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India's IT sector flourishes; enabling skilled workforce across geographies to provide solutions that elevate client success globally.
In brief
- Clients benefit from a skill-based approach which creates high-performing teams by prioritizing skills over geographic location.
- Global Delivery Success focuses on providing greater value, moving beyond traditional roles to meet client needs effectively.
- AMS shifts from support tickets to managing client ecosystems, driven by AI, cloud, and sustainability.
Global delivery success: Unlocking value Beyond borders
India has developed rapidly over the last 20 years; The population, the growing number of students as well as the IT-sector has all boomed over this course of time. But have the IT services delivered developed in the same way? What is the key to success in Global delivery when all IT giants provide consultants and services from low-cost countries and how do the leading players stand out in the crowd and take the next step to deliver value to clients?
At the end of 2024, the Nordic EY Microsoft team visited the vibrant and colourful city of Bangalore, India. The country has experienced a significant expansion of its middle class, which represents a substantial segment of society. This growth is accompanied by a rising number of students attaining higher degrees, a trend that is poised to substantially boost economic growth in India and enhance the nation's ability to compete with the world's largest economies (Worldbank.com, Nov 11, 2024).
India is today a rapidly growing global economy with a population of approximately 1,44 billion. The largest cities hold more than 20 million inhabitants and IT-centers like Bangalore and Hyderabad have more than 10 million. The middle-class represents 31% of India’s total population and the number is expected to grow to 38% by 2031! This increase impacts the enrollment to the universities – more than 43 million students enrolled in higher education during 2023-24 (Worldbank.com, Nov 11, 2024).
The rapid development in the IT industry has had significant impacts. Since the year 2000, the Business Applications community has witnessed a variety of approaches to utilizing global teams, both nearshore and offshore. Often, the primary driver for these strategies has been cost reduction. Initially, dedicated teams of developers focused on enhancing solutions based on architecture and design specifications provided by onshore teams. Over the years, as this process matured, companies began to employ offshore delivery centres more strategically, fostering not only technological innovation but also leading industry and process solutions. This accumulation of assets has become a valuable resource and a key lever for value creation.
In 2024, the traditional offshore approach is not enough to stay competitive. The clients expect their IT-partners to provide value in all layers of the delivery – during their last visit to Bangalore the Nordic Microsoft team reflected on what’s Next & Beyond together with their colleagues from Global delivery:
3 approaches to succeed with your Global Delivery:
Use a holistic skill-based approach
To leverage our experienced architects in onshore lead roles enables us to integrate the teams further, come closer to the client dialog and optimize the skills of the team.
Since the pandemic most implementation projects are conducted 80-100% over Teams. We see more and more projects where typical onshore roles are performed nearshore or offshore. That goes across all stages of the project, hence the first thing to get in place is a common and well aligned global project delivery model. For example, to state that the full team uses the company wide Hybrid agile delivery model for the Dynamics Customer Service implementation is not enough. What we see more commonly today is domain specific training, role by role, to make sure that the global delivery runs seamlessly across your global team irrespective of location.
Furthermore, project governance changes focus from the traditional offshore development team governance to governance of the global workstreams. The importance of keeping the team together increases as more relationships and communication moves to digital channels.
Application Managed Services (AMS) - Shift from support tickets & enhancements to manage the client ecosystem of solutions and services
Application Managed Services for Microsoft solutions have developed over the years as the platforms and tools expand in the enterprise segment. What started out as local support contracts delivered by application consultants have developed into global application outsourcing engagements, often orchestrated across several regions and delivery centers.
Client expectations drive the development of AMS in areas like AI and automation, cybersecurity, cloud computing and sustainability. The outlook for 2025 and beyond is also that the Managed Service Providers will tailor their solution to the client needs to a larger extent. One example of that is how low-code/no-code solutions like Power Platform push Application Managed Services organizations to support the users more from a functional standpoint, hence move closer to the users that become citizen developers.
AI and automation are transforming the way projects are delivered, enabling faster decision-making processes, enhancing productivity, and reducing human error. By leveraging AI, Application Managed Services Providers can optimize their delivery processes, predict potential issues before they arise, and ensure a smoother workflow. Utilizing cloud and hybrid cloud environments will continue, with managed service providers offering comprehensive cloud management solutions. This will further help the client scale their solutions and make the solution more efficient and secure utilizing the components offered in Azure.
Sustainable IT practices are also gaining traction as organizations recognize the importance of reducing their environmental impact. This involves adopting green technologies, optimizing energy usage, and promoting sustainable practices within IT operations. There is simply not an option for the IT Service Providers to not promote sustainable services – the competition is fierce, and clients select sustainable options as they look for a long-term partner.
The trends above are all technical improvements driving the development of Application Managed Services and ensuring efficiency and additional value through innovative solutions. IT Service organizations are now required to continuously adapt to these evolving trends to stay competitive and meet the changing needs of the market.
But will this be enough to support clients that evolve their business through digital transformations? At EY we believe the future of Global Delivery & Application Managed Service will require a more broad approach:
- What if your Microsoft Dynamics managed service provider not only supported and enhanced your technical solution but also managed your tax services?
- Or what if your DevOps partner of your Customer Service solution also managed your change strategy, training and communication required?
The fact that Microsoft solutions have shifted to evergreen cloud solutions forces clients and service providers to apply new perspectives once the solution is implemented. An ERP or CRM support & maintenance contract no longer implies you park the car in the garage – quite the opposite, you just entered the freeway and need to adjust your speed to arrive in time!
EY has delivery centers across the globe: India, Poland, Philippines, Mexico, Spain etc. and provides IT-services across most of the major platforms and technologies.
A Change management consultant from New Delhi can provide as much value to the CRM-project as an onshore consultant in today’s project, where most of the workshops are conducted on Teams
Author:
- Per Strid, Director, Technology Consulting, EY Sweden
- Guro Faller, Nordic D365 Customer Engagement & Power Platform lead, EY Norway
- Jon G Snilsberg, Senior Manager, Technology Consulting, D365 leadership, EY Norway
Summary
The article highlights India's significant maturation over the past two decades, marked by a growing middle class and increased higher education enrollment; creating opportunities for Global Delivery Success. The IT sector has transitioned from cost-cutting to a global delivery model focused on skill-based approaches, over geographic location. With digital project delivery on the rise, traditional roles are now often remote, requiring cohesive global governance. Application Managed Services are adapting to meet sophisticated client demands, influenced by emerging technologies like AI and sustainability. Future success will depend on holistic service integration, aligning IT solutions with broader organizational strategies and needs.