Infosys Consulting

Will Infosys Consulting be able to change the “rules of the game” in the consulting industry?

ICI’s new rules of the game (1-1-3 model)

Infosys consulting has come up with an innovative way of performing business process consulting operations. They are calling their model as 1-1-3 model based on the allocation of resources for particular project. This model could be summarized in the below diagram with the significance of the new approach highlighted in the purple callout (case p9):

The value of this model comes from allotment of the task between onsite and offshore teams and hence making the most of the time differences and wage differenced to accomplish maximum work at minimum cost and time. The differentiating factors of this model compared to traditional consulting model (case p9) and the benefits of differentiation can be summarized in the table below:

Traditional Approach Infosys approach Advantages of Infosys approach

Focus on functional requirement Focus on process requirement 1. Direct impact on client’s performance and increase in its shareholder value

2. Better team alignment with one team with each level 0 process

Focus on onsite resources Onsite - offshore model 1. Shortening of lifecycle of solution design to implementation by almost half the time required by traditional approach

2. Cost reduced by half the value of traditional services ($100 per hour per person compared to $175-225 of IBM / Accenture (case p8, p10))

Client interaction limited at the end of phases Regular client interactions during each step of progress The end result closest to the client expectations

Paying employees based on consulting revenues Paying employees based on delivered client value More incentives for performance as well as more value addition to the client

There are certainly some disadvantages of this model as discussed at the end of this paper. However these disadvantages are not impossible to overcome. And ICI partners are taking right steps in that direction. On the other hand, this model has certainly provided a major step ahead in terms of duration of project and the cost which could not be beaten by the traditional approach. Additionally due to frequent client interaction and innovative employee reward program tied to value addition for client had ended up in being both client and employee more satisfied with ICI. So eventually all the companies in business process consulting will have to change their operations to this model to remain competitive. So, Infosys consulting is certainly in the process of changing the rules of the game in consulting industry.

Advantages and disadvantages of the model and base in India

Advantages:

Infosys, having based in India, has effectively capitalized on institutional voids in factor market (HBR article 9-703-431) in this model by:

• Exploiting its understanding of variable talent pool in India and using them effectively for providing world class software solutions

• Exploiting its experience in onsite-offshore model software development process

• Effectively applying the matrix quality measurement structure to this model to measure the performance of every deliverable and hence increasing the quality of product with each project

Clearly Infosys is able to exploit its position of base in India. Apart from the capitalizing on institutional