The dominance & reliance of IT enabled services has increased considerably with COVID. The IT enabled services facilitate remote work services, covering a wide range of operations leveraging information technology for improving business functions and efficiency of an organisation.The IT enabled services include call center services, chat, customer support, medical transcription, accounting, billing, medical coding, back office, virtual bookkeeping, content marketing, payroll management, supply chain and logistics, HR services, online marketing & sales management etc.

In short, almost every business function is now possible with IT enabled services. The adoption of cloud, smartphones and ever improving internet connectivity has proven to be a great accelerator for the web based business services.

Information technology is playing a more prominent role in shaping businesses with improved quality of services, maintaining continuity & building new business models to tackle ongoing pandemic. Here’s a look at some of the opportunities for businesses in the post COVID world:

1. Interactive Customer Interactions:

Customer interactions are a great opportunity for brand building. Many top brands excel at it and IT enabled services facilitate effective customer interactions. Take for e.g. the customer support activities can be provided using integrated help desk systems. Customers can ask questions, raise tickets and interact with support teams with integrated platforms. For e.g. financial accounting systems with support teams for help.

With traditional support infrastructure moving online, there is a growing opportunity for companies to provide online infrastructure services for customer service and support. The services for implementing marketing, support & sales for customers.

IT companies are providing end to end customer support infrastructure for their clients to interact with their own customers using help desk systems, marketing tools and customised CRM for sales management.

2. System Integrator & Data Services

The system integrator aggregates the various systems and allows an organisation to function using real time data. The integrator works across different software products and systems to build a real time integrated view of the data across the organisation.

Many organisations prefer using different systems that are best of the breed solutions. The system integrator services integrate these usings APIs, connectors and tools for data & functional integration. Apart from data integration, companies can build their customised workflow for manufacturing, material management, finance, accounting, HR and business management services.

3. Virtual Bookkeeping

The virtual bookkeeping helps an organisation maintain its up to date accounts. Financial management and bookkeeping is an integral part of business. The IT enabled services help an organisation leverage third party accounting and financial expertise. It helps them prepare their account books, use the latest accounting software and manage compliance with ease.

These services allow an organization to focus on the core aspects of their business, while the IT partner provides both software and managed services for accounting and finance. Companies are no longer interested in just using third party softwares, but they need accounting services and data management too.

4. Electronic Distribution Platforms

While companies are looking at online channels for reaching their customers, there is a growing need for electronic distribution platforms for their products & services. These distribution platforms can do the GPS mapping, track delivery status of the products & customer payment status etc.

The IT enabled services can be used by businesses for distribution of their products and services. The distribution platforms provide all procure to pay services for the businesses to sell their products and services to their customers.

5. Cloud Security

As companies leverage online tools, web services and remote working, security remains a serious concern. Organisations are looking at service providers who can provide end to end cloud security options & manage their virtual infrastructure. For e.g. a service provider who can create, manage and maintain access to company resources and data.

The cloud security and virtual infrastructure management services include defining company policies, technologies, application services, controls, data access, & services management. Organisations can manage their intellectual property, data, & services using cloud security solutions.

6. Data Backup & Recovery Services

As organisations work remotely and allow employee access from anywhere, any device and anytime, there are cloud endpoints that could be vulnerable.

There could be employees & users who update, upgrade application software and create situations for accidental damage of data. There is a possibility of an intrusion, virus attack, deletion of files, inaccessible logical volumes of data, physical damages to storage devices etc.

IT enabled services can provide data back-up & recovery services for companies. These services can help companies take required mitigation steps to avoid loss of application data and prevent data loss proactively. The data recovery services to retrieve lost or damaged data using software techniques.

7. Recruitment Management & Virtual Onboarding

Recruiting for traditional businesses has transformed quite a bit. Candidates prefer options for virtual onboarding and recruitment today. Companies that specialise in building HR products and services are providing recruitment solutions to tap into the online talent pool.

Businesses can use these recruitment management software for shortlisting, assessing and rolling out offers to their employees. The recruitment management software includes services like employee verification, document management, and virtual onboarding checks etc. The employee shifts, team details, project, task allotment and all joining formalities can be done using the recruitment & virtual onboarding software services.

8. Virtual learning & Knowledge Services

Stanford Professor, Nicholas Bloom’s research had shown that work from home led to a performance increase of 13% and lower attrition. The remote working culture is here to stay and organisations need to find the best ways to continuously reskill their employees too.

The IT enabled services can provide virtual learning and knowledge services for employees. The IT companies can provide the complete HR tools and platforms to facilitate learning and knowledge management for employees.

These companies can leverage the HR tools for creating their own specialised training material for their employees. Say, the employees would only be eligible for certain projects after completion of certain training modules. IT companies can provide a complete knowledge management system to train new workforce, structure learning modules, employee performance and skill gap levels for their teams. For e.g. a new employee wouldn’t be allotted projects before completion of mandatory project management training.

Kreyon Systems is an IT enabled services partner for digital document, enterprise content management, finance and accounts, data research and analytics. If you need any assistance in implementation services or have questions, please get in touch with us.

The post 8 Business Opportunities for IT Enabled Services in the Post COVID World appeared first on Kreyon Systems | Blog | Software Company | Software Development | Software Design.

Most Enterprise IT projects fail. According to a study by Mckinsey in conjunction with Oxford, “On average, large IT projects (budgets over $15M) run 45 percent over budget and 7 percent over time, while delivering 56 percent less value than predicted.” Gartner studies suggest that 75% of all US IT projects are considered to be failures by those responsible for initiating them. But with the growing technology penetration in business, can companies run away from digitisation? Far from it. Infact, alignment of business with IT remains on top priority for most companies today.

Companies are looking for ways to make digitisation as a part of their core business strategy. They want to connect to the consumers today through apps, social media and other channels. These companies are looking at ways to ensure that their enterprise IT projects not only synch with the existing infrastructure but also power them to newer growth opportunities in the digital age. A look at 10 tips to ensure success for your enterprise IT projects & solutions:

1. Clear Requirements:

Software is meant to facilitate a business process. A clear understanding of the requirements for the project is a must before initiating the project. Below is an indicative list of few questions that an organisation should answer are as follows:

What are the key objectives of the project?
What are the evaluation criteria for acceptance of deliverables?
What is the software or application developed to accomplish?
What is the expected ROI from the project?
Does the application need to integrate with any of the existing IT Systems?

Evaluate the needs of user groups that are going to use the application. Who will be authorised to view & edit information etc. The key objective of these requirements is to set an agenda on what needs to be delivered for the project. Clarity of requirements is one of the most crucial aspects that can ensure success of an enterprise IT Project.

2. Stakeholder communication plan & Involvement:

An enterprise IT project is not the job of an IT Manager, vendor or third party involved in this business. It is a collective responsibility. The top stakeholders must be able to articulate their vision in terms of what they expect from the project. They should also evaluate the project on regular basis. A clear communication plan, feedback & involvement of the top executives are important for project’s success.

3. Proper Scheduling & Milestones:

Large IT projects are complex, they overshoot budgets & time. The best way to manage these projects is to break them into smaller milestones. These milestones should be aligned to business priorities for the clients. The milestone and project planning should also mark the responsibilities of the enterprise IT Solutions vendor & the organisation clearly to avoid any conflicts. A proper and realistic schedule ensures sufficient execution time for the milestones. The skills of the team and their competencies should also be taken into account for a good project schedule. All relevant dates should be proactively communicated to everyone involved.

4. Eliminate Unnecessary Features:

Softwares which try to accomplish everything for everyone usually end up disappointing all. The features that don’t add value for a business shouldn’t be part of the application software. Elimination of unnecessary features is an absolute must at an early stage. The most important features should be prioritised in the scope of work. The features that don’t benefit end users or accomplish no useful task shouldn’t be included in the application. With the growing adoption of mobile devices, it is even more critical to have focused features for the users.

5. Application Design mock-ups for Users:

Design is a great way to sell ideas, communicate & effectively solve problems. The design mock-ups for the application or software can be shared with users on a regular basis. These designs are great ways to get everyone on the same page and understand the user needs. Identify the end user usage patterns? Do the end users prefer mobile screen or use desktops/laptops for work? Share the screens of the designs with users on regular basis for their feedback. Early stage feedback saves time and keeps the development process on track.

6. Review deliverables on regular basis:

End user involvement is one of the best ways to improve the outcome of a software project. The first step is to get the approval of all relevant stakeholders on key deliverables, then ensure that progress is shared with the users of the system. Sometimes, the priorities of deliverables can change according to business dynamics. While deliverables are reviewed by the organisation, authorised users may also be able to communicate any urgent or priority requirements.

7. Use the right technology & approach:

Technology is a tool to accomplish business requirements. The software should be developed to address the pain points of the customer. The right use of technology should be evaluated to serve the business needs. To evaluate the needs of the business, relevant questions may be asked:
Do you need to build a new application?
Do you need Data Migration from existing systems?
Is there an application upgrade required?

What are the security implications for the software?

What are the limitations of existing systems & users?
What platforms are needed?
Where is the application DB going to reside?

A lot of projects go off track because they prioritise technology over business objectives. However, technology should be chosen depending on the business requirement of the client.

8. Build Right teams:

Building the right team for a project is a great competency. The team should have the right balance of people who understand technology & business needs of the customers. The team has the right resources to ensure the success. Building the right team requires good communication to retain the team and get them to deliver on dynamically changing business needs.

Mapping the features against client requirements is critical. The team should have clear and well defined roles. A great team works on synergy effect and understands that technology is meant to solve problems. A good team communicates proactively, especially when something goes amiss. They bring it to the notice of the management at the earliest and fire fight their way out of trouble. They deliver work that meets deadlines, requirements and also the usability aspects of the application. The characteristics of a successful team can be summarised by the following two principles of agile project development:

i) The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
ii) Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.

9. Resources:

Large scale IT projects can take time & resources. It is important to have a proper resource management plan before initiating the project. A careful evaluation of the key parameters is essential to make the project successful. The organisation’s commitment towards the project in terms of key resources like time, budget, and stakeholder involvement are a must before initiating the project.

10. System Integration & Go live support:

IT Projects are complex. They require time for implementation. Once the project is completed, organisations take time to get used to the processes and digitisation. The best IT teams offer best in class support to ensure that all data migrations from existing system to new system happen smoothly. The deployment of the applications, database migration, setting up of privileges and operational support should be planned for enterprise software. Systems where end users can interact with back-end teams and get their queries resolved improve communication. The Go live support can be a differentiating factor to make an IT Project successful.

Success of an organisation is largely dependent on the way it is run. Some of the best companies around the way are run with the most efficient software systems. According to a recent Gartner survey, Modernisation of the core enterprise applications remains high on priority for organisations around the world. The enterprise IT systems can transform businesses by helping them to modernise their processes with digitisation & prepare themselves to handle challenges in the technology era.

Kreyon Systems is an offshore software company for business process outsourcing and IT enabled services. Please reach out to us for any assistance or queries.

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