06 Jun

Escaping the automation led redundancy shaping the Indian IT Industry

By TWB_ In Communication, Content /  5 3 Comments

Photo Credit: A man moves his finger toward a robotic hand at the IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots in Madrid on November 19, 2014. AFP

 

Recent data is for half a million employees being made redundant over the next 5 yrs. due to automation. Is it true? And what is that the industry, companies and employees can do about it.

The first half of the next decade will bring a lot of pain to the Indian IT business as automation sets in and we go through the transition from people to technology + people. But the real opportunity is still available to people, as the enterprise still craves more human-centric skills at scale that cannot be fed into an AI platforms. These are challenging times, but the change brings the opportunity.

The Manpower Shrinkage

Technology has and will continue to fundamentally reshape the world. But the largest move is not from more people creating more technology but of machines creating technology and delivering services. As that happens, the job market shrinks. World Bank President Jim Kim said in March 2017 that technology could fundamentally disrupt the pattern of traditional economic path in many societies and threatens 69 per cent of the jobs in India and 77 per cent in China. However it the relative wage that will determine the relative pace of automation and it is here that the Indian IT industry is most vulnerable since the cost structure is closely linked to the ability of the customer in developed economies to absorb this cost.

The Trend

In the technology-led businesses AI and Automation are already present — whether as the evolution of autonomous cars or as software that writes itself. Consider this,

  • Google’s Deepmind can now read lips better than humans and play and beat different 30 video games at the same time. It is writing its own algorithms to better itself. And to translate languages where no translation has previously existed.
  • IBM Watson can now not only read a physician’s notes but also go through a massive library of related information and figure out, say, a particular type of rare cancer.
  • Chatbots are already being used by Amazon and Facebook to automate responses.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. However, a large part of the Indian IT outsourcing industry is directly being impacted by different levels of automation creeping into its customers. To expand their operations a US-based customer today is not looking at additional headcount, but at automation. More insurance claims processing requires a platform to scale for the extra work. Greater IT infrastructure management requires more cloud-based orchestration tools then. Not more people. So the scale and/or productivity gain is coming from autonomics management, and not headcount.

Worldwide the total IT Service and BPO industry employed 15 million people in 2015, with ~3.5 million in India, ~1 million in Philippines, ~5 million in North America and ~4 million in Europe. The impact of automation on this global industry of 15 million IT services and BPO employees is expected to be a net decrease of 9% or ~1.4 million jobs. Of this, India’s services industry workforce is expected to shrink 500,000 by 2021 – a decline of 14-15% (explained below)[1]

The workforce is in three categories: low-skilled, medium-skilled, and high- skilled. Low-skilled employees conduct simple entry-level, process-driven tasks that require little abstract thinking or autonomy. Medium and high-level employees undertake more complicated tasks that require experience, complex problem-solving, the ability to learn on-the-job, and to work autonomously. In terms of impact, it is the low-skilled Indian services workforces that will be most impacted.

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30 May

So you think marketing tech services is simpler than tech products? Hell, no.

By TWB_ In Marketing Content /  4 3 Comments
TWB_

_Services

Here’s an example. We’re talking of a fairly large IT services company (we’re talking of north of $100 million) and they have figured they need to move from a pure sales approach to include ‘marketing’. Marketing as in other than events! And now we’re in their board-room about what facets there are and what marketing can do for them. It’s not that it’s not understood — goes without saying they’re a successful company — but the first responses to the marketing plan invariably are:

‘Oh, but your customers are all the flagship technology ‘product’ companies. Do we need all that depth? We just need ‘better presence’ on online — digital media!’

Yes, you do! So of course we investigate more.

  • TWB_: Why do you think so?
  • Customer: Because they are in a fast-moving world. It’s more complex for them. We don’t need to say a lot. Ours is a simple problem.
  • TWB_: But you do so many things in so many verticals already. You need to talk about that. And then you need to talk about the positions you want to move to, since that’s where your customer and market is going.
  • Customer: When they ask us, we’ll do it. We don’t want to do anything buzzy!
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15 Dec

What makes Entrepreneur Couples tick I Womens Web India

By TWB_ In Press & Media /  3 4 Comments

The husband-wife team of Rakesh and Helen Shukla started up TWB, a technical communication company offering outsourced solutions as well as training, in 2005. Having worked together closely for 5 years now, Rakesh Shukla, Founder & CEO, TWB, believes that not carrying work home was the single biggest challenge they faced. Over time, they have consciously tried to avoid it. Rakesh says, “It’s not that work never gets discussed, but we try to minimize it. You don’t want to spoil your marriage and your relationship at home.”

Read more on Women’s Web India

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TWB I The Writers Block I World Leader on Technology Content
26 May

The story of self-funding an enterprise I FranchiseIndia

By TWB_ In Press & Media /  5 2 Comments

What Does Self Funding A Venture Really Entail? Entrepreneurs are known for their risk bearing ability; even then not many have the ability to put all their savings in their venture. Most of them turn to friends, family or investors to get started.

But Rakesh Shukla believes, “It’s right only when you start the game with your own skin.”

When Rakesh and his wife, Helen started TWB they decided to fund it all by themselves and not turn to any of their family or friends for help. Not just that, both of them also quit their jobs and so had no other source of income but TWB. How hard was it? Read on FranchiseIndia

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02 Feb

TWB creates success through effective online training across India I LiveMint

By TWB_ In Press & Media /  4 7 Comments
As Nitika Wadhwa flips through newspapers, the absence of advertisements for walk-in-interviews does not bother her at all. After working with a BPO for a short while and then an NGO, she is today working as a technical writer. She says she hasn’t seen even a single person in her function being handed a pink slip even in these recessionary times.

“Everyday I get 5-10 mails which say you’re short-listed for an interview. I’m getting calls from consultants. A lot of my software engineering friends ask me about what I have done. They want to do this course and become a technical writer as it is a comfortable job, more imaginative more creative” says Nikita.

“There is a requirement of 200,000 to 250,000 people with such skill sets,” says Rakesh Shukla, founder of technical writing firm, TWB, which also delivers the TWB Certifications. Simply put technical writers are people who communicate technical information in a manner that even non-technical reader can understand. And Rakesh says that in the next 4 years technical writing will be roughly a $1.5 billion industry. And even in the current slowdown, his business has been growing.

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TWB I The Writers Block I World Leader on Technology Content
08 Nov

TWB Certifications for Legal Process Outsourcing: TWB Continues to Lead India

By TWB_ In Press & Media /  3 5 Comments

Read original on The Financial Express titled TWB announces release of TWB fundamental certification in Patent Writing

India’s leader in Technical Communication Training, Documentation Outsourcing and Knowledge Publishing – The Writers Block (TWB) has added another dimension to its industry-leading portfolio of training with its release of training on Patent Writing. TWB Patent Writing training will be available in two forms: to individuals wanting to be employed in the burgeoning LPO/ KPO sector with the TWB Fundamental Certification in Patent Writing and customized training for TWBs corporate customers.

TWBs Patent Writing training, focuses on imparting knowledge in the form of Principles of Scientific Writing, Introduction to Patenting, the Patent Drafting Process, Searching for Prior-art, Drafting Patent Applications & the Reviewing of Patents.

TWBs training in Patent Writing addresses the considerable demand-supply gap in trained manpower in the LPO market. With the growth of KPO in general and LPO in particular, the entire global legal market is now open to Indian law professionals. ASSOCHAM says that LPOs will generate about 79,000 jobs by 2015. According to Forrester, only about 2%-3% of the potential market has been tapped so far. India has significant advantages in the LPO business including A vast resource of talented English-speaking lawyers, rated between 10% to 15% of that of US lawyers & an operational 24×7 business model.

At present the processes, being outsourced to India, include patent application drafting, legal research, pre-litigation documentation, advising clients, analyzing drafted documents, writing software licensing agreements and drafting distribution agreements.

TWB will continue to develop more training breadth and depth across the entire spectrum of Technical Communications and related skills. The TWB Technical Communications training portfolio comprises:

  • Analytics and Research Report Writing
  • Professional Communications
  • Medical Writing
  • Patent Writing
  • Sales Process Effectiveness and Customer Communications
  • Scientific Report Writing, &
  • Technical Writing

Talking about the TWB Patent Writing training, Rakesh Shukla, Founder & CEO, TWB said, “Even though there is an economic slowdown, the overall drivers toward outsourcing remain intact. As the world gets into a more usual business cycle the desire to stay or enhance operations with a better handle on costs, will only increase. As TWB has done in the case of Technical Writing, by becoming the premier source of talent throughout India, TWB will contribute significantly to LPO business growth, by creating a much-needed breed of best talent.”

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