At the Heart of Managing Customer Expectations

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1 At the Heart of Managing Customer Expectations Delivering Exceptional Experience by Providing Services with Product Mindset A change in service provider's mindset Deepti Mishra Rati Mehrotra Abstract Rapidly changing customer expectations coupled with a shift in the market landscape toward digitization forces IT service providers to alter their operating model. The clients today are looking at providers who can not only work along with them as strategic partners and guide them through the changes but also enable them to grow their organization by aligning speed of deployment and ability to scale at business priorities.

2 Need for Digital Delivery In the past two decades, IT industry has witnessed significant changes. It has shifted from monolithic, centralized computing in the late 1990s and distributed technologies in the 2000s to disruptive digital technologies today. During these changing times, mergers and acquisitions came to the fore. It is therefore pertinent to understand why the shift Traditional Large Multiyear ERP Programs Effort based Fixed Price Models Process Centric Development Predefined Releases Service Level Agreements Desktop Applications happened and what did the organizations do to handle this change? Companies who did not reinvent themselves with the changes struggled, missing time and loosing the battle to achieve competitive edge. With the advent of disruptive technologies, IT industry is on a crossroad witnessing a multitude of changes from traditional delivery to digital delivery. Digital Smaller 6-12 months Projects Output-/Outcome-based Models User-centric Development Release at Will Business Level Agreements Mobile Applications Implications for Service Provider The shift in the market landscape toward digital delivery has broadened the spectrum of delivery ask from the IT service providers. Customers want schedule, cost, quality, and reduced time-to-market at one end of the spectrum and agility, creativity, flexibility, and experience to meet the rapidly changing requirements at the other end of the spectrum. Schedule Quality Productivity Delivery Asks in the Digital World IT Spectrum Agility Creativity Flexibility Experience Digital Delivery Model The vision of the digital delivery model is to bring a cultural change in the organization to address the needs of digital delivery and changing focus of the market. The digital delivery model for us is grounded in delivering "Services with Product Mindset. The main driver for delivering services with product mindset is the co-creation of requirements around the customer and delivering service with smaller empowered teams who will help evolve service as the business priorities change. Services with Product Mindset Changes in Market Landscape IT as a revenue driver Focus on business value generation Seamless experience across all touch points of customer journey Multiple technologies coming together for innovation Partnership-based approach Speed of Deployment Drivers Rapidly Changing Customer Environment Focus on Product Team How We Deliver Co-creation of requirements Decentralized product engineering Automation Full stack developer Smaller empowered teams All roles in one product team with the ability to deliver the necessary service SI capability with niche product vendors

3 Services with Product Mindset "Services with Product Mindset" takes the development and maintenance of new services to a different level. IT service companies should focus on drilling down the co-created requirements and treating each smaller independent requirement as a product with empowered team having all roles within it to deliver that requirement. This cannot be achieved until the current operating model is altered. For us, delivering Services with Product Mindset requires reinventing the operating model. The levers include moving toward digital factory, investment in automation, aligning IT with client s business objectives, a change of mindset, and orienting the workforce to support the new shift. Digital Factory Business Aligned IT Services with Product Mindset Holistic Automation Talent Development Mindset Change 1. Digital Factory With reduced time-to-market, faster product launches, and enhanced competition, the customers are looking at driving value from IT service vendors as partners who can guide them in the digital shift. NIIT Technologies has a dedicated practice to constantly adopt, develop, and leverage digital for our clients. Achieving quality at highest velocity levels and innovation requires setting up a digital factory to support clients with digital initiatives. The digital factory has a lean startup mindset to achieve speed, scale, and continuous delivery through cross-functional teams working together with niche partners to generate value for customers.

4 2. Business Aligned IT The boundaries of application, infrastructure, and operations teams are getting converged through the use of cloud environments and SaaS products. Today, IT can no longer work in silos and it is imperative that operations are aligned to business for higher returns. Below are the key areas where NIIT Technologies is working to bridge the gap between IT and business goals for the clients: Solve business problems using latest technologies and shifting focus to customer experience. New-age commercial models, which are business linked, output- and outcome-based Newer ways of working which are beyond SLAs, like measuring satisfaction of end user at incident level Service provider organization structure alignment to achieve business goals Lean IT to optimize process, eliminate waste, and increase productivity of resources 3. Holistic Automation The importance of automation is ever increasing with business requirements of faster, cheaper, and better service. In this digital age, automation is vital to match the pace of the changing requirements. NIIT Technologies has invested to create an integrated smart automation framework covering nine components of the IT lifecycle. These include development, test, service desk, maintenance, infrastructure, business processes, monitoring and performance management, robotic process automation, and artificial intelligence. The framework embeds best-in-class technologies/ips, autonomics, and their orchestration in business with an objective to increase automation and/or set an incremental automation path for creating superior customer experiences and agile outcomes.

5 A maturity model across people, process, architecture, tools, and infrastructure is in place to understand the automation maturity of an organization. NIIT Technologies has also invested in partnerships with platforms like Microsoft, AppDynamics, HP, PegaSystems, and ServiceNow to name a few to make automation a reality. 4. Talent Development To enable services with product mindset, it is imperative to orient resources for the mindset change. There is a need to recognize that talent management has a very important role to play in embracing a product mindset. The strength lies in the workforce that is equipped to handle new roles, wider technology areas, and business insights. There is a constant need to develop skills on all fronts. NIIT Technologies runs some key initiatives to keep the workforce abreast with industry needs and new trends. Some of the key programs include: 5. Mindset Change A mindset change is essentially moving from green SLAs to delightful customer experiences. NIIT Technologies believes that service culture is an important dimension for any company if they want to move towards a newer way of working. We have built innovation in our culture through a service vision New Ideas, More Value. We have adopted industry-leading standards through programs like Up Your Service, Ignite, and Inspire. Co-innovation workshops with customers for product innovation and digital roadmaps are also a key initiative. NIIT Technologies has invested in design studios and innovation labs to surface new ideas and create prototypes aimed at generating business value. Using this value-laden approach, we help clients reduce cost and generate more revenue out of engagements, helping us move to the role of a strategic partner. TechLeap program to develop skills as full stack developer DONE program to reinforce product quality ownership with the development team Digital 1000 program to develop skills on newest digital technologies Automation Partner certifications

6 The NIIT Technologies Thought Board: Delivering Success by Providing Services with Product Mindset How is traditional delivery different from digital delivery? Traditional Large Multiyear ERP Programs Digital Smaller 6-12 months Projects Effort-based Fixed Price Models Output-/Outcome-based Models Process Centric Development User-centric Development Predefined Releases Release at Will Service Level Agreements Business Level Agreements Desktop Applications Mobile Applications What are the five levers for delivering services with product mindset? Digital factory Business aligned IT Holistic automation Talent development Mindset change What are the nine components of NIIT Technologies smart automation framework? Development Test Service Desk Maintenance Infrastructure Business Processes Monitoring and Performance Management Robotic Process Automation Artificial Intelligence What are the key programs NIIT Technologies is investing in to keep the workforce abreast with industry needs? TechLeap DONE Digital 1000 Automation Partner Certifications

7 Taking the Leap In today's digital era, companies are not only trying to innovate products but also bring innovation at each and every touch point of the customer journey. There is a need for fundamental shift in the way IT companies operate to manage the expectations of customers who are amidst digital transformation themselves and are looking at IT partners to guide the change. IT service providers must reinvent their operating model to lead and sustain this change. Services with product mindset by managing each of the customer requirement as a product is a new mantra for being successful in this digital era. NIIT Technologies is successfully embracing this mantra to lead this journey. About the Author Deepti Mishra is a Presales Consultant with NIIT Technologies Service Design group. She holds MBA degree from IIFT, New Delhi, and B.Tech from NIT Allahabad. She has more than 12 years of experience in the IT industry and has worked on Application Outsourcing, Offshoring, and Business Transformation for multiple clients. She has been instrumental in defining the approach and levers for Next-Gen Application Outsourcing at NIIT Technologies. Her focus is to create superior technology driven business solutions for the client. Rati Mehrotra is a Presales Consultant with NIIT Technologies Service Design group. She holds an Executive MBA degree from IMI, Delhi. She has more than 12 years of experience in the IT industry and has worked on business transformation initiatives and outsourcing solutions for multiple clients. Her focus is on creating strategies to help organizations maximize their ROI from IT investments. She has been instrumental in defining the approach and levers for Next-Gen Application Outsourcing at NIIT Technologies.

8 For more information, contact 2017 NIIT Technologies. All rights reserved. NIIT Technologies is a leading global IT solutions organization, differentiated on the strength of domain expertise; it services clients in travel and transportation, banking and financial services, insurance, manufacturing, and media verticals. Leading with its service vision New Ideas, More Value, NIIT Technologies is committed to delivering new ideas combined with operational excellence to provide exceptional value to its clients. The Company is focused on helping businesses design sustainable, optimizable and winning digital operating models, enabling them to become agile, scalable, and flexible. Visit us at D_165_ Stay connected: