Infosys eyes closer integration of tech & BPO biz
SOURCE: EconomicTimes
DATE: Dec 31st, 2008
Mohit Soapbox:
The hard times are pushing vendors to better integrate their BPO and IT offerings. A # of the larger vendors in India have been offering BPO and IT services but they have kind of remained on parallel tracks. There is always been the push to integrate IT and BPO but seems like Infosys is doing this for real and will hopefully offer better integrated solutions to their clients. It does mean a potential reduction in overall ’seats’ as the article rightly points out but could be a better cost play for Infosys and better solution offering for the customers.
The challenge in integration though still remains at the customer sites where they currently have IT and Operations deparments both competing for reduced dollar pool and you still have two bosses – Operations head and IT heads to answer to in many instances. Again the economic situation is making firms revisit that model too.
ARTICLE
Infosys Technologies is looking at a closer integration between its technology and BPO businesses to beat the slowdown blues. The move is expected to maximise profits for the tech bellweather at a time when billing rates are under pressure and customers want more value for the same price.
Many senior executives have also moved from Infosys Tech to the BPO arm facilitating the intergration efforts. For instance, the knowledge services business unit of Infosys BPO is headed by a former Infosys Technologies executive. The vice-president and head of sales of Infosys BPO is also from Infosys Tech. Both communication and finance & accounting business units are also headed by former executives of Infosys Tech.
The BPO arm is now jointly working with IT on solutions, platform-based BPO and on transformation intiatives. Compared to plain-vanilla BPO services, where pricing is based on the number of seats per hour, these solutions are linked to outcomes and number of transactions. “Our strategy is if we can integrate technology and BPO, there is a big opportunity,” said Gopal Devanahalli, vice-president who heads the business unit focussed on communication service providers.
While most telecom providers have outsourced customer services and, to some extent, areas such as finance and accounting and human resources, Infosys BPO believes real profits are to be made from areas that directly impact the cost of revenues. These areas also require greater technology intervention and involve services such as fulfillment, assurance and billing.
Each BPO business unit is also now setting up a transformation cell which co-ordinates with both the BPO and technology arms to come up with ways that can result in gain for both the client and the company.
What makes this exercise interesting is that in some cases, the transformation intiatives targetted at automating some of the processes could result in lesser revenues in the short term because it reduces the number of seats for the BPO. “It may set us back in the short term but in the long term the breadth of the relationship with the customer expands. If you don’t do it today, somebody else will do it tomorrow,” said D. Swaminathan, senior vice-president, Infosys BPO. According to Mr Swaminathan, who has been with the BPO for over five years, it is now not about doing it better or cheaper but doing it differently.
Finacle, the core banking product of Infosys, is now offered by the BPO arm as a ‘bank-in-a-box’ solution, where services such as opening a customer account or linking two customer accounts are provided by the BPO. “Customers are given both options — they can opt for the product or the solution. In any case, many product companies are also moving from a licence fee-based model to a services-based model,” said Ritesh Idnani, member of the executive council of Infosys BPO. The two arms have also worked together on a solution for the media industry called, ‘newspaper-in-a-box’.
Related Posts
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
