The pandemic has sharply accelerated the process of digital transformation. Along with this, it has brought in a new way of working – the hybrid model. With this model have emerged new opportunities and challenges. A focus on employee well-being and engagement and strong IT infrastructure have thus become imperatives for businesses across verticals.
Speaking to FE, Julie O’ Hara, Group Delivery Director of Computacenter, emphasises the adoption of new-age technologies and impactful employee engagement as two areas that are key to the creation of truly digital infrastructure. “There is need to empower a diverse, mobile, and distributed workforce to be more efficient, collaborative, and engaged for fostering innovation that leads to positive business returns,” she says.
O’ Hara has been with Computacenter, a British multinational that provides computer services to public and private sector customers, for more than 22 years and oversees digital infrastructure delivery, as well as the work of onshore consultants, engineers, and teams delivering to local, national, and international clients from service centres across the globe – involving around 10,000 people. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
“Technology is great, but only if you can leverage it to deliver business value, and that usually entails engaging with your users to ensure mass adoption. So, adoption as well as engagement are very important,” she says. The India unit of Computacenter kicked off operations in the year 2019, taking up delivery functions with just 18 people. Today, it has more than 1,000 people in Bengaluru, Pune, and Hyderabad.
“Our India unit supports large clients through its service desk operations, technology, client’s workplace, networking, cloud, and data centre environment,” says O’ Hara. “People and the technology infrastructure in India have been our major investments so far. We have a people-first approach, and take utmost care of our employees. We have ensured technology adoption as well as employee engagement to create a digitally transformed and safe workplace for everyone.”
Highlighting that innovations are coming out of India, she emphasises enhancing customer services on cloud networking and leveraging data analytics to ensure seamless business continuity in the country. The adoption of any new technology brings to the fore the question of security. Securing an organisation’s technology, people and data is more critical and more challenging than ever before,” says O’ Hara. “Using over 30 years of experience in delivering security outcomes, Computacenter has developed a comprehensive collection of security propositions that we call DigitalTrust. This portfolio covers all aspects of cybersecurity and enables a brand to help customers address all their security needs.”
The British tech firm prides itself on its long-term association with large public and private companies. “This is testimony to our customer-first approach and successful engagement with our stakeholders across verticals, along with our product and service capabilities in cloud infrastructure, data security, and networking,” she says.
When asked about trends in the industry, she mentions that apart from the increased adoption of emerging technologies since the onset of the pandemic and the hybrid way of working, user experience has become very important now. “Seamless user experience in the digital world will drive customer engagement and increase brand affinity,” says O’Hara.
GOING STRONG
* Computacenter is listed on London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of FTSE 250 Index
* The India unit of Computacenter kicked off operations in 2019
* It has more than 1,000 people working in Bengaluru, Pune, and Hyderabad
* Firm has built comprehensive collection of security propositions called DigitalTrust