Responding to the Crisis
and Sustaining Service Excellence & Beyond

Ashish Masand – Director APAC, UST Global
For a large and mature organization like yours, what are the critical areas where automation will become mandatory?

Binu John – VP, Cummins business Services
Hi Ashish, we are looking at automations across all our service areas, however the areas where we see the maximum benefit and impact is Finance and Accounts Payable, Receivable and Inter Company, where we have a lot of paper work involved is where we can really benefit from automations.

Avinash Gambhir – Business Relationship Manager, ACCA
TCS has announced 75% of their 4.5 lakh employees to work from home by 2025. How do you see future of work after Covid-19?

GV (G Venkataramanan) – SVP, Olam GBS
Many of the organizations will move to WFH but in differing percentages. TCS was the most skeptical of this concept but what they are saying now is a paradigm shift and is going to influence a lot many of the other players in the GIC or outsourcing space.

Avinash Gambhir – Business Relationship Manager, ACCA
Rakesh has mentioned this is compared to a great depression of 1930. We see US report 23 million job losses and expecting it to go up to 46 million in coming months. So, will this be a V-shaped recovery or U-shaped recovery? With all the governments across the globe releasing fiscal stimulus packages to make it a V-shape recovery, will this create a debt crisis in the future?

Sanjay Gupta – Chief Architect, SSF
Will most likely be a large U. It is a slow process and immediate impact of any policy change is unlikely.

Deepti Kulkarni – Senior Manager, Metro Global Business Services
I would like to understand how online group sessions would ensure engagement with a group size of 100 vs 300?

GV (G Venkataramanan) – SVP, Olam GBS
It is going to be difficult...any group that goes beyond 100 even in a zoom, is going to be difficult...smaller group engagement is key...if you are on Workplace in Facebook, etc... then participation can increase.

Sudhir Banerjee – SVP, ABB
What new opportunities we see GBS as a format should work forward ... as Cash is king and resources will be limited?

Whether captive shared services will increase or outsourcing will be future strategy?

GV (G Venkataramanan) – SVP, Olam GBS
Both will expand...however for the next 2 Qtrs it is the emotional an sensitivity aspects which will be the focus in the western world as the unemployment levels are at record high and the first focus for the Government is to manage that with the kind of impact Europe and US have seen. but the next 2 Qtrs will focus more on the emotional.

Shreyas Dhore – AGM, John Deere India
With the changing landscape in view of COVID19 situation, what are the new skills shared services kind of groups should acquire?

Rahul Puri – Head Employer Relations, ACCA
Digital advances particularly are transforming the very fabric of businesses and organisations. Through our global research programme we know that technology and digital developments are rapidly impacting the global economy. We have carried out extensive research into skills professional accountants of the future will need to 2030. Through this, we’ve been able to identify seven quotients that all professional accountants will need to develop and rebalance throughout their careers. These are technical skills and ethics; intelligence; creativity; digital; emotional intelligence; vision; and experience. As the world looks at newer way of work and the pace of digital transformation would be even faster than before, skills such as digital, stakeholder management/communication and technical and ethics are of prime importance. Technical skills help lay the foundation for supporting development of tools, digital is only an enabler, and being able to communicate effectively to manage stakeholders (both internal/external) is required in today’s cross cultural business environment.

Ronak Baheti – Sr Business Relationship Manager, ACCA
Are you utilising this time to up-skill your staff since most of them are WFH?

GV (G Venkataramanan) – SVP, Olam GBS
L&D programs are continuing @ our GBS but everything moves virtual including classroom sessions

Binu John – VP, Cummins business Services
Yes, we are promoting and encouraging online learning programs to be undertaken by the employees

Kasi Visveswaran – Senior Director, Fair Issac
This is for Sanjay. Few companies have set up centres in tier 2 /3 cities. Would work from home speed up this and would we see jobs shifting to these places and urbanisation slowing down?

Sanjay Gupta – Chief Architect, SSF
Absolutely - to areas with good connectivity

Kasi Visveswaran – Senior Director, Fair Issac
Great move. work for home

Tara Mandavilli – National Manager, HCCB
Reena Sharma, Great Employee initiatives – to be connected

Ankur Seth – Director, Maersk Global Service Centre
What’s your view in making partial work from home a new normal even after the contingency is fully over? Can GCCs have upwards of 50% employees always work and engage from home?

GV (G Venkataramanan) – SVP, Olam GBS
WFH will be a new norm and we plan to sustain this @ Olam GBS at least about 40%

Arvind Brahmakal – ED, Goldkix Business Services
Distributed delivery has the potential to create a radically new paradigm in this Industry – sooner than later

Kasi Visveswaran – Senior Director, Fair Issac
In Indian context WFH home requires a lot of personal and social adjustments

Karthikeyan Velu – SVP Finance & Head Global Shared Services, Bharti Airtel
Definitely yes. The way we are organized at Homes, private space is a constraint. Added to that the concern for family safety and health adds to the stress. This needs a lot of adjustment and tolerance when dealing with teams and delivery timelines.

GV (G Venkataramanan) – SVP, Olam GBS
Ergonomic and creating the home infrastructure is going to be the biggest challenge to sustain WFH...being in a lockdown and being out of it are two different animals that you need to manage in a WFH. Connectivity aspects will have to drastically improve across the board...even AIRTEL Shared services facing such challenges gives a glimpse of the same.