourcing technology and is fast emerging as a generally accepted service model. It is typically on a gain share pricing model – a trend maturing fast in this space.

Pay-as-you-Use Pricing Model - for Managed Services

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:09:34 +0000

Imagine a Cell phone operator instead of charging you ‘per call’, charges you based on high monthly rental irrespective of calls you make or Utility provider charges you high periodic fee irrespective of units you consume. Now after getting used to ‘pay-as-you-use’ pricing model in these areas, any other alternate pricing model is just unthinkable. As a consumer we are more comfortable and would love to pay ‘metered fee’ for the ‘service usage’ instead of just ‘service availability’. In fact much credit for the explosive growth of Telecom during last few decades can be easily attributed to user friendly innovative fee model which helped in taking telecom services closer to the mass consumers.
Platform service model is trying to emulate exactly that only by making its services available in much cost effective way for SMB segment – who often grapple with unpredicted demand and so cash flows. It allows companies to adapt to the changing external environment which could be either rapid growth or reduction in a smooth way. There are different ways evolving to define or meter the ‘service usage’ – for eg ‘$ spend’ in case of Source-to-Pay or ‘# Employee’ in case of HRO and all this make the pricing model evolution extremely challenging for managed services vendor from two aspect: One – Acceptance of pricing model plus price points by mass companies; two – Challenge for managed services provide to ensure a stable revenue. While it’s still a challenge for managed services providers to customize its services for ‘mass adoption’ and evolve an ideal ‘pay-as-you-go’ model, early drift indicates the future trend and the necessary need to come up with an innovative pricing model in this fiercely competitive services arena.