The data belongs to the customer but the supplier has approval to use that data. For operational metrics.
What I suggested was to make that into a product instead of just a stupid sla operational report. Jai ho > On 19 Oct 2016, at 06:51, Suresh Ramasubramanian <[email protected]> wrote: > > If that data is their customers’ – it is NOT theirs to play with. > > And any improvements and automation in such data can only be delivered right > back to their customer and nobody else, there’s enough NDAs around for that > plus serious penalties for when they try to leverage a resource they have > available in one team for another team. TCS found that out the hard way in > that Kaiser Permanente case where a former member on their team for that > client continued to use his (still active and not shut down as their famed > process orientedness should have made them do) kp.com login credentials to > access tech support manuals on behalf of another client that he was not > licensed for. And then shared that credential across several other teams, > including those that developed a competitor to that very software. [add > “allegedly” to taste for all this, these are the allegations made by the > plaintiff against TCS anyway]. > > If there’s some software they make that they sell to customers, they would > have to be dumb indeed not to leverage the hilt out of any and every bit of > analytics and telemetry they get their hands on, but I’m the last person to > accuse more than one player in the Indian software industry of intelligence. > > --srs > > On 19/10/16, 11:06 AM, "silklist on behalf of Bhaskar Dasgupta" > <[email protected] on behalf of > [email protected]> wrote: > > one of the examples I had asked to be funded was to leverage their data. > this company manages banking processes. what i wanted was to tie up with ISI > (not that one) and hire a small skunk work of data scientists and a data > design / visualisation centre. And then wanted to do what rolls royce have > done with their trent engines - they make a stupendous amount of money by > monitoring their engines on a real time basis in flight and saving airlines > shed loads of dosh. So i would’ve provided a set of tools, constantly > evolving, to the heads of operations on their process flows, heads of sales > on sales analytics, heads of product design on competitive features, and so > on and so forth. And once I have sufficient coverage, I can setup a banking > product market place. World Domination! result? god no, we cant pay these > phd’s that much! no? then you will lose them to american firms who can and > will. but that will cause the pay scales to be fucked up internally. ok, lets > spin off this firm. we don’t do spinoffs. why? 100% owned subsidiaries are > good and actually you can IPO it as their multiples will be better. Oh! that > decision is above my pay grade (this is the president of the division!) you > can fuck off. /facepalm. > > forget about creating new products, buggers don’t even leverage what they > have! they are sitting on a fucking gold mine of rivers of data (if you don’t > mind me mangling metaphors) and are happy to sit there and fish for minnows > or get paid lowly for tending the sodding river bank. > > > >> On 19 Oct 2016, at 06:06, Suresh Ramasubramanian <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> IT companies buying product companies in a desperate bid to innovate .. let >> us just say that I’ve seen a lot of that happen at a previous workplace. >> >> The usual end result is that the founders and key employees quit in disgust >> after a while and those that are left are gradually absorbed into the >> company doing something totally different than what they set out to do. >> >> And meanwhile the product itself is killed off immediately, or maybe dies a >> slow and lingering death with a few legacy customers left behind and >> practically zero further development. >> >> Big companies that don’t have DNA beyond being pushers of software that most >> if not all users have a visceral hatred for, and/or bloated services >> contracts, are absolutely not going to infuse any magical fresh DNA into >> them by acquiring successful product companies >> >> The prospect of such foreign DNA taking root in the company is far less than >> in the case of an organ transplant – the sort you get in mad scientist >> movies where a scientist transplants human dna / tissue / whatever into an >> ape and suddenly ends up with a super intelligent planet of the apes or >> Gorilla Grodd variety animal. >> >> Mohandas Pai is a smug and opinionated twit but he got one thing right >> though. The software industry didn’t die – it will survive and it will >> probably hang on, but the traditional indian (or even foreign) services >> model is long dead in favour of automation. The only things that won’t be >> automated to a large extent are higher up the value chain than such >> companies generally play around at. And the hanging on will be the way a >> really old and sick man keeps hanging on – perpetually in the chasm between >> Allopathy and Tirupathi. >> >> In other words, the days of 15% raises are dead and gone, companies >> outsourcing basic bargain basement sysadmin and datacentre work will >> outsource far less after automating the hell out of everything they can, >> testing will be automated. >> >> Of all the cash cows out there, telemarketing and support still needs humans >> to a larger extent and will hang on but higher up the value chain – because >> a lot of it has moved to social media, marketing rules in this space have >> tightened etc. >> >> And even that is going way down after all the tech support scams in India >> that flourish tarring even the legit players with the same brush, with at >> least some of the legit players looking wistfully at the “upsell” angle >> that, if pushed a few hairs farther down the line, becomes those scams where >> someone claims to be “tech support” for your OS or device manufacturer and >> cons you into paying for a $50 a month perpetual contract. >> >> --srs >> >> On 19/10/16, 10:15 AM, "silklist on behalf of Deepak Shenoy" >> <[email protected] on behalf of >> [email protected]> wrote: >> >> Apologies for the plug but I wrote a piece a year back: >> http://capitalmind.in/2015/01/the-inflexion-point- >> for-the-it-service-industry-long/ >> >> So my point is that the problem isn't with IT companies - they will survive >> as IBM and HP etc have, and perhaps grow in single digit percentages and >> generally get a lot lower price to earnings multiples. They do stuff no one >> currently wants to do and overhauling a system to use stuff that other >> smart people want to use is too expensive. (Like COBOL - it may be outdated >> and all that but it still forms the basis for an irrationally large part of >> banking) This work will continue until you have removed the very need for >> the basis that the older software has been required, so there will always >> be business for the Infy/TCS/Cognizant types from this kind of maintenance >> work. >> >> But things can change very fast. 10 years ago I couldn't imagine that BigCo >> would be able to manage something like 5000 servers using less than 5 >> people including bringing more up when required, at run time, with complete >> reporting/control available even on a mobile phone app. It's possible now. >> It's routine now. And as more companies are discovering it is, the on-site >> and off-site infrastructure work that was handled by the IT cos has seen >> dwindling business. SAP now offers a cloud based pre-setup solution, where >> you need none of the server infrastructure - only the initialization pieces >> which the IT cos still do; but at some point SAP will create modules that >> are one-click installs for the kind of industry you are in. >> >> Automation isn't robotics - you don't need machine learning or AI for most >> of the work required. For instance much of the testing work that is done >> tends to be checklist driven, and some of that has already been automated >> at multiple levels using tools. What these IT cos should have been doing is >> buying the product companies that build these tools, but they simply don't >> have the DNA. (I would even say buy minority stakes in them with a board >> seat) Their own products are absolutely crap; see the quality of the stuff >> TCS and Infy have built for say the MCA, versus teh quality of design that >> seems to be in teh new Modi camp (vidyutpravah.in for instance or such). >> >> I heard of a bigco - a friend works there - where an insurance company was >> being pitched by various vendors for a certain solution. The big Indian >> names went in with the powerpoint smoke and mirrors thing and offered >> things like 6 months to a year to finish with X headcount etc. A russian >> company with the founders as programmers pitched a working prototype that >> they said would take a couple more weeks to finalize and they'd get it live >> in amonth at a cost that was not even in the same area code forget the >> ballpark. They actually won the project and BigCo guys had multiple >> meetings to "create risk mitigation techniques" and such things. It's kinda >> funny. >> >> I think if IT cos react, they will get lean. If they get lean, many many >> people - and I'm speaking thousands in bangalore alone - will find out that >> their skills are drastically short of the real world requirement of jobs. >> This is the problem - not that the IT cos won't survive. IMHO. >> >> Deepak Shenoy >> Capital Mind: Financial Macro and Market Analytics >> http://capitalmind.in >> Twitter: @deepakshenoy >> >>> On 16 October 2016 at 15:34, Bhaskar Dasgupta <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> i was interviewing for one of the IT corporates some time back for their >>> COO position and once i managed to dig a bit into their financials, i >>> backed out. the majority of their revenue streams are from processing in >>> advanced stuff, processing code, processing transactions, processing >>> quality control. They do this very well. Very very well. standardise the >>> process, six sigma the shit out of it, hire the great unwashed herd of >>> graduates pouring out of the universities - retrain them to be great >>> processors and great business model. But this kind of model is very >>> susceptible to dis-intermediation from further advances in technology. When >>> I asked if can have some serious seed funding to develop products rather >>> than just provide services, there was a bit of a hoo ha. I think a product >>> plus service model is the best option, create great products and then have >>> a long tail in services and maintenance contracts. we have some of these >>> products but not enough. not easy to develop products - the eco-system >>> isn’t there yet. >>> >>> so whilst i don’t think its the end of the road, but for example, every 2 >>> months I am in a conference where vendors pitch up talking about robotic >>> process improvement or AI and how they are showing 20–50% reduction in warm >>> bodies in agency/outsourced/offshored units. Where will these 20-50% of >>> highly trained processors go when the infosys or TCS lets them go? >>> Thankfully the economy is ginormous and we are well accustomed to poverty >>> and pain and still have the joint / extended family to fall back upon. But >>> for the IT industry? pain... >>> >>> i agree with Srini, changing careers is not easy for us desi’s….(says the >>> man who has made a career of changing careers, heh). >>> >> >> >> >> > > > > > >
