Abstract

Faster time-to-market and a premium customer experience at each touchpoint in a customer lifecycle are the new tenets in the shift towards a digital business environment. Companies today, across industries, are looking at Next-Gen IT outsourcing partners who can not just help reduce total cost of ownership and improve operational efficiencies, but also enable them to succeed in this digital shift through provision of business focused IT and superior customer services.

Meeting Challenges of a DynamicMarket Landscape

Next-Gen Application Outsourcing is set toredefine IT amid changing business priorities

www.niit-tech.com

At the Heart of Next Gen Application

Outsourcing

Need for Next-Gen Application Outsourcing

Present-day businesses are working towards refining the customer experience even when in a constant state of disruption. Be it technological change, global uncertainty or customer expectation, businesses are trying to provide uninterrupted services across geographies.

The changing market landscape and customer needs are pushing businesses to reduce the time-to-market

and be extremely agile in delivery. This demands IT outsourcing vendors to not just offer traditional application development but also introduce new functionalities and capabilities in real-time.

The below diagram depicts the factors that are changing at the marketplace causing businesses to change the way they work. These are also critical drivers that are forcing IT vendors to move toNext-Gen Application Outsourcing.

Ecosystem for Next-Generation Application Outsourcing

Next-Gen Application Outsourcing is a complete ecosystem and is much more than a disruptive

technology. We believe that at the heart of Application Outsourcing lies Next-GenTechnology which is changing the way traditional Application Outsourcing has worked. Moving to Next-Gen Application Outsourcing requires ashift from conventional mindset across all aspects of IT engagement.

Changing Market Landscape Drivers for Next Gen AO Free budget for innovation IT as revenue driver

Improvement in customer response time Heightened competition

Partnership-based approach Focus on business value

User experience considered business value Seamless experience across customer journey

Respond to new initiatives (e.g. cloud, IoT, AI) Multiple technologies coming together to create disruptive models

Evolution of niche players such as FinTech and InsurTech Plug and play toolsets from specialist vendors

Cost Reduction Beyond Norms

Reduced Time-to-market

Business Focused IT

Superior Consumer Experience

Disruptive Technologies

Emergence of Niche Players

Below is the table depicting that how the mindset has changed across the IT Landscape.

Traditional Next-Gen Demand

Focus was on standardized processesProcess Today the demand is for faster time-to-marketand hence processes need to be more agile and automated

Focus was on building frameworks; traditionally different frameworks were used for Transition and Service Delivery of Infrastructure focused projects and for Application Development and Maintenance Projects

Frameworks With new efficiencies that can be driven from Total IT Outsourcing, which includes larger projects with complete Infrastructure/Applications and Operations, there is an imperative demand for Integrated Transition and Service Delivery frameworks with continuous improvement

Traditionally resources were sourced through tenders, contracts, and recruitment partners

Sourcing Today companies can get the required work done through conducting hackathons, crowd sourcing, and other unconventional methods

Traditional Next-Gen Demand

An IT vendor would seek company level alliances with prominent players only

Alliances Today IT vendors are seeking alliances with niche technology product companies and deal-based alliances

Rigid performance measures, Year-end appraisals were the norm

HR Today is the need for real-time feedback and changing models like Pay-for-Perform

Defined roles of developer, tester, and support with an engineering mindset

People Newer roles have emerged such as cybersecurity and today demand is for service with a product mindset

Delivering Next-Generation Application Outsourcing

NIIT Technologies has developed a six pillar Next-Gen Application Outsourcing framework which is future ready, automation-driven, and risk averse.

Conventionally, outsourcing has been the ‘go to’ strategy for reducing cost and improving business efficiency. In traditional outsourcing, vendors provide

only a specific service, such as business applications, operating systems and tools, or databases. A certain number of vendor employees’ work for apre-determined number of hours, per week or month to provide these technical services to the client. However, they do not necessarily help companies decide what else they can do to achieve business benefits.

In contrast, our Next-Gen Application Outsourcing framework enables clients to transform the businesses as per the changing environment. It is implemented in accordance with the need of the customer and digital

trends in the industry. This framework helps us to become strategic partners to the clients and assume the role of advising clients on solutions that will have a direct impact on their business.

Service CultureNew Ideas, More Value

Business Aligned ITDigital E3 – EmotionallyEmpathetic Experiences Global Agile

Integrated Team, Process and Technology

Partner Eco SystemDeal Based Alliances

Smart IT Scale Digital Agile Leadership Agile Leadership

3. Smart ITSmart IT is another pillar that moves away from the current model of Application Outsourcing. Smart IT allows us to be more effective and efficient in existing contracts and enables us to build a customer aligned proposition for new clients. There are five key areas where NIIT Technologies is building capability.

Automation to provide faster, cheaper, and better solutions and services. NIIT Technologies has a fully matured automation framework covering nine components of the IT lifecycle. These include Development, Test, Maintenance, Infrastructure, Service Desk, Performance Management, Business Processes, Robotic Processes, and Data Management.

Lean IT to optimize process, eliminate waste, and increase productivity of resources.

Business aligned IT to move from solving technology problems to business problems, by shifting focus from SLAs to BLAs.

New age commercial models ranging from time and material to fixed price to output/outcome based models.

Transformational application portfolio rationalization, legacy modernization and decommissioning, innovation labs, and digital maturity assessment.

This framework has six pillars, four of which are verticals and encompass the delivery components that are divided into Application Development and Application Maintenance, and two arehorizontal-focused, which cut across all IT services. The pillars incorporate a judicious blend of IT execution strategy and business strategy to ensure optimum level of transformation and service delivery in client engagements. These pillars and their respective elements are deployed and adapted to deliver a value proposition consistent with the needs of individual clients.

Each pillar with its components is described below:

1. Scale DigitalWith reduced time-to-market, faster product launches and enhanced competition, NIIT Technologies has a dedicated practice to constantly adopt, develop, and leverage Digital for our clients. Our Digital offering includes both horizontal capabilities and vertical-focused offerings. We are focusing on Digital Integration, Digital Experience, and Digital Analytics as three sub-offerings of Digital. On the digital landscape, new technologies are emerging while our current focus is on IoT, Mobility, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Business Process Management. Significant portion of our investments goes into continuously scaling these digital services.

2. Integrated DeliveryThe boundaries of Application, Infrastructure, and Operations teams are getting converged through the use of cloud environments and SaaS products. An increasing number of clients are looking for integrated contracts and one team which could support their entire IT landscape. NIIT Technologies acknowledges this fact and has invested considerably in development of integrated teams, processes, and frameworks in areas of transition, delivery, and continuous improvement. We have shared service centers and tooling investments for effective integration.

6. Partner EcosystemFor effective Next-Gen Application Outsourcing, it is critical for a system integrator to have relevant partnerships in place, which can enable them to meet the client requirements. NIIT Technologies has partnerships in place for PoC-based solution, ERP, Shared Services, Integrated Delivery, RPA, and application development across different technologies, verticals, and geographies.

Success Story 1: Streamlining Operations with a Flexible, Centralized System

NIIT Technologies partnered with a publicly held personal line insurer in the US to develop a flexible, centralized system for the commercial and personal lines agents to help them quickly access data on hand-held devices. The centralized system standardized and streamlined the client's processes—enriching the overall experience of the agents.

4. Agile LeadershipIn this world of ever-changing requirements, it is imperative to move from traditional waterfall methodology to an agile environment. NIIT Technologies is leader in agile delivery with its homegrown Global Agile framework as its backbone. Global Agile framework ensures speed, scale, and certainty to provide predictability for agile projects. We deliver agile projects ranging from fixed price to output-based (FP or story point), to outcome-based project. We have also adopted Kanban as a variant of Agile to support projects.

5. Service CultureNIIT 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 into our culture through our campaign Hi-5. We have adopted leading industry standards through programs like “Up Your Service,” “Ignite,” and “Inspire.” Using these initiatives, we help clients reduce cost and generate more revenue. This enables us to move to the role of a strategic partner for the client.

Success Story 3: Customized Regulatory Reporting System for a Leading Financial InstitutionThe client, a leading global financial institution, wanted strong data management capabilities and an automatic reporting system that could support the company’s analytics and decision-making capabilities. We created a single source of truth at the organization level for all management reporting and decision-making—delivering more value.

Success Story 2: Unlocking Agility in Data-Driven Business Processes for a Leading Asset Management FirmA leading asset management firm wanted to overcome the challenges of process inefficiencies, manual efforts in managing data, and lack of measurement framework. To help them deal with these challenges efficiently, we helped the client centralize operations, ensure data standardization and operational efficiency basis proprietary ProcessGymTM methodology, Knowledge Management framework, and Operational Excellence Center approach.

The NIIT Technologies Thought Board:Meeting Challenges of a Dynamic Market Landscape

What are Companies Looking for in a Next-gen IT Outsourcing Partner?

What are the Critical Drivers for Next-Gen Application Outsourcing?

Cost reduction beyond norms

Reduced time-to-market

Business focused IT

Superior customer

experience

Disruptive technologies

Emergence of niche players

Agile and automated processes

Integrated transition and

service delivery frameworks

Hackathons and

crowdsourcing

Alliances with niche

technology product

companies and

deal-based alliances

Real-time feedback and

changing models like

Pay-for-Perform

Cybersecurity Service with a product mindset

What do Organizations Demand from Next-Gen Application Outsourcing?

What are the Six Pillars of Next-Gen Application Outsourcing Framework?

Reduce total cost of ownership

The companies are looking for partners that can:

Improve operational efficiencies Swiftly do a digital shift

Scale Digital

Integrated Delivery

Smart IT

Agile Leadership

Service Culture

Partner Ecosystem

Road Ahead

The future belongs to the best-of-breed service providers who understand what their clients want and utilize latest technology to provide it, says a National Outsourcing Association (NOA) research. NIIT Technologies’ Next-Gen Application

About the Author

Deepti Mishra is a Presales Consultant with NIIT Technologies’ Service Design Group. She holds a 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’ in Service Design Group. She holds an Exec. 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.

Outsourcing framework will enable us to help clients align with dynamic market drivers. The framework is proven to deliver client's business priorities and provide effective solutions through services with a product mindset.

For more information, contact marketing@niit-tech.com

© 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 www.niit-tech.com

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