Businesses are continuously expected to deliver in an environment of increased competition and ever increasing pressure on costs and processes. It requires a combination of processes, technology and business expertise to meet these challenges. Wipro Consulting comes into picture at this point as a strategic partner for all industries across the Middle East including Saudi Arabia. Dr. Anurag Srivastava, vice president and business head, Consulting Services, Wipro Limited spoke to M. Ghazanfar Ali Khan. Here are the excerpts
Q: How has Wipro’s progress been since its commencement in the Middle East? Does Wipro have a local presence in Middle East?
A: Wipro is extremely committed to the Middle East region. Having commenced our Middle East operations in 2001, we have seen a positive growth in business in the region. The region is a very critical component of our global strategy. Having started from Dubai, today we have expanded our operations to Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, and Kuwait. We have made significant investments in the region in the form of 2 regional offices — one in Dubai Internet City in UAE and the second at Alkhobar in Saudi Arabia. Our consultants work at our client’s location deployed in the region as well as working offshore from India. Today we offer a wide spectrum of services to our customers. This includes high value IT and consulting services, comprising systems integration, infrastructure management services, software application development, package implementation, third party testing services, business intelligence & data warehousing and e-enabling. We also offer specialized consulting services including business transformation consulting, security governance consulting, technology consulting, strategy consulting, egovernance and cost optimization consulting.
Q. Could you please elaborate on Wipro consulting?
A. At Wipro, we have gained rich experience by offering a wide range of business services and solutions to customers, including several Fortune 500 companies spread across the globe. This has helped us gain a deeper understanding of customers’ business and deliver end-to-end consulting expertise in running projects right from ideation to completion. We have a strong focus on core business issues, coupled with six-sigma expertise, strong process orientation and industry domain knowledge, which helps our clients to work through best in class, processes and create sustainable business value. Our consulting services are based on applied frameworks designed to uncover the true potential of business and help our customers achieve competitive advantage.
Q. How will it benefit your customers in the Middle East?
A. Wipro’s consulting business focuses on enhancing business performance of its clients by streamlining processes, reducing organizational risk and improving the alignment of business and technology. By collaborating with us, organizations have the advantage of established frameworks, strong domain knowledge, a large pool of domain consultants and best-in-class technologies. The Business Transformation Services aims at transforming businesses by adopting Integrated Business Process Improvement approach and use of world class methodologies like Six Sigma, Lean, Theory of Constraints and Triz. The Quality Management Services leverages on frameworks like ISO 9001:2000, ISO 9004:2000, CMMi and EFQM Business Excellence Models to assess and assist clients in evolving the required processes to meet their business objectives. It also provides Human Resource Optimization through PCMM advisory and implementation.
Security governance helps organizations meet their information security needs covering advisory & assurance services, business continuity planning & disaster recovery, identity management, technical risk assessment and certification and compliance services. It enables its clients in adopting world class security standards like ISO27001. Strategic cost reduction practice provides consultancy to organizations, helping them adopt a well conceived cost reduction strategy through strategic sourcing, supply chain process consulting, procurement technology enablement and low cost country sourcing. Through enterprise architecture strategy, technology optimization and IT governance consulting, the strategy practice enables clients to prepare an enterprisewide IT strategy and road map. It helps its clients adopt best IT practices and standards like ITIL, Cobit, ISO20000 etc. The egovernance practice covers the entire lifecycle of strategy, process improvement study, architecture, implementation, change enablement, sustenance and continuous improvement to help governments and related departments in adopting technology in their functions.
Q. Who are your customers in the Middle East and how have they benefited from this service?
A. Wipro has engaged with many prestigious customers in the Middle East and provided high-end consultancy services. The clients belong to various industry verticals ranging from telecom, petrochemical, banking, oil & gas, insurance, healthcare, manufacturing and government.
Some of these projects include:
Program management of ERP rollout and optimization for a petrochemical company in KSA,
BS 7799 advisory and implementation for Gulf Insurance Company,
Deploying strong IT systems and processes at Saudi Polyolefin Company,
Implementing Six Sigma for process improvement in a leading Saudi Bank
Security Governance consulting and BS 7799 certification for Bahraini Saudi Bank,
Security Assurance for a client in Bahrain
Helpdesk optimization services for a large telecom company in KSA
Strategy and IT enablement plan for a large regulatory body in KSA,
Development of Policy and process documents for a large group in UAE,
Technology audit services for a financial group in KSA,
ERP evaluation exercise for a large trading and contracting company in KSA,
Quality assurance for core banking rollout for a bank in Bahrain.
• Security Assurance & Advisory Services for leading banks in Kuwait,
• Identity Management services for one of the largest petroleum companies in the region,
• Six Sigma Implementation & Mentoring for one of the largest petroleum companies in the region,
• Shared Services blue printing & implementation for a leading investment company in Kuwait,
• Six Sigma Mentoring for leading electrical component manufacturing French MNC.
Q. What’s the reason for Wipro’s success in Middle East?
A. We offer a unique value proposition to our customers in the Middle East. Wipro is a global IT services and consulting player. But we have customized our services for the Middle East region and have achieved success in engaging with customers across our service lines. We have customized our global delivery model to serve the specific needs in the region. What has also contributed to strong traction in the region — is the cultural affinity between India and the Middle East. We are extremely focused on customer satisfaction. We are very passionate about successful and timely completion of projects resulting in high levels of customer satisfaction. We take pride in the fact that customers appreciate the business value of our projects. We continuously innovate to bring in new services for our customers.
