Successful Talent Transformation crucial to Sonatas path-breaking Platformation strategy
Sonata Software, a global IT services and technology solutions company, has noted that Talent Transformation is a key component to the success of its unique ‘Platformation’ strategy. It has been four years since Sonata announced its proprietary approach to digital transformation & christened it ‘Platformation’ and it has now become a huge success globally with customers looking to go Digital. Sonata continues to invest in fine tuning its Platformation delivery concepts as newer and more current technologies and frameworks come into being. The Talent Transformation Program was born as Sonata saw a need to transform its talent. Given that Platformation™ would reflect in everything that Sonata would do, it needed to conceptualise and execute on a unique talent transformation program at scale.
Srikar Reddy, MD & CEO, Sonata Software, says, “To realise our vision of making our clients a truly world class digital organization using Platformation™, we needed to redefine and rearchitect every role in the organization from a Platformation™ lens.” New roles were envisaged. Digital Client Partners to articulate what Platformation™ was all about, how and why it helps a business meet ever evolving changes from a demanding marketplace using technology and work with clients to prepare a Digital vision. Digital Strategists, knowledge powerhouses updated on the latest Digital technologies and roadmaps across Industry segments and break down how a digital vision is best served through a Platform approach. Digital architects and digital designers who would then be able to break up the requirements into a micro services architecture while evaluating the need for supplementary solutions & technologies to help realize the client vision in a most efficient manner. Digital delivery managers to ensure every client experienced Platformation™ in their deliverable, digital competency managers to redefine every service offering into a Platformation™ service from concept to execution. Finally, Unified full-stack engineers who could then execute on the solution, continuous upgradation of technologies, tools and practices to align to advanced digital technology delivery concepts.
Defining the roles and needs was just the beginning. The organization then had to embark on a large scale talent transformation, from identifying transformation needs, both behavioural and technical, design programs for transformation both class room learning and engagement in Platformation™ programs. The company engaged McKinsey to define the engagement frameworks, fine tune its 7 – step consulting methodologies, and Platformation™ framework to be applied based on the maturity of each client’s digital journey. Design thinking was identified as one of the core strategies in changing the behaviour of the people to be more empathetic to client needs and applying tools and frameworks like persona based requirement definitions and customer journey maps. A journey that started four years ago has now taken full bloom and has truly made Platformation™ main stream at Sonata, helping deliver world class client experiences and simultaneously world class Sonatian experiences.
For the Sonata team, it has been exciting to be part of this pioneering transformation journey. The greatest satisfaction has been to apply the truly unique methodology of Platformation™ in helping clients create platform based businesses that are truly open, scalable, intelligent and connected. People are excited to be part of this journey and part of a company that’s carved this unique path to digital transformation. The learning and doing has been immensely satisfying. For clients, it has been a whole organisation that’s now adapted to true digital agendas and are able to deliver to Platformation™ criteria, giving them a truly long term Platformation™ partner who is going to engage and make platform based digital transformation a reality. “It is truly exciting to be part of the transformation through Platformation™ – for all participants – Sonatians, customers, partners. Platformation™ as mainstream has enabled every Sonatian to learn, adopt and transform themselves through the unique methodologies, process and tools deployed in every customer touch point – to ensure world class experience for all the stakeholders,” says Revathi, VP, Digital Delivery.
“The first few years on the job provide exposure to a wide variety of parameters: production environments, deployment, customer management, teamwork, communication, among others and at the end of this period, these engineers are no longer freshers – they have mastered their subjects and are ready for more challenges and responsibilities. Based on their preferences and organizational needs, they can choose from a variety of options: Digital Designer, Digital Strategist, Digital Project Manager. As before, the training is robust and comprehensive, complemented by webinars conducted by experts in the field making the transition seamless,” says PSVN Raju, Chief Delivery Officer. “Platformation™ training offers exciting opportunities with unique challenges to help shape next-generation solutions for our customers in their digital journey by crafting and building platforms that envision new business models, world-class stakeholder’s journeys and enable intelligent and scalable business processes,” says Srinivas Vuppala, VP, Lead Digital Strategist-Cloud & Data. Madhavi Srinivas, CHRO, says, “Our Talent Transformation Program is not just delivering business results but has evolved a fan following in the colleges we go to hire just basis word of mouth, in interviews, candidates speak of Platformation™ as being one of the key reasons for wanting to join Sonata. We are looking to continue to invest and evolve the program as we go forward” Talent transformation is a continuing journey as the world seeks to digitize faster and clients seek to get more competitive advantage from implementing newer and more unique technology and business models.
About Sonata Software
Sonata Software Limited is a Global IT Services company, that provides services in business intelligence and analytics, application development management, mobility, cloud, social media, testing, enterprise services, and infrastructure management services. It is headquartered in Bangalore, India. The Company’s promoters viz. S B Ghia, P Srikar Reddy and Radhika Rajan have acquired the stake in SSL. Sonata,a division of IOCL was later spun off as an independent company namely, Sonata Software Ltd, in October 1994 for a consideration of Rs 8.14 crs. Sonata Software is a SEI CMM Level 5 company with a global onsite-offshore delivery model that provides solutions to its clients. It follows a 360° partnership delivery model for the development of software and services. Its key alliance partners include global players such as Microsoft, IBM and Oracle.