Most enterprises are very much aware of the information hidden within their systems, but what perplexes them is the process of extracting it and converting the data into something meaningful, says Doug Mow, Senior Vice President-Marketing, Virtusa Corporation, US (www.virtusa.com).
Over the course of the past thirty to forty years large companies have built a large and complex portfolio of applications to support their businesses, he explains during the course of a recent interaction with Business Line.
Mergers, acquisitions, new product releases and new processes have created IT (information technology) environments rife with redundancy, complexity and outdated technologies, and very few have attempted to rationalise and consolidate the mess, rues Doug. “Somewhere in there is the information executives’ need to make informed decisions.”
Excerpts from the interview.
Contrary to popular thinking, you are of the view that IT is among the last to adapt itself to the reality of a global marketplace. Why so?
To put things in perspective, I look at more longstanding industries like garment, automotive and consumer products. I am also referring to the programming, application development and maintenance of enterprise applications, not hardware or commercial software.
The garment industry has sourced its components globally for decades. Buyers search the globe for the best sources of zippers, buttons, thread, fabric, and other pieces. The garments themselves are manufactured in another location altogether and then shipped to the consuming public.
If you think about the automotive industry, their parts are many levels deep. For example, the tires are made of components from many different countries; and then the cars are assembled in another. The dashboard contains screws, plastic and insulation from around the world.
Enterprise application development has traditionally been an IT initiative confined to corporate headquarters. Many issues caused this to be the case, including concerns over security and quality, resistance to change and proximity to the end user population.
On the other side, rising costs and a demand that far outstrips supply have motivated enterprises to seek alternatives. The prevalence of high speed telecommunications has mitigated the effects of time and distance and the creation of the Indian offshore industry has provided the catalyst necessary to make IT development truly global.
You have been watching the technology space for several decades. What are the trends you find in the adoption of technology solutions, across geographies and industries?
The most aggressive sectors to embrace technology are the US banking and financial services. In many ways, technology is their product. It is their early adoption of technology that has given us simple conveniences in life such as ATMs and home banking.
I remember as a youth having to bring my savings passbook to the bank to make a simple withdrawal. That seemed absurd since it was my money but I had to access it on their terms. When travelling in the 70s the accepted practice was travellers’ cheques. Now I use ATMs around the world for access to any currency.
Asia seems to be moving much faster in mobile technologies and Internet access. Some countries in Southeast Asia have the highest percentage of gamers and high speed online households.
And now, the pace is accelerating. The globalisation of trade and simple jet airplane travel has created a standard of technology integration that is pushing companies all over the world to offer new technology products and services.
Your views on Sri Lanka as an IT destination.
Sri Lanka has been a great place for Virtusa to have a strong IT delivery presence. Our people are extremely talented, world class. And the native environment is so friendly, open and inviting. The people are conscientious, yet gracious and fun loving. And, now that the long civil war is over, I think we will see a sharp increase in foreign investment. In fact, the NY Times travel section rates Sri Lanka the number one tourist destination for 2010. All of those things combine to make Sri Lanka a great place for us.
What are the challenges in making enterprises aware of the potential lying in their own data? Would you like to talk about your recent successes in this regard?
In think most enterprises are very much aware of the information hidden within their systems. What perplexes them is the process of extracting it and converting the data into something meaningful.
For example, we worked with a large consumer banking organisation. Their customers held a variety of products and services such as savings, checking, mortgage, credit card, home loan, auto loan and insurance. They could not see one consolidated view of the customer base.
For good customers, they could not detect patterns and trends that would help them sell customers new products and services to increase their “wallet share”. They could not offer to help customers consolidate debt and exposure to help them reduce their burdens. And, when the customers called for help, they had to transfer them to different agents who had access to different systems creating a very poor customer experience.
For customers in trouble, they could not evaluate risk. Customers that were falling behind in their auto payments would identify an increased risk profile. As a result, the banks wanted to start reducing credit limits and offering new ways to help them reduce their customers’ financial burden through counselling and consolidation. None of this was possible.
By rationalising and consolidating the underlying systems, identifying the sources of data and consolidating that into actionable information, the bank was able to save significant costs, reduce their risk exposure and improve their end clients’ experience. The very simple act of not sending credit card applications to customers who would never pass the credit test saved huge amounts of postal fees.
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