Innovation in Indian IT & BPO

NASSCOM Innovation Forum

Dr. Ganesh Natarajan

Dy. Chairman & MD

Zensar Technologies Ltd.

 What exactly is Innovation ?
• Change that creates a new dimension of performance – Peter
Drucker

• The profitable implementation of strategic creativity – Elaine Dundon

• In order for something to qualify as a true innovation, it should

simultaneously meet three basic criteria. It must:
–Engage a creative process
–Be distinctive
–Yield a measurable impact
Eric Chen and Kathryn Kai-Ling Ho – Capgemini Center for
Business Innovation

• Innovation = Big Idea = Eraser mania, Michelangelos all,

Organizers not employers, Beautiful Systems, Branding mania,
Talent based enterprise, Design is it!, Great service, passion –
Tom Peters, Circle of Innovation
Is the Indian IT services and BPO
industry becoming a
commoditized sector – can
innovation make a difference
 The Innovation Imperative…IT

1. Commoditization of IT
– IT’s power is outstripping most of the business needs it fulfills
– The price of essential IT functionality has dropped to the point where it
is more or less affordable to all
– The capacity of the universal distribution network (the Internet) has
caught up with demand, we already have considerably more fiber-optic
capacity than we need

2. Ease of implementation
– Vanilla IT implementation becoming increasingly tool driven and
less technical (less technology skill dependent and more
functional expertise dependent)

3. India Advantage of cost arbitrage to Indian IT services

firms being eroded
Innovation@Zensar …
 Key Challenges
• Flight to Scale
• Galloping Manpower Costs
• Increasing investments in Infrastructure
• Customer Retention
• Customer Acquisition
• People Retention.
 Innovation : Technology Framework
Solution BluePrint – Our Innovative Framework
Standard Processes and Practices

Matrix Guidelines
Repository
B Vertical Specific BluePrints Foundation
U Solution Patterns Library
S S
I O
N L
Platform1
E Requirements Design Development Testing Deployment U
Study T
S
S Platform2 I
O
Visual Modeling Tools
Profiling & Code
Testing Documentation Tools N
N Generation Tools
Tools
E
E Set of Tools
D Matrix Guidelines
Standard Processes and Practices
 Innovation : Automation
Global Delivery Model using SBP

Customer Approval of Customer Sign-Off on

Order Order
Delivery Hub Running ERP/SBP

Order Entry Order Complete

Order
Processing

Req.
Design Develop Test
Analysis

Requirement capture in
BPMN by Domain Expert

Code Generation at
Central Location
Distributed Tool based
Distributed UML Based Design Testing
 The Results of innovation
• Flight to Scale – Zensar emerging among the best of
Tier 2 choices.
• Galloping Manpower Costs – Technology Intensity of
SBP solutions.
• Increasing investments in Infrastructure – Global
Delivery Model minimizes Brick & Mortar
• Customer Retention – Successive successes with
CISCO, NGT , M&S etc..
• Customer Acquisition – Significant successes with new
practices & frameworks
• People Retention – Managerial Attrition in single digits –
building architects rather than plumbers.
 Areas of value-add in the BPO sector
• Innovative ideas on how to enhance operations, reduce operation
costs, improve IT performance and streamline processes as part of
their normal expectations

• Provide new technologies and intellectual property that would

enhance business processes, especially for BPO

• Provide innovation in business models, such as carve-outs or joint

ventures

• Have payment plans based on project outcomes and business

performance (for example, increases in profitability or reduction on
claims processing costs) that benefit for both parties

• Innovative retention strategies in BPO

• Innovative client-based partnerships

NASSCOM IT innovation forum:

Showcasing Innovative Emerging

companies

(28th November 05’ Bangalore)

 Innovation forum : Key Objectives
• To honor the Indian IT companies who have injected
innovation into existing know-how and have come up with
new ideas, products, processes or technologies that
enable the business to achieve higher margins and thus
profits to re-invest in the business.
• NASSCOM is searching for excellence and innovation
from the emerging company segment
• NASSCOM will identify these emerging companies,
assess their business models, their focus areas and
specializations and provide them with a platform where
they can talk about their achievements
 Activities done in FY 05
• Showcased 6 companies ’04 finalists at the NASSCOM 2005 –
India Leadership Forum
• Mentoring offered by Industry leaders to the Finalists companies
• Innovative companies delegation was taken to Australia to explore
partnerships with Australian companies
• Brainstorming sessions with focused groups in Delhi, Pune &
Bangalore
• Formed a sub-committee on innovation in R&d, BPO and IT
services
• Conducted IT Innovation Roadshows
– IT Innovation in IT Services & BPO – Delhi, Mumbai & Hyderabad
– IT Innovation in R&D – Bangalore
– IT innovation in India-Chennai
Methodologies
• Nominations were invited from Indian IT companies
which feel that their work is worthy of recognition.
• Entries were invited in the following categories
– Products/IPR, Services, ITES-BPO, R&D
– Company size : < than 50 crores, 50-100 crores and >than 100
crores

Roll out
• Mailer to members
• Telemarketing
• Mailing to Non-member databases
• Ad in Economic Times
AD in Economic Times
Criterion for shortlisting the companies
• Original IP Creation
• Install base for Products
• Revenue from IP
• Potential of the IP

Responses from All India

• 136 companies participated in the Innovation Awards 2005

– Bangalore – 36
– NCR - 27
– Mumbai/Pune – 25
– Chennai – 16
– Hyderabad -14
– Rest of India -18

>>Short listed 20 companies from all over India

Emerging Companies Showcase
Pune – 21st November ‘05
• AccelTree Software Private Limited – Pune
• Jopasana Software & Systems Pvt Ltd -Pune
• Micro Technologies (India) Ltd – Mumbai
• rapidEffect (p) Ltd – Pune
• SoftDEL Systems Ltd - Mumbai 

Bangalore – 28th November ’05

• CG-Smith Software Pvt Limited – Bangalore
• Bangalore Softsell – Bangalore
• Encore Software Limited – Bangalore
• Skelta Software – Bangalore
• Subex Systems Limited - Bangalore
Emerging Companies Showcase
Hyderabad – 5th December ’05
• Java Softech Pvt Ltd – Hyderabad
• Midas Communication Technologies Pvt Ltd -
Chennai
• Ocimum Biosolutions Limited – Hyderabad
• SatNav Technologies Pvt Ltd – Hyderabad
• YASU Technologies Pvt Ltd - Hyderabad
Delhi – 9th December ’05
–All India Society for Electronics and Computer
Technology (AISECT) – Bhopal
–CASH-Tech Solutions – Pune
–Intellicus Technologies Inc – Noida
–Kiami Softwares Private Limited - New Delhi
–Wifin Technologies (India) Private Limited - Coimbatore 
6 companies to be shortlisted in the Large
company group which will be showcased on
22nd December ‘06 in Mumbai
 Panel Members
• Ganesh Natarajan – CEO, Zensar Technologies & Chair -
Innovation forum
• Dr. Bob Hoekstra, CEO, Philips Software Centre & Co-
Chair Innovation forum
• Anil Bakht, Chairman & MD, Eastern Software Systems
• Kiranbir Nag - Partner, SVB India Advisors Private Ltd
• Sanjay Anandram – Founding Partner, JumpStartup
• Prof. S. Sadagopan – Director, IIIT, Bangalore
• Arman Zaand, -Partner SVB India Advisors Private Ltd
 Going Forward
• Shortlisted companies will be profiled on the NASSCOM web site,
Newsletters, etc
• 6 shortlisted companies all over India will get an opportunity to present at
NASSCOM 2006-India Leadership forum in Mumbai
• VC and Industry mentoring will be offered to shortlisted companies.
• Mentoring will also be provided by academia
• Wide Media coverage
• We will continue to support and shortlist emerging companies and offer
visibility
• Innovative companies to be featured in the IT Innovation booklet which
will be launched at NASSCOM 2006-India Leadership forum in Mumbai
• Finalists to be awarded at the NASSCOM 2006-India Leadership forum
in Mumbai
• Tie-up with Intel, Microsoft to do focused activities
How do you build a culture of
innovation
 Innovation Factory
Innovation Factory = Innovation Culture +
Innovation System

• INNOVATION CULTURE: A set of values and behavioral

factors that are designed to bring out the tremendous
curiosity, creativity and human urge to experiment and
improve things. It ensures collaboration, team work, and
motivation

• INNOVATION SYSTEM: An integrated set of processes,

policies and tools that link corporate strategy to new
sources of value (products, services and processes) in
order to create sustainable competitive advantage
• Building organization wide innovation culture will
be the only sustainable growth strategy of the
future, any success NOT driven by
organizational innovation capacity will either be
a lucky coincidence or a temporary arbitrage
opportunity

• MACROCULTURE

• MICROCULTURE   

The real work of innovation is in the

transformation of culture…
 Seven Myths of Innovation
Myth
You need more ideas
Let people loose to innovate
Innovation is a department
Innovation is a radical
departure from the past
Mistakes are costly
Avoid the detours
Innovation is about creating
new things
Reality
You need more homes for
ideas
Enable people through
structure and process
Innovation is a company-wide
competency
Innovation often creatively
combines pieces of the past
Early mistakes are profitable
Detours may be the destination
There are many paths to
innovation
Innovation – Because the best way
to predict the future…

Is to invent it !

ganeshn@zensar.com