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New Delhi: After two <keyword id="19945688" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="acquisitions" source="keywords">acquisitions</keyword> this year, India's second-largest IT services company <keyword id="19906778" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Infosys" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Infosys" meta.hostid="268" meta.entityid="Infosys">Infosys</keyword> is on the lookout to scoop-up more firms and says the acquisition matching scale of recent in-tech buy is certainly a possibility. In an interview to PTI, <keyword id="24144" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="infosys-ceo" source="Orion">Infosys CEO</keyword> <keyword id="20115570" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="salil-parekh" source="keywords">Salil Parekh</keyword> said the company is keen on acquisitions in areas like data analytics, SAAS, and may look at some geographies within Europe, and the US. Asked if more acquisitions could be of the scale matching in-tech, which came with a price-tag of 450 million euros, <keyword id="20039787" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="parekh" source="keywords">Parekh</keyword> said, "Absolutely, I think those would be the size that we will look at in terms of scale, and given our structure we could do a few of those." Back in January, Infosys announced a definitive agreement to acquire 100 per cent of the equity share capital in InSemi Technology Services, a semiconductor design services company headquartered in India, for a consideration (including earn-outs, and management incentives and retention bonuses) totalling up to Rs 280 crore. A bigger acquisition followed in three months. In April, Infosys Germany, a wholly-owned step-down subsidiary, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 100 per cent of the equity share capital in in-tech Holding -- leading provider of engineering R&amp;D services headquartered in Germany -- for a consideration of up to 450 million euros (about Rs 4,045 crore). "We have very good business in engineering services already within Infosys and then we did those two acquisitions, both of them in engineering services, one on semiconductor side and one on the automotive side... very strong businesses, and we feel quite good about expanding that footprint," Parekh said. Infosys is eyeing more acquisitions, he said, adding that the company is evaluating several firms. "We have a good balance sheet and good cash generation and now we are quite comfortable with the integration of acquisition in different areas. We have done engineering services, we will look at other areas... for example data analytics... may look at SAAS (software as a service) areas, and maybe at some other geographies in Europe, maybe the US as well," he said. Parekh, however, said a lot depends on strategic synergies, financial cost, cultural fit and integration aspects. "We are continuing to look, and we have things that are normally in the pipeline but those take their own time... there are a lot of discussions on strategic fit, on financial cost of it and cultural fit into the company and then how will we integrate them. Many of those discussions are ongoing and we will see what comes out," the Infosys top honcho said. On whether he is hopeful of closing more acquisitions this fiscal year, Parekh indicated that it is tough to put a timeline on the outcome of ongoing discussions. "It is difficult to say... we are evaluating several (of them). But to get a fit on the strategic parameters, financial parameters, culture, integration... all of it may not work out. But these two (InSemi and in-tech) happened relatively quickly... before that for some quarters we had not done anything. It is not a predictable thing, but the evaluation is ongoing," he said. According to the Grant Thornton Bharat Dealtracker Q2 2024 report, Indian dealmaking saw overall 501 deals, valued at USD 21.4 billion. The report said the second quarter of 2024 witnessed the highest quarterly volumes since the second quarter of 2022, while values declined due to the absence of big-ticket merger and acquisition transactions. Grant Thornton Bharat Dealtracker further said the merger and acquisition (M&amp;A) activity during the second quarter saw 132 deals worth USD 6.2 billion, marking a slight increase in volumes but a substantial 50 per cent drop in values. As per the report, domestic deals drove growth with volumes rising 29 per cent and values increasing 2.5 times compared to the first quarter of the current year. In contrast, cross-border deals experienced a decline, with volumes decreasing 24 per cent and values plummeting 85 per cent from the first quarter of 2024.

Infosys is keen on more acquisitions, says CEO Salil Parekh

It's impossible to talk about workforce innovation without addressing artificial intelligence.During a virtual roundtable, we asked Business Insider's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/workforce-innovation-board-tackles-topics-such-as-c-suite-innovation-ai-worker-wellness-2024-8">Workforce Innovation board</a> to tell us how AI would transform companies over the next year.One major topic was reskilling and upskilling employees. BI's Tim Paradis, who focuses on the future of work, asked whether there were any fears that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vinod-khosla-universal-basic-income-ai-job-loss-2024-9">dire predictions of AI</a> outpacing human capabilities to learn, like those advanced in a recent article by Sun Microsystems cofounder <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.khoslaventures.com/ai-dystopia-or-utopia/">Vinod Khosla</a>, would prove true."The basic drivers of job creation will change with a technology that does not only augment human capabilities, but also may surpass them altogether," Khosla wrote, "leaving education and upskilling — a historical avenue for retraining and relevance — somewhat impotent."Board members rejected the grim prognostication."I disagree with that statement," said Justina Nixon-Saintil, IBM's vice president and chief impact officer, though she agreed that AI would exacerbate the digital divide."We made a commitment to scale 2 million people in AI by 2026," Nixon-Saintil said. "There's a sense of urgency in making sure we are not leaving people behind."AARP's Marjorie Powell argued that the global labor shortage was evidence of an enduring need for human workers but that no one can afford to be complacent. "You're going to have to relearn how to do your job," Powell said.Others described the importance of communicating clearly with workers about what AI means for their jobs now and in the future."We're trying to figure out how this transformation is going to occur," said Chris Deri, the president of the corporate advisory businesses at Weber Shandwick. "There has to be transparent communications and stakeholder engagement alongside figuring out these enterprise and strategic matters."The following has been edited for length and clarity.<h3 id="4a721470-9d79-4540-a871-62ad779b2870">How will the most innovative companies be transformed by AI over the next 12 months?</h3><h2 id="58f968af-3acb-493b-870e-b8d2bf021db1">Justina Nixon-Saintil, vice president and chief impact officer, IBM</h2><h3 id="a436d836-8481-4230-8a70-68bd3cfe6353">"Any tasks or jobs in the company that could be automated by AI will happen within the next year."</h3>A lot is going to change. Any tasks or jobs in the company that could be automated by AI will happen within the next year. For any jobs that cannot be automated, workers will need to understand how to work alongside AI.You need to understand what AI means for your role, how to use it to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-use-ai-save-time-work-best-ways-use-chatgpt-2024-9">increase productivity or efficiency</a>, and how to create new products and solutions leveraging AI. That's going to be the big shift, and here we actually continue to upskill our employees to prepare for that shift.Last year, we had an AI challenge across the company, and a huge percentage of our employees participated. They had to get training first, and then they were part of a team to come up with innovative solutions leveraging AI. We did it again this summer. So the company is very focused on how to upskill all employees, because it's going to impact every role in the company.<h2 id="82ccd740-f6d2-4536-8e3d-54d9f225dac0">Anant Adya, EVP, service offering head, and head of Americas delivery, Infosys</h2><h3 id="66cbaa75-725e-4e65-880c-285d5d102e74">"How can we eat our own dog food right before we start telling customers to adopt AI?"</h3>We have two objectives. One is to become an AI-first enterprise. The first task is to see how we can start using AI in everything we do, whether it's in our claims or travel expenses, procurement, or handling invoices.Our philosophy is very simple. AI is not about replacing an individual or replacing an employee but how we can amplify our productivity by using the tools. How can we eat our own dog food right before we start telling customers to adopt AI?Second is that for all the offerings that we have today, we want to make sure we infuse AI into them. When we go and talk to our customers about task-level automation, coding or developing an application, or migrating a workload into the cloud — how can we infuse AI into everything that we do? So it doesn't just become a people-based offering but a people-plus-AI-based offering.<h2 id="961badc0-cb06-4d47-9329-ac1f1b2d70dd">Marjorie Powell, chief HR officer and senior vice president, AARP</h2><h3 id="0aee923e-e647-43c9-bf57-4c2ecc03a872">"It's important that everyone learns how to deal with prompt engineering; we are not going to hire prompt engineers."</h3>We believe there's going to be a greater emphasis on <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-will-change-most-jobs-employers-help-workers-keep-up-2024-8">upskilling and reskilling</a> alongside AI technologies.It's important that everyone learns how to deal with prompt engineering; we are not going to hire prompt engineers. It's going to become a skill for employees to craft clear and specific prompts, adjust to the right audience, and utilize elements and problem-solving skills to identify inaccurate responses.It's about adaptability. Employees are going to have to be open to continuous learning and adapting to new AI tools and technologies in their jobs. So we make sure we're providing some kind of atmosphere and culture for being excited and energetic about learning.The workforce will have to problem-solve regardless of the tool and the technology, and it will require test-and-learn approaches. We created a "community of practice" in the company where individuals can join and help with peer learning and have a sandbox to play around with AI, depending on where they are.They can cross-pollinate across business-unit lines, and that has become very exciting. We also use that group to pilot the new technologies we're considering rolling out to the company.Data literacy is going to be very important — understanding how to read and interpret and tell a story of the data.We're also developing power users in the company, people who are really, really good at this that other employees can tap into when they need help.<h2 id="0ef1d87b-57f3-4474-bfdc-21c4f4fc1b74">Alicia Pittman, global people team chair, Boston Consulting Group</h2><h3 id="dd47519b-c973-4a00-b508-f05159afdea8">"Gen AI also offers an opportunity to avoid leakage of human capital, which obviously we all care quite a lot about."</h3>We have 35,000 employees, and north of 70% are active users of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/companies-using-ai-bain-survey-roi-2024-6">generative AI</a> now. We've taken a full-company approach of upskilling and rolling out both custom and off-the-shelf tools, regardless of the job.The bottom-up innovation power of gen AI is super exciting. For example, our teams and employees have created more than a thousand custom GPTs, mini automation machines, to-do scripts, and dashboards to create bespoke analyses and build newsletters — it's super quick, and it doesn't require big investments or processes.That's one thing that's specific to gen AI versus other types of technology innovation — it's sparking a lot of energy and unlocking human capacity.Gen AI also offers an opportunity to avoid leakage of human capital, which obviously we all care quite a lot about. It really changes the game in terms of the amount of learning you can keep within the team and not lose as people move around.We're also seeing how gen AI is creating an exoskeleton for generalists to be able to take on more technical tasks. It's not going to turn a generalist analyst into an expert coder, but actually our analysis would show that they can get 80%-plus there on some coding tasks, which then you still need the expert coder to do quality control.<h2 id="d130e1cc-4600-48d2-941b-e5e5b1eddc1f">Maggie Hulce, chief revenue officer, Indeed</h2><h3 id="d4c2bf89-e522-4f0d-bbff-d8d4f916c1e1">"Do I have to build this huge team of AI engineers? The answer is no."</h3>We're trying to infuse AI in all our externally facing products and solutions to make them more insightful, intuitive, and delightful to use — and, in many ways, to create experiences that mimic what a personalized human experience might be like, but at scale.We also see most roles and workflows becoming augmented with AI. That's becoming more and more obvious as the months go on and as teams engage with AI and find applications and new ways of working.I was at Dreamforce recently in San Francisco. What Salesforce <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.salesforce.com/news/press-releases/2024/09/17/google-autonomous-agent-partnership/">unveiled</a> was how it wants to help companies essentially launch AI agents in sales, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/verizon-is-using-generative-ai-to-streamline-business-relationships-2024-7">customer service</a>, marketing, and commerce.For many companies to get the full power of what AI can do, you have to be able to link up lots of different datasets that are usually in disparate places. It's hard work, and it's very time-consuming. To hear the stories of companies being like, "Guess what, you don't actually have to move that data around anymore," this is going to change how a lot of companies experiment and start to play with AI-oriented applications that will fundamentally change their operations.There are a lot of companies out there that have already started to light it up. We're thinking a lot about how sales, customer service, marketing, and product have operated for a long time in various silos. When you think about customer experiences, they really shouldn't be that way. They should be much more integrated than they are today. Some of these technologies can be part of the accelerants for how customer experiences can be reimagined.Part of what's been hard for people is like, "OK, but do I have to get all of these disparate parts of my company to all work together in a new way? Do I have to build this huge team of AI engineers?" The answer is no. You don't have to be the tip of the spear in terms of sophistication.<h2 id="8b49bd10-b04d-4857-afbc-b2979d5711e9">Kenon Chen, executive vice president of strategy and growth, Clear Capital</h2><h3 id="550eee1b-ffef-4a90-bbea-a94d7a6ba7a2">"As AI accelerates, you also have to accelerate the handling of data in a way that can produce accurate models."</h3>At Clear Capital, we participate in the highly regulated housing-finance industry. To enable AI to be used in accordance with our clients' expectations of governance and quality control, we've taken a three-pronged approach.First, we've been investing in creating good industry standards and working with the industry to ensure there's agreement on how AI models should be tested, how they ensure compliance with antidiscrimination and fairness practices, and how the data should be handled.Second, we've been investing a lot in higher-quality data. As AI accelerates, you also have to accelerate the handling of data in a way that can produce accurate models. So we've invested quite a bit in better digitization and generation of data.Third is fostering collaboration between innovators, industry players, policymakers, and regulators. We participated this year in the Federal Housing Finance Agency's generative-AI tech sprint, where about 80 leaders from different aspects of the housing industry brainstormed ways to apply generative AI to the lending process to improve borrowers' experience.One thing that became clear after participating in that was where we have more tools and more capabilities to accelerate. We always have to go back to the why: What is the mission? And we have to make the mission at the company level that much more clear so that as we apply these new tools, it's always for the sake of the mission.<h2 id="5e045b5f-3490-4435-8321-bab58740eaa8">Chris Deri, president, corporate advisory businesses, The Weber Shandwick Collective</h2><h3 id="79930c20-445b-4959-b644-53f07e252292">"There's a mega-trend need for all of us to adopt AI and understand it, but that means something different for different parts of our organization."</h3>We're a public-relations firm, so we're looking at AI for ourselves and for our clients.In terms of our own people, one lesson we've already learned is that there was an instinct to take a top-down approach, as in everybody's got to figure out how AI is going to change their business, but we need to take a bottom-up approach.In the simplest sense, we do consumer marketing, healthcare marketing, and corporate advisory work. We really need to design training for each of the different practitioner types.There's a mega-trend need for all of us to adopt AI and understand it, but that means something different for different parts of our organization.Another thing we're doing is creating a futuristic think-tank group in our company — three or four people who have been putting together an ecosystem to give us constant learning. We also have academic institutions, investors, technologists, and other practitioners to help.We're also looking at our business model and how we budget and scope. The classic assignment we get is companies call us and say, "We want to map our stakeholders and what their expectations are of us." That used to be a project that we would figure out with just consultant time. Now we're applying AI to do some of that.We need to figure out how to take advantage of those efficiencies to add new value — that human value. So we need to relook at our entire business and service model, and we haven't figured it all out yet.Anant talked about "eating your own dog food." We've mapped out the implementation of that stack for ourselves to test and learn, and then we will start to use that in how we show up as advisors to our clients on the same journey.<h2 id="3bf33684-0da6-43af-856a-e0d807c42725">Sharawn Tipton, chief people and culture officer, LiveRamp</h2><h3 id="2513253b-1145-4ac9-afad-cb752e1513d8">"What we're trying to do is really keep people at the center of this transformation."</h3>We're thinking a lot about the AI trust gap. I'm in San Francisco today, and I was walking around and I saw all these autonomous vehicles, and it dawned on me that my mother would never ride in one. She just does not trust that technology.As a data company, we're thinking a lot about how do we ensure that our customers, our clients, and our partners trust that we're going to protect their data and use AI when appropriate and be certain that we have safeguards for when it isn't appropriate. And then I think the biggest area that my team is focused on with this trust gap is job security and what this means for the average worker.So what we're trying to do is really keep people at the center of this transformation. We're thinking a lot about employee resource groups. That way we've been able to reach all different types of team members. So how do we target our ERGs and think about who are the slow adapters? Who are the folks that typically get left behind, and how do we give them a little extra push?What we want to do is think about how to continue to have our team members trust their leaders, but also trust AI and where we're going, and get them to understand this isn't about replacing jobs. We are really focused on transforming jobs. That is a huge shift and a huge opportunity for us.<h2 id="c0d7e4c7-96a5-41d7-8c3f-29dee443e291">Shane Koller, senior vice president and chief people officer, Ancestry</h2><h3 id="2fb41060-9718-4c06-940a-5ac8246457b5">"The more people we get thinking about governance, the better AI technology will be used."</h3>There are a lot of different points of view on what AI will and will not do and how quickly.I was reading an article in The Wall Street Journal over the weekend that said for every one person who believes that AI is going to replace everyone's jobs, there are three or four who think there's going to be this boom in AI and then it's going to settle down. And that the promise we think AI is going to deliver will probably take longer than we think to come to fruition.One of the things that we've been doing at Ancestry very intentionally is bringing up the subject of governance, because I think we all think of AI as this steamroller that's going to come and either we're going to step aside from it or we're going to get steamrolled.The more people we get thinking about governance, the better AI technology will be used. And I say that within Ancestry as well as within companies in general and within governments. We have more of a role to play in how this rolls out than we think.We've been building AI into our product for over 10 years now, and we've been giving more thought to how would we govern the use of AI within our own company so that we're not, for example, putting our customers' data at risk. We're very conscious that security and privacy is first and foremost in every discussion. It's really about how you govern such an amazing technology.

Leaders from BCG, Infosys, AARP, and more predict how AI will transform top companies in the next 12 months

<ul><li>TCS and HCL Tech said that they have over a 100 <keyword id="17930214" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="genai" source="Orion">genAI</keyword> opportunities in the pipeline.</li><li>They also won a few projects, most of which are in the proof-of-concept or pilot stages.</li><li>Tech companies said they built large-scale genAI capabilities, and are ready to take on projects. </li></ul>Less than a year after ChatGPT was launched, Indian tech majors have started bagging generative AI projects. Even in times when demand is slow, discretionary spends are elusive, the new-age technology is bringing work as well as excitement into the IT outsourcing market. Although the size of the deals is small at the moment, genAI has ‘captured the imagination’ of clients, say top executives of Indian IT companies. TCS and HCL Tech said that most of their <keyword id="19151325" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="genai-projects" source="Orion">genAI projects</keyword> are proof-of-concept or pilot stages. “Deal sizes are small and are mostly under $1 million where clients are trying them out. But there is potential to convert a part of our Jaguar Land Rover with AI and ML capabilities,” said N Ganapathy Subramaniam, COO of TCS at the company’s Q2 earnings press conference. HCL Tech’s MD C Vijayakumar too shared that most of the genAI deals they are bagging are either half a million or sub-$1 million deals. But they are currently working on a hundred such opportunities. “We have been selected as a partner by this very large software major for their product testing and sustenance efforts. We are providing GenAI on a private language model to improve resolution rate and speed efficiency,” said Vijayakumar. Infosys CEO Salil Parekh also shared that they are working on some proprietary large language models (LLMs). “AI is a part of almost every deal we do. And, GenAI is getting there. As it expands and more and larger enterprises get into it, it will be very exciting,” he added. A catalog of AI opportunities A few months back, all tech majors announced big moves in the generative AI space. Wipro announced that it will spend as much as $1 billion over three years to build capabilities. TCS, HCL Tech partnered with software major NVIDIA to skill their employees. As of September end, TCS said that they have 100,000-strong GenAI-ready workforce. They said they also have as many as 250 Gen AI opportunities in the pipeline. “When we started generative AI, they were all about knowledge discovery. As clients understand more, the genAI is getting more complicated. We are now working for a co-pilot for a financial advisor on what advice to give clients, help underwriting policies,” explaining K Krithivasan, CEO of TCS. TCS said that it has identified opportunities across various verticals, identified use cases and cataloged them per vertical. With that it says that it’s planning to go and engage with clients and have conversations on the same. “With this, we can have conversations with our clients – be in CRM or payments space and wealth advisory and other use cases,” explained Ganapathy. HCL Tech too is working on use cases related to banking and financial sector. “We signed a generative AI deal with a to improve their risk and compliance efforts – which is a very big effort in financial services. There are a lot of transactions happening on this front, and we have discussed how we can help,” said Vijayakumar. The buzz for cost optimization and automation deals has gone up in the last few months. Clients are looking to ramp down their expenses and intend to use tech to help with their overall cost reduction efforts. As automation gains ground, AI and ML will find more use cases – and most tech companies are confident that a little of it can spill into the new and emerging area of GenAI as well.

Beyond just chats: Indian tech majors start bagging deals in GenAI space

<ul><li>A <keyword id="2779526" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="centralised-database" source="Orion">centralised database</keyword> can be of tremendous use while consolidating and processing raw data</li><li>Such a database can help sellers draw expert insights and create targeted campaigns</li><li>We explore the various ways through which centralised and <keyword id="16591847" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Intelligent-database-management" source="Orion">intelligent database management</keyword> can streamline and support sales operations</li></ul>The digital-first lifestyle of customers today has made it imperative for businesses to opt for intelligent data synthesis and <keyword id="1121092" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="database-management" source="Orion">database management</keyword> to sell effectively. Decoding dynamic buyer preferences, cross-referencing multiple buyer data points to deliver structured value propositions, understanding market segmentations, and getting a unified view of buyers – everything boils down to how a company handles its data. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Why opt for a centralised database" comment="subhead" text="Why opt for a centralised database">Why opt for a centralised database</cmsannotation> The key to systematic data synthesis is generating data using standardised techniques and incorporating best practices to process vast volumes of industry-segmented data. Consolidating raw data from multiple sources to create a centralised database can provide a complete view of the data of an organisation, equipping leaders to generate <a href="https://www.infosysbpm.com/offerings/functions/bpm-analytics/case-studies/documents/getting-a-birds-eye-view.pdf">critical insights</a> instantly. Sellers, when armed with such knowledge, can draw targeted campaigns to maximise sales. There are several ways a centralised database can streamline operations in comparison to a distributed database. <ul><li>Eliminating Redundancy: A centralised database can prevent unnecessary duplication of data and minimise the time taken to process large datasets. It also results in saving storage space. </li><li>Data Integrity: Centralised control of data can empower administrators to define integrity constraints and ensure regulatory compliance of data.</li><li>Security: The administrators can ensure that access to the database is through secure and approved channels, due to their absolute control over operational data. If access to sensitive data is attempted without prior approval, the administrators can define authorization checks for higher security.</li><li>Data Consistency: Companies can drastically cut down on inconsistent data by removing redundancies through centralised database management.</li><li>Enforcement of standards: With the centralization of data, administrators can establish and enforce the data standards, such as naming conventions, data quality standards, etc.</li><li>Reduced application development and maintenance time: A consolidated repository can support several processes that are common to various applications, such as retrieving data stored in the database to gain insights. This facilitates faster development of applications.</li><li>Portability: Such a database is easier to use when compared to dealing with multiple sources of data. Data is stored in one location and can be easily copied, reorganised, or ported to another location if need be. This method is cost-effective too as it minimises maintenance costs.</li></ul><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Intelligent Database Management" comment="subhead" text="Intelligent Database Management">Intelligent Database Management</cmsannotation> To ensure data enrichment of contact information, businesses need to set up multiple validation engines, both automated and manual, across the data management process. Thankfully, today’s <a href="https://www.infosysbpm.com/dis/digital-metadata-management/Documents/efficient-metatagging.pdf">data management</a> landscape is built on the foundation of future-ready powerful AI/ML-led algorithms and digital automation technologies. These unique capabilities allow companies the ability to access and process abundant data. Effective database management requires constant data maintenance, data validation, and data profiling to uncover the right opportunities, enable a full-funnel strategy, and expand business growth. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Data Maintenance" comment="subhead" text="Data Maintenance">Data Maintenance</cmsannotation> Customer data is a critical asset for revenue enablement campaigns. However, its maintenance is hardly done well at scale. Data maintenance helps ensure that your database is accurate and effective by removing duplicate, outdated, and invalid records. This way organisations can continuously monitor and refresh their database to ensure the inclusion of fast-changing data and efficiently approach the sales-ready leads. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Data Validation" comment="subhead" text="Data Validation">Data Validation</cmsannotation> Data can be sourced through various channels or stored across several repositories in an organisation. This makes it critical to clean the data before using, importing, or otherwise processing it. Data validation can hence lay the groundwork for successful sales campaigns by verifying the <a href="https://www.infosysbpm.com/offerings/functions/legal-process-outsourcing/Documents/developing-game-changing-innovative-database.pdf">accuracy</a> and quality of raw data. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Data Profiling" comment="subhead" text="Data Profiling">Data Profiling</cmsannotation> Companies turn to data profiling to stay competitive in the market and leverage their data sets in the best possible manner. Data profiling essentially examines a dataset, using digital tools or business rules to gain insight into the quality of data. This includes reviewing the accessibility, accuracy, and completeness of data. Such a detailed analysis can help organisations to cull out data inconsistencies and sift the single source of truth or error-free prospect data, at a high level. At a time when sellers are struggling to keep up with the constantly evolving buyer’s expectations, being systematic with data can be of tremendous help. Intelligent database management has the potential to unlock massive growth in revenue and is a great asset against your competitors. Disclaimer: This article is authored by <keyword id="2714090" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="umang-khanna" source="Orion">Umang Khanna</keyword>, Senior Solution Design Head, <keyword id="6079860" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="infosys-bpm" source="Orion">Infosys BPM</keyword>. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Business Insider India

Intelligent database management: Your new sales ally

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Keir Starmer is the UK's new prime minister after his Labour Party won Thursday's election.</li><li>He's had help opening up about his personal story from an unlikely source: Barack Obama.</li></ul>Britons have voted and the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uk-labour-party-back-in-power-rishi-sunak-concede-defeat-2024-7">UK is posed up for a radical change in leadership</a>.The left-wing Labour Party has won more than 400 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, which means its leader, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/keir-starmer-wins-new-labour-party-leader-replaces-jeremy-corbyn-2020-4">Keir Starmer</a>, is to be prime minister and 14 years of Conservative Party rule is over.Starmer declared, "Change begins now," at a rally early Friday morning as results poured in, but his victory came despite the fact he's often described as lacking <a target="_blank" href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/06/keir-starmer-tony-blair-reform-new-labour-90s">charisma</a>.Jill Rutter, a research fellow at the London research group UK in a Changing Europe, had told <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/02/world/europe/keir-starmer-uk-election.html">The New York Times</a> he "does look relatively prime-ministerial," but added, "He's not going to set hearts racing."Starmer entered politics relatively late, first being elected to the UK's House of Commons at age 52 in 2015. Before that, he was a lawyer who rose to become the chief prosecutor for England and Wales; he had a big public profile but no need to ask the public for votes.As a candidate for high office, Starmer has had no choice but to tell his back story. After becoming Labour leader in 2020, he stressed his humble roots, often describing how his father worked as a toolmaker and his mother a nurse while they raised their children in a "pebble-dash semi," a small home adjoining another property.But Starmer has seemed, at times, ill at ease with the public display of emotion needed to tell his story, despite it being a political asset that offers a stark contrast with the outgoing prime minister <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rishi-sunak-uk-prime-minister-goldman-sachs-banker-hedge-fund-2022-10">Rishi Sunak</a>.Sunak, a former Goldman Sachs banker, is married to Akshata Murty, the daughter of the Indian billionaire and Infosys founder N. R. Narayana Murthy. The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.thetimes.com/sunday-times-rich-list/profile/article/rishi-sunak-and-akshata-murty-net-worth-sunday-times-rich-list-blp6mk660">Sunday Times</a> reported in May that the couple's net worth was £651 million, which is about $830 million.In recent months, Starmer has made a concerted effort to appear more relatable to voters and emphasize that contrast.He's been helped by an unlikely mentor: former US President <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-top-20-presidents-in-us-history-according-to-historians-2017-2">Barack Obama</a>.<h2 id="cbd8fb6f-43af-4c81-8889-3da7e252cf0d">Obama encouraged Starmer to be vulnerable</h2>In a series of Zoom calls, Obama, who served as US president from 2009 until 2017, encouraged Starmer to become more vulnerable and open with the public and has spoken with the Labour leader about the difficult decisions he made in the Oval Office.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.politico.eu/article/former-us-president-barack-obama-labour-party-leader-keir-starmer-open-up-be-yourself/">Politico</a> reported that the pair were first introduced by David Lammy, one of Starmer's key lieutenants, who will become his foreign secretary if Labour wins.Speaking on Politico's "Power Play" podcast in March, Lammy said he and Obama had known each other for 20 years since meeting at an event for Black alumni of Harvard University.When <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-68597108">Obama dropped in to meet Sunak in March</a>, he also met Lammy for dinner, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/03/18/barack-obama-rishi-sunak-informal-talks-downing-street/">The Telegraph</a> reported.Lammy said Obama's influence on Starmer was apparent when the Labour leader recently opened up about his family's backstory "much more comfortably than perhaps we saw a few years ago.""And I know that Obama has strong views that Keir should do that," he added.<div type="image" title="David Lammy and Keir Starmer talking." height="683" width="1024" msid="111492696" hostid="261"></div>Lammy was speaking after Starmer gave an extended interview to <a target="_blank" href="https://news.sky.com/story/sir-keir-starmer-wishes-he-addressed-distant-relationship-with-late-father-13092654">Sky News</a>, in which he described how his mother had Still's disease, a rare type of inflammatory arthritis.He said his father spent most of his time looking after her, and this had "squeezed" his "emotional space" and made him more emotionally distant from his children."I probably should have addressed that before he passed, and I wish I had, but I didn't," Starmer added.<a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/kitty_donaldson?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Kitty Donaldson</a>, a political journalist in the UK, told Business Insider this interview marked a turning point in Starmer's public display of emotion."Up until that point, Starmer had been very stiff, very practical, very straitlaced," Donaldson said, adding that Obama "unlocked" and "gave permission" for Starmer to open up."In terms of his leadership style, it's had an impact," she said. "Obama is quite laid back. This campaign has been more laid back than we have seen, and he seemed to enjoy going up and down the country speaking to people."<a target="_blank" href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/political-science/research/centre-us-politics-cusp/find-expert/dr-tom-packer">Tom Packer</a>, an honorary research fellow at University College London who specializes in US politics and elections, told BI that Starmer's backstory had become a "theme of the campaign."He said it helped challenge the idea that all UK politicians come from a "posh background" without struggle.<h2 id="1aed6752-c6d7-4a73-9ed2-718373438522">Obama could advise Starmer on how to deal with Trump</h2>Obama's and Starmer's relationship is likely to continue if Starmer wins the election on Thursday.Obama had helped Starmer since at least 2021, when <a target="_blank" href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/dec/12/barack-obama-gives-tips-to-keir-starmer-and-david-lammy-on-how-labour-can-regain-winning-ways">The Guardian</a> reported that they were involved in two hours' worth of private talks with Lammy about how center-left parties could return to power.Speaking on the "<a target="_blank" href="https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/keir-starmer-international-uk-labour-leader-puts-the/id1202281739?i=1000628653155">Power Play</a>" podcast in September, Starmer said Obama was the US president he spoke to "most frequently.""I've spoken to him a number of times, and his analysis on the world is always interesting, his challenges, and just going through with him what he faced, how he rose to the challenges," Starmer said."It is always useful to test my ideas on people who won elections, people who've taken difficult decisions in power because that helps me think about how we might approach some of the decisions we might have to take if we do win that election," he added.Packer said Obama and Starmer's relationship made sense, given the decadeslong ties between the UK's Labour Party and the US Democratic Party.Donaldson meanwhile suggested Starmer might seek advice from Obama on dealing with Donald Trump if the former president is reelected in November.<div type="image" title="Donald Trump and Joe Biden standing behind podiums in a CNN studio." height="683" width="1024" msid="111492698" hostid="261"></div>Trump is leading the polls, and Biden's shaky performance during the first presidential debate on June 27 has led Democrats to panic and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jill-biden-support-joe-could-be-damaging-expert-step-down-2024-7">urge him to step aside for another candidate</a>.Speaking to Politico last September, Starmer said his team had been in talks with Biden, adding, "It's clear what my desired outcome would be."Packer told BI that Starmer and his team wouldn't want to put "their eggs in one basket" and would be eager to secure "some kind of relationship with Trump that works," regardless of their political differences.Trump "finds it hard to be nasty about people that are nice to him," Packer said.He added that if Starmer were "nice," a Labour government could end up with a good relationship with Trump "even if they disagree with him on policy."He noted that Starmer had been careful to avoid making anti-Trump comments during his election campaign.In an interview with BBC Radio 5 last week, Starmer was asked whether he agreed with Lammy's 2018 description of Trump as a "woman-hating neo-Nazi-sympathizing sociopath" and a "profound threat to the international order.""Those aren't words that I've ever used," Starmer responded."I know the job of the person who leads our country is to deal with the leaders of other countries, who are elected by their people. You don't always get to choose the leaders of other countries," he continued.Lammy has also softened his stance. He told a summit in May that Trump's position on European defense was "misunderstood" and he merely "wants Europeans to do more to ensure a better defended Europe," according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-misunderstood-uk-labour-party/">Politico</a>.After <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-hush-money-trial-verdict-2024-5">Trump was convicted of paying Stormy Daniels hush money</a>, Starmer called it "unprecedented."But he said, "We will work with whoever is elected," adding, "We have a special relationship with the US that transcends whoever the president is."Correction: July 4, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misspelled N. R. Narayana Murthy's surname as Murty. It also misstated the date of Trump and Biden's first presidential debate. It was on June 27, not June 28.

How Obama mentored the new UK prime minister to help him tell his story

<ul><li>Coaches can spot our strengths and impart the essential skills that allow us to develop a strong foundation of knowledge.</li><li>The notion applies to selling as well, where the evolution of an expert sales professional depends on the managers' capacity to train individuals with the required skill set.</li><li>Coaching strategies can be curated to achieve different goals for sales professionals.</li></ul>A Gartner research reveals that only 40% of sellers work within a well-established coaching culture at their organization, while 58% of sales reps require dedicated coaching from their managers to perform better. The same Gartner study establishes a clear link between coaching and revenue, stating that a good sales coach unlocks revenue potential of 8% and above. Does it make business sense? Continue reading. There are examples galore to drive home the point and importance of coaching – be it on the personal or the professional front. Consider the arena of sports – would players like <keyword id="6354267" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="sachin-tendulkar" source="Orion">Sachin Tendulkar</keyword> and PV Sindhu come this far if it hadn’t been for the constant guidance and dedicated grooming by exceptional coaches like <keyword id="100657" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="ramakant-achrekar" source="Orion">Ramakant Achrekar</keyword> and <keyword id="84905" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="pullela-gopichand" source="Orion">Pullela Gopichand</keyword>? Coaches can identify our talent and impart the critical wisdom that helps us to create an inherent knowledge base. This principle of coaching holds true for various disciplines, and the art and science of selling is one of them. Sellers encounter multiple situations that demand falling back on informed instincts that stem from an acquired knowledge. Consistent coaching helps acquire this deep knowledge and enables sellers to drive <a>better results</a> for themselves and for their organisations. But make no mistake, sales coaching is different from sales training. Sales training is the time you take to build the skills of your team, practice new scripts, measure new methods, or redefine the sales process. Sales coaching, on the other hand, is the time you spend showing each rep how to use those strategies in their day-to-day process and is the key ingredient to creating a forward-thinking sales professional. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Coaching the winning sales strategy" comment="subhead" text="Coaching the winning sales strategy">Coaching the winning sales strategy</cmsannotation> Selling has come a long way from product selling to solution selling, to now, perspective selling. New-age customers are looking to upgrade their automated buying experience by leveraging the human touch of an empathetic sales professional. Such a professional can utilise their knowledge as an advantage to provide a valuable perspective, thereby initiating a consultative dialogue with the customer and adding value for both parties. The creation of such a proficient sales professional depends on the managers' ability to coach the right skills in the right way and establish a culture of coaching in the organisation. An effective coaching culture can also be a great sales enabler, directly contributing to building resource value, maximising productivity, and capitalising revenue generation. This cannot be achieved by a simple training exercise or periodic appraisals, especially in today’s virtual-first world. Modern sales professionals are not just deal-closers, they have now evolved into problem solvers. This translates to a need for superior coaching - far above the generic training on technical proficiency. Each sales team consists of a diverse group of <a>people</a> with unique skill sets. Because of this, customised learning and development strategies, such as one-on-one coaching, can bring about a profound transformation. What is needed is an iterative and personalised approach, starting at the managerial level, that empowers a resource to grow and contribute to the success of the organisation. Incorporating this culture of coaching in the sales strategy can dramatically augment the sales capability and produce growth-minded selling professionals. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Enabling sales capability in the right direction" comment="subhead" text="Enabling sales capability in the right direction">Enabling sales capability in the right direction</cmsannotation> Coaching strategies can be designed to accomplish different goals for sales professionals. <ul><li>Skill building and employee retention </li></ul>In the aftermath of The Great Resignation, most companies are struggling to retain high-performing employees. In fact, as per a survey by <keyword id="155484" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="salesforce" source="Orion">Salesforce</keyword>, 60% of sales resources reporting to managers who do not conduct formal coaching are thinking about switching their companies. One great way to incentivise employees is to empower them with <a>advanced knowledge</a> through a culture of learning. Sales coaching is not just to further organisational goals but can also be instrumental in the individual development of a resource. If resources feel that the company is taking an effort to enhance its capabilities, it will be more invested in the company. <ul><li>Maintaining a competitive upper hand </li></ul>The modern technological landscape is continuously changing, and sellers always need to be on their toes for new advancements. Consistent coaching can be a valuable game plan to ensure a competitive edge. A well-equipped professional will always stay on top of their game, and be prepared to handle any challenge, be it a market disruption, a new product launch, or a technical upgrade. <ul><li>Better resource utilisation </li></ul>As an employee gets a better understanding of the tools at their disposal, they tend to perform better while utilising fewer resources. Consistent coaching and upskilling of employees can aid an organisation by providing better returns on their resources and fueling their productivity at a lower cost. <ul><li>Inter-departmental collaboration </li></ul>What happens when a company switches its core strategy? Say a product-based company decides to switch gears and focus more on creating solutions for the consulting domain. The sales managers may not be prepared to lead this transition and will need to be coached through the process. At this juncture, sales professionals can collaborate internally with different departments such as R&amp;D, marketing, and finance to get a better understanding of different functions. Such a collaborative coaching exercise can cement the functional understanding of sellers and help them create a more holistic solution for customers. Sales coaching is both an art and a science. It’s one of the most important components of sales management. Do it well, and your team’s results will speak for you. So, begin incorporating the various sales coaching techniques, tools, and tips to help your team close more deals, boost revenue, surpass quota, and grow better. After all, creating record-breaking players requires patience and hard work! Disclaimer: This article is authored by <keyword id="16973246" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Charanjeet-Singh-Bedi" source="Orion">Charanjeet Singh Bedi</keyword>, Senior Regional Centre Head - ANZ, <keyword id="6079860" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="infosys-bpm" source="Orion">Infosys BPM</keyword>. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Business Insider India.

Inculcating a culture of coaching to boost sales capability

<ul><li>Robotic Process Automation (<keyword id="842249" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="RPA" source="Orion">RPA</keyword>) continues to have significant business relevance to automate repetitive daily tasks and boost efficiency and performance.</li><li>In the workplace of the future, RPA continues to evolve and adapt to meet the changing needs of businesses.</li><li>The deployment of RPA-based intelligent tools gives businesses access to crucial insights and allows them to focus on the end goal by simplifying business processes.</li></ul>There is no getting around the fact that future workplaces will witness an increase in the mix of humans and robots working side-by-side. We are, however, not talking about physical robots. The robots we are referring to here are robotic process automation (RPA) <a href="https://www.infosysbpm.com/offerings/functions/customer-service-outsourcing/case-studies/documents/when-the-going-got-tough-the-bots-got-going.pdf">bots</a> that can interact with computer systems, the same way human employees would, to complete certain tasks efficiently and swiftly without human intervention. The incorporation of RPA into an organisation’s standard operating procedures will continue to be a critical technology to boost productivity, reduce costs, and complete tedious, repetitive tasks accurately and rapidly. <h2>What exactly is RPA?</h2>In simplest terms, RPA is the use of modern technology and software to automate rule-based business processes. Process-centric organisations can benefit greatly from incorporating RPA to take over various tasks. <a href="https://www.infosysbpm.com/blogs/robotic-process-automation/how-robotic-process-automation-simplifies-processes-and-boosts-efficiency.html">RPA boosts overall efficiency</a>, improves workflows, and frees employees to take on higher-value tasks. Once a bot observes a human worker and records the process workflow, it completes rules-based tasks. It can mimic the way workers interact with their computer systems to take over these actions. Once implemented, these bots can log into systems, input or extract data as needed, navigate pages, and a lot more. Employees at most modern workplaces spend hours daily on repetitive computer tasks that can be easily automated. RPA can complete these tasks in a matter of seconds, saving a great deal of time and enabling these employees to be much more productive. And increasingly, RPA bots are integrating with AI and Machine Learning solutions, intelligent data extraction solutions, and other emerging digital solutions to drive greater efficiencies at the workplace by automating more complex tasks. These technologies aid in process simplification by allowing users to focus on the ultimate goal rather than the steps used to achieve it. Let’s take a look at some tasks that are perfectly suited to RPA in this context: <ul><li>Workload prioritisation: A considerable amount of time is spent on sorting workload and prioritising tasks based on importance and urgency to meet SLAs. RPA embedded in platforms or independently coupled with AI/ML can eliminate or significantly reduce effort in this time-consuming process by presenting workers with an organised workload, lining the important tasks in the order, and flagging the ones requiring immediate action on top. </li></ul> <ul><li>Report Generation: RPA can <a href="https://www.infosysbpm.com/offerings/industries/healthcare/case-studies/documents/dashing-towards-the-finishing-line-with-claims-automation.pdf">automate</a> a reporting function by compiling required data from multiple sources to generate reports in required formats. Compilation of reports can be performed using external as well as internal organisational data to provide real-time information to aid decision-making. It can also collate data in different formats into a single, standardised report. </li></ul> <ul><li>Data entry: The oldest use case of RPA is data entry and still relevant. As the technical landscape of organisations gets more complex, employees spend a lot of time extracting and compiling data from various sources in the interim-stage before large scale ERP or applications transformation takes place. RPA can effectively support data entry into systems, exchange of data between systems and when integrated with intelligent OCR solutions speeds up the process further by extracting data from scanned documents, images, or PDFs for entry into financial systems. </li></ul> <ul><li>Accounting duties: Automating simple financial duties can save a lot of time and effort for the accounts department while completely eliminating human error. RPA bots can create expense reports, match invoices to purchase orders, perform basic reconciliations of statements, and perform several other basic accounting processes. RPA benefits from integrating with AI/ML solutions in this area.</li></ul> <ul><li>HR duties: RPA can take over several time-consuming HR department duties, such as ordering business cards, acquiring security access, or assigning workspaces to new employees. It can also process employee benefit forms, make payroll updates, and handle employee exit procedures. With RPA handling these various back-office HR duties, HR staff can focus on more important tasks that demand critical thinking, human interaction, and faster decision-making. </li></ul> <ul><li>Customer service: RPA can streamline the customer service workflow in various ways, including scanning reviews, identifying complaints, updating customer details, chatbot integration for auto-response, and various other tasks that customer service representatives spend a lot of time on. RPA can also perform monitoring of customer service infrastructure by performing diagnostics and self-heal tasks.</li></ul>The incorporation of RPA into an organisation’s various processes will continue to revolutionise workplaces in the future. RPA bots take seconds to complete tasks that would take several man-hours and eliminate the possibility of errors in the process. This enables organisations to easily scale up or down to handle changing business needs and workloads, enabling businesses to be more responsive to market demands. Handing over tasks to RPA also allows employees to focus on duties that demand creativity, strategy, problem-solving, and other skills that software doesn’t possess. This helps improve data accuracy and security by reducing the <a href="https://www.infosysbpm.com/offerings/industries/financial-services/documents/customer-disputes-and-risks-robots-to-the-rescue.pdf">risk</a> of human error and ensuring compliance with data protection regulations. While RPA may not be the only technology being used for automation, it still has many advantages, including a relatively low cost of implementation, ease of use, and the ability to work with a wide variety of applications and systems. So, as RPA faces competition from other technologies in the market, it is still a valuable tool in the automation toolkit. RPA will continue to be relevant in the future, and the sooner businesses adopt this technology, the sooner they will see improved performance and ROI, ensuring long-term sustainability. Disclaimer: This article is authored by <keyword id="697772" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="vikramjit-singh" source="Orion">Vikramjit Singh</keyword>, Practice Engagement Manager, <keyword id="6744928" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="digital-transformation-solutions" source="Orion">Digital Transformation Solutions</keyword>, <keyword id="6079860" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="infosys-bpm" source="Orion">Infosys BPM</keyword>. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Business Insider India.

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