http://infotech.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/msid-2705071.cms
Even in IT, pay-as-you-go to reduce the capex is catching up. According to Accenture India Lead, earlier clients use to come to companies with set of requirements. But now they ask what can we offer. Is this trend only in IT or in all the fields. I presume now people have a basic set of requirement for a product/service and then get into comparison mode to see what are the other augment features/functionalities that you offer to differentiate. One way to differentiate this is to build assets within the organization. These assets could be specific to a domain and the assets that can be used in any domain. These assets are nothing but reusable components that can reduce the effort spent on delivering the solution to the client. These components also help to leverage the functionality developed for a certain client in certain domain to other clients in the same domain or other domain. However component based delivery brings its own set of issues like version management of the component, IPR issues in cross sharing features etc. Looks like IBM acquired Webify which provides utility to build component based services. I would recon this utility could be able to create a flow between the components and provide kind of component execution environment in a software framework that is built to provide the basic intended functionality e.g., there could be basic HR module with hooks for customization and utility like Webify could help in adding appropriate hook in these basic module with miniman integration effort.
There is an another word coined for revenue sharing model – outcome based pricing. In this pricing model fee is based on the business outcome. Also the domain specific solutions are being created by the suppliers as solution accelerators. These accelerators could provide a basic platform satifying basic requirements of the customer and whatever additional requirements are there, they could be just developed on top of this platform.
One thing is clear; with downward pressure on the margin, IT firms would be embrasing innovative methods to keep their cost down. I believe the when the firms constantly focus on creating value for the customer through its competitive advange with lower cost, it will automatically increase the value of such firms in terms of revnue and return on investment.
