I recently spent a very productive day with Wipro as they showed examples of their commitment to service delivery automation – a commitment I observed as more than in any other service provider. HOLMES, their recently unveiled artificial intelligence platform is just the beginning of this serious commitment. Here are three very important aspects of this commitment.
Step one: IP and funding
Some time ago Wipro recognized that the service industry is changing very profoundly, and a significant secular driver of the change is new automation technologies that allow customers to automate a dramatically higher number of services than has been automated in the past. They took concrete steps to address this change.
They recognized not only the customer impact of implement automation in their workflow but also the impact to the service provider. Over time, the value will be captured by the automation owner, not by the service provider. Therefore, Wipro decided to invest in owning its automation IP – and that involves not just funding the initial build but also ongoing investments.
That’s not to say that when Wipro deploys automation in their accounts they will employ exclusively their own IP, but they recognize the need for a significant portion being their own IP.
Step two: stepping up the pace
Wipro allocated a large, dedicated team into building its automation platform, which they named HOLMES. But unlike some other providers, they extensively used open source software to get a head start and then layered in their own development on top of the open source component. This allowed them to move quickly in bringing compelling functionality to the marketplace.
Step three: executive preparation for internal disruption
The third aspect of Wipro’s automation strategy is their commitment from CEO TK Kurien on down through the leadership ranks to bring this to the marketplace. TK and senior leadership are committed to take this service delivery capability into their existing client base as well as use the automation platform as a challenger to gain new share in the market.
I believe bringing automation into their existing client base will be the most challenging endeavor, and they acknowledge that it will be disruptive and may be cannibalistic to their revenue flows.
We await to see how they handle such disruption. The details revealed to me were somewhat vague as to how they will realign their incentives to allow their account teams to do this. But certainly the executive commitment is such that it’s possible they will take the necessary steps to make incentive changes.
They are preparing for the inevitable disruption that will accompany the drive to become a leader in automated service delivery.