FUTURE TECHNOLOG
intelligence, automation and analytics.
With automation such an important part
of its new 3.0 approach, Tech Mahindra
decided to build its own platform called
AQT, rather than partner or use any other
vendor’s solution. “We took a step about
18 months back, when we started saying
if this is going to become a big part of
our business I do not want to partner
with anybody in this case. I want to build
my own IT and so, we built our own AI
engine,” explains Vyas.
In its second change-mantra
approach, Tech Mahindra recognises
there is a change process underway in an
organisation, but builds an urgency and
agility towards enabling the successful
completion of the change. Change-faster
requires the organisation to change its IT
architecture, where everything becomes as
a service, towards rewriting software in a
web-scale fashion. This brings in many of
the next generation platforms, including
super-agile, super DevOps, micro-services,
software defined, virtualisation, analytics
and open source among others.
“The need of the hour is that you
need to change so rapidly and so fast
that you are able to take advantage of the
opportunities that will come tomorrow
and the day after. The good news from
a trend tracking standpoint is we know
what is going to happen in the industry,”
comments Vyas.
The third growth-mantra approach
is the most difficult aspect of the 3.0
internal rejig, but the most exciting for
Tech Mahindra. As an Indian technology
services company born in the late 1980s,
to become actively involved in growing
the revenues of its customer operations
would have been once unthinkable. The
growth-mantra approach now looks at how
Tech Mahindra and its base of identified
partners, including technology vendors,
telecom service providers and carriers from
the communication industry, and other
disruptive technology players, can jointly
grow their revenues.
This involves new and innovative
approaches, including joint partnership
selling, where either party primes the
customer and requires bilateral reseller
agreements; co-creation where the costs
of innovation in the initial platform
development are shared, allowing further
innovation to be built on top; and being
involved in mergers and acquisitions across
the communication industry, where neither
technology platform of the players involved
is sufficiently suitable to build the valuation
of the new and emerging merged entity.
While run-better, change-faster
and grow form the three vertical pillars
supporting Tech Mahindra’s 3.0 internal
restructuring, there are also four horizontal
business platforms, gluing together the
complete foundation. These four horizontal
businesses include IoT and business
transformation, IT technology and digital
transformation, network services, and
The requirement
nowadays is
coming from
business and we
are committed
to the business
outcome rather
than the box that
we are installing.
Hani Nofal, Vice
President, Intelligent
Network Solutions,
Security and Mobility
at GBM.
operations. At present, Tech Mahindra’s
global customer base includes 220 telecom
service providers and 700 media and
entertainment companies.
First mover advantage
Help AG is a regional information security
services provider with various offerings,
including consulting, analysis, support,
integration and managed services. It has
the highest partner certification with
vendors Symantec, Blue Coat Systems,
Carbon Black, Pulse Secure and Tenable
among others. It also provides professional
and support services for vendors Palo
Alto Networks, F5 Networks and Infoblox
among others. Help AG entered the Middle
East region in 2004 and has since adopted
the approach of reinventing itself every few
years to stay ahead of the pack.
Explains Stephan Berner, CEO at Help
AG, “As an organisation, you always have
to make a decision: are you going to be the
one being part of the commodity business?
That means following the wagon train; or
are you the one leading the pack? Help AG,
like always, decides to lead in innovation
and in quality service delivery.” Berner
points out that two years from now, Help
AG will look completely different from
what it is at present. And what it is today
is also very different from what it was five
years ago.
When Help AG entered the region,
more than 10 years ago, it sold only
services for the first three years. A key part
of its opportunity matrix was, “Fixing the
mess other system integrators were putting
into place within an infrastructure by not
having the right skillset,” says Berner.
Help AG was so good at fixing the mess left
behind by other security solution providers
that end users started asking it to supply
vendor products as well.
Help AG’s decision to sell vendor
products and solutions, which provided
a healthy margin on both hardware
and software, as well as facilitating the
attachment of support services, has
created its product solution-related
business. But even in this area of
opportunity, Help AG does not address
the mass market, which is a reason why it
continues to remain highly profitable. “We
are focused and selective with whom we
are actually working,” says Berner.
As a first mover solution provider,
companies like Help AG have to be
deeply embedded within their end users
for almost six to 12 months before their
end users go to market rapidly with
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