The iterative roles of IT and business strategy which was predicted over two decades ago by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is very much in evidence today. From the days when IT strategy followed the business strategy of any firm, in industry after industry today, rapid developments in technology capabilities have enabled far-sighted CEOs to recraft many elements of strategy around new technology capabilities. While emerging capabilities of Web 2.0 and the internet have provided new enablers to strategy, mobility and wireless, cloud computing and Platform BPO solutions are now transforming top and bottom lines and proving to be true game changers.

The Web 2.0 opportunity has been exploited by many leading manufacturing and distribution firms, both overseas and in India through the ability to collaboratively read write publish and interact on the internet and use social networking concepts and capabilities for business benefit. From finding new value chain partners to potential employees and attracting new customers to full fledged deployment of supplier and dealer portals with rich user interfaces, ease of operation and ready accessibility with high security, some outstanding deployments are in evidence today that have enabled an order of magnitude improvement in supply and demand chain management efficiency and effectiveness.

The cloud as an optimiser through the elimination of capital investments in favour of a pay-per-use shared and standardised method of consuming information services is also beginning to see robust use with the initial worries on security being allayed in most industry sectors. A leading provider of utility network, infrastructure and maintenance services has transitioned its entire customer facing legacy systems onto a cloud platform, integrating disparate applications, reducing multiple and sometimes conflicting data sources and improving customer responsiveness and business agility manifold.

Mobility solutions are the next big optimisation tool with every consumer now having text data and graphics capability on their hand-held devices, enabling firms to manage decentralised workforces, reduce process cycle times and operating costs and improve data access timeliness and quality for employees as well as external stakeholders. A recent implementation of a crew rostering system on BlackBerries has shown the potential that exists in using commonly available technology uncommonly well in every application that calls for rapid interactions across distances.

The likely use of platforms for increasing the effectiveness of business process outsourcing was predicted by Forrester Research when they said that using a standard software foundation would cut costs by an additional 20 to 30% on top of the 15 to 20% savings of a traditional BPO solution. A recent implementation in India of a comprehensive Accounts Payable Process Platform with digital scanning, hosting and archiving of invoices, automated workflow and matching and outsourced process management including approvals, supplier query management and exception handling has resulted in reduction of invoice processing costs by over 70% and staff time usage of over 30% while late payments reduced by 12% and process cycle times were shortened by over 40%. Platform adoption is enabling better profitability for host software publishers as well as BPO service providers because of the overall efficiency of IT usage.

The benefits of embracing these new solutions is obvious. Optimising processes and cutting costs through technology deployment is good in itself and also enables funds to be made available for the next wave of new ideas and applications that will provide the competitive cutting edge and improve market and opportunity share.

Service providers are transforming too and the Outsourcing 3.0 mantra will see all the significant players focusing on the development and deployment of vertical domain products and cloud and platform solutions. While this is apparent in the public pronouncement of the multi-billion dollar players in the industry, even smaller players like Zensar have completely reengineered our business model to a vertical go to market structure, supported by end to end development migration and application deployment services with solutions extending from the cloud on one hand to the mobile platform on the other.

This is a quiet transformation with far-reaching ramifications for all players. The IT and BPO industry will have refuel its engines mid-flight as it were, continuing to optimise and reduce costs for customers while partnering them in innovation and growth transformation and helping them to explore and master new organisational changes and IT governance mechanisms as business and technology explore new opportunities for transformation.

The writer is vice-chairman & CEO of Zensar Technologies and a member of Nasscom?s Chairmen?s Council