Advertisment

‘Domain knowledge, business skills 2 problems of Indian SW cos’

author-image
CIOL Bureau
New Update

BANGALORE: Domain knowledge of the industry for which the solution is

intended and international business interaction skills are the two major areas

of concern for the US customers viz-a-viz Indian software development companies.

These were the result of a preliminary report of a study jointly conducted by

STPI and Stanford University, on the impact of the IT slowdown on the Indian IT

industry. In fact, it was the first study to be conducted post September 11 US

crisis.

Advertisment

Stanford University's Professor Ram Akella informed that the Indian industry

should adopt to move up the value chain and realize its potential of increasing

the growth rate to 200 per cent. He listed 4 major steps that can be taken

immediately: Indian industry and individual organizations should work more

closely with the universities, hire more domain experts with international

experience, substantially enhance their marketing efforts and a start for this

can be made by setting up an incubator in the US which could then provide

marketing support to SMEs who cannot afford to set up independent offices. He

also recommended to set up a specialized chamber that provides vetting,

identification and skill matching services to overseas organizations that are

looking for outsourcing partners.






IDC India managing director Pradeep Gupta, highlighted the subsequent growth
potential that the previous recession had. His recommendation for the Indian IT

industry is: Help the clients in the here-and now format, stay close to the

customers and understand their needs better, and plan to invest during the

rebound. With the help of IDC analysis, Gupta forecasts the application

development tool area to take a dip, while security changing the software mix.

He also predicts that the spending will vary widely for segments and there will

be a steady growth in communication infrastructure.

These were some of the results of the panel presentation and discussion

during the Bangalore TiEcon 2001 as part of the BangaloreIT.COM event.

S N Zindal, director general of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI),

called for a partnership for mutual benefit, between people of Indian origin in

the US and the Indian IT industry, to emulate the strategy adopted by the

south-east Asian countries during the recession of the mid 80s. At that time,

taking advantage of the cost reduction needs of the recession hit US industry;

they had managed to shift a lot of manufacturing business to countries like

Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia and China. This resulted in an economic boom in this

region. Similarly, now all companies are feeling the need to reduce costs and

increase productivity through better utilization of the IT investments.

"This opens a vast opportunity for India to increase its share in worldwide

technology market from the current level of 2 per cent ," he commented.






Nandan M Nilekani, president of Bangalore TiE commented that the current
economic climate was ideal for starting new ventures. The sentiment was also

echoed at the CEO Conclave held last night. Three major positive factors are

conducive to new entrepreneurial ventures: VCs are no longer inundated by

on-the-fly dotcoms, have more time and resources for serious business ventures;

talent: both technical and managerial are available at affordable cost; and

customers: who have more time to spend with their service providers sharing

their concerns and areas of pain, which enables the new ventures to focus on an

actual business need.

tech-news