Intelligent Tech Channels Issue 08 | Page 25

FUTURE TECHNOLOG is fast changing. Besides the IT manager, sales teams from system integration companies also need to deal with the line of business managers and sometimes even the CEO and CFO, especially for digital transformation projects. While the IT manager is very important, IT is getting increasingly connected with business, which is how Bayaa describes the changing influence of business on organisational technology decisions. Despite depressed market conditions and pressure on system integration companies like STME to deliver more for less, Bayaa increased the headcount of the sales teams from six to 19 in 2016. His conviction is that there are growth opportunities in digital transformation, security and datacentric solutions. This was also supported by an internal change programme to educate the teams about digital transformation. “Within STME, we have done it completely the other way. We hired more people and expanded in the market. We believe the potential is huge. IT is a must, especially for data security and data management. My main concern is to have the right talented resources, ready and in place. About the changes in the market; I cannot control them but I can control my ability to develop and deliver what I can see.” To drive this further, STME’s sales team have been incentivised to primarily focus and accelerate results around digital transformation solutions. Sales teams have been equipped to access an online catalogue to present various digital transformation solutions to the end user. “This is because we believe the market is there and the potential is there, and this is the future. We need to be matching with the future,” says Bayaa. There is also an internal exercise to change the sales culture from focusing on large capital asset purchase deals towards recurring operational expenses-based deals. This may be beneficial for STME’s end user. But for STME’s sales teams, Bayaa remarks that, “From the revenue perspective, this is a big change; and a complete change. But in STME we believe in it. For a particular deal it will be less, but overall it will be much better.” Bayaa emphasises that the principal risk today for STME is not the changing technology and business models, but the inability to build stable business plans because of the changing macroeconomic environment. While he cannot control the external macroeconomic environment, he can transform STME internally to have the right outlook, focus on the right opportunities, have the right skills and optimal resources, plan for results over the medium and long term, and remain consistent in this approach. Despite setbacks from the macroeconomic environment, this optimism and forward-looking approach into opportunities around digital transformation and next generation technologies have translated into overall double-digit growth for STME, Bayaa points out. Run, change and grow As a $4 billion plus global system integrator, primarily focused on the communication, media and entertainment market segments, Tech Mahindra is not new to restructuring itself to meet changing market needs. In 2001 and 2005, Tech Mahindra undertook a reality check and both times took a About the changes in the market; I cannot control them but I can control my ability to develop and deliver what I can see. Ayman Al Bayaa, CEO of STME. corporate decision to remain focused on its core competency of providing solutions for the communication industry, including telecom service providers. Just 18 months ago in 2015 and 2016, Tech Mahindra again restructured itself, which was known internally as its 3.0 update. With close to 53 per cent of its global revenues coming from communication, telecom service providers, media and entertainment, it has realigned itself to the market opportunities and realities of transformation from legacy to digital technologies. Moreover, it has moved the CEO of the customer organisation to the centre of its solutions delivery, replacing the CTO and CIO. “This journey is predicated on four lines of business but with three objectives, a three by four type of matrix. We are saying we do not want to remain only the CIO and CTO focused company. We want to start, and that is the big change going on, which is we want to start attacking the problem statements as perceived and understood by the CEO of a company. That is when we started playing with many, many ideas. We arrived at three very simple English words, and we have added some adjectives as suffixes: run, change and grow,” details Manish Vyas, Group President CME, Chief Executive Network Services at Tech Mahindra. In its first run-mantra approach, Tech Mahindra does not draw a hard line between the old legacy organisation and new digital organisation inside end-user organisations. The run-better approach is for organisations to operate better, which means transforming legacy operations. “Run, I cannot do without understanding my legacy. What am I running better? I am only running better my existing operation so I am not leaving any of our existing businesses or customers’ existing systems behind. We are not operating in that model where there is one thing that is the old and one thing that is the new. We are saying the old is what we are transforming from a run standpoint,” spells out Vyas. But this time around, Tech Mahindra has chosen to rebuild customer legacy operations using tools like artificial 25