Virtual Technology Office (VTO) is heralding the next stage of the revolution in the ITindustry even as this new-age technology comes with its own share of challenges.
In the ever-growing significance of digital transformation, Virtual Technology Office (VTO) is poised to become the game changer for businesses cutting across industries. A tech-office is a logical extension of the CTO and is primarily focused on the execution and implementation of projects. In other words, VTO allows enterprises to focus more on issues of strategic interest while leaving the execution to experts who have excelled in the domain of implementation.
What exactly is VTO?
VTO is an offshore technology office that acts like an extended execution arm for a CTO with shared risks and responsibilities business models. It has expert technology architects who double up as project leads, pre-built domain agnostic enterprise-grade modules and provides complete transparency in project execution. They enhance digital capabilities of the enterprises by bringing in the right set of tools and technologies. By using VTOs, enterprises eliminate physical boundaries, collaborate across borders to deliver elevated experiences to end customers. VTOs also enable core strategic teams of enterprises to better focus on rapid expansions on economical terms as they deliver need-based scale-up softwares. VTOs are especially suited for enterprises that have legacy systems but are unable to bridge the gap to digital transformation, or lack skills to execute a project or experience a paucity of time to execute plans.
Opportunities around VTO
The concept of VTOs is fast climbing the popularity ladder thanks to a host of benefits it brings to the table. From aiding enterprises with best-fit execution to helping them with relevant tech skills, VTOs help them with the timely and reliable execution of projects. By aiding C suite people with execution, VTOs aid top leadership explore new categories, devise expansion plans, and hone its core competencies. Here’re specific features that are fueling the appeal of VTOs among new-age IT ventures and initiatives:
1) Implementation Solutions: To leverage emerging opportunities, enterprises have to excel in both effective planning and efficient implementation. The new-age technologies and skilled resources are required to manage the intricacies of the digital economy. Enterprises often find it difficult to accomplish this in-house and this is precisely where the relevance of VTO comes into the picture. VTO offers expert implementation solutions based on API-driven microservices architecture for speedy execution and quick delivery of systems and platforms.
2) Managing Projects: VTOs have the superior capability to execute projects on their own with desired time efficiency and outcome effectiveness. They provide both visibility and flexibility in project execution – allowing enterprises to opt either for the build-operate transfer or build-transfer models of delivery. The turnkey nature of the project execution approach further enhances VTOs appeal.
3) Freedom to choose technology stack: VTOs offer a range of tech stack options to enterprises so that they can select the one that aligns with their requirements. Leading players in the VTOs space collaborate closely with an ecosystem of tech experts across the globe to offer the best-fit solutions to their clients. They have tech expertise to deploy and deliver projects on-premises, on cloud or in hybrid approach. Besides, VTOs are capable of doing audits of the existing tech stack and offer expert advice and guidance to enterprises on how to select the most optimum option depending on the objectives.
Challenges for VTOs
1) Integrating Planning and Execution: The foremost challenge faced by most VTOs is to establish a seamless interface to streamline the information exchange between planning and execution teams. This challenge of coordination and integration gets intensified further as the scale and complexity of projects increase. Moreover, the involvement of multiple stakeholders including representatives from suppliers, developers, and partners make the workings of VTOs ultra-complex and intricate. Good VTOs have expertise to navigate such environments to deliver on their promises.
2) IPR Issues: Although intellectual property rights (IPR) associated with the execution of projects continue to remain with the client, VTOs involvement sometimes leads to IPR issues between the enterprises and teams representing VTOs, as they deploy pre-built modules for faster project deliveries. To avert any such disputes, both enterprises and VTOs must clearly align on the IPRs at the very outset and only after reaching a mutual consensus, the next stage of planning and execution should start.
3) Governance Transparency: The issues related to transparency and privacy of the enterprises’ data pose a challenge for software work-for-hire engagements, and VTOs are not immune either. VTOs must ensure that their client’s data are used in a completely objective manner with clear transparency on the kind of data collected from clients, its purpose, its access and the management of such data after its receipt.
4) Scaling up Issues: Scaling up solutions are critical challenges that many VTOs face while executing projects of varied natures. To overcome this issue, VTOs should prefer to deploy only those tech stacks compatible with the scaling needs of enterprises and offer sufficient headroom to accommodate both vertical and horizontal growth opportunities after go-live. Good VTOs provide need-based scale-up solutions to both optimise costs and handle rapid expansions of client’s usage requirements.
Source: Times of India
