www.insightssuccess.in SEPTEMBER 2017
The way of business solutions
Microsoft PaRtNER OF THE MONTH
THE
Vinod Nair Md, Softline India
10
Most Valuable
Microsoft Solution Providers
Editor’s Pick Is Your IT Ready For The Digital Age?
Latest Insights The Criss-Crossing of AI & Consulting
Navin Kapur Co-founder & MD
COMPAREX India A Persistent Partner for IT Solutions Underpinning Your Success
Editorial
M
icrosoft is a strategy described for digital transformation. Organizations that are successfully implementing this strategy use automation and information technology to expand existing business processes and create new business opportunities. In near future, the sky is going to get cloudier. With the rapid technological advancements and the onset of the cloud, almost every business have their essential aspects ─ data management, content, and collaboration tools ─ being delivered directly from the Internet. The Microsoft cloud is transforming how we use and access our day-to-day technology and turns out to be a secure solution that can listen, learn and predict; turning the data into actionable insights that enhances business opportunities. Over the past several years, there have been all kinds of vigorous talks and efforts to transform one’s business to the cloud. The transformation of service offerings from project-based to the managed services and from on-premise solutions to cloud solutions is always critical. However, the surprisingly increased rate of technological advancements in the industry have eased and impelled the process of a digital transformation.
Need for a Strong Partner-to-Partner Relationship
With cloud solutions on the rise and the ability for Microsoft and other vendors to apply updates to these technologies virtually every month (or even sooner), it leaves the partner community in a struggle to stay informed and keep up with the pace. To strive and thrive into the disruptive market, one needs to build a strong partner-to-partner relationship. The best of such relationships can occur when you cross-refer businesses to each other. This will create a definite win-win business relationship. For example, in case of unavailability of the expertise in-house, one can outsource the technology projects to another or vice-versa. This way one can bring itself into substitute under the other for Office 365 and other technologies in their wheelhouse. Nevertheless, clients are simply looking for a quality solution and one person who own it. To emerge victorious in the competition, one can simple build a strong partner-to-partner relationship. An important advice is to protect your business with NDA agreements, Master Partnership Agreements, and written SOWs for each project. In spite of the uncertainty we are currently experiencing, it is quite evident that subscription-based services will continue to democratize information technology. However, most of the Microsoft partners know that there is an ever-increasing pressure to drive demand and acquire new customers while continuing to add value to the ones they already hold. As many Microsoft partners have observed, the new era of demand generation has been powered by Martech solutions and Marketing Automation. This paves the way for new strategies, tactics, and tools that could bring out deeper customer focus and personalization.
Poonam Yadav
Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Managing Editor Poonam Yadav Co-Editors Piyush Rishi Abhinav Chandrayan Sachin Bhandare Contributors Debasmita Dutta Art & Design Director Amol Kamble Co-designer Vanshika Mittal Picture Editor Alex Noel Art Editor Shweta Ambilwade Visualiser Shweta Shinde Business Development Manager Akansha Garewal Marketing Manager Dhruv Apte Business Development Executives Akshay, Deepak, Meera Research Analyst David Circulation Manager Swapnil Database Management Sharad Technology Consultant Vishal More sales@insightssuccess.com
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CONTENTS 08 COMPAREX India: A Persistent Partner for IT Solutions Underpinning Your Success
Partner of Month
16 Softline India: Architecting Business Transformation-as-a-Service
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30
Embee Software: Your Strategic IT Partner Leveraging Digital Disruption
Target Integration: The All-in-One Solution Provider for CRM/ERP Implementation
CXO Standpoint
32
24
Chuck all the Competencies and just focus on ‘The Joy of Serving’
What we see today in IT Services in India One view of the IT Entrepreneurship in India today:
Article
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20
Editor’s Pick
Industry Insight
The Criss-crossing Of Artificial Intelligence And Consulting
Is Your IT Ready For The Digital Age?
0 Helping Clients to Navigate the Microsoft Landscape
R
ight from the launch of the first ever minicomputer in 1975, Microsoft has come a long way to position itself as an absolute leader both in the main stream and the visionary technology market. Microsoft offers a surfeit of solutions to its users that include Dynamics AX, CRM, GP, NAV, Windows Azure, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Exchange, and Office 365+. Today, Microsoft has transformed the way businesses operate in this modern era with a continued focus on cross-platform software and services, along with bold new visions of the future. Not many tech companies can match this track record. The companies which are proving themselves and helping their clients to navigate the Microsoft landscape are being enlisted in our special issue of “The 10 Most Valuable Microsoft Solution Providers”. Our cover feature holds a prominent player in the technology field, “COMPAREX India: A Persistent Partner for IT Solutions Underpinning Your Success.” COMPAREX India is an IT services and consulting company providing one-of-akind competence in procurement and license management of software and an extensive cross-vendor consulting and services package. The righteous and tenacious leader of Comparex India is Navin Kapur, in the role of Co-founder & Managing Director of the company. Navin had a persistent passion for driving Software solution & adoption in Indian Corporate space. Under his leadership, COMPAREX India has grown by leaps and bounds and generated 500+ crore rupees revenues from India. Featured as the “Microsoft Partner of the Month”, Softline Services India (P) Ltd. is an IT services and consulting company with a global presence providing effective solutions for clients in a wide range of business verticals. Enlisted for being a leading technology solution provider in India with 30 years of experience in delivering solutions to its 2000+ customers, Embee Software was one of the first Microsoft partners to spearhead their customers’ transition to the platform. Known for their credible ally and expertise help to their clients providing flexible business process and implementing CRM and ERP system, Target Integration is a pioneer in the industry, which introduced an idea that has proved to be the quickest and the most cost effective way of implementing a CRM system for SMEs in the company. Do not miss out on valuable viewpoints on “What we see today in IT Services in India” and “Chuck all the Competencies and just focus on 'The Joy of Serving'” by Anu Biswas, Co-Founder & CEO, Prakat Solutions, Inc. and K Srinivas Rao, Chief Strategist and Partner, The Strategist respectively. The warm folios of this magazine also hold contributions from our in-house editors on ‘Is Your IT Ready For The Digital Age?’and ‘The Criss-Crossing of Artificial Intelligence and Consulting.’ So flip-on the gain insightful insights on the technology game.
www.inď€ onic.com
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COMP INDIA:
COVER STORY
AREX Navin Kapur Co-founder & Managing Director
T
he importance of a certified Microsoft solution provider is undeniable in the growth of any organization. The reasons for this can be its usefulness while running a business. A certified Microsoft solution provider not just assess your business goals, but simultaneously, identifies a solution that meets your business needs, and most importantly help your business become more agile and efficient. All in all, a Microsoft solution provider can help you take full advantage of the cloud, opening a wide array of new opportunities for you to grow your business while increasing your revenue. One such Microsoft solution provider that is making client's business run smoothly while giving them the opportunity to grab success is COMPAREX, who is enabling a business to grow, evolve, and transform in every part to better meet the changing market and needs of its customers. The company is driving client’s digital transformation. As a Microsoft solution provider, COMPAREX is engaging the customers by building personalized experiences across all customer touchpoints—from consideration to purchase. The company is empowering employees by giving them familiar tools and actionable insights so they can do their best work. While being a great Microsoft solution provider, COMPAREX, is also providing high-quality IT services and vendor-independent software-licensing consultation. It has been planning and implementing server and client infrastructure for SMEs, public administrations, industry and internationally focused customers for over three decades. COMPAREX India, being the part of the global COMPAREX Group, offers service & solutions around various cloud technologies including Microsoft Azure and Office365. COMPAREX is one of the best Licensing Solutions Providers (LSPs) in the world. They also offerglobal services named unified cloud management, cloud consumption management, Portfolio management to their customers to manage their cloud subscriptions and optimize the investments made by the customer. COMPAREX: We support your success! COMPAREX is a managed Microsoft partner and keeps
close relationships to Microsoft in different countries all over the world, so that it can provide the best environment for its customers. With more than 20 years of experience in Microsoft Volume Licensing, COMPAREX is one of the leading Licensing Solution Providers (LSP). They are evidently the best LSP in the EMEA region and one of the Top 6 Microsoft LSPs globally. COMPAREX's competency of being the Global Microsoft Partner can be assessed by its accomplishments across various facets; LSP (Licensing Solution Partner) authorization, Certified Microsoft Gold Partner status (16 Gold and 4 Silver competencies), Microsoft Cloud competencies for Office 365, Azure and Enterprise Mobility + Security, SPLA-Reseller (Licenses for Service Providers), CSP (Cloud Solution Provider) direct & indirect, Microsoft SAM (Software Asset Management) Partner, AER Partner (Authorized Education Reseller) and Managed Reseller (Distribution Business). With more than 750 Microsoft Certified Professionals (MCPs) COMPAREX-wide, they provide clients with the best independent advice and support for Microsoft Volume Licenses and Cloud Services customized to consumers’ needs, irrespective of whether they want to stay on-premise or move to a hybrid or cloud scenario. Competent Team at COMPAREX Delivering Diligence COMPAREX's highly qualified specialists accompany all projects, from analysis and procurement, through to design and implementation, operation and support in over 35 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. The company continues to work with reputable vendor partners such as Microsoft, Citrix, VMware, Adobe, Symantec, Sophos, VERITAS & Oracle. Hence they are able to provide cutting-edge expert knowledge and the most practical of solutions, or more specifically, software, consulting and services. Around 2,450 people at 80+ subsidiaries in 35 countries throughout Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas stand by across all challenging projects. COMPAREX’s Microsoft toolbox contemplated with right tools for eventuality include Microsoft Business Applications, Microsoft Cloud Services, Microsoft Database Systems and Tools, Microsoft Development Tools, Microsoft Network and Systems Management, Microsoft Office Solutions, Microsoft Operating Systems and Servers. The company is a well-recognized in its domain of expertise and is acknowledged with few accolades, namely; 2016 Partner of the Year Award Finalist (Software Asset Management),
COVER STORY
motto is to be by the side of customers in the digital transformation and we have adopted the same digital approach to our sales and marketing efforts to reach a wide spectrum of customers.”
2015 Global Microsoft Volume Licensing Partner of the Year (COMPAREX Group), 2015 Global Microsoft SAM Partner of the Year (COMPAREX Group), 2015 Healthcare Licensing Partner of the Year (COMPAREX Netherlands), 2015 U.S. Education Solution Partner of the Year (COMPAREX USA), 2015 Partner of the Year (COMPAREX Spain, Perifel / COMPAREX Mexico, COMPAREX India). About the Passionate Technologist The righteous and tenacious leader of Comparex India is Navin Kapur, in the role of Co-founder & Managing Director of the company. Navin had a persistent passion for driving Software solution & adoption in Indian Corporate space. He started his entrepreneurial journey in 2001 and co-founded IRIS Unified Technology Ltd. Prior to entrepreneurship, Navin worked as a CFO with Multiple Zone Inc., which is a US based NASDAQ Listed Company. Navin stepped-in the role of a Managing Director for Comparex India in 2001. Under his leadership, the company has grown by leaps and bounds and generated 500+ crore rupees revenues from India. Providing insights on the industry Navin asserts, “Today technology is in a disruptive mode. Our traditional way of selling will not work now or in future. Our customer needs have changed. We have to transform ourselves to the changed environment. We have made a major shift in our strategy to reach our customers by listening to their needs, like providing solutions to grow their business, finding ways to increase their productivity & drive further automation to reduce costs and make them more competitive globally. Our
Navin successfully manages strong relationship with COMPAREX, by building a vision for business opportunities in India, providing performance driven culture, through transparency and business excellence in Finance & Operations. He is backed by his stellar team, who is keen to develop cloud and managed services opportunities within the enterprise, government, and education and SMB sector. Considering his team to be his biggest strength, Navin thrives on developing a vision for the business, utilizing it to galvanize the organization and build a shared sense of purpose. The Perceptive Team Implementing the Microsoft Solutions Effectively and Efficiently Comparex India primarily focuses on Hybrid Cloud and Public Cloud, SaaS Services Like Office 365, EMS, CRM, Dynamic 365, Project online and Visio online. The organization has Pre-sales Team and Delivery Team governed by Project management Office for successful implementation of Microsoft Technologies. Their Delivery Team gets engaged in an opportunity at 60% sales stage along with Pre-sales Team to minimize the breach in understanding and execution. Comparex India's Delivery Team has certified resources on Microsoft technologies With a worldwide experience, Licensing Desk Team created a Value by proposing best fit Licensing model based on the finalized solution and existing investment. Comparex India Consulting team has vast experience in Licensing, consulting and have Global Managed Services Like PMP, CCM and UCM which is helpful in optimizing ROI, Customized Adoption plan inline to Microsoft strategy, Proactive Monitoring of Office 365 Services, 24x7 Support in localized languages. Comparex Technology roadmap is in line to Microsoft Offerings like Azure, Office 365, EMS, SPE3 and SPE5. All in all, the COMPAREX family deals with the management of usage rights and helps you to save IT costs, boost user productivity, increase compliance and management of software and manage risks.
COVER STORY
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Some Meritorious Customer-Oriented Implementations Having a global portfolio Comparex India have Vertical experience in Technologies and suggest the solution based on it. Knowing the turbulent nature of a business consultant, Comparex proposed solution best suited in their scenario. Some of their notable mentions are as follows: • InfoEdge: DRaaS has been implemented for more than 10 Application having more than 60 Servers within the budget of 12 Lakhs per year, whose Native DR Solution was costing around 3 Cr. • Uneecops: Test and Development platform on Azure: Migration from On-premise TFS to VSTS keeping security in place using Azure AD Premium. By Signing an Azure SCE, Uneecops is able to get advantage of Windows and SQL Enterprise free of cost for testing and Development. • RSystems: Voice to Text Application on Azure: Comparex Suggested Model in CPP, Azure Promo and Monitory commit based on the usage of the infrastructure and constructed a cost effective solution against AWS which is running in production. The above examples very well articulate the excellence of Comparex in offering all solutions adequately and cost-efficiently bundled. Advice to the Budding Entrepreneurs in the Industry Navin’s valuable advice for upcoming and aspiring entrepreneurs is, “Cloud is the future!, and it’s going to touch all our personal and business lives, So there are immense possibilities’ for anyone who is willing to join or become a solution provider. My advice to young generation is to create more applications in the cloud to meet the diverse set of needs and wants of the people.”
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We provide the technical expertise to staunchly optimize your licensing cost and manage all your security risks and service issues
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0 Company Name
Management
Brief
Comparex India Private Limited comparex-group.com
Navin Kapur Founder & MD
COMPAREX India is an IT services and consulting company providing one-of-a-kind competence in procurement and license management of software and an extensive cross-vendor consulting and services package.
Dev Information Technology Pvt. Ltd. devitpl.com
Zenul Jinwala Marketing Strategist
Dev Information Technology Ltd. works together with its clients across the globe to empower their business with the right mix of information technology, innovation and digital transformation.
diametriks diametriks.com
Sheel sharma, Head Marketing & Business Operations
Being a global service provider of products and services in the field of Project Management & Information Technology, Diametriks Consulting, a trusted partner for Microsoft EPM implementation across industrial sectors.
Embee embee.co.in
Sudhir Kothari CEO & MD
Embee Software provides customer centric and integrated solutions in the areas of Modern Workplace, Data Center Transformation, Information Security and Mid-Market Solution to meet the customers’ computing requirements.
incadea Group incadea.com
Kiran Lagisetti Managing Director
incadea, a Cox Automotive™ Brand, is a leading provider of enterprise software solutions and services to the global automotive retail and wholesale market.
MindQuad Solutions mindquad.net
Nikhil Patel Director
As a Microsoft Dynamic Solution Provider, MindQuad Solutions is focused in delivering ERP solutions on Microsoft Dynamics Navision, Axapta, CRM & Dynamics 365.
Softline India softlinegroup.co.in
Vinod Nair MD
Softline Services India (P) Ltd. is an IT services and consulting company with a global presence providing effective solutions for clients in a wide range of business verticals.
Target Integration targetintegration.com
Rohit Thakral Founder & CEO
Target Integration provides Open Source CRM and ERP software to improve productivity and efficiency using Information Technology.
Velocis Systems Pvt. Ltd. velocis.in
Rajnish Manrai Vice President
Velocis works closely with organizations to help them leverage IT for competitive advantage and to derive more value of their IT investments.
Winspire Solutions winspiresolutions.com
Vinod Shinde GM
Winspire Solutions has been providing clients of every size with consultancy, customization, training and implementation of ERP, CRM, Supply chain Management and Business Intelligence solutions.
Microsoft Partner of the Month
India Architecting Business Transformation as-a-Service
Vinod Nair Managing Director
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|SEPTEMBER 2017|
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In a growing & hyper-creative market like India there is
cloud, private cloud and hybrid cloud based on our customer’s needs. We also offer perpetual and subscription licensing for a full range of software products, such as operating systems, virtualization, security, business productivity and others, ensuring existing investments are optimized while addressing new requirements. In addition, we provide services, such as IT asset management, implementation, consulting, IT outsourcing, technical support, managed services and training. Unique to their India operations is their strategic tie-ups with “born-in-thecloud” application providers to offer various business transformational solutions in a managed services model.
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nterprises today, more than ever, are faced with the decision to transform every aspect of their business to address the new age challenges they face. While transformation could be at various levels, IT or digital continues to be considered as the single-most important aspect that could help organizations survive in the new world. In the quest to this transformation, companies with “cloud on the mind” had been lured by the vast promises associated with cloud computing – cost savings, efficiency, ubiquitous accessibility, etc. While addressing needs, enterprises were pushed with a plethora of unstructured business applications and systems either developed inhouse or serviced by expensive, rigid solutions. This left much of the promise of cloud limited to the “cost” domain rather than the transformation domain. The search for a solution provider ready to provide flexible business transformation solutions in an on-the-go model continues.
Softline Services India (P) Ltd, is headquartered out of Mumbai with offices in Bangalore, Delhi & NCR, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune. Core to Softline India is its passion to drive measurable business value to its customers through digital transformation and in the process, create a beneficial and sustainable value through each client
Not everything can be done alone in today’s world, but a client expects a single interface with its trusted technology provider, and Softline has built an ecosystem to address this need!
always the need for an enterprise solutions partner who can address all the business transformational needs in a “as-aservice” model. Softline India, a wholly owned subsidiary of Softline International, aims to address this need. Softline is a global IT Solutions provider focused on emerging markets spanning Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Latin Americas, India and South East Asia covering 80 cities within 30 countries. Softline offers private and public cloud solutions, integrated technology solutions, cybersecurity, software licensing within an encompassing managed services model. With revenue of approximately USD 1 Billion, Softline clients include 60,000+ private and governmental organizations of all scales – from large enterprises to small and medium businesses. Softline has a presence in over 30 countries and 82 cities around the world. A Technology Company Implementing Business Transformational Solutions Softline offers a diverse portfolio of cloud computing services such as IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, virtualization, collaboration, security, mobility through a choice of public |SEPTEMBER 2017|
engagement. Its years of cumulative experience with Microsoft technologies enable the company to help clients recoup their investment on Microsoft technologies and reap maximum ROI. The company today collaborates with over 400+ clients in India transforming businesses digitally and delivering 100%+ year-over-year growth for its internal and external stakeholders.Softline India is also a recipient of many awards having being recognized by Microsoft as the ‘Best Cloud Partner’ 2 years in a row.
Wide Range of Exemplary Services Softline marries the power of the cloud to business transformational solutions to address business problems in a pay as you go model. Some of the solutions include: • Softline Virtual Office: It is a ready-to-use productivity, collaboration & employee engagement platform combining the power of Microsoft platform charged on monthly basis. The offering includes corporate email, unified communication, corporate portal, HRMS and Microsoft Office subscription
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• ActiveCloud: Softline Group has its own Cloud Brokerage and Orchestration platform ActiveCloud which enables enterprises to manage their multiple SaaS offerings through a single unified platform giving the IT department complete control on their various subscriptions. ActiveCloud enables world class services to more than 30,000 customers and 60,000 active subscriptions. Company’s services portfolio displays the most advanced solutions like IaaS, clustering and high availability, enterprise grade virtualization, CDN, SaaS, virtual desktops (DaaS) and more.
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employees in India who are ripe for embracing digital transformation & any organization providing clear value in this space will be a winner. The important aspect would be to identify the solutions in the space that will provide maximum revenue impact to the customers. We are witnessing an upswing in the business cycle and it is my strong belief that enterprises will shift focus from cost optimization to productivity improvement or solutions providing direct revenue impact. As far as skills in this space are concerned, open source, analytics, business intelligence are definitely top of the pack.”
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• Microsoft Office 365: Office 365 includes a complete suite of offerings delivered from the cloud to make your office available when and where you need it. It includes Exchange for email and applications, OneDrive for storage, Lync & Skype for audio and video communication & SharePoint for portals and collaboration.
The Diligence to Provide the Best Softline works with clients closely to create the right IT solutions like websites, portals, e-commerce systems, mobile applications to name a few, supporting the core business objectives like cost reduction, customer acquisition, process optimization, customer relations, quality improvement just to name a few.
We provide IT solutions and a full range of services for the creation, optimization, support and development of the IT infrastructure
• Managed Services for Cloud: Softline’s deep relationship with Microsoft ensures that they provide the best service and support on Azure platform including IaaS, SaaS and PaaS.
A Steadfast and Zealous Leader Vinod Nair is the MD of Softline India, who has been with the company since it started its operations in India about 3 years back. With Softline, he laid out a very optimistic and constructive charter of building an organization of tech strategists, delivery experts and with a strong GTM of helping clients transform their businesses through the use of digital solutions. Within 3 years of its operations, Softline is a preferred advisor to 400+ customers in India. With a rich experience in the field of solution integration, Vinod is of the view that there is no better time to be in the digital transformation space in India. “Our view is that in a country like India there is no better time to hone your skills in this space. The type of possibilities that cloud throws up to organization specifically in the SME space is limitless. We have about 160,000 companies with 100-1000
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Being a trusted brand with 24+ years’ of experience in IT, recognized by customers and manufacturers and is a leading international brand in the IT market with an extensive network of branches and representative offices, Softline is always in the proximity to offer a wide range of services in technical support, training, and consulting. They leverage businesses with the help of their extensive experience in Cloud and virtualization, Mobility, Big Data and Analytics, Security and other emerging technologies. Envisioning More Expertise for Constant Development and Evolution, Softline feels that they are already ahead of the curve, assessing the amount of investment they are doing globally around building core expertise on emerging technologies and platforms. They have built strong foundations at the Corp level as well as the Subsidiary level where they have CoE's for key technologies such as Cloud, Mobility, Security, etc. At Softline, they have over 3000 partners globally to service their clients – this positions them uniquely and makes them as a one-stop-shop to provide and service all tech requirements to the clients.
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Industry Insight
A
dvancement in IT industry is profoundly impacting the business models, competitive forces, customer behaviors and regulatory environments. The ability to exploit the speed of business change has, therefore, become a key competitive advantage. The question we want to explore is whether the traditional Enterprise IT in the financial services industry is ready for the digital age; and if not, what needs to change. “The speed of current technological breakthroughs has no historical precedent, and the pace is exponential rather than linear,” says Klaus Schwab, the Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF). Since its inception over last few decades, the traditional Enterprise IT has been functioning as a project organization to deliver change, where IT projects serve as the primary currency of interactions between business and IT. They facilitate distribution of funding, an organization of work and deployment of change. Behind the multi-decade success of the project organization paradigm lies two important factors: First, these organizations mastered an assembly line like sequential methodology, also known as waterfall, to efficiently deliver large-scale business change. Second, they relied on a mature, battle-tested management theory, called the program and project management, for successful execution of the waterfall methodology.
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Initially, business changes were delivered through annual releases of enterprise-wide functionality on monolithic systems, e.g., finance, account management, and policy administration. As business models transformed from monolithic enterprises to decentralized businesses, then to Internet companies, and most recently, to digital organizations, the need for implementing rapid business change has accelerated. The traditional Enterprise IT responded by releasing smaller units of change more frequently. However, today's exponential increase in speed of change brought the project organization paradigm to its limit, as step-size of change can't be further scaled for a faster pace. The struggles of the project organization paradigm allowed another management paradigm — the product mindset — to flourish. In contrast to the project organizations, the product mindset does not require an elaborate and well-defined target outcome, for work to start. Instead, interim changes are expected and welcomed. This is achieved by replacing projects with products as the primary currency of business and IT interactions. Products differ from projects in two fundamental ways: they require a persistent operating structure, and they intend to serve multiple customers; and hence, promote long-term sharing. Furthermore, the product mindset relies on an iterative methodology, a.k.a. agile, based on the lean-manufacturing
|SEPTEMBER 2017|
IT Ready For The Is Your
Digital Age? principles to deliver change in smaller step sizes, fast, reliably and efficiently. A weekly systems release for update legacy data, such as rate tables per state, is no match for a digital Enterprise IT, who successfully runs scaled agile programs with a productive mindset. There are four key characteristics of the next generation Enterprise IT organization:
The business capability, information and application architectures guide how to exploit the strengths of both paradigms. IT operating models streamline interdependencies between business and IT, project and product, new and legacy, development and operations.
Mastery in Product Mindset
Business capability model, API architecture, cloud computing, DevOps, agile portfolio and program management are a few prerequisite capabilities that traditional Enterprise IT organizations need to invest in.
Technology products and services serve as the primary currency of business and IT interactions. Product managers own product roadmaps, and they are accountable for maximizing the value throughout the product lifecycle. Mastery in Scaled Agile Program Execution Business is engaged. The portfolio, program and agile team constructs are in place to deliver large-scale business change using the agile methodology. Customer commitments, financial commitments, and team productivity are rigorously managed; continuous improvement is engraved into the culture. Mastery in Co-Mixing Competing Management Paradigms
Mastery in Executing Enabling Capabilities
Also, you might be already familiar with terms such as Bimodal IT, Two-Speed IT, Multi-Speed IT, Right-Speed IT, which are proposed by leading consultancies and IT analyst firms to describe their perspectives of the new generation of the Enterprise IT in the digital age. They all point out the vital role of the new IT in exploiting the speed of change as a competitive advantage but vary about what it means to an existing Enterprise IT organization. Moreover, the art and science of managing the Enterprise IT in the digital age are getting more sophisticated. This should be music to the ears of all business savvy technology executives.
The waterfall is not dead, and agile is not a silver bullet.
|SEPTEMBER 2017|
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Embee Software: Your Strategic IT Partner Leveraging Digital Disruption
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n a competitively fierce market such as today technology is a key differentiator that organizations leverage for a better business performance. However, unlike previously, technology is evolving at such a fast pace that it is becoming challenging for businesses to really keep up. Do you feel the same? That is why organizations need a partner who is constantly abreast with the latest technologies and guides customers on the right technology mix for their business. Embee Software is one such partner. It is a leading technology solution provider in India with 30 years of experience in delivering solutions to its 2000+ customers. What differentiates Embee is its keen ability to address its client’s business challenges. And this quest is backed by its strategic alliance with the global technology leaders, Microsoft being the most dear. Being truly aligned to Microsoft’s vision and market expectations and backed by a futuristic leader, Mr. Sudhir Kothari, Embee takes bold decisions to be ahead of the curve. When Cloud first came to India in 2011 - 2012 Embee was one of the first Microsoft partners to spearhead their customers’ transition to the platform. Today they are recognized among Microsoft’s top 3 Cloud partners in the country. They have completed over 300+ Cloud projects and has migrated over 300,000 users to the Cloud. • A Pioneering Partnership Embee’s partnership with Microsoft began over 25 years ago during which Embee has transcended from a software partner to being one of their key country-wide solution partners. Over the years Embee has built on its relationship with its key stakeholders in the partner-organization, enhanced skills and capabilities in Microsoft technologies and delivered innumerous success stories. From the total strength of 350, 88 members of the Embee team are Microsoft certified technical experts and solution specialists with Gold competency on Cloud Productivity, Cloud Platform and Enterprise Mobility Management. And their high success ratio in existing and new customers along with the domain expertise more than often make then a favourable partner. Embee’s expertise and capability has also earned them the status of a leading LSP
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(the highest level of partnership in Microsoft’s partner structure). Some of the other recent awards won from Microsoft include: • CAM partner of the Year 2016 (W) • Top 3 Azure Partner of the Year 2016 (W) • Top 3 Office 365 partner of the Year 2016 (W) • CTM partner of the Year 2016 (N) • Office 365 partner of the year (N)
• Rising Above the Competition in the IT Landscape 60% of Embee’s business is from its existing customers. What helps the team to rise above the competition include a number of facets. First, it follows an understand-evaluate-design-testimplement approach to add value to each customer engagement. They understand the current and near future business challenges and business objectives, evaluate solutions that integrate seamlessly with its existing infrastructure, design the solution architecture, test the same on a smaller group to overcome any challenges and implement it enterprise wide. Some of its Microsoft success stories based on the above framework include: • Being the IT consultant and solution partner of a global advertising agency, Embee pitched and implemented Office 365 to help the client collaborate better and improve data availability. With anywhere-anytime access the team remained connected 24*7 enhancing their productivity. SharePoint empowered the team to intelligently discover and share the content on any device. One Drive offered the client secure, reliable and unlimited storage space and backup features. And its inbuilt disaster recovery and uptime maintenance services helped the customer minimize its organizational risks and reduce the workload of the internal IT team. Embee used industry-recognized best practices in the implementation and migration, where over 800 users and 700 GB of data belonging to the client were migrated to the new system. |SEPTEMBER 2017|
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We believe that while Technology is the pivot for Digital Disruption, what’s as critical is the Corporate Mindset & Culture
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• With a strong legacy system in place, the client was facing concerns over storage and security issues of the increasing volumes of multimedia and traditional data of the organization. Moreover, the back-up process was slow and tedious. Chosen based upon expertise and hands-on experience, Embee’s implementation of a hybrid cloud storage solution based upon Microsoft Azure and StorSimple helped the client, a global media organization, transform. With StorSimple, the client now has unlimited secured storage capacity in the cloud, eliminating constant worries about shortfalls. It has dramatically reduced administrative overheads while achieving better disaster recovery. They have managed to slash down the time required for back-ups and restores. Additionally, they can now scale their resources as required. The new solution provided greater business agility, endless scalability and reduced SAN storage costs by over 40%. Secondly, driven by the motto to add value to customers and maximize their return on investment, Embee stands out from the crowd with its lethal combination of services. Apart from the solution knowledge and implementation capability backed by the support services, Embee has deep capabilities in Power BI and SharePoint. They develop/build dashboards and applications that help businesses be more productive. The applications on Power BI help the senior leaders to take strategic decisions quicker while on SharePoint they have developed 30+ applications, including Helpdesk Systems, Travel Management, Employee Information Systems, Leave Management System amongst others to simplify their businesses further Embee caters to over 2000+ customers across industries including Manufacturing, Financial Services, Logistics, Education, Government, E-Commerce, Healthcare, Retail, IT/ITES, and Media.
Sudhir Kothari Founder, CEO & MD
Embee makes sure to separate its identity in the industry by successfully implementing projects, providing deep technical expertise and knowledge, being fully-committed, ensuring strong customer relationships and making IT easier for their customer base. This is what Embee practices with every one of its customers; probably one among many reasons on why Embee has acquired over 400 new customers in just over three years.
• Maintaining the Edge Delivering customer value is truly what drives the team at Embee and they execute it exceedingly well. With thorough technology expertise and deep customer connects, the team at Embee are able to support business houses address their challenges with transformational opportunities. This is why they have engaged with over 200 customers for over 7 years or more. Additionally, their capabilities and experience in Microsoft technologies place them in an unique position for their clients. |SEPTEMBER 2017|
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CXO Standpoint
What we see today in IT Services in India
One view of the IT Entrepreneurship in India today:
W
ith the steady increase of IT Entrepreneurial ventures in the country today one sees hundreds of companies in various stages of growth & development. However, it is plain to see that the largest size is that at the starting point i.e. the Start-ups and Emergent companies that are creating a place for them in the growing market with survival being the stepping stone to “a” growth path. It is key to have a unique solution to a specific problem when someone is starting up, and it is even more important to have clarity on technical design implementation to keep moving. As they say, “If you have great idea, but cannot implement or convince investors, it is as good as not having an idea”. It is important to balance time spent on technology and identifying “ Key” customer problem to solve. More often it is identifying the key problem statement that matters a lot, and technology to solve evolve in the ecosystem. Specially for Services sector, it is important to identify how one start up can be cost effective and / or collaborative.
tipping point and reach the scale of an emerging Enterprise. To get there, it needs sustainable products and services and more importantly the change management to adopt to larger scale. It is very critical to identify the “ Change “ that needs to be adopted as challenges of exponential growth can be daunting.
The next larger number would be that of the SMBs that have succeeded in creating a spot for themselves, as well as in growing their market share steadily over time. Amongst them again are the ones that have entered the SMB phase of their company’s onward journey – while most are seen to be SMBs for a greater part of the company’s lifecycle itself. A small but significant number actually make it past the SMB-
Our learning & insights – The emerging trends that enable an IT SMB to chart growth plans that are aligned to Customer roadmap
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We have substantial shining examples of such entrepreneurial entities that have made it to this select but rapidly growing group of companies. And I am specifically referring to those who have grown organically over a period of time, ranging from anywhere from 7-15 years. While some amongst this select group has made the strides to reach Enterprise scale within 710 years, most SMBs/ Companies do take 10-15 years to reach this phase. And a large no. of them would attribute this growth due to innovative engagement models, while most of them would operate and often even compete in similar areas in IT Products & Services.
For small start-ups, understanding the current ecosystem (technology, support structure to run the show, leveraging different media to continuously test the idea) and leveraging them could prove beneficial. It is important to focus on
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Anu Biswas Founder & CEO Prakat Solutions, Inc. disruptive ideas (in addition to incremental ones) as it would generate eventual leap. It is important to be Agile and constantly test to decide next step in product/solution). There would be a huge opportunity for early collaboration among startups, so look forward to such opportunities. It is worthwhile to seek advice from mentors in respective space, it helps start-ups to visualize a near future and actions to be followed. While SMBs, like any other business entity looking at growth in the IT sector, look at scaling up their business development for growth – what we see is a key impact factor is about business development with the right investments in core competencies that are relevant to the business enterprise of the existing Customers as well as that of future projected Customers. For instance, all of our investments at Prakat in the ďŹ rst 3-4 years have been entirely in QA, Testing & Digital Accessibility. Over the last 2 years we observed a couple emergent needs from constant interactions and exchanges with our existing Customers which are in the realm of DevOps, Performance Engineering and Test Data Management.
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We have invested more in these areas over the last year or so and are reaping the beneďŹ ts of the strategic investment by means of growth in business volumes in these areas. And this of course in addition to existing competencies. Our advantage has been that the Core Team has these capabilities collectively and we are able to leverage what we already do have in-house. This has largely helped us keep our costs lower as well in what we invested in as new growth areas. This is a trend that has been effective for several other SMBs looking to scale as well, whereby a certain area of competency is chosen, aligned with that of the existing/future Customers, honed & perfected to cater to future needs and business development being aligned to it in parallel. All of it comes together to support the growth plans for an SMB. Please do note that this approach may not work for an emergent company that is still looking at gaining momentum in its services engagements.
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Editor’s Pick
The Criss-Crossing of
&
Consulting
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T
he diligent invention and innovation by research teams in companies around the world have helped to keep-up with the pace of technological expansion in computer processing power for several decades. This led to the ability of technology companies to put more computing power than the whole Apollo space program into the bags of more than a billion people worldwide. Everything around us including music, books and even movies have taken a digital physiognomy. There is a considerable amount of threat to both people and their enterprises due to these increasingly intelligent digital technologies and unpredictable customer expectations. The last few decades have been an amazing time for consultancies with full of revenue and opportunities provided by these technological advancements. Clients were desperate for solutions to help them match these changing times. This has led to the growth of management consulting in size and scale, expanding multiple technologies and even marketing specialties. The increase in the divergence of the large international consultancies into other specialisms is the first step to what fallouts in an inevitable shrinkage forced upon the industry. The same forces that are causing a feeling of disequilibrium for the firms that consultancies serve are also causing the same challenges, trepidation and uneasiness for the consulting firms. One of all the major game-changers of the consulting industry is the inception of Artificial Intelligence.
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Intervention of Artificial Intelligence
Is the Threat Even Real?
Mechanical muscles made human labor less in demand, so are mechanical minds making human brain less in demand. You might misinterpret this as an economic revolution which is more appropriately a robotic evolution. When you think of automation, you think of giant, efficient and precise but really dumb robots blind to the world doing their own work. They were a scary kind of automation, but they were cost effective in narrow situations. These are the old kind of robots (just mechanical muscles), and the real threat is by the new kinds with Artificial Intelligence.
These are challenging times for large consultancies and small independent consultants as consultancies are forced to respond to these attacks from three sides: Increasingly Available Intellectual Property, Internal Consultants and Artificial Intelligence. A huge part of that three-pronged attack will come from an ever-growing multitude of automation engineers taking over the cubicles around the world to design people out of jobs. In the same way that mechanical engineers build robots to substitute our human muscles with machine muscles, automation engineers and computer programmers are creating inexpensive machine minds with sufficient artificial intelligence to replace our more expensive human brains. Professions like that of the automation engineer will attract workforces from around the world in increasing numbers, but not nearly enough to counterbalance the losses in job opportunities that these engineers are tasked with eliminating. Only time will tell how quickly and how broadly artificial intelligence (AI) threatens the core business of consultancies.
Chatbots, roboadvisors, and other implementations of artificial intelligence have taken over people’s imaginations and led to the practical implementations of artificial intelligence. People are becoming increasingly comfortable with artificial intelligence. But what does the consulting industry has to do with artificial intelligence? In the short run, maybe consultants don’t have as much to fear from artificial intelligence as compared to the workers in transportation, retail, or manufacturing. But, in the wider bandwidth of things, over time innovative technology vendors will inexorably build upon openly available artificial intelligence frameworks made publicly accessible by companies like Microsoft and Google (which are looking for an increase in the sale of cloud services) to automate some of the tasks that lately cast undergraduate analysts or Indians do now for the large consulting firms. Today, we comprehend our business and our interactions with our customers well enough, what was once a mystery, and then we try to identify patterns inside it which then eventually allows us to create algorithms and procedures that can be captured in Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s) and then ultimately in code. This process is similar to the heuristic technique. The power of artificial intelligence is the ability to move the role of machine to the left in The Knowledge Funnel, far away from pure manual coding by a human, to the computer programs that write themselves and eventually to heuristic identification and algorithm creation at some point in the near future. This is ultimately made possible by crowd computing, machine learning and deep learning. The fact remains that as computer programmers and the artificial minds their creation becomes more adept at watching the work that consultants do and recognizing the patterns in their recommendations.
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Think, if you are in the consulting industry, what is your strategy for responding to this threat? Because, make no mistake, the threat is real. The only question is how quickly it will substantially impact the bottom line. Sooner or later Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for better solutions will rule. With the contributions of these two technologies, time invested in primary research and data analytics can be substantially reduced. Now decision making can be quicker and more fine-tuned based on the client’s desires and behavior. Behavior patterns can be well drawn out, and quick actions can be implemented. However, for your comfort, let’s make a dulcet statement; say consultants are a balance of EQ and IQ so AI and robotics can’t replace the EQ and sensibility part.
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0
Target Integration: The All-in-One Solution Provider for CRM/ERP Implementation
T
his is an era of outsourcing and automation. This is the reason why it is important for manufacturers to reanalyze their businesses and update their existing IT systems. This not only helps the manufacturers to maintain a pace with the ever-changing world. Additionally, it also boosts their ability to deliver better customer service and a perfectly managed supply chain. As a matter of fact, small and mid-sized companies are worst hit. They are finding it difficult to cope up with the changing customer requirements and boost their profits at the same time. In such an event, companies are preparing themselves to build long-lasting customer relationships by adopting new ideas, developing a sustainable roadmap and by evolving the supply chain system. This can be done with the proper alignment between ERP and CRM solutions. Such an investment not only boosts the profitability of the companies. Furthermore, it also helps in accurate sales forecasting, centralizing the database, and eliminates the redundant customer information. Most CRM & ERP providers have on-premise as well as cloud based solutions. The thriving among these service solution providers is the Ireland-based Target Integration. They are known for the innovative idea of “Self-Service CRM/ERP” which allows customers to implement their own CRM with minimum intervention of consultants and developers. Target Integration introduced this idea in UK & Ireland first and it has proven to be the quickest and the most cost effective way of implementing a CRM/ERP system for SMEs. They are now bringing the idea to other countries around the globe.
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Target Integration is servicing around 400+ customers in 10 different countries providing leading software applications such as Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics 365/CRM, Zoho, Odoo, CloudYogi and Google Suite. Target Integration has worked with some well known businesses such as AIB Bank, Colliers International, Mazars, Credit Union Development Association (CUDA), Seiko, Strata Tiles, UK Oak Doors, Uday Tours & Travels, providing them business solutions of their choice. The Thought Leader behind the High-Reaching Company Target Integration was founded by Rohit Thakral in Dublin in 2008. Rohit completed his Diploma in Engineering from Pusa Polytechnic in New Delhi and his first job was to service computers and peripherals from HP & Compaq. He then moved on to work in a telecom equipment manufacturing company, Fibcom (a Tellabs subsidiary). Later, he moved to Dublin to do his Bachelor’s Degree in Electronics & Electrical and PostGraduate Certificate in Advanced Engineering at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT). Before starting Target Integration, he worked in Data Edge as a Product Specialist of telecom test equipments and Product Manager in UPC Ireland. This journey of working in multiple businesses from services to manufacturing and from telecom to computers supported him to become the founder of Target Integration. He believes training & continuous development of team members is the key element for the company’s growth and success. His influencing nature has instigated leadership thinking among his team and employees.
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‘‘
We put ourselves in our clients' shoes and align our incentives with their objectives
The Core Strength of Target Integration Target Integration is the leading Business Process Consultancy. This 9 years old organisation now has three development centers (Ireland, Greece and India) and sales offices in three countries as well (UK, Ireland and India). CRM & ERP Systems have been a core of the business since its inception. They deliver the best advice based on the requirements of the customer. They are independent in their recommendation of a software to their customers. Target Integration doesn’t hire sales people. Their sales team is made up of previous CRM & ERP Consultants who know the problems faced by a business and have the experience of dealing with those problems using multiple different tools. The advice provided by them comes on the basis of this experience. Introduction of cloud has minimized the delivery cost of CRM & ERP software and allows the users to work from anywhere and from any device hence increasing. This adds to the productivity of the users and reduces the capex required to implement such a solution in the business. The company’s key to implementing CRM/ERP systems is “No-Code” or “Low Code” solution. Any software with lot of customizations becomes difficult for the company to upgrade and results in slowing down businesses’ capability to adapt to changing IT environment.
Rohit Thakral Founder
those providers will survive that will thrive for perfection and better skills. The challenge in all this is the availability of high quality resources and that’s why Target Integration is always working on hiring new talent and training them up on the latest business management trends in the industry.
The Future Roadmap of Target Integration Enterprises have been using powerful CRM & ERP Systems for many years but the SME market is at a very nascent stage and gradually organizations are realizing the need of a business tool to automate their processes and achieving the optimum resource management with automation. There is a bigger and better opportunity for the company in India where the industrial landscape is on a rapid change. This presents a greater possibility where only
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CXO Standpoint
Chuck all the Competencies and just focus on ‘The Joy of Serving’ A
s the appraisals come to an end in most of the organizations, the HR moves on to conducting the skill and competency gap exercises. For a change we witness many organizations giving fair importance, if not equal, to assessing the gaps of their HR team also.
When we delve into what are the competencies that the HR professionals require, we witness a wide gambit of them – ranging from fashionable ones like CHRO, Business Partner and Analytics to the simpler ones like Negotiation Skills and Conflict management. What comes across as a surprise is that most of us miss a key element core to any HR professional, namely- Compassion. Many of us chose HR as a profession by choice; but there are many others who have come into this profession not on account of Passion, but that of Process. Some because of organization requirements or job rotations, while the reason for others was as simple as that during their MBA, they felt choosing this specialization was an easy route to complete the course. In short, what we witness is that HR is the only profession which doesn’t have a standard course with an equal emphasis on practice or hands-on experience. More often we see a diversity & mix of backgrounds and knowledge levels among HR professionals. At times it is good since it builds a diverse range of experience &expertise; yet at the same time, it also results in a lack of a consistent solid layer at the very base. So what competency is the bedrock of any HR professional? Well, the debate is still on, but one that stands undisputed is certainly- Compassion. The HR professional must possess a mindset to help other, irrespective of what role and hierarchy we are in or how much the organization rules & policy enable the same.
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|SEPTEMBER 2017|
K Srinivas Rao Chief Strategist & Partner How does one describe the competency of Compassion? In simple words, it is the ‘The joy of Serving’ others. Some of the key fundamentals of Joy of Serving are as follows: • Employees are my Clients – Simple & Period!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR K Srinivas Rao, Chief Strategist and Partner, is a human capital strategist with the expertise of 23 years across Human Capital Value Chain. Prior to The Strategist, he was heading Strategy – HR at Satyam Computer Services. Formerly, he held management roles at various levels in CATS (Computer Associates-TCG), Baan Info Systems, Ernst & Young, Videocon International. An avid writer and guest speaker on the subject of Change Management and Human Capital, he wrote 5 books under the “101 Smart Ideas Series” published in 2015, “Managing HR Issues in a Merger” – published in the Handbook of Business Strategy 2002,“Whispers of a Devil in an Angel”,“Principles and Practices of Management”. He also co-authored a book titled ‘Unconscious Leadership Conspiracy’ and has published more than a dozen articles in International & National Publications. Mr. Rao holds dual Masters’ degrees and attended Indore School of Social Work, where he topped the class of ‘93 and later pursued Masters in Military Sciences. Currently, he is a Research Scholar at XLRI Jamshedpur and a visiting faculty at ISB and IIM Indore. He was awarded “HR Leadership Award” in 2008-09 by Employer Branding Institute and Super Achiever as HR Professional in 2006 by Indira Group and Fun & Joy Institute. |SEPTEMBER 2017|
We need to quickly realize that Employees are our clients and we as a function exist to serve them as organizations exist to serve external clients. Unfortunately, it has become a trend to treat employees as a pain and a general belief that they are all eternal cribbers. For once, pause and try to remember those N-numbers of times we hated the experience of not being treated properly & kept waiting when we stepped out for a lavish dinner or called a bank helpline for information. Then how can we end up telling our employees not to chase us for update or information. Rather why can’t we tell them that we will get back to them as and when our checklist burden lessens? We need to rebuild our outlook toward how we treat our employees. We should realize that we earn our salaries because of them and our founding philosophy it to serve them with Joy. • We are a Service Function In our zeal to become business partners, we have missed the point that we are still a service function. Just because of the introduction of technology or numbers we cannot change our outlook. The idea is to become an enabling function where we identify the hidden synergies and act as a catalyst to empower them and exploit them.
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We need to continue to function as a service function and appreciate that technology can only be a facilitator in this process. For example, an employee would still love to receive a call on his birthday or anniversary by HR rather than a lifeless eCard. What technology can do in here is that it can help remind the HR Professional as to which associates birthday or anniversary is coming up next. We need to get back the Human Touch in the HR. • We Cannot Solve Everything & Should not Attempt the same The Joy of Serving doesn’t mean we have to bend backward for everything and everybody. It is not about ensuring that the end results are positive in favor of the employees, it is about being fair and playing by the rules. In this complex world, we will encounter deviations and exceptions and we will have to manage them. That means we cannot solve every single problem in one go and there would be stakeholders whom we will end up disappointing. This isn’t a failure for us, but when the stakeholder doesn’t understand ‘why’ the problem was not resolved and believes that it was our whim and whimsy which resulted in it, we sure have a problem on our hands. • We can be polite even when being assertive Being assertive is not the opposite of Joy of Serving, but there is a fine line between being rude and being firm. Some situations may demand us to be firm / assertive with our stakeholders and we shouldn’t hesitate in doing so. What is critical is to understand and appreciate that we can be firm and polite at the same. As children we all had these experiences where our family never hesitated from pampering us, but at the same time drew the boundary line for what was allowed and what was not. Many a times, we miss the clue in here because we see ourselves as the guardian of the policies, frameworks and work ethos and see the stakeholders who are not aligned to the same as offenders. We forget that we are not the ‘Police’, but the quiet ‘Gardner’; wherein we need to nurture with care & compassion and weed out what is not good. • If we don’t Enjoy doing this, maybe it is time to quit The biggest challenge is many of us are not sure what we are doing in our job or is the right profession we have chosen, wherein we are nobody’s favorite and do a thankless job throughout the day. It certainly is not one of the perks, but comes with the territory of our job descriptions. All jobs have occupational hazards and for us, as HR professionals this is the one. If we don’t like this essential element, it is always better to move on and get into another profession. The joy of serving isn’t the one and only competence to Nirvana, but solid bedrock on which all the other competencies and skills for HR should be built on. It is futile that we may have best of skills in our professionals in terms of technology or analytics, but a heart of compassion missing. Our dream should be to ultimately move from the ‘The joy of Serving’ to the ‘Honor in Serving’.
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A perfect
Day start with
Coffee