 |
|
|
| |
| |
 |
How can we help you? |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
| |
"Congratulations to all for their outstanding work. I know the success of this tremendous effort is due to the commitment of the entire Patni team...An excellent example of cross-functional collaboration and effective project management continues to look very good. Keep doing it!"
General Manager - Customer Service
One of the Largest Investor Owned Utility Companies in the US |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Case Study |
| |
The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America strategic offshoring initiative - A win-win relationship with Patni
|
Patni's proven offshoring model yields maximum benefits in terms of huge cost savings, improved quality, easy access to scarce skill-sets, flexibility, reduced cycle time and a strong management relationship with minimal associated risk.
The Client
Guardian is the fourth largest mutual life insurance company in the US. Guardian and its subsidiaries protect individuals, businesses and their employees with life, disability, health and dental insurance products, and offer 401(k), mutual fund and annuity investment products, and trust services. It is listed among Fortune's top 300 businesses and is also ranked as one of the top 10 most admired life and health companies in Fortune's 'America's Most Admired Companies' list.
The Challenge
The ever-increasing pressures to meet its business needs, enhance competitiveness, while improving returns to the stakeholder was a key factor for Guardian to look at offshoring as a strategic option.
Guardian's ultimate goal was to maximize the IT value it delivered to its business partners. It wanted to get economies of scale and access to world-class talent. Additionally, it expected a focus on quality, flexibility, cost and relationship.
It was in search of a mature IT services provider with a strong US presence; deep industry experience; and robust methodologies, tools and frameworks.
Why Patni
Guardian selected Patni as its strategic partner. Patni was evaluated against numerous offshore service providers on various parameters. Besides meeting most of Guardian's key requirements, Patni's proven onsite-offshore capabilities supported by integrated disaster recovery and knowledge management systems made it a vendor of choice.
Patni successfully met Guardian's expectations during the pilot stage. It demonstrated the ability to capture knowledge and complete assignments within timeframe goals, effectively transfer knowledge to offshore and ensure immediate ramp-up of resources. It also adopted innovative forms of communication for bridging cultural differences.
Key drivers of the relationship
 |
Under the terms of the potential seven year, USD 35m contract, Patni would set up an offshore development center (ODC) deriving optimal benefit of its technical and business capabilities to keep Guardian's overheads to the minimum. |
|
The diversified service requirements included application development, implementation and customization, maintenance, re-engineering legacy applications, database administration, system administration and 24x7 support. |
|
Applications involved diverse technologies ranging from legacy systems to web technologies. |
|
Implementation of best practices, methodologies and a service delivery framework to establish a mutually beneficial relationship was essential. |
|
The right onsite-offshore balance was required to enable the client to achieve cost-effectiveness in its operations. |
|
Scalable infrastructure with local engagement teams to ensure strong customer focus and speed of delivery was a must. |
The Solution
|
Patni set up a dedicated, multi-location offshore development center with over 100 professionals. |
|
Patni established a governance model with the right combination of processes, people and technology. It also implemented ODC-specific methodologies using dashboards and project metrices, and set up a knowledge repository to ensure a risk-free engagement. |
|
Patni adopted an innovative mix of onsite-offshore model and time & material/fixed-price projects to maximize cost savings. |
The Technology
|
Third Party Application Products: Transcend, Cyberlife, CLOAS |
|
Client Server: Oracle 8i, Oracle 8.03, PL/SQL, SQL Server 2000, Visual Basic 6.0, Magic 9.3, Magic 7.1, SQR |
|
Web: J2EE, JSP, XML, XSD, WebSphere, .NET |
|
IBM Mainframe: COBOL, JCL, MVS, VSAM, CISC, Db2, IMS, File-Aid |
|
Testing Tool: SilkTest. |
| |
 |
The Benefits
|
Increased IT capability through access to a resource pool with deep industry and technology experience, as also vast experience of very large-scale application development and maintenance projects
|
|
Specific product knowledge with high capability for extending domain expertise and technology skills to meet Guardian's future needs
|
|
Shorter time-to-market for Guardian's new products and services by exploiting the benefit of different time-zones, through fully functional ODCs in India
|
|
Increased consistency of delivered IT system and rationalization of Guardian's IT processes through Patni's mature quality initiatives and best practices
|
|
Success rate of 60% of Guardian's long-term offshore goals met in the very first year of operation; savings equaled Guardian's plan. |
|
|
|
