There is a constant stream of new technologies making its way into business. Today it is technologies like big data, artificial intelligence, natural language processing (NLP) and blockchain. Tomorrow it could be mixed reality and quantum computing. Organisations therefore risk falling rapidly behind on the technology curve. The risk is no different for technology service providers and integrators. New technologies are introducing change in the way providers build solutions and present them to customers; they cannot rely any longer on off-the-shelf products, licences and multi-year support contracts. Instead, they must provide platforms that allow customers to access and use new technologies quickly.

Old-school makes way for new

In the past, technology providers looked at new technology and speculated how it could be applied to their clients. They don’t have to do this anymore. Instead, at Wipro we have institutionalised an approach for our clients to experiment with new and emerging technologies in a similar way one would work with startup products and platforms to derive much higher value in terms of agility with minimal investments.

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A working example of the Platforms approach

For a picture of what this translates to in terms of everyday business, consider the Wipro AutoInsights platform—a modern, connected vehicle platform designed to meet the needs of progressive auto Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and various stakeholders in their journey towards digital transformation offering connected experiences to their customers.

Automotives have a long ownership lifecycle, on an average around 10 years. This brings an opportunity for automakers to provide services (as experiences) to their customers beyond just offering a great vehicle. These services have the potential to touch customers at every interaction, deliver an experience which is relevant to their needs and re-iterate the value of the automaker’s brand. Consumers are known to be drawn to brands which deliver on their needs consistently and AutoInsights offers a great platform for OEMs to do so.

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Seamless experience, however, is critical in such use cases and often needs a set of key technologies to work in unison. Technologies such as IoT, big data, AI, ML, analytics, cloud, voice and interactive experience (iX) are emerging as key enablers in offering connected, immersive experiences.

The AutoInsights platform pivots around the critical need to maximise the lifetime value of a vehicle by offering a platform to create connected experiences as specific services. To achieve this, the platform binds several technologies ranging from cloud to analytics, telematics, voice recognition, and virtual reality (VR) offered to both as B2B and B2C channels. The end result is greater than the sum of the parts.

The services offered by AutoInsights are centered on KPIs which are critical to an automotive OEM business – services that increase leads to dealerships, improve sales conversion ratios, provide connected experiences, improve consumer safety, reduce total cost of ownership, create new revenue channels and also improves resales and lock-in.

The value of platforms

From a customer perspective, the advantages of leveraging a platform-based approach include:

• Minimal cost in experimenting with new technologies
• Access to a startup mindset and technological expertise
• Faster time to market using latest and best-fit technologies
• Access to commercial models, optimising costs (from pay-per-use, per customer, per activity and outcome-based combining SaaS services, network and hardware)
• Access to analytics and insights to shape campaigns, products and services

Wipro has made significant investments in infrastructure, digital, engineering capabilities and business consulting teams that understand customer needs. Now we have combined this with an entrepreneurial mindset that motivates teams to deliver solutions that incubate the latest technologies. This has set the foundation for a wide range of powerful and scalable technology platforms that customers can readily access, experiment and deploy.