How pandemic changed whole delivery paradigm

IT experts reiterate the need for re-imagining the service delivery model to allow businesses to achieve their transformation objectives in the new normal.

“Dynamic delivery that goes beyond virtual collaboration or automation of a few processes represents the next generation of service delivery. We at IBM are strong proponents of this; it is emerging stronger,” avers Lingraju Sawkar, General Manager, Global Technology Services, IBM India.

Attributing service delivery disruption to current models not being in sync with a distributed and virtual workforce, Sawkar paused and said, “Rewind a bit to the pre-pandemic world of IT delivery. There was this concept of off-shoring, near-shoring and on-shoring, where clients were at one place and the whole delivery was optimised across the client site using near-shore, and off-shore model; teams were co-located for experiencing and facilitating interface.”

“The pandemic changed the whole paradigm. The entire teams – be it customer teams or service provider teams - are today completely dispersed. While businesses have over the past months come to terms with the new ways of getting work done, and at first glance, everything appears simple, dispersed teams working in silos, some degree of uncertainty in projects coupled with security issues have emerged as challenges for IT service providers,” he added.

A recent survey by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) showed that by end of April, nearly six times as many people were working from home compared to the pre-pandemic times.

“In the initial weeks, most companies focused on employee safety and building resilient models. But it was not enough,” continued Sawkar adding, “It had to be a dynamic delivery platform, which, while ensuring employee safety and certainty in time-line, was secure and maintained a balance between cost and value. The Dynamic delivery model was launched on these principles.”

“With IBV data suggesting that 62 per cent of the executives are looking to accelerate their digital transformation efforts in the next two years, we felt that a virtual delivery model that restores continuity and builds resilience would become essential and not just desirable. Humans in the network become critical, important in the process as in the new normal, there is no physical or co-location; each individual is a leader unto himself, will have to take ownership for what they do.”

“With the delivery network and human management capability, we moved to ensure contactless delivery by shifting to virtual collaboration with governance as the hallmark of strong delivery. In the pre-pandemic world, the clients and our teams would meet up at regular intervals for analysing performance, reports, and so on. This is now made dynamic, on a virtual dashboard. This is just the start of a journey, the destination is far off, but interesting,” said Sawkar, adding, “Both people, technology and the way work gets done will truly have a huge impact, a significant value.”

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