iON technologically empowers Indian SMBs

BANGALORE, INDIA:

Seven months since the launch of iON, the fully integrated information technology solution for small and medium businesses (SMBs), by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has gained wide acceptance in the market. "We have currently 237 customers and 51,032 users across 1609 locations in India," says Venguswamy Ramaswamy, global head- iON, TCS Small and Medium Business (SMB), at Cyber House, Gurgaon.

Taking cue from TATA Nano which caters to middle-class families, TCS decided to expand its customer base to SMBs. Following the idea, the team at TCS started working on developing iON, a SaaS model for SMEs to leverage technology solutions in a cost-effective manner, in 2007. iON is based on six key aspects–Pre-integrated, Layering capability, Easy to embed new business process, Ensuring compliance, Opex based and Cost efficiency.

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Keeping in mind the primary requirement of the target group, the cost efficient iON is built on the commercial model–pay-as-you-use, making it a viable option for businesses that have limited resources to spare. Additionally, a customer is allowed to select any ‘Fit-for-purpose’ solution, which again helps in bringing down his cost.The average pay out for working on iON could range anywhere between Rs 75,000 to 2,00,000 every month.

The model comprises seven levels. At the first level iON provides necessary on-premise hardware, in the next level it provides the needed network equipments and bandwidth to connect to the iON applications hosted in a data center. At the third, iON delivers all the office solutions relevant for SMBs, followed by addressing the solution needs at a business level and core industry vertical solution needs through a comprehensive ERP in the next three levels. In the last level, iON addresses niche vertical application requirements including detailed business analytics.

iON is now available on mobile through mTop, a mobile client to access iON. TCS has also released iON touch, DIY (Do It Yourself)–a 75+ self-service widget for quick actions and email interface for iON. iON can also be accessed on unified communication platforms for exchanges between users and systems.

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According to Ramaswamy, iON is believed to fill the implementation gap in cloud that neither Microsoft, which is an on-premise hybrid, or Google, a on-browser hybrid, or Apple, an on-device hybrid, could. He says, “Until now, cloud was a partial solution.”

Currently, iON is launched in India only, but depending on its performance, it can soon go global. Ramaswamy says, “We are in talk with a few international players. But it will be sometime before we roll out iON internationally.”

Source: www.dare.co.in