'We combine data, decision, and execution'

Pegasystems, the Nasdaq-listed, $591 million American technology company based out Cambridge, Massachusetts, provides CRM, sales and marketing applications to Fortune 500 companies across the globe. Pegasystems strategic applications streamline the ever-changing critical business operations, where enterprises want to be in touch with their customers seamlessly in real-time. In an interaction with Deccan Herald’s N V Vijayakumar, Pegasystems Founder, Chairman and CEO Alan Trefler describes the importance of a model-driven application environment and platform.

Can you elaborate on the successful journey of Pegasystems?

The successful journey of Pegasystems is mainly based on the intersection of two important concepts. The first is that organisations’ engagement with clients are not good and efficient. Many organisations do not engage with them in context, do not allow them access to channels, and are non-competitive. Pegasystems wants to improve the service value proposition. The other part of our journey is many businesses use software still in a primitive way. Since 1980, in every industry we have tremendous advances in the way technology is generated and created. In manufacturing, we have CAD and CAM systems where they can change the model using a software and use 3D printing for creation. But in software, it is still all done by hand.

The programming languages are not more advanced than 50 years ago. We have different names for programming languages and still they are not the language of the computer. Our vision is to create a model-driven approach that enables the computer to write software, so that business people focus on their customer service activities and change the software to new versions without writing new codes. The intersection of these two have radically improved businesses of companies like JP Morgan, American Express, Vodafone, and United Health .

The business landscape has changed and how is Pegasystems coping with the situation to give real-time info?

I think it is three things. You need data which inform you of what happened. Then you need decision, that is to have insights. And finally execution which shows how we should fill the customer needs.In human analogy, data is memory, decisions are intellect or judgement, and execution is muscle. Pega architecture brings all three things together. People who just do data, just do processes or just do decisions are only doing one-third of what is required. So what we need is an end-to-end service perspective.

How has Pegasystems’ platform evolved over the years?

Our platform has evolved to incorporate latest concepts from the Web world, and system-generates its screen from HTML 5 format. It can be across channels and run on cloud and on-premise. Different firms will have different needs depending on their integration, security, etc. It is integrated with social media and multi-channel analytics. So any place customer touches it can give the next best action in self service, mobile and context- centric environments. We have a single pattern across channels. We need one model where customers will have the single-best experience.

How is your India-entity performing?

We have globally 3,400 employees and out of this 1,000 are from India. They are engines of execution and source of great innovation, and come in right after our global headquarters. We are looking for talented engineers who will look into the demands of our clients. We have tied up with two engineering colleges in Hyderabad and are scouting for like- minded colleges in Bangalore also. Since more than 100 of our partners are here, we can do innovation along with them.