The Covid-19 pandemic has spread with alarming speed, infecting millions and bringing economic activity to a near-standstill, as countries imposed tight restrictions on movements to halt the spread of the virus. Many emerging and developing economies were already experiencing weaker growth before this crisis; the shock of Covid-19 now makes the challenges these economies face even harder. With no universal view on complete revival, companies are building new strategies to stay afloat and look at opportunities to reduce costs.

For GBS organizations and their GICs, this presents an opportunity to make good use of the crisis, challenge the status quo and eventually thrive.

Myths Busted

GICs responded well to the pandemic related lockdown by enabling people to work from home and perform their tasks remotely. Initially only the critical processes were being carried out, but as the lockdown eased, there was a 100% recovery of the services. The infosec fears were allayed and the myth of physical proximity and supervision has been busted. Though it came as a bolt from the blue, the human spirit prevailed. The initial response and recovery phase is almost over. It is now important to prepare for the next phase and evolve the strategies for the future.

The pandemic broke several myths and stereotypes, which should boost the growth of GBS organizations and thereby create new opportunities for GICs, such as:

• Organizations have realized the location from where work gets done has limited influence on the quality of work.
• Work-from-home assured the sceptics that even complex and proprietary work could be delivered remotely and hence, offshoring possibilities are immense.
• The traditional BCP plans were crafted for site, city, and at most country outages. No one ever imagined a world outage. There is a need to develop continuous resiliency since it is now clear that the next outage could take any new form or shape.
• Simplification of processes and policies is not just a cliché. During the pandemic many established processes have been challenged and replaced with extremely agile and efficient ones.
• Automation and use of cloud platforms and agile technologies is no longer an option, but essential ingredient for running successful businesses.
• Remote working does not compromise information security, instead it promotes stronger controls.

With the economic slowdown, companies are feeling tremendous cost pressures, forcing them to look for opportunities to reduce operating costs. The crisis will give rise to new options for GICs, who should gear up for a growth phase coming their way.

A Plethora of Options

Organizations may seek to transfer work to GICs and expand in multiple geographies to minimize risk. At the same time, GICs must look to diversify their offerings and continue to attract, hire and train the best talent, even amidst this crisis.

Technology is going to play a pivotal role in making the right choices. The focus must shift from ‘cost and productivity’ to ‘value’, enabled by new cutting-edge technologies that accelerate transformation of organizational process and convert them into a strategic advantage.

However, the extent of expansion, both in terms of size and scope, would be different for different industry segments depending on the impact of the pandemic on their segment and their business. Companies in IT, food, pharma, etc., which are likely to revive faster will expand their portolios and grow their GICs multi-fold, to take advantage of lower costs, as their businesses climb up the growth curve.

Companies with multi geography presence will look to divest from their sub-scale operations and double-up their capacities in countries that have matured in scale and depth of capabilities.

What’s in it for us?

These technologies have often taken away the human element of the process and made it possible for machines to understand the multitude of rules and decision points to produce results in a very short time.

Most progressive organizations are clear about making investments in these new-age technologies rather than expanding traditional offshore centers which are pivoted on labor arbitrage. For example, chatbots based on NLP have significantly reduced the dependency on contact centers; analytics and data scientists have created solutions that churn large quantities of data to provide business insights with pinpoint accuracy that have changed the decision-making approach altogether; cognitive automation or intelligent automation is now developing into a science that can counter the very essence of a GICs.

India is rightly poised to seize the moment. However, there are some key steps GICs in India must take to cement their position as the most favoured destination:

• Create a compelling business case for offshoring work to India by replacing labour arbitrage as a differentiator with disruptive technologies and capabilities in generating direct business impact.
• Develop assets and intellectual property in form of automation or digital platforms for future valuation of the GBS units for potential carve outs. India GIC leaders must work with the parent organization for strategic investments in technology and capabilities.
• Ensure the availability of the required infrastructure, both physical and technology, that meets with norms of the new normal and its constant upgradation in terms of security, speed and reliability.
• Work with start-ups to charge themselves up with their new ideas, energy and agility.
• Explore more aggressive staffing models and integrate gig workers into the workforce - not just for cost savings, but also for the flexibility and the ability to draw greater talent from a wider pool.
• Rethink the BCP and cybersecurity measures and protocols to prevent data theft and loss of sensitive data, and deploy faster disaster recovery methodologies.

The Sum & Substance

The Covid pandemic could not have come at a better time for the Indian GICs. While it has resulted in huge global losses in terms of deaths, sickness and businesses, it has also brought out new facets of human endurance and agility. Progressive leaders of the world are looking at putting this to good use. GIC leaders in India should shift gears and strive to be more enterprising and forthcoming when it comes to exploring new possibilities and establish themselves as innovation hubs or digital transformation hubs that bring disruptive ideas to life. There is a great future for the GICs, with different forms and avatars. The leaders have to just be bold enough to go out, experiment and not be afraid to fail.

 

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