Helping both customers and technology service providers optimise and innovate…
techStrong Consulting
Practical hands-on experience comes alive…
Whether you are an organisation looking for advice on your IT operational excellence or relooking at sourcing and vendor landscape or an IT provider looking to increase your value delivery to your customer and increase your business.
About techStrong Consulting
techStrong is a consulting company based in Bengaluru, India, was started by IT industry experts with decades of global experience.
We work with end customers across all verticals (BFSI, Manufacturing, Life Sciences, Retail, telecom, etc.) to help them in improving their IT operational excellence, IT sourcing strategy and optimizing technology vendor contracts.
We work with IT service providers in improving their sales effectiveness by working with their sales, pre-sales, solutions and delivery teams to put together a more compelling proposal for their customers.
Team behind techStrong Consulting
Rupa Bannur
Rupa is a hands-on entrepreneur with expertise across IT services, solutions, sales and marketing. She brings global experience to structure optimum value proposition for each customer.
She is the managing partner and CEO at techStrong and focuses on business development and customer solutioning.
Over her career spanning 25+ years across continental Europe and India, she has worked hands-on in delivery, quality, business development and marketing.
She has worked for multiple companies in Switzerland including tecan (Life Sciences), Swiss Stock Exchange and Audatex ( insurance) in their technology divisions. She has also worked for CyberCash (a pioneer in e-Commerce) and OakSys (niche testing service provider) in Bengaluru, India.
Raju’s expertise spans across CxO advisory, sourcing models, IT services sales, solutions, operational excellence and IT service delivery.. He applies his 3600experience of working with customer executives as well as with technology service providers.
He is a partner at techStrong Consulting since 2015, where he helps IT service providers become more competitive in the market and increase their win-ratio. He works with customer executives to review their technology portfolio, sourcing strategies and vendor landscape in improving service capability, quality, contractual aspects and operational excellence.
Over his career spanning 30+ years across continental Europe, UK, US and APAC, he has worked hands-on across Service Delivery, solutions, sales, P&L Management, CxO advisory.
2014-2015 Polaris – as the Chief Solutions Officer, held global responsibility for practices including Digital, Data, compliance with 3,000+ consultants, solutions, pre-sales
2000-2013 Infosys – Worked with multiple CIOs and CFOs in an advisory capacity to optimise their technology and vendor landscape, derive efficiencies from contracts, vendor performance management. Handled multiple country business responsibility, service Delivery, Sales, solutions, large deals. Set up multiple large SAP teams for customers in Manufacturing and Pharma sector.
1998-2000 IMR (now part of CGI) – Delivery, Account management, new sales across North America, Europe, South Africa, APAC and India.
1989-1998 TCS – Delivery, pre-sales, account management. Handled multiple large teams across UK and India.
IT Services companies spend significant resources and budgets on generating business – both new business as well as retaining and expanding existing business. But there is always a struggle to improve sales effectiveness.
Gap between aspiration and capability
Sales teams spend disproportionately high amount of effort on proposals and are also dragged into details of fulfilment and delivery
Companies allocate available resources to solutions and pre-sales and pull them out for any billable opportunity
People allocated to pre-sales and solutions don’t see this as a long-term career option and want to change
Differing views on business opportunities between sales, pre-sales, solutions, delivery, finance, legal, which is by design often becomes corrosive
How do we strengthen and streamline this vital growth engine? While just pre-sales and solutions may by themselves not win deals, they can sure lose deals!
We work with sales, pre-sales, solutions and delivery teams to
Respond to complex and solution intensive opportunities where they do not have in-house capabilities. This includes taking the company’s capability and base technical solution to structure a compelling response, innovative commercial models, articulation of business value, etc.
Provide bid management capability if it is a complex bid
Participate in Q&A or yellow-pad sessions and internal discussions with sales to understand the need better
If the internal teams have already prepared the bid, review the solution, commercial models, positioning and help improve the proposal
Help prepare for proposal defense and negotiations
Assistance in contract negotiation, work with their legal teams.
Identify proactive solution ideas to be taken to their customers for customer retention
Training / Workshops to up-skill their in-house pre-sales, solutions, sales teams:
Help define or refine market strategy
Our decades of work in Continental Europe, UK, North America and APAC brings practical insights about the customers, culture, competition and how to structure customer interactions and proposal for maximizing win ratio.
For end-customers
Companies have to periodically relook at their IT strategy, current in-house capability and also their vendor landscape and the value they get from them.
Business demand changes
Technology and service expectations change
Service contracts tend to become outdated and costly
Multi-year contracts are frequently either too complex or too rigid. They outlive their relevance very quickly and are taken out only in case of a serious dispute or a crisis. But are the contracts and vendors really delivering value?
Contracting frequently tends to focus on getting the least hourly rates or unit licensing fees
Any service level framework, KPI and associated financial implications are too onerous to implement – both for the service providers and the customer. So, they mostly remain only in the contract
Service providers frequently start with a base headcount, then commit to year on year cost reduction, innovation, transformation, etc. But very frequently, these are all lost in the day to day work.
How do we reimagine contracting which work for both the customer and the service provider?
Our consultants bring robust practical experience of advising multiple CIOs and COOs on improving their operational efficiency of their IT services to
Review their IT services landscape and recommending areas where quality and efficiencies can be further optimized
Review vendor landscape and their contracts to recommend changes to improve service quality and reduce costs going beyond rate cards to capability and engagement models
Assist in rebidding services and structuring efficient contracts that work for both customer and service providers
We bring practical, on-the-ground experience to come out with actionable recommendations and help implement them too.
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