We are living in an era of disruptive innovations driven by technology that’s constantly evolving and maturing at a staggering pace. Today, anyone who leverages a nascent technology trend can create a product or service that challenges traditional and established businesses. Uber is a much-cited example of disruptive innovation.

What is a nascent technology trend today, can tomorrow become so widely accepted and commonplace that it can displace established businesses and wipe out organisations that were slow to adapt. Kodak, a renowned name in film cameras, didn’t adapt to the digital trend and were soon taken out of business by the likes of Canon and Nikon.

Seismic shifts For organisations, investment in technology is a gamble unless they have done sufficient research about the trends that can impact their businesses in the foreseeable future. In this context, here are a few seismic shifts that are taking place in the IT services domain driven by customer demand and newer technologies.

1. Digital transformation is maturing beyond the experimentation stage

The early movers of digital transformation have now moved beyond the experimentation stage, and are making serious investments to digitise business processes and enhance consumer experiences. This has led to deal sizes becoming larger. Mindtree, being in this service domain, has itself seen deal sizes for digital transformation grow by 50 per cent in the first two quarters of this year. Therefore, digital transformation deals that are above the $2million-$5 million range will become a reality in 2016.

2. Faster turnaround leading to co-creation of solutions by customer and service provider

With changing dynamics, customers are demanding solutions that can be delivered quickly and from a location closer to them. Hence there is a challenge for IT service vendors to redesign their delivery engine. IT service providers have to turnaround a solution faster, and also seamlessly integrate the frontend to the customer’s existing backend applications for a better digital experience for the consumer.

This is where the service provider has to bring in the unique skill to move beyond the boundaries of the organisation and engage the customer in a problem-solving approach. This will require a mindset of collaboration, and will lead to solutions that have been co-created, wherein the intellectual properties are owned by the customers and the service providers.

3. Startups being adopted by larger companies

Startups are at least risk to adopt new technologies to create innovative solutions, while larger organisations will require a longer turnaround time to implement a new technology for a customer to deliver a solution. As customers seek faster delivery of solutions that are based on latest technology, more and more larger companies will go beyond corporate venture funding and partner with startups that have specialised in that particular niche technology to deliver the solution. Working jointly with smaller startups, larger companies can readily embed their innovative solutions into their customer offerings. Likewise, startups will get exposed to a customer base that was beyond their market reach.

4. 4G to drive faster consumer mobile apps

While everybody is talking about mobility and so on, the reason why 4G is going to make applications more consumable by an average consumer is because the ecosystem is already present — there are affordable faster devices to support 4G. And with correspondingly affordable prices of 4G, the adoption is bound to increase exponentially in 2016. And the proliferation of faster smartphones supporting faster mobile internet across the country at affordable prices will make mobile internet accessible to the masses.

This will also compel mobile app providers to innovate and provide apps that cater to the needs of the citizens, that is, not just creating apps for ordering grocery and booking tickets online, but also to leverage government services, and that too in regional languages. With several mobile app developers already working in this direction and faster mobile internet becoming more pervasive, the initiative of Digital India will also get a substantial push towards attaining its objective in 2016.

5. Intense personalisation

We already see basic elements of personalisation, especially in many e-commerce websites; that is, if a user has bought a certain item, he may also like to buy few other linked items. This personalisation is going to move into the next level where the user’s behavioural patterns over different sorts of situations are analysed to provide offerings that will be unique to him. Intense personalisation is treating each customer individually, and doing what is right in the context of helping them make a difference.

When we look at providing ambient experience to the user, this is not just confined to the look and feel of the interface, but also to make the user feel that the particular interface has been specifically designed according to his usage characteristics. There are startups that are already working in the space of intense personalisation.

6. Financial inclusion to drive digital trade

The Jan DhanYojana has been a key enabler to propel the scope of digital trade in India. With bank accounts becoming more widespread across urban as well as rural areas, using electronic means to transact, which is also called digital trade, is bound to become mainstream. Retail companies as well as other service providers can reach out to a larger population as financial inclusion has made it possible to drive the adoption of digital trade in rural segment as well. This, along with mobile internet, has not only opened up avenues for e-commerce companies to widen their reach to rural India, but also for banks and wallet service providers such as PayTM to make it easier for people to transfer money to their families in rural areas.

In 2016, as the industry moves forward and these trends become more mainstream, we will see additional traction in the mobile space as it will become a platform, both in the enterprise and the consumer segment, for connecting and delivering everything. Startups with disruptive ideas will lead this change.

The writer is the MD and CEO of Mindtree

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW