Enterprise leaders must learn from the key priorities of Cognizant: Collaborate and co-create Solutions with tech partners

To compete effectively with its peers, Cognizant is focusing on building proprietary products

The HFS Research team attended Cognizant’s APAC Advisory Summit in Singapore on August 29-30, 2019. The Summit sent a clear message to buyers about Cognizant’s recent achievements in the APAC region. It was well organized, the key market messages were well articulated, and there were a few solid takeaways. Two of Cognizant’s key priorities that industry enterprise leaders should emulate are

• Cognizant takes the collaborative route to ensure client success.
• It builds best-in-class solutions by partnering with innovative technology vendors.

The rationale for these priorities is clear. In the current scenario of complex technologies generating value for clients at multiple intersectional planes, it is not a one-horse race for any organization; rather, it is a team game. To play this game well, players must meet the market’s demand for cocreation of IPs and solutions.

In terms of region-specific strategies, Cognizant highlighted that 6% of its global revenue was from the APAC region in 2018, which was significantly more than 1% five years ago. This growth clearly demonstrates Cognizant’s laser-focus on the APAC market in recent years, which is logical given the current global economic scenario. Cognizant is currently serving more than 70 clients in this region. It expects the APAC market to continue to thrive in the coming years, and the leadership team shared strategies for the same. (Exhibit 1).

Exhibit 1: Cognizant’s digital strategy

Source: Cognizant’s APAC Advisory Summit 2019

The Summit’s core themes were around emerging strategic areas that Cognizant expects to disrupt and transform many of its current and prospect clients’ businesses: 

• Digital transformation levers across streams such as artificial intelligence, smart cities, cloud services, creative design, automation, and process transformation.
• Digital future at scale (Exhibit 2).
• Transformed delivery models such as continuous delivery by agile pods (an agile 4-6 member team) and use of design thinking in reshaping delivery models.
• Partnership ecosystem with digital technology vendors.
• How Cognizant relies on its pragmatic, solution-oriented approach for solving client issues and not on adopting new technologies just because they have become widely available.

Exhibit 2: Digital at scale

Source: Cognizant’s APAC Advisory Summit 2019

Innovative use cases and applications of emerging technologies across verticals are going to remain key success levers for clients

Cognizant showcased its innovative approach toward using emerging technologies to address client needs, which it displays in use cases and its capabilities:

• A few interesting use cases Cognizant shared during the Summit leveraged SAP S/4 Hana and Cognizant’s HANA Plus migration toolset to support clients’ migration processes.
• The Summit highlighted Cognizant’s TEBOT, a robotic testing solution that enables integrated automation of the physical and virtual world. Powered by Raspberry Pi, TEBOT replicates user actions on smart devices for end-to-end testing, which Cognizant patented recently. The TEBOT is currently in use for a leading UK energy company to deliver an automated testing environment for a smart home solution. Also, Cognizant provided this TEBOT solution to a world-renowned sports brand to test fitness tracking in its shoes and wearables.
• In the supply chain in today’s competitive market, most businesses find it hard to predict demand. Cognizant’s AI-powered demand-sensing bots assist customers by using external data signals like temperature, social media feeds, and stock prices to help them predict demand precisely. Seamless data access transforms and combines data across all enterprise applications and exposes them to advanced ML.
• In an AR/VR use case with a leading insurance firm, Cognizant uses VR technology to virtually access incidents and make the claims process easier and faster.
• In a blockchain use case, IoT for a blockchain solution helps doctors or retailers track pharma products throughout transit. An IoT device captures the data only if the product is tampered with or if there is an anomalous condition such as exposure to light or an unexpected temperature.
• Cognizant showcased a very interesting solution-oriented approach while collaborating with agriculture technology company Monsanto Corporation. Monsanto established AQUATEK, an easy-to-use digital application that helps farmers manage water, energy, and overall crop health in real-time from anywhere, at any time, through their mobile devices. Monsanto chose Cognizant to design and implement the solution. The team spent two months with farmers to understand real issues and requirements, which is a clear example of working from the solution’s perspective.
• In the automotive sector, Cognizant recently assisted in the launch of MG Motor’s Hector car brand in India, providing end-to-end support that included designing the marketing campaigns, digital advertisements, websites, bookings, and connected interfaces (a new feature in the segment). The launch was a massive success for MG Motors, as the company surpassed its annual target in just 45 days. Further, MG Motors suspended bookings for three months to meet the existing demand.

How unique are these engagements?

These engagements seem impressive and Cognizant claims that it has never let down any of its clients. We heard the same from Cognizant’s clients through our candid conversations with them. A couple of clients mentioned that they chose Cognizant because of its realistic and solution-oriented approach. However, not all of these use cases are unique, and they don’t have to be. The focus is on practically achievable business benefits for clients. The current strategy combines a collaborative approach with a consultative one; Cognizant needs to come out of its comfort zone and try the co-creation path to differentiate itself in the long run.

Sorting out talent issues

The entire industry is facing a talent crisis; Cognizant is no different. Like other providers, it is approaching this problem from many directions, such as setting up internal training and retention programs, partnering with universities, designing a syllabus for universities that aligned with current technology requirement, and a more open approach to hiring and training fresh talent.

The Bottom Line: Cognizant is determined to gain client trust by aligning its solutions needs rather than with its in-house technologies.

Cognizant politely conveyed the message to the APAC market that it is different from its rivals because of its massive partnership ecosystem and accelerators that can provide customized solutions quickly for clients. This partnership exemplifies Cognizant’s focus on solving client issues rather than on investing its time, effort, and hefty capital on innovation. Enterprise clients must take a cue from these key strategic priorities of a collaborative ecosystem approach, and focus on solutioning to ensure progress in their digital journeys.