CSC Smart Business UK Edition September - Growth goes global
Growth goes global
Smart Business takes a look at CSC client engagements around the world to determine the driving forces behind IT modernisation and "as a Service" adoption
To compete in the modern time of austerity, organisations are looking for IT to deliver both efficiencies and new capabilities. Empowering staff to serve customers better, while ensuring costs are reigned in, is the highest priority.
For many of CSC's clients this can mean supplementing internal capabilities by consuming IT on "as a Service" models to simplify and modernise systems, as well as benefit from third party expertise and pay-as-you go billing. There are many options, including infrastructure, platform, and software "as a Service" which can help an organisation get the best IT support possible from a trusted partner while it concentrates on its core capabilities.
A common driver for modernising IT systems is consolidating operations into as few data centres as possible so economies of scale are achieved. A major part of this rationalisation trend is deploying standardised platforms which solve previous issues of legacy and incompatibility. These common platforms are, in turn, being used to distribute sophisticated applications which automate business processes, making them faster and more cost-effective.
With many traditional markets showing sluggish or negative growth, many organisations are looking to unfamiliar markets for future growth. While IT was previously an issue which may have held back such plans, the ability to roll out industrialised processes, operating from a centralised, replicable hub, is actually speeding up and easing the process.
Taking a look across the globe at current CSC client engagements, the huge impact these new technologies is having as a facilitator for driving both efficiencies and growth becomes clear. Ultimately, modernising and industrialising IT processes, often through an "as a Service" model, is shaping up to be front of mind when global organisations weigh up the conundrum of the age: how to do more with less.
Here are some real life examples CSC has been working on:
Zurich Insurance Group
To expand into emerging markets and reduce costs, Zurich, a global leading multi-line insurance provider, collaborated with us to standardise an important part of its life business onto a single set of technology platforms.
Our experienced team supported the design and implementation of a set of standard insurance processes for global reuse, together with a proposition component framework, delivering a business transformation solution across four regions that allows Zurich to develop, share, reuse and support products and processes around the world. Through this collaboration, we are supporting Zurich's life insurance business in entering new markets more quickly and easily – with lower costs.
NASA
To streamline service and save taxpayer money, NASA set out to consolidate key support services, dispersed across four functional areas and 10 field centres, into a single NASA Shared Services Centre (NSSC).
Leveraging experience from creating our own low-cost, customer-focused shared services model, CSC worked with NASA to transition its financial management, human resources, IT and procurement processes to the new centre, located on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. A year after opening, the NSSC was supporting nearly 20,000 NASA employees and partners across the United States. NASA recouped its initial investment ahead of schedule, support costs have decreased by 20 to 30 per cent and projected annual savings to the agency have doubled. The centre continues to win awards for customer support and culture creation.
Volkswagen
Volkswagen, a global market-leading automotive company, has included a robust digital platform in its strategy to secure its position in this highly competitive market. VW is developing a digital platform that will support and enable its dealers all over the world at an affordable cost, help the company win new customers and keep loyal customers engaged with Volkswagen.
Volkswagen selected CSC Cloud Services to provide region-specific platforms to support sales, marketing and after-market applications which will increase demand and drive profitability. Volkswagen dealers, new customers and millions of Volkswagen customers will use applications provided by Volkswagen from the CSC Cloud.
FIAT
FIAT is reinventing its automobile business in Italy and as part of this strategic initiative it is introducing a new line of automobiles to the American market.
FIAT is transforming how it builds, markets and serves its customers around the world. FIAT chose CSC BizCloud to build a business to consumer (B2C) portal as part of its marketing campaign to introduce new FIAT models first to the Italian market and then to other markets around the world. The CSC private cloud was ready to provision the FIAT digital platform in just two months and enabled FIAT to meet its time-to-market goals. FIAT is improving the customer experience by using technology to simplify how customers buy the car they want when they want it.
China Pacific Life Insurance
China's decision to open its financial markets to foreign competition set China Pacific Life Insurance on the path to transformation. One of the country's leading insurers, with more than 115 million customers, the firm was seeking to manage multiple systems across hundreds of operations centres.
The company chose our global insurance software to replace 38 core systems. Our business intelligence experts created a groundbreaking Insurance Industry Data Model, and our high-performance computing experts configured 128 mini-supercomputers for a fast, parallel solution. With the system supporting 225,000 employees and partners, the firm now maintains more than 1,700 products, provides faster customer service and is competing more effectively for new business.
US Federal Aviation Administration
When the FAA sought to help pilots safely plan flights by improving access to weather and navigation data, we worked closely with the agency to develop the innovative Direct User Access Terminal Service (DUATS) resource.
For more than 20 years, our skilled professionals have continuously improved and effectively managed this free, easy-to-use and highly accurate preflight planning system. Delivered via a pioneering and convenient "as a Service" model since 1989, DUATS has enabled over half a million pilots per year to fly safely by getting the on-demand, around-the-clock updates about weather and NOTAMs (Notices to Airmen) they need, whether through downloading our custom DUATS software, visiting the DUATS website or accessing the system using mobile-friendly phones or smart devices.
Learn more about CSC’s work in the UK