Source: tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com
Tech Mahindra plans to cut service delivery time for clients by reusing some standard components it has built up over the years. The move is expected to improve its productivity and margins, a senior executive said.
Tech Mahindra, among the top five Indian IT services exporters, has been building a library of project-specific intellectual property on a common platform over the past few years.
“You have to build IP to gain value and bring in knowledge in a reusable fashion. It has been happening with libraries, but not with end-to-end outcomes. So, out of 20 CRM projects, if the top five are repeated, can I cull out that knowledge so that the next project can be rolled out faster?” Abhijit Lahiri, head of new age delivery at Tech Mahindra, said.
At the base of this system is a central microservices portfolio enabled service, which is built upon microservices and open architecture. It connects six other marketplaces, which together forms the basis of the new system. These are upskilling as a service, capability as a service, digital inside continuous delivery, design thinking as a service and active workplace programme.
The company hopes to reduce time
to market and improve margins, and do more with the same number of resources or people.
Building IP is a key step towards that, increasingly important as contract values across the industry start moving down.
Once a particular software has been delivered, it becomes easier to replicate it on another project, with only the project specific customisation needing to be done separately.
“The biggest advantage is that you’ve already delivered the software and know what works. And then can build on that,” Lahiri said.
The company has already started shifting programs to this platform, which then learns from the available data and throws up trends on the overall marketplace.
“Everything we do to win a bid or project is captured in some form continuously by the AI engine, which then also forecasts what we need and what portfolio is running faster in the market,” he said.
This information can then be communicated to the sales team and help them pitch better for projects.
The company will face some challenges, including convincing clients to share IP, but says customers from non-competing industries could even stand to benefit through knowledge sharing.
