According to Ramesh Subramanian, Vice President, Global Delivery, SYSTIME, 2009 began with everyone’s worst apprehensions coming true. “It was a year where we fully expected a repeat of 1934 or worse, and expected very many nasty outcomes. Surprisingly, 2009 did not reflect our worst fears! The growing maturity of management and sophistication of the tools for managers shown through. Many companies chose the right moments to make well-thought out investment decisions, and push through uncomfortable change programs taking advantage of slow markets.

It is true in fact, that in 2009, a large number of IT-BPO organizations chose to set their houses in order, focusing on their core strengths rather than spreading themselves thinly or positioning themselves as “all things to all people”

“Many companies undertook spring cleaning, choosing to focus inward in order to emerge more capable and agile when their markets improved. On the customer side, we observed a ‘wait and see’ attitude. Manufacturing and Distribution industries did not experience a meltdown and are expected to emerge stronger in the post-recession environment. This trend meant a continuous pipeline of inquiries and work for us at SYSTIME and we hope to partner with such companies in the years ahead,” adds Subramanian on a positive note.

Looking Ahead

Clearly then, Companies that have taken advantage of the slowdown to cohere their infrastructure and support processes and create non-core activities will emerge as winners in 2010. ‘Many Best Practices will be in evidence compared to past years. There will be even more focus on ‘Green’ technologies and practices, which might even become as important as cost efficiency in the coming years. In 2010, the search will be on in earnest to reconcile the two dimensions,” says Ramesh Subramanian of SYSTIME.