Source: businessstandard.com
A string of IT job portals is being planned by 'IT People India,' the human capital solutions provider, across West Asia, China, US and Europe. The company plans to partner with local players in select countries.
The company runs www.itpeopleltd.com which has a database of 100,000 resumes. Employers and recruitment consultants are charged a fee for accessing this database.
The company is hoping to capitalise on the high attrition in IT sector. Around 7,000 people change jobs in IT and ITES industry every month in addition to fresh recruitment of about 14,000-16,000 people per month in the industry.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Mobile Banking in India
Source: businessstandard.com
In a report titled,"Mobile Opportunities for the Financial Sector," which was conducted in five countries, the Indian users were found to be more aware of mobile banking than those in other countries. It was found that one of every three Indians, with a bank account, were ready to switch to another bank if offered free mobile banking.
According to the survey, 81 percent of the users surveyed are aware that they can check bank balance on a mobile phone, while 49 percent have used these services in the last three months.
The survey showed that Indian consumers(71 percent) are more aware of the offerings provided by their banks on mobile, as compared to their counterparts in other regions. Almost a half of the Indian respondents checked their bank balance on their mobile phones and 54 percent via internet.
The biggest concern among the Indian users is security while accessing their accounts on mobile phones.
In a report titled,"Mobile Opportunities for the Financial Sector," which was conducted in five countries, the Indian users were found to be more aware of mobile banking than those in other countries. It was found that one of every three Indians, with a bank account, were ready to switch to another bank if offered free mobile banking.
According to the survey, 81 percent of the users surveyed are aware that they can check bank balance on a mobile phone, while 49 percent have used these services in the last three months.
The survey showed that Indian consumers(71 percent) are more aware of the offerings provided by their banks on mobile, as compared to their counterparts in other regions. Almost a half of the Indian respondents checked their bank balance on their mobile phones and 54 percent via internet.
The biggest concern among the Indian users is security while accessing their accounts on mobile phones.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Online Directory for Kolkata
Source: businessstandard.com
Kolkata Industries Directory, a web based directory targeted at small and medium entrepreneurs, has been launched by Softweb Information technology Private Limited, a joint venture of Maxworth marketing and Softweb Technology.
The business model of the project is based on the ad revenues. The idea was to give upcoming entrepreneurs a business platform.
Nearly 16,500 entrepreneurs in Kolkata have registered themselves with the site till now and it has earned Rs. 15 lakh till now, even before formally launching the site.
The company has similar projects in Gujrat and Maharashtra which earned Rs 8 crores as profit from advertisements last year.
Kolkata Industries Directory, a web based directory targeted at small and medium entrepreneurs, has been launched by Softweb Information technology Private Limited, a joint venture of Maxworth marketing and Softweb Technology.
The business model of the project is based on the ad revenues. The idea was to give upcoming entrepreneurs a business platform.
Nearly 16,500 entrepreneurs in Kolkata have registered themselves with the site till now and it has earned Rs. 15 lakh till now, even before formally launching the site.
The company has similar projects in Gujrat and Maharashtra which earned Rs 8 crores as profit from advertisements last year.
New mouse to woo gamers
Source: economictimes.com
Microsoft Corp., in an effort to target hardcore computer gamers, is planning to launch a computer mouse specially designed for PC gaming. It allows nearly 5,000 different adjustable settings, including weight, material and touch.
The mouse comes with a small LCD between the thumb and index finger to keep track of game functions and settings.
It has been named SideWinder and will be available from October.
Microsoft Corp., in an effort to target hardcore computer gamers, is planning to launch a computer mouse specially designed for PC gaming. It allows nearly 5,000 different adjustable settings, including weight, material and touch.
The mouse comes with a small LCD between the thumb and index finger to keep track of game functions and settings.
It has been named SideWinder and will be available from October.
Indian IT firms are immunne to subprime crisis
Source: economictimes.com
Indian IT firms are not going to be hit by the US subprime lending crises due to the limited exposure of the firms to clients in mortgage sector.
The report analyzing the impact of subprime lending on Indian IT services said that majority of the business derived by the Indian companies comes from financial and banking industry, but there are a few clients who are in mortgage processing or subprime business, comprising only about 1 percent of the revenue(as clarified by all large caps companies).
Meanwhile,WNS Holdings Ltd. announced that First magnus Financial Corporation has ended its outsourcing contract with it, which has forced WNS cut its earnings guidance for the fiscal year 2008. Nearly five percent of its revenue comes from US-based First Magnus.
Indian IT firms are not going to be hit by the US subprime lending crises due to the limited exposure of the firms to clients in mortgage sector.
The report analyzing the impact of subprime lending on Indian IT services said that majority of the business derived by the Indian companies comes from financial and banking industry, but there are a few clients who are in mortgage processing or subprime business, comprising only about 1 percent of the revenue(as clarified by all large caps companies).
Meanwhile,WNS Holdings Ltd. announced that First magnus Financial Corporation has ended its outsourcing contract with it, which has forced WNS cut its earnings guidance for the fiscal year 2008. Nearly five percent of its revenue comes from US-based First Magnus.
The world is going Wi-Fi
Source: economictimes.com
Wi-Fi Alliance, a non-profit industry association devoted to promoting the growth of wireless local area network, announced that Wipro Technologies will serve as an authorised test laboratory for wi-fi enabled products.
Wipro facility will enable the members of Wi-Fi Alliance to reduce the time-to-market of their product range.
The market for wi-fi devices in India is expected to exceed $744 million by 2012 as more and more consumer products incorporate wi-fi technology.
Wi-Fi Alliance, a non-profit industry association devoted to promoting the growth of wireless local area network, announced that Wipro Technologies will serve as an authorised test laboratory for wi-fi enabled products.
Wipro facility will enable the members of Wi-Fi Alliance to reduce the time-to-market of their product range.
The market for wi-fi devices in India is expected to exceed $744 million by 2012 as more and more consumer products incorporate wi-fi technology.
Career options in hardware/networking
Source: businessstandard.com
A hardware professional, with a starting salary of around Rs 2 lakhs per annum, can expect to earn as much as Rs 10 lakh per annum once he has two to three years of experience, depending on his capability.
It is an attractive career option for those with a flair for technology.
A study by MAIT(Manufacturers' Association of Information Technology) forecasts that manpower requirement in the hardware and networking industry would go up to 2 million in 2008, from a couple of thousands right now.
A hardware/networking student can find jobs in hardcore IT companies like Dell or Microsoft, he can also find jobs in various industries like manufacturing, BPO, Retail, Media, Animation and Entertainment.
A hardware professional, with a starting salary of around Rs 2 lakhs per annum, can expect to earn as much as Rs 10 lakh per annum once he has two to three years of experience, depending on his capability.
It is an attractive career option for those with a flair for technology.
A study by MAIT(Manufacturers' Association of Information Technology) forecasts that manpower requirement in the hardware and networking industry would go up to 2 million in 2008, from a couple of thousands right now.
A hardware/networking student can find jobs in hardcore IT companies like Dell or Microsoft, he can also find jobs in various industries like manufacturing, BPO, Retail, Media, Animation and Entertainment.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Gaming companies refine their business models
Source: businessstandard.com
Massive Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) company Level Up has decided to change its business model. It has set up an online mall to earn revenues by selling virtual items instead of taking subscription fees for its MMOG and Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing games(MMORPGs) like Ragnarok, Gunz and Ozworld.
Sify has also developed a similar business model around Rakion-Sify's MMORPG. It has also lined up Nostale-an entry level MMORPG around the same business model- for beta testing next month. But it plans to continue with the subscription model for its older MMORPG-A3.
Experts expect a massive shift from subscription model to sale of virtual items.
Change in the business model is expected to attract more entry level gamers. Level Up has already witnessed a 100 percent increase in the number of players for free.
The MMORPG/MMOG market is witnessing an explosive growth in the number of titles. level Up is planing to launch three more MMOGs/MMORPGs over the next three to six months, Sify is introducing Nostale next month, Kreeda Games is also planning to launch a new title , Zapak.com plans to launch two MMOGs in the next 3-6 months, Mobile2Win is planning to launch its MMOG, City Racer, soon.
Massive Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) company Level Up has decided to change its business model. It has set up an online mall to earn revenues by selling virtual items instead of taking subscription fees for its MMOG and Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing games(MMORPGs) like Ragnarok, Gunz and Ozworld.
Sify has also developed a similar business model around Rakion-Sify's MMORPG. It has also lined up Nostale-an entry level MMORPG around the same business model- for beta testing next month. But it plans to continue with the subscription model for its older MMORPG-A3.
Experts expect a massive shift from subscription model to sale of virtual items.
Change in the business model is expected to attract more entry level gamers. Level Up has already witnessed a 100 percent increase in the number of players for free.
The MMORPG/MMOG market is witnessing an explosive growth in the number of titles. level Up is planing to launch three more MMOGs/MMORPGs over the next three to six months, Sify is introducing Nostale next month, Kreeda Games is also planning to launch a new title , Zapak.com plans to launch two MMOGs in the next 3-6 months, Mobile2Win is planning to launch its MMOG, City Racer, soon.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
The .mobi is still crawling
Source: businessstandard.com
The buzz around the domain name, .mobi- which indicates that the site is meant to work on mobile devices, has lost steam, it seems.
Despite billions of mobile users worldwide, and millions in India alone, domain registrars expected to make a killing but are visibly disappointed. Net4India-a domain registrar- expected around 20,000 registrations by 2006 but has managed only 1,000 till date.
To make .mobi successful, we need to develop web sites which are compatible to and specially designed for mobile devices so as to ensure a pleasant viewing experience.
The .mobi domain has experienced moderate success in more developed countries like Korea, Malaysia and other western countries due to their advanced technology
The buzz around the domain name, .mobi- which indicates that the site is meant to work on mobile devices, has lost steam, it seems.
Despite billions of mobile users worldwide, and millions in India alone, domain registrars expected to make a killing but are visibly disappointed. Net4India-a domain registrar- expected around 20,000 registrations by 2006 but has managed only 1,000 till date.
To make .mobi successful, we need to develop web sites which are compatible to and specially designed for mobile devices so as to ensure a pleasant viewing experience.
The .mobi domain has experienced moderate success in more developed countries like Korea, Malaysia and other western countries due to their advanced technology
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Now computers can understand Hindi
Source: businessstandard.com
IBM has developed a speech recognition Technology,"The Desktop Hindi Speech Recognition Technology", to help physically challenged and less literate Hindi speakers access information through a variety of applications.
The technology trancribes Hindi speech into text form. It has a capacity to recognize more than 75,000 Hindi words with different dialects, resulting in an accuracy of 90-95 percent.
The technology has many user-friendly features such as a spell checker to correct spoken word errors, a facility to convert text to digits and decimals, date and currency formats, and into fonts which any Windows based application can import.
IBM has developed a speech recognition Technology,"The Desktop Hindi Speech Recognition Technology", to help physically challenged and less literate Hindi speakers access information through a variety of applications.
The technology trancribes Hindi speech into text form. It has a capacity to recognize more than 75,000 Hindi words with different dialects, resulting in an accuracy of 90-95 percent.
The technology has many user-friendly features such as a spell checker to correct spoken word errors, a facility to convert text to digits and decimals, date and currency formats, and into fonts which any Windows based application can import.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Prime Technologies to expand offsite capabilities
Source: businessline.in
Prime Technology Group Inc. plans to invest upto $20 million for expanding its operations in India. It currently has its operations in US and Hyderabad.
Company is planning to open three centres in Visakhapatnam, Pune and Gurgaon.
Company does a lot of business onsite for the US enterprises. Now it intends to upgrade its offsite working capabilities.
Company is in talks with a private PE player in US for a possible $50 million deal.
Prime Technology Group Inc. plans to invest upto $20 million for expanding its operations in India. It currently has its operations in US and Hyderabad.
Company is planning to open three centres in Visakhapatnam, Pune and Gurgaon.
Company does a lot of business onsite for the US enterprises. Now it intends to upgrade its offsite working capabilities.
Company is in talks with a private PE player in US for a possible $50 million deal.
Threats of cyberspace
Source:Businessline.in
The advent of internet has brought a qualitative change to our lives. Innovations like social networking sites have changed the way we connect to the world.
Now, even without stepping out, we can interact with as many people as we want and be a part of any kind of community. MySpace and Facebook have almost become household names.
But there are flip sides to online networking, as with everything else. Privacy and security are becoming serious issues.
MySpace users were recently subjected to an attack where the victim's sites and computers were used as hosts for phishing scams and viruses. MySpace web pages were seeded with a malicious code capable of exploiting holes in MS Windows and Internet Explorer. MySpace users visiting these pages were redirected to a fake MySpace log-in page where their personal information was stolen.
Networking sites have put children in danger of becoming crime victims as they can be lured to wrongful doings by their predators.
I think users , especially children, should be educated about these issues to check this menace.
The advent of internet has brought a qualitative change to our lives. Innovations like social networking sites have changed the way we connect to the world.
Now, even without stepping out, we can interact with as many people as we want and be a part of any kind of community. MySpace and Facebook have almost become household names.
But there are flip sides to online networking, as with everything else. Privacy and security are becoming serious issues.
MySpace users were recently subjected to an attack where the victim's sites and computers were used as hosts for phishing scams and viruses. MySpace web pages were seeded with a malicious code capable of exploiting holes in MS Windows and Internet Explorer. MySpace users visiting these pages were redirected to a fake MySpace log-in page where their personal information was stolen.
Networking sites have put children in danger of becoming crime victims as they can be lured to wrongful doings by their predators.
I think users , especially children, should be educated about these issues to check this menace.
Life in web 2.0
Source: businessline.com
With the newer innovations taking place in the technology sector, the web world is evolving everyday and it is changing the real world too, and for the better.
IBM India showcased at its lab in Bangalore its web 2.0 initiatives. It has built an application where you need to put bits of instruction codes together, add a bit of information and the result will be a web based application which will run itself, collect and process data according to the instruction code fed into it.
QED Wiki
Now, PC users, with very little technical knowledge, can create a web based(without any coding) application to enhance their business apllications by using the information on the internet, with the help of QED wiki.
A warehouse manager can use this tool to keep track of its inventory at different locations(including inventory in transit) and do the inventory planning accordingly by using Google Maps and real time weather information from Accuweather.com, and then supplementing it with internal iventory data.
With the newer innovations taking place in the technology sector, the web world is evolving everyday and it is changing the real world too, and for the better.
IBM India showcased at its lab in Bangalore its web 2.0 initiatives. It has built an application where you need to put bits of instruction codes together, add a bit of information and the result will be a web based application which will run itself, collect and process data according to the instruction code fed into it.
QED Wiki
Now, PC users, with very little technical knowledge, can create a web based(without any coding) application to enhance their business apllications by using the information on the internet, with the help of QED wiki.
A warehouse manager can use this tool to keep track of its inventory at different locations(including inventory in transit) and do the inventory planning accordingly by using Google Maps and real time weather information from Accuweather.com, and then supplementing it with internal iventory data.
Who's tops in server software space
Source: businessline.in
As Indians , we have one more reason to feel proud. According to IDC, BEA Systems is the leader in apllication server space. The report by IDC says that BEA Systems which has a 30% market share in Indian application server software, is even ahead of global players in the middleware market.
With customers investing in service-oriented architecture (SOA), company has seen its growth double year-on-year.
As Indians , we have one more reason to feel proud. According to IDC, BEA Systems is the leader in apllication server space. The report by IDC says that BEA Systems which has a 30% market share in Indian application server software, is even ahead of global players in the middleware market.
With customers investing in service-oriented architecture (SOA), company has seen its growth double year-on-year.
BiGAdda- a new place to hang out
Source: economictimes.com
BigAdda, a part of Reliance ADA group, launched its social networking site on Monday.
It has associated with five youth icons in order to develop niche communities to cater to users' varied interests.
Photographer Atul Kasbekar would create a community for users who're interested in mobile photography. Users would be encouraged to shoot and upload photos from their mobile phones and the best photographer will get a chance to work on an assignment with Kasbekar.
Top golfer Irina Brar will create a community focusing on girls in sports. Madhur Bhandarkar will build a community for video category and encourage users to share their scripts and video stories.
BigAdda, a part of Reliance ADA group, launched its social networking site on Monday.
It has associated with five youth icons in order to develop niche communities to cater to users' varied interests.
Photographer Atul Kasbekar would create a community for users who're interested in mobile photography. Users would be encouraged to shoot and upload photos from their mobile phones and the best photographer will get a chance to work on an assignment with Kasbekar.
Top golfer Irina Brar will create a community focusing on girls in sports. Madhur Bhandarkar will build a community for video category and encourage users to share their scripts and video stories.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Cyber Security
Source: economictimes.com
In today's world, the intangible assets of a company play a far more important role as compared to tangible assets.
The dependence on automated systems to manage the "intagibles" is increasing by the day and it has led to risks of information theft and disruption of business processes.
There is a greater need to focus on cyber security arrangements.
At a symposium on cyber security organized by CII, the experts suggested that attracting experienced talent, specialization in security at educational institutions, tie-ups at private sector and strngthening infrastructure and establishment of cyber security ventures by the government are the steps which could help to counter these threats.
In today's world, the intangible assets of a company play a far more important role as compared to tangible assets.
The dependence on automated systems to manage the "intagibles" is increasing by the day and it has led to risks of information theft and disruption of business processes.
There is a greater need to focus on cyber security arrangements.
At a symposium on cyber security organized by CII, the experts suggested that attracting experienced talent, specialization in security at educational institutions, tie-ups at private sector and strngthening infrastructure and establishment of cyber security ventures by the government are the steps which could help to counter these threats.
Wipro expands in US
Source: economictimes.com
Wipro is planning to open a centre in Atlanta, US and plans to hire about 500 people locally.
The company plans to open the centre in three months. Wipro is also planning to have facilities at Raleigh, NC, Austin, Texas and Richmond, Virginia. About 1,000 people are expected to be hired for these centres.
The nature if IT services business and the newer contracts, the need to address security and IP issues are making it necessary for the companies to have a global presence. And local people are perceived to be better equipped to deal with situations in terms of language and culture.
Wipro is planning to open a centre in Atlanta, US and plans to hire about 500 people locally.
The company plans to open the centre in three months. Wipro is also planning to have facilities at Raleigh, NC, Austin, Texas and Richmond, Virginia. About 1,000 people are expected to be hired for these centres.
The nature if IT services business and the newer contracts, the need to address security and IP issues are making it necessary for the companies to have a global presence. And local people are perceived to be better equipped to deal with situations in terms of language and culture.
Bluetooth Headset Market Rocks
Source: economictimes.com
According to a market survey, the Indian bluetooth headset market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 74 %. It is expected to grow to 8 million units from the current 9,00,000 units.
The main drivers for this growth are contact centres and enterprise segment. Contact centre business is growing 25% y-o-y in India and enterprise segment is also witnessing a good growth. IP telephony is also expected to contribute to the growth of bluetooth headset market.
According to a market survey, the Indian bluetooth headset market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 74 %. It is expected to grow to 8 million units from the current 9,00,000 units.
The main drivers for this growth are contact centres and enterprise segment. Contact centre business is growing 25% y-o-y in India and enterprise segment is also witnessing a good growth. IP telephony is also expected to contribute to the growth of bluetooth headset market.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
An outsourcer outsources hiring
Source: economictimes.com
In view of the increasing hiring costs, Wipro BPO has outsourced its recruitment function to skills assessment company MeritTrac. The company expects to save about 15-20% by outsourcing the recruitment process.
Wipro BPO hires about 2,000 employees every month after scanning 20,000 applications.
In view of the increasing hiring costs, Wipro BPO has outsourced its recruitment function to skills assessment company MeritTrac. The company expects to save about 15-20% by outsourcing the recruitment process.
Wipro BPO hires about 2,000 employees every month after scanning 20,000 applications.
Crackle Inc. ties up with Ozone Media
Source: Economictimes.com
In a bid to create awareness among the growing number of internet users in India, Sony picture group company Cracle Inc. has joined hands with internet advertising network, Ozone Media.
Crackle entertainment network is dedicated to discovering, promoting and distributing emerging video-creators to Indian audiences.
In a bid to create awareness among the growing number of internet users in India, Sony picture group company Cracle Inc. has joined hands with internet advertising network, Ozone Media.
Crackle entertainment network is dedicated to discovering, promoting and distributing emerging video-creators to Indian audiences.
Friday, August 10, 2007
IT firms take steps to tackle Re rise
Source:economictimes.com
The IT sector is tackling a stronger rupee with stern measures. Most firms in the IT and ITeS industry are looking at cutting down on staff, reducing the bench strength and hiring more professionals with lesser experience to keep salary costs under control.
Besides, the companies are also looking at improving operational efficiency, productivity and focusing on multitasking. Further, on the outsourcing front, the IT industry is planning to pass on the difference in rupee appreciation to their clients.
For small and medium-sized companies, the problem is much more than just measures. The companies are slashing workforce, increasing working hours and working days to reduce the billing cycle and asking employees to start gaining other expertise.
However, what could be a major concern for the industry is the fact that IT companies are now taking more people with an average experience of three years.
“Of the total employee strength, around 45% of them have an average work experience of three years in 2007 compared to only 35% in 2005. This helps us in bringing down the cost per employee,” said a Wipro spokesperson.
Wipro is also taking steps on pricing, utilisation, recruitment and reducing additional workforce to fight the impact. The company will increase billing rates by 2% to 3% for their new clients as a measure to tackle rupee appreciation.
For its new businesses, the $187-million Hexaware Technologies has increased billing rates. As a measure to increase operational efficiencies, the company is increasing utilisation and productivity, particularly with respect to fixed-price projects. It is also training people on more than one platform to increase productivity and reduce cost.
“While improving operational efficiencies is an ongoing process, there is an increased pressure to improve efficiencies faster,” said Hexaware chairman Atul Nishar. Despite following a prudent hedging policy to derisk rupee appreciation ($200 million at an average price of Rs 41.40), Hexaware is negotiating with airlines to provide better prices. Apart from this, it will reduce the number of people on the bench over a period of time.
By improving the operational efficiencies, companies can reduce cost by up to 4%. According to KPMG, companies with more than $100 million turnover are looking at improving operational efficiencies.
According to KPMG’s global head, sourcing advisory, Pradeep Udhas, “Currency impact has been felt across the board, be it small, medium or big IT/ITeS companies. However, some bigger companies have hedged their funds and are able to minimise the impact.”
Infosys Technologies is focusing on creating industry-specific solutions. It is changing the business mix to high revenue productivity businesses to minimise the impact of an appreciating rupee.
“We are also applying other operational levers to minimise the impact. For instance, we have set up a payroll desk and a travel desk for the entire organisation in India. So, onsite payroll is also processed out of here through a single desk,” said Infosys CFO V Balakrishnan.
“Companies are aggressively looking at bringing in more operational efficiency to sustain in the market. The appreciation of rupee is taking place too fast and too soon,” said Nasscom VP Ameet Nivsarkar. Nasscom has already approached the government on the volatility issue.
For small and medium-sized companies, the problem is much more than just measures. The companies are slashing workforce, increasing working hours and working days to reduce the billing cycle and asking employees to start gaining other expertise.
Vadodara-based Rishabh Software has retrenched around 20 employees in order to reduce cost. The company officials, however, said that the employees did not have the expertise on the project and hence they were asked to leave. “IT companies can no more continue spending lavishly. It’s time to take stock of the situation. Until now, IT companies didn’t know cost-cutting, but now everyone is talking about it,” said Hi-Tech Exports’ Pranit Banthia.
As KPMG’s Udhas aptly put it “The IT industry has accumulated a lot of fat over the years. It’s time to lose some. Though luxuries are still far from over, they have seen the writing on the wall.”
The IT sector is tackling a stronger rupee with stern measures. Most firms in the IT and ITeS industry are looking at cutting down on staff, reducing the bench strength and hiring more professionals with lesser experience to keep salary costs under control.
Besides, the companies are also looking at improving operational efficiency, productivity and focusing on multitasking. Further, on the outsourcing front, the IT industry is planning to pass on the difference in rupee appreciation to their clients.
For small and medium-sized companies, the problem is much more than just measures. The companies are slashing workforce, increasing working hours and working days to reduce the billing cycle and asking employees to start gaining other expertise.
However, what could be a major concern for the industry is the fact that IT companies are now taking more people with an average experience of three years.
“Of the total employee strength, around 45% of them have an average work experience of three years in 2007 compared to only 35% in 2005. This helps us in bringing down the cost per employee,” said a Wipro spokesperson.
Wipro is also taking steps on pricing, utilisation, recruitment and reducing additional workforce to fight the impact. The company will increase billing rates by 2% to 3% for their new clients as a measure to tackle rupee appreciation.
For its new businesses, the $187-million Hexaware Technologies has increased billing rates. As a measure to increase operational efficiencies, the company is increasing utilisation and productivity, particularly with respect to fixed-price projects. It is also training people on more than one platform to increase productivity and reduce cost.
“While improving operational efficiencies is an ongoing process, there is an increased pressure to improve efficiencies faster,” said Hexaware chairman Atul Nishar. Despite following a prudent hedging policy to derisk rupee appreciation ($200 million at an average price of Rs 41.40), Hexaware is negotiating with airlines to provide better prices. Apart from this, it will reduce the number of people on the bench over a period of time.
By improving the operational efficiencies, companies can reduce cost by up to 4%. According to KPMG, companies with more than $100 million turnover are looking at improving operational efficiencies.
According to KPMG’s global head, sourcing advisory, Pradeep Udhas, “Currency impact has been felt across the board, be it small, medium or big IT/ITeS companies. However, some bigger companies have hedged their funds and are able to minimise the impact.”
Infosys Technologies is focusing on creating industry-specific solutions. It is changing the business mix to high revenue productivity businesses to minimise the impact of an appreciating rupee.
“We are also applying other operational levers to minimise the impact. For instance, we have set up a payroll desk and a travel desk for the entire organisation in India. So, onsite payroll is also processed out of here through a single desk,” said Infosys CFO V Balakrishnan.
“Companies are aggressively looking at bringing in more operational efficiency to sustain in the market. The appreciation of rupee is taking place too fast and too soon,” said Nasscom VP Ameet Nivsarkar. Nasscom has already approached the government on the volatility issue.
For small and medium-sized companies, the problem is much more than just measures. The companies are slashing workforce, increasing working hours and working days to reduce the billing cycle and asking employees to start gaining other expertise.
Vadodara-based Rishabh Software has retrenched around 20 employees in order to reduce cost. The company officials, however, said that the employees did not have the expertise on the project and hence they were asked to leave. “IT companies can no more continue spending lavishly. It’s time to take stock of the situation. Until now, IT companies didn’t know cost-cutting, but now everyone is talking about it,” said Hi-Tech Exports’ Pranit Banthia.
As KPMG’s Udhas aptly put it “The IT industry has accumulated a lot of fat over the years. It’s time to lose some. Though luxuries are still far from over, they have seen the writing on the wall.”
Cheap mobile calls via net
Source: economictimes.com
So you thought VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) was irritating? First, you’d have to download special software on your PC, get used to the headset , and then of course you'd have to be around your PC to make calls. It would be better to use your cellphone and pay a few rupees extra, right? Wrong, because now you can make free calls from your desk or mobile phone—with no software downloads, special headsets, or even a broadband internet connection. All thanks to a recently launched service by a company called Jajah (www.jajah.com).
How does it work
Let’s say you are here in India and want to speak to your project head in San Jose (US). You do nothing more than create your account on Jajah .com. Once that's done, enter your mobile number and that of your project head at Jajah.com and simply click the ‘Call’ button. First Jajah will make a connection to your phone. So you pick up the call when your mobile rings, and a voice (heavily accented currently, mind you) will explain that Jajah is connecting the call.
Next, the phone in San Jose will ring and your project head picks up the call, and the two of you can speak for a price as low as Rs 3 per minute. They currently have similar discount rates for all over the world. In fact, calls to the US and Europe will soon be made free of cost for users, claims the company.
What are they doing right
What seems to be working for Jajah world wide is the fact that they have entered into deals with many telecoms for access to cheap local ‘lastmile ’ connections. That means that only the long-distance part of the call goes over the internet. So, say you are a Hutch customer here in India. The last bit of your call will come through on your Hutch network. This is a big advantage, simply because calls received over regular phones are generally of good voice qualityunlike other VoIP service providers such as Skype where you typically receive calls over a computer where the call quality can suffer.
Getting rid of the computer
Interestingly this way Jajah also avoids firewall troubles that many other VOIP services are riddled with, as their calls are not solely over the internet . Ultimately, Jajah claims that they will take the computer completely out of the picture, because most people will be able to access the internet via their phone. So Jajah customers won’t even need a computer to input the initial call—they would do it direct from their cellphone.
Jajah also comes with special tools customised for companies and individuals. For instance, there's a tool that integrates with Outlook as well as your browser and lets you dial numbers from within the application itself. They also let you schedule calls in advance, which means that once you set up your call at a particular time, you needn’t be anywhere near the computer—the service will connect automatically at the designated time.
Companies have already started reaping the benefits for this service. Public relations firm 20:20 Media, for instance, has set up accounts for all its employees using this service. “We have saved about 60% on our calls using Jajah. And these days we never miss call timings thanks to Jajah's auto dialling facility,” says a spokesperson at 20:20 Media, Delhi.
So you thought VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) was irritating? First, you’d have to download special software on your PC, get used to the headset , and then of course you'd have to be around your PC to make calls. It would be better to use your cellphone and pay a few rupees extra, right? Wrong, because now you can make free calls from your desk or mobile phone—with no software downloads, special headsets, or even a broadband internet connection. All thanks to a recently launched service by a company called Jajah (www.jajah.com).
How does it work
Let’s say you are here in India and want to speak to your project head in San Jose (US). You do nothing more than create your account on Jajah .com. Once that's done, enter your mobile number and that of your project head at Jajah.com and simply click the ‘Call’ button. First Jajah will make a connection to your phone. So you pick up the call when your mobile rings, and a voice (heavily accented currently, mind you) will explain that Jajah is connecting the call.
Next, the phone in San Jose will ring and your project head picks up the call, and the two of you can speak for a price as low as Rs 3 per minute. They currently have similar discount rates for all over the world. In fact, calls to the US and Europe will soon be made free of cost for users, claims the company.
What are they doing right
What seems to be working for Jajah world wide is the fact that they have entered into deals with many telecoms for access to cheap local ‘lastmile ’ connections. That means that only the long-distance part of the call goes over the internet. So, say you are a Hutch customer here in India. The last bit of your call will come through on your Hutch network. This is a big advantage, simply because calls received over regular phones are generally of good voice qualityunlike other VoIP service providers such as Skype where you typically receive calls over a computer where the call quality can suffer.
Getting rid of the computer
Interestingly this way Jajah also avoids firewall troubles that many other VOIP services are riddled with, as their calls are not solely over the internet . Ultimately, Jajah claims that they will take the computer completely out of the picture, because most people will be able to access the internet via their phone. So Jajah customers won’t even need a computer to input the initial call—they would do it direct from their cellphone.
Jajah also comes with special tools customised for companies and individuals. For instance, there's a tool that integrates with Outlook as well as your browser and lets you dial numbers from within the application itself. They also let you schedule calls in advance, which means that once you set up your call at a particular time, you needn’t be anywhere near the computer—the service will connect automatically at the designated time.
Companies have already started reaping the benefits for this service. Public relations firm 20:20 Media, for instance, has set up accounts for all its employees using this service. “We have saved about 60% on our calls using Jajah. And these days we never miss call timings thanks to Jajah's auto dialling facility,” says a spokesperson at 20:20 Media, Delhi.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
New search engine for researchers
Source: the hindubussinessline.com
Scientists and research scholars have to dredge a huge volume of scientific literature to arrive at the information they need. Conventional search engines look for words rather than ideas.
For example, a part of the literature may say that drug A has a particular effect (say, increase the secretion) on a body chemical B. Some other document may show that B has an inhibiting effect on bacteria C. A search engine cannot throw up the effect on A on B.
Search engines work on semantics but it would help the scientific community if software were available for unearthing hidden trends and connections buried in the literature.
This literature is huge. For example, Pubmed is a depository of about 16 million articles. A researcher spends half his research time in culling out what he wants. Another example is the information with various patent offices.
The Chennai-based bio-informatics company Brainwave Biosolutions Ltd has come up with a tool, which it calls Gene Minerva, to help researchers shorten their search time. Gene Minerva is a `text mining product', developed mainly to help drug discovery researchers look for hidden patterns from unstructured literature data.
"The software will help the computer understand sentences as we do," Dr Shome Nath Mitra, Chief Scientific Officer, Brainwave, told a press conference here.
The tool, that took four years and Rs 2.2 crore to develop, uses `natural language processing technology' to achieve this.
After being tested at Bio Alma, Spain, the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Punjab, and a US company, Gene Minerva has just been launched in the market. Brainwave intends to charge $1,800 as annual licence fee, but the company is open to discussing packages and short-term usage rates.
Dr Mitra said that the product competes with others such as Ariadne Genomics, Cognia, Reel Two, Clear Forest and Temis. He claimed that Gene Minerva was found to be more efficacious, in tests.
Gene Minerva is the first major product of Brainwave Biosolutions, a company founded by Ms Valli Arun, daughter of Mr A.C. Muthiah, Chairman of SPIC Group of companies. The company targets 2,000 customers in two years.
Scientists and research scholars have to dredge a huge volume of scientific literature to arrive at the information they need. Conventional search engines look for words rather than ideas.
For example, a part of the literature may say that drug A has a particular effect (say, increase the secretion) on a body chemical B. Some other document may show that B has an inhibiting effect on bacteria C. A search engine cannot throw up the effect on A on B.
Search engines work on semantics but it would help the scientific community if software were available for unearthing hidden trends and connections buried in the literature.
This literature is huge. For example, Pubmed is a depository of about 16 million articles. A researcher spends half his research time in culling out what he wants. Another example is the information with various patent offices.
The Chennai-based bio-informatics company Brainwave Biosolutions Ltd has come up with a tool, which it calls Gene Minerva, to help researchers shorten their search time. Gene Minerva is a `text mining product', developed mainly to help drug discovery researchers look for hidden patterns from unstructured literature data.
"The software will help the computer understand sentences as we do," Dr Shome Nath Mitra, Chief Scientific Officer, Brainwave, told a press conference here.
The tool, that took four years and Rs 2.2 crore to develop, uses `natural language processing technology' to achieve this.
After being tested at Bio Alma, Spain, the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Punjab, and a US company, Gene Minerva has just been launched in the market. Brainwave intends to charge $1,800 as annual licence fee, but the company is open to discussing packages and short-term usage rates.
Dr Mitra said that the product competes with others such as Ariadne Genomics, Cognia, Reel Two, Clear Forest and Temis. He claimed that Gene Minerva was found to be more efficacious, in tests.
Gene Minerva is the first major product of Brainwave Biosolutions, a company founded by Ms Valli Arun, daughter of Mr A.C. Muthiah, Chairman of SPIC Group of companies. The company targets 2,000 customers in two years.
Brands fail to make inroads into PC market
Source: Businessstandard.com
The PC assembling segment has held firm despite stiff competition from branded players.
Ever since the PC revolution, a common query in the minds of personal computer (PC) buyers in India has been: Which is better? An assembled machine or a branded one.
The Indian PC market crossed 5 million units last year. A growth of 25 per cent year-on-year in unit shipments over the previous year.
According to IDC, a markets analyst firm, the share of assembled desktops, also known as ‘white box’, shipments has declined from 41 per cent in the third quarter of calendar year (CY) 2005 to 32.7 per cent in the first quarter of CY 2007.
However, the dip in the numbers has to be co-related to the fact that the desktop PC market has had a flat growth for two years.
Diptarup Chakraborti, principle analyst, global IT research and advisory firm Gartner, says: "Though the year-on-year growth of the assembled PC has been flat, it has not lost its market share of close to 40 per cent of the over all desktop PC in India. The desktop market is anyway not moving even for the branded computers.”
Agrees Piyush Pushkal, manager, computing products research, IDC India, ‘White box’ desktop PC makers have retained an edge over branded PC vendors due to their proximity to the end-customer and the personalised services, they often provide. It is precisely due to this reason that the assembled market is sustaining itself despite stiff competition and attractive offerings from branded PC players."
Buying the ‘white box’ is always cheaper than purchasing a branded PC. The price difference of a normal low-end PC will be just about 5 per cent, but in a high-end PC it can be as much as 15 per cent to 20 per cent. This is because assemblers do not have to account for the marketing and branding costs.
The other reason for the assembled PC market sustaining itself is the ease of upgradation, which most branded PC vendors do not readily offer. Assembled PC providers are also perceived to offer better service support. Most of the branded PCs do not give an option to mix and match components of the PC due to compatibility issue.
Rajesh Gupta, director sales and marketing group, Intel says, "These channels have a unique advantage of using customised solution and configuration and support system. People in tier II and III still prefer to buy PCs from the assembler."
Intel’s strategy to rope in these dealers is a good example of the growth and the potential of this market. Intel’s ‘Genuine Intel Dealer’ programme which caters to the white box market has a three-tier approach to sell its products.
The first tier consisting of traders, who simply trade the components, are in the number of 8,000-10,000. The second tier, of associates or systems integrator (SI) have grown to 3,500. Those who have moved away from being just SIs and become solution providers to small and medium enterprises number 100.
Gupta, however, points to a very important aspect of the assembled market, “The assembled players are extremely fast moving especially when it comes to technology change. Crucially, they bring this to the buyer without any incremental cost.”
ASSEMBLING BENEFITS
Cheap compared to branded PCs
Sport cutting-edge processors
Can be customised
Assemblers give better service and replace parts faster
Extremely fast moving especially when it comes to technology change
Customer is spared the incremental cost of technology
The PC assembling segment has held firm despite stiff competition from branded players.
Ever since the PC revolution, a common query in the minds of personal computer (PC) buyers in India has been: Which is better? An assembled machine or a branded one.
The Indian PC market crossed 5 million units last year. A growth of 25 per cent year-on-year in unit shipments over the previous year.
According to IDC, a markets analyst firm, the share of assembled desktops, also known as ‘white box’, shipments has declined from 41 per cent in the third quarter of calendar year (CY) 2005 to 32.7 per cent in the first quarter of CY 2007.
However, the dip in the numbers has to be co-related to the fact that the desktop PC market has had a flat growth for two years.
Diptarup Chakraborti, principle analyst, global IT research and advisory firm Gartner, says: "Though the year-on-year growth of the assembled PC has been flat, it has not lost its market share of close to 40 per cent of the over all desktop PC in India. The desktop market is anyway not moving even for the branded computers.”
Agrees Piyush Pushkal, manager, computing products research, IDC India, ‘White box’ desktop PC makers have retained an edge over branded PC vendors due to their proximity to the end-customer and the personalised services, they often provide. It is precisely due to this reason that the assembled market is sustaining itself despite stiff competition and attractive offerings from branded PC players."
Buying the ‘white box’ is always cheaper than purchasing a branded PC. The price difference of a normal low-end PC will be just about 5 per cent, but in a high-end PC it can be as much as 15 per cent to 20 per cent. This is because assemblers do not have to account for the marketing and branding costs.
The other reason for the assembled PC market sustaining itself is the ease of upgradation, which most branded PC vendors do not readily offer. Assembled PC providers are also perceived to offer better service support. Most of the branded PCs do not give an option to mix and match components of the PC due to compatibility issue.
Rajesh Gupta, director sales and marketing group, Intel says, "These channels have a unique advantage of using customised solution and configuration and support system. People in tier II and III still prefer to buy PCs from the assembler."
Intel’s strategy to rope in these dealers is a good example of the growth and the potential of this market. Intel’s ‘Genuine Intel Dealer’ programme which caters to the white box market has a three-tier approach to sell its products.
The first tier consisting of traders, who simply trade the components, are in the number of 8,000-10,000. The second tier, of associates or systems integrator (SI) have grown to 3,500. Those who have moved away from being just SIs and become solution providers to small and medium enterprises number 100.
Gupta, however, points to a very important aspect of the assembled market, “The assembled players are extremely fast moving especially when it comes to technology change. Crucially, they bring this to the buyer without any incremental cost.”
ASSEMBLING BENEFITS
Cheap compared to branded PCs
Sport cutting-edge processors
Can be customised
Assemblers give better service and replace parts faster
Extremely fast moving especially when it comes to technology change
Customer is spared the incremental cost of technology
Source: Businessstandard.com
KPO company Dexterity has opened its second facility in Chennai on an investment of $1.5 million. The facility will accommodate a headcount of 250.
The new facility at Mogappair will host process outsourcing services for the market research and analytics (R&A) space.
With this, Dexterity has also signalled its intentions to double headcount by March next year from the 300 people on its rolls presently. The additional resources will be spread across voice and data services that cover areas like computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI), scripting, analytics and reporting, the company said.
“IT services for the R&A domain is a $0.6 billion market, while KPO for this niche is a $2.2 billion market. The second facility is part of our aggressive growth plans to tap niche R&A opportunities,” Palanivel Kuppusamy, executive chairman, Dexterity Group, said.
The company’s first facility in Chennai is at Ambattur
KPO company Dexterity has opened its second facility in Chennai on an investment of $1.5 million. The facility will accommodate a headcount of 250.
The new facility at Mogappair will host process outsourcing services for the market research and analytics (R&A) space.
With this, Dexterity has also signalled its intentions to double headcount by March next year from the 300 people on its rolls presently. The additional resources will be spread across voice and data services that cover areas like computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI), scripting, analytics and reporting, the company said.
“IT services for the R&A domain is a $0.6 billion market, while KPO for this niche is a $2.2 billion market. The second facility is part of our aggressive growth plans to tap niche R&A opportunities,” Palanivel Kuppusamy, executive chairman, Dexterity Group, said.
The company’s first facility in Chennai is at Ambattur
BMC Software plans aquisition
Source: Businessstandard.com
As the demand for servers and computers grows, there will be an increased need for automation of IT infrastructure to cut labour cost for management of IT infrastructure which is a $160 billion market.
It is growing at 10 per cent per annum, Kia Behnia, chief corporate architect, CTO office, BMC Software, a provider of business service management services told reporters.
In the last six months BMC has acquired two smaller companies for increasing automation of its enterprise service management business.
“We are now interested in acquisitions for increasing our capabilities in managing virtual infrastructure,” said Behnia while sharing that the company has a tieup with VMWare, a subsidiary of IMC Inc for virtual infrastructure management for the last two years.
However, “There is demand for increased capabilities of virtualisation from our clients which we will cater to our inorganic growth,” said Behnia.
BMC has over $1.5 billion in cash reserves. It had announced in the past $1 billion to buyback shares over the next couple of years and also following a merger and acquisition-led growth strategy.
It’s earlier acquisitions, ProactiveNet is a real time, proactive analyses solutions company with a global workforce of 140 people of which 110 are based in Bangalore.
Meanwhile, RealOps is an all-in-one service management solutions company that integrates diverse multi-vendor technologies while accelerating and automating the execution of critical IT operations. “RealOps also contracted work to India which now will be executed from Pune,” said Behnia.
Behnia was in Pune to announce the company’s college campus recruitment programme and the appointment of Pankaj Dhume, president and chief executive officer, BMC Software India.
“We have shortlisted 20 colleges and expect to partner at least four colleges this year for introducing systems management curriculum and project work,” said Dhume adding that the company has initiated a campus recruitment programme and plans to recruit 100 students from the campus this year.
BMC has 1,000 people in India of which 900 are in Pune and the remainder in Bangalore. The company accounts for 35 per cent on BMC’s global R&D workforce and 10-20 per cent of its patents. In a bid to increase its patent filings from India, the company has launched a new innovations recognition programme.
“We hope to increase the patents output to 30 per cent with such an initiative,” said Behnia.
As the demand for servers and computers grows, there will be an increased need for automation of IT infrastructure to cut labour cost for management of IT infrastructure which is a $160 billion market.
It is growing at 10 per cent per annum, Kia Behnia, chief corporate architect, CTO office, BMC Software, a provider of business service management services told reporters.
In the last six months BMC has acquired two smaller companies for increasing automation of its enterprise service management business.
“We are now interested in acquisitions for increasing our capabilities in managing virtual infrastructure,” said Behnia while sharing that the company has a tieup with VMWare, a subsidiary of IMC Inc for virtual infrastructure management for the last two years.
However, “There is demand for increased capabilities of virtualisation from our clients which we will cater to our inorganic growth,” said Behnia.
BMC has over $1.5 billion in cash reserves. It had announced in the past $1 billion to buyback shares over the next couple of years and also following a merger and acquisition-led growth strategy.
It’s earlier acquisitions, ProactiveNet is a real time, proactive analyses solutions company with a global workforce of 140 people of which 110 are based in Bangalore.
Meanwhile, RealOps is an all-in-one service management solutions company that integrates diverse multi-vendor technologies while accelerating and automating the execution of critical IT operations. “RealOps also contracted work to India which now will be executed from Pune,” said Behnia.
Behnia was in Pune to announce the company’s college campus recruitment programme and the appointment of Pankaj Dhume, president and chief executive officer, BMC Software India.
“We have shortlisted 20 colleges and expect to partner at least four colleges this year for introducing systems management curriculum and project work,” said Dhume adding that the company has initiated a campus recruitment programme and plans to recruit 100 students from the campus this year.
BMC has 1,000 people in India of which 900 are in Pune and the remainder in Bangalore. The company accounts for 35 per cent on BMC’s global R&D workforce and 10-20 per cent of its patents. In a bid to increase its patent filings from India, the company has launched a new innovations recognition programme.
“We hope to increase the patents output to 30 per cent with such an initiative,” said Behnia.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Servicing Software Needs
Source: Dataquest
When Marc Benioff and Parker Harris co-founded Salesforce.com in 1999, it was the addition of another entity in the assembly line of the dotcom dream, with little inkling of the revolution they had just given birth to. Therefore, in 2001, when the bloodbath and carnage was wiping out the dream, many would have thought that Salesforce.com would be another dotcom poster boy who would get consigned to cyberspace history. Instead, Benioff and Parker pulled through, and six years down the line Salesforce.com had surely given birth to the new phenomenon in software evolution-the model of SaaS or 'software as a service..'
SaaS is a method of selling software in which a vendor or service provider hosts the applications and makes them available to customers as a service, rather than as a product. This, according to Kiran Datar, MD, WebEx Communications India, is an emerging software delivery model in which application software is delivered remotely through a subscription-based fee rather than being sold for perpetual use. Sanjit Sinha, IDC India believes that SaaS allows a company the flexibility of using an application as and when it wants to, without having to bear the cost of buying it and thereby forcing its use.
As a new method of delivering software to the enterprise, Datar feels that SaaS would eventually mark the decline of the software-licensing era. The concept has evolved over the years, from a dotcom model to custom software to licensed software. Then came the offer of services along with the product and then software that was driven by services. Through this evolution SaaS has donned various avatars: hosted services, ASP (application service provider) services, utility computing and software on-demand. However, the fundamental idea has remained constant: instead of buying and installing expensive packages (enterprise applications), users can now access them over a network, with an Internet browser being the only absolute necessity.
Globally, the SaaS market till date has been dominated by the likes of Salesforce.com, WebEx Communications and Rightnow Technologies. However, as the entire software revenue model undergoes a paradigm shift, the big software vendors like Microsoft, SAP and Oracle too are now planning to jump into the bandwagon. The growing realization that the traditional software licensing model could get affected by SaaS, particularly among the SMBs, has resulted in the biggies too coming to the party. In India currently, Web conferencing and collaboration represent the largest portion of the total SaaS revenues. Salesforce.com is gradually making its presence felt, especially in the CRM domain (globally they have beaten the traditional CRM leader Siebel) while vendors like Tata Technologies IKS (engineering services training) and Compulink (collaboration portal) are bringing in new domains into the SaaS fold.
"The subscription model by SaaS will enable customers to have a computing environment that scales up or down, with seamlessness and continuity and flexible pricing"
-Kiran Datar, MD, WebEx Communications India
Reducing Costs
Pricing factor seems to be one of the biggest advantages of the SaaS model in India. By adopting SaaS-based applications for certain business processes, SMBs can reduce capital investment which they might incur in terms of setting up huge infrastructure, resources, software licenses, maintenance/upgrade costs and skilled IT manpower, if they buy and run similar applications within their premises. An example could be that of IGetIt, the engineering services training application from Tata Technologies IKS, who are transforming themselves from a traditional license-based model to a SaaS one. Informs Kevi Noe, MD, Tata Technologies IKS, "While earlier IGetIt would cost companies thousands of dollars in licenses, now it costs them only $95 on per user basis."
Software as a service also means higher revenue from applications due to volume, quicker upgrades and platform-independent applications. From the business angle, Vishwas Mahajan, CEO, Compulink feels that B2B integration/collaboration will be easier due to common platforms and compliance to standards. The penetration of PCs/laptops/mobile devices and pervasive Internet connectivity are the driving force towards adoption of the concept in India. In the SaaS pricing model, most vendors are providing services on a subscription basis, and payment can be made as per actual usage of the application.
In the wake of organizations looking at combating the spiraling costs of owning licensed software and upgrading it subsequently, Datar feels that the SaaS model will provide huge benefits for companies in terms of cost when there is a shift from their capital expenditure to their operating expenditure. The subscription model by SaaS will enable customers to have a computing environment that scales up or down as demand dictates, with a seamlessness and continuity that minimizes or eliminates disruption for end users, and with flexible pricing.
When Marc Benioff and Parker Harris co-founded Salesforce.com in 1999, it was the addition of another entity in the assembly line of the dotcom dream, with little inkling of the revolution they had just given birth to. Therefore, in 2001, when the bloodbath and carnage was wiping out the dream, many would have thought that Salesforce.com would be another dotcom poster boy who would get consigned to cyberspace history. Instead, Benioff and Parker pulled through, and six years down the line Salesforce.com had surely given birth to the new phenomenon in software evolution-the model of SaaS or 'software as a service..'
SaaS is a method of selling software in which a vendor or service provider hosts the applications and makes them available to customers as a service, rather than as a product. This, according to Kiran Datar, MD, WebEx Communications India, is an emerging software delivery model in which application software is delivered remotely through a subscription-based fee rather than being sold for perpetual use. Sanjit Sinha, IDC India believes that SaaS allows a company the flexibility of using an application as and when it wants to, without having to bear the cost of buying it and thereby forcing its use.
As a new method of delivering software to the enterprise, Datar feels that SaaS would eventually mark the decline of the software-licensing era. The concept has evolved over the years, from a dotcom model to custom software to licensed software. Then came the offer of services along with the product and then software that was driven by services. Through this evolution SaaS has donned various avatars: hosted services, ASP (application service provider) services, utility computing and software on-demand. However, the fundamental idea has remained constant: instead of buying and installing expensive packages (enterprise applications), users can now access them over a network, with an Internet browser being the only absolute necessity.
Globally, the SaaS market till date has been dominated by the likes of Salesforce.com, WebEx Communications and Rightnow Technologies. However, as the entire software revenue model undergoes a paradigm shift, the big software vendors like Microsoft, SAP and Oracle too are now planning to jump into the bandwagon. The growing realization that the traditional software licensing model could get affected by SaaS, particularly among the SMBs, has resulted in the biggies too coming to the party. In India currently, Web conferencing and collaboration represent the largest portion of the total SaaS revenues. Salesforce.com is gradually making its presence felt, especially in the CRM domain (globally they have beaten the traditional CRM leader Siebel) while vendors like Tata Technologies IKS (engineering services training) and Compulink (collaboration portal) are bringing in new domains into the SaaS fold.
"The subscription model by SaaS will enable customers to have a computing environment that scales up or down, with seamlessness and continuity and flexible pricing"
-Kiran Datar, MD, WebEx Communications India
Reducing Costs
Pricing factor seems to be one of the biggest advantages of the SaaS model in India. By adopting SaaS-based applications for certain business processes, SMBs can reduce capital investment which they might incur in terms of setting up huge infrastructure, resources, software licenses, maintenance/upgrade costs and skilled IT manpower, if they buy and run similar applications within their premises. An example could be that of IGetIt, the engineering services training application from Tata Technologies IKS, who are transforming themselves from a traditional license-based model to a SaaS one. Informs Kevi Noe, MD, Tata Technologies IKS, "While earlier IGetIt would cost companies thousands of dollars in licenses, now it costs them only $95 on per user basis."
Software as a service also means higher revenue from applications due to volume, quicker upgrades and platform-independent applications. From the business angle, Vishwas Mahajan, CEO, Compulink feels that B2B integration/collaboration will be easier due to common platforms and compliance to standards. The penetration of PCs/laptops/mobile devices and pervasive Internet connectivity are the driving force towards adoption of the concept in India. In the SaaS pricing model, most vendors are providing services on a subscription basis, and payment can be made as per actual usage of the application.
In the wake of organizations looking at combating the spiraling costs of owning licensed software and upgrading it subsequently, Datar feels that the SaaS model will provide huge benefits for companies in terms of cost when there is a shift from their capital expenditure to their operating expenditure. The subscription model by SaaS will enable customers to have a computing environment that scales up or down as demand dictates, with a seamlessness and continuity that minimizes or eliminates disruption for end users, and with flexible pricing.
Nasscom Lists Best Practices for ITeS-BPO industry
Source: economictimes.com
Nasscom, the industry body for the Indian software and services sector, Tuesday announced a framework for the IT enabled services and business process outsourcing services firms to adopt ethical practices and corporate governance.
The framework has a set of principles to be adhered to by member firms voluntarily. It includes employee-friendly policies, safety and security standards, a code of ethics in hiring, corporate social responsibility and industry initiatives.
"The objective is to maintain our leadership position in the global ITeS-BPO industry and consolidate "Brand India" worldwide by focusing on the specific needs of the burgeoning sector," Nasscom President Kiran Karnik said.
Recognizing the need for manpower development as the key to growth, Nasscom will draw HR management guidelines to attract and retain talent and address the attrition issue.
The organisation has introduced an industry standard assessment and certification program to ensure the transformation of a trainable workforce into an employable workforce. The Nasscom Assessment of Competence (NAC) will ensure a robust and continuous supply of talent for the industry.
The NAC standard will be applied in tier-two and tier-three cities and towns, to develop them as BPO hubs and nurture job ready professionals. This is on the lines of a pilot project implemented in Rajasthan recently, where 2500 people took the test and appeared at the job fair, organized by the State Government and The Union Department of Technology and Communication.
"By the year-end, NAC will be rolled out in other states, including Gujrat this month, Chandigarh and Andhra Pradesh in September and the north east from Oct. to Jan., Karnik said.
Going forward, Nasscom plans to align NAC in the curriculum of universities and colleges to meet the needs of the sector. The initiative will ITeS-BPO players reduce hiring costs, improve efficiencies, enlarge the candidate pool and stem the esclation in entry level wages.
Nasscom has also launched a similar testing and accredition offering, NAC-Tech, for the for the IT services sector from this academic year. NAC-Tech will be an industry standard to assess students aspiring for jobs in technology/engineering industries.
The industry body has also set up a National Skills Registry(NSR), a centralised database of employees of the IT services and BPO firms, to verify their credentials and background checks.
The initiative has received an excellent response.
Nasscom, the industry body for the Indian software and services sector, Tuesday announced a framework for the IT enabled services and business process outsourcing services firms to adopt ethical practices and corporate governance.
The framework has a set of principles to be adhered to by member firms voluntarily. It includes employee-friendly policies, safety and security standards, a code of ethics in hiring, corporate social responsibility and industry initiatives.
"The objective is to maintain our leadership position in the global ITeS-BPO industry and consolidate "Brand India" worldwide by focusing on the specific needs of the burgeoning sector," Nasscom President Kiran Karnik said.
Recognizing the need for manpower development as the key to growth, Nasscom will draw HR management guidelines to attract and retain talent and address the attrition issue.
The organisation has introduced an industry standard assessment and certification program to ensure the transformation of a trainable workforce into an employable workforce. The Nasscom Assessment of Competence (NAC) will ensure a robust and continuous supply of talent for the industry.
The NAC standard will be applied in tier-two and tier-three cities and towns, to develop them as BPO hubs and nurture job ready professionals. This is on the lines of a pilot project implemented in Rajasthan recently, where 2500 people took the test and appeared at the job fair, organized by the State Government and The Union Department of Technology and Communication.
"By the year-end, NAC will be rolled out in other states, including Gujrat this month, Chandigarh and Andhra Pradesh in September and the north east from Oct. to Jan., Karnik said.
Going forward, Nasscom plans to align NAC in the curriculum of universities and colleges to meet the needs of the sector. The initiative will ITeS-BPO players reduce hiring costs, improve efficiencies, enlarge the candidate pool and stem the esclation in entry level wages.
Nasscom has also launched a similar testing and accredition offering, NAC-Tech, for the for the IT services sector from this academic year. NAC-Tech will be an industry standard to assess students aspiring for jobs in technology/engineering industries.
The industry body has also set up a National Skills Registry(NSR), a centralised database of employees of the IT services and BPO firms, to verify their credentials and background checks.
The initiative has received an excellent response.
Aptech to open centres in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia
Source: economictimes.com
IT education and training institute Aptech plans to open centres in Afghanistan, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia shortly as part of its overseas expansion plans.
"We also plan to set up offices in Vietnam and Nigeria," Aptech CEO and Managing Director Pramod Khera said.
Aptech trains studentss under its various programs Aptech Computer Education(ACE- software engineering) and Arena(Multimedia training).
"We are opening one Ace centre in Afghanistan to start with, one Arena and three Ace centres in Jordan and one Arena and two Ace centres in Syria," Khera said.
In Saudi Arabia, he said, the company is establishing one Arena centre exclusively for women, where the entire staff would comprise ladies.
Aptech has close to 400 centres overseas, majority of them Ace centres. "We are witnessing a lot of growth in China, where we have been able to open 250 centres in the last five years and capture 32.1 percent marketshare," he said.
The company has 31 centres in Vietnam, Khera said, adding that plans are afoot to open another 20 centres over the next three years.
"We see a scope for further peneteration in the markets we are present as far as IT training is concerned, especially the Latin American and CIS countries," Khera said.
Aptech is expanding its Arena animation network in India, where it plans to open another 10 centres by the end of the year, including a Rs. 10 crore residential "train the trainer" facility at Karjat near Mumbai.
IT education and training institute Aptech plans to open centres in Afghanistan, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia shortly as part of its overseas expansion plans.
"We also plan to set up offices in Vietnam and Nigeria," Aptech CEO and Managing Director Pramod Khera said.
Aptech trains studentss under its various programs Aptech Computer Education(ACE- software engineering) and Arena(Multimedia training).
"We are opening one Ace centre in Afghanistan to start with, one Arena and three Ace centres in Jordan and one Arena and two Ace centres in Syria," Khera said.
In Saudi Arabia, he said, the company is establishing one Arena centre exclusively for women, where the entire staff would comprise ladies.
Aptech has close to 400 centres overseas, majority of them Ace centres. "We are witnessing a lot of growth in China, where we have been able to open 250 centres in the last five years and capture 32.1 percent marketshare," he said.
The company has 31 centres in Vietnam, Khera said, adding that plans are afoot to open another 20 centres over the next three years.
"We see a scope for further peneteration in the markets we are present as far as IT training is concerned, especially the Latin American and CIS countries," Khera said.
Aptech is expanding its Arena animation network in India, where it plans to open another 10 centres by the end of the year, including a Rs. 10 crore residential "train the trainer" facility at Karjat near Mumbai.
Hp inaugrates center in Chennai
Source: economictimes.com
Hewlett-Packard India will establish 20 hi-tech Business Solutions Centres across the country to provide the latest HP products and solutions to customers, a top company official said on Tuesday.
talking to reporters after inaugration of first centre here in partnership with Precision informatic, a leading software solution company, HP Solutions Partners Organisation Director Sameer Mathur the centres would showcase the latest product portfolio-integrity server, storage, thin clients, commercial desktops and notebooks, workstations, commercial printers and HP genuine accessories.
"The centres will provide an opportunity for customers to experience our products which will help in fuelling their growth through IT investments," he said.
Mathur said the centre here was expected to cater to HP's existing customer base of over 200 companies and further strngthen company's foothold in the market wth strong partnerships.
It had been planned to launch such centres in all metros and tier-two cities across the country within a period of six months at an investment of Rs 20 lakhs each, he added.
He said HP India team would also be running a micro-vertical based solutions program and provide consultancy to customers on IT deployment required for their organizations.
Hewlett-Packard India will establish 20 hi-tech Business Solutions Centres across the country to provide the latest HP products and solutions to customers, a top company official said on Tuesday.
talking to reporters after inaugration of first centre here in partnership with Precision informatic, a leading software solution company, HP Solutions Partners Organisation Director Sameer Mathur the centres would showcase the latest product portfolio-integrity server, storage, thin clients, commercial desktops and notebooks, workstations, commercial printers and HP genuine accessories.
"The centres will provide an opportunity for customers to experience our products which will help in fuelling their growth through IT investments," he said.
Mathur said the centre here was expected to cater to HP's existing customer base of over 200 companies and further strngthen company's foothold in the market wth strong partnerships.
It had been planned to launch such centres in all metros and tier-two cities across the country within a period of six months at an investment of Rs 20 lakhs each, he added.
He said HP India team would also be running a micro-vertical based solutions program and provide consultancy to customers on IT deployment required for their organizations.
Clicks for success
Source:Economictimes.com
Indians are going places; everyday, every hour, every second and the world is coming to us at the same velocity. The world has shrunk to a "global village" but have you ever thought who is responsible for all this? International business innovations like Google, YouTube, Flickr, and Snapfish have revolutionised our worlds and we, at the click of a button, can connect to people sitting thousands of miles away. But how much relevance do these global innovations hold for us Indians?
This is exactly what these following people spared a thought for, came up with businesses to suit the Indian masses. After all, we are at the centre of all the action. Anurag Dod and gaurav Mishra developed Guruji.com, the search engine modelled on Google.com, specially for Indians loaded with host of innovative features; Kartik Jain and manish Agrawal, the two Snapfish.com inspired IIT graduates who created picsquare.com, the website where people can print pictures on mugs, t-shirts, calenders, etc., and send it anywhere in India and finally, Alankar Jain, who went a step ahead of the current buzz-word on the internet, YouTube.com, and created the website, thebig.tv.
"The idea came to us in June 2005. We witnessed the success of Google in the US and also noted that its success rates did not complement its growth in the US market. Local players were doing far better than Google! And that's how the idea of Guruji.com struck us," recollects Gaurav Mishra, COO and co-founder, Guruji.com.
Prior to starting Guruji.com, Anurag Dod, Ceo and co-founder, worked with wisenet for ten years and was the key contributor in developing the Wisenet search engine and Mishra back then was with Hotmail for almost nine years. "We had the relevant work experience and began with a market research," says Mishra. They saw a clear gap in quality of results delivered in the Indian market as compared to the US. So, they felt that the global product wasn't giving the desired quality results in India.
"We had seen the growth of Google in the US. During the initiation stages of the website, we realized that there were several technical gaps that need to be filled. But we also knew that in order to reach out to a wider audience in India, we have to localise the content," says Mishra.
There are some striking similarities between Guruji.com and Google.com. Both are basically search engines delivering value to the internet users. So are there any factors that distinguish Guruji.com from Google.com? "We have gone ahead and created a first "city product" in the search engines market. We allow the user to do a vernacular search. We are focused and identify what global players are yet to do in Indian context," says Dod.
"The search engine market in India is catching up and the opportuniyies are plenty. I look at it as we co-exist with Google. We deliver better search value and are in the process of creating a search market in India and growing it. Our focus is search and we are emphatic about that," adds Dod.
Indians are going places; everyday, every hour, every second and the world is coming to us at the same velocity. The world has shrunk to a "global village" but have you ever thought who is responsible for all this? International business innovations like Google, YouTube, Flickr, and Snapfish have revolutionised our worlds and we, at the click of a button, can connect to people sitting thousands of miles away. But how much relevance do these global innovations hold for us Indians?
This is exactly what these following people spared a thought for, came up with businesses to suit the Indian masses. After all, we are at the centre of all the action. Anurag Dod and gaurav Mishra developed Guruji.com, the search engine modelled on Google.com, specially for Indians loaded with host of innovative features; Kartik Jain and manish Agrawal, the two Snapfish.com inspired IIT graduates who created picsquare.com, the website where people can print pictures on mugs, t-shirts, calenders, etc., and send it anywhere in India and finally, Alankar Jain, who went a step ahead of the current buzz-word on the internet, YouTube.com, and created the website, thebig.tv.
"The idea came to us in June 2005. We witnessed the success of Google in the US and also noted that its success rates did not complement its growth in the US market. Local players were doing far better than Google! And that's how the idea of Guruji.com struck us," recollects Gaurav Mishra, COO and co-founder, Guruji.com.
Prior to starting Guruji.com, Anurag Dod, Ceo and co-founder, worked with wisenet for ten years and was the key contributor in developing the Wisenet search engine and Mishra back then was with Hotmail for almost nine years. "We had the relevant work experience and began with a market research," says Mishra. They saw a clear gap in quality of results delivered in the Indian market as compared to the US. So, they felt that the global product wasn't giving the desired quality results in India.
"We had seen the growth of Google in the US. During the initiation stages of the website, we realized that there were several technical gaps that need to be filled. But we also knew that in order to reach out to a wider audience in India, we have to localise the content," says Mishra.
There are some striking similarities between Guruji.com and Google.com. Both are basically search engines delivering value to the internet users. So are there any factors that distinguish Guruji.com from Google.com? "We have gone ahead and created a first "city product" in the search engines market. We allow the user to do a vernacular search. We are focused and identify what global players are yet to do in Indian context," says Dod.
"The search engine market in India is catching up and the opportuniyies are plenty. I look at it as we co-exist with Google. We deliver better search value and are in the process of creating a search market in India and growing it. Our focus is search and we are emphatic about that," adds Dod.
TCS set to clinch 150 financial Product deals
Source: Business Standard
TCS is stepping on the gas to take its financial products business forwad.
Its financial arm, TCS Financial Solutions- which will be branded as TCS Bancs- is currently bidding for at least 150 deals, which are in various stages of being awarded within the next 18 months.
"A majority if these deals are in the emerging markets such as Latin America, West Asia and South East Asia.
While some contracts may be finalised at $30 million at the lower end, the bigger ones can go as high as $200 million," according to N G Subramaniam, President, TCS Financial Solutions.
The division, which has a topline of $170 million(around Rs 690 crore), currently employs around 2200 consultants and is expected to add another 500 by the end of the financial year.
TCS is stepping on the gas to take its financial products business forwad.
Its financial arm, TCS Financial Solutions- which will be branded as TCS Bancs- is currently bidding for at least 150 deals, which are in various stages of being awarded within the next 18 months.
"A majority if these deals are in the emerging markets such as Latin America, West Asia and South East Asia.
While some contracts may be finalised at $30 million at the lower end, the bigger ones can go as high as $200 million," according to N G Subramaniam, President, TCS Financial Solutions.
The division, which has a topline of $170 million(around Rs 690 crore), currently employs around 2200 consultants and is expected to add another 500 by the end of the financial year.
TCS deises ways to face Re rise
source: Business Standard
tata Consultancy Services (TCS) had adopted a multi-pronged appraoch to deal with the impact of an appreciating rupee on its profitability, CEO and Managing Director S Ramadorai indicated today.
He said the company could demand "certain price" through value creation, especially from new customers. TCS had hedged to the extent of $2.5 billion, Ramadorai said at a press conference, adding that it had also focused on improving productivity.
"The whole idea is to spread presence across multiple geographies, of which India is a critical part," he said.
TCS, the country's biggest software exporter, has seen margins erode as the Indian currency has risen 9 percent against the dollar since january this year.
The US is the biggest market for Indian IT companies.
tata Consultancy Services (TCS) had adopted a multi-pronged appraoch to deal with the impact of an appreciating rupee on its profitability, CEO and Managing Director S Ramadorai indicated today.
He said the company could demand "certain price" through value creation, especially from new customers. TCS had hedged to the extent of $2.5 billion, Ramadorai said at a press conference, adding that it had also focused on improving productivity.
"The whole idea is to spread presence across multiple geographies, of which India is a critical part," he said.
TCS, the country's biggest software exporter, has seen margins erode as the Indian currency has risen 9 percent against the dollar since january this year.
The US is the biggest market for Indian IT companies.
All the World's on video
Source: Business Standard
The number of Indians visiting video portals is rising, but not fast enough for the promoters.
Among other things, 2007 will be remembered as the year when video sharing sites debuted-and disappeared. Close to 20 such sites apeeared on the horizon in 2006-2007 and today, as many as eight of these are down or off-the-web.
But even as video sharing sites like suckoobai.com, iTube.com, Toad, Wisdomindia.tv, and others are down, new ones like 26thjanuary.com have surfaced, looking to strike gold.
Ujjawal Bhrdwaj launched 26thjanuary.com around 20 days ago and claims to already have 7000 registered users and more than 1.5 million hits on it. So how does he intend to survive in the market?
"We have structured our revenue model on advertising from Google(that is, money earned from Google Adwords) and companies who want an online campaign." The main difference between 26thjanuary.com and other sites, he asserts, is that caters to Indians around the world with content in most Indian languages.
Bhardwaj, who runs five more websites like IndianJobsonline.com, MarriageExpress.com and so on, is anything but a novice. "We have not introduced any content-share partenerships in India yet but we are looking to share revenue [with content partners] on a 70:30 basis."
"If one can get appealing content, then there is a lot of advertisement money lying around. Till then it is fight to survive," says Sandeep Shrivastave of Yahoo India.
Stymied by the low numbers of Indian internet users, especially broadband connections(just3 million out of 25 million active internet users), video sharing sites can only hope things will get better next year.
Typically, Google, Yahoo, Rediff, MSN are the big-wigs of the video content industry, besides start-ups like VideoChutney, Meravideo, ApnaTube, Infeedia, VideoCurry, AapkaVideo, and Canaravideo.
These measure individual page views for each item submitted- be it a photo, video or animation. "From that number, the site calculates the percentage of hits it accounted for, sustracting the site's expense to host the video(usually about 20 percent). The number remaining is the profit, split between the site and content creator," explains rajneesh, digital marketing head, MSN India.
The problem with most Indian video-sharing sites is that they have a place to post TVCs, borrowed content like funny animals or bollywood song clippings. A few like Layfile.com, Chatpatevideo or Youclipit.net have scaled the popularity charts owing to their adult content.
Points out Rajnish," MSN soapbox is hoping to shape up as a place to do full length sitcoms or interviews in India."
MSN, like Google's YouTube, also seels keywords to marketers so that when a user searches for a particular word, say "India" or "Shilpa Shetty", the video results that come up can be used as viral marketing plugs. A marketer bids for relevant keywords, with bids averaging between $5-$25.
manish Agarwal, vice-president marketing, Rediff India, highlights how it hopes to make money. "Once a video is uploaded on iShare(Rediff's video portal), advertisers can chose where their ads will appear with a video[pre-roll, post-roll, banners]."
Online video campaigns for brands are also on the cards. Rediff also introduced "voice of Rediff," based on Zee's SaReGaMa Challenge 2007, where aspiring singers can upload videos and audio files on iShare to qualify for the show.
says Agarwal,"We are not making money from this tie-up, but we intend to do similar marketing tie-ups, co-branded video promotions, to create a steady revenue stream for the site."
New entrants like 26thjanuary.com remains optimistic too. Bhardwaj, who's made only $200 from the site until now, loves to cite the example of YouTube, which too wasn't making much money three years ago," but once the company had a big user base, it sold the business to google for a whopping $1.6 billion."
Cheered by ComScore's latest report, which says that 52 percent of online Indians visit entertainment websites and a same number also visit social-networking web sites, Indian video portals are hoping to make it big, some day.
The number of Indians visiting video portals is rising, but not fast enough for the promoters.
Among other things, 2007 will be remembered as the year when video sharing sites debuted-and disappeared. Close to 20 such sites apeeared on the horizon in 2006-2007 and today, as many as eight of these are down or off-the-web.
But even as video sharing sites like suckoobai.com, iTube.com, Toad, Wisdomindia.tv, and others are down, new ones like 26thjanuary.com have surfaced, looking to strike gold.
Ujjawal Bhrdwaj launched 26thjanuary.com around 20 days ago and claims to already have 7000 registered users and more than 1.5 million hits on it. So how does he intend to survive in the market?
"We have structured our revenue model on advertising from Google(that is, money earned from Google Adwords) and companies who want an online campaign." The main difference between 26thjanuary.com and other sites, he asserts, is that caters to Indians around the world with content in most Indian languages.
Bhardwaj, who runs five more websites like IndianJobsonline.com, MarriageExpress.com and so on, is anything but a novice. "We have not introduced any content-share partenerships in India yet but we are looking to share revenue [with content partners] on a 70:30 basis."
"If one can get appealing content, then there is a lot of advertisement money lying around. Till then it is fight to survive," says Sandeep Shrivastave of Yahoo India.
Stymied by the low numbers of Indian internet users, especially broadband connections(just3 million out of 25 million active internet users), video sharing sites can only hope things will get better next year.
Typically, Google, Yahoo, Rediff, MSN are the big-wigs of the video content industry, besides start-ups like VideoChutney, Meravideo, ApnaTube, Infeedia, VideoCurry, AapkaVideo, and Canaravideo.
These measure individual page views for each item submitted- be it a photo, video or animation. "From that number, the site calculates the percentage of hits it accounted for, sustracting the site's expense to host the video(usually about 20 percent). The number remaining is the profit, split between the site and content creator," explains rajneesh, digital marketing head, MSN India.
The problem with most Indian video-sharing sites is that they have a place to post TVCs, borrowed content like funny animals or bollywood song clippings. A few like Layfile.com, Chatpatevideo or Youclipit.net have scaled the popularity charts owing to their adult content.
Points out Rajnish," MSN soapbox is hoping to shape up as a place to do full length sitcoms or interviews in India."
MSN, like Google's YouTube, also seels keywords to marketers so that when a user searches for a particular word, say "India" or "Shilpa Shetty", the video results that come up can be used as viral marketing plugs. A marketer bids for relevant keywords, with bids averaging between $5-$25.
manish Agarwal, vice-president marketing, Rediff India, highlights how it hopes to make money. "Once a video is uploaded on iShare(Rediff's video portal), advertisers can chose where their ads will appear with a video[pre-roll, post-roll, banners]."
Online video campaigns for brands are also on the cards. Rediff also introduced "voice of Rediff," based on Zee's SaReGaMa Challenge 2007, where aspiring singers can upload videos and audio files on iShare to qualify for the show.
says Agarwal,"We are not making money from this tie-up, but we intend to do similar marketing tie-ups, co-branded video promotions, to create a steady revenue stream for the site."
New entrants like 26thjanuary.com remains optimistic too. Bhardwaj, who's made only $200 from the site until now, loves to cite the example of YouTube, which too wasn't making much money three years ago," but once the company had a big user base, it sold the business to google for a whopping $1.6 billion."
Cheered by ComScore's latest report, which says that 52 percent of online Indians visit entertainment websites and a same number also visit social-networking web sites, Indian video portals are hoping to make it big, some day.
Chip Design Automation-The Next Big Thing
Source: Business Standard
The Indian product market, worth $110 million in 2004, is expected to be worth $1 billion by 2015.
The chip automated our lives with electronic gizmos. Chip designing has been a good business proposition for indian technology firms. Now, we are moving towards the next step, designing tools that automate the chip designing process itself.
With electronic equipment consumption growing in India, electronic design automation(EDA), which supply software tools to design chips for consumer appliances such as mobile phones, TV, personal digital assistant(PDA) and music players, are witnessing rapid growth.
The growth is expected to accelerate with more players entering the fray in coming years as electronic consumption goes up significantly.
At present, there are seven EDA companies, both multinational and Indian, operating in the country. Cadence, Mentor Graphics, Magma, Synopsys, Circuit Sutra, Sequence Design and Softjin are all reporting growth. The India Semiconductor Association expects more domestic players to start providing EDA tools to chip designers.
EDA companies are the starting blocks for designing ver large scale integration (VLSI) chips, the boards on which chips are mounted and the hardware itself.
The Indian EDA industry consists of EDA product companies as well as EDA service companies catering to the needs of the former.
"We are witnessing the entry of more MNCs to serve their clients in India. Also, there are start-ups entering the EDA space. Companies are tying up with educational institutes for research into EDA tools. The Indian EDA product market which which was worth $110 million in 2004 is expected to be around $1 billion by 2015,"ISA president Poornima Shenoy said.
According to the ISA/Frost &Sullivan report, Indian electronics production which was worth $10.99 billion in 2005 is expected to reach $58 billion by 2010 with a compounded annual growth(CAGR) rate of 26.4 percent. India is witnessing huge growth in the chip design segment to cater to the domestic and MNC electronic equipment manufacturers.
According to another recent estimate by Gartner, the total electronic equipment production in India will reach $32 billion in 2011, compared to $14 billion in 2006, (CAGR) of 18 percent.
"A majority of the chip design activity is happening around the cutting edge of technology, namely at 90nm(nanometer), 65nm and even 45 nm nodes. These kinds of designs are usually for high-end applications. The need for sophisticated EDA tools is paramount in ensuring design closure. hence technology introduction by design companies in India is a major growth driver for the EDA industry," noted Pradeep K Dutta, Prsident and Managing Director, Synopsys India.
According to him, the second growth driver is the emergence of products for the local market.
"What works here is the volume. The latest trend in EDA tools is around improving yield, enabling low power design(to enable longer battery life and improved performance of consumer appliance) and verification, reducing test costs and finding functional bugs early in the design cycle," he added.
Dutta foresees good growth for EDA companies in India. "In today's complex designs, lack of access to sophisticated EDA tools would be considered a show stopper and hence for EDA companies getting traction is not an issue. The key factors would be who can provide the best integrated suite of tools, after sales support and the local engineering muscle to front-end customer's problems tomorrow," he said.
Sathya Prasad, director, strategic planning, cadence India, noted that design rules are changing as the demand for electronic equipment grows. If any consumer product has to perform eficiently, the error has to be lowered.
The Indian product market, worth $110 million in 2004, is expected to be worth $1 billion by 2015.
The chip automated our lives with electronic gizmos. Chip designing has been a good business proposition for indian technology firms. Now, we are moving towards the next step, designing tools that automate the chip designing process itself.
With electronic equipment consumption growing in India, electronic design automation(EDA), which supply software tools to design chips for consumer appliances such as mobile phones, TV, personal digital assistant(PDA) and music players, are witnessing rapid growth.
The growth is expected to accelerate with more players entering the fray in coming years as electronic consumption goes up significantly.
At present, there are seven EDA companies, both multinational and Indian, operating in the country. Cadence, Mentor Graphics, Magma, Synopsys, Circuit Sutra, Sequence Design and Softjin are all reporting growth. The India Semiconductor Association expects more domestic players to start providing EDA tools to chip designers.
EDA companies are the starting blocks for designing ver large scale integration (VLSI) chips, the boards on which chips are mounted and the hardware itself.
The Indian EDA industry consists of EDA product companies as well as EDA service companies catering to the needs of the former.
"We are witnessing the entry of more MNCs to serve their clients in India. Also, there are start-ups entering the EDA space. Companies are tying up with educational institutes for research into EDA tools. The Indian EDA product market which which was worth $110 million in 2004 is expected to be around $1 billion by 2015,"ISA president Poornima Shenoy said.
According to the ISA/Frost &Sullivan report, Indian electronics production which was worth $10.99 billion in 2005 is expected to reach $58 billion by 2010 with a compounded annual growth(CAGR) rate of 26.4 percent. India is witnessing huge growth in the chip design segment to cater to the domestic and MNC electronic equipment manufacturers.
According to another recent estimate by Gartner, the total electronic equipment production in India will reach $32 billion in 2011, compared to $14 billion in 2006, (CAGR) of 18 percent.
"A majority of the chip design activity is happening around the cutting edge of technology, namely at 90nm(nanometer), 65nm and even 45 nm nodes. These kinds of designs are usually for high-end applications. The need for sophisticated EDA tools is paramount in ensuring design closure. hence technology introduction by design companies in India is a major growth driver for the EDA industry," noted Pradeep K Dutta, Prsident and Managing Director, Synopsys India.
According to him, the second growth driver is the emergence of products for the local market.
"What works here is the volume. The latest trend in EDA tools is around improving yield, enabling low power design(to enable longer battery life and improved performance of consumer appliance) and verification, reducing test costs and finding functional bugs early in the design cycle," he added.
Dutta foresees good growth for EDA companies in India. "In today's complex designs, lack of access to sophisticated EDA tools would be considered a show stopper and hence for EDA companies getting traction is not an issue. The key factors would be who can provide the best integrated suite of tools, after sales support and the local engineering muscle to front-end customer's problems tomorrow," he said.
Sathya Prasad, director, strategic planning, cadence India, noted that design rules are changing as the demand for electronic equipment grows. If any consumer product has to perform eficiently, the error has to be lowered.
Friday, August 3, 2007
IBM Mulls Interface between Second Life & Real World
Source: Economictimes.com
Controlling an electrical device using a switch in the virtual world of internet would no more be distant dream, with IBM India planning to develop an "interface" to suit such applications.
Objects like a webcam could be connected to a virtual monitor or a real electric appliance to a virtual switch, according to a project conceived during an internship program for students of top-notch technical and business schools at IBM India Software Lab.
The project enhances the possibilities of the three-dimensional online virtual world-Second Life- developed by San Fransisco based Linden Lab and opened for the public in 2003.
Over the years, the popularity of Second Life has grown explosively among internet users with over 8 million 'residents' across the globe.
In Second Life, internet users can interact with each other and can buy and sell services through their 'avataars.'
"As per the new project, the interface will allow users in the virtual world to experience objects in the real world through a new and exciting Rich Immersive Environment," Benjamin Chodroff of Case Western Reserve University in the US, who came up with the idea during the recently held internship program, told PTI.
The new idea has many applications and will enhance both the virtual world and real world with rich connectivity and on-demand access from any part of the globe, he added.
Chodroff, one among the 30 students from various technical and business schools who attended the 12-week program,'Extreme Blue,' hopes to find his project developed and marketed with the help of IBM.
According to Amol Mahamuni, Program Director, IBM India Software Lab, Extreme Blue Team Members, during their 12-week internship, develop innovative projects along with marketing plan for an emerging business opportunity in areas that include business on demand, grid computing, pervasive computing and Linux.
The program also brought forth some new innovative projects like "Dynamic Power Management" which would help plan the quantum of power to be used by data centers, thereby preventing wastage of energy.
Another project-an automatic planning tool for distributed and overlapping projects- was well received by IBM executives, mentors,sponsors and peers during an expo held as part of the program, said Mohit Gupta of NIIT,Warangal, who along with Anupama Mridul of IIT, Roorkee, developed the project.
"The internship intends to cultivate innovative thinking among the talented students and encourages them to come up with the out-of-the-box ideas to meet emerging business needs while assessing the market feasibilities," said Mahamuni.
Controlling an electrical device using a switch in the virtual world of internet would no more be distant dream, with IBM India planning to develop an "interface" to suit such applications.
Objects like a webcam could be connected to a virtual monitor or a real electric appliance to a virtual switch, according to a project conceived during an internship program for students of top-notch technical and business schools at IBM India Software Lab.
The project enhances the possibilities of the three-dimensional online virtual world-Second Life- developed by San Fransisco based Linden Lab and opened for the public in 2003.
Over the years, the popularity of Second Life has grown explosively among internet users with over 8 million 'residents' across the globe.
In Second Life, internet users can interact with each other and can buy and sell services through their 'avataars.'
"As per the new project, the interface will allow users in the virtual world to experience objects in the real world through a new and exciting Rich Immersive Environment," Benjamin Chodroff of Case Western Reserve University in the US, who came up with the idea during the recently held internship program, told PTI.
The new idea has many applications and will enhance both the virtual world and real world with rich connectivity and on-demand access from any part of the globe, he added.
Chodroff, one among the 30 students from various technical and business schools who attended the 12-week program,'Extreme Blue,' hopes to find his project developed and marketed with the help of IBM.
According to Amol Mahamuni, Program Director, IBM India Software Lab, Extreme Blue Team Members, during their 12-week internship, develop innovative projects along with marketing plan for an emerging business opportunity in areas that include business on demand, grid computing, pervasive computing and Linux.
The program also brought forth some new innovative projects like "Dynamic Power Management" which would help plan the quantum of power to be used by data centers, thereby preventing wastage of energy.
Another project-an automatic planning tool for distributed and overlapping projects- was well received by IBM executives, mentors,sponsors and peers during an expo held as part of the program, said Mohit Gupta of NIIT,Warangal, who along with Anupama Mridul of IIT, Roorkee, developed the project.
"The internship intends to cultivate innovative thinking among the talented students and encourages them to come up with the out-of-the-box ideas to meet emerging business needs while assessing the market feasibilities," said Mahamuni.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Mid-Size IT Companies Struggle To Maintain Growth, Margins
Source: EconomicTimes.com
Indian mid-size software companies, hit by the double whammy of a rising rupee and wage inflation are scrambling to form strategies to sustain growth and margins.
Higher prices from customers, better utilisation, increased onsite revenues and lower wage hikes are the countermeasures being adopted.
Tech-Mahindra Ltd. vice chairman and managing director Vineet Nayyar summed it up nicely. "We did manage to produce results which still outperform the market but going forward our margins would be under huge pressure."
It reported a better performance with a 59% profit growth in the June quarter. Hexaware Technologies, which has been consistently growing at more than 35% over the last four quarters, saw its net profit actually dip.
Executive chairman Atul Nishar said the management had decided not to issue guidance for the current quarter. "We will wait for the rupee to stabilise."
The tech sector has seen wages rising 15-18 percent annually, but companies are rethinking the quantum of hikes for next year.
"There should be other ways of incentivising employees rather than just pay hikes," said CP Gurnani, head of international operations, Tech Mahindra.
Global brokerage house Credit Suisse in a snap-shot of 14 mid-size firms,said "even excluding the rupee impact," salary hikes in some companies should bring down near-term margins.
Indian mid-size software companies, hit by the double whammy of a rising rupee and wage inflation are scrambling to form strategies to sustain growth and margins.
Higher prices from customers, better utilisation, increased onsite revenues and lower wage hikes are the countermeasures being adopted.
Tech-Mahindra Ltd. vice chairman and managing director Vineet Nayyar summed it up nicely. "We did manage to produce results which still outperform the market but going forward our margins would be under huge pressure."
It reported a better performance with a 59% profit growth in the June quarter. Hexaware Technologies, which has been consistently growing at more than 35% over the last four quarters, saw its net profit actually dip.
Executive chairman Atul Nishar said the management had decided not to issue guidance for the current quarter. "We will wait for the rupee to stabilise."
The tech sector has seen wages rising 15-18 percent annually, but companies are rethinking the quantum of hikes for next year.
"There should be other ways of incentivising employees rather than just pay hikes," said CP Gurnani, head of international operations, Tech Mahindra.
Global brokerage house Credit Suisse in a snap-shot of 14 mid-size firms,said "even excluding the rupee impact," salary hikes in some companies should bring down near-term margins.
HP to consolidate in digital printing
Source: EconomicTimes.com
Hewlett-Packard is in the process of consolidating its position in digital printing in the Indian market. HP Indigo, the line of digital offset colour printing systems aquired by the company in 2002, has seen close to a 200% jump in sales in India during last year.
Nagesh Karuturi, country category manager for Indigo, imaging and printing division(IPG)-HP India, said there have been 30 installations so far compared with 10 in 2006, and is equally distributed between the commercial and the industrial segments.
Delhi has the highest concentration of users, followed by Bangalore and Mumbai, he said. Indigo has had a presence of close to two years in India. VS Hariharan, vice-president of the graphic arts business, IPG-HP Asia Pacific and Japan, said the graphic arts business has grown at over 40% in the Asia Pacific and Japan and impressions have grown by over 60%. "India is also seeing comparable growth," he added.
He said India was one of the important markets along with China and Japan. Japan has seen a degrowth in digital printing and its marketshare has declined from 17% in 2001 to around 14% in 2006, witnessing a CAGR of around 0.9%. HP is looking at upgrading its digital press demo center in Chennai.
The center is one of the top five in the world and was set up at an investment cost of apprx. Rs 3.5 crore. Mr. Hariharan indicated that HP was working closely with its partner in Chennai-Redington- and is funneling all training requirements to increase the customer base in India. The company is investing in upgradation in a phased manner. "We are also increasing our sales force," he said.
The Indigo line of printing systems offers features such as variable data printing and production of printing products on a wider range of substrates. In the January-March quarter of 2007, HP had increased its marketshare in digital printing in the Asia-Pacific by 22% in a market that grew by 31% y-o-y.
Hewlett-Packard is in the process of consolidating its position in digital printing in the Indian market. HP Indigo, the line of digital offset colour printing systems aquired by the company in 2002, has seen close to a 200% jump in sales in India during last year.
Nagesh Karuturi, country category manager for Indigo, imaging and printing division(IPG)-HP India, said there have been 30 installations so far compared with 10 in 2006, and is equally distributed between the commercial and the industrial segments.
Delhi has the highest concentration of users, followed by Bangalore and Mumbai, he said. Indigo has had a presence of close to two years in India. VS Hariharan, vice-president of the graphic arts business, IPG-HP Asia Pacific and Japan, said the graphic arts business has grown at over 40% in the Asia Pacific and Japan and impressions have grown by over 60%. "India is also seeing comparable growth," he added.
He said India was one of the important markets along with China and Japan. Japan has seen a degrowth in digital printing and its marketshare has declined from 17% in 2001 to around 14% in 2006, witnessing a CAGR of around 0.9%. HP is looking at upgrading its digital press demo center in Chennai.
The center is one of the top five in the world and was set up at an investment cost of apprx. Rs 3.5 crore. Mr. Hariharan indicated that HP was working closely with its partner in Chennai-Redington- and is funneling all training requirements to increase the customer base in India. The company is investing in upgradation in a phased manner. "We are also increasing our sales force," he said.
The Indigo line of printing systems offers features such as variable data printing and production of printing products on a wider range of substrates. In the January-March quarter of 2007, HP had increased its marketshare in digital printing in the Asia-Pacific by 22% in a market that grew by 31% y-o-y.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
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