VISTAS GLOBAL
DIGITAL REPORT 2020
Delivering operational resilience and excellence IN ASSOCIATION WITH
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Delivering operational resilience and excellence
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VISTAS GLOBAL
Suraj Thampi, CEO at Vistas Global, discusses the company’s unique value proposition and how crises can become opportunities
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n 2005, Momenta Global was founded as a specialist in business process management (BPM), restructured under Vistas
Global in 2013 to reflect its development into one of the Middle East’s most unique and cohesive business services providers. Spearheaded by 04
Suraj Thampi, an entrepreneur credited as having helped to pioneer business process outsourcing in the Middle East during the late ‘90s, the company now serves many Banking & Financial Institutions in the region. Alongside this strong portfolio of clients in financial services are a selection of telcos, academic institutions, automotive manufacturers, and sporting corporations operating in the region which have each benefitted from Vistas’s bespoke, region-specific service delivery, customer-centricity, growth mindset and key partnerships. Rapidly gaining the regional footprint and clout to compete with Global Services players both from both sides of the world, has been enabled by a series of core focuses that have 2specialized the company’s capacity to boost the operational capabilities and efficiencies of its clients. At all levels, a
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VISTAS GLOBAL
“ Most global companies and leaders in the field end up failing or being less effective when it comes to catering to these region-specific qualities” — Suraj Thampi, CEO, Vistas Global
customer-first & Innovation – driven culture is combined with feedback across internal and external channels, and a democratic approach to leadership drives creative inclusion and agility. Meanwhile, the firm is focused on developing and acquiring intellectual property (IP) under its Vistas Innovation labs. Some of those IP’s includes: • OmniHub, a Omnichannel Platform that can deliver omnichannel, single-view services that are integrable, resilient, and capable of closing framework gaps
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delivered by global industry leaders. • Trustnow, a Cybersecurity Product that can deliver Access Management to Critical and Sensitive data environment. Adler, a business Process application product offering Human Capital Management. • Salus, a HSSE (Health Safety Security & Environment) application that comes integrated with integrated & IoT enabled Surveillance solutions. “Global best practices are always considered frameworks for digital operations, and we usually end up adapting those frameworks to customize it to local sentiments and ideologies, whether cultural or operational, that
Client event of Vistas
07 makes it a success compared to others
cost models and profit models, and
who try western factory models which
focus on the outcome for the client.”
falls through in the region” Thampi
Concentrating on regional business
explains. “Most global companies and
needs, particularly in the develop-
leaders in the field end up failing or being
ment of its own capabilities to bridge
less effective when it comes to catering
framework gaps for best practice, has
to these region-specific qualities. That’s
bred innate flexibility into Vistas’s offer-
where we’ve been able to carve out a
ing. The pandemic has provided new
niche for ourselves; we’re able to take
opportunities in the challenges, namely
the global frameworks and create new
in the movement of people and goods,
ones from them that are locally suited
that has actually been a great enabler
whilst keeping those best practices in
of Vistas’ existing market propositions
mind. In doing this, we are able to plug-in
that comes with ability to deliver cut-
our Innovation labs IP’s to existing tech-
ting-edge and reliable solutions to its
nology of the customers, drive efficient
clients during this period of uncertainty
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VISTAS GLOBAL
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Elite client Qatar Financial Center Ministers on outcome based models. However,
our telemarketing units servicing telco
the company’s in-house technological
companies and redistributed what used
assets has ensured that it could react
to be the 3 specialized contact centre to
dynamically and make best value to
enable people to work from home. All of
emerging needs of its customers .
this is from a platform that we’ve built. It
“We ended up creating platforms and
took us 30-35 days to be able to design,
capabilities for our companies locally,”
build and roll this out, and this is an exam-
Thampi continues. “We’ve been moving
ple of where we have been able to adapt
our HR systems towards self-service
very quickly. Everything we do is based a
and distributed architecture for our
lot on the technology we have in-house.”
contact centres, back office CoE’s
This is where the roots of Vistas’s
adapting to Covid and its effects on
strong operations, and the clarity
business over the last six months. We’ve
of its growth strategy, are found.
had engagements where we have taken
“Every specialization is different, and
E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :
Suraj Thampi Title: CEO Company: Vistas Global Industry: Information services
Location: Qatar
Suraj Thampi is CEO of Vistas Global, his fourth venture in the Middle East following his successful development and sale of three other enterprises in the region over the past 20 Plus years. Thampi is a seasoned leader with a remarkable eye for entrepreneurial opportunities, and has served as Director, Managing Director, Chairman, or CEO for several organisations. Through these experiences, Thampi has developed a broad range of specialisms, including: outsourcing, business process management, strategy, operations management, facade engineering, glass processing, communications, managed services, and more. His cross-border business strategies have a root in Thampi’s background, with his parents having moved from India to Doha in 1979 where he was raised until attending university in the US. “When I was at university, I started an outsourcing company where we were doing voice campaigns for the likes of Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile,” he says. “We branched out to the UAE and India, and at that time, 1998, outsourcing was really picking up and there was a lot of momentum around leveraging global capabilities. There were cost pressures in the Western markets to build up efficiencies, and we saw that as an opportunity to set up new businesses and niches, leverage our experiences, and build a great practice in business process management.” Since then, digital transformation and increased regional interest in outsourcing have enabled Thampi and his teams to capitalize on emergent trends and deliver cuttingedge solutions to companies seeking to maximise operational efficiencies, with Vistas Global being a culmination of learnings and blueprints for success drawn over Thampi’s career as a business leader.
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VISTAS GLOBAL
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the contextual use of a technology
product suites don’t have available.
platform is the biggest challenge a
Our IP’ss are very niche and, being a
company has when adopting new solu-
tech company ourselves, we have the
tions into their operations,” Thampi
strength to develop these internally and
explains. “When we develop IP, these
usually don’t have to outsource our-
products are usually standalone, inde-
selves. We learn from the management
pendent platforms that bridge a gap
of our clients about where those gaps
for this market. The need for this is
are, and we deliver the solutions.”
owed to unique needs or requirements
Looking forward, Thampi says the
that global majors may not be able to
COVID-19 pandemic is yielding fresh
address, or it may be too expensive
opportunities for both the company and
to be able to adapt them, so we end
the Middle East’s technological adop-
up doing that while the rest of it is
tion. “Generally speaking, the region is
about bridging that gap in offering that
lagging behind more mature markets.
“ When we develop IP, these products are usually standalone, independent platforms that bridge a gap for this market” — Suraj Thampi, CEO, Vistas Global
other leading market analysts. The research data states 95% of organizations surveyed during the pandemic, and 88% of technologists report that digital customer experience is now the priority. For example, according to one of AppDynamics survey recent 81% of technologists state that COVID-19 has created the biggest technology pressure for their organization that they have ever experienced.
Reason being: this region is very young.
This view of the region’s burgeoning
Leveraging convertible frameworks
digital prospects for growth combines
for machine learning, AI and automa-
with Vistas’ resilience, and the criticality of
tion is a challenge when the process
its offering for clients, to create a potent
hasn’t been completely figured out,”
case for expansion. “We’re in a unique
he says, referring to local sentiments
situation where, each time there’s a crisis,
and requirements that necessitate
we see an uptick in our business,” Thampi
a tailored approach and how this
elaborates. “The current situation is the
has impeded transformational uptake.
same. For us, we see a lot more advan-
“Over the next few years, spurred by the
tage for our clients in terms of being able
pandemic-inspired frenzy to adopt more
to support them through this, so we’ve
technology, I think there will be a steep
had to look at how we can scale up our
adoption curve and that challenges will
bandwidth to service all of our clients’
be addressed more quickly than before.”
requirements. The biggest challenge is
Considering the Research data
getting the right people to scale up oper-
across Customer Experience that
ations and adapt with those needs. Our
Vistas has leveraged with its key part-
strategy is growth, and the route to that
ner partners like AppDynamics, the
is apparent and clear, we just need to be
application intelligence company &
able to cater to that and scale up quickly.”
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VISTAS GLOBAL
P ART N ERS
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“AppDynamics, Perpetuuiti, Oracle Netsuite & BMC Software are all key partners of ours, and each have their particular role in what we deliver to our clients.
relationship is to do with application management and increasing operational efficiency for varied customer environments.”
Perpetuuiti has been a partner of ours for over six years, bringing disaster recovery, business continuity solutions, and intelligent process automation to the table. It’s been working with us to deliver a continuity platform for most of our customers, looking at any kind of breakdown or crisis, and it’s been able to adapt very quickly to the pandemic situation. Perpetuuiti is vital to delivering solutions to our customers, and we have a lot of projects that we’re working on for robust operational frameworks.
“We have a similar relationship with BMC as a key partner, which specialises in IT operations management and IT service management. When it comes to any technology-driven operations, we collaboratively deliver infrastructural solutions for our customers. We’re currently working on sizable projects here for governments, utility companies and more.”
“AppDynamics is another great relationship for us, offering great client relations, and much of our
“Oracle Netsuite is the latest strategic practice investment that Vistas is undertaking to expand its capabilities to ensure the Process Excellence in the Digital Operational Services to its clients and larger ecosystem of its Process Solutions.” - Suraj Thampi, CEO, Vistas Global
Vistas’s firm cultural foundations are
within the organisation. We like promot-
set to serve as the springboard for this
ing internally and fostering a culture of
desire to scale at pace, with Thampi
growth, but we recruit at the grassroots
having taken huge interest in talent
level and are a big champion of recruit-
acquisition throughout his career. He
ing fresh graduates and putting them
takes pride in the longevity of employ-
through different aspects of the busi-
ees’ careers at Vistas, and the benefits
ness to see where they excel. We allow
that this continuity of workers provides.
mistakes and learning to discover what
“We take a long-term view to foster
our employees are really good at, and
employment within the organisation,”
we’re also big believers in people hav-
he says. “The average person at the
ing multifaceted skill sets. Additionally,
company has been working here for
we don’t like to have operational silos,
more than five years, and they have a
so we don’t want our employees to
clear succession plan for their careers
become super specialised in one area
Elite client Qatar Financial Center Ministers
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VISTAS GLOBAL
- they can be good at multiple things,
technology that drive its operations.
and we’re able to provide that train-
When it comes to the pandemic and
ing, the technological and operational
its impacts on business, Thampi
understanding, that will enable them to
closes with this: “What doesn’t kill you
deliver value to our customers.”
makes you stronger, so we just need
People and customer-centricity
to hunker down and work through this,
are at the heart of everything Vistas
and become better. That’s what we’re
Global has accomplished in its rise
doing and what we’re advocating for
to the top of the Middle East’s busi-
our customers, and together we’ll
ness services delivery industry, and
come through this and be better.”
its strong performance and ability
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to continue serving customers with
KEY PARTNERSHIPS FOR VISTAS
new products during the COVID-19
Vistas has partnered with many
pandemic are emblematic of the
companies that includes Technology
progressive management style
Products companies and niche part-
and forward-thinking approach to
ners who form a sub component of our
“ We’re in a unique situation where, each time there’s a crisis, we see an uptick in our business” — Suraj Thampi, CEO, Vistas Global
larger strategic initiatives. The top 3 partnerships for the year 2020 for Vistas includes AppDynamics, Oracle Netsuite & Perpetuuiti. As Digital grips the world with more and more committed business outcomes. AppDynamics platform happens to be a great choice for us to integrate some of our Innovation lab IP’s to be able to make the client business processes more effective with confirmed application performance, management & ability to seamlessly ensure service availability.
2013
Year founded
1,300 Number of employees
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AppDynamics suite of Application
Oracle Netsuite is the ERP plat-
Intelligence products provides
form that Vistas is adding to its
real-time visibility into our clients’ IT
Process Management Capabilities,
environment so you can connect per-
to ensure a strong offering for its
formance to business outcome
customers’ Process Transformation.
Perpetuuiti happens to be a
Netsuite Platform integrated with
core part of Vitas Innovation labs
Vistas’ Functional Services and the
enabling process automation abili-
associated Innovation labs IP’s, it
ties to OmniHub platform. This has
would be fuelling larger options of
helped Vistas to launch its Digital iVR
transformation across processes,
(Intelligent Virtual Response) across
platforms and people.
its Contact Centers & Helpdesk Process offerings.
VISTAS GLOBAL THE GATE MALL 9TH FLOOR TOWER 3 DOHA QATAR T +974 4444 4421 www.vistasglobal.com
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