IT Services 4.0 finding the new age magic potion to business success! Date:   Monday , March 05, 2012 Prelude Just where do you think the global IT Services industry is headed? This seems to be a dilemma that’s perturbing every other IT Services provider, more so the mid-size companies. Triggered by a shaky economic scenario in Europe and given the uncertainty on IT spends in the U.S., many corporates are wondering if the industry is headed towards an extended period of uncertainty. In such a capricious economic scenario, what should an IT Services company do to survive – or even better, thrive? Having braved many storms over the years, it’s fair to say the IT Services industry is resilient enough to overcome such temporary downturns of the economy. It has evolved significantly over time; if anything, it has only emerged stronger over the years. This is quite evident and is reflected in the heightened focus companies place on creating value for customers – by becoming integrated with the core operations of a client’s business and simultaneously delivering on predefined parameters like quality, robustness, reliability and the like in an optimal fashion. From the traditional, pure cost savings led off-shoring model to more progressive models that are widespread, there has been a sea change in IT Services delivery models today – be it performance driven, pay-per-use or an onsite-offshore-onshore/near shore mix. Current landscape Due to the burgeoning role of technology in business, IT is seen today as a key business enabler and hence, organizations can no longer afford to have a siloed IT organization. With business becoming more demanding, IT needs to be flexible to meet the ever changing business expectations. New age CIOs’ approach towards IT is fundamentally different compared to that of their predecessors. Having said this, the shaky economic landscape has brought about a new wave of cautious spending by enterprises globally. Unmistakeably, enterprises are demanding more 'bang for the buck', more so when it comes to their IT spends. Companies are willing to invest in IT as long as they see strong merits in investing, with a clear perspective on the kind of returns they can expect. In today’s world, companies will continue to spend on IT if it helps broaden their reach into new markets, achieve considerable increase in productivity or attain higher customer satisfaction. Collaborative client engagement is the order of the day. It has become quintessential for an IT Services company to be fully integrated with a client’s business drivers, paving the way for a truly collaborative model of engagement. A 'Customer First' culture drives flexibility, viz, the willingness to adapt to client's context and fosters a partnership model, which creates a win-win scenario for both the client and the service provider. Technology trends that will drive IT Services companies to push the boundaries of innovation With companies recognizing the ‘business value of speed’, Mobility will become an extremely critical element of an enterprise’s core business strategy in the next few years. Thanks to people adopting the latest mobile devices to stay connected, Enterprise Mobility is redefining the way we live, do business and connect with the world around us. Industry analysts estimate that by 2015, the world's mobile worker population will reach a whopping 1.3 billion, representing 37.2 percent of the total workforce! Mobility solutions will empower an organization to facilitate employees’ access to enterprise data, information, processes and applications on any mobile device, anytime. From a holistic perspective, implementing mobility solutions not only result in improving the productivity of today’s increasingly mobile workforce; it will also enable faster decision making, boosting an organization’s operational yield by refining the broader business processes. While there has been a lot of talk about Cloud computing for the last few years, the ground reality is totally surprising when it comes to actual adoption. As a concept, it will continue to fascinate enterprises – big and small – as the industry embraces it in different forms. Thanks to better cloud management practices, data security concerns are slowly getting alleviated. It is a matter of time before public, private and hybrid cloud environments emerge as one of the most sought after means of managing an organization’s data. Sharing information within an organization is one of the most common instances of internal data management. Needless to say, this has led to an exponential increase in the volume of unstructured data floating around in various forms – Emails, Web Pages, Contracts, Records, Media and more. Organizations need to effectively address their content management requirements, thereby placing content management, collaboration and portals at the core of today's business priorities. According to leading analysts, traditional analytics is expected to eventually make way for real-time analytics. Such a paradigm will empower managers to use real-time data for quicker decision making and help them discover trends and patterns at a much faster rate. This will not only help in increasing the accuracy of analytical data; it also allows an organization to more easily adjust its planning based on consumer reactions. Thanks to the digital media onslaught, we can expect more and more companies to use Analytics to understand how efficiently their BI system is delivering value. Some industry experts also predict that analytics-as-a-service will be a trend to watch out for in the next few years. Industry outlook: A kaleidoscope The IT Services industry has reached an inflection point. New market dynamics – and thereby new drivers, are reshaping the fundamentals of how IT Services are delivered and consumed today. These have brought about new delivery models and frameworks that promise to improve the quality, predictability and value of services offerings. The advent of emerging technologies/paradigms like Mobility, Cloud Computing, Social Media progression and Analytics are posing an exciting challenge for IT Services companies. With clients viewing their IT portfolios in a more strategic and inclusive manner, this in fact is an opportune time for new age IT Services companies to evolve as a true partner – and showcase greater value and differentiation in their services. One way to do so is by leveraging such opportunities to boost their core competencies – win-win engagement/pricing models, adding new service lines integrated with clients’ business processes, IP led solutions and at the same time, improving all client-facing functions and the overarching value proposition, to name a few. In fact, their dexterity in emerging technologies is a key factor that will propel them to not just survive, but even thrive in the years to come – the current global economic uncertainty not withstanding! Established in 1991 and headquartered in New Jersey, Collabera is a CMMI Level-5, global, end-to-end information technology consulting, services and solutions company working with global 2000 and mid-market organizations across Financial Services, Communications, Media, Manufacturing, Retail, Energy and Utilities domains.