New wave in IT: Applications that power services delivery

The Global Services Delivery model is one of the most important developments over the last decade or so. We now see organizations seeking services and intellectual resources, and providers of these services delivering them; transacting without the limitations of geographical boundaries. Plum contracts seek the service provider who can offer the highest possible quality at the most attractive prices.

Increasingly, it is not just a matter of your core service offering or even price. The greatest differentiator today among different Service Centric Organizations is the degree of innovation displayed in the delivery model.

Service Centric Organizations need to demonstrate the reliability, innovation and efficiency in their project handling methodology. This includes good planning, measurable results, smooth interactions, knowledge management and quality compliance — in short, a perfect handle on all aspects of execution and collaboration.

As most of the high-end Service Centric Organizations are in the business of creating software or other knowledge intensive deliverables, one would expect them to create the best possible information systems to help them manage their service deliveries. However, in the course of our work in this area for the last many years, we are surprised time and again by the deficiencies in the delivery management systems.

Many companies that are creating sophisticated systems for global customers are themselves grappling with the unavailability of critical business data when it is needed the most. They are limited by not knowing how their resources are utilized, and are burdened with multiple systems that don't speak to each other. Most of these organizations are in the process of identifying which application would best suit their specific needs.

'Services Execution Management' is a specialized information system solution for managing a services business. This is an emerging space often referred to as SEM, in short.

Increasingly, it has become critical for the organization to find a suitable Services Execution Management solution. A good SEM solution provides all the critical business parameters to all those who need to view them. This information should be provided in real-time and across locations. Leveraging the web becomes an important vehicle on which this can be delivered.

At the heart of the SEM is effective project management: The ability to properly plan, execute and control projects. An SEM solution should help companies follow the CMM, ISO or other quality process as selected by them; and this process compliance should happen in tandem with project execution. Most importantly, there is a stakeholder collaboration platform that enables them to manage interactions and exceptions using 'Smart Business Metrics'.

Once this SEM solution is selected by the organization, it requires a high degree of commitment to implement it. This is often a major change management exercise. It takes time and dedication to go through with this. But we have repeatedly seen the exponential benefits that have accrued to organizations that have effectively deployed a good SEM.

We have worked with a global organization, which could standardize on project execution methodology in global development centers across geographies by using our system. We have worked with smaller companies, for whom our application is like a “company out of the box” — all the systems that they need to manage their operations. We have worked with knowledge organizations that have been able to increase productivity as they have better data on the status of their resources. SCO's have seen the advantage of moving to a single integrated system, and doing away with multiple applications that solve a part of the problem, but add to data migration and interface woes.

Services Execution Management solutions space has been growing steadily. Recent research reports predict that IT applications that are targeted to service organizations will grow at a much faster pace than those meant for manufacturing companies. This is to be expected, as economies around the world move towards a predominance of services. Services Execution Management solutions will be powering the services industry and the economy in the time to come.