Corporate leadership is highly attuned to leveraging next-generation technologies to attract and retain customers. But what about employees? If it’s true that engaged employees drive profits (and studies show it is), what’s the trick to employee happiness? Artificial Intelligence could be the answer.
Infosys CFO MD Ranganath’s recent resignation took almost all by surprise — employees, clients and investors. The impact was such that the stock fell by over 3 per cent on the first day of trading after the news broke.
This led to conjecture — some wild, some prosaic – on what could have triggered the exit. The man in question is not speaking and neither is the company. The official position is that it is an amicable separation with the CFO staying for three months to help with transition and with ‘Ranga’, as he’s popularly called, quitting to pursue other opportunities, having been with Infosys for 18 years.
Everest Group CEO Peter Bendor-Samuel said, Infosys is on the horns of a dilemma with market and internal expectations to maintain their extraordinary margins while leading the industry in growth.
Read more in The Times of India
The Everest Group Banking BPO Annual Report 2018 noted that 85% of banks surveyed as part of the study said digital transformation is a priority in 2018. However, only 19% are optimizing or integrating their front-, middle-, and back-office for true digital transformation.
One innovation that is garnering attention in this digital race is robotic process automation (RPA) with its promise of automating certain processes to allow for improve customer experience, greater operational efficiency and a greater sense of accomplishment for employees.
Read more in Enterprise Innovation
Are organizations backing away from the traditional three-year RPO format?
If you follow the world of RPO, you may have noticed an interesting trend. According to the Everest Group’s annual report on the industry, the average deal length has been dropping, and for the first time since Recruitment Process Outsourcing emerged as a tool in the talent acquisition leader’s tool belt, it’s approaching just two years. Today buyers seem to be heading away from the traditional three year format.
Here’s the big reason why most of the big IT services companies are still struggling to accelerate: Many large banks have got into a do-it-yourself mode for their IT. Where once they outsourced work, they are now choosing to do more of it in-house, mostly in their own global inhouse centres (GICs) in countries like India.
Peter Bendor-Samuel, CEO of IT research & consulting firm Everest Group, said the Indian players have been living in denial. “They have all been forecasting good years in banking and we have been telling them that for many reasons this was unlikely to happen. The banks’ GICs have matured and they are clearly growing them at the expense of third parties. For some functions, they are also bringing work back on-shore and this work they are keeping in-house. They have largely decided that they like the big Indian firms as their legacy (partners to maintain their traditional IT),” he said.
Ola has taken its taxi-hailing business to the UK. The Bengaluru-based company will offer private hire vehicles or black taxis in South Wales and Greater Manchester before expanding to other cities. Ola has over 125 million customers and operates in 110 cities, mostly in India. Early this year, it began operations in Australia.
“Ola plans to offer better incentives to drivers, almost double,” says Yugal Joshi, vice president at Everest Group consultancy. “It understands the regulatory framework and must have done its financial modelling. But the outcome is still uncertain.”
India’s largest ride-sharing service, Ola, is coming to Britain. It’s news that will make not just Uber sit up and pay attention.
A major challenge to succeed with customers and to hire drivers will be brand recognition. “It is not known,” says Yugal Joshi from Everest Group, a research firm. “[It will need] a meaningful marketing blitz around its entry, create incentives for drivers, work with regulators to better understand the constructs, and understand the taxi habits of UK passengers,” he adds. What it shouldn’t do is market taxis as an alternative to other modes of transport, as it does in India. Instead, Joshi argues, it should make it essential for British commuters.
Indian ride-hailing startup Ola is driving into new countries like there’s no tomorrow.
Today (Aug. 07), the Bengaluru-based company announced it plans to launch in the UK. This comes just six months after the Softbank-backed firm ventured into Australia in its maiden overseas move.
“In India, they’ve mostly focused on metros and tier I cities. In tier II, I don’t know how much demand there is… So, they’re targeting developed markets like Australia and now the UK,” said Yugal Joshi, vice-president at research firm Everest Group. “In these markets, revenue per ride should be higher. Typically, you spend $20 to $30 (Rs1,400 to Rs2,000), which is way higher than what you’re spending (in India). The fuel cost also is cheaper there compared to India.”
Read more in Quartz India
Everest Group, an outsourcing consultancy and research group, said outsourcing in HR is growing at 4% to 5% a year, according to its survey data. Outsourcing by HR is used mostly for transactional processes such as employee data management and the administration portions of payroll, benefits, recruitment and learning, according to Arkadev Basak, vice president at the company. Everest put the savings due to HR offshoring at 30% to 35%.
The Indian tech industry is headed to a big shakeout with a couple of major mergers and acquisitions expected in 18-36 months. It could mean tier 2, 3, 4 or 5 firms exploring merger with peer or giving in to M&A invitations from external player.
Thus the leader board of Indian IT may look different in the near future as the next couple of years will flesh out a new set of league players in the business, say global analysts who track the space.
Few M&As are likely as domestic tech players are constantly forced to evaluate the size and scale needed to compete in new markets and in new technologies. The dual forces of industry consolidation and new emerging digital market will end status quo and remake the industry. Thus, the entire pecking order of IT Indian may change, they say.
According to Peter Bendor-Samuel, CEO of US-based Everest Group, clear signs of consolidation are discernible in the global markets. The latest example of it is Atos acquisition of Syntel.
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