We recently had a briefing with TCS' Banking Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) industry advisory group to gain a deeper understanding of their capabilities and extent of coverage across the BFSI vertical. The discussion covered key strategic initiatives, recent experiences, and delivery capabilities in the area of finance and accounting (F&A).

The BFSI sector operates in complex regulatory environments emphasizing data sensitivity, compliance, and continuous financial reporting. Considering this, F&A functions within BFSI enterprises require tailored approaches distinct from those in other industries, given the unique nature of the business. They must deal with finances and associated risks, heightened regulatory oversight, continuous auditing demands, and pressure of maintaining financial data accuracy. TCS' BFSI-focused CFO  Strategic Initiative integrates Advisory, Technology Solutions, Analytics & Business Process Services to help BFSI CFOs address these challenges. With proven frameworks and digital accelerators, they deliver synergies through technology and data-related modernizations, process and controls-related transformations and optimizations.

Overview of TCS’ F&A Offerings for BFSI CFOs

TCS' F&A offerings for BFSI CFOs focus on leveraging technology for finance transformations covering:

• Front-to-back finance modernization
• Addressing regulatory & compliance challenges
• Implementing continuous accounting and daily soft close
• Empowering finance users with self-service reporting & analytics capabilities
• Modernizing finance policies & processes

TCS delivers long-term and short-duration advisory and transformation engagements and multi-year finance transformation engagements. It leverages a set of proprietary tools and frameworks tailored for F&A transformation. These tools are applied across transformation engagements to assess current states, define operating models, and execute targeted technology and process improvements.

Key tools used to support F&A transformation include:

• A maturity assessment tool for finance, evaluating maturity of finance policies & procedures, tools & technology, processes & controls, data & reporting and people. With a consultative approach, TCS also helps create a roadmap towards desired levels of finance maturity
• TCS Cognix, a cognitive automation platform supporting AI-driven process optimization in F&A with 100+ value builders
• GenAI-based decision intelligence solution that facilitates real-time decision recommendations to ensure a firm’s ongoing ability to meet short-term obligations
• TCS Compass, a framework with a combination of digital core capabilities and enablers for enterprise application modernization powered by cloud.

In addition to its TCS BaNCS platform, TCS has a range of tools and platforms designed explicitly for the BFSI sector. These include:

• TCS Crystallus, a suite of pre-configured business solutions to accelerate digital transformation and financial consolidation. In the BFSI sector, TCS Crystallus is used to accelerate the implementation of enterprise solutions
• Intelligent digital extraction suite, a vision-based machine learning OCR to identify textual patterns within images and capture data using NLP and ML algorithms for data extraction from documents/applications
• TCS Cognitive Automation platform (CAP) for BFSI is a suite of modular, API-enabled, innovative cognitive solutions leveraging AI/ML and NLP technologies, which are adaptable with accelerated business outcomes and assured benefit realization, and supports growth transformation.

Advisory engagements typically focus on specific pain points such as CoA modernization, controls rationalization, automations of EUCs, streamlining and standardizations of finance policies, strengthening and optimization of controls and compliances, while larger transformation programs address end-to-end finance modernization.

CoA Optimization & Finance Modernization

TCS engaged with a leading UK-based insurance company to address inefficiencies in its Chart of Accounts (CoA), with a low maturity level (1.8 on a 4-point scale). The CoA had over 35% redundancy due to unused and duplicate accounts, poor governance, and inconsistencies in reporting hierarchies. The solution deployed by TCS included an as-is assessment of Oracle cloud GL and CoA structure, gap analysis against industry best practices, recommendations for thin GL and thick sub-ledger structure, optimization of dimensions and hierarchies, and implementation of cross-validation rules for better control. The engagement resulted in a streamlined CoA, reduced audit efforts, and a foundation for future ERP transformation.

Elsewhere, TCS supported the modernization of payments accounting for a U.K. building society by transitioning its accounting model from single-entry to double entry on SAP Fiori. The engagement included process flow design, control framework development, and compliance alignments.

Addressing Regulatory Reporting Challenges

Unlike manufacturing or retail sectors, F&A in BFSI is driven by continuous regulatory scrutiny, stringent reporting needs, and rigorous data governance. Financial institutions face increasing expectations from regulators, including demands for direct data access, continuous accounting capabilities, and zero tolerance for compliance failures.

Additionally, for BFSI clients, compliance is a business critical need, an integral part of business-as-usual operations that demands minimal manual interventions across financial processes to enable continuous accounting.

Here, TCS supported a large European bank, with operations across 10 Asia-Pacific countries, to address the regulatory reporting challenges. The bank required automation of over 1,000 regulatory reports, each subject to local compliance standards and multilingual submission requirements. TCS developed a centralized regulatory reporting platform (RRP) with integrated ETL and reporting functionalities. The solution enabled the bank to consolidate financial and operational data into a single data store, apply configurable business rules, and automate reporting workflows. The outcome included accelerated report generation, enhanced data control through role-based security, and compliance adherence across multiple jurisdictions.

Implementing Continuous Accounting

TCS is working with European banks to implement continuous accounting, enabling daily soft close capabilities. This involves eliminating manual interventions, automating data reconciliations, and integrating compliance into the transactional processes. Key focus areas include automation of balance sheet substantiation, data quality frameworks, and policy alignment.

A major European bank faced challenges due to fragmented accounting systems, resulting in millions of manual journal entries per month. These manual interventions led to delayed closings, high reconciliation efforts, and regulatory compliance challenges and issues under SOX. TCS implemented a structured transformation under its risk, finance, and treasury program, covering five workstreams: GL, data warehouse, P&L, treasury, and German sub-ledgers. The engagement's key elements included implementing a data quality monitoring framework, deploying over 20 finance data dashboards, significantly reducing recurring manual adjustments in the initial phase, root cause analysis and systematic remediation tracking, and alignment with ECB BCBS 239 audit requirements. This engagement enabled the bank to improve data governance, enhance audit readiness, and swiftly progress toward daily financial close capabilities.

Elsewhere, TCS implemented a centralized balance sheet substantiation platform for a major bank, reducing the number of operational locations and automating most reconciliations. Segregation of duty conflicts was  addressed, leading to improved SOX compliance.

Summary

TCS' BFSI CFO Strategic Initiative delivers end-to-end F&A transformations, tailored to the specific needs of the BFSI CFOs. Its  approach of synergizing  technology modernization, data governance, regulatory compliance, and operational streamlining and deploying AI- and GenAI-based solutions has resulted in significant gains for financial institutions in terms of building effective and efficient finance functions. Leveraging structured frameworks, proprietary tools, and experience with a diverse BFSI client base, TCS enables finance functions to maintain compliance, generate real-time insights, and automate key processes.

These initiatives contribute to stronger financial controls, improved readiness for regulatory scrutiny, and the development of scalable, future-oriented finance operations. As organizations increasingly prioritize domain expertise and an understanding of industry-specific requirements, TCS' BFSI-focused CFO Strategic Initiative illustrates how service providers are evolving to offer specialized, sector-driven solutions.

The way organizations manage source-to-contract is gradually transforming, driven by the need for smarter insights, tighter integration, and better business alignment. Organizations are no longer just looking for sourcing support; they need actionable insights, digital agility, and solutions that can navigate complexity in real time. Consequently, tech enablement in areas such as intake orchestration, autonomous sourcing, and platform-led category management is supporting these requirements.

WNS Procurement addresses this need through its digital suite, The Smart Cube, an integrated accelerator designed to deliver insights and analytics, category management, project management, and risk management, all aimed at driving procurement transformation.

The Smart Cube has been enhanced to become WNS Procurement's digital suite, reflecting its broader AI+HI vision for transforming procurement. WNS Procurement will continue integrating The Smart Cube into existing and new procurement transformation and managed services engagements.

The Smart Cube digital suite comprises four components and an integrated GenAI-powered procurement intelligent agent, PIA+. The four components are: Category PRO, Amplifi PRO, SmartRisk PRO, and Pipeline PRO.

Category PRO for End-to-End Category Management

Category PRO is a configurable workspace for category planning, strategy development, execution, and monitoring. In combination with Pipeline PRO (see below), it can be used to increase the productivity of category managers and shorten sourcing cycle times, with Category Pro providing the insights and intelligence to build category strategy and Pipeline PRO helping category managers to more effectively manage the project pipeline and savings tracking.

For example, a Fortune 500 FMCG client faced challenges in deriving insights due to disconnected systems, an inconsistent category planning approach, and a reactive approach to changing market conditions, resulting in lost savings opportunities and delayed risk mitigation. With Category PRO, WNS Procurement delivered a unified digital workspace to consolidate market intelligence, KPIs, contract analytics, and strategic initiatives across six indirect categories. This resulted in higher productivity of category managers, better risk anticipation, and increased focus on value-generating initiatives.

Amplifi PRO for Commodity and Supplier Intelligence

Amplifi PRO is a digital enabler that focuses on delivering market intelligence around direct and indirect spend categories, supplier discovery, commodity intelligence, and key trends. It can assist category managers in cost containment by providing real-time information, such as commodity intelligence, category insights and dashboards, and inflation indices.

For example, a Fortune 50 healthcare company struggled with cost containment due to market volatility. WNS Procurement deployed Amplifi PRO to provide over 800 category dashboards and AI-driven commodity forecasts. This resulted in a $8m inflation impact neutralized in one year, improved negotiation power, and ~90% price forecast accuracy.

SmartRisk PRO for Supplier Risk Management

SmartRisk PRO is a risk intelligence platform that continuously monitors supplier and category risks and assists category managers and procurement teams to assess and mitigate those risks. This helps strengthen supplier governance by building resilience against supply risk and cost fluctuations using commodity price data.

For example, an aerospace and defense company sought better supplier risk visibility. Using SmartRisk PRO, WNS Procurement enabled continuous assessment across ~70 parameters, integrating financial, ESG, and operational risk factors. This strengthened supplier governance, enhanced ESG compliance, and early risk mitigation through AI-generated alerts.

PipelinePRO for Purchasing Process Automation and Compliance

Pipeline PRO is a project management tool that aims to transform the stakeholder experience and project lifecycle management using buying guidance, policy digitalization and query handling, procurement project workflow automation, and savings tracking and validation.

It provides centralized project tracking and helps reduce the volume of helpdesk queries. For example, a U.S.-based health insurer needed to streamline intake and approvals. With Pipeline PRO, WNS Procurement provides centralized tracking, automated workflows, and 24/7 query resolution. This enabled 100% centralized project tracking and ~70% reduction in helpdesk contact volume.

Integrated with PIA+, a GenAI-Powered Procurement Intelligent Agent

These platforms are integrated with PIA+, WNS Procurement’s conversational AI-driven digital assistant. PIA+ draws on insights and data from the integrated digital suites to deliver personalized recommendations, contextual insights, and prescriptive guidance. For example, it supports:

• Category PRO with proactive recommendations to achieve category goals as well as category-specific alerts and query support
• SmartRisk PRO with contextual insights across suppliers, categories, and the entire supplier portfolio
• Pipeline PRO with regional language support for employees and suppliers.

Combining The Smart Cube with WNS Procurement’s Services to Accelerate Procurement Transformation

WNS Procurement embeds The Smart Cube digital suite into its procurement services and aims to leverage this capability in both new and existing deals. This is helping the company make its source-to-contract services more scalable and insightful while accelerating the outcomes for, and assisting clients, in:

• Shortening sourcing cycle times
• Improving compliance and governance
• Faster decision-making with real-time insights
• Building resilience against supply risk and cost fluctuations.

In today's environment of ongoing market uncertainty and heightened supply chain risks, The Smart Cube digital suite empowers clients to accelerate procurement processes and respond proactively. Leveraging extensive insights, intelligence, and real-time alerts provided by the platform, clients can enhance process efficiency, improve compliance, and effectively drive procurement transformation.

Global Capability Centers (GCCs) have traditionally been associated with labor arbitrage, reducing costs by leveraging talent in lower-cost locations. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. The real value of GCCs is unlocked through optimization, centralization, and technology adoption, transforming them into strategic assets that drive business growth and innovation.

The new-age GCCs are the centers of innovation, fostering ‘lower-cost innovations’ by leveraging access to a highly skilled workforce, next-gen technology, and a supportive government ecosystem. With a mix of talent, digital capabilities, and policy-driven incentives, these centers are becoming key drivers of enterprise-wide transformation far beyond cost savings.

Despite the increasing number of GCCs, there is market apprehension that these centers are solely about insourcing. In reality, modern GCCs are about capability building—leveraging the best of both insourcing and outsourcing while fostering a broader ecosystem of technology, services, and expertise.

From Transaction Processing to Strategic Value Creation

Traditionally, GCCs were focused on transaction processing and non-core roles, but the game's rules have changed. Today, GCCs are deeply embedded in core business functions, such as supply chain, playing a pivotal role in organizational transformation. GCCs are shifting from being narrowly focused on transactional and project-based tasks, such as accounts payable, to offering more comprehensive, end-to-end services and solutions, with a more strategic approach.

Moreover, GCCs are not just execution hubs but are becoming innovation centers, driving digitalization and automation in business-critical areas. The shift is evident in the rise of technology-enabled roles within GCCs, leveraging AI/ML, data science, and analytics to optimize core processes.

As GCCs mature, they are continuing to transition to offering end-to-end services that prioritize not only cost, but increasingly service quality, user experience, and business outcomes. Throughout this change, outsourced service vendors will play an increasingly crucial role in the ecosystem, adding value not only by handling high-volume, low-value tasks but also by continuing to take ownership of processes and transforming them with the optimal application of next-gen technology. This continuing shift will empower GCCs to concentrate on higher-value initiatives that foster innovation, efficiency, and competitive advantage, while also enabling strategic talent access and driving technological progress.

The Evolution of GCCs: From Sourcing to Ecosystem Orchestration

For years, businesses have debated outsourcing and insourcing. The future, however, lies in ‘ecosystem orchestration’, an approach that enables organizations to evolve into orchestrators of dynamic ecosystems that integrate technology, partnerships, and strategic capabilities.

Rather than being confined to insourcing or outsourcing, GCCs are a value multiplier, leveraging a network of service providers, technology partners, and innovation hubs to drive enterprise-wide transformation.

As organizations mature their GCC models, the focus is shifting towards capability building, co-creation, and business impact. High-volume transactional tasks are progressively being automated or handled through consumption- and outcome-based models. Outsourcing vendors can enhance synergies in these areas by providing industry expertise and technological capabilities. By blending internal expertise with external collaborations, GCCs foster agility, innovation, and scalability, ensuring they serve as strategic enablers rather than just operational centers.

This shift from a linear sourcing model to a multidimensional ecosystem redefines the role of GCCs as innovation and digitalization engines. GCCs are not merely about retaining strategic control over core functions but about improving agility, scalability, customer experience (CX), and user experience (UX).

A prime example of this multidimensional ecosystem is Best Buy’s recent announcement to establish a global technology capability center in Bengaluru, India. This center aims to provide Best Buy with access to top-tier tech talent and drive digital transformation in areas like customer relationships, omnichannel solutions, e-commerce, and supply chain management, with a particular emphasis on mobile and AI platforms. The GCC will bring together a diverse team, including digital strategists, product managers, designers, engineers, infrastructure engineers, and operations teams.

In collaboration with its GCC team, Best Buy also intends to leverage the capabilities of its existing partners, including TCS, Microsoft, Accenture, Google, and Amazon, thus creating an ecosystem that extends beyond traditional insourcing and outsourcing.

GCCs: Guinea Pigs of Digital Transformation

The latest wave of GCC growth is driven by technology-led functions, making them integral to the digital transformation agenda. However, what truly sets them apart is their ability to embrace a culture of quick experimentation, rapid iteration, and learning from failures to accelerate innovation. Rather than fearing failure, GCCs are becoming test beds for new technologies and digital strategies, refining processes at an unprecedented pace.

By leveraging AI/ML and data science, GCCs enhance decision-making, automate processes, and use predictive analytics to drive better business outcomes. As enterprises transition to hybrid and multi-cloud environments, GCCs strengthen cloud capabilities and cybersecurity frameworks to ensure resilience and security. In areas like digital commerce and supply chain analytics, GCCs are pioneering e-commerce innovations and optimizing supply chain operations through real-time data insights and automation. This mindset of continuous learning and agility ensures that GCCs remain at the forefront of enterprise-wide digital transformation, setting new benchmarks for operational excellence and technological advancement.

The Future of GCCs: At the Forefront of Innovation

As GCCs evolve, they become pivotal drivers of global innovation, expanding far beyond their original cost-centric models. These centers now lead enterprise-wide digital transformation by embedding AI, cloud computing, and automation into core business functions. The focus is shifting from operational efficiency to high-value strategic roles in research & development, digital marketing, customer experience enhancement, supply chain visibility, and finance.

Many of these GCCs have also become a talent pipeline for global roles and leadership positions that are more receptive to working with GCCs and leveraging and honing their true scale and capability. By placing digital-first thinking at their core, GCCs are shaping the future of enterprise transformation, ensuring long-term strategic growth and global competitiveness.

Conclusion: GCCs as a Growth Engine for Enterprises

GCCs are no longer just about back-office operations or cost savings. They are evolving into centers of excellence, driving business agility, innovation, and long-term value. By embracing an ‘ecosystem orchestration’ approach, companies can strike the right balance across service providers, technology partners, and innovation hubs, ensuring their GCCs remain innovation hubs rather than just operational units.

Organizations must recognize GCCs as strategic enablers, not just cost arbitrage centers, and invest in their growth as digital-first, data-driven, and technology-enabled business units.

We recently spoke to TCS about its proprietary integrated source-to-pay platform, TAP^TM, which offers a modular solution across sourcing, contract management, purchasing operations, accounts payable, and supplier hub. This blog examines the use of AI and GenAI within TAP, the potential benefits, and its commercial models.

Overview

Key modular offerings and capabilities include:

• Sourcing – quick events, RFx events, auctions, supplier evaluations, bid comparison and award decisions
• Contract management – creation, negotiation, and lifecycle tracking of contracts
• Purchasing – catalog, requisition, purchase order, goods receipt
• Accounts payable – inflow and capture, invoice validation, invoice matching, invoice exception and posting, and special requests
• Supplier hub – supplier information management and supplier self-service.

TAP currently has global customers across ten industry verticals, where it processes ~30m invoices, ~5m POs annually, 600k suppliers, and ~150k business users. The platform caters for client customization, allowing clients to tailor key features to address their specific organizational requirements.

One recent client example is the deployment of TAP for a multinational electronics company's MRO program, which covers 41 business units across six countries. The operations complexity includes ~6.8m catalog items across ~31k suppliers hosted on TAP and two punchout catalogs that offer a unified MRO procurement solution including seamless integration with SAP and Oracle. With TAP, the client has been able to create purchase orders for ~800k items successfully with their suppliers while reducing complexity.

AI & GenAI in TAP

TAP incorporates various technology enablers to enhance its ability to offer agile and lean procurement solutions. These include identifying GL code and detecting duplicate invoices, OCR to capture header and line-level fields in ~20 languages, reporting with role-specific dashboards, automation for exception handling, and rule-based matching.

Unlike legacy systems, which often require integrating separate reporting tools and AI/ML to address such challenges, TAP’s inbuilt technology enablers streamline the process and deliver end-to-end capability. Other important features designed for ease of use include seamless integration with ERPs, third-party, and legacy systems, notifications for processing saved documents, an intuitive interface with convenient quick links, and tools for buyer-supplier collaboration and query management. Combined with the intuitive UI and quick links, these provide a compelling value proposition for non-core business users and vendors, significantly helping to drive adoption across organizations.

TCS has embedded multiple prebuilt AI/ML models within TAP to increase process efficiency, enhance the user experience, drive user adoption through a simplified and more intuitive user interface, and minimize manual interventions.

This includes the use of AI models to provide AI-based GL code suggestions for invoice processing which can improve the spend classification, sourcing event type suggestion & cloning of events, AI-based supplier suggestion on supplier search (Free text req, Manual PO) and supplier selection, AI-based duplicate invoice checks, invoice outlier detection.

Additionally, TAP leverages GenAI to enhance strategic decision-making while reducing manual effort and enhancing accuracy by automating complex tasks such as supplier notifications/emails for suppliers, auto-creation of RFx events with detailed RFx documents, tailored evaluation questionnaires, and assigning appropriate weights. It also provides a quick summary of contract clauses and a contract comparison, highlighting differences and similarities across clauses. Most of these functionalities will help procurement teams gain efficiencies, reducing overall cycle time and improve user experience with business stakeholders.

Potential benefits include reduced maverick buying & improved compliance

Some of the key potential benefits from TAP adoption include:

• Improved spend under control up to ~90%
• 30%-40% reduction in operating cost
• ~50% reduction in processing cycle time.

Other KPIs that TAP has been focused on include PO processing time reduction, tracking and reporting savings, invoice exception reduction, helpdesk query reduction, and user adoption improvement.

Flexible commercial models across implementation & operation

While TAP focuses on impacting various operational KPIs, the platform also offers flexible commercial and engagement models from flexibility in deployment cost, which can be distributed over the deployment period, to operating costs. Deployment times to integrate with existing ERPs such as SAP, Oracle, and PeopleSoft are also relatively rapid at ~12-16 weeks.

The pricing models for ongoing operations can be fixed monthly recurring charges (MRC) for smaller customers and monthly transaction volume-based charges (price per invoice, per PO, per contract, or a per-sourcing event-based processing fee) which can be based on overall volumes, for larger customers.

TAP is provided to clients as SaaS or BPaaS models and offers single point of accountability starting from implementation, hosting of application, infrastructure, application support & maintenance and BPS services.

2023 was a year full of challenges for supply chain leaders. Recovery from COVID-19, avoiding supply chain disruptions, mitigating geo-political risk and climate changes, and understanding the implications of ESG on the supply chain were some of the headwinds leaders had to navigate. Amidst all these challenges and the corresponding need for a resilient supply chain, all the buzz around GenAI and ChatGPT added to the complexity of the supply chain technology roadmap for vendors and clients. 

As we enter 2024, the supply chain industry continues to grapple with most of these challenges driven by regulatory requirements and the need for supply chain visibility, and this year will see strong demand for sustainability services and technology enabling resilience in the areas of planning, distribution, network optimization, and track and trace.

Here are the top five supply chain trends that may reshape the industry and vendors' offerings in 2024 and beyond:

Conversational & GenAI to improve user experience and drive efficiency

2023 saw vendors proactively investing in GenAI and conversational AI and developing POCs and MVPs, while clients have been looking to embrace these technologies with successful use cases within the supply chain. The existing use of technology within the supply chain revolves around self-service reporting and advanced analytics alongside platform and SaaS solutions coupled with RPA, AI, and ML-based algorithms and proprietary tools from service providers.

Supply chain leaders have been working on the digital transformation of the supply chain and end-to-end technology roadmap. Still, adopting new technology within the supply chain varies significantly depending on the client’s supply chain and technology maturity. The use of technology in areas such as planning, forecasting, advanced analytics, scenario modeling, and network optimization has been one of the most common themes across vendors and clients in the last couple of years. The use of GenAI and conversational AI is still at a very early stage. NelsonHall estimates that ~50% of supply chain-driven organizations are investing in GenAI or looking to invest in 2024 to improve the accuracy of forecasting and demand planning, and virtual assistants to improve user experience, create and process documents across the supply chain, order tracking, invoice management, and risk management.

Digital twin to see increased demand and adoption

A supply chain digital twin uses real-time data and snapshots to create a detailed simulation model and help with scenario planning and analysis. A supply chain digital twin can be an excellent tool for understanding the supply chain’s behavior, predicting bottlenecks and anomalies, and troubleshooting.

With a focus on improving planning, forecasting, and driving user experience, NelsonHall expects two-thirds of large organizations to adopt digital twins in the supply chain within two years. This can be particularly useful in industries with a complex supply chain, such as manufacturing, energy and utilities, oil and gas, consumer goods and durables, defense, etc. Some of the tangible benefits organizations can leverage from the use of digital twins include:

• Long-term supply chain planning and forecasting
• Sensitivity analysis to avoid disruptions
• Inventory optimization
• Improving supply chain resilience and agility.

As organizations embrace digitalization of the supply chain, improving supply chain visibility, real-time tracking and tracing, advanced analytics, and control tower operations, the cost of adopting digital twins and barriers to adopting them will reduce significantly. However, from a vendor perspective, digital twins require a strong hardware capability or partnership and a robust engineering capability. Buyers of supply chain services need to weigh up their vendors’ end-to-end capability adequately. 

Increased demand for touchless supply chain operations

Supply chain disruptions have become more real post-COVID, and the recent events have added to the complexity. Supply chain disruption challenges, along with evolving customer preferences and regulations, require leaders to act swiftly, thus making them shift to a more autonomous and agile supply chain. Various areas within the supply chain where touchless operations have been  adding value are:

• Touchless planning
• Touchless order management
• Touchless analytics and reporting.

Vendors such as Capgemini, Infosys, IBM, and other major players have touchless planning services and claim to deliver tangible benefits such as:

• Up to 80% reduction in operations cost
• Up to 5% increase in revenue base.

In today’s world, when organizations are grappling with an overload of systems, platforms, tools, processes, and technology,  along with complex business organizations, a touchless supply chain can immensely improve user experience. A touchless supply chain will also ensure resources are utilized for more strategic work and free up to 60-70% of their time from mundane and routine work. At the core of touchless supply chain operations is the technology network, including RPAs, machine learning models, and AI, that ensures standard processes can be automated and performed independently with minimal or no human intervention.

With adequate planning, the latest technology, and domain knowledge, vendors have successfully delivered touchless planning and other operations for their clients. NelsonHall expects touchless planning, order management, and analytics/reporting/forecasting to have higher demand in 2024 and widespread adoption to 70-80% in the next 18 months.

Enabling end-to-end supply chain visibility

2023 was a dynamic and challenging year, with the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, Israel-Hamas war, Panama Canal crisis disrupting trade routes, and Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. Not much has changed as we enter 2024 with most of these crises ongoing. This certainly means a lot of planning, decision-making, increased cost pressure, transportation constraints, and other associated challenges that supply chain managers will have to work with. These geopolitical uncertainties have exponentially increased the complexity for supply chain managers, and the situation warrants quicker and faster decision-making.

In today’s complex global supply chains, decision-making without real-time, end-to-end visibility can be costly and counterproductive for businesses. Lack of visibility of real-time transactions, orders, shipment status, and inventory significantly impacts cost, customer satisfaction, and associated supply chain risk. Vendors have developed an ecosystem of solutions that integrates real-time data across systems, allowing business users to make faster decisions and access actionable insights and decisions. NelsonHall expects the demand for end-to-end supply chain visibility services to stay strong in the coming months and years, driven by the need for transformation, digitalization, and faster decision-making.

Avoiding supply chain disruptions in 2024

Given the current market situation, the possibility of a major supply chain disruption is not too far-fetched. Companies must assess their supply chain resilience and identify and react to gaps. This may be a longer-term plan; however, companies must respond to ever-evolving internal and external factors to address and adapt to business challenges.

This may require a proactive approach and an assessment of the current supply chain landscape. Creating supply chain visibility will be the first step towards understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the existing supply chain. Without adequate data and insights, organizations may be sitting on a ticking time bomb in the current market scenario. Visibility of the supply chain can help leadership with sufficient insights and data points to proactively identify challenges and plan accordingly. While 2024 may be challenging, using technology coupled with adequate monitoring, planning, and partnerships can help organizations avoid potential disruption.

From NelsonHall’s recent discussions with the major service providers, some of the themes for 2024 that emerged were that clients are showing maximum interest in improved forecasting and planning accuracy, leveraging digital tools and technology and AI for transformation, use of GenAI in the supply chain, and sustainability services.

NelsonHall recently had a briefing followed by a demo of Tech Mahindra’s latest offering in field service management: Yantr.ai, an AI and ML-based bolt-on solution that can sit on existing scheduling systems. Yantr.ai provides a control tower solution to field service management, focusing on delivering operational efficiency, enhanced productivity, and improved workflow control by leveraging advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning models to enable real-time decision-making. With Yantr.ai at the center of all data points, it can provide end-to-end visibility of granular operations insights.

Launched in 2022, Yantr.ai is an offering under Tech Mahindra’s BPS business with BPaaS and SaaS options. Tech Mahindra has been focused on offering BPS solutions with a combination of platform enablement in niche areas as part of its growth strategy. NelsonHall expects to see further similar offerings from Tech Mahindra in the coming months.

Yantr.ai Overview

Yantr.ai focuses on industries such as telecom, utilities, retail, oil & gas, pharmaceutical, and other similar industries where there is a sizeable workforce in the field, and field service directly impacts the customer experience.

With today’s Amazon and Google-like experience, customer expectations evolve almost daily. However, while many innovation and technology interventions have happened, effective field service management remains a key challenge. Customers expect excellent product quality, effective communication, and seamless support; and field service management is vital to customer satisfaction.

Yantr.ai focuses on transforming field spend, improving CX, and improving field workforce productivity. It incorporates a digital twin and control tower for field services, and focuses on creating end-to-end visibility, data-driven decision-making, and scenario and capacity planning to provide actionable insights. Tech Mahindra claims to deliver benefits such as a 1-3% reduction in operational spend, up to 10% improvement in operational efficiency, and up to 15% improvement in customer experience.

Yantr.ai’s core modules are:

• Capacity planning: forecasts the demand trend by incorporating external factors such as weather and seasonality to empower planners to remain prepared and responsive
• Strategic planning: focuses on monthly and long-term (up to two years) demand optimization, identifying and addressing challenges such as unmet demands, skill shortages, demand reshaping, and permanent relocation
• Operational planning: focuses on demand optimization for the next 30 days, with daily demand, capacity planning, optimizations, and SLA visibility
• Jeopardy planning: offers real-time triage, jeopardy, and unscheduled work order management based on multiple dynamic factors and business rules
• Route planning and optimization: ensures all vehicles/trucks take optimized routes to save time and money, thus improving service efficiency
• Scenario modelling: simulation of distinct scenarios based on various economic and weather factors like wildfires, tornados, floods, etc.

Forecasting is supported by machine learning models covering ARIMA, exponential smoothing, Naïve, and neural network time series forecasting. Based on the data input and forecasting accuracy, Yantr.ai will dynamically select the best model for forecasting and plot different visualizations for actual demand, forecast demand, and variance between actual and forecast demand.

Client Cases

One example of the use of Yantr.ai for field service is for a major Australian telecom company where the benefits delivered by Tech Mahindra are:

• $15m to $20m savings to field operations spend
• ~4 % SLA improvement
• ~10 % to 15 % work being saved from external suppliers
• Truck roll reduced by 10%
• 40% FTE reduction.

The client’s business challenges were managing extensive field service operations, optimizing inefficient technician assignments, reducing response time, and improving customer satisfaction. The client also struggled with no real-time insights or dynamic scheduling capabilities. Tech Mahindra deployed Yantr.ai to optimize technician assignments, provide real-time job insights, and improve resource utilization. Dynamic scheduling capabilities were used to help the client adapt more quickly to unforeseen challenges.

Beyond field service, Yantr.ai has also been used by a major Australian media company to address route planning. In this case, the company’s challenges were improving customer satisfaction by meeting SLAs for newspaper/magazine distribution to retailers and end customers, and optimizing routing to help in vendor negotiation and cost savings. Tech Mahindra implemented Yantr.ai to build an optimal routing model to reduce cost and improve delivery SLAs. Key benefits delivered to the client were:

• 15%+ higher accuracy in route planning
• Improved SLAs and customer experience, along with reduced travel cost
• Ability to do scenario modeling/analysis, including demand changes
• Profitability analysis of routes and optimization of remote delivery points
• “Right location of depot” suggestions.

Yantr.ai also offers data ingestion through standard connectors/APIs and a custom data ingestion pipeline for ingesting from different formats, including CSV flat files. The tool has an orchestration system to manage complex workflows, which can be modified based on the client systems and processes’ requirements or updated as the project progresses and requirements evolve.

Tech Mahindra claims it is the first company to build a planning engine and control tower for enterprises in field services. The tool offers intelligent DSR (decision support recommendation), on-the-day risk mitigation, routing optimization, and other demand and capacity planning capabilities.

Implementation, Pricing & Key Benefits

Tech Mahindra offers modular functionality deployment options for Yantr.ai. The pricing mechanism is a one-time implementation cost and ongoing license costs based on the number of workflows, infrastructure deployed, and consulting support. In the BPaaS service, Tech Mahindra also provides managed end-to-end field service management support.

The typical time required to implement Yantr.ai is estimated to be 6 to 9 months for a mid-size organization.

Tech Mahindra categorizes the key benefits clients can get by deploying Yantr.ai with the 3Ps (people, planet, and profits):

• “People” benefits include an increase in workforce productivity, improvement in CSAT and NPS, and an increase in technician reskilling
• “Planet” benefits include reduced fuel consumption and carbon footprint and improved decision-making and situation planning during natural calamities or other emergencies.
• “Profits” include savings in operational spend, reduced field technician expenses, truck rolls, and workflow management-related expenses.

Tech Mahindra continues to invest in Yantr.ai, focusing on partnerships with ServiceNow, IFS, isMobile, and Celonis.

NelsonHall expects Tech Mahindra to leverage the technology and architecture behind Yantr.ai to increasingly deliver solutions beyond field services in areas such as logistics, fleet management, and demand planning. Tech Mahindra will likely focus on the telecom, utilities, and oil & gas sectors.

In our recent discussions with suppliers about procurement transformation, a recurring topic was how the procurement function can help organizations meet their sustainability goals. While sustainability has become an integral business theme for organizations, many recognize they have much to do over the next few years. This blog looks at the current state of sustainability in procurement and how the function can play a broader role while leveraging sustainability services from procurement consulting and BPS vendors.

Procurement has extensive experience in areas such as labor practices and human resource management, environmental hazards, responsible sourcing, and improving spend with SMEs and diverse suppliers. But recent and upcoming regulatory changes on how organizations report their sustainability KPIs and targets, such as the EU’s corporate sustainability reporting directive (CSRD), place new demands on the function.

Sustainability in procurement

Sustainability in procurement and how to embed sustainability in procurement practices is an increasingly high priority for CPOs, though many, even those leading large procurement organizations, are still working out how best to adopt sustainability in their function. Major sustainability initiatives are not procurement-led and tend to focus on scope 1 or scope 2 emissions.

With up to 90% of an organization’s ESG risk impacted by purchased goods and services, procurement needs to have a well-developed sustainable supply chain: one of the most critical links between suppliers and the business is to drive joint sustainability programs.

The adoption of ESG considerations for supplier selection, including human resource and labor practices, diversity status, and corporate governance standards, has long been a part of a typical procurement process. CPOs now need to broaden their remit. 

Sustainability areas where procurement plays a crucial role include:

• Collaborating with suppliers to identify materiality ESG themes, topics, risks, and focus areas for the organization and help to achieve those materiality goals
• Leading their organization’s focus on reporting and reducing scope 3 emissions from the supply chain
• Implementing responsible sourcing ideas such as environment-friendly products and raw materials, increasing the extent of recycling, working with suppliers to implement sustainability programs, etc.
• Including small, medium, and diverse suppliers in the sourcing process and increasing spend with these suppliers. This is a mature practice in U.S. markets but is still in the early stages in other regions
• Reducing risk associated with suppliers’ bad practices such as using child labor, environmental pollution, and waste discharge. Such third-party risks can have significant financial and brand value implications on the organization
• Implementing a circular economy with the help of suppliers to ensure resources in the economic cycle deliver the highest value add by re-integrating waste and by-products.

Some procurement services specialists have been developing offerings to help CPOs with their sustainability roadmap and drive overall sustainability goals for the organization. 

Moving to sustainability as a service

Procurement consulting and BPS vendors have been developing ‘ESG as a service’ offerings, building a technology ecosystem around sustainability, and forming partnerships with the likes of Ecovadis, Scoutbee, Sievo, and Sphera. Companies like Infosys (Ecowatch), and TCS (Clever Energy, DigiFleet) have also been focusing on developing IoT, edge, and AI-based analytics tools that help them measure and report sustainability KPIs.

Offerings from major vendors include ones that help clients in:

• Driving a closed-loop procurement system: Accenture, Deloitte, TCS, and Capgemini are among those that have offerings that focus on closed-loop procurement systems and spend management, leveraging automation and analytics across the source-to-pay process and helping clients reinvest the realized value
• Commodity or category-level baseline assessments to identify and prioritize opportunities: Infosys offers advisory and managed services, which focus on sustainability assessments and identifying hotspots or opportunity areas
• Embedding sustainability criteria and metrics in the sourcing process and incorporating sustainability KPIs in the tender process: Capgemini sustainable procurement services has offerings that help upskill the procurement team with an emphasis on procurement process analysis concerning sustainability and helps the team understand sustainability KPIs in RFx process
• Analytics, reporting, and dashboards for tracking and reporting sustainability metrics: a common element  of ‘sustainability as a service’
• Procurement sustainability maturity assessment and sustainability strategy: another common element that helps organizations with sustainability strategy, sustainability capability maturity assessment, and capability uplift advisory offering.

Summary

Procurement has come a long way from being a support function to being strategically significant in helping organizations with their top and bottom lines. In many industries, most medium and large organizations have extensive experience of working closely with their suppliers to optimize the supply chain and deliver a competitive advantage. But with sustainability, many procurement organizations recognize they have a long way to go. The next few years will see some innovative collaborations between organizations and their key suppliers under the sustainability agenda across a broad range of areas, including logistics and energy procurement and the use of advanced analytics and technologies such as IoT for real-time monitoring of supply chain processes.

A few large organizations are already working in multiple directions, but mainstream adoption of sustainability in procurement might take another 12 to 36 months. This is when the first set of CSRD reports will be published and sustainability reports of various organizations can be compared.

Vaibhav is a Principal Analyst with responsibility for NelsonHall's F&A & Supply Chain Transformation research program.