DXC makes digital transformation push in Asia
IT services firm uses automation and AI to trim its portfolio and size as it helps customers on their digital transformation journey
DXC Technology has restructured its business for the digital economy since it was formed by the merger of CSC and the enterprise services division of Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
The merger has forced DXC to simplify and streamline its business. Today, it has a slimmed-down portfolio of 200 applications, compared with the previous 800; eight organisational layers instead of 14; and nine product families from the previous 300.
Koushik Radhakrishnan, vice-president and general manager of DXC Technology Asia, said: “Five years back, the services business had a very linear growth model [with a direct correlation] between people and revenue, where every additional headcount directly added to the top line.
“With automation, cognitive and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, that model is gone.”
Some 25% of DXC’s global business is now focused on digital transformation, and the company is using next-generation technologies to help customers with their digital transformation.
For example, its Bionix framework offers business automation capabilities built on Platform DXC, which offers services for intelligence, orchestration and automation.
Using this approach, DXC said its clients had reduced the time spent on operations by between 50% and 80%, as well as cutting testing costs by 25%, among other improvements.
In Asia, DXC has more than 50 offices in 12 countries and over 500 clients. Within ASEAN, the company plans to focus its sales efforts on digital transformation opportunities in Indonesia.
One of the biggest barriers to digital transformation is making sure that people within an organisation are rewired for the digital economy, said Radhakrishnan. “Many organisations in the region still lack a digital mindset at the very top, despite working in markets where consumers are tech-savvy,” he added.
Building new digital capabilities requires DXC to make a significant investment in retraining staff, rethink how it brings in new people, and how it trains and sources fresh talent, said Radhakrishnan.
Read more about digital transformation in APAC
- Businesses in Singapore are fine-tuning their digital transformation efforts, with a third of them moving public cloud workloads to on-premise systems.
- An IDC survey commissioned by Red Hat reveals organisations in the ASEAN region lack mobile-specific skills and tend to approach mobility projects in an ad-hoc manner.
- Nearly four in 10 workers in Australia are worried that they do not have the right skills to compete in the digital economy, survey finds.
- Digital transformation in Australia’s public sector has been beset by soaring rhetoric and vague aspirations by government, a new report reveals.
To help customers with digital transformation, the company has set up a digital innovation lab in Singapore to co-create prototypes and test ideas in emerging fields, such as AI and machine learning, the internet of things, blockchain and humanoid robotics, as applied in industries such as financial services, healthcare and manufacturing.
DXC plans to open more such labs across Asia, and is already working with Singapore General Hospital on an AI system that can guide a doctor in prescribing antibiotics based on patient profiles gleaned from 10 years’ worth of data.
Prescribing antibiotics in Singapore depends largely on doctors’ clinical experience and diagnostic sense, which could lead to inconsistent practice and patient outcomes if they are dealing with a high volume of patients, said Andrea Kwa, pharmacy clinician-scientist at the hospital.
“The use of AI will augment diagnostic acumen to guide appropriate antibiotics prescribing in such a high-pressure clinical environment, and so complement antibiotic stewardship efforts,” said Kwa.
DXC is also working with the Podiatrist Association of Singapore to develop a mobile app to help people ascertain whether they have flat feet without having to visit a clinic. Computer vision is used to detect the outline of a foot, and to determine the likelihood of flat foot or high arch problems.
