Adapting to Industry Infinity

Dr. Niladri Choudhuri

• Publisher: Passionpreneur Publishing
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781922456991
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Self Improvement

The traditional industry is disrupted with the acceleration of digital transformation with support from growing technologies like AI. The Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry4.0 is all about advanced computer systems that can talk to other machines with enhanced computational, communication and control capabilities. We will see many more such revolutions and changes related to these. While this is not only disruptive and transformative, it's a metamorphosis where ways of working (WoW) is going to see a complete shift from how we performed earlier.

Software is a cornerstone for this digitalization and the software eco-system viz. the products and solutions provider as well as the IT service providers are a key party to enable it. This book takes a holistic approach to look at the disruptions and how organizations can prepare their ways of working to meet these disruptions head-on. The book provides best practices that can help the top and senior management of the IT service providers. It is also a great read for the top and senior executives of products and solution organizations who typically engage the IT service providers.

The transformation for the new era needs to bring in a change in the partnership from both the service providers and the organizations who partner with them to help meet their customers' demand. Today's transactional relationship that exists between the two parties need to evolve to a true partnership level. Powerful partnerships are very critical in the marketplace for bringing in new solutions and products.

The new demands require faster delivery, safer systems, and an extraordinary user experience with a continual focus on value co-creation. The 10 pillars of metamorphosis that proposed in this book are the key levers for the organizations in adapting to the change. The book addresses the impact due to globalization, movement towards product centric approaches as well as the increase in open source platforms along with privacy and security implications. The ways of working outlined in the book also brings to the forefront the human capital and the leadership support needed to thrive in the various changes to come in future from many more industrial revolution. The book looks beyond the frameworks and models, and still adaptable to the organizations who use specific frameworks for their transformation journey.

1

INTERNATIONALIZATION
TO GLOBALIZATION

“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive, but those who can best manage change.”

—LEON C. MEGGINSON

“Globalization is the process by
which markets integrate worldwide.”

—MICHAEL SPENCE

Information technology has been doing business with organizations across the globe for quite some time. With the global pandemic, there have been more changes to the way companies operate. Today, we have people working from different parts of the world on the same project. The servitized products are used by people from all over the world.

We quite interchangeably use three terms: localization, internationalization, and globalization. However, these terms do have their differences. Let us understand what each means.

Localization: This is a process of adapting a product/service to a specific geographical area. This is when we have a product that can suit the requirements of various markets and is then customized to make it most relevant to a specific geographical location. For example, we have SAP created to be used by any organization in any country. Then there is specific customization to take care of India-specific GST and Indian Accounting Standards. When it is used in the U.K., the GAAP standards are followed.

Internationalization: Meaning the servitized product is created in such a manner that it can be used by customers across the globe. A common example is when we buy a product like a mobile phone. The language can be specifically programmed and the instruction card has directions in most of the common languages people use throughout the world. In the IT world, this is more complex. We need to consider the data encoding like the use of ASCII character encoding with limitations that it will not work with languages like Russian, Hindi, etc. Hardware support should also be considered as certain types of hardware may not be supported in particular countries. User interface is another critical aspect; if software like SAP has to be translated to multiple languages, then the UI design has to be done in such a manner that it has enough space to accommodate various translations for the text. In most cases, it is suggested to internationalize first before localization.

Globalization: As per our quote above, globalization is the activity that brings people, culture, and economies of different countries closer together. In business, “globalization” needs to create practices that will help organizations become better connected to their customers around the world. It covers all aspects of different national markets from product design to marketing. The best example is from something we use daily like Amazon, Netflix, etc. Globalization requires localization and internationalization to be done first.

We would like to present an excerpt from ‘Importance of Globalization in the Information Technology Convergence Era’ (Lee, K. & Joshi, Kailash., 2016), an article that appeared in the Journal of Global Information Technology Management. “We witnessed an interesting development related to JAVA at the Oracle Open World 2014 conference. Utilizing its JAVA platform that is particularly suitable for Internet and mobile environments, Oracle introduced a small car with a driving aid module connected to its data center. Several sensors on the smart car send driving information to the center, where machines simultaneously analyze the information along with the road and traffic conditions and transmit instructions back to the car to help in safe driving and routing. In the keynote speech, Jasper Potts from Oracle stated that traditional smart car systems have limitations in adequately supporting drivers, but these limitations can be overcome by connecting vehicles to a data center, which can provide access to an unlimited amount of information to aid in driving.”

What does this show? These are the products of car manufacturers like Toyota, Ford, Honda, Tata, etc. Here we see the integration with IT and thus there is a new trend where convergence is happening across industry sectors. IT is now a part of every business and hence IT firms are getting more focus and will play a crucial role in value chains. It is important to look at these IT enhancements to ensure they are aligned with the social, cultural and economic situations of the consumers. A critical understanding of consumers across different geographies is a key fundamental for success. Organizations need to have effective globalization strategies and ascertaining the needs and nuances of each of customer in the respective market will be very crucial.

Traditionally, we have been focused on the primary purpose of the product or service. For example, a music system is for listening to music. Now, with the help of IT, we can add more secondary and tertiary attributes. These attributes do not directly affect the primary attributes, as seen within music systems where you can now create a playlist or get information about a song, like the time of its release or a film in which it was made famous. These attributes can influence the decision-making of the customers over competitors. These additional features can be included by using a combination of hardware, software, and network components. Organizations need to shift away from their traditional thought processes and working methods. Moreover, companies need to start having effective international alliances to provide these enhanced servitized products with needed localization. The biggest example is Amazon. Every company has to compete with Amazon. A bank has to compete with Amazon. Healthcare has to compete with Amazon. Unlike most companies, Amazon is providing these services/products to multiple countries in an innovative way with new technology and customization for a specific geographical market. They have done this by collaborating with many local organizations present in specific markets and not only by their own IT setup. The other consideration is the economies of scale. Not all markets will be big enough to set up platforms specifically for that market. In many cases, there are no de facto standards for everything. For example, GDPR is not applicable everywhere. Alliances with strong partners will be an important aspect for successful value delivery to the customers. An interesting, recurring trend we are seeing is organizations coming together with competitors in certain markets to tap the potential where the competitor has the advantage. Cultural values will be an important aspect for better partner organizations to work together. An organization can provide the managed services globally but have various local partners to take care of any necessary physical interactions like replacing physical hardware. IT companies have to consider the cultural and societal uniqueness of each geographical region even from the ideation stage for the servitized product. There is a need for standardization with customization for each geographical area.

These are all very relevant to the system integrators as most large organizations, even the captive units of the organizations, have many system integrators working for them. It will be important for the system integrators to understand the requirements of the client and strategize their engagement accordingly.

The customers need to treat system integrators as their partners and share strategies with them well in advance for the system integrator to be able to plan accordingly. Getting input regarding challenges on the ground and feasible solutions should be considered in the strategy for success. Without including system integrators in the strategy planning, there will be more challenges than success.

Let us now consider the system integrator’s role They need to be strategic partners and take accountability for the outcome for the customer. They are no longer just delivering software, servers, databases, networks or a cloud platform. They need to have a clear understanding of the customer business needs and their short-term and long-term vision. They also need to act as advisors to the customer from an IT perspective. If the customers knew the IT side, they would have no need for a partner.

The first area to be considered is a new, clear contracting model. These will be the guardrails for a successful relationship. The traditional deliverable-based contracts are inadequate. A clear definition of the ownership of the outcomes and achievement of business goals will be required. The contract also needs to give (and clearly state) a certain amount of autonomy to the system integrator to allow them to work in the required manner in this globalization situation. The commercial model has to be reworked as the old commercial models will inhibit the new way of working.

The next important aspect is to define the collaboration requirement in the contract. As multiple system integrators and vendors operate, the need to collaboratively work towards a common shared objective that has been clearly spelled out in the contract. Processes are to be redefined as a value stream and the product team approach will prove useful. Platform teams will help a lot when working with the value stream. There should not be any skill-centric silos.

We have to move beyond the frameworks and use the concepts behind the framework like flow, timeboxing, ITSM, etc. and take the tools and techniques that best achieve the conceived value for each value stream. Practices like DevSecOps and SRE will be very useful with the right implementation. Again, the challenge here is we take the easiest path of just automation. Architecture and refactoring of technical debts, moving to use the new technology, and culture must all go hand-in-hand.

It is important to have a solid understanding of the journey of each persona using the servitized product for everyone working in the product and platform team. The upskilling is important, and investment has to be done from both customers and system integrators. More details on the experimentation and learning will be provided in the ‘Human Capital’ chapter.

Hypothesis-based development will play a key role as we are going to see more and more changes coming up in Industry 4.0. This is an evolutionary process. As new services, products or servitized products are being ideated, the solution is unknown and evolving; hypothesizing and then experimenting to prove the hypothesis will be a good way to arrive at the right solution.

We need to deliver “now” and not after 12 or 18 months. We have to have evolutionary transformation and not a big-bang transformation. If we do not deliver fast, the competitors will deliver faster and outsmart the customer, even to an extent where the effect kills the business for the customer. Agility in every aspect of the value stream has to be there, not just in IT.

Looking at the people aspect, we have already seen that globalization requires everyone to understand the various cultural and societal aspects of people in different geographies. The system integrators also need to consider this as critical for their work. They are the ones to have alliances with various organizations in different parts of the globe.

Domain skills, the understanding of business functions, customers’ vision and goals need to be well articulated and spread across the whole set of people involved in the value stream. Knowledge of regulations and laws of the countries where the service or product is to be provided needs to be known to the team. This situation will also bring more considerations for governance, risk and compliance, and a greater comprehension of these subjects will help deliver better results.

Keeping in mind the five values of DevOps will give better results in achieving the objective. The five values are:

1.Culture

2.Automation

3.Lean

4.Measurement

5.Sharing

We will need to have decentralization of decision-making and autonomy given to each product and platform team in their respective areas with overall governance as guardrails.

Technology will be the most critical in the whole globalization initiative. With IT converging into business, IT becomes a critical element. AI/ML, IoT, and data science will be extensively used, and system integrators will need to upskill their people on the new technology. Using the technology to deliver the value with compliance to laws and regulations requires the system integrators to create a flexible design. The more loosely coupled the architecture is, the more flexibility there will be for localization and globalization. Architecture of the software as well as the architecture of the infrastructure, network, and database is important.

With more new technology being used, integration with partners and alliances being introduced for each geographical region, and the use of more IoT will increase the probability of being vulnerable. Security will be a key consideration that needs to be baked in throughout the pipeline. Here, the pipeline may also cross organization boundaries and integrating into a common environment will be helpful. The use of a joint platform will help on the cloud. Bringing more observability throughout the technology landscape needs to be established and continuously improved. The use of distributed computing, microservices, automation as often as possible is vital.

Scalability needs to be considered; take, for example, the scalability required for Amazon compared to any other e-commerce site that is working only in one geography. Microservices will be helpful to move from localization to globalization. For example, in a multi-currency transaction for various countries, there might be requirements to meet the foreign exchange rules of the local government. Depending on the geography and the currency, the relevant microservice can be called to fulfill the specific regulations of that country in the system. The same program can call different microservices (as is relevant) to complete the transaction.

Resilience needs to be the priority. How soon can the organization get back to its normal business? Even a situation where multiple providers of services are working together needs to be well thought out and architected for implementation. The use of SRE principles and a reduction of toil through automation will help here. Observability needs to be present throughout the pipeline, production, and extending to the end-user. Bringing antifragility through chaos engineering will have to be performed. The objective of chaos engineering isn’t to break things but to make the system stable and identify weaknesses to remediate. All work is to be done from the perspective of the end-users. We need to move beyond the four walls of our own organization to the user endpoint.

Security will be vital for organizations. More new vulnerabilities will come with continued use of new technologies, although the existing ones will still remain. If we see the OWASP top 10 vulnerabilities, the number one is injection vulnerability. This was present from 2017, which is already four years when we are writing this. We will likely even see the hackers also taking the help of AI/ML and data science to hack. Data will be the new currency; protecting data will need specialized techniques and tools. The utilization of DataOps will be beneficial, however, special tools for data protection also will be needed. Security tools will need to improve to ensure fewer false positives. Further details of security are mentioned in the ‘Security’ chapter.

Technology will play a very important role, as well as the integration with non-IT business activities. Opensource products will be used more extensively and community-built products will be utilized as it will be easier to integrate them across organizations and replace them if needed. However, architectural governance will be the key to success.

One more important point to consider is the concern for the environment. It is crucial to develop innovative methods to deliver services and products without negatively affecting the environment or ...