An Interview with Manish Godha, CEO Advaiya

What is Peripheral Automation and why is it important to enterprises?

Manish: Peripheral Automation refers to an approach to enterprise architecture that views the automation in an enterprise as layers—with standard and robust core applications and databases as the base and vibrant interfaces and experiences at the top meeting the business’s unique process and information needs. It recognizes that the need for permanence is the highest at the base and innovation most rapid at the periphery. It can be contrasted with a monolithic architectural approach where unique contexts are addressed via fully custom-built applications or through deep customization of standard applications. This approach prioritizes agility along with reliability. Peripheral Automation is not a one-time endeavor but a series of strategic initiatives and experiments. This incremental approach minimizes disruption and allows for confident scaling, laying the groundwork for ever more comprehensive digital initiatives.

Whether through data automation, process automation, or leveraging intelligence with AI and ML, Peripheral Automation drives transformative experiences and effectiveness within a robust enterprise architecture. It allows robust core systems of records to support an enormous constellation of stakeholders, partners, users, devices, and platforms in an agile manner.

For an enterprise, the Peripheral Automation approach helps to stay competitive and responsive to evolving market demands. It allows organizations to enhance productivity, streamline operations, and optimize resource allocation while leveraging existing systems and investments. Peripheral Automation enables organizations to navigate complexity with precision and confidently drive innovation. This approach not only fosters agility and adaptability but also enables differentiation and strategy execution while leveraging robust, time-tested systems of records, retaining reliability and continuity.

What problems does it solve and why is it the best path to “getting there?”

Manish: Technology is a great enabler of businesses and at the same time a source of their frustrations. The promise of technology is often juxtaposed with costly and lengthy deployments and lack of flexibility. As businesses build their enterprise IT architecture, they often choose reliable, time-tested solutions which can often be generic, feel stale or be limiting. The alternative can be effort intensive customizations which can require not so easily available talent to build and run without having prior evidence of being sufficiently reliable. Thus the challenge is how to provide differentiated and ever-evolving experiences while maintaining a robust core which can be relied on for continuity and coherence. In dynamic business environments (which most businesses face today), architecture has to ensure that while being robust and reliable, it also allows for rapid changes and innovation.

Peripheral Automation recognizes that businesses rely on core systems of records—information assets relating to their customers, employees, products, transactions, and so on. These systems have to support operations and strategy execution in a dynamic environment where changing contexts have to be responded with rapidly rolling out novel interactions and experiences. The Peripheral Automation approach ensures that it is easy and natural for businesses to do that.

As you break systems into systems of record and systems of engagements, what role does PA play?

Manish: Peripheral Automation entails careful identification of core databases, business processes, and stakeholder needs. It enables aligning them in a flexible manner while creating required data links to consistently enrich data through the process.

Specific interactions and experiences are then mapped onto this core—built of key processes and databases. In general, Peripheral Automation supports building the core by leveraging time-tested, highly available, and supported data and business application platforms. These business applications, thus, serve as systems of records, enabling constellations of services, apps, interfaces, and customizations, enabling stakeholders to achieve their goals. These are built to be modular, specific, and disposable—thus, businesses can rapidly and flexibly modify their stakeholder experiences and engagements as per strategic needs.

Is Peripheral Automation being accelerated with AI?

Manish: AI is clearly a force multiplier for Peripheral Automation. AI accelerates and makes Peripheral Automation exponentially more effective. The enterprise architecture perspective enabled by Peripheral Automation allows embedding AI at every level. AI models built with core records are very much a part of the core systems and can be leveraged by process automations and can power the interactions. AI based data enrichment and consolidation can mean that myriad disparate business systems can rapidly and reliably serve as core systems of records. At the same time AI tools now allow newer multi-modal enagements to be built quickly, powered by the same core systems of records augmented by core models. AI tools speed up the development and refinement of data and process automations, thus enabling rapid experimentation and evolution of systems of experiences and engagements.

What is the role that Advaiya plays with customers in using PA for successful outcomes?

Manish: Our approach is guided by the principles of care, competence, and context. We recognize that technology is only effective when it is tailored to the specific needs and challenges of each business. By the leveraging Peripheral Automation approach, we provide robust and dependable core platforms, databases, and models, enabling agile interactions and engagement.

This approach allows efficiencies to be achieved with business applications that are built on core records with standard and time-tested automation based on industry best practices. Further productivity and differentiation is achieved via tailored and unique interactions and experiences built in alignment with business strategy and differentiation. For instance, with Peripheral Automation, a customer relationship management solution not only builds centralized customer data sets, but also enables independent automation for specific customer interactions allowing personalized engagement and fostering long-term customer relationships, thereby driving revenue growth and market differentiation.

At a recent conference run by WPP, I had the unexpected opportunity to lead a discussion on fusion and its relationship to marketing. A strange topic, perhaps, but the discussion was fertile and enlightening. I must thank those in the audience- thank them profusely- for their intelligence, awareness, and curiosity. A few years ago, such a discussion in such a venue would have been impossible. It is therefore encouraging to see fusion make the grade as a topic of interest even at a conference focused on other things.

As we framed the subject, fusion and marketing intersect in four crucial ways-

1. Creating interest for investment.
2. Generating palatability amongst the populace for fusion at scale.
3. Reducing fusion marketing hype.
4. Developing a digestible category and naming conventions for the industry.

A small note on each-

Investor interest– in the absence of a sensible-if-dreamy narrative about what a world of abundant, clean energy could look like, no investors would be interested in funding fusion research, development, and operations. To maintain interest, even through troughs, fusion firms must continue to communicate and frame their excitement. That is the role of marketers.

Palatability– research has indicated that fusion-at-scale will not be popular because of the overhang of negative “nuclear energy” stories in the past- like Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima. In addition, there is very little awareness of fusion’s “lack of” waste as compared to fission’s.  Lastly, there is the conflation of the horrors of nuclear weapons and civilian nuclear power generation. Fusioneers and fusion marketers must collectively launch an education campaign to help allay the fears about anything “nuclear.”

Less hype-There is a fine line between the sort of hype necessary to generate investor and customer interest and the sort of hype that creates a cycle of over-promise/under-deliver that leads to a jaded view of the industry. Already, fusion investors are asking about past declarations that have been unmet.

Category creation– This is the most challenging of the marketing challenges for fusion. For people to latch on and analyze an organization, they need to place it in a category; that is how the human brain works- creating a metaphor that is generalizable to a recognized entity. Put simply, fusion marketers must collectively determine what category will resonate with most with customers, partners, the public, and investors.

As we go down the path, in an accelerated fashion, to Commercially Viable Fusion (CVF), the role of marketing is real. Too much marketing and too much false PR does not help but the right balance will help propel the industry towards its task, which is nothing less than giving the world abundant, clean energy.