ManagersOnline.NL (Dutch): Cognizant’s Group Chief Executive for Technology and Operations Writes About Emerging Markets

R. Chandrasekaran, Group Chief Executive, Technology and Operations, Cognizant

“Estimates around the IT market share of emerging economies have continued to surge on the back of their largely underpenetrated IT markets, thriving small and midsize businesses, and most importantly, strong growth in vertical industries and consumer markets that can only push up the share of IT spend in overall operating budgets,” writes R. Chandrasekaran. “American companies, by virtue of their traditionally aggressive adoption of technology and more mature global sourcing programs, will continue to be a large IT market, followed by Europe that remains attractive over the long term.”

He adds, “Notably, organizations in emerging markets are also beginning to look ever more closely at their business models and technology footprints in their efforts to drive enterprise growth, improve operational efficiencies and effectiveness, rationalize enterprise costs, and stay innovative. Organizations the world over are busy addressing the challenges spawned by dynamic industry and technology changes, driven by the mega trends of digitalization, consolidation, consumerization, globalization, demographic shifts, government mandated change, and new disruptive technologies such as cloud, social computing and virtualization.”

Referring to how technology headways are helping bridge the digital divide and opening up newer—and more effective—means of delivering a broader range of services with superior business results, Chandrasekaran writes, “For example, as the prices of tablets fall, tier-one banks in markets such as Asia, Africa and the Middle East have the opportunity to further expand their online and mobile banking offerings. Likewise, retailers can provide a more personalized customer experience by leveraging mobile computing. In many emerging markets, governments and the public sector make for a significant IT opportunity waiting to be tapped. Europe, in this respect, can often learn a lot from countries that are constantly renewing.”

Click here to read the article in Dutch.