As organisations the world over search for cost savings to fund growth and innovation, traditional outsourcing across IT business process and infrastructure looks poised to grow. Organisations are now looking to complement the benefit from labour arbitrage by the improved operational efficiency and effectiveness that third-party providers are delivering. They are examining what activities are core to their business and what should be done from somewhere by someone else. As a result, they are driving more work and corresponding budget to a global delivery model, especially in areas such as IT infrastructure services, business process outsourcing, enterprise analytics and engineering & manufacturing solutions, in addition to traditional application development and maintenance. This is expanding the addressable market for traditional outsourcing.
A new generation of highly distributed and virtualised business models, cloud and mobile technologies, and born-digital workers and consumers, the so-called Millennials, has inspired organisations to look for better ways to organise teams, cultivate innovation, allocate resources, and reinvent knowledge processes. IT has become an integral part of every industry and its growth strategy. Increased industry consolidation, coupled with new regulatory requirements and competitive dynamics, is demanding more innovative use of IT and IT skills across service lines and geographies.
IT careers have long ceased to be about coding skills. Companies like Cognizant provide solutions to business problems leveraging technology rather than mere technology capability. Thus, employees are now expected to specialise early in technology, project management or consulting. As companies grow up the value chain, IT professionals are required to understand the working of various industries such as manufacturing, banking, insurance and healthcare. They are required to marry domain knowledge with technological excellence.
With a significant growth in outsourcing of business processes, the IT industry has started attracting a number of professionals from varied?and not just technical?backgrounds. For example, Cognizant, as part of its KPO practice, works on a wide range of higher-end activities, such as alternative fund accounting and equity research in financial services; clinical data management, credentialing, pharmacovigilance and business analytics in healthcare; and fraud detection and subrogation in credit cards. These activities have necessitated us to recruit doctors, pharmacists, pharmacologists, lawyers, chartered accountants, statisticians, supply chain specialists and management graduates who bring in the required subject matter expertise.
At school or college, one can gain high aggregate scores even by rote learning. But in professional life, success is about applying theoretical learning to practical situations. It is interesting to note that what companies are also looking for these days are several other attributes that determine how effective a professional is. ?Hire for attitude and train for skills? is the new mantra companies have adopted while recruiting. It is, of course, important to be skilled. But what is equally important is to be ?employable?. This can be achieved by paying focused attention to behavioural skills, communication and presentation skills, team dynamics, business etiquette, cross-cultural adaptability, and so on. Continuous learning, flexibility, a ?can-do? attitude, and the ability to think and communicate clearly are clear plus points in today?s environment. During job interviews, applicants are assessed on their attitude an ability to adapt to new environments.
Most companies work for international client?le today. Therefore, a global mindset is among the common traits that they look for. Foreign language skills also command a premium in the IT industry today. With companies increasing their geographic footprint, there is an increased demand for people with a global mindset and knowledge of foreign languages such as Chinese, Japanese, French, etc. The next wave will be about multi-skilling and multi-tasking. Earlier, jobs were created using a homogenised hierarchy. However, in times to come, hybrid jobs?those that regularly comprise work in more than one functional area?may become more the rule than the exception. More than ever before, IT careers will have to be about a confluence of technology, industry, management and consulting skills.
The focus is shifting from quantity to quality. The emphasis is on productivity. In future, it will be all about how one can make oneself more capable and attractive and leverage one?s skills for responsibilities far more evolved and diverse than in the past. The mantra is to persevere, think big, worship quality, learn new things and reinvent oneself, without compromising on ethics and value systems.
The author is chief people officer, Cognizant