Solutions for Solutions Providers
Indian
software exporters have mostly been selling run-of-the-mill
programming services to user enterprises. Their performance in the
software products business can only be called lacklustre. And they’ve
yet to prove their mettle in the current market, which is focusing on
mass market needs using web delivery channels. With this record,
they’re trying to get their acts together to face new challenges in
the modern tech world. Will they succeed? Ganesh Natarajan,
chairman,
NASSCOM (a software industry association in India) suggests
steps in a mail interview with
Rakesh
Raman
of My Techbox Online.
As
technology needs are shifting from tight corporate niches to mass
markets, how Indian software exporters are positioned to survive and
grow in the changing marketplace?
Services firms today
have an opportunity to build wider and deeper relationships with loyal
clients, challenging the assumptions on what work can be done in near
shore and offshore locations to optimize their businesses and
identifying new areas to partner to meet the customer’s need to
preserve profits in difficult times.
Product and IP creating firms can identify niches that emerge through the
periods of instability. Education and training firms can address the
task of reskilling both the existing workforce and job seekers to make
them more suitable for the new challenges.
Though local players have been trying to focus on software products
for the past couple of decades, success has eluded them. Now once
again NASSCOM is trying to encourage products business. What kind of
impetus are you going to provide this time?
The
Innovation movement in India IT started four years ago when NASSCOM
launched its Innovation forum. The initiative which started on a small
scale has become a full-fledged movement called the NASSCOM Product
Forum that has seen many companies – multinationals, large and medium
Indian firms with global aspirations, emerging product and services
companies and even progressive IT departments of large user
organizations coming together and even vying for recognition.
The
NASSCOM Product Forum has identified the need to guide entrepreneurs
and product companies, which have business ideas in the software
product space and are striving to get those ideas off the ground. The
aim of this initiative would be to contribute toward creating a
software product ecosystem in India. The Forum is also aiming at
providing an impetus for the ecosystem through events, delegations,
inspirational speakers for the product entrepreneurial community;
hands-on workshops on specific product business issues like marketing,
branding, investments, Intellectual Property creation and protection,
among existing and aspiring software entrepreneurs.
Do
you agree that today it’s not only important to produce products but
you have to be good in adopting contemporary distribution models to
sell them, say, as a service? Are Indian players competent enough to
succeed in the new business environment driven by online networks?
Contemporary distribution models are the key to the success of any
business, every business has to explore the online medium to sustain
and grow in the tough business environments that exist today. Online media is today replacing advertising with more subtle
opportunities to participate in value adding activities and games.
Indian companies are today fast catching up and are setting up
interesting properties in the Second Life and are seizing the
opportunity to engage with their audience in their leisure time hoping
to translate that into real commercial transactions when the same
brand is encountered in real life.
Indian companies have mostly been selling run-of-the-mill software
services in the export markets. Now, can they move up the value chain
to meet the existing mass market needs such as mobile applications,
gaming software, and so on?
Indian companies are moving up the innovation ecosystem and are
realizing their potential.
The
innovation movement in the country has got into a scorching pace with
its initial focus on small companies resulting into business benefits
as well as growth. This is now moving into the next phase with larger
organizations realizing the potential of this untapped market and
moving onto innovative areas such as
mobile applications, gaming software. The Indian animation and
gaming
industry is forecast to reach USD 869 mn by 2010 representing a CAGR
of 25.2% over 2006-2010, showcasing our growth potential in the new
segments.
Do
you think that the software exporters' dependence on the traditional
U.S. market will continue even with the new regime in that country?
Ganesh did not answer this question.
My Techbox Online
has sent a couple of reminders. His response is awaited.
Now, Ganesh has
sent the response to this question also. It is:
U.S. is still the most significant market and will continue to be so
in the foreseeable future. While the industry explores new geographies
like Japan, Europe, and Latin America, we should also look at
non-traditional segments like Utilities, Media and Entertainment, and
Healthcare in the U.S. and U.K.
Dr.
Ganesh Natarajan is chairman, NASSCOM and vice chairman and MD, Zensar
Technologies Ltd
NASSCOM
is a trade body with over 1,200 members, of which over 250 are global
companies from the US, UK, EU, Japan, and China. NASSCOM's member
companies are in the business of software development, software
services, software products, IT-enabled/BPO services and e-commerce.
