Management consulting and tech services giant Accenture strongly believes that changes that happened in automation at the shopfloor level are bound to happen in software services too. Bhaskar Ghosh, Group Chief Executive, Accenture Technology Delivery, who last July was elevated to the technology giant’s global management committee, spoke to BusinessLine on the way many companies are mistaken when it comes to tech implementation and how they are looking at ‘digital’ technologies in silos rather than looking at the whole picture.

Digital technology is changing much faster than businesses can cope with. In such a scenario, can companies ever be comfortable with technologies that they implement?

I feel that despite the fast changing nature of technology, businesses can stay on top. To understand why companies are always grappling, one needs to look at the way they implement it.

Digital technology cannot be looked as a standalone technology but something that has the ability to change a company’s business model.

The reason is due to the three Vs. First, variety of devices that are getting embedded with sensors.

Secondly, volume of data that these devices will throw up and lastly, velocity of transactions, which are going up due to the internet. Hence, the questions that companies need to ask is: Can my existing applications take these changes? Then the question is what do I change? Should I throw away my legacy systems?

Once these questions are answered, companies need not rack their heads and can focus on their business, instead of worrying about how technologies will work.

So, do modern day companies such as e-tailers have an advantage over traditional companies?

Everybody has the same set of advantage when it comes to technologies and this is different from the past.

The thing that needs some figuring out is how to integrate modern technologies such as social, mobile, analytics and cloud (SMAC) to a business.

So, regardless of new or old, companies should look at sustaining competitive advantage and here software is playing a strategic role in every business. So, are businesses using it to proactively drive disruption to create new markets or customers?

Most of the large companies have their IT systems architected for a different era. In that case, can they afford to move to a new system which is as secure and robust as some of the old ones?

The aspect that needs to be looked into is the way SMAC is entering the lives of common people like you and me.

When that is changing at breakneck speed, businesses do not have much of an option.

Monolithic applications that are built ground up are slow to implement and slow to change. However, businesses are changing.

Today if you are a taxi operator, your competition is not another operator but a company like Uber. If change is not accepted, businesses will get disrupted.

Analysts, estimate that 50 billion devices will be connected to the internet by 2020.

Will the increased use of automation impact job creation going forward?

The way I see it, humans and machine will come together and the workforce will have to be re-imagined in this sense. It will not be about people being replaced by machines.

However, the skillsets that will be required will change.

There would be a need to understand the business that an employee is working in and how they are able to cope with changes will determine their future.

For example, when people started sending e-cards, people asked where the future for post offices is.

According to my understanding, Royal Mail is seeing more business coming from e-tailers than traditional mail. So, they have adapted to the change.

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