The 10 most valuable microsoft solution providers by insights success

1. The way of business solutions
Is Your IT Ready
For The Digital Age?
Editor’s Pick
Latest Insights
SEPTEMBER 2017
www.insightssuccess.in
Navin Kapur
Co-founder & MD
A Persistent Partner for IT Solutions Underpinning Your Success
COMPAREX India
THE
10Most Valuable
Microsoft
Solution Providers
The Criss-Crossing
of AI & Consulting
Microsoft
PaRtNER OF THE MONTH
Vinod Nair
Md, Softline India

4. icrosoft is a strategy described for digital transformation.
MOrganizations that are successfully implementing this
strategy use automation and information technology to
expand existing business processes and create new business
opportunities. In near future, the sky is going to get cloudier. With
the rapid technological advancements and the onset of the cloud,
almost every business have their essential aspects ─ data
management, content, and collaboration tools ─ being delivered
directly from the Internet. The Microsoft cloud is transforming how
we use and access our day-to-day technology and turns out to be a
secure solution that can listen, learn and predict; turning the data
into actionable insights that enhances business opportunities.
Over the past several years, there have been all kinds of vigorous
talks and efforts to transform one’s business to the cloud. The
transformation of service offerings from project-based to the
managed services and from on-premise solutions to cloud solutions
is always critical. However, the surprisingly increased rate of
technological advancements in the industry have eased and impelled
the process of a digital transformation.
With cloud solutions on the rise and the ability for Microsoft and
other vendors to apply updates to these technologies virtually every
month (or even sooner), it leaves the partner community in a
struggle to stay informed and keep up with the pace. To strive and
thrive into the disruptive market, one needs to build a strong
partner-to-partner relationship.
The best of such relationships can occur when you cross-refer
businesses to each other. This will create a definite win-win
business relationship. For example, in case of unavailability of the
expertise in-house, one can outsource the technology projects to
another or vice-versa. This way one can bring itself into substitute
under the other for Office 365 and other technologies in their
wheelhouse. Nevertheless, clients are simply looking for a quality
solution and one person who own it. To emerge victorious in the
competition, one can simple build a strong partner-to-partner
relationship. An important advice is to protect your business with
NDA agreements, Master Partnership Agreements, and written
SOWs for each project.
In spite of the uncertainty we are currently experiencing, it is quite
evident that subscription-based services will continue to
democratize information technology. However, most of the
Microsoft partners know that there is an ever-increasing pressure to
drive demand and acquire new customers while continuing to add
value to the ones they already hold. As many Microsoft partners
have observed, the new era of demand generation has been powered
by Martech solutions and Marketing Automation. This paves the
way for new strategies, tactics, and tools that could bring out deeper
customer focus and personalization.
Editorial
Need for a Strong
Partner-to-Partner
Relationship
Poonam Yadav

5. ,7
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Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal
Database Management Sharad
Technology Consultant Vishal More
Circulation Manager Swapnil
Research Analyst David
Business Development Executives
Akshay, Deepak, Meera
Co-Editors
Poonam Yadav
Corporate Ofces:
September, 2017
Shweta AmbilwadeArt Editor
Business Development Manager Akansha Garewal
Piyush Rishi
Managing Editor
Visualiser Shweta Shinde
Marketing Manager Dhruv Apte
Picture Editor Alex Noel
Co-designer
Art & Design Director Amol Kamble
Abhinav Chandrayan
Vanshika Mittal
Contributors
Debasmita Dutta
Sachin Bhandare

6. CONTENTS
16
Softline India:
Partner of Month
Architecting Business
Transformation-as-a-Service
COMPAREX India:
A Persistent Partner for
IT Solutions Underpinning
Your Success
08

7. Article
CXO Standpoint
26
32Chuck all the
Competencies and just
focus on ‘The Joy of Serving’
What we see today in
IT Services in India
One view of the IT
Entrepreneurship in India today:
The Criss-crossing Of
Artificial Intelligence
And Consulting
20
Is Your IT Ready For
The Digital Age?
24
Embee Software:
Your Strategic IT Partner
Leveraging Digital Disruption
Target Integration:
The All-in-One Solution Provider
for CRM/ERP Implementation22 30
Editor’s Pick Industry Insight

8. ight from the launch of the first ever minicomputer in 1975, Microsoft has come a long way to position
Ritself as an absolute leader both in the main stream and the visionary technology market. Microsoft offers a
surfeit of solutions to its users that include Dynamics AX, CRM, GP, NAV, Windows Azure, Microsoft
Office, Microsoft Exchange, and Office 365+. Today, Microsoft has transformed the way businesses operate in this
modern era with a continued focus on cross-platform software and services, along with bold new visions of the
future. Not many tech companies can match this track record.
The companies which are proving themselves and helping their clients to navigate the Microsoft landscape are
being enlisted in our special issue of “The 10 Most Valuable Microsoft Solution Providers”. Our cover feature
holds a prominent player in the technology field, “COMPAREX India: A Persistent Partner for IT Solutions
Underpinning Your Success.” COMPAREX India is an IT services and consulting company providing one-of-a-
kind competence in procurement and license management of software and an extensive cross-vendor consulting and
services package. The righteous and tenacious leader of Comparex India is Navin Kapur, in the role of Co-founder
& Managing Director of the company. Navin had a persistent passion for driving Software solution & adoption in
Indian Corporate space. Under his leadership, COMPAREX India has grown by leaps and bounds and generated
500+ crore rupees revenues from India.
Featured as the “Microsoft Partner of the Month”, Softline Services India (P) Ltd. is an IT services and
consulting company with a global presence providing effective solutions for clients in a wide range of business
verticals. Enlisted for being a leading technology solution provider in India with 30 years of experience in
delivering solutions to its 2000+ customers, Embee Software was one of the first Microsoft partners to spearhead
their customers’ transition to the platform. Known for their credible ally and expertise help to their clients
providing flexible business process and implementing CRM and ERP system, Target Integration is a pioneer in
the industry, which introduced an idea that has proved to be the quickest and the most cost effective way of
implementing a CRM system for SMEs in the company.
Do not miss out on valuable viewpoints on “What we see today in IT Services in India” and “Chuck all the
Competencies and just focus on 'The Joy of Serving'” by Anu Biswas, Co-Founder & CEO, Prakat Solutions, Inc.
and K Srinivas Rao, Chief Strategist and Partner, The Strategist respectively. The warm folios of this magazine also
hold contributions from our in-house editors on ‘Is Your IT Ready For The Digital Age?’and ‘The Criss-Crossing of
Artificial Intelligence and Consulting.’ So flip-on the gain insightful insights on the technology game.
Helping Clients to Navigate
the Microsoft Landscape
0

9. www.inonic.com

10. COMP
0
INDIA:

11. NavinKapur
Co-founder&ManagingDirector
COVERSTORY
AREX

12. he importance of a certified Microsoft
solution provider is undeniable in the
growth of any organization. The reasons for
this can be its usefulness while running a
business. A certified Microsoft solution
provider not just assess your business goals,
but simultaneously, identifies a solution that
meets your business needs, and most importantly help your
business become more agile and efficient. All in all, a
Microsoft solution provider can help you take full
advantage of the cloud, opening a wide array of new
opportunities for you to grow your business while
increasing your revenue.
One such Microsoft solution provider that is making client's
business run smoothly while giving them the opportunity to
grab success is COMPAREX, who is enabling a business
to grow, evolve, and transform in every part to better meet
the changing market and needs of its customers.
The company is driving client’s digital transformation.
As a Microsoft solution provider, COMPAREX is engaging
the customers by building personalized experiences across
all customer touchpoints—from consideration to purchase.
The company is empowering employees by giving them
familiar tools and actionable insights so they can do their
best work.
While being a great Microsoft solution provider,
COMPAREX, is also providing high-quality IT services and
vendor-independent software-licensing consultation. It has
been planning and implementing server and client
infrastructure for SMEs, public administrations, industry
and internationally focused customers for over three
decades.
COMPAREX India, being the part of the global
COMPAREX Group, offers service & solutions around
various cloud technologies including Microsoft Azure and
Office365. COMPAREX is one of the best Licensing
Solutions Providers (LSPs) in the world. They also offer-
global services named unified cloud management, cloud
consumption management, Portfolio management to their
customers to manage their cloud subscriptions and optimize
the investments made by the customer.
COMPAREX: We support your success!
COMPAREX is a managed Microsoft partner and keeps
close relationships to Microsoft in different countries all
over the world, so that it can provide the best environment
for its customers. With more than 20 years of experience in
Microsoft Volume Licensing, COMPAREX is one of the
leading Licensing Solution Providers (LSP). They are
evidently the best LSP in the EMEA region and one of the
Top 6 Microsoft LSPs globally. COMPAREX's competency
of being the Global Microsoft Partner can be assessed by its
accomplishments across various facets; LSP (Licensing
Solution Partner) authorization, Certified Microsoft Gold
Partner status (16 Gold and 4 Silver competencies),
Microsoft Cloud competencies for Office 365, Azure and
Enterprise Mobility + Security, SPLA-Reseller (Licenses for
Service Providers), CSP (Cloud Solution Provider) direct &
indirect, Microsoft SAM (Software Asset Management)
Partner, AER Partner (Authorized Education Reseller) and
Managed Reseller (Distribution Business).
With more than 750 Microsoft Certified Professionals
(MCPs) COMPAREX-wide, they provide clients with the
best independent advice and support for Microsoft Volume
Licenses and Cloud Services customized to consumers’
needs, irrespective of whether they want to stay on-premise
or move to a hybrid or cloud scenario.
Competent Team at COMPAREX Delivering Diligence
COMPAREX's highly qualified specialists accompany all
projects, from analysis and procurement, through to design
and implementation, operation and support in over 35
countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. The
company continues to work with reputable vendor partners
such as Microsoft, Citrix, VMware, Adobe, Symantec,
Sophos, VERITAS & Oracle. Hence they are able to provide
cutting-edge expert knowledge and the most practical of
solutions, or more specifically, software, consulting and
services. Around 2,450 people at 80+ subsidiaries in 35
countries throughout Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas
stand by across all challenging projects.
COMPAREX’s Microsoft toolbox contemplated with right
tools for eventuality include Microsoft Business
Applications, Microsoft Cloud Services, Microsoft Database
Systems and Tools, Microsoft Development Tools, Microsoft
Network and Systems Management, Microsoft Office
Solutions, Microsoft Operating Systems and Servers. The
company is a well-recognized in its domain of expertise and
is acknowledged with few accolades, namely; 2016 Partner
of the Year Award Finalist (Software Asset Management),
T

13. 2015 Global Microsoft Volume Licensing Partner of the
Year (COMPAREX Group), 2015 Global Microsoft SAM
Partner of the Year (COMPAREX Group), 2015 Healthcare
Licensing Partner of the Year (COMPAREX Netherlands),
2015 U.S. Education Solution Partner of the Year
(COMPAREX USA), 2015 Partner of the Year (COMPAREX
Spain, Perifel / COMPAREX Mexico, COMPAREX India).
About the Passionate Technologist
The righteous and tenacious leader of Comparex India is
Navin Kapur, in the role of Co-founder & Managing
Director of the company. Navin had a persistent passion for
driving Software solution & adoption in Indian Corporate
space. He started his entrepreneurial journey in 2001 and
co-founded IRIS Unified Technology Ltd. Prior to
entrepreneurship, Navin worked as a CFO with Multiple
Zone Inc., which is a US based NASDAQ Listed Company.
Navin stepped-in the role of a Managing Director for
Comparex India in 2001. Under his leadership, the
company has grown by leaps and bounds and generated
500+ crore rupees revenues from India. Providing insights
on the industry Navin asserts, “Today technology is in a
disruptive mode. Our traditional way of selling will not
work now or in future. Our customer needs have changed.
We have to transform ourselves to the changed
environment. We have made a major shift in our strategy to
reach our customers by listening to their needs, like
providing solutions to grow their business, finding ways to
increase their productivity & drive further automation to
reduce costs and make them more competitive globally. Our
motto is to be by the side of customers in the digital
transformation and we have adopted the same digital
approach to our sales and marketing efforts to reach a wide
spectrum of customers.”
Navin successfully manages strong relationship with
COMPAREX, by building a vision for business
opportunities in India, providing performance driven
culture, through transparency and business excellence in
Finance & Operations. He is backed by his stellar team,
who is keen to develop cloud and managed services
opportunities within the enterprise, government, and
education and SMB sector. Considering his team to be his
biggest strength, Navin thrives on developing a vision for
the business, utilizing it to galvanize the organization and
build a shared sense of purpose.
The Perceptive Team Implementing the Microsoft
Solutions Effectively and Efficiently
Comparex India primarily focuses on Hybrid Cloud and
Public Cloud, SaaS Services Like Office 365, EMS, CRM,
Dynamic 365, Project online and Visio online. The
organization has Pre-sales Team and Delivery Team
governed by Project management Office for successful
implementation of Microsoft Technologies. Their Delivery
Team gets engaged in an opportunity at 60% sales stage
along with Pre-sales Team to minimize the breach in
understanding and execution.
Comparex India's Delivery Team has certified resources on
Microsoft technologies With a worldwide experience,
Licensing Desk Team created a Value by proposing best fit
Licensing model based on the finalized solution and
existing investment. Comparex India Consulting team has
vast experience in Licensing, consulting and have Global
Managed Services Like PMP, CCM and UCM which is
helpful in optimizing ROI, Customized Adoption plan
inline to Microsoft strategy, Proactive Monitoring of Office
365 Services, 24x7 Support in localized languages.
Comparex Technology roadmap is in line to Microsoft
Offerings like Azure, Office 365, EMS, SPE3 and SPE5.
All in all, the COMPAREX family deals with the
management of usage rights and helps you to save IT costs,
boost user productivity, increase compliance and
management of software and manage risks.
COVERSTORY

14. Some Meritorious Customer-Oriented Implementations
Having a global portfolio Comparex India have Vertical experience in Technologies and suggest the solution
based on it. Knowing the turbulent nature of a business consultant, Comparex proposed solution best suited in
their scenario. Some of their notable mentions are as follows:
• InfoEdge: DRaaS has been implemented for more than 10 Application having more than 60 Servers within
the budget of 12 Lakhs per year, whose Native DR Solution was costing around 3 Cr.
• Uneecops: Test and Development platform on Azure: Migration from On-premise TFS to VSTS keeping
security in place using Azure AD Premium. By Signing an Azure SCE, Uneecops is able to get advantage of
Windows and SQL Enterprise free of cost for testing and Development.
• RSystems: Voice to Text Application on Azure: Comparex Suggested Model in CPP, Azure Promo and
Monitory commit based on the usage of the infrastructure and constructed a cost effective solution against
AWS which is running in production.
The above examples very well articulate the excellence of Comparex in offering all solutions adequately and
cost-efficiently bundled.
Advice to the Budding Entrepreneurs in the Industry
Navin’s valuable advice for upcoming and aspiring entrepreneurs is, “Cloud is the future!, and it’s going to
touch all our personal and business lives, So there are immense possibilities’for anyone who is willing to join
or become a solution provider. My advice to young generation is to create more applications in the cloud to
meet the diverse set of needs and wants of the people.”
Weprovidethetechnicalexpertiseto
staunchlyoptimizeyourlicensingcostandmanage
allyoursecurityrisksandserviceissues
‘‘ ‘‘
COVERSTORY

16. Global Subscription
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17. BriefManagementCompany Name
diametriks
diametriks.com
Zenul Jinwala
Marketing Strategist
Sheel sharma, Head
Marketing & Business
Operations
comparex-group.com
Comparex India
Private Limited
COMPAREX India is an IT services and consulting company
providing one-of-a-kind competence in procurement and
license management of software and an extensive cross-vendor
consulting and services package.
Dev Information Technology Ltd. works together with its
clients across the globe to empower their business with the
right mix of information technology, innovation and digital
transformation.
Being a global service provider of products and services in the
field of Project Management & Information Technology,
Diametriks Consulting, a trusted partner for Microsoft EPM
implementation across industrial sectors.
Embee Software provides customer centric and integrated
solutions in the areas of Modern Workplace, Data Center
Transformation, Information Security and Mid-Market Solution
to meet the customers’ computing requirements.
incadea, a Cox Automotive™ Brand, is a leading provider of
enterprise software solutions and services to the global
automotive retail and wholesale market.
As a Microsoft Dynamic Solution Provider, MindQuad
Solutions is focused in delivering ERP solutions on Microsoft
Dynamics Navision, Axapta, CRM & Dynamics 365.
Softline Services India (P) Ltd. is an IT services and consulting
company with a global presence providing effective solutions
for clients in a wide range of business verticals.
Target Integration provides Open Source CRM and ERP
software to improve productivity and efficiency using
Information Technology.
Velocis works closely with organizations to help them leverage
IT for competitive advantage and to derive more value of their
IT investments.
Winspire Solutions has been providing clients of every size
with consultancy, customization, training and implementation
of ERP, CRM, Supply chain Management and Business
Intelligence solutions.
Dev Information
Technology Pvt. Ltd.
devitpl.com
Sudhir Kothari
CEO & MD
Kiran Lagisetti
Managing Director
incadea Group
incadea.com
MindQuad Solutions
mindquad.net
Nikhil Patel
Director
Softline India
softlinegroup.co.in
Vinod Nair
MD
Target Integration
targetintegration.com
Rohit Thakral
Founder & CEO
Velocis Systems Pvt. Ltd.
velocis.in
Rajnish Manrai
Vice President
Winspire Solutions
winspiresolutions.com
Vinod Shinde
GM
0
Navin Kapur
Founder & MD
Embee
embee.co.in

18. India
Architecting Business Transformation
as-a-Service
Vinod Nair
Managing Director
Microsoft Partner of the Month
|SEPTEMBER 2017|
16

19. Enterprises today, more than ever, are faced with the
decision to transform every aspect of their business
to address the new age challenges they face. While
transformation could be at various levels, IT or digital
continues to be considered as the single-most important
aspect that could help organizations survive in the new
world. In the quest to this transformation, companies with
“cloud on the mind” had been lured by the vast promises
associated with cloud computing – cost savings, efficiency,
ubiquitous accessibility, etc. While addressing needs,
enterprises were pushed with a plethora of unstructured
business applications and systems either developed in-
house or serviced by expensive, rigid solutions. This left
much of the promise of cloud limited to the “cost” domain
rather than the transformation domain. The search for a
solution provider ready to provide flexible business
transformation solutions in an on-the-go model continues.
In a growing & hyper-creative market like India there is
always the need for an enterprise solutions partner who can
address all the business transformational needs in a “as-a-
service” model. Softline India, a wholly owned subsidiary
of Softline International, aims to address this need. Softline
is a global IT Solutions provider focused on emerging
markets spanning Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Latin
Americas, India and South East Asia covering 80 cities
within 30 countries. Softline offers private and public cloud
solutions, integrated technology solutions, cybersecurity,
software licensing within an encompassing managed
services model. With revenue of approximately USD 1
Billion, Softline clients include 60,000+ private and
governmental organizations of all scales – from large
enterprises to small and medium businesses. Softline has a
presence in over 30 countries and 82 cities around the
world.
A Technology Company Implementing Business
Transformational Solutions
Softline offers a diverse portfolio of cloud computing
services such as IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, virtualization,
collaboration, security, mobility through a choice of public
cloud, private cloud and hybrid cloud based on our
customer’s needs. We also offer perpetual and subscription
licensing for a full range of software products, such as
operating systems, virtualization, security, business
productivity and others, ensuring existing investments are
optimized while addressing new requirements. In addition,
we provide services, such as IT asset management,
implementation, consulting, IT outsourcing, technical
support, managed services and training. Unique to their
India operations is their strategic tie-ups with “born-in-the-
cloud” application providers to offer various business
transformational solutions in a managed services model.
Softline Services India (P) Ltd, is headquartered out of
Mumbai with offices in Bangalore, Delhi & NCR, Chennai,
Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune. Core to Softline India is its
passion to drive measurable business value to its customers
through digital transformation and in the process, create a
beneficial and sustainable value through each client
engagement. Its years of cumulative experience with
Microsoft technologies enable the company to help clients
recoup their investment on Microsoft technologies and reap
maximum ROI.
The company today collaborates with over 400+ clients in
India transforming businesses digitally and delivering
100%+ year-over-year growth for its internal and external
stakeholders.Softline India is also a recipient of many
awards having being recognized by Microsoft as the ‘Best
Cloud Partner’2 years in a row.
Wide Range of Exemplary Services
Softline marries the power of the cloud to business
transformational solutions to address business problems in a
pay as you go model. Some of the solutions include:
• Softline Virtual Office: It is a ready-to-use productivity,
collaboration & employee engagement platform
combining the power of Microsoft platform charged on
monthly basis. The offering includes corporate email,
unified communication, corporate portal, HRMS and
Microsoft Office subscription
‘
‘
Not everything can be done alone in today’s
world, but a client expects a single interface with
its trusted technology provider, and Softline has
built an ecosystem to address this need!
0
17|SEPTEMBER 2017|

20. • Microsoft Office 365: Office 365 includes a complete
suite of offerings delivered from the cloud to make your
office available when and where you need it. It includes
Exchange for email and applications, OneDrive for
storage, Lync & Skype for audio and video
communication & SharePoint for portals and
collaboration.
• ActiveCloud: Softline Group has its own Cloud
Brokerage and Orchestration platform ActiveCloud
which enables enterprises to manage their multiple SaaS
offerings through a single unified platform giving the IT
department complete control on their various
subscriptions. ActiveCloud enables world class services
to more than 30,000 customers and 60,000 active
subscriptions. Company’s services portfolio displays the
most advanced solutions like IaaS, clustering and high
availability, enterprise grade virtualization, CDN, SaaS,
virtual desktops (DaaS) and more.
• Managed Services for Cloud: Softline’s deep
relationship with Microsoft ensures that they provide the
best service and support on Azure platform including
IaaS, SaaS and PaaS.
A Steadfast and Zealous Leader
Vinod Nair is the MD of Softline India, who has been
with the company since it started its operations in India
about 3 years back. With Softline, he laid out a very
optimistic and constructive charter of building an
organization of tech strategists, delivery experts and with a
strong GTM of helping clients transform their businesses
through the use of digital solutions. Within 3 years of its
operations, Softline is a preferred advisor to 400+
customers in India.
With a rich experience in the field of solution integration,
Vinod is of the view that there is no better time to be in the
digital transformation space in India. “Our view is that in a
country like India there is no better time to hone your skills
in this space. The type of possibilities that cloud throws up
to organization specifically in the SME space is limitless.
We have about 160,000 companies with 100-1000
employees in India who are ripe for embracing digital
transformation & any organization providing clear value in
this space will be a winner. The important aspect would be
to identify the solutions in the space that will provide
maximum revenue impact to the customers. We are
witnessing an upswing in the business cycle and it is my
strong belief that enterprises will shift focus from cost
optimization to productivity improvement or solutions
providing direct revenue impact. As far as skills in this
space are concerned, open source, analytics, business
intelligence are definitely top of the pack.”
The Diligence to Provide the Best
Softline works with clients closely to create the right IT
solutions like websites, portals, e-commerce systems,
mobile applications to name a few, supporting the core
business objectives like cost reduction, customer
acquisition, process optimization, customer relations,
quality improvement just to name a few.
Being a trusted brand with 24+ years’ of experience in IT,
recognized by customers and manufacturers and is a leading
international brand in the IT market with an extensive
network of branches and representative offices, Softline is
always in the proximity to offer a wide range of services in
technical support, training, and consulting. They leverage
businesses with the help of their extensive experience in
Cloud and virtualization, Mobility, Big Data and Analytics,
Security and other emerging technologies.
Envisioning More Expertise for Constant Development
and Evolution,
Softline feels that they are already ahead of the curve,
assessing the amount of investment they are doing globally
around building core expertise on emerging technologies
and platforms. They have built strong foundations at the
Corp level as well as the Subsidiary level where they have
CoE's for key technologies such as Cloud, Mobility,
Security, etc. At Softline, they have over 3000 partners
globally to service their clients – this positions them
uniquely and makes them as a one-stop-shop to provide and
service all tech requirements to the clients.
‘
‘
We provide IT solutions and a full range of services for the creation,
optimization, support and development of the IT infrastructure
|SEPTEMBER 2017|
18

22. dvancement in IT industry is profoundly impacting
Athe business models, competitive forces, customer
behaviors and regulatory environments. The ability
to exploit the speed of business change has, therefore,
become a key competitive advantage. The question we want
to explore is whether the traditional Enterprise IT in the
financial services industry is ready for the digital age; and if
not, what needs to change.
“The speed of current technological breakthroughs has no
historical precedent, and the pace is exponential rather than
linear,” says Klaus Schwab, the Founder and Executive
Chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Since its inception over last few decades, the traditional
Enterprise IT has been functioning as a project organization
to deliver change, where IT projects serve as the primary
currency of interactions between business and IT. They
facilitate distribution of funding, an organization of work
and deployment of change. Behind the multi-decade
success of the project organization paradigm lies two
important factors: First, these organizations mastered an
assembly line like sequential methodology, also known as
waterfall, to efficiently deliver large-scale business change.
Second, they relied on a mature, battle-tested management
theory, called the program and project management, for
successful execution of the waterfall methodology.
Initially, business changes were delivered through annual
releases of enterprise-wide functionality on monolithic
systems, e.g., finance, account management, and policy
administration. As business models transformed from
monolithic enterprises to decentralized businesses, then to
Internet companies, and most recently, to digital
organizations, the need for implementing rapid business
change has accelerated. The traditional Enterprise IT
responded by releasing smaller units of change more
frequently. However, today's exponential increase in speed
of change brought the project organization paradigm to its
limit, as step-size of change can't be further scaled for a
faster pace.
The struggles of the project organization paradigm allowed
another management paradigm — the product mindset — to
flourish. In contrast to the project organizations, the product
mindset does not require an elaborate and well-defined
target outcome, for work to start. Instead, interim changes
are expected and welcomed. This is achieved by replacing
projects with products as the primary currency of business
and IT interactions. Products differ from projects in two
fundamental ways: they require a persistent operating
structure, and they intend to serve multiple customers; and
hence, promote long-term sharing.
Furthermore, the product mindset relies on an iterative
methodology, a.k.a. agile, based on the lean-manufacturing
|SEPTEMBER 2017|
20
Industry Insight

23. IT
principles to deliver change in smaller step sizes, fast,
reliably and efficiently. A weekly systems release for update
legacy data, such as rate tables per state, is no match for a
digital Enterprise IT, who successfully runs scaled agile
programs with a productive mindset. There are four key
characteristics of the next generation Enterprise IT
organization:
Mastery in Product Mindset
Technology products and services serve as the primary
currency of business and IT interactions. Product managers
own product roadmaps, and they are accountable for
maximizing the value throughout the product lifecycle.
Mastery in Scaled Agile Program Execution
Business is engaged. The portfolio, program and agile team
constructs are in place to deliver large-scale business
change using the agile methodology. Customer
commitments, financial commitments, and team
productivity are rigorously managed; continuous
improvement is engraved into the culture.
Mastery in Co-Mixing Competing Management
Paradigms
The waterfall is not dead, and agile is not a silver bullet.
The business capability, information and application
architectures guide how to exploit the strengths of both
paradigms. IT operating models streamline
interdependencies between business and IT, project and
product, new and legacy, development and operations.
Mastery in Executing Enabling Capabilities
Business capability model, API architecture, cloud
computing, DevOps, agile portfolio and program
management are a few prerequisite capabilities that
traditional Enterprise IT organizations need to invest in.
Also, you might be already familiar with terms such as
Bimodal IT, Two-Speed IT, Multi-Speed IT, Right-Speed
IT, which are proposed by leading consultancies and IT
analyst firms to describe their perspectives of the new
generation of the Enterprise IT in the digital age. They all
point out the vital role of the new IT in exploiting the speed
of change as a competitive advantage but vary about what it
means to an existing Enterprise IT organization.
Moreover, the art and science of managing the Enterprise IT
in the digital age are getting more sophisticated. This
should be music to the ears of all business savvy technology
executives.
Is Your
Ready For The
Digital Age?
21|SEPTEMBER 2017|

24. Embee Software:
Your Strategic IT Partner Leveraging
Digital Disruption
|SEPTEMBER 2017|
In a competitively fierce market such as today technology
is a key differentiator that organizations leverage for a
better business performance. However, unlike
previously, technology is evolving at such a fast pace that it is
becoming challenging for businesses to really keep up. Do
you feel the same? That is why organizations need a partner
who is constantly abreast with the latest technologies and
guides customers on the right technology mix for their
business. Embee Software is one such partner. It is a leading
technology solution provider in India with 30 years of
experienceindeliveringsolutionstoits2000+customers.
What differentiates Embee is its keen ability to address its
client’s business challenges. And this quest is backed by its
strategic alliance with the global technology leaders,
Microsoft being the most dear. Being truly aligned to
Microsoft’s vision and market expectations and backed by a
futuristic leader, Mr. Sudhir Kothari, Embee takes bold
decisions to be ahead of the curve. When Cloud first came to
India in 2011 - 2012 Embee was one of the first Microsoft
partners to spearhead their customers’ transition to the
platform. Today they are recognized among Microsoft’s top 3
Cloud partners in the country. They have completed over
300+ Cloud projects and has migrated over 300,000 users to
theCloud.
•APioneeringPartnership
Embee’s partnership with Microsoft began over 25 years ago
during which Embee has transcended from a software partner
to being one of their key country-wide solution partners. Over
the years Embee has built on its relationship with its key
stakeholders in the partner-organization, enhanced skills and
capabilities in Microsoft technologies and delivered
innumerous success stories. From the total strength of 350, 88
members of the Embee team are Microsoft certified technical
experts and solution specialists with Gold competency on
Cloud Productivity, Cloud Platform and Enterprise Mobility
Management.And their high success ratio in existing and new
customers along with the domain expertise more than often
make then a favourable partner. Embee’s expertise and
capability has also earned them the status of a leading LSP
(the highest level of partnership in Microsoft’s partner
structure). Some of the other recent awards won from
Microsoftinclude:
• RisingAbove theCompetitionintheITLandscape
60% of Embee’s business is from its existing customers.What
helps the team to rise above the competition include a number
of facets. First, it follows an understand-evaluate-design-test-
implement approach to add value to each customer
engagement. They understand the current and near future
business challenges and business objectives, evaluate
solutions that integrate seamlessly with its existing
infrastructure, design the solution architecture, test the same
on a smaller group to overcome any challenges and
implementitenterprisewide.
Some of its Microsoft success stories based on the above
frameworkinclude:
• Being the IT consultant and solution partner of a global
advertising agency, Embee pitched and implemented Office
365 to help the client collaborate better and improve data
availability. With anywhere-anytime access the team
remained connected 24*7 enhancing their productivity.
SharePoint empowered the team to intelligently discover and
share the content on any device. One Drive offered the client
secure, reliable and unlimited storage space and backup
features. And its inbuilt disaster recovery and uptime
maintenance services helped the customer minimize its
organizational risks and reduce the workload of the internal
ITteam. Embee used industry-recognized best practices in the
implementation and migration, where over 800 users and 700
GBofdatabelongingtotheclientwere
migratedtothenewsystem.
0
• CAM partner of the Year 2016 (W)
• Top 3 Azure Partner of the Year 2016 (W)
• Top 3 Office 365 partner of the Year 2016 (W)
• CTM partner of the Year 2016 (N)
• Office 365 partner of the year (N)
22

25. We believe that while Technology is the pivot for Digital
Disruption, what’s as critical is the Corporate Mindset & Culture
• With a strong legacy system in place, the client was facing
concerns over storage and security issues of the increasing
volumes of multimedia and traditional data of the
organization. Moreover, the back-up process was slow and
tedious. Chosen based upon expertise and hands-on
experience, Embee’s implementation of a hybrid cloud
storage solution based upon Microsoft Azure and StorSimple
helpedtheclient,aglobalmediaorganization,transform.
With StorSimple, the client now has unlimited secured storage
capacity in the cloud, eliminating constant worries about
shortfalls. It has dramatically reduced administrative
overheads while achieving better disaster recovery. They
have managed to slash down the time required for back-ups
and restores. Additionally, they can now scale their resources
as required. The new solution provided greater business
agility, endless scalability and reduced SAN storage costs by
over40%.
Secondly, driven by the motto to add value to customers and
maximize their return on investment, Embee stands out from
the crowd with its lethal combination of services. Apart from
the solution knowledge and implementation capability
backed by the support services, Embee has deep capabilities
in Power BI and SharePoint. They develop/build dashboards
and applications that help businesses be more productive.The
applications on Power BI help the senior leaders to take
strategic decisions quicker while on SharePoint they have
developed 30+ applications, including Helpdesk Systems,
Travel Management, Employee Information Systems, Leave
Management System amongst others to simplify their
businesses further Embee caters to over 2000+ customers
across industries including Manufacturing, Financial
Services, Logistics, Education, Government, E-Commerce,
Healthcare,Retail,IT/ITES,andMedia.
• MaintainingtheEdge
Delivering customer value is truly what drives the team at
Embee and they execute it exceedingly well. With thorough
technology expertise and deep customer connects, the team at
Embee are able to support business houses address their
challenges with transformational opportunities. This is why
they have engaged with over 200 customers for over 7 years or
more. Additionally, their capabilities and experience in
Microsoft technologies place them in an unique position for
theirclients.
Embee makes sure to separate its identity in the industry by
successfully implementing projects, providing deep technical
expertise and knowledge, being fully-committed, ensuring
strong customer relationships and making IT easier for their
customer base. This is what Embee practices with every one of
its customers; probably one among many reasons on why
Embee has acquired over 400 new customers in just over three
years.
Sudhir Kothari
Founder, CEO & MD
‘‘
‘‘
23|SEPTEMBER 2017|

26. With the steady increase of IT Entrepreneurial
ventures in the country today one sees hundreds
of companies in various stages of growth &
development. However, it is plain to see that the largest size
is that at the starting point i.e. the Start-ups and Emergent
companies that are creating a place for them in the growing
market with survival being the stepping stone to “a”
growth path. It is key to have a unique solution to a
specific problem when someone is starting up, and
it is even more important to have clarity on
technical design implementation to keep
moving. As they say, “If you have great
idea, but cannot implement or
convince investors, it is as good as
not having an idea”. It is
important to balance time
spent on technology and
identifying “ Key” customer
problem to solve. More often it is
identifying the key problem statement
that matters a lot, and technology to
solve evolve in the ecosystem. Specially
for Services sector, it is important to identify
how one start up can be cost effective and / or
collaborative.
The next larger number would be that of the SMBs that
have succeeded in creating a spot for themselves, as well as
in growing their market share steadily over time. Amongst
them again are the ones that have entered the SMB phase of
their company’s onward journey – while most are seen to be
SMBs for a greater part of the company’s lifecycle itself. A
small but significant number actually make it past the SMB-
What we see today in
IT Services in India
One view of the IT Entrepreneurship in India today:
tipping point and reach the scale of an emerging Enterprise.
To get there, it needs sustainable products and services and
more importantly the change management to adopt to larger
scale. It is very critical to identify the “ Change “ that needs
to be adopted as challenges of exponential growth can be
daunting.
We have substantial shining examples of such
entrepreneurial entities that have made it to this select
but rapidly growing group of companies. And I am
specifically referring to those who have grown
organically over a period of time, ranging
from anywhere from 7-15 years.
While some amongst this select
group has made the strides to
reach Enterprise scale within 7-
10 years, most SMBs/
Companies do take 10-15 years
to reach this phase. And a large no.
of them would attribute this growth due
to innovative engagement models, while
most of them would operate and often even
compete in similar areas in IT Products &
Services.
Our learning & insights – The emerging trends that enable
an IT SMB to chart growth plans that are aligned to
Customer roadmap
For small start-ups, understanding the current ecosystem
(technology, support structure to run the show, leveraging
different media to continuously test the idea) and leveraging
them could prove beneficial. It is important to focus on
CXO Standpoint
|SEPTEMBER 2017|
24

27. disruptive ideas (in addition to incremental ones) as it
would generate eventual leap. It is important to be Agile
and constantly test to decide next step in product/solution).
There would be a huge opportunity for early collaboration
among startups, so look forward to such opportunities. It is
worthwhile to seek advice from mentors in respective
space, it helps start-ups to visualize a near future and
actions to be followed.
While SMBs, like any other business entity looking at
growth in the IT sector, look at scaling up their business
development for growth – what we see is a key impact
factor is about business development with the right
investments in core competencies that are relevant to the
business enterprise of the existing Customers as well as that
of future projected Customers.
For instance, all of our investments at Prakat in the first 3-4
years have been entirely in QA, Testing & Digital
Accessibility. Over the last 2 years we observed a couple
emergent needs from constant interactions and exchanges
with our existing Customers which are in the realm of
DevOps, Performance Engineering and Test Data
Management.
We have invested more in these areas over the last year or
so and are reaping the benefits of the strategic investment
by means of growth in business volumes in these areas. And
this of course in addition to existing competencies. Our
advantage has been that the Core Team has these
capabilities collectively and we are able to leverage what
we already do have in-house. This has largely helped us
keep our costs lower as well in what we invested in as new
growth areas.
This is a trend that has been effective for several other
SMBs looking to scale as well, whereby a certain area of
competency is chosen, aligned with that of the
existing/future Customers, honed & perfected to cater to
future needs and business development being aligned to it
in parallel. All of it comes together to support the growth
plans for an SMB.
Please do note that this approach may not work for an
emergent company that is still looking at gaining
momentum in its services engagements.
Anu Biswas
Founder & CEO
Prakat Solutions, Inc.
25|SEPTEMBER 2017|

28. The Criss-Crossing of
&
Consulting
|SEPTEMBER 2017|
26
Editor’s Pick

29. he diligent invention and
Tinnovation by research teams
in companies around the
world have helped to keep-up with the
pace of technological expansion in
computer processing power for several
decades. This led to the ability of
technology companies to put more
computing power than the whole
Apollo space program into the bags of
more than a billion people worldwide.
Everything around us including music,
books and even movies have taken a
digital physiognomy. There is a
considerable amount of threat to both
people and their enterprises due to
these increasingly intelligent digital
technologies and unpredictable
customer expectations.
The last few decades have been an
amazing time for consultancies with
full of revenue and opportunities
provided by these technological
advancements. Clients were desperate
for solutions to help them match these
changing times. This has led to the
growth of management consulting in
size and scale, expanding multiple
technologies and even marketing
specialties. The increase in the
divergence of the large international
consultancies into other specialisms is
the first step to what fallouts in an
inevitable shrinkage forced upon the
industry.
The same forces that are causing a
feeling of disequilibrium for the firms
that consultancies serve are also
causing the same challenges,
trepidation and uneasiness for the
consulting firms. One of all the major
game-changers of the consulting
industry is the inception of Artificial
Intelligence.
27|SEPTEMBER 2017|

30. Intervention of Artificial Intelligence
Mechanical muscles made human labor less in demand, so
are mechanical minds making human brain less in demand.
You might misinterpret this as an economic revolution
which is more appropriately a robotic evolution. When you
think of automation, you think of giant, efficient and precise
but really dumb robots blind to the world doing their own
work. They were a scary kind of automation, but they were
cost effective in narrow situations. These are the old kind of
robots (just mechanical muscles), and the real threat is by
the new kinds with Artificial Intelligence.
Chatbots, roboadvisors, and other implementations of
artificial intelligence have taken over people’s imaginations
and led to the practical implementations of artificial
intelligence. People are becoming increasingly comfortable
with artificial intelligence.
But what does the consulting industry has to do with
artificial intelligence?
In the short run, maybe consultants don’t have as much to
fear from artificial intelligence as compared to the workers
in transportation, retail, or manufacturing. But, in the wider
bandwidth of things, over time innovative technology
vendors will inexorably build upon openly available
artificial intelligence frameworks made publicly accessible
by companies like Microsoft and Google (which are
looking for an increase in the sale of cloud services) to
automate some of the tasks that lately cast undergraduate
analysts or Indians do now for the large consulting firms.
Today, we comprehend our business and our interactions
with our customers well enough, what was once a mystery,
and then we try to identify patterns inside it which then
eventually allows us to create algorithms and procedures
that can be captured in Standard Operating Procedures
(SOP’s) and then ultimately in code. This process is similar
to the heuristic technique. The power of artificial
intelligence is the ability to move the role of machine to the
left in The Knowledge Funnel, far away from pure manual
coding by a human, to the computer programs that write
themselves and eventually to heuristic identification and
algorithm creation at some point in the near future. This is
ultimately made possible by crowd computing, machine
learning and deep learning. The fact remains that as
computer programmers and the artificial minds their
creation becomes more adept at watching the work that
consultants do and recognizing the patterns in their
recommendations.
Is the Threat Even Real?
These are challenging times for large consultancies and
small independent consultants as consultancies are forced to
respond to these attacks from three sides: Increasingly
Available Intellectual Property, Internal Consultants and
Artificial Intelligence. A huge part of that three-pronged
attack will come from an ever-growing multitude of
automation engineers taking over the cubicles around the
world to design people out of jobs. In the same way that
mechanical engineers build robots to substitute our human
muscles with machine muscles, automation engineers and
computer programmers are creating inexpensive machine
minds with sufficient artificial intelligence to replace our
more expensive human brains. Professions like that of the
automation engineer will attract workforces from around
the world in increasing numbers, but not nearly enough to
counterbalance the losses in job opportunities that these
engineers are tasked with eliminating. Only time will tell
how quickly and how broadly artificial intelligence (AI)
threatens the core business of consultancies.
Think, if you are in the consulting industry, what is your
strategy for responding to this threat?
Because, make no mistake, the threat is real. The only
question is how quickly it will substantially impact the
bottom line. Sooner or later Artificial Intelligence and
Machine Learning for better solutions will rule. With the
contributions of these two technologies, time invested in
primary research and data analytics can be substantially
reduced. Now decision making can be quicker and more
fine-tuned based on the client’s desires and behavior.
Behavior patterns can be well drawn out, and quick actions
can be implemented.
However, for your comfort, let’s make a dulcet statement;
say consultants are a balance of EQ and IQ so AI and
robotics can’t replace the EQ and sensibility part.
|SEPTEMBER 2017|
28

32. Target Integration:
The All-in-One Solution Provider for
CRM/ERP Implementation
his is an era of outsourcing and automation. This is
Tthe reason why it is important for manufacturers to
reanalyze their businesses and update their existing
IT systems. This not only helps the manufacturers to
maintain a pace with the ever-changing world. Additionally,
it also boosts their ability to deliver better customer service
and a perfectly managed supply chain.
As a matter of fact, small and mid-sized companies are
worst hit. They are finding it difficult to cope up with the
changing customer requirements and boost their profits at
the same time. In such an event, companies are preparing
themselves to build long-lasting customer relationships by
adopting new ideas, developing a sustainable roadmap and
by evolving the supply chain system. This can be done with
the proper alignment between ERP and CRM solutions.
Such an investment not only boosts the profitability of the
companies. Furthermore, it also helps in accurate sales
forecasting, centralizing the database, and eliminates the
redundant customer information.
Most CRM & ERP providers have on-premise as well as
cloud based solutions. The thriving among these service
solution providers is the Ireland-based Target Integration.
They are known for the innovative idea of “Self-Service
CRM/ERP” which allows customers to implement their
own CRM with minimum intervention of consultants and
developers.
Target Integration introduced this idea in UK & Ireland first
and it has proven to be the quickest and the most cost
effective way of implementing a CRM/ERP system for
SMEs. They are now bringing the idea to other countries
around the globe.
Target Integration is servicing around 400+ customers in 10
different countries providing leading software applications
such as Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics
365/CRM, Zoho, Odoo, CloudYogi and Google Suite. Target
Integration has worked with some well known businesses
such as AIB Bank, Colliers International, Mazars, Credit
Union Development Association (CUDA), Seiko, Strata
Tiles, UK Oak Doors, Uday Tours & Travels, providing
them business solutions of their choice.
The Thought Leader behind the High-Reaching
Company
Target Integration was founded by Rohit Thakral in
Dublin in 2008. Rohit completed his Diploma in
Engineering from Pusa Polytechnic in New Delhi and his
first job was to service computers and peripherals from HP
& Compaq. He then moved on to work in a telecom
equipment manufacturing company, Fibcom (a Tellabs
subsidiary). Later, he moved to Dublin to do his Bachelor’s
Degree in Electronics & Electrical and PostGraduate
Certificate in Advanced Engineering at Dublin Institute of
Technology (DIT). Before starting Target Integration, he
worked in Data Edge as a Product Specialist of telecom test
equipments and Product Manager in UPC Ireland.
This journey of working in multiple businesses from
services to manufacturing and from telecom to computers
supported him to become the founder of Target Integration.
He believes training & continuous development of team
members is the key element for the company’s growth and
success. His influencing nature has instigated leadership
thinking among his team and employees.
0
|SEPTEMBER 2017|
30

33. We put ourselves in our clients' shoes and align
our incentives with their objectives
The Core Strength of Target Integration
Target Integration is the leading Business Process
Consultancy. This 9 years old organisation now has three
development centers (Ireland, Greece and India) and sales
offices in three countries as well (UK, Ireland and India).
CRM & ERP Systems have been a core of the business
since its inception. They deliver the best advice based on
the requirements of the customer. They are independent in
their recommendation of a software to their customers.
Target Integration doesn’t hire sales people. Their sales
team is made up of previous CRM & ERP Consultants who
know the problems faced by a business and have the
experience of dealing with those problems using multiple
different tools. The advice provided by them comes on the
basis of this experience.
Introduction of cloud has minimized the delivery cost of
CRM & ERP software and allows the users to work from
anywhere and from any device hence increasing. This adds
to the productivity of the users and reduces the capex
required to implement such a solution in the business. The
company’s key to implementing CRM/ERP systems is
“No-Code” or “Low Code” solution. Any software with lot
of customizations becomes difficult for the company to
upgrade and results in slowing down businesses’ capability
to adapt to changing IT environment.
The Future Roadmap of Target Integration
Enterprises have been using powerful CRM & ERP
Systems for many years but the SME market is at a very
nascent stage and gradually organizations are realizing the
need of a business tool to automate their processes and
achieving the optimum resource management with
automation. There is a bigger and better opportunity for the
company in India where the industrial landscape is on a
rapid change. This presents a greater possibility where only
those providers will survive that will thrive for perfection
and better skills.
The challenge in all this is the availability of high quality
resources and that’s why Target Integration is always
working on hiring new talent and training them up on the
latest business management trends in the industry.
Rohit Thakral
Founder
‘‘
‘‘
31|SEPTEMBER 2017|

34. Chuck all the
Competencies
and just focus on
‘The Joy of Serving’
s the appraisals come to an end in most of the organizations, the HR moves on to conducting the skill and
Acompetency gap exercises. For a change we witness many organizations giving fair importance, if not equal,
to assessing the gaps of their HR team also.
When we delve into what are the competencies that the HR professionals require, we witness a wide gambit of them –
ranging from fashionable ones like CHRO, Business Partner and Analytics to the simpler ones like Negotiation Skills
and Conflict management. What comes across as a surprise is that most of us miss a key element core to any HR
professional, namely- Compassion.
Many of us chose HR as a profession by choice; but there are many others who have come into this profession not on
account of Passion, but that of Process. Some because of organization requirements or job rotations, while the reason
for others was as simple as that during their MBA, they felt choosing this specialization was an easy route to complete
the course.
In short, what we witness is that HR is the only profession which doesn’t have a standard course with an equal
emphasis on practice or hands-on experience. More often we see a diversity & mix of backgrounds and knowledge
levels among HR professionals. At times it is good since it builds a diverse range of experience &expertise; yet at the
same time, it also results in a lack of a consistent solid layer at the very base.
So what competency is the bedrock of any HR professional?
Well, the debate is still on, but one that stands undisputed is certainly- Compassion. The HR professional must possess
a mindset to help other, irrespective of what role and hierarchy we are in or how much the organization rules & policy
enable the same.
CXO Standpoint
|SEPTEMBER 2017|
32

35. How does one describe the
competency of Compassion? In simple
words, it is the ‘The joy of Serving’
others.
Some of the key fundamentals of Joy
of Serving are as follows:
• Employees are my Clients – Simple
& Period!
We need to quickly realize that
Employees are our clients and we as
a function exist to serve them as
organizations exist to serve external
clients. Unfortunately, it has become a
trend to treat employees as a pain and a
general belief that they are all eternal
cribbers. For once, pause and try to
remember those N-numbers of times
we hated the experience of not being
treated properly & kept waiting when
we stepped out for a lavish dinner or
called a bank helpline for information.
Then how can we end up telling our
employees not to chase us for update
or information. Rather why can’t we
tell them that we will get back to them
as and when our checklist burden
lessens?
We need to rebuild our outlook toward
how we treat our employees. We
should realize that we earn our salaries
because of them and our founding
philosophy it to serve them with Joy.
• We are a Service Function
In our zeal to become business
partners, we have missed the point that
we are still a service function. Just
because of the introduction of
technology or numbers we cannot
change our outlook. The idea is to
become an enabling function where we
identify the hidden synergies and act as
a catalyst to empower them and exploit
them.
K Srinivas Rao, Chief Strategist and Partner, is a human capital
strategist with the expertise of 23 years across Human Capital Value
Chain. Prior to The Strategist, he was heading Strategy – HR at Satyam
Computer Services. Formerly, he held management roles at various
levels in CATS (Computer Associates-TCG), Baan Info Systems, Ernst
& Young, Videocon International.
An avid writer and guest speaker on the subject of Change
Management and Human Capital, he wrote 5 books under the “101
Smart Ideas Series” published in 2015, “Managing HR Issues in a
Merger” – published in the Handbook of Business Strategy
2002,“Whispers of a Devil in an Angel”,“Principles and Practices of
Management”. He also co-authored a book titled ‘Unconscious
Leadership Conspiracy’ and has published more than a dozen articles
in International & National Publications.
Mr. Rao holds dual Masters’ degrees and attended Indore School of
Social Work, where he topped the class of ‘93 and later pursued
Masters in Military Sciences. Currently, he is a Research Scholar at
XLRI Jamshedpur and a visiting faculty at ISB and IIM Indore. He was
awarded “HR Leadership Award” in 2008-09 by Employer Branding
Institute and Super Achiever as HR Professional in 2006 by Indira
Group and Fun & Joy Institute.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
K Srinivas Rao
Chief Strategist & Partner
33|SEPTEMBER 2017|

36. We need to continue to function as a service function and appreciate that technology can only be a
facilitator in this process. For example, an employee would still love to receive a call on his birthday or
anniversary by HR rather than a lifeless eCard. What technology can do in here is that it can help remind the
HR Professional as to which associates birthday or anniversary is coming up next. We need to get back the
Human Touch in the HR.
• We Cannot Solve Everything & Should not Attempt the same
The Joy of Serving doesn’t mean we have to bend backward for everything and everybody. It is not about
ensuring that the end results are positive in favor of the employees, it is about being fair and playing by
the rules.
In this complex world, we will encounter deviations and exceptions and we will have to manage them. That
means we cannot solve every single problem in one go and there would be stakeholders whom we will end
up disappointing. This isn’t a failure for us, but when the stakeholder doesn’t understand ‘why’ the problem
was not resolved and believes that it was our whim and whimsy which resulted in it, we sure have a
problem on our hands.
• We can be polite even when being assertive
Being assertive is not the opposite of Joy of Serving, but there is a fine line between being rude and being
firm. Some situations may demand us to be firm / assertive with our stakeholders and we shouldn’t hesitate
in doing so. What is critical is to understand and appreciate that we can be firm and polite at the same. As
children we all had these experiences where our family never hesitated from pampering us, but at the same
time drew the boundary line for what was allowed and what was not.
Many a times, we miss the clue in here because we see ourselves as the guardian of the policies,
frameworks and work ethos and see the stakeholders who are not aligned to the same as offenders. We
forget that we are not the ‘Police’, but the quiet ‘Gardner’; wherein we need to nurture with care &
compassion and weed out what is not good.
• If we don’t Enjoy doing this, maybe it is time to quit
The biggest challenge is many of us are not sure what we are doing in our job or is the right profession we
have chosen, wherein we are nobody’s favorite and do a thankless job throughout the day. It certainly is not
one of the perks, but comes with the territory of our job descriptions. All jobs have occupational hazards and
for us, as HR professionals this is the one. If we don’t like this essential element, it is always better to move
on and get into another profession.
The joy of serving isn’t the one and only competence to Nirvana, but solid bedrock on which all the other
competencies and skills for HR should be built on. It is futile that we may have best of skills in our
professionals in terms of technology or analytics, but a heart of compassion missing. Our dream should be
to ultimately move from the ‘The joy of Serving’ to the ‘Honor in Serving’.
|SEPTEMBER 2017|
34

37. A perfect
Daystart with
Coffee