We are witnessing a convergence of technologies to solve client problems whether it is high-speed connectivity, intelligent devices, immersive experiences and distributed cloud like edge compute. Such technologies when enriched by data can solve numerous enterprise challenges. IT services major Capgemini is betting on what it calls “intelligent industry” to drive its next phase of growth.
In a recent conversation with CXOToday, Shamik Mishra, Vice President, Capgemini Engineering – India, explains the concept of Intelligent Industry and the company’s specific focus in this area.
“At its simplest, the term Intelligent Industry means harnessing the power of data and connectivity to foster innovation, make new and differentiated ‘smart’ products, improve supply chains, create new customer experiences and deliver new sources of value, he says, adding that for the French IT major, cloud, data, ER&D (engineering and research & development), 5G, and edge computing are the big technology focus areas.
The Intelligent Industry Advantage
According to Mishra, Businesses taking an Intelligent Industry approach will see a wide range of benefits, such as new and differentiated products, reduced costs, increased efficiency of production, new as-a-service business models, and faster times to market.
Though the company is helping its clients across industries with its intelligent tech initiatives, Mishra throws light on the healthcare space specifically, which is undergoing a phenomenal change today. Mishra says, “Capgemini is working with industry leaders to implement innovations in service, care models and information delivery in a way that benefits the provider, the player and the patient.”
“In the fight against COVID 19, we have collaborated with four leading industry players to power a ground-breaking technology project in Spain using AI models on chest X-rays while assuring patient data privacy. Through our specialized unit Tessella, we are developing an AI model that will allow healthcare professionals to leverage advanced diagnostic tools from any location,” he informs.
Digital Inside, Digital Continuity, and Digital Convergence
Today, companies can innovate and build intelligent products, operations and services powered by data at scale, by bringing together physical and digital worlds. Mishra states that they can do so by putting digital technology inside everything, enabling digital continuity throughout a product’s lifecycle and driving digital convergence within wider ecosystems of services, markets, sectors and even cities.
Combining technology implementation at global scale, deep product engineering abilities, and extensive domain and industry knowledge, Capgemini aims to accelerate the three big changes that will drive the intelligent industry revolution – Digital inside (digital technologies like semi-conductors, sensors and software, etc.), Digital continuity (the technical and business aspects of product’s lifecycle) and Digital convergence, which is essentially the coming together of business systems and engineering and manufacturing systems (such as Product Lifecycle Management). It also includes ‘legacy’ world of devices with limited intelligence and connectivity and ‘digital world’ technologies.
Mishra informs that the last aspect or digital convergence is what allows data and knowledge from outside to come in, making ecosystems more viable. It is what makes the systems underlying autonomous driving possible: a car able to process and respond to data from the environment it is moving through, in real time. In other words, it will help autonomous vehicles to make mobility smarter and safer.
The Road Ahead
There are however operational issues related with implementation of Intelligent automated systems. Mishra explains, “A large majority of senior business leaders acknowledge the critical importance of intelligent automation in facilitating digital transformation today. However, there are a number of operational barriers related to the adoption of intelligent automation systems, which include the lack of skilled manpower, difficulty training or reskilling employees, issues regarding integrating with legacy systems, and increased cybersecurity threats.
Discussing the company’s strategy to build on the intelligent industry of the future, Mishra says, “At Capgemini Engineering, we are leveraging our Intelligent Industry capabilities to drive the next phase of growth.”
The company recently set up a 5G lab in Mumbai in collaboration with Ericsson to accelerate the deployment of 5G solutions, a key component of Intelligent Industry among its customer base, after setting up similar labs in Paris and Portugal.
Mishra says, the company focus will strongly remain on building global solutions for 5G and Edge, driving automation systems validation and data-driven R&D to accelerate speed to market.
In line with these technology focus areas, he informs that the company has recently launched three Intelligent Industry offers to enable data driven business transformation, support automotive manufacturers and the wider industry to progress their roadmap to autonomous driving efficiently and help bio pharma companies to improve drug discovery and clinical trials.
“We are also driving the 5G and edge revolution in the telecommunication space from engineering connectivity products to innovating on new use cases that leverage data and connectivity,” says Mishra. He believes, the combination of 5G and Edge will bring businesses and customers even closer and this “zero distance” means new experiences for consumers on how they move, shop, communicate, consume content and ensure healthy living.
Intelligent Industry will lead us to a world where machines and computers will sense, communicate with, and learn from their surroundings, offering new potential products and services for companies to create intelligent value chains with new ecosystems. Thanks to Intelligent Industry, all companies will witness benefits from new and pervasive connectivity that will enable them to become more efficient and agile, and create new value-added services, beyond the products they make.
