For organisations experiencing rapid growth, the ability to scale internal systems becomes as important as the services they deliver to customers. Persistent Systems, known globally for digital engineering and enterprise modernisation, is undergoing a transformation of its own enterprise technology landscape to support its expanding business.
In an exclusive interaction with Express Computer, Debashis Singh, Chief Information Officer at Persistent Systems, discusses how they are rethinking their internal technology architecture, building a stronger system of records, and using cloud-based enterprise applications to enable agility, data visibility, and faster decision-making across the organisation.
Aligning digital transformation with business growth
Singh believes for sustaining such growth, it is important for these systems to scale from the very beginning. “When you’re doing quarter by quarter or year on year, this level of growth, essentially, means every fourth year or three and a half years, you are doubling your strength in terms of revenue, in terms of people, in terms of complexity.”
To support its growth, Persistent starts its transformation journey with improving its system of record, which includes its core platforms for financial, operational, and workforce information. Once this foundation is stabilised, the organisation builds intelligence and automation capabilities on top of it.
Beyond siloed legacy systems
As Persistent Systems grew globally, the constraints of its earlier enterprise systems became more and more evident. Many applications ran in isolation, and data was transferred manually from one system to another.
This lack of integration, Singh says, was where the issue of “visibility and agility” was.
“We had siloed tools and platforms. So that was precisely what was not giving you a single source of truth.”
Structural rigidity also became an issue. Even small organisational changes could trigger downstream disruptions because systems were not designed to work together.
“You only come to know about it when the actual problem lands in front of you. And that is where you are always taken back and are not enabled to manage those agilities or those speeds,” he points out.
As the company grew and expanded to different geographical locations, the need to develop an integrated system that could support different regulatory needs, business processes, and financial systems in different regions became more important.
Building an integrated enterprise platform
In order to solve the challenges that the company was facing, Persistent decided to use Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications as a core platform to manage its finances, HR, procurement, and operations.
Singh explains that this will enable the company to unify its critical business processes in one single system. “Unifying all our finance processes, unifying our people processes, the procurement part of it, and of course our budgeting to planning, a complete ecosystem of running the business… came as part of a single platform and having a single source of truth coming out of that.”
With the consolidation of systems, the company is also able to retire several legacy applications that previously created operational complexity.
The shift to a SaaS environment brings built-in scalability and industry best practices, allowing Persistent to standardise many of its internal workflows while improving compliance across geographies.
Improving operational efficiency and financial visibility
One of the most visible outcomes of the transformation is the improvement in financial closing cycles.
Previously, reconciling revenue and financial data across global operations required several days of manual work. With integrated systems and automated workflows, the process is now significantly faster.
“The earlier time the book closure used to take anywhere between four to six or at times seven days… this particular process got reduced to below two days now,” says Singh.
Procurement workflows have also become more streamlined. Earlier processes required manual coordination between procurement and payment systems, which created delays and potential inconsistencies.
Now, integrated workflows automate these processes, reducing human intervention and improving financial planning accuracy.
The transformation also strengthens compliance management across geographies, particularly in areas such as workforce mobility, where regulatory requirements differ between regions. “Compliance becomes much easier when the rules are embedded into the platform,” he adds.
Turning enterprise data into actionable intelligence
While operational improvements are important, Singh believes the real value of the transformation lies in the data foundation it creates.
Persistent connects its enterprise platforms to a central data environment, enabling advanced analytics and AI-driven insights. This allows business leaders to identify patterns, anticipate risks, and make more informed decisions.
Earlier analytics models struggled due to inconsistent data quality. With a unified system of record, the organisation now operates on what Singh describes as trusted “golden data”.
“When your data becomes golden, you start seeing the intelligence which is as near as 98-99%,” he asserts.
Today, business planning discussions increasingly rely on real-time insights generated directly from enterprise systems. “Today, we run our entire planning session on the system. It doesn’t happen in PPT. It runs live on the Oracle system.”
Managing change across the organisation
Large-scale enterprise transformation inevitably requires cultural as well as technical change. Singh emphasises that strong leadership support is critical to aligning different business units around the transformation agenda. “This kind of change, which is enterprise-wide, has to be driven from the top. If you do not have a buy-in from the CEO of the organisation, you don’t buy in from a CFO of the organisation or a CHRO of the organisation; it will never flow down.”
Persistent approaches change management by involving business teams early, demonstrating the value of the new systems, and allowing employees to interact directly with the platform through pilot programmes and training initiatives. “Show them the value that you are going to give back… make those conference room pilots very detailed so people can touch and feel the system,” he points out.
The company also deploys digital adoption tools that guide employees through workflows directly within the application interface, helping accelerate adoption.
Preparing for an AI-driven enterprise future
With its digital core now in place, Persistent is looking towards the next phase of transformation, embedding AI more deeply into enterprise operations.
Singh envisions a future where employees interact with enterprise systems through a single intelligent interface, rather than navigating multiple applications. “Why, as an employer, as a customer, do I need to move from one app to another app? I just should get one single interface, and I will just kind of consume all the services from that interface.”
However, he emphasises that successful AI adoption depends on a strong data foundation. “If your data is not golden, your AI is going to give you only garbage. Garbage in, garbage out.”
Singh believes the message is clear: build a reliable data layer first, then layer intelligence on top of it. “Focus on the data layer. That is the core,” he emphasises.
As Persistent continues to scale globally, its evolving digital core is not only supporting internal efficiency but also shaping how the organisation approaches enterprise modernisation for its customers.