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as the IT industry is going through a transformation, one can
definitely see a kind of evolution amongst the solution providers.
From being mere channel partners, they have moved on to become system
integrators or rather 'new age solution providers.' But what
differentiates new age SPs from their earlier 'avatar'-let's
try to find out the criterion that defines new age solution
providers. If taken a look at their different operational matrices
and the sort of changes these have brought in their businesses, it
will be found that their whole business model has undergone a sea
change in the manner in which they handle operations-be it their
marketing activities, finance management, or even managing their
manpower resources. One could really see some kind of operational
transformation taking place at one level or the other. In fact, the
whole business outlook of these SPs has changed. Rather than just
building up their business and making profits, they are now much more
keen on making their internal operational processes like finance, HR,
logistics, and marketing amongst others strong.
these new age SPs have realized the fact that if they have to run
their businesses successfully, then they have to make all these
internal operational modules extremely strong. Nitin Shah, CEO,
Allied Digital and also an industry veteran who has moved on from
being just a solution provider to a system integrator said, “Since,
we operate in a highly competitive marketplace, we must ensure that
each of the internal operational processes is kept abreast with the
ongoing changes as per today's industry standard. We should not
leave any single module weak otherwise it might prove disastrous for
the company in long run. Business is all about making profits and if
you fail to align yourself with ongoing changes in the market
dynamics, your profitability will certainly go down in long run.
“Furthermore, in order to be termed as a new age SP, one has to
first look at his own organization and the products that he offers to
the marketplace. Then he should analyze the market dynamics in terms
of how it is changing. And as the industry is moving towards more and
more consolidation, he has to be also prepared to re-invent and
re-focus himself so that he does not lag behind in this competitive
race.
Mehta, CEO, Zest Systems, is of the opinion that as a new age SP, he
believes in keeping long-term relationships with customers and
adopting a proactive approach in providing services to the customers.
Besides, the manpower is any company's biggest asset and one has to
put in best of the efforts to retain them. One shouldn't blindly
follow the transformational changes; instead he should first analyze
whether his DNA supports that change or not and how best he can
prepare himself for that change. Unlike their earlier avatar, these
new age SPs have also realized that the middle management is
reluctant to any kind of change as compared to the top management.
And that's why they ensure that any message should percolate
through a proper channel to the middle management so that they start
accepting any change more proactively, and thus, embrace it whole
heartedly. Sharing his experience, Benly Noronha, CEO, Nortech
Infonet, highlighted, “This was a personal challenge for me wherein
I convinced my partners about the transformational changes, carry the
same message down the line, and get best of the results out of them.
However, it was a very slow process, as it took us almost two years
to bring changes at all the levels of our management. Nonetheless,
today we are reaping the benefits of bringing in transformational
changes in our business operations.” Emphasizing on the importance
of operational skill sets and excellence which is very much necessary
for dealing with any transformational change, RS Shanbhag, CEO, Value
Point Systems said, “For me, accepting any change does not mean
transforming only the business processes or organization at large. It
means bringing transformation within me as well. Today, I can proudly
say that ours is the most transformed organization because each and
every employee understands his role and responsibilities, know what
his/her KRAs are and that has brought a full discipline and a
thorough professionalism within the whole organization.”
these new age SPs have also learnt the art to deal with any kind of
challenges that they encounter in their day-to-day operations. For
example, post the economic turmoil, they began identifying whether
they were ready to adapt to the new challenges and then come out with
solutions to tackle them. Besides, they have also realized that they
need to use and bank upon your expertise and experience in order to
understand not only their clients but their businesses as well. The
areas where we are seeing maximum changes happening are automation of
service delivery mechanism in terms of changes in SLAs and changes in
service delivery mode, geographical expansion in terms of looking at
global opportunities and dealing with challenges at global
marketplace, and looking at newer opportunities in the domestic
market like government sector, education segment and others. Pawan
Khurana, CEO, Quantm Net Technologies, highlighted,” If you have to
remain one step ahead of competition then you have to envisage those
changes and be totally geared for it. Like for example, we envisaged
the impact of cloud computing long way back and today, we can proudly
say that we are first ones to have our own cloud computing offering
and a datacenter. Here, we can say that with its own datacenter, a SI
leverages the liberty of designing the offerings, create various
flavors in collaboration with different applications and software,
build the cloud in offering mode, deploy the applications, build the
fulfillment models, prepare the menu card, and nurture the
infrastructure. Besides, the SI can package the offering, build the
reseller, and target the industry vertical rather than depending on
any other partner's competency. So, change is imperative and if you
deny it, the result can be disastrous. These SPs are following both
reactive and proactive approach to enter into new geographies. They
are continuously exploring various opportunities in different parts
of the globe and would enter into a particular geography if they see
justified business sense. However, establishing a brand and building
referenceability in a new market poses a big challenge for these new
age SPs. Anil Kumar TV, CEO, Dhanush Infosol, further reiterated that
today, as solution providers we all are going to the overseas market
and doing great business with global companies but we should not
forget that there is a plethora of opportunities in the domestic
market as well. We need to exploit all these opportunities at the
earliest. So, dealing with transformational changes also requires
dealing with newer opportunities. Meanwhile, in his advice to the new
age SPs, Girish Krishnamurthy, CEO, Kaseya, said, “You need to have
net cash flow in your hand in order to make those changes really
happen at your organization level. And most of the cash flow comes
from the operational activity. So, the operational cash flow will
directly lead to your profitability. This is the biggest problem area
that each of the individual companies need to identify before they
embark on any opportunity coming their way.”