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“WFM Has Changed to a Knowledge-based Function�

Pg 8

Why Governments Are Treading Slow Pg 10

Android Accelerates Mobile Application Development Pg 22

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September 2011

The gateway to the global sourcing of IT and BPO services

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Software Paradise, 后Hangzhou Sourcing

Demonstration City of Chinasourcing Hangzhou Hangzhou was defined as the “China Service Outsourcing Demonstration City” in February 2009. Hangzhou is also the one of eleven software industry base cities in mainland China. It has currently formed the several industries including telecommunication, software, integrated circuit, digital TV, animation games and E-commerce.

The revenue of software business in Hangzhou was achieved at 47 billion RMB in 2009, the software export revenue reached at 460million USD. There were total 112 enterprises passed CMMCMI, ISO27001 certification. There were 20 IT software enterprises have list on public market, two companies ranked at Top 10 of self-brand software products, total 15 enterprises have list at the key software enterprises name list of the national strategic planning.

In order to accelerate the development of outsourcing industry, Hangzhou Municipal Government set up the leading team to draw up the development plan, issue the supporting policy to make the rapid development of outsourcing industry in Hangzhou. The total delivered amount of offshore outsourcing business reached at 919mllion US Dollars, risen to 352% compared to the same period of last year (2008).

Hangzhou government has put more focus on the financial service outsourcing that is considered as the medium and high end outsourcing industry, Hangzhou now is creating to become the financial delivery center.

International Financial Outsourcing Center Promotion & Undertaker: Great-Idea International Outsourcing Consulting Center

Hangzhou, China A City of Financial Delivery Center

To Combine the Global Resources and Facilitate the Integration & Upgrade of the Global Service Capability Please Attention October Trip in Hangzhou China Sourcing Summit & Delegation to China Sponsors: Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China Host City : Hangzhou People’s Government Official Promotion: Hangzhou Municipal Foreign Trade & Economic Cooperation Bureau

International Financial Outsourcing Center Contact: Tel-8610 85863613 Fax-8610 59081093 Email-salida-liu@great-idea.com.cn

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April 2011

features and New: ADM & 15 Hot Testing Services [cover story]

by Sourabh Chandra Pushp Trends in Software Development and the Rise of Testing

Accelerates Mobile 22 Android Application Development [special report]

by Sourabh Chandra Pushp The unprecedented growth in the user base of Android-based devices and the demand for mobile applications is fueling a huge demand for development using all methods of sourcing- outsourcing, crowdsourcing, and buying readymade apps.

Management 8 Workforce Has Now Changed to a More Knowledge-based Function”

by Smriti Sharma

Over the years, WFM has found its way into business processing, because when WFM is applied over an optimized process, the overall economics is far superior. Service providers have therefore been using WFM as another tool in their arsenal to optimize overall process management.

Computing: Why 10 Cloud Governments Are Treading

Slow

by Smita Vasudevan

Cloud adoption for e-governance has been slow. Even as governments acknowledge that cloud is the way to go, there are many challenges that need to be addressed. What’s the way out?

xperts Mobility – Facts 29 Enterprise and Myths!!!

by Hari Haran, President, Persistent Systems, Inc. Future of Software 32 The Development

by Kumar Parakala, KPMG

Changing Face of 35 The Customer Satisfaction in

Offshored IT Solutions

by Lalit Dhingra, President NIIT Technologies, Inc., North America Cease Fire in the Function 32 APoint Holy War

By Nigel Hughes, Global Services Director, Compass Management Consulting

Global Services Digital Magazine

Forthcoming Specials: n vox artis on infrastructure management n Destinations compendium

Editor’s Note

Directions for Indian BPO T

Ed Nair Editor

ed@cybermedia.co.in

“In the past, the choice was between cost savings and transformation.

Now you have to do both; it is a model of continuous improvementre-engineering never stops.”

he Nasscom BPO Summit was a good occasion to get a sense of where the Indian heritage companies are headed. Multiple flavors ruled these conversations depending on which group you talked to and what they were looking out for. The large ones were interested in high growth strategies; the mid-tier companies were either looking for opportunities in commodity areas with temporally high demand or evaluating niches that require specialized expertise; and the legions of small BPO shops were there wideeyed trying to make sense of what BPO is all about.

Altogether, it was an interesting set of viewpoints. More importantly, most of these ideas were very much grounded in reality; unlike the proverbial ‘shifting the paradigm’, ‘going higher up on the value chain’, and kind of talks. Here are a few of them: A leading client said- “Don’t treat KPO or knowledge-related BPO like IT in terms of costs. The competitive edge here will come from value and insights. It is not about lift-and-shift, but it is about combining expertise between the client and the service provider. This mindset is yet to evolve.”

• A leading service provider said- “In the past, the choice was between cost savings and transformation. Now you have to do both, it is a model of continuous improvement- re-engineering never stops. Don’t blackbox your processes; you need to see it.”

• The idea of shoring has gotten silly. This place is good for that and so and so— don’t be guided by that. This is a people’s business, so go where you have the people.

• Don’t compare yourselves with IT services companies; their pressure is budgets and ours is business model.

• The biggest mistake is to club BPO companies with IT outsourcing companies. The runway for BPO is much longer; size of the BPO market is close to $280 B, growing at CAGR is 20% and the size of IT market is $150 B, growing at CAGR of 7%.

• Over time, supply markets become demand markets and demand markets become supply markets.

• Indian BPO had it good till now. Now is the time to ‘scale up the algorithm’.

• BPO service providers need to be able to do three things continuously: manage cost pressures and lower costs; invest in training, skills, and platform; and deliver increases in business value to clients.

Overall, my sense is that most of the Indian BPO companies realize that cost arbitrage, FTE-based models, and transaction volumes no longer determine success. Although the domestic Indian BPO market is a totally different story, Indian BPO vendors do seem to understand what is needed to lead the global market.

Enjoy the summer !!! GS

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WFM Outsourcing

“Workforce Management Has Now Changed to a More Knowledge-based Function�

The simple definition of Workforce Management (WFM) involves assigning the right employees with the right skills to the right job at the right time. In effect, it is also about optimizing the workforce rather than mere allocation of resources. Over the years, WFM has found its way into business processing, because when WFM is applied over an optimized process, the overall economics is far superior.

Service providers have therefore been using WFM as another tool in their arsenal to optimize overall process management.

Smriti Sharma, Sr. Correspondent, Global Services, interviewed Sanjiv Kapur, global head-BPO & CIS, iGATE Patni, to find out how the company used WFM to optimize its contact center management business. Excerpts from the conversation:

GS: What’s the primary driver for WFM outsourcing?

SK: The current market scenario - cost pressures, increased competition, rapid industry change and the virtual nature of the workplace, mixed with traditional constraints salaries accounting for 70% or more of the cost of running a call centre, are both factors that have been understood by organizations in their search for improved resource utilization.

WFM outsourcing has allowed companies to focus Sanjiv Kapur on their core 8 GlobalServices

expertise and leverage experts in cost effective and efficient call centre operational management. Outsourcing in this area has been increasing in both large- and mid-sized companies, but there is accelerated growth in the mid-sized market for WFM optimization.

GS: How has WFM evolved over time?

SK: WFM process outsourcing started as simply a BPO function. It has now changed to a more knowledge-based function, which requires a partnership between vendor and client that enables the vendor to seek and implement process improvements to a mutually beneficial outcome.

Companies that gain the most out of outsourcing establish a knowledge based partnership with vendors, working together to fully assess the operations and implement the best solution for the company.

Financial services companies have been expanding WFM practices and benefits to all parts of their organization, extending past the contact centre. Improving resource utilization has become a value to front-, mid- and

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September 2011

WFM Outsourcing

back-office areas, especially focusing on the typically extensive branch network. WFM process outsourcers have to be able to support WFM efforts in non-traditional centres, such as a bank branch, and have to be able to support emerging technologies including video, social networking and other off phone work activities.

GS: What are the different models/ methods of implementing being employed?

SK:WFM is a collaboration of science and art. If it is wellbalanced with process and if it is implemented well based on customer needs, it could reap multifaceted benefits to the organization. Customer organizations can acquire WFM capabilities by outsourcing work in multiple ways: a. Consulting services: where customer onboard the consultant to review and improve the existing processes or creates them afresh. The same is later supported by the in-house WFM team b. Selective process outsourcing: where most of the WFM functions are outsourced and a limited work left in house with the customer c. End to End outsourcing- where all the WFM processes and functions are outsourced to the vendor in entirety and performed at chosen location.

Our market strategy has moved away from outcomebased pricing, FTE and volume based transaction model to a revenue/ risk sharing or pay per transaction model.

These models really ensure that we are aligned to resolve customer challenges and provide empowerment to deliver continuous process improvement.

9 GlobalServices

GS: Going forward, how do you see WFM evolving?

SK: We see there is increase in demand for leveraging more sophisticated analytics to drive forecasting accuracy, operational performance by using different analytical models based on speech analytics, market analytics, business analytics and employee behaviour analysis (attrition trends, shrinkage, home-based reps, etc.) to drive efficiency and optimization at the enterprise level. Customers with contact centre business typically rely on WFM tools for historical or trend based forecasting. These forecasting models are based on both empirical and stochastic approaches.

GS: What are the challenges faced when you use WFM? SK: The challenges faced are similar to that of any process outsourcing engagement; WFM adds an additional layer of complexity to it. The challenges are: 1. Identifying contract terms that are mutually beneficial for both the client and the service provider.

2. Identifying key metrics to measure vendor performance 3. Audit / governance mechanism to validate the process being implemented by the service provider 4. Maintaining the status quo is not acceptable to the customers, it is now necessary to showcase continuous improvements to the process 5. Customer expectation of phase of the outsourcing model needs to be appropriately set at the beginning of the engagement. Typical outsourcing models move through the phases of transition, stabilize, steady and matured. GS

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September 2011

Infratructure Oursourcing

Cloud Computing: Why Governments Are Treading Slow Cloud adoption for e-governance has been slow. Even as governments acknowledge that cloud is the way to go, there are many challenges that need to be addressed. What’s the way out?

Smita Vasudevan

T

he cloud is the biggest wave of change to hit the tech industry. When businesses world over are expecting huge benefits through cloud adoption, there are no reasons as to why the governments should lag behind. The broad picture is that experts suggest that the public sector is gradually becoming aware of the promises of the cloud and adoption rates are also going up. Strategies are being rolled out worldwide, investments are being planned for cloud computing, but most things are still on an evaluation stage.

According to the AMD 2011 Global Cloud Computing Adoption, Attitudes and Approaches Study, around 37 per cent of global businesses have deployed the cloud models in some way, whereas only around one-fourth of the public enterprises are on the cloud. Interestingly, a very large percentage is evaluating and investigating its benefits and implications.

As concerns and hype surrounds the cloud, there is a clear need to cut through the myths and encourage adoption. There have been talks on how the US government The Road So Far

can help increase cloud adoption in a big way and when will other countries follow suit.

Adoption Picks Up Cloud is now more of a reality than just hype and is changing the way enterprises are doing business. This is surely acting as an eye opener for most government agencies that are looking to revive and transform their service delivery capabilities. There is more interest for the cloud now and adoption is going up, but there is a clear difference in the way different countries are approaching the cloud.

Taking a quick look across various geographies, US and UK seems to be reasonably ahead in their cloud adoption strategies. The US Federal Budget 2011 puts a strong focus on cloud as a strategy to drive down costs and bring efficiencies. According to the Federal Cloud Computing Strategy (2011), an estimated $ 20 B can be moved to the cloud out of the $ 80 B US IT spending.

Cloud Adoption by US Federal Government By 2014, over $ 1Bn of the federal IT budget would be devoted to the cloud. By moving to a cloud service, General Services Administration (GSA) now pays an annual total of $650,000 for USA.gov and all associated costs which is a cost savings of 72 per cent. The migration to the cloud is estimated to help Washington D.C. city government save 48 per cent on mail expenditures and the City of Los Angeles 23.6 per cent.

Source: KPMG report ‘The Cloud Changing the Business Ecosystem’

Source: Lockheed Martin Cyber Security Alliance survey 2011

10 GlobalServices

KPMG’s The Cloud Changing the Business Ecosystem report, states that the United Kingdom is also not far www.globalservicesmedia.com

September 2011

Releasing

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Infratructure Oursourcing

behind in deploying a cloud adoption strategy. The British government is building a Government cloud application store which is expected to be the only channel for IT services procurement in the British government.

Government organizations across the Asia pacific too are swiftly finding their way to the cloud. Increasing need for Cost savings and flexibility in IT infrastructure are major reasons for the shift. As the thrust is more on security and the location of data centers, the APAC shows more preference for hybrid and private clouds.

What is Driving the Change?

Moving to the cloud is an inevitable change today and it is obvious that governments too are realizing this.

As most of these agencies remain in the mid of budget constraints, the need to drive down cost is significant.

Thus cost saving is the primary driver for cloud adoption in the government space. What else is driving the change? Operational efficiency and standardization are other areas that are critical for government. There is a high need for transparency and better interactions within communities to ensure that services are delivered effectively. The IT infrastructure needs for governments are massive, and the fast changing demands call for a high degree of flexibility and scalability. Cloud computing allows efficiency, standardization of procedures and improved flexibility. It helps in streamlining services and avoiding duplication, and offers all round efficiencies that can drive down costs significantly. Technology innovation is another benefit that cloud can offer to governments.

ACS offers private cloud email solution to the State of Florida Here are the excerpts from an interaction with Chuck Cliburn, ACS: The Problem: Over 30 separate email systems for the State Government of Florida resulting in operational inefficiency and duplication across agencies.

The Solution: A single, unified email platform to be implemented and operated by ACS, A Xerox Company.

The new system will be based on Microsoft Exchange 2010. Archiving and E-discovery will be based on Symantec products. Help desk services will be provided

by ACS as part of the contract. The operational model is private-cloud solution operated within Florida.

The Estimated Benefits: The anticipated benefits include a common email directory, share calendars across agencies, improved archiving and discovery, improved security, improved disaster recovery and improved help desk services.

12 GlobalServices

It is thus highly justified that more number of government organizations are turning to the cloud.

A recent example of this is The state of Florida moving to a state-wide private cloud email solution offered

by ACS, to deal with operational inefficiencies and duplication across agencies.

Commenting on what the move holds for the state, Chuck Cliburn, Senior Vice President, ACS, says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The shift will increase productivity and collaborate efforts between agencies.â&#x20AC;?

Hurdles to Cross Even as the cloud is gaining popularity in the government space and adoption plans are in the pipeline, real implementation remains slow. There are numerous factors responsible for this. Security concerns are more prominent in the case of governments and CIOs lack trust in the cloud models. Coupled with that is the fear of losing control over the IT infrastructure and data. The AMD report states that 36 percent of global public sector is still investigating cloud solutions. Lack of IT skills and expertise to handle cloud implementation is also a big hurdle that is coming in the way of adoption. Another important factor to consider is that cloud models work on pay-peruse, on-demand basis, while IT budgeting is done much in advance. So it becomes difficult to predict demand while using cloud models.

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the way out? The Frost & Sullivan report suggests that there is a need for international legal and governance frameworks on cloud computing. It is also essential for policy makers to strike the right regulatory balance in ensuring flexibility, regulatory compliance and jurisdiction issues.

To capitalize on the cloud opportunity, governments need to have increased awareness and trust on how it works in reality. Service providers need to bust the myths and communicate clearly what the cloud solutions can offer and ensure that security issues are handled effectively.

Building confidence is likely to act as a major catalyst for government cloud adoption in the long run and wake this sector up to the promises of the cloud. GS

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September 2011

CASE STUDIES The Power of Customer Advocacy Global Services features a rich repository of case studies from wide range of industries involving various technologies. A program with an integrated approach of promoting your case study to the largest community of outsourcing professionals through multiple delivery platforms and formats.

enter http://microsites.globalservicesmedia.com/live Don't miss this opportunity!

Book your Case Study now! Contact Niketa at niketac@cybermedia.co.in

Hot and New: ADM & Testing Services “The 2011 survey results are very encouraging and highly favorable for an active software development market, as well as the expectation of an improving business environment,” ­—Mary Brandon, VP of Marketing, SoftServe, Inc.

Cover Story

Trends in Software Development and the Rise of Testing You need to continue maintaining the army of programmers; they are the ones who ‘create’ software and applications. Even as software development services continue to thrive amidst changing technology environments and methodologies, the curve for the growth of software testing as an independent service is steep.

Sourabh Chandra Pushp

L

ook at software development at the most basic level. It is part engineering and part workmanship. The end objective is to engineer quality code; the engineering part focuses on process and efficiency and the quality part stresses innovation.

Grady Booch, chief scientist at Rational Software Corp., says- “Software development is fundamentally hard. And being a human process, we have to consider what are the things that eat away at our ability to focus on delivering good software. That might be project start-up costs, collaboration costs, stakeholder collaboration, technology churn ... and the activities of a code warrior that have nothing to do with quality code.”

As an activity, software development will outlast the technology industry. Therefore, the market for software development will persist, despite economic ups and downs.

During period of economic busts, software development will get postponed, but it will return with a throttle effect when the economy recovers.

A recent ExecutiveBrief 2011 Software Development Trends Survey indicates continued market stability and confirms the respondents` increasing optimism on the immediate future: Seventy-nine percent (79%) of respondents

16 GlobalServices

indicated their software development budgets would increase in 2011; with nearly half indicating their budget is likely to grow greater than 10% as compared to last year. Only 5.2% believed their 2011 budget would decrease by 10% or more as compared to 2010.

Software Development- Outsourcing The survey indicates early-market activity in SaaS/Cloud and mobile applications. The majority of respondents indicated business case planning, solution architecture, and implementation as their greatest challenges and area that need external assistance.

“The 2011 survey results are very encouraging and highly favorable for an active software development market, as well as the expectation of an improving business environment,” said Mary Brandon, VP of Marketing, SoftServe, Inc. Research carried by Horses for Sources Research (State of Outsourcing 2011 Study ) predicts 95% of buyers reporting positive outcomes. It also reveals that in-house delivery of IT application, maintenance and processes are still dominant in 2010-2011. Application Development outsourcing saw 38% in-house activity together with 31% outsourced activity as sourcing model for managing the IT business. Companies

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September 2011

Trends in Software Development and the Rise of Testing

are placing a renewed focus on aftermarket services, as well as maintenance, repair and overhaul services as a source for new revenue streams. Servicing existing products is taking on a greater importance.

Clients who outsource software to outside providers are expecting nothing less than great quality, as the IT development outsourcing scene matures. After about a decade of growth, it is time for superior customer service, reliable organization, modern management and, most important of all, top-notch solutions. Nearshoring, farmshoring, cloudshoring: These fancy concepts that mean, respectively, outsourcing to a nearby country, outsourcing to a rural area and migrating software development to a cloud have one thing in common – they are evidence for willingness of clients to seek new IT development outsourcing models. In the new year, more contracts are likely to flow to emerging software outsourcing destinations, like Brazil, Russia and Eastern Europe. As these areas attract investment due to their accelerating potential, more Western companies will want to create a foothold there.

According to Andrei Pronin, GM-Auriga- “The buyers better understand the importance of non-technological factors. The providers’ capabilities to see the business needs 17 GlobalServices

behind the technical requirements, build trust, organize communications, continuously optimize the process, tailor it to the specific needs”.

Software Development Today Virtualization, cloud computing, dynamic languages, Javascript browser integration, RIA frameworks, openID, and life after EJB are all common features of today’s software development landscape.

Agile methods are a good thing because they address the social dynamics of small teams, for which the Rational Unified Method is silent. But it’s also good to have an interplay between the two, because there are a lot of things that the Rational unified process deals with but for which the agile methods are silent. So we have some learning to do on both sides. There is a growing demand for applications in mobile and cloud areas, and rich multimedia delivery and storage solutions.

According to, Genefa Murphy, H-P, ”Two obvious trends are cloud computing and mobile access. They are complementary. As the number of people and devices on the net increases, our ability to shape traffic on the demand side gets worse. Spikes in demand will happen faster and reach higher

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September 2011

Trends in Software Development and the Rise of Testing

levels over time. Mobile devices exacerbate the demand side problems by greatly increasing both the number of people on the net and the fraction of their time they are able to access it.”

Other prominent future trends are: Enterprise App Stores - Enterprise will demand the kind of apps they find on their smartphone and tablets. Gone will be monolithic apps with loads of features that are rarely used. Highly specialized applications with high usability would be in.

Private Clouds Despite the economic and technological incentives of outsourcing one’s infrastructure, there will always be that organizational and human need to build and own one. Private clouds of course will overlap and need to integrate with public clouds, simply because the dominant business model will be SaaS. Desktop Services - Services that we commonly expect on a desktop like the file systems, shortcuts, contacts, calendars and programs will increasingly reside in the cloud. This is a consequence for the need for greater security on mobile devices and the need to share information among multiple devices and multiple collaborators. The filesystem of the future will be collaborative shared spaces.

Impact of Cloud on Software Development Industry How does the increasing adoption of cloud computing technologies influence software development? Will it affect the development of web based and Software-as-a-Service applications?

Most of the cloud migrations we see today are applications that have been written for physical environments and are not taking full advantage of the cloud. We are now dealing with a growing boom in software development for cloud computing that takes advantage of benefits but also issues that will open up opportunity for new software development. The selling and licensing of applications will change too. The way data is handled will undergo a major shift. Data driven applications will become mainstream.

In the cloud world, software development has become more complex in terms of security, reliability, usability and performance and will keep the software development industry busy.

18 GlobalServices

Software Testing Software testing has always been an important phase in software development life cycle. Quality cannot be compromised, and this realization has led to a lot of focus on quality assurance space and testing as a discipline got matured in the last 5 years. A decade ago testing was meant to catch defects but today testing has matured to prevent defects. There has been a lot of innovation in this space and several tools, methodologies and processes have evolved and developers have started relying on testing for overall quality of the product.

Market demands and technology advancements (mobile / tablets/ iPad) have also created an increased need for testing as the end user community is getting broadened and diversified. All software products need sufficient testing. And both – investors and developers tend to forget about it. Investors want to deploy their product fast and start to earn money on it. Developers like to push testing at the end of product development. With tight scheduling, we often end up with a product infested with bugs and inconsistencies. And proper testing needs time. The best approach is starting testing at the beginning of software development process.

The market for discrete testing services worldwide and in the US is expected to experience solid growth as cloud and mobility drive next phase of evolution, according to a latest report ‘Worldwide and U.S. Discrete Testing Services 2011– 2015 Forecast: Cloud and Mobility Will Drive Next Phase of Evolution’, from market intelligence firm IDC. Discrete or standalone global testing services spending reached $9.4 billion in 2010, with projections for worldwide growth estimated at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.4% through 2015.

Worldwide spending on testing (including both internal and external testing skills, tools and related hardware and systems) will near the €100bn mark in 2014, according to PAC Consultants. Testing is also becoming one of the strongest areas of recruitment in the IT sector, and PAC estimates that there are now more than 100,000 professional testers worldwide. The report found that global spending on testing software and services is currently out-stripping overall IT expenditure, and will continue to grow.

According to Gartner, independent testing as a business globally is growing at 40 to 50 percent and there is a 35 to

www.globalservicesmedia.com

September 2011

COUNTRY-IN-FOCUS Ensuring Global Visibility

A special feature for countries to showcase their uniqueness

There are numerous outsourcing destinations that exist as great alternatives to India and China.

Inviting Countries to showcase capabilities that accentuate their uniqueness.

Examples of Country-in-focus feature Egypt

Philippines

Jordan

JORDAN

For more information write to satishg@cybermedia.co.in

Cover Story

40 percent growth in offshore testing services. As per the estimates of Ovum, the US alone spends a total of $ 59 billion on software testing.

According to a recent Nasscom report, over the last 5-6 years, India has grown to become the largest destination for outsourcing of software testing services, accounting for 32% of the total global outsourcing share. Export revenues and the number of employees have doubled over the last four years.

In FY 2011, the Indian independent software testing market is expected to grow 23.5% over FY 2010. The icing on the cake is the fact that the domestic software testing market has the potential to cross $1.5 billion by 2020.

As per the estimates of Ovum, the US alone spends a total of $ 59 billion on software testing. Of this total spend, $13 billion is outsourced as a service to the Asian countries.

Given the reputation of India as an IT country, a total of 70 percent, totaling to $9.1 billion is garnered by Indian IT service providers. The application development and maintenance market has only demonstrated a CAGR of 19 percent year-on-year, in comparison to 47 percent by the independent testing services.

New Waves in Testing As smartphones are becoming an integral part of the business ecosystem, testing plays a very key role in ensuring that business apps deliver the promises that are made to business teams. Testing mobile applications require significant changes in the way we approach test strategies, tools, processes and methods. This needs unique tools, technical knowhow of various smart phones, mobile operating systems, know-how of emulators/ simulators, test automation tools that are specific to mobile applications, test methodology and approaches etc…

A well-defined testing strategy combining a mix of several testing methods and using emulators when required will help enterprises to resolve several issues from hardware, OS, and end-user perspectives, while ensuring cost, quality and faster time-to-market for mobile applications.

Testing as a Service (TaaS) Testing-as-a-service allows enterprises to outsource all the aspects related to testing (Infrastructure, tools, people, test methodology etc..). This model allows enterprises to focus on core aspects of their business.

TaaS is fast evolving to be a financially and technically viable alternative to owning testing infrastructure and tools.

Most enterprises today recognize TaaS as a sure-shot way to reduce cost and infrastructure spend while offering assurance of purpose readiness. TaaS solution facilitates multi-tenant use of computing resources, optimizes expense and capital outlays, and offer businesses flexibility by allowing rapid provisioning and de-provisioning in a pay-per-use model.

20 GlobalServices

Kalyana Rao Konda, Vice President, AppLabs, says-”The consumer demands are leading to technology advancements and fierce competition between providers. The survival of providers has become subjective to the quality of the product with superior service. Software Testing plays a vital role in providing reliability and quality to consumers to ensure that they don’t have a bad experience on using / buying the product they like.”

More so we can say that the current competitive environment and consumer demand for sophisticated applications is putting increased pressure on businesses to deliver quality apps at reduced costs and within shorter time period. This ‘no scope for error’ environment has increased the need for effective software testing. Today, it has become one of the fastest growing areas of the corporate IT expenditure.

On the other hand, meeting customer expectations has now become a challenge for enterprises across all the industries due to the faster delivery cycles and increasingly competitive landscape. According to Kris Canekeratne, Chairman & CEO, Virtusa- “The pressure on IT is on the rise to deliver increased business value in a shorter duration, improved quality, while meeting rapidly changing business demands and controlling risks. Enterprises operating across various industries and geographies have now realized the need to deliver quality products/applications and services to meet customer expectations.” GS

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Special Report

Android Accelerates Mobile Application Development The unprecedented growth in the user base of Android-based devices and the demand for mobile applications is fueling a huge demand for development using all methods of sourcing- outsourcing, crowdsourcing, and buying readymade apps.

Sourabh Chandra Pushp

A

ndroid device shipments currently reach close to 50% of the smartphone OS market share. Ron DuPlain, Lead Android & Mobile Web Engineer, says that today when everything is centered around mobility, application development has taken vital transformation (both in terms of development and strategy). Application development companies are focused to help clients realize the potential of rapidly evolving mobile technologies, from developing a mobile strategy to launching mobile products.

‘Android development’ is a complex process, the successful implementation of Android Mobile Application Development projects by and large depends on the development approach itself. With the explosion of smartphone and tablet use around the world, enterprise development teams are being given new marching orders: “Get our applications into the field!”

The Opportunity With the launch of the Apple Developer Kit (SDK), new garage type developers with little experience in mobile content and application development rushed into the market. Most of them initially developed their own applications but soon found out that developing for third parties generates a more secure revenue stream than becoming a publisher themselves. They make the majority of their business revenue with application development.

22 GlobalServices

As of May 2011, users in 131 countries could purchase paid applications from the Android Market. Some carriers offer direct carrier billing for Android Market app purchases. There is no requirement that Android applications be acquired from Android Market. Users may download Android applications from a developer’s website or through a third party alternative to Android Market.

According to Markus Pohl, Research2guidance, Android Market is the fastest growing mobile content platform since the beginning of 2011. The Android Market is clearly the most dynamic app market today with the highest growth rates in terms of app numbers, but this does not necessarily mean that the chance for an average developer to generate revenue on that platform has grown as well.

On the contrary, the success of an app store is negatively correlated to the success of an average developer.

There’s no doubt Android Market will at some point offer more applications for download and/or purchase than Apple’s App Store, as the latter’s growth has been slowing down of late, while the Android application store’s growth rate has been accelerating.

In a recent report, app store analytics company Distimo forecasted that Android would surpass the App Store in size before the end of July 2011. Provided current growth rates for new app uploads are maintained, research2guidance expects Android Market to reach 425,000 apps next August, effectively overtaking App Store in size. It was recently forecasted the

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September 2011

Android Accelerates Mobile Application Development

worldwide smartphone application market to reach $15 billion by 2013. The firm says the global smartphone app market has in fact already reached $2.2 billion in the first six months of this year.

Evidently, there’s always the question whether this matters at all. After all, the bulk of applications that are available for both platforms don’t see much traction anyway, so how relevant it is whether there are 100,000 apps or 200,000 apps that are rarely, if ever, downloaded by anyone?

In fact, notes research2guidance, Android Market’s high growth rate does not necessarily mean that the average mobile app developer will have a better shot at generating revenues from the store. In fact, the firm posits, the opposite may be true: Apart from individual users, the corporate world is moving towards implementing large scale enterprise applications such as CRM, BPM, Social Networking applications etc. on smartphones and tablets. This is done with a view to take advantage of seamless connectivity to their enterprise resources and also to provide the next generation user experience. Such a trend makes it imperative that mobile application development companies need to adopt industry proven software development models such as Agile practices. Agile practices offer not only the SDLC/ PDLC guidelines but also define the best tools and techniques that can be used to help rapid application and high quality software development with automated tools. For example, Scrum is the most frequently chosen Agile model that the industry is adopting in android mobile application development.

23 GlobalServices

Besides native application development and testing tools, there are quite a few hybrid application development and testing tools, frameworks and platforms that are available in the market to adopt agile Android development.

Hybrid mobile application development platforms provide an integrated development environment where portable applications can be rapidly developed once and deployed on various makes and models of SmartPhones and Tablets. Hence, developers can focus more on the business logic than native platform developments. Hence, these tools enable reduction in development and maintenance costs and achieve higher customer satisfaction.

Besides rapid growth, Android applications are being outsourced consciously by many corporates to ensure cost effective solutions of desirable quality. Most of the offshore service providers are presently keen on building the required competencies and are rapidly focusing on leveraging the current mobility market boom.

Major Players in Android Application Development There are two types of players in Android application development space: 1. Framework/Platform development companies: The following are some of the players and their frameworks lead this market place: • IBM Rational Team Concert and PhoneGap • OpenPlug • RhoMobile • CloudPact Besides the above, Sybase, an SAP company is offering a comprehensive mobile application development framework called SUP (Sybase Unwired Platform) having Android support on their roadmap of 2011.

2. Application development companies: Considering the rapid growth of mobility worldwide, many service companies ranging from large to medium scale and even startup companies are offering “Enterprise Mobility” as

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September 2011

Special Report

one of their core service offerings and are constantly focusing on gaining due market share.

With Agile development model that is totally based on iterative and interactive development, one can achieve highest risk mitigation and address constant customer change requests that will result in high customer satisfac-

tion. Agile model also offers cost effective development processes where rework can be avoided and also unwanted modules can be eliminated sooner from the requirements.

The biggest event in this space has been the recent acquisition of Motorola’s Mobile business by Google which has given Google a strategic advantage to retain its competitive position against Apple and Microsoft by bagging 17,000 patents. Apple and Blackberry have their own hardware as well as their own OS and the same was not the case with Google in the past. This recent acquisition enables Google to have their own hardware division in addition to their own popular Open Source Android OS. This enables Google to compete against Apple and Blackberry with a more controlled hardware and OS development.

“The quality of work here in India is surpisingly inspiring, the rates Indian developers charge are very low,” said Akash Dongre, chief operating officer at MoFirst Solutions. His clients pay as little as $15 an hour for a programmer.

MoFirst is tapping India’s next wave in outsourcing, with thousands of programmers that charge a fraction of Silicon Valley prices to capitalize on demand for programs for Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone and devices running Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android software. Developers-forhire for mobile applications may generate $5.6 billion in revenue by 2015, a 14-fold jump from this year, Forrester Research Inc. estimates.

“India is a logical place to do it for the same reason the software and services model has worked here: lower cost,” 24 GlobalServices

said Anshul Gupta, an analyst at research firm Gartner Inc. in Mumbai.

Market Application Restrictions The Android Market application is not open source.

Only Android devices that comply with Google’s compatibility requirements may install and access Google’s closed-source Android Market app, subject to entering into a licensing agreement with Google.

The Android Market filters the list of applications to those compatible with the user’s device, and developers may restrict their applications to particular carriers or countries for business reasons. Carriers can also ban certain applications, for example tethering apps.

Android’s Race in the Smart Devices Market Apple became the top-selling device manufacturer with its record-breaking 20.3 million device shipments during the second quarter of 2011, whereas Android owns 48% of market as a largest mobile operating system provider.

For most starting developers one of the key criteria in selection of a platform is the potential reach of an application, i.e. how many people own devices running the platform and how many users will actually be reached through a chosen app store?

Previously Apple was the unquestionable leader, with the largest app store user base. If we count only smartphone users Android is already far beyond, however Apple App Store user base is fueled by millions of iPod Touch users and a successful iPad spread. To date Apple has shipped over 240 million smart devices (iPhones, iPod Touch and iPads) leaving Android behind with 170 million cumulative device shipments. Given the device replacement cycles and other relevant factors, actual potential user bases today are lower but Apple still wins over Android.

As we see the smartphone app market, monopoly is continuously transforming into a duopoly. Both platforms together comprise nearly two thirds of all potential smartphone application users, leaving all other platforms as niche players. We think it won‘t take long for Android to catch up with Apple in terms of potential application store users. Another successful quarter for Android, and absolute reach will no longer be a deciding factor for developers, which platform to choose for an app. They will have to consider more qualitative user base differences and potentials, or develop for both platforms.

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September 2011

2011

destinations compendium

a one stop resource on outsourcing destinations

Destinations compendium brings together the myriad dynamics of the outsourcing locations. It covers research report on top 100 outsourcing cities, countries-in-focus, regional dynamics, city profiles, experts opinion on location assessment.

http://microsites.globalservicesmedia.com/destinations Don't miss this opportunity!

Book your space now! Contact Niketa at niketac@cybermedia.co.in

Android Accelerates Mobile Application Development

The types of companies providing application development services have changed over the last ten years. In the pre-app store world mobile application and content developers were classical developers with backgrounds in Java, Symbian, BREW, Palm OS, Windows PocketPC and other mobile development platforms. It was a niche market with small customer numbers. In last two years, the market for mobile application development has experienced a tremendous change in the service provider landscape.

Future Outlook For Android Application Development Kalpana Verma, Senior Project Manager, Rapidsoft Technologies opines- “Android application developers will have a lot to do as they have to develop unique and migration-friendly apps for users which will enhance sales and purchase on mobile platform. Android application developers will have to consider various marketing conditions like heavy traffic, large inventory base for particular items, enabling purchases with high inventory set-up and more.”

Google’s next target would be to gain market share in tablet space. As per analysts, Apple’s current 75% market share will fall to 39% by 2015 and Android will gain by 38% by producing more affordable Android based tablets and eventually these tablets may replace PCs. This will be a big opportunity for application development companies to focus on tapping this business.

Android already supports advanced features like Location based services and Cloud based service integration for IT management. As per analysts, going forward, Android phones will also be used as credit cards for any financial transactions which will enable e-commerce companies to come up with much more user friendly services.

SmartPhone and Tablet applications needed in Healthcare and Life Sciences is increasing day by day to treat life threatening diseases and develop lifesaving drugs.

Many physicians and lab technicians prefer Android-based SmartPhones or Tablets because of its powerful video and 3D imaging capabilities. Hence, there will be significant growth expected for Android based applications in Healthcare and Life Sciences domains.

Overall, the future is “Mobile Age” and as per Gartner’s report Cloud and Mobility are leading the list of top 10 technologies of 2011. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Blackberry continue to battle for market share. Considering individual users interest, corporates need to adopt a mobile strategy to support their mobile applications running on heterogeneous handsets and tablets. One of the best ways to implement such mobile strategies is to adopt Hybrid Mobile Application Development.

26 GlobalServices

The Next Phase in Outsourcing WHY IS IT HAPPENING Indian developers may have the edge in pricing. MoFirst bills clients in the US, the UK and the Middle East $15 to $20 an hour, compared with the $50 to $100 charged by developers in the US WHAT ARE THE DEMAND DRIVERS Requests for programmers who write code for Apple’s iOS platform rose 20% in the second quarter, says Elance. Demand for programmers with Android skills rose by 15%, while developer requests for Blackberry devices increased by 3% WHY IS IT A SECOND COMING Offering cheaper software than in the U.S. and Europe has worked in India before. TCS. and Infosys have grown to become Asia’s two biggest IT firms Outsourcing Android Application Development DV Satish, Head – Enterprise Mobility CoE, Mindteck says, “Besides rapid growth, Android applications are being outsourced consciously by many corporates to ensure cost effective solutions of desirable quality. Most of the offshore service providers are presently keen on building the required competencies and are rapidly focusing on leveraging the current mobility market boom.”

Mobile Application Development and Outsourcing is evolving rapidly because of the popularity and density of iPhones/Android phones among the users. Many mobile application development companies in India, have developed more than 150 mobile apps for customers in the UK, Europe and US. The software development company involved in the business of mobile Application Development provides a variety of services that help enhance the functions and performance of the iPhones/ Android phones. These include- data integration, Internetbased applications, providing solutions to get private hosting platforms for the iPhones/Android phones, customizing usability features, interfacing with existing enterprise applications, implementing various value-added services, and enabling interaction with other mobile devices and platforms. GS

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September 2011

Case Studies That Define Global Sourcing

one stop resource

http://microsites.globalservicesmedia.com/live

Powering Hotwire’s New Site: www.travel-ticker.com The Client:

Hotwire, Inc. is a well-known operating company of Expedia, Inc. – the world’s largest online travel agency.

Situation Analysis:

Leveraging its relationships with more than 10,000 travel companies, Hotwire began offering public access to insider deals that could not be found on other sites, including special limited-time offers, small hotels that don’t usually sell online, exotic locations and more.

A new website, www.travel-ticker. com, was created by the Hotwire team to offer this new service.

To ensure a successful launch, a state-of-the-art IT system was to be created that included the frontend for customers and back-end for Hotwire’s salespeople and travel suppliers. However, all of Hotwire’s internal IT resources were already working at full capacity. Hiring more staff was out of the question – in addition to being a lengthy process, such hiring made little sense for what would be a one-time effort.

Outsourcing the creation of the back-end system and CRM seemed to be the right answer.

Solution:

Hotwire’s new project goal was creation of a specialized website for Travel Ticker. Luxoft was entrusted with the full-cycle development of the following major components:

• Sophisticated back-end systems to manage deals and other businessrelated data; • Interface for the suppliers to fill in their offers.

Luxoft demonstrated a deep understanding of Hotwire’s industry and business processes. Luxoft engineers produced a detailed system design for the web application projects.

New site was launched as planned within the budget. Luxoft contribution encompassed: • Internal Web portal for use by both salespeople and suppliers • Support of sales agents who can work with multiple suppliers in addition to the direct supplier’s organizational scheme support • Multiple reports generation and distribution, e-mail notifications, newsletters, deals alerts and more • Integration with Oracle Financials System • Powerful and scalable CMS with user-friendly interface • Future-proof design allowing easy upgrades and extensions

at a glance Client

Hotwire, Inc. Service Provider

Luxoft Industry

Travel/e-Commerce Service Provided

Application Software Development Solution

Development of a state-of-theart back-end system featuring front end, internal portal for salespeople and suppliers, and new CMS for entire website.

• Efficient test automation While working on Travel Ticker’s back-end system project, the Luxoft engineers seamlessly integrated into Hotwire’s onshore team. Their cooperation yielded significant across-the-board enhancements, empowering.

Success Metrics Compared to the customization of an off-the-shelf CMS or implementation of an application from an ASP, an estimated ROI of the Internal Portal project is about 400%. The Test Automation project helped increase the application code coverage from 35% to 63% and the number of automated use cases went up from 500 to 1,700. Intangible benefits like security, usability, data propriety, and speed are likely to be even more significant.

For more information contact : Jeffrey Osborn, Global Head – Travel and Transportation,

josborn@luxoft.com, Tel: 212-964-9900 x 250, Mobile 404-242-2664

xperts

by Hari Haran, President, Persistent Systems, Inc.

Enterprise Mobility – Facts and Myths!!!

A

This document shares how customer satisfaction functions will continue changing as the market evolves further.

n year ago I was discussing with a client on the subject of developing and implementing an enterprise application for their workforce. This application required large amounts of real time data to be accessed periodically from a database and occasionally receiving high bandwidth content on the mobile device. Concerned with the bandwidth requirement and the potential latency issues, I engaged my client in some architectural discussions. The client replied in haste, “The bandwidth is not an issue. With 3G/4G and unlimited data plans cost will not be a major factor.”

Famous last words, I must say.

Most carriers are pulling out of unlimited, “all you can eat” data plans.

As far as bandwidth goes, it really depends on the coverage in that location, the traffic, and numerous other factors. Certainly more than often you run into latency issues.

The point here is simple; you cannot embark on an Enterprise Mobility strategy without taking into account the entire ecosystem. According to a new report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc., the global market for enterprise mobility is likely to exceed US$168.8 billion by 2015.

Depicted below is a view of the value chain and the landscape in the ecosystem: Each layer in the value chain plays a key role in bringing an enterprise mobile application to the user. It is only natural that each of these layers

wants to retain a certain portion of the value it creates by the enterprise mobile service. To assume that the carrier would want to play a pure “pipe” role and be relegated to a commodity player would be naïve.

Similarly to assert that the mobile device manufacturer, with a rich user interface and application, can l easily access information from a server or a cloud and deliver at the right speed would be lopsided.

A precursor to laying out a strategy for enterprise mobility is the analysis of the business processes and delineation of the problems that needs to be solved through mobility. In the bigger picture, it is important to nail down the role of mobility in the support of various functions vis-à-vis marketing,

Solution characteristics

Native

Hybrid

User Controls

Native UI controls could be utilized to provide great user experience

Appropriate mix of select It is possible to integrate standard html or native user UI components controlcontrols led by touch and swipe in HTML5 based web apps

Integration with other High native functionalities e.g. device functionalities

specific

Web/HTML5 Based

Achieving through native calls

Limited browser capabilities

Performance

Good design can yield high- Depends on proportion er performance native Vs. html call

Maintainability

Needs smart approach

Scalability

App store up gradation

Extensibility

Separate binaries for other Easy to extend to other Easy to extend to other platform platforms platforms

Cost Of Development High 29 GlobalServices

of Response time could be high

design Depends on proportion of Easy native Vs. html implementation App store up gradation

Comparatively low www.globalservicesmedia.com

Easy

Low September 2011

ADM

sales, manufacturing, field personnel management, supply chain / transportation logistics etc. Equally important is the congruence of this mobility strategy with the industry vertical that includes this enterprise. A harbinger to any technology and architecture undertaking is to gauge what is the quantitative value of incorporating mobility into some of these processes?

What is the ROI? Does this increase your productivity? Does it reduce waste? Does it improve your top line?

The changing landscape in the ecosystem presents a number of factors that are critical in the formulation of a mobility strategy. One has to envisage potential changes and innovations that may come about in technology, regulatory matters, new devices etc. that could further exacerbate the challenge. Some of the questions that need to be addressed are: How much information is accessed from the server or the cloud and how frequently? Is the information content rich (graphics)?

Will there be a mix of smart and low end devices deployed to the user community? What is the diversity of mobile devices that can be deployed?

What is the diversity of the Operating Systems?

Would there be devices using multiple carrier services?

• How important is security?

Important, critical, Mission-critical?

• Would data need to be stored locally on a frequent basis?

• Would the application(s) have to be integrated with other enterprise IT systems? Would some of them be legacy?

• How important is location information? How precise and accurate should the location information be?

These are some of the factors that will impact the architectural decision.

Moreover, there may be the need to bring in some unique set of partners to complement your application, in order to optimize the cost of the 30 GlobalServices

architecture as well as shorten the time to deployment. With respect to architectural considerations and the changing landscape, these are some of the areas that need to be carefully analyzed while defining the mobility strategy.

Carrier Relationships: It makes sense for applications to leverage the WiFi or WLAN where possible and latch on to the 3G/4G network; otherwise the user needs to optimize the data plan usage. For high availability applications, it brings about an interesting problem of seamless roaming.

There are some solutions that should be deployed in the carrier network to make this possible. Doing this without the carrier cooperation would be quite expensive both from a server implementation point of view as well as from the device perspective. Now for applications that require accurate location information, it is necessary to get the location APIs or location information from the carrier network.

This is not easily exposed or available, and requires certain agreements with carriers or with settlement companies that have the appropriate technology / agreements with carriers. Finally, in order to guarantee levels of end to end QoS or bandwidth optimization, agreements with the carrier is very essential.

While there are solutions around application delivery optimization, this will increase the deployment cost.

Security: In a survey conducted by Datamonitor to establish issues that are currently preventing enterprises from investing in mobility solutions, the majority of the 467 respondents rated security as the greatest barrier to adoption of mobility solutions. The issue of access and policy management was an important factor. Will the security software reside in the server or the cloud? Alternately, is it possible to implement a device based solution? What is more cost effective and germane for the particular enterprise applications? How do you www.globalservicesmedia.com

Global Services Magazine Past Issues 2011 July Issue

HRO So Old, Yet So New HRO providers are not seeing too many opportunities for multi process deals Click Here To Read

2011 May Issue

The Promise of IaaS New Opportunities in Global Sourcing: IaaS and Analytics Click Here To Read

2011 April Issue

The New Rules in BPO Learn about what will drive the BPO sector in this special report.

Click Here To Read

September 2011

ADM

prevent Data intrusion? Are some of the main areas of concern.

Mobility Cloud: There is a growing trend to move more of the mobile middleware to the cloud. To a certain extent, the cloud approach can solve some of the challenges presented above. For example, location based information can be exposed by a middleware in a cloud which has preexisting agreements with settlement companies. Further, in order to scale large enterprise mobility projects as well as reduce uptake cost (through SaaS Subscriptions), the cloud model offers a very competing approach to deploying mobility. Once could envision thin mobile clients that only access data from the cloud on an as needed basis with the cloud doing most of the heavy lifting may very well alleviate the “unlimited data usage” problem. This could be a public cloud operator such as Google or Enterprise Private Clouds. Finally, the advent of HTML5 will make data caching better and reduce load demands which will make cloud based mobile connectivity better in areas of poor coverage.

Diversity of Devices: The plethora of devices and the variety of operating systems poses a definite challenge in deploying mobile applications. It is expensive and time consuming to rewrite the application for various devices. Yet we are talking about different form factors, screen sizes, device types etc. This implies putting a lot of thinking into middleware and platforms for these devices so there can be maximum reuse of the application across devices and Operating Systems.

Infrastructure Management: Mobile Device Management is of paramount importance to not only standardize the offering in every device but also, to ensure security, access control etc. Can this be a managed service run by a carrier or will this be run by the enterprise, is something that needs to be thought about.

31 GlobalServices

Enterprise Integration: At the end of the day, most enterprise applications do not operate in an island.

They interface with existing applications and system within the enterprise. This requires thinking through the Systems Integration aspects of these projects. Will the enterprise carry this out in-house? Will they appoint a standard software systems integrator? Or will this be the cloud operators responsibility?

Device Client Architectural Approach: In summary, the endeavor of planning and deploying enterprise mobility is a process of cooperation with players in the ecosystem. No one player can do it entirely in a cost effective way. There are some competing approaches for solving this problem.

It is imperative to do a full ROI before selecting a certain option. One thing is clear, no matter what option is selected, the partnership with the right software services company is crucial to a successful implementation. It will be ideal if the company is a services company that has the requisite experience in all aspects of the ecosystem (Carrier, Cloud, Device, Operating Systems, and Application Development) with an unbiased view on the architectural choices.

(NOTE: “The views expressed in this Article are strictly the personal views of the author. The trademarks or trade names mentioned in this paper are property of their respective owners and are included for reference only and do not imply a connection or relationship between the author and these companies.”) GS As the President of Persistent Systems Inc., Hari Haran is responsible for Persistent’s Global Sales, Marketing and Business Development efforts and continues to position Persistent as a leader in Outsourced Software Product Development. Hari also heads the operations of the Persistent USA subsidiary.

He brings over two decades of strong experience primarily in the telecom, wireless, broadband, convergence, and professional services. www.globalservicesmedia.com

2011 March Issue

Contact Center Industry: Where Do You Go From Here?

Contact Centers and the Challenge of Social Media Click Here To Read

2011 February Next & Best Issue Practices in Global Sourcing Thoughtleading Practitioners’ Viewpoint Click Here To Read

2011 January Issue

Utility Computing: The Reality Check In the decade that went by, the outsourcing industry had many momentous shifts Click Here To Read

2010 Archives www.globalservicesmedia. com/e-magazine September 2011

xperts The Future of Software Development

by Kumar Parakala, KPMG

Software development in the broader sense includes everything from conceptualizing the desired end state software to the delivery of the final product, typically in a structured manner.

Introduction Software development in the broader sense includes everything from conceptualizing the desired end state software to the delivery of the final product, typically in a structured manner. All this while, the key purpose of software development is ‘solving problems’.

One of the main issues faced by organizations is to understand the ‘problem’ that is to be solved. In today’s dynamic business environment, organizations grapple with economic uncertainty, constant customer requirement changes, resource crunch, tight delivery deadlines, margin pressures, etc. Several times organizations end-up focusing on building software applications without having a clear understanding of the problem and the focus is on what technology could do for them and in the process they lose the bigger picture. At the same time too many software development methodologies, tools and services offered by the providers have also confused organizations on what could suit them best. Amidst such a volatile environment, few things that come to my mind are how software development is evolving today, what will be its future state and how developers, buyer organizations and service providers will be impacted in the process?

32 GlobalServices

A brief history of software development and technology Over the past few decades software development has undergone a sea change. Several software development methodologies have evolved using various permutations and combinations across the stages of a software development life-cycle (SDLC) and corresponding rapid changes have taken place in the IT infrastructure and technology as well and also in the way software services are being delivered.

As time progressed, software requirements continued to evolve depending on the changing socio-economic, business and customer environment. To cope with the rapid pace of these changes, organizations started experimenting with agile methods for developing software.

Rise of Agile methods – A myth?

Technology convergence across internet, mobile, handheld devices, etc. and the explosion of social media and its increasing usage in conducting business has opened a gamut of opportunities for developers, service providers and businesses alike. It does not need a huge team to develop trend-setting and revolutionary software these days. Facebook, YouTube, Digg, etc. are some of the success www.globalservicesmedia.com

stories. Modern programming languages like Java, Python, Ruby, PHP, etc. together with their rich libraries and the virtualization of infrastructure or Cloud services made available by companies like Amazon and Microsoft have made software development and deployment an easier, simpler and a cheaper task.

We are at the threshold of further evolution of technology usage and software development. At the same time one should bear in mind that developers using agile methods are typically a small team suited to projects that require extremely quick turnaround and co-location of requester or client and the developer.

This in turn means that the project will be of a smaller scale. Agile may not be suitable for a very large scale development project involving multilocation development teams.

Further, in the context of service providers the technology aspect is driven or dictated by the client and in such a case a project end date remains very crucial which might not be possible to determine or make mandatory in an agile method.

Under such circumstances and environment it’s unthinkable to deliver large development projects with agile methodology. Therefore, most of the IT service providers still follow the waterfall model of software development. Further, in the context of September 2011

Software Development

Figure 1: Evolution of Software Development and Technology • Emergence of the ‘as a Service’ paradigm • Utility computing on the rise • Growth of collaborative solutions that cater to real time information management • Waterfall model still continues to be used widely • Rise of internet and

• Increased usage of Agile development

information age

methods

• Emergence of Search Engine

• Increasing technology convergence

Optimization (SEO)

• Emergence of Software

• International usage increases

development as a profession

multi-language capable

• Rising hardware and

software coding and systems

software complexity causing

• Agile development involving

higher risks and consequent failures

iterative and incremental software

• Software crises helps

methodologies like Extreme programming, Scrum, Lean,

realize the pitfalls of software development

• Several tools, methods, disciplines,

• Waterfall software

processes emerge to solve the

development model takes software crisis root • Structured programming, object

Feature driven development, etc. gain acceptance • Small and medium enterprises increase demand for software

oriented programming, CMM, ethics,

development • Growth of inexpensive software

professionalism are key themes • No one technology or tool emerges

systems

to solve the development crises

Pre 1970s Mainframes

1980s

Indian service providers, those who are mostly involved in maintenance of software systems or software testing and support cannot actually rely or do not require agile methods for their work. What could probably suit them best are the traditional SDLC processes with a structured framework.

So the question is how the constantly changing environment will influence software development and technology in the future?

Future of software development Some of the key themes that we could see emerging or gaining traction in the future are elaborated below33 GlobalServices

1990s

Rise of personal computers

Client Server Architecture

2000s Hosted / Co-located environment

• Rising technology convergence driving Application (Apps) development boom - Data, voice, and video content development and sharing will keep rising. At the same time usage of devices like mobile phones, iPhones, Tablet PCs and other such devices will increase.

The usage of computer will reduce and more and more people will move towards using the tablet. This will necessitate developing Apps that are optimized for performing effectively on multiple devices. We can see this already happening but the important part is that there will be too much on offer for the end user. The winners will differentiate www.globalservicesmedia.com

Beyond 2010 Cloud Computing

themselves with how they are able to deliver the best experience to the end-user so that they stick around till the next challenge crops. There will be increase in demand for expert developers.

• Increase in serving the Cloud Client – As Cloud gets popular several software service providers and developers will experience their clients shifting to the Cloud. Keeping this in mind the service providers need to recruit and maintain developers who are capable to deal with this change. Preparing today for this inevitable future will be advisable than waiting to see the client slip away due to lack of capabilities.

September 2011

Software Development

Additionally, as Cloud adoption increases, data security and privacy challenges will increase, requiring developers to address these issues with more robust software systems.

Further, there will be a lot of end-user requirement to access a number of

services involving third-party applications requiring software integration with the parent system. Developers need to understand this. â&#x20AC;˘ Rationalization of Professional and Social Networking sites to open software development opportunities â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Recent surveys are indicating a trend towards social networking fatigue. Users are getting tired of too much social networking. Soon we will see the

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rationalization of professional and social networking sites with a few emerging as the dominant ones.

Social and professional networking will still continue to flourish. The manner in which this can be leveraged is the key.

Smart organizations will develop suitable applications and tools to encourage professional networking on the lines of social networking.

This will encourage the development of an informal platform for person-to-person connection within the organization that will further enhance individual and organizational knowledge sharing rather than relying on unpopular online knowledge management forums which have gained more notoriety than usage in almost every organization.

Conclusion Over the past few decades several frameworks of software development have mushroomed. None can be claimed to be the best or the worst.

Each has its own pros and cons. What we can expect in this decade is a similar

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trend in frameworks but the waterfall method will still remain a dominant method for the larger part of the IT services industry globally.

Organizations that can dare to be innovative will be driven to experiment with newer technologies and agile models to develop the next revolutionary software. But for the vast majority itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the waterfall model that will earn them their bread and butter.

With the mushrooming of social networking sites requiring minimal computing power and availability of cloud infrastructure, computational power within the device will carry less weight as compared to stronger data network, the ease of access to different Apps and features the site or software program offers. Developers need to have a good understanding of software integration with the Cloud and at the same time understand that technological convergence across devices will demand developing applications suitable across devices.

The Cloud, technological convergence and devices supporting this along with social and professional networking sites and the manner it will be used will drive software development in the future. GS Kumar Parakala is Head of IT Advisory, KPMG EMA & India and Chief Operating Officer, Advisory in KPMG in India. He is also a global head for Sourcing advisory.

September 2011

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by Lalit Dhingra, President NIIT Technologies, Inc., North America

The Changing Face of Customer Satisfaction in Offshored IT Solutions This documentshares how customer satisfaction functions will continue changing as the market evolves further.

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lobal Sourcing of IT Services took off in a big way during Y2K/Year 2000. Companies based in the developed world were leveraging cheap skilled labor from global IT services companies. In the mid 2000s, the trend shifted to better and faster in addition to cheaper as processes became more stable and clients could ascertain vendor quality and governance mechanisms.

In this document, Lalit Dhingra shares how customer satisfaction functions will continue changing as the market evolves further.

In offshored IT services, the characteristics of customer satisfaction have evolved as much as the industry itself. It’s no longer about delivering good IT solutions—that’s the core of a service provider’s business. It’s also no longer about meeting SLAs, the effectiveness of account personnel, the integrity of a system’s data or timeliness of service in response to a problem, as those have all become table stake commodities.

Instead, the new normal in customer satisfaction is the innovative, technology-enabled, value-add solutions the provider proactively offers to make a demonstrable difference in the customer’s business. The focus is on generating new revenue for the customer. Examples include

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enhancing an airline’s website to help it sell more seats and ancillary services, or enabling an insurance company to leverage mobile applications as a new sales channel.

In fact, 49 percent of the IT executives and technology decisionmakers who participated in Forrester Research’s 3Q10 Forrsights Services Survey1 cited “grow our overall company revenue” as having high influence on shaping their firm’s IT strategy and initiatives, and 36 percent gave it a

critical influence ranking. Similarly, “improve our customer service,” “improve our ability to innovate our business model and go-to-market approach,” and “launch new products and services into the market” – each www.globalservicesmedia.com

of which contribute to revenue generation – all received large percentages of high and critical influence rankings. Moreover, customers are increasingly expecting their offshore IT services providers to demonstrate a much higher level of innovation.

Here are three key points to achieving superior customer satisfaction: Vertical Specialization is Vital You wouldn’t hire a residential contractor to draw up plans for an office complex, a general physician to perform an appendectomy or a fastfood cook to be the executive chef at a gourmet restaurant. They may be good at what they do, but lack the specialized knowledge required for those specific tasks. Similarly, it’s not in your best interest to engage with an “all things to all industries” provider that utilizes a cookie-cutter approach to service delivery. Instead, in order to help you achieve your goals and identify areas for innovation that are unique to your industry, your IT solutions provider must have significant depth and breadth of expertise in the vertical in which your organization operates.

In fact, industry specialization is becoming increasingly important to IT services customers. Against the backdrop of growing regulatory requirements, consumer demand September 2011

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and competition, 63 to 83 percent of participants in the Forrester Research survey referenced above felt that experience with a specific technology service, industry-specific business process or industry vertical was important or very important.

Providers with a heritage of delivering services specifically to companies in the banking, financial services, and insurance and travel industries are clearly best positioned to know where opportunities are for technology-enabled innovation.

The Customer Comes Second Satisfying customers’ needs is, of course, an IT solutions provider’s number one priority. But in order to fully support the business value-adds today’s customers require, the provider must first empower the members of each of its vertical practices with industry-specific business insights.

Doing so enables them to think in terms of the business first and IT second when designing systems and bringing innovation ideas to the customer’s table.

Truly customer-centric providers engender this domain-specific business mindset by putting all their team members through training on industry concepts, marketplace dynamics and how the customer – not IT – thinks about business requirements and growth opportunities. And to ensure full comprehension, the trainees are then certified by industryapproved, third-party organizations.

Within NIIT Technologies, each of our vertical practices also has an advisory board comprised of ex-CIOs and COOs from buyer organizations 36 GlobalServices

within that industry. With their mix of IT and domain knowledge, these board members provide tremendous insight into industry-specific dynamics and customers’ going-forward drivers and requirements.

Modernize Your Metrics With customers’ mounting focus on the business value, their IT solutions providers can help facilitate, standard qualitative metrics such as quality, productivity, efficiency, and resource talent should evolve as quickly as possible to long-term, quantitative business benefit parameters. For example, if the provider has delivered zero defects for the past four quarters, greater market share will advance the partnership to the next level of value for the customer. The decision on what quantitative measures will take the place of typical qualitative metrics should be bi-directional, based on both the customer’s goals and the value-add ideas the provider proposes.

Then, as an incentive methodology, the customer and provider should consider entering into a skin in the game risk/reward arrangement linked to bringing measurable value-add – rather than run-of-the-mill service delivery metrics – to the customer.

For example, with a baseline of $100, www.globalservicesmedia.com

the provider gets $80, the other $20 is the risk, and an additional $5 from the customer is the reward if the provider achieves 100 percent in all the business value-based parameters in the scorecard. But importantly, the additional $5 goes into the pockets of all the team members, not the provider’s coffer.

This variable compensation plan encourages creativity and innovation in every individual working on the customer engagement. And if the customer doesn’t agree to the additional $5 if 100 percent of all the metrics on the scorecard are met or exceeded, the provider itself should pay it to the team members, not only to retain talent but also to demonstrate its commitment to its staff.

Regardless of the internal or external processes a service provider implements, the focus must always be on the new model of customer satisfaction. Certainly all the elements we historically regarded as measurement of customer satisfaction must be present. But today’s mindset must be adjusted to align with the evolution in customer needs and wants. No longer can the customer be considered satisfied until their business has truly been improved and revenue enhanced.

If you’re an IT services buyer, you should be asking if your provider is exemplifying their ability to deliver on customer satisfaction’s new normal. If not, it’s probably time for a recalibration and innovation discussion. GS Lalit Dhingra is the President of NIIT Technologies, Inc. the North American Business Unit of NIIT Technologies Limited, a publicly held global IT service provider with operations in 14 countries.

September 2011

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By Nigel Hughes, Global Services Director, Compass Management Consulting

A Cease Fire in the Function Point Holy War Market trends and innovations are creating new opportunities to assess and improve Application Development and Maintenance (ADM) performance. Client organizations and service providers that traditionally shunned Function Point counts are increasingly open to considering them, while staunch Function Point advocates are demonstrating a willingness to consider alternative models. It’s a win/win situation.

F

unction Points – an industry standard measure of the functional “size” of an application – have traditionally inspired strong feelings among Application Development and Maintenance experts. One camp has sworn by them as the only viable way to analyze ADM performance in a meaningful applesto-apples context. The other side has sworn at them, arguing that Function Points are an excruciating and time-consuming exercise that delivers no real value.

My Paris-based Compass colleague Guillaume Almeras recently compiled a series of observations of sourcing strategies among French banks.

Because the philosophical battle lines over FPs were so clearly drawn and fiercely defended, initiatives to improve ADM performance often degenerated into unproductive debates over methodology.

The good news is that these attitudes are changing. Increasingly, organizations that have never used Function Points are applying them to enhance existing tools and 37 GlobalServices

gain visibility into AD/M performance. And those that have focused exclusively on Function Points are more and more open to other perspectives, including using Function Points in conjunction with other methods.

The result of this open-mindedness is new and expanded opportunities to improve ADM performance.

Growing Interest in FPs Steve Hall, Partner and Managing Director of Cloud and ADM Services at sourcing advisory TPI, says one factor fueling interest in Function

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Points is the growth of managed service models in outsourcing. “We have seen a significant rise in the number of AD deals that include Service Levels that use Function Points as a baseline measurement for quality and productivity,” says Hall. “Service Providers have embraced Function Points as a means to measure productivity and quality of their teams across multiple accounts.”

Mike Garman, a Compass Lead Consultant specializing in ADM issues, adds that companies value the added visibility that Function Points yield into ADM cost, quality, and productivity. Specifically, the sizing component of Function Point measures provides a normalizing factor with which to compare performance.

For example, Function Points can be an effective way to assess the productivity of application support and maintenance activities. The standard measure of number of FTEs needed annually to support 10,000 Function Points in the production environment calculates the hours applied to complete various support activities, repairs, and September 2011

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technically-oriented enhancements performed on the functional “features” of the application.

Low productivity (a high number of FTEs) can result from a variety of reasons, such as resource experience levels, inefficient processes, complexities, project delivery quality, or other factors. Once the extent of the productivity gap is understood, further analysis can identify the root causes of the problems and enable the formulation of corrective actions.

FP Weaknesses One of the weaknesses of Function Points, says Garman, is that they are not designed to quantify the impact of complexities associated with an application – a key consideration of assessing performance.

The use of Function Points in pricing of outsourced services can also be problematic: FP-based pricing poses a risk to service providers, says Hall, because it assumes a level of rigor and process discipline that is missing in many organizations. To address this risk, providers either set their Cost per Function Point rates at a premium or charge for change control during the project.

Neither approach benefits the client.

Non-FP Alternatives For AD pricing, estimating models such as Use Case Points can be a viable alternative to Function Points, as they provide more accurate and consistent measurements based on the environmental complexities of the specific client or project, and are better suited to define costs on a projectby-project basis.

In addition, TPI’s Hall says significant progress has been made mapping CMMi Key Process Areas (KPAs) to specific productivity improvements.

“Within an outsourcing contract,” he says, “we can use this data to contractually obligate year-over-year productivity improvements based on these process improvements.”

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Specific non-Function Point measures of development project productivity can include the following: • Average Project Size (in Hours) and Average Project Length (in days): Correlations can be made between better/worse productivity and the average size/length of the projects.

• Project Schedule Adherence and Project Effort Adherence: Highly productive performers are generally very good at meeting both scheduled milestones and budgets. Underperformers typically do far better

project also factors into the overall productivity of a project team.

In terms of assessing support and maintenance productivity, effective measures that don’t use Function Point counts include volume of user contacts logged, and the percentage of those contacts resolved by the support and maintenance team. Another is the number of software defects reported, and the percentage of defects fixed and implemented by the team.

Additional insight can be gleaned from the number of enhancements

in one measure than the other – depending on a number of factors.

• Average Project Hours per Project Day: A measure of “churning” of project team members assigned to a project. Extremely low numbers reflect lower productivity brought about (typically) by constantly changing priorities.

Whatever approach is taken to measuring AD productivity, delivery quality must be considered in the assessment.

According to Garman, defects delivered to production (per total hours expended in development) on software delivery projects can be a good indicator not only of the quality being delivered, but of the overall productivity of the project team. The cost to deliver a software

requested, and the percentage of those enhancements implemented.

Whether or not Function Points are involved in an assessment of ADM performance, market trends suggest that client organizations and service providers are increasingly focused on finding ways to address the thorny challenges around maintaining a balance between ADM cost, quality, and productivity. Debates over the specific methodologies to be used to achieve that balance are, properly, becoming a secondary consideration. GS

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Nigel Hughes is Director of Global Service Development at Compass Management Consulting. Bill Huber is Partner and Director of CPO Services at TPI. September 2011