Persistent has embedded sophisticated Analytics in every enterprise function

The overarching narrative for the entire Analytics journey is not simply to generate Insights but be able to drive Actions, says Major General Amarjit Singh, Chief Information Officer at Persistent Systems Ltd

Some edited excerpts:

What are some of the key initiatives with respect to analytics in Persistent?
Persistent is a leading Software Services company with a long history of leveraging technology for competitive advantage, for itself and for its customers. We leverage Analytics, including Machine Learning, for our internal use as well as build solutions for our customers based on what we build in-house.

On the Business front, we use a rich analytics solution stack to understand our dynamic market, prospects and customers, forecast revenues and drive engagement with customers using our unique Customer360 framework. Our IP led product, OrgConnect, has been built and tested in-house and it allows us to observe, model and engage all external stakeholders on a continuous basis.

From an Execution standpoint, we observe and engage employees to drive business metrics but also a healthy work-life balance. Our IP led product, Delivery Hub, using enterprise wide data, modelled in an Enterprise data lake, to discover risks on customer projects and advise teams on remedial actions. We also use an extensive amount of unstructured data, and process it using our IP led Text.AI platform to generate NLP outputs like Sentiment, Entity Extraction and more to enrich structured enterprise data.

We also use Analytics extensively to leverage all environmental data in the form of attendance systems, video surveillance, monitoring of air-conditioning systems, monitoring of lighting systems and solar energy systems to drive Operational Efficiency, Reduce Risks and enhance Safety and Compliance.

The overarching narrative for the entire Analytics journey is not simply to generate Insights but be able to drive Actions. A key initiative that we are pursuing is to create a measurement framework for all business activities and use the same to enable management of Objectives and Key Results. The most critical initiative, from an IT perspective, is our Integrated Operations framework, that allows us to monitor all security and availability parameters across all our connected systems and respond to external attacks or natural disruptions.

What have been the key benefits?

Persistent has benefited across multiple business and enterprise functions. Being a software services company, early insights into Demand and Employee Engagement, to include Attrition Risk and Morale, has allowed us to keep the size of the bench small without losing out on business opportunities. Modelling and analyzing Employee Skills on a continuous basis, has allowed us to choose the best employees for specific customer assignments thus increasing our Customer Satisfaction indicators and repeat business. Similarly, our Delivery Hub platform allows us to discover project risks, thus reducing customer escalations and improving retention of key customers.

On the cost front, Just in Time provision of hardware and software, supported by a rich IT Asset model and transaction data, has allowed us to cut down significantly on consumption of hardware, software and public cloud services. Our IP led platform FreeBird, allows us to provision, monitor and optimize consumption of all IT resources across the enterprise and thus improve our profitability. On the community and environment front, our analytics solutions have allowed Persistent to overachieve on all environment health parameters and provide a sense of purpose to our employees.

How critical is analytics in the digital journey of your firm?

The Analytics journey is not just critical but integral to the business of the company, being as it is the major revenue generating capability.

What have you been able to do today that would not have been possible without using analytics? Can you cite some examples which showcases how analytics has been useful for your firm?

There are unique benefits that accrue from our ongoing Analytics journey. The biggest one of course is continuing optimization of costs as we gain ever greater visibility of the allocation and utilization of enterprise assets. In that sense, we have a level of Utilization of fixed and moveable assets and our employees that was not possible without embedding sophisticated Analytics in every enterprise function. As another example, our Integrated Observability Framework, has allowed us to operate at the highest levels of Availability and Resilience and allowed us to distinguish ourselves from our competition, even as external attacks and disruptions have gone up significantly. Our ability to Predict, using the best in class ML and AI methods, has allowed us to stay ahead of the curve and avoid unexpected setbacks.

Evolution of analytics in your firm – do you see Analytics handling more complex processes now or in the future?

Our vision and roadmap for Analytics can be described using the Data to Decisions framework and the comparable military paradigm of the OODA Loop. In either case, we are continuing to pursue a path of Total Observability, Rapid Orientation, Playbook for Decision Making supported by the latest in AI and, Automation with human oversight. The entire effort is to give our leadership, employees, customers and other external stakeholders a clearer view of the past and the future, allowing us to fulfill our corporate and social mission and purpose.