Monthly Archive:: February 2017

The Impact of New Digital Business Models on IT Services

Suddenly, on-shoring is becoming more in vogue. Like many U.S. CIOs and their C-suite colleagues, you may be actively exploring how to duplicate or offset the loss of cost benefits from offshore/labor-arbitrage services. I have good news for you, along with a crucial tip. Four primary factors are driving U.S. companies to make the

Big Shifts at 2017 NASSCOM India Leadership Forum

I think the annual NASSCOM conference is always a great time. I get to catch up with old friends, at least one-third of the Indian service providers industry’s leadership attends and it’s an insightful venue for capturing the mood of the industry’s providers. This year the mood was more somber and more reflective than

How to Evaluate Your Service Providers in 2017

In a video discussion, General Electric’s CEO Jeff Immelt discussed digital transformation and stated that companies must “either embrace the future or you’ll find yourself not able to satisfy your customers.” Third-party IT and business service providers also face a changing market and are taking steps to align themselves with the new business realities

The Cognizant Dilemma

A very public debate has been taking place between Cognizant and Elliot Management Corp – the activist investor that bought a $1.4 billion stake in Cognizant a year ago. Effectively, Elliot has actively sought to alter the course Cognizant’s board has taken for dealing with the changing situation in the IT services industry. As

The Infosys Dilemma

Is Infosys moving in the right direction? At the end of 2014, I blogged that Vishal Sikka, who had been on board as CEO and MD only a few months, had made an effective start in reshaping the company’s strategy. In Q1 2015, I blogged about how Infosys was aligning with the digital direction

Stepping Back from Globalization and Offshoring

A sea change is starting because of digital technologies. The impact as companies apply these technologies to their business will be massive – much bigger than the Industrial Revolution with the invention of the loom for manufacturing clothing and Ford inventing the production for manufacturing automobiles. Everyone has been talking for some time about

Digital Models Change the Location of Call Center and Finance / Accounting Work

Leading companies are re-imagining their call centers and customer experience to integrate digital models into their voice models. Work volumes are shifting from voice call centers into new channels such as chat apps, email, tweets and other social channels. Companies are adopting these new ways of communicating with customers and integrating them into their

How to avoid Hitting a Wall in a Digital Transformation

I recently spoke with Alexandre Pereira, Global CIO at Vale, a Brazilian multinational mining company, who told me about a conversation with one of the company’s business leaders when they considered launching a transformation initiative. The executive asked Alex, “Why do cars have brakes?” The answer: “It allows cars to go faster.” When it

Companies Face A Deal They Can’t Refuse

Just a month into 2017, the acceptability sentiment toward sending work offshore has changed. Companies are increasingly eager to explore ways to do work onshore which they would otherwise do offshore or is currently offshore. The question is how to do that without creating a negative cost impact. A wide variety of factors are

Shedding Light on Proposed High-Wage Immigration Changes

Although US immigration reform is front and center in the media since the Trump administration took office, the US Congress has debated the need to change immigration legislation for years and has introduced significant proposals since 2013. An integral component is the H-1B work visas heavily used in the global services industry. Right now,