Let me begin this piece by asking you a near-preposterous question: Do you have proven skills in changing a car tire while the car is still in motion or know anyone who has? In all likelihood, the answer to both these questions is going to be a resounding "no." And yet, this is exactly the kind of improbable capability that businesses are expected to deliver to meet expectations for faster, cost-efficient, agile services in today’s customer-centric, digital era.

There is enough evidence to substantiate that this demand for new, transformed service is part of a wider global movement. A couple of years ago, tech research firm IDC projected that the global spend on digital transformation technologies (or DX) -- including software, hardware, and services -- for 2018 would hit $1.3 trillion. That is an increase of 16.8% from the investment made in such technologies in 2017. Furthermore, worldwide expenditure on DX is expected to nearly double in the coming three years to exceed $2.1 trillion by 2021.

While these are bullish projections, they point to a clear trend. A digital future is an unquestioned certainty, and businesses that want to stay relevant must armor themselves for an exciting ride ahead.

In light of this scenario, it is evident that firms cannot afford to have both old and new operational systems running. Yet organizations continue to be saddled with legacy systems that run on traditional operating models that still serve a purpose. In fact, Gartner predicts (via ZDNet) that up to 90% of all applications currently in use will still be running in 2023.

This is why CIOs and CXOs need a future-ready, comprehensive approach to service transformation. They will need to enable their enterprises to get nimble while shrinking the current spend on core systems and using the resources, thus saving the budget they need for digital transformation.

How Organizations Can Adopt Service Transformation to Stay Ahead

In our experience, there are three pillars that stand at the heart of any endeavor to undertake service transformation. The first one is the adoption of automation across applications, infrastructure and operations so that service delivery is empowered to become nonlinear. The second is a reduction of manual effort through the adoption of service transformation assets/components that companies have either built in-house or outsourced to partner tech firms. And the third is a reduction in the wait time and loss of wasted capacity through toolchain integration. In my experience, it is essential for enterprises to adopt all three pillars to facilitate service transformation across an organization.

• Apply automation across the organization: To start from the top, adopting automation or robotic automation in combination with cognitive automation can enable firms to have some tasks be carried out in a "zero touch" manner. This can have important implications for application management, infrastructure operations, testing and BPS, as all of these functions can get significantly optimized with the application of robotic/cognitive automation. This is because having automation at work for any of these and other functions means that bots can step in to replace the time and work that people used to put in doing repetitive, time-consuming work. In the retail space, "drive" robots are fast becoming a popular choice for companies looking to not only outcompete Amazons of the world but also to get ahead of the curve by fulfilling online orders faster. Tompkins International, a U.S.-based supply chain consulting firm, has introduced a robotic drive unit (essentially a mobile robot) that helps retailers cut processing time by helping them sort items faster than humans can. Four of the country’s top retailers are among their clients, and the company says some of its other customers plan to deploy the Tompkins t-Sort robot to help meet same-day or next-day delivery orders from stores.
• Reduce manual effort: The second crucial element of service transformation consists of examining every component in a service to identify the precise parts that can be refactored through the process of semi-automation, thereby reducing manual intervention. Consider, for example, the instance when a company wants an application modernized. Enterprises can prioritize paying attention to how the business rules that went into building the app can be extracted so that there is no longer the need to read the code manually but rather scan the code to complete the required job in two rather than 20 hours.
• Optimize operational efficiency: Finally, successful service transformation also rests on toolchain integration to lower wait times, thereby boosting efficiency. This is because when toolchains are integrated, they make it easier for businesses to build, deploy and manage their apps from one place with minimal wastage of time and human resources.

For all these reasons, I believe that organizations must adopt an integrated approach to drive service transformation by applying automation across the organization, reducing manual effort and integrating toolchains for greater efficiency. In doing this, enterprises will address the people, process and technology dimensions of service transformation, thereby delivering quick returns on investments while lowering the overall total cost of ownership, subsequently funding and facilitating business change.

When doing this, it is also important to keep in mind is that the journey of service transformation is in many ways only a step, albeit a crucial one, towards the larger goal of achieving digital transformation. In the past, it wasn’t possible to envision service transformation as a viable business strategy. Now with technology enabling some of the most profound transformations in recent decades, there is a clear and visible opportunity to make service delivery nonlinear.

More than anything else, what service transformation offers is a great, cost-effective and simple way to get organizations truly equipped and ready to get on to a digital transformation path with the best of what they already have.

This point of view article originally published on Forbes.com has been shared by Nitin Rakesh, CEO and Executive Director, Mphasis. Forbes, the No. 1 business news source in the world, is among the most trusted resources for senior business executives, providing them the real-time reporting, uncompromising commentary, concise analysis, relevant tools and community they need to succeed at work, profit from investing and have fun with the rewards of winning. Forbes reaches an audience of 931,0558 for their print edition, and 3,600,000 for their online edition.

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References:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-is-digital-transformation-everything-you-need-to-know-about-how-technology-is-reshaping/

https://www.zdnet.com/article/digital-transformation-why-the-future-is-looking-bright-for-cios/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andriacheng/2019/01/20/six-key-retail-tech-trends-to-watch-for-2019-and-its-not-just-about-amazon/#b2166c066fc7