Wipro, India’s third-largest IT services exporter, is intensively engaged in new technologies like artificial intelligence, internet of things and man-machine interface, which are expected to change the very dynamics of the industry. KR Sanjiv, chief technology officer, Wipro, in an interview with PP Thimmaya, says the company has identified these themes as areas that would bring future business opportunities and be a driving force in service delivery. Excerpts
As CTO, what is your innovation mandate?
There are three big blocks we are focusing on. First, looking at the implications of all these innovations on the services portfolio we carry to the market, and how we change that. The services portfolio that generates revenue today could be very different two years hence. This will require new kinds of more relevant skills.
Second, doing the same for customers as the implications are not exclusive to Wipro. As partners, we need to look at how we co-innovate with them.
The third — and the big — charter is instiling the whole innovation culture. A lot of changes are required in our workforce. The question is, how do we prepare the internal organisation for the transformation so that they are able to adapt to the new requirements.
What are your key technology themes?
The first is what’s called smart machines or the internet of things (IoT). It is not just wearables — it is even bigger in the business-to-business (B2B) space, which can seamlessly connect all machines.
The second big area is cognitive systems or artificial intelligence. The ability to design systems that can work closely with human thinking. A lot of low-end work will be replaced by computers.
Third, we believe open source technologies are going to be a big revolution.
Another area where we see a lot of opportunities is man-machine interface. With all the new wearables, the way people interact with systems will be very different. This will magnify into more business opportunities.
How is Wipro enabling the transition?
There are three dimensions to this transition. First, we look at what we take to the market as saleable offerings, which is the whole go-to-market (GTM) engine. The second is in terms of solutions and technology platforms that we are building on the above-mentioned technology themes.
Many basic programming skills will have to be replaced by engineering skills. We are driving several initiatives to reskill our people. It’s going to be big — the scale is large and the rate of change will be rapid.
What’s the latest on Wipro’s automation drive?
We are focusing on standardisation at the core. The initiative was started some time back and we looked at many of our key internal business processes, such as travel, recruitment and expense settlement.
We not only analysed how we automate, but also redesigned them so that they are in tune with the digital world. The benefits from automation will be three-fold: cycle time reduction, fewer errors and an improved user experience. We want a very clear, measurable return on investment (RoI).
The idea is to showcase these capabilities to our customers and it is happening in some areas.
What are the challenges in the way of this transition?
The ability to remain flexible and agile. Another challenge is the whole concept of change management — it has to be handled without creating too many issues internally and externally. Last, talent pool is also a challenge.
