<\/a><\/p>\nFrancisco D'Souza, President and CEO of Cognizant (Click for bio)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In this virtualized, globalized environment where new technologies like cloud computing and social networks intersect with the millennial generation, clients are looking for better ways to organize teams, cultivate innovation, allocate resources and reinvent knowledge processes. This is how we define the Future of Work.<\/p>\n
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To illustrate how we\u2019re gearing up to support clients, let me use two examples. The first example relates to a new class of \u201cBusiness Process as a Service\u201d (BPaaS) outsourcing solutions. Through the investment in new services that I mentioned earlier, Cognizant can provide clients with a fully integrated solution including IT infrastructure, applications and business process outsourcing to solve a specific business or functional problem. The client pays for the outcome and, generally, does so on a transactional basis. This model appeals to a client base that\u2019s looking to replace fixed capital expense with variable operating costs that scale with demand.<\/p>\n
An example of this is the work we are doing at Eli Lilly & Company, where Cognizant is deploying a comprehensive BPaaS solution to support US sales and marketing operations. Our solution covers a range of functions such as sales force planning, sales incentive compensation, customer relationship management, business reporting, data warehousing, analytics and state compliance reporting. We are excited about expanding our portfolio of solutions aligned to these unfolding secular changes.<\/p>\n
A second example where we are geared up to help clients is in the adoption of new technologies to improve employee and customer experiences. Today, technology expectations are increasingly being shaped by the consumer world where sleek smartphones, always-on broadband, and boundless virtual personal interactions are the norm. Yet in the corporate world, the technology environment is far different. Clients recognize that the chasm between the state of technology in the consumer and corporate worlds is unsustainable and they are investing to bridge the gap.<\/p>\n
We recently developed a mobile application for a global consumer products company that allows delivery personnel to collect competitive intelligence about product placement in retail stores. The application captures information about where competitors\u2019 products are placed in each store, the amount of space they are allotted, and a qualitative opinion of how their own placement stacks up. Once analyzed, this information \u2013 which was previously not captured \u2013 provides valuable input to promotional decisions.<\/p>\n
We increasingly see clients conducting pilots in areas around the Future of Work. While still early days, we are convinced that we are witnessing another large inflection point in the technology industry which will be a significant revenue opportunity in the long term. Our investments in creating practice areas around mobile computing, Cloud computing, social networking and a host of other areas position us well to take advantage of the opportunities raised by the future of work as this market opportunity unfolds over the coming years.<\/p>\n
HfS Research: <\/strong>Your peer at HCL recently declared<\/a> that private Cloud is \u201coverhyped\u201d (ahem) and will struggle to make a real impact. Other providers are jumping on the bandwagon and puffing up the marketing-volume, but many are guilty of defining it incorrectly and confusing the market. What\u2019s your take on the whole thing \u2013 isn\u2019t the Cloud a threat to the core offshore business model? India is branded as a good value location where you will get lower cost reliable services, however, doesn\u2019t the \u2018Cloud\u2019 concept dilute the Indian brand\u2026e.g., Come to the Cloud, which can be anywhere, not just India and get affordable, reliable, on demand services\u2026.any concerns?<\/span><\/p>\nFrancisco D\u2019Souza: <\/strong>Cloud computing represents a profound paradigm change in the way computing is delivered to end users. I would argue that the impact that Cloud will have on enterprises will be more profound than the impact of the client\/server and Internet paradigm shifts. And while it\u2019s true that there\u2019s a lot of hype out there about the Cloud, we should not let the hype obscure the business value that cloud will increasingly deliver as the underlying technologies become more robust, secure and industrial strength.<\/p>\nHaving said that, I see the Cloud as accretive to the offshore business model; it is not at all dilutive. Businesses are becoming more technology intensive \u2013 not less. So our clients will continue to need access to the best talent \u2013 regardless of where that talent is located. We view ourselves as a global service provider, not an Indian service provider. We are continually expanding our delivery network in to new geographies where we can tap in to world-class resources. There is no doubt that India is and will continue to be an incredibly important pool of talent, but by no means is it our only focus.<\/p>\n
HfS Research: <\/strong>Clearly, these are the hyper-growth years for the offshore-centric services business, but we all know this growth can\u2019t be sustained at such an intense pace for much longer. How does the offshore IT\/BPO industry need to adapt to continue to be successful \u2013 where do the winning firms need to invest? Can everyone win out, or do you see only a few of the leading providers really staying the course?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\nFrancisco D\u2019Souza:<\/strong> As I mentioned earlier, there is a considerable amount of opportunity in the market. IT and BPO services represent a large market that remains very underpenetrated by offshore providers. This is especially true as companies rely even more on new technologies and expand the scope of services that they outsource to parlay the efficiency and effectiveness gains they see from IT into new domains. Having said that, I expect growth rates will inevitably slow as companies face the impact of the \u201claw of large numbers\u201d.<\/p>\nFrom a competitive standpoint, the model is changing. Labor arbitrage has become mainstream requiring providers to innovate and push the envelope to stay in front of evolving client demand. Companies that don\u2019t will struggle to remain relevant. At Cognizant, our reinvestment approach has ensured we sustain our relevance. We are focused on new services \u2013 like Engineering & Manufacturing and Enterprise Analytics, delivering complex transformational engagements, and innovating new offerings driven by the Future of Work \u2013 such as BPaaS delivery models.<\/p>\n
Stay tuned for Part II<\/a> coming soon…<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cognizant had an unprecedenced growth spurt in 2010, \u00a0attaining annual revenues of $4.59 billion – up 40% year-over-year. We have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,51,81,88],"tags":[335],"ppma_author":[19],"yoast_head":"\n
Frank's still Frank: Cognizant CEO Francisco D\u2019Souza talks to HfS about his 40% growth year - Horses for Sources | No Boundaries<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n