Business process and knowledge service outsourcing to rural centers is fast catching up. It is evident from the success of Satyam-promoted concept of GramIT – the rural BPO. Firstly, the concept by itself is a breakthrough in the history of Indian outsourcing business. It has redefined the way businesses can be carried out. Traditionally rural areas were seen as the supply grounds for agricultural products. In light of a rapid evolution of the economy to being a service oriented one, there is a need for bringing villages into the services fold very rapidly because real development of India lies in the prosperity of her 600,000 villages. This objective can be achieved by increasing the share of services in the notional GDP of Indian villages. In this paper we propose a high-level and a conceptual design that explores the potential of “convergence” that can bring about a sea-change in the rural economies of India while impacting the way business is done. Subsequently we would go about to explain how Satyam Computers, in collaboration with Byrraju Foundation implemented this concept with amazing results. This paper takes an evolutionary approach and explains the various business process improvements that were made possible through convergence before extending the discussion to rural transformation through technological convergence.

1. Convergence for an inclusive growth –
The eSupport example
Krishna_
Muppavarapu
Ravi_Med
uri
du
Jaipal_Nai
Chaganti
Vinay_
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3. Introduction
Business process and knowledge service outsourcing to rural centers is fast catching
up. It is evident from the success of Satyam-promoted concept of GramIT – the rural
BPO.
Firstly, the concept by itself is a breakthrough in the history of Indian outsourcing
business. It has redefined the way businesses can be carried out. Traditionally rural
areas were seen as the supply grounds for agricultural products. In light of a rapid
evolution of the economy to being a service oriented one, there is a need for
bringing villages into the services fold very rapidly because real development of
India lies in the prosperity of her 600,000 villages. This objective can be achieved
by increasing the share of services in the notional GDP of Indian villages.
In this paper we propose a high-level and a conceptual design that explores the
potential of “convergence” that can bring about a sea-change in the rural economies
of India while impacting the way business is done. Subsequently we would go about
to explain how Satyam Computers, in collaboration with Byrraju Foundation
implemented this concept with amazing results. This paper takes an evolutionary
approach and explains the various business process improvements that were made
possible through convergence before extending the discussion to rural
transformation through technological convergence.
Convergence – A brief background
Convergence has traditionally been defined as “a multi-media environment and/or
network where signals regardless of type (i.e. voice, video, data, etc.) and encoding
methodology may be seamlessly exchanged between independent endpoints with
similar characteristics”. This is mainly from the point of view of the great strides
that humankind is making on the information technology front.
The phenomenon of convergence is defined in many other ways and contexts. For
example device convergence is the kind that is experienced by most of us. The
ubiquitous handheld PDA is an excellent example of device convergence. Figure 1
is an excellent depiction of device convergence.
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4. Fig. 1 An illustration of device convergence
As much as physical devices converge, there is also a similar convergence
happening in other areas. Examples of this are functional convergence, economic
convergence, and geographic convergence1.
Convergence of the first order
Going by the discussion in the previous section, we see that convergence is
generally defined as coming together of homogeneous entities through some
technological, economic, sociological, political, or business process innovation. We
define this as “convergence of the first order”. It is the most primitive form of
convergence that has very limited or non-existent relation with convergence in other
fields. Figure 2 indicates some of the fields in which convergence can occur.
Technological
Geographic
Functional
Economic
Political
Social
1
http://cbdd.wsu.edu/kewlcontent/cdoutput/TR501/page29.htm
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Fig. 2 Weak interactions between various convergences

5. Convergence of the higher order
These first order convergences are primitive in comparison to the more futuristic
“higher order convergence”. But that does not in any way undermine their
contribution to the great improvements in the way business is done.
In light of the rapidly changing market scenarios, there is a need to define a higher
order of convergence to arrive at a more sustained and inclusive growth for
organizations, countries and the world in general.
This calls for a realignment of the various convergences in a way that each one gets
the benefit of the technological convergence. Figure 3 illustrates this realignment.
Geographic
Functional
Economic
Political
Social
Technological
The
highest
Fig. 3 Strong interactions between various convergences reinforced by the order of
technological convergence
convergence is a conceptually enchanting proposition where convergences in
various fields reinforce each other creating the ultimate synergistic scenario.
Technological convergence would encompass and be the common factor even in the
highest order of convergence. We illustrate this in figure 4 by introducing “field X”
that represents all the fields in which convergence can happen. Represented in a
vector form, each field experiences some convergence within itself represented in
magnitude and direction by the inward looking arrows. But the true benefit of such
discrete convergences will arise only when the phenomenon of technological
convergence expands enough to encompass the scope of individual convergences.
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6. “Field X” Convergence
Fig. 4 The evolution of the highest order of convergence with technological
Convergence
convergence cutting across others
from an
organizational perspective
While the convergence model described in the previous sections has very broad
scope, it can be conveniently applied to organizations, which are essentially a
significant subset of that broad scope. As introduced early in this paper, we propose
a conceptual model that makes use of technological convergence to bring about
synergies of convergences across various business and business-related areas more
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7. from an organizational point of view. Core to this model is the “convergence
processing unit” that essentially brings various organizational convergences on a
single platform. Some of these “input-convergences” are:
 Business experiences that have converged into a vast repository of tacit
knowledge
 Process management expertise that has converged into documented forms of
best practices and execution efficiencies
 Technological breakthroughs that have led to the availability of convergent
devices and services, especially the Internet broadband
 Human convergence in the form of a dedicated army of like-minded and
like-thinking employees and a suitable convergent platform to manage the
valuable human capital
The outputs of the convergence processing unit are aimed at achieving the most
ideal scenario in which various stakeholders like the employees, investors,
customers and the society benefit from the existence of the organization. In the
absence of such a convergence processing unit, it becomes extremely difficult for an
organization to prove its necessity to exist in the first place. We illustrate the same
in figure 5. It applies to a wide range of businesses ranging from agriculture to
manufacturing to services.
Business experience
Process management expertise
Inputs Technological breakthroughs
Human convergence
Convergence
processing unit
Customer delight
Outputs Employee delight
Society delight
Investor delight
Fig. 5 A conceptual design of the convergence black box typical of organizations
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9. Unraveling the Convergence Processor
Evolution of eSupport @ Satyam
From a tiny startup of 70 employees at the time of inception in 1988, Satyam grew
by leaps and bounds to about 30,000 employees by 2000 and currently it is hovering
at about 40,000. This was possible largely due to a convergent force called the
Internet and a mega convergence of human intellect in the form of the availability of
a large number of human resources qualified and trained on the nuances of
Information Technology.
At Satyam we were quick to understand and extrapolate the importance of
convergence at various levels and stages of our business processes. With a view to
enhance efficiencies in business processes, especially with a huge employee base, a
system or a platform for virtual delivery of services was envisaged and was named
eSupport.
The primary objective of eSupport is to bring about convergence in the various
business processes and service offerings. Within 4 years of instituting this initiative
almost 65% of business processes along with the associated service offerings were
brought under the fold of eSupport and were capable of being executed virtually
from anywhere.
Quality Strategy
HR Function Finance Function
Learning
Resource Mgmt Procurement
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Fig. 6 Convergence of business processes encompassed by convergence of eSupport

10. While various functions were converging within themselves, eSupport acted as the
technological convergence force or the convergence processing unit that synergized
the individual convergences. A reference to this is given in an article published in
Human Capital magazine2. Creation of the convergent force called eSupport was
dependent largely on other convergent forces like the Internet, mobile computing,
highly standardized project management methodologies, innovative business
process management practices, software technologies with high integration
capabilities, etc. In other words eSupport transformed itself into a platform for
shared services with HR, Finance and other functions being the prime beneficiaries.
eSupport transformed the way business was carried out at Satyam. For example, an
employee can at a time apply for leave, order for the procurement of a capital item,
approve her subordinate’s travel plan, drop a grievance in the virtual suggestion box,
contribute a million dollar idea in the Idea Junction™, appraise the team’s
performance and get a real time report of her department’s spending, all at the same
time and almost from anywhere.
eSupport for a holistic convergence – The GramIT initiative
Expanding on the thought put forward in the introductory section of this article, we
try to showcase here how eSupport has been used to bring about the much
emphasized “rural transformation” in India.
Here we define an important term called “economic convergence”. According to a
definition in Wikipedia3, economic convergence refers to “the phenomena in which
lesser developed countries supposedly catch up to developed countries in terms of
economic productivity and growth”. Extending this to the Indian context, broadly
the lesser developed countries equate to rural areas and the developed ones to urban
areas. A definitive need for transforming rural areas is pronounced in many forums.
Governments, organizations, policy makers, NGOs and politicians have realized that
real growth for India would mean an inclusive growth where rural areas also benefit
from and contribute to the overall growth of economy.
Urban areas that were the key beneficiaries of the IT revolution were using up a
valuable resource provided by rural areas in the form of people migrating from
villages to towns and cities in search of meaningful jobs. Satyam realized that with
every job created in the IT sector, the creation of about 4 ancillary jobs was adding
to the “brain drain” from rural India. Satyam Computers as one of the pioneers to
have the vision of rural transformation and having established a highly convergent
2
Leveraging technology for an integrated human capital management, pp 38-45, Human Capital
magazine, Vol.11 No.2, July 2007
3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergence
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11. technological platform in the form of eSupport, realized that the same platform can
be used to bring about rural transformation. This was the onset of a shift in the
paradigm that rural India has been a largely ignored stakeholder when it came to the
distribution of the wealth created by the Information Technology revolution.
With the IT sector heading towards a phenomenal growth, introduction of the Rural
BPO (named GramIT) initiative by Satyam in close partnership with Byrraju
Foundation marked an inflection point in the rural-urban migration dynamics, as
shown in figure 7. In the absence of a path breaking initiative like GramIT, the rural
to urban migration would continue unabated with quite a few undesirable results, the
primary being a lack of economic convergence and in fact a more dangerous
economic divergence with urban areas getting richer and the rural areas getting
poorer. That would in turn hamper the scope for other convergences like the social,
political, etc.
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12. Migration from rural to urban areas
The undesired effect of a rapid
migration leading to undue
stress on urban policy making
The desired effect of a reverse
migration leading to equitable
distribution of wealth
Introduction of the GramIT
initiative – the inflection
point
Time
Fig. 7 GramIT – An inflection point created by the phenomenon of technological convergence
In eSupport, Satyam found an excellent way of using technological convergence to
bring about the urban-rural economic convergence. This would in turn redefine the
way businesses were going to be carried out in India with more and more corporates
realizing the need to include rural areas in their scheme of things.
Referring to figure 6, a lot of non core activities from various business functions of
Satyam were identified during the convergence of those individual functions over a
period of time. As each converging function found its way onto the eSupport
platform, the non-core activities lent themselves to outsourcing. The expanding
convergence of eSupport boosted the scope of outsourcing such activities further.
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13. As a first step, employees in GramIT centers located in 3 villages were made a part
of a “workflow engine” that got converged onto the eSupport platform by being
given “role-based accesses” to relevant components of eSupport. GramIT associates
in turn would use the Internet to log on to eSupport and carry out activities like
invoice processing, travel bookings for employees, handholding new entrants on the
joining formalities, etc. Byrraju Foundation (partners for Satyam in the GramIT
initiative) has ensured a high level of internet connectivity by subscribing to
broadband from a reputed service provider. The last-mile connectivity where laying
of physical cables was not possible was achieved by using Wi-Fi technology based
on the IEEE 802.11 standards. These convergent devices are being used effectively
to impart trainings through video conferences and setting up audio calls apart from
being used for connecting to the Internet. Telephone connectivity using this
convergence is also being explored for its legal viability.
Conclusion
Using technological convergence, Satyam has been able to bring about radical
changes in the way business processes are carried out. Most importantly
convergence has helped Satyam to connect to the society in a much efficient
manner. The rural outsourcing standards established by Satyam will go a long way
in impacting the notional GDP of rural India through a more equitable distribution
of wealth. The end result of using convergence to the best its capability has actually
given Satyam Computers much of its stated objectives in terms of its key
stakeholders. With rapid proliferation and convergence of technologies, it is
imminent that there will be more and more synergies setting in.
End of article
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