Overcoming the Challenges Faced by Global Systems Integrators

Digital transformation and customer experience are on the priority list of enterprises, globally. For which,enterprises are either looking to start afresh or are in the process of replacing their legacy IT systems. Also, there is a steady increase in focus on outsourced services, managed services, application/solution deployment, consulting and advisory services. All this translates into a huge opportunity for the global system integrators (GSIs) who don the hat of enabling digital transformation and customers’ journeys for their clients and prospects.

The opportunities are immense, which means that the GSIs being the knowledge-based consultants need to keep pace with the rapidly evolving technology landscape.

To ensure coordination and interoperability between the client’s legacy systems and the vendor’s new systems, the GSIs need to keep working on the capability enhancement of their workforce and empower them with specialised skill sets. Let’s go through some of the common challenges that GSIs face –

Choosing the right vendor: GSIs constantly keep working towards fulfilling their clients’ technology requirements and choosing the right vendor tops their to-do lists. It is a monumental task as it is not just about the right product or solution but also the fact that the synergy and business strategies of the vendor and the client should coincide.

Maintenance: There is a substantial cost that is associated with training and maintaining a team of individuals with the right product and domain knowledge. Without a regular inflow of business, there is a fear of the team getting dismantled. In such a case, attrition poses a big problem as it hampers the process of knowledge transfer and training.

Agility: Technology, generally, does not have a long shelf life. Hyperconverged systems and artificial intelligence have not achieved the kind of success that was anticipated. On the other hand, robotics, business process management (BPM), and cloud-based solutions have been in the limelight.

This means that in the era of digital, every technology has a certain lifecycle. Enterprises must be agile enough to foresee and counter this trend.

Here are 5 tips for GSIs that can help them counter these challenges and maintain their reputation as a trusted advisor for their clients -

• Terms and Conditions: The commercials while stitching a deal is possibly the most important facet of a successfully executed project. Cost of finance, delivery milestones, payment terms, liquidated damages terms are few of the parameters against which a prospective project should be evaluated.

So, the ground rule is to be thorough with all the terms and conditions from the very beginning.

• Expansion: From a territory development perspective, one must hold on to their captive accounts while trying to penetrate into new accounts. It is easier to sell to an existing account, than creating a new account.

A consultative cross-selling consultative approach is the key here. 

• Consolidation and Scalability: From a technology standpoint, one must consolidate all applications to provide a solution that not only suffices the clients’ needs but is also scalable to cater to their future requirements. A BPM platform that provides a unified framework should be preferred over individual solutions that automate only one process at a time. This solves the purpose of simplifying the execution of process automation.

The need of the hour is a low code solution that can be replicated on multiple client sides without much deviation.

• Prototypes: Another way in which GSIs can stay ahead of the curve is to create prototypes that can help the customers understand how the solution will help resolve complex business problems. Customers manytimes find it difficult to visualize a given solution. The problem becomes complex when almost every vendor competing in the marketplace claims to have a solution, which in most cases exist only in business presentations.

A technology partner who can show some glimpse of this solution in the form of a prototype or proof of technology has a better probability of emerging as a winner.

• Continuous Innovation: To stay relevant, the GSIs need to keep exploring new markets and align with vendors that are at the forefront of innovation.

A large system integrator, if involved in a turnkey project, should delegate the requisite services to the smaller players and focus on their core competencies.

Recapitulation

GSIs utilise proven methodologies to configure systems, deploy business processes, and manage large-scale programs.To get a larger share of the market, GSIs should focus on their core competencies, and have various checks and balances in place while creating a business strategy that can be replicated in various geographies.

--Manojit Majumdar, Vice President, Channels,   Newgen Software Technologies