As the industry moves towards a software-focused and solutions-oriented economy, traditional systems integrators (SIs) are compelled to enhance their offerings and prove their relevance in such an ecosystem. Reseller ME examines the importance of systems integration in today’s business and how SIs can evolve to meet customer expectations.
Enterprises in the region are in the midst of a digital transformation where ensuring all systems and solutions are integrated and work in tandem are of prime importance. The current technology landscape compels organisations to look at its IT consumption models from a different perspective. And here is where the systems integrators of today can make a difference.
The traditional role of an SI is to help customers with their IT challenges and achieve business objectives while saving on costs and improving efficiencies. This role remains unchanged, but in light of emerging technologies, an SI must have a more future-focused outlook.
Bertram MJ Collins, Head of ICT Portfolio, CNS, says, “Customers require certain technologies for different business outcomes and as systems integrators, we are the conduit that ensures that they get the right solutions they need from the right vendor.
“We aim to ensure that the customers get the best set of technology solutions tailored to their business requirements. With technologists and innovators constantly coming up with new products and solutions, although beneficial for the industry, it also creates a lot of complexities,” he says. “It is important for customers to make sense of these technology complexities and look at why they need systems integration for their businesses. The purpose of SIs is to guide them in knowing how these technologies can help their businesses go to the next level. SIs need to constantly stay ahead of the curve and be active in advancing and modifying their offerings on a regular basis. They need to know what a particular technology does and how it can benefit the customer.”
However, what SIs need to remember is that the pace of change of IT won’t allow them to build experience the way they used to, says Amjad Mustafa, Executive Director, Entermarkets. “They used to create these experiences through repetition of plans and processes with different customers.”
That will not be sufficient anymore as more companies embrace service-oriented architecture, new channels and new devices, there are more innovative systems that eliminate procedure rather than legacy core systems.
“SIs are therefore expected to manage the innovation process, as business and commerce continue to become acutely aware of the speed of change in IT.
“SIs have to be a part of their customers’ business innovation, in order to completely understand how to make their operations better. This means that SIs need to work hand-in-glove with a wide range of their clients’ divisions – not just CIOs. Most importantly, SIs cannot work independently or separately from their clients,” Mustafa adds.
Sunil Paul, Co-Founder and COO, Finesse, agrees to this saying that an individual competences of the role change quite dynamically hand-in-hand with evolving technologies, with the need to using implementation methods suitable for specific delivery types.
Along with the dynamic technology environment, customer demands have also evolved emphasising more on value.
According to Sakkeer Hussain, Sales and Marketing Director, D-Link MEA, customers are demanding products, which feature the latest technology.
“For example, energy-efficient products, which are cost-effective and at the same time value-engineered for optimum performance. Skilled engineers and SIs who offer value-added services to enhance the expertise of IT personnel by providing for example technical support, are always appreciated by end-customers.”
And those who don’t or remain status-quo stand at risk to losing to competition.
Mustafa explains, “They need to understand the evolving and fluid nature of IT and IoT to maximise opportunities.”
According to Collins, SIs need to recognise that they are not just resellers of technology. “They need to become an end-to-end value chain organisation. This means that they have to provide services form value intelligence up to value optimisation. They should be able to act as advisors for their customers as well as optimisers of the solutions set in place, and everything else in between.
“IDC has predicted that services business will grow by a compounded annual growth rate of 89 percent, which is very significant as this shows that customers are increasingly looking out for service providers who can give them strategic advice and optimisation,” he says.
This is what will differentiate an SI from competition. SIs are gearing up to become full-fledged IT services providers, cloud providers and managed services providers building on the integration expertise they offer the market. However, to be in a position to offer these services, is not without challenges.
The biggest hurdle that they face today is transforming their business models.
“Integrators need to adapt to ever-changing external conditions, keep up with acceleration, continue investments in training, simplification and shrinking. They need to respond to adoption of new technologies and requests for replacement or elimination of parts of enterprise information systems,” Paul says.
Vibhu Kapoor, Director Channel and Alliances Ecosystem, India, Middle East and Africa, Infor, adds, “The move from ‘implementers’ and ‘box pushers’ to ‘trusted advisors’ and ‘consultants’ requires the SIs to make considerable investment in in-house technical and business ‘consultants’, provide continuous training to make sure these consultants are well-versed with the latest technologies as well as have the necessary soft skills.”
Acquiring the right talent is a vital aspect of systems integration. Unfortunately, this is also one of the biggest concerns for companies in the region.
Stephen Fernandes, Executive Vice President, TransSys Solutions, says, “Attracting and retaining key IT talent and skills have always been an uphill task in the SI industry.”
The skills shortage is more so because most of the sales are value-driven and require the partner to have some consultative skills.
Collins adds, “One of the challenges for SIs at the moment is having adequate industry and business knowledge. Another is the need for ICT skills and competencies. This is one of the most difficult bottlenecks for SIs because customers often desire a one-stop-shop solutions providers.”
The only way to overcome this is through regular training and knowledge-sharing forums. SIs need to ensure that their staff have the right technical skills required for a particular job and also look at honing skills from junior levels.
“The quality of systems and certifications in the ICT industry is also another challenge. The processes for acquiring certain certifications to be able to have systems that will help you manage customers and design specific solutions for them is very tedious. And customers are looking for certifications from organisations like ourselves all the time, and that is a major challenge,” Collins explains.
Despite a challenging environment, the future of systems integration looks bright, considering the region is propelling towards creating smart governments.
Deepak Verma, Managing Director, Think SS, believes those SIs who are willing to change and adopt new roles will succeed and will be ahead of the curve.
Maged Eid, Regional Director, Nexthink, says, “SIs can sharpen their competitive edge by embracing IT analytics solutions to differentiate their offerings, better meet customer needs and deliver IT projects on time with a fast ROI.”
According to Jude Pereira, Managing Director, Nanjgel Solutions, SIs can be successful provided they are well-educated on next-generation technologies and have a highly skilled professional team of certified engineers.
Most of all, he says, “They need to continue to support the client wholehearted post-implementation of the solutions.”
SIs should look at long terms relationships and build the rapport with their customers. Organisations often require highly customised service, and SIs should be able to deliver that while also counseling the customer on the best suited solution for his needs.
Sanjay Ahuja, VP, MEA, AGC Networks, adds, “Doing this requires a deep understanding of present and potential customers, who they are, what they need, where they are and where they need your expertise. The SI who knows at this level can be more effective in gaining a leadership position in the market.”
