Tech Mahindra rolls out automation tool to boost productivity

In line with some of its large Indian peers, Tech Mahindra, India’s fifth largest information technology (IT) services company, has come out with its own automation platform, AQT.

Tech Mahindra expects it would help improve productive by at least eight to 10 per cent in the next two to three years. In IT parlance, productivity gain is basically about getting more work (in this case, 10-12 per cent) done using the same number of people.

L Ravi, president and chief operating officer, Tech Mahindra, told Business Standard the company would not only embrace the platform in house for all the new projects it is bidding for, it had also started rolling it out in some of its existing client projects.

To start with, the company has identified over 100 projects where it is rolling out the platform on a pilot basis before taking it gradually to all projects.

Tech Mahindra is also launching training programmes for the project managers to keep them abreast of the various automation tools and technologies that have been used in this framework.

“It is like man plus machine. Many a times, we deploy senior resources in manning repetitive and mundane works which the software can do it while the complex ones can be handled by people,” said Ravi. “This would not only help in productivity improvement, it would help in reducing the costs by deploying lesser number of staff with lesser experience, thus improving the margins. In the long run, we hope that this would improve employee satisfaction and reducing attrition.”

According to Tech Mahindra, the company started building the platform almost six months ago by consolidating all the tools and technologies developed by it in the past 10 years. One of the vital components in the platform has also been provided by FixStream, a US-based analytics company in which Tech Mahindra had acquired 75 per cent stake for around Rs 60 crore last year.

With this, Tech Mahindra joins some of its larger rivals such as Infosys, TCS and Wipro who have developed their own in-house automation platforms. Infosys, for example, has its Infosys Automation Platform (IAP) which it is already using for client projects. Wipro is aggressively marketing its in-house open source based cognitive intelligence platform Holmes with the clients after successfully testing for its own internal use. TCS, India’s largest IT services company, is laying a strong focus on automation and artificial intelligence as the company is constantly looking out ways for improving non-linearity in its business model.

Tech Mahindra, almost six months ago, has set up a separate group called the Center for Automation Technologies (CAT) which works the company’s automation strategy and enablement support. The centre presently has around 230 dedicated staff.

WHAT LIES AHEAD

• The company expects it would help improve productive by 8-10% in the next two to three years
   
• It has identified over 100 projects where it is rolling out the platform on a pilot basis before taking it gradually to all projects
   
• It is also launching training programmes for project managers to keep them abreast of automation tools