Human Capital Development

In the light of the above, the sample firm in the present investigation has truly made tremendous investment in the context of recruiting high calibre IT personnel from the very start. The three branch firms get the technology personnel from their regional headquarters in Hyderabad, India located in the centre of the Silicone valley. In this regard the majority of the IT personnel are Indian expatriates who manage and guide the local IT personnel. According to the officers interviewed in the study, apparently this is the supreme strength of the organization. As IT skills are always subjected to improvements, the branches concerned send their IT personnel to Hyderabad for regular training.

In addition there is an extensive use of expatriate employees and consultants to expand the skills base available to the firms concerned. There is a great deal of reliance on recruitment of graduates from Technical colleges and universities as the main source of people-embodied technological capability. Besides in-house training programs also play an important role for continuous updating of skills, information and knowledge.

Performance-related pay and benefits system were used extensively to encourage and motivate capability development for IT personnel and those engaged in operations pertaining SCM processes and activities.

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5.10 Concluding Comments

The sample firm in the study has the experience, insight and ability to help companies involved in the SCM to achieve high performance, creating the ability to overcome its specific challenges. The firm has a track record in helping companies use technology to improve business performance. Their practitioners are experienced in bold, value-creating approaches to IT. They bring boardroom-relevant criteria to IT investments and help aspiring high-performance businesses to "think bigger" about its ability to improve operating results.

For companies wishing to begin or continue along the journey toward high performance, the sample firm has a unique mix of capabilities that make them the perfect partner. The benefits of partnership is explained under the following headings:

Deep Industry Insight: They have been working in this industry for years and have a track record of helping companies around the world enhance performance.

The Right People: They have an understanding of the capabilities necessary to be successful as well as the experience. As one of the world's largest management consultancy in the field of EMS, with a vast pool of business talent, the operators claim that nobody else can better help companies innovate intelligently to create competitive advantage.

Global Reach: The firm’s global presence means they can leverage local insight like nobody else. Partner companies can leverage the skill and cost benefits of global sourcing, adding scalability and flexibility to their business processes.

Technological Excellence: The capabilities enabling high performance are increasingly enabled by technology. From innovation to what works, they claim that nobody

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understands how to use technology to better business advantage as they have the global capability to manage technology cost-effectively at higher service levels.

The sample firm, with its vast network of technological systems is committed to partnering with the various other firms in the SCM process, taking them on their journey toward high performance, helping to achieve their strategic goals in the most effective manner possible.

According to the Managing Director of the selected firm, they had a vision to embrace the challenge of building a worldwide company truly global in vision, leveraging each country's experience as they tend to optimize their resources and their technology. The success of the SCM operations in the sample firm is not completely free of challenges.

As the hype around technology decreases, supplies are seeing clearly that technology's role is one of an enabler, speeding up of processes and delivering cost savings. In this respect, the SCM industry faces specific IT management challenges. In their view of the officers, suppliers and collaborative institutions need to transform their IT capabilities for a number of reasons. These include:

i) To aggregate and analyze customer data to enhance differentiation.

ii) To increase a company's ability to respond to a rapidly changing marketplace through enhanced flexibility and speed.

iii) To operate effectively, suppliers need to have one system working across stores (sometimes across national borders) to ensure the most effective use of stock and to support optimized business processes.

Transparency and Tracking: Suppliers need greater transparency between systems and better tracking to integrate systems from manufacturer through to consumer to obtain customer and sales information.

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Customer Data: Information overload is a challenge for suppliers because they need to collect and sift through data to convert it into useful information in a customer-centric industry.

Global Data Synchronization: Enabled by radio frequency identification/electronic product coding, the entire supply chain is becoming more intelligent. This creates what the fir concerned calls ‘Silent Commerce’. Benefits for those concerned in the SCM process include enabling the use of real-time data to monitor inventory levels. Radio frequency identification tagging also positions the company to better safeguard its shipments by enabling the tracking of products from manufacturer through the supply chain.

However, the sample firm collaborates with companies to meet the need for positive IT management. The goal is to enhance business processes and keep up to date with innovation to become a high-performance business.

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