Level of Productization

Once the scope for productization is defined, we need to decide the level of productization for each competent product and process cluster. Artha Shastra recommends four levels of productization:

• Lift and Shift
• Business Point of View
• Demonstration Center
• Platform Independent Workflow.

At the Lift and Shift level the service provider develops only a basic understanding of the processes

involved in a particular activity. At the other end of the scale at the Platform-Independent Workflow level, the provider gains complete expertise in the activity and develops a product that has industry best practices built into it.

The level of maturity of the product increases as we move along the productization curve. For example, products at the Lift and Shift level have neither a tightly defined scope nor a revenue model in place. In contrast, a product in the platform-independent stage has a well defined scope, operating model, and revenue model in place. A product in the platform independent stage is, therefore, market ready.

To ensure that the investment made by the BPO provider for productization is aligned with its business goals, Artha Shastra recommends that the service provider move from the Demonstration Center level to the Platform-Independent Workflow level only after it has obtained an anchor client that has signed up for use of the product on completion of development.