Editor’s Note
This year has been historic. Maybe for the first time in the history of mankind has the entire world seen such unprecedented even as the Covid-19 pandemic. The unprecedented part is both in its intensity as well as in its reach. Probably never before has the world witnessed a common catastrophe so vast and deep as this one.
As the year comes to a close, everyone would be reflecting on the year gone by and praying that the worst is over. There is no denying the fact that human (and maybe all life forms) work at their peak efficiency only during times of stress. Higher the stress, higher is likely to be the efficacy of their magic. While the phenomenal human resilience has demonstrated several instances of great new innovations and developments, there is no telling what’s there in the future. Is this trend of constrained activity likely to continue and bring about yet more startling innovations? In all probability, yes; though hindsight being a lot clearer than its rarely seen cousin, foresight, also comes with its set of ‘criticals’. This memorable year has created so many ponderables that it is impossible for us to fathom the impact of it all. It is for the future to put together the events and create a cause-impact story of the situation we are actually living through.
This year many business managers have seen their fortunes go down the tubes along with their businesses. People have stood and watched their businesses crumble in front of their own eyes. People have lost jobs in masses. And yet, there are zillions of stories marking the presence of superlative innovative techniques to not only survive, but also prosper. Almost all such stories are result of great technology innovations and super-fast implementation.
Seizing the opportunity could well be the one trait that humans can proudly boast of – and that probably cannot be replicated by the most advanced AI systems in the world. At least not yet.
To quote a friendly neighbourhood arthropod, with high impact technology implementation comes high sense of responsibility. Organizations are duty bound to safeguard their and their clients’ data. In this issue of PE, we bring out the increasing need to create security operations centers along with the shared service units, whether remote or domestic. In addition, the systems infrastructure should also be designed so as to provide a sense of reliability in infra operations by bringing about consistent and high standards. The transformational landscape of today is all set to witness several transformational digital solutions.
As usual, leadership plays the most critical role in the situation. Strategically thinking leaders convert stressful conditions into favourable ones by mastering the business ‘games’ that the opportunity offers. And by creating excellence through business ‘insights’. This issue has also featured a simple and highly do-able model on how to bring about service efficiency that can make a huge difference in the organization.
While stories around new, professional and high delivery service setup abound, including those which require special skills such as foreign languages, the sense of hope and goodwill prevails for the future – as the year draws to a close.
We hope and pray that our readership community, and all of mankind, has been able to sustain itself and recover from the blues. While the future remains uncertain, what is certain is that it will bring about great cutting-edge novelties, hitherto unknown.
Edition Publish Date: December 2020
Table of Contents
A Systemic Shift in SSCs
FROM SERVICES TO INSIGHTS
SAMEER MADAN
Opportunity in the Changing Landscape
A DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY
IRENDRA CHHABRA
Site Reliability Engineering
MANAGING RISKS OF RAPID CHANGE THROUGH RESILIENCE, ACCOUNTABILITY AND INNOVATION
SUGANDHI AGITHAKALYA
An Innovative “Never Trust, Always Verify” Model
THE SECURITY OPERATION CENTER
NIRANJAN VINCHURE
Future Readiness in Language Transition
HARNESSING DIGITAL INNOVATION FOR OPPORTUNITIES
SANJAY KATHURIA
The Leadership Game in Shared Services
STRATEGIES – DEFENSIVE & OFFENSIVE
SACHDEV RAMAKRISHNA
Shared Services Journey of Tata AutoComp Systems
CREATING A PROFESSIONAL, HIGH DELIVERY SET-UP
SANCHALA PESHWE
The 5S Broom – An Efficiency Builder
UNCOMPLICATING THE COMPLEX
JASMEET KOHLI