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Jaya Ghosh

[Company address]

Jaya Ghosh

[Company address]

SMAC – An Emerging Accelerator

for Businesses

IT industry has synergized – Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud technologies – to create a very powerful hyper-intelligent software platform that addresses issues of competitive business environment. SMAC stack, apart from representing technologies that are built on business models, re-structures the technological strength to optimize the operation and attain superior growth.

Rajeev Misra

WHITEPAPER

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CONTENTS:

Introduction ...................................................................................................... 2

Evolution Of SMAC – ‘Right Insight, Right Time, Right Place’ ............................ 3

How to Move Forward With SMAC ................................................................... 3

Approaches to Implementing SMAC ………..……………………………………………………. 4

Step-by-Step Implementation Approach ............................................................................ 4

Individual Implementation Approach …………………….…………………………………………………..…. 5

Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 7

INTRODUCTION

Due to the advent of different social media platforms

and mobile technologies, enterprises and customers

around the world are cohesively connected like

never before. The intensive usage of social platforms

and mobile devices has blurred the boundaries

between personal, social and business transactions.

IT companies have turned this adversity into an

opportunity by utilizing the enormous data available

across various channels. By converting this massive

data into structured and meaningful form, various

kind of analysis could be driven.

With the help of various analysis tools, organizations

can perform real-time interpretations about

consumers, competitors, and business trends that

are critical to businesses. The synergy created by

combined functioning of Social, Mobile, and

Analytics technologies has helped organizations draw

valuable insights about their businesses. Cloud

technologies extend the service to a new level of

maturity, by designing SAAS (Software as a Service)

based products that could be accessed from anywhere.

Individually each technology can add immense value to

a business, but the real benefit could be leveraged by

treating social, mobility, analytics, and cloud as a single

stack. In short, this technology platform (SMAC), will

have a multiplying effect on businesses, which in turn

will augment the productivity all across the

organization. While the convergence of SMAC

technologies is creating enormous opportunities for

businesses, a prudent implementation of the SMAC

stack is essential to realize its true value.

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However, implementation of SMAC stack is very

challenging. This calls for devising a right SMAC stack

and implementation approach, which indeed is the

key to organizational success. To remain

competitive, it is important to understand that every

organization is different from the other and so is

their ecosystem. SMAC creates an ecosystem that

helps businesses to improve their operations while

fulfilling their customer requirements with minimal

cost and maximum reach. Thus, a tailor-made

approach is required for choosing SMAC-enabling

technologies, which in turn should be supported by

a robust strategy, appropriate risk mitigation

measures, and a granular implementation approach.

EVOLUTION OF SMAC – ‘RIGHT INSIGHT, RIGHT TIME, RIGHT PLACE’

The convergence of these technologies signifies

that traditional way of doing business should be

discarded. It means that we don’t have to keep

resources and information on the same location

anymore nor do we need to spend heavily on

communication and collaboration tools.

Immense growth has been observed in Social,

Mobile, Analytics and Cloud technologies, in the

last couple of years. Earlier these technologies

grew and functioned independently. But as the

industry is expanding its horizons holistically,

leading business players have realized the need

to integrate emerging technologies in to a stack,

in order to gain business advantage.

In the initial evolutionary stage, SMAC was

customized for SaaS-based dynamic business

model as per the SMAC stack. It reshaped the

organizational structure by re-aligning processes

that brought a real opportunity for innovative

solutions. By leveraging on shared IT

infrastructure, businesses became more agile,

scalable, and seamlessly connected. Eventually,

it ensured higher growth margins, formulation of

invincible strategies and customer delight.

HOW TO MOVE FORWARD WITH SMAC

Embracing new technologies, to achieve business

objectives, requires a methodological approach.

While some organizations have realized profound

and positive business outcomes, many others have

failed to harness the real value of their SMAC

investments. It is however important to understand

that the value of SMAC investment is influenced by

several external and internal factors such as business

model, Operating model, type of business

service/product, customer Demographics,

Organizational size, applications, processes,

integrations, organizational culture etc. A profound

understanding of the existing eco-system and

business needs of an organization determines the

right SMAC implementation approach. To ensure

successful implementation of SMAC, a survey on the

following key areas, should be conducted:

“The combined potential of SMAC technologies is estimated to be between $70

Billion to $200 billion over the next three years.” - NASSCOM

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Figure 1: Feasibility Study for SMAC

This survey provides data related to various internal

and external factors. After a meticulous analysis and

brainstorming sessions, an analysis report is

prepared to transform IT system that is truly aligned

with the organizational focal point. This analysis can

help organizations to determine which SMAC stack

Implementation approach will fetch optimum ROI.

The two main implementation approaches of SMAC

include the (1) Step-by-Step implementation

approach and the (2) Individual implementation

approach. After confirmatory recommendation we

can surely go-ahead and implement the desired

SMAC stack.

APPROACHES TO IMPLEMENTING SMAC

Step-by-Step Implementation Approach

This approach is recommended for small

organizations where products and services are

homogeneous. This approach takes along all SMAC

elements in one go. It is relatively easy for a small

organization to quickly change and adopt innovative

solutions for the workplace. Their customers and

vendors are not much diversified so

implementation, adoption and enhancements can

be completed in a linear manner. This approach

involves different steps including assessment,

mapping, orchestrate, development and

maintenance & support (see Figure 2).

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Figure 2: Step-by-Step Implementation Approach for SMAC

Individual Implementation Approach

In case of large organizations, it is very difficult to

restructure the business model that is spread

across the globe. Such organizations have

heterogeneous culture spread across its different

business divisions and locations. Each of these

business division require a customized strategy

with considerable financial implication, which

makes it difficult to implement SMAC in one go. An

organization that has an objective to improve its

ROI within a short period of time will have to target

and implement those SMAC technologies from the

stack that are of greater importance.

in such cases, organizations should adopt an

individual implementation approach as per their

business priority. In some cases, when

organizations want to ensure better ROI, they

should go for a pilot project. By conducting the

pilot project, they can ensure the success of

individual elements of the SMAC stack for a

department. This can then be extended across the

organization in the next stage. The SMAC stack

roadmap is created individually as per the eco-

system of an organization.

“By 2018, more than 60% of enterprises will have at least half of their infrastructure on cloud-based platforms.” - Source: Digital Business, Rethinking fundamentals.

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Following are the steps of the ‘Individual Implementation Approach’:

Figure 3: Individual Implementation Approach

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CONCLUSION

SMAC technologies are redefining enterprise IT in this new era. It helps deplete geographical & cultural barriers,

minimize risk, and optimize operational costs of an organization. It also helps develop an agile and scalable

business model, to improve connectivity amongst different stakeholders (employees, customers, and vendors)

through predictive insights.

SMAC stack has immense potential. It is expected that by 2020, it would encompass 80% of total enterprise IT

investment, worldwide.

Figure 4: Survey of Top IT initiatives

An effective SMAC implementation approach offers the following benefits to organizations:

Sustained key business differentiation

Preserved critical processes from legacy applications and reduce application portfolio bloat that leads to

simplification and standardization

Enhanced application performance, automated business processes, resource optimization and reduced

operating cost

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Improved time-to-market, as well as, effort to produce new products and services

Quick adoption of regulatory/compliance changes because of re-architecting of applications

Integrated enterprise application that improves agility of the system

Reduced complexity and embraces strategic directives through an architecture that supports cloud,

mobile or virtualized environments

Opportunity to exit from non-strategic and unsupported technologies

Allowed to partake thoughtful strategic initiatives, with a modernized portfolio

It is evident that SMAC stack aligns the business for greater interoperability and

seamless interaction between the applications improving business performance to

newer heights.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Rajeev Misra has 13+ years of experience in the IT Services industry and is heading the Pre-Sales

team at R Systems. Rajeev holds a Master’s in Business Administration from Apeejay Institute of

Technology, Greater Noida, India and a B.Sc. (Mathematics and Computer Applications) from

Rohilkhand University, Bareilly, India.

ABOUT R SYSTEMS

R Systems is a leading OPD and IT Services company, which caters to Fortune 1000, Government, and Mid-sized organizations, worldwide.

The company is hailed as an industry leader with some of the world’s highest quality standards, including SEI CMMI Level 5, PCMM Level

5, ISO 9001:2008, and ISO 27001:2013 certifications. With a rich legacy spread over two decades, we generate value that helps

organizations transcend to higher levels of efficiency and growth. Quite like the Oyster delivering the Pearl.

For more information, visit www.rsystems.com

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