Offer Business as Service: IDC

BANGALORE: While newer business models such as Application Service provider

(ASP), Software as a Service (SaaS) and



Service oriented Architecture (SoA) gaining ground, what could be more

relevant to enterprises is business as a service, according to IT research

agency,

International Data Corporation (IDC)

Delivering the keynote address at Directions,



IDC's annual event, Frank Gens, c, said that “IT inside” would become a

mantra in a few years to come.






“A lot of service providers are using IT to improve their processes and would
soon offer business processes and business operations as a service.”






He cited examples of companies like DHL, HP, IBM and Infosys, which are
integrating IT services hidden in their BPO operations.






He highlighted some of the disruptions that could change the face of enterprise
IT. One of the significant changes that would happen is the growing importance

of the SMB segment which is moving from an unsophisticated segment to a new

lucrative market opportunity.






Referring to Chris Anderson's book, “The Long Tail” which alludes to the
potential of the SMB segment, he said that companies would look at mining this

segment.






“The top 20 per cent of the overall market drives the highest sales for IT
vendors. They have not been able to nurture many of the small niche markets

which are low usage consumers.”






However, he said that companies like Google, Yahoo,
Amazon,

salesforce.com and eBay were leveraging on the Internet to provide services to

the “Long-tail” market.






“The challenge for the established players is come up with technologies for the
market instead of letting the new players disrupt the market,” said Gens.






Gens pointed out two “scary” scenarios in the way CIOs and CEOs view IT
deployment. “Most CEOs and CFOs felt that IT should be used aggressively to

improve business efficiency. But around 50 per cent of the CIOs felt that they

need to go slow with IT deployments.”






Elaborating this fact, he pointed out that while expectations are high for CEOS,
CIOs were worried about the delivery of these expectations.






The other concerning factor is that while 75 per cent of CIOs felt that Service
Oriented Architecture (SoA) is important, less than 10 per cent have adopted it.






He said that enterprises are moving from a silo based infrastructure approach to
dynamic IT and consolidation. “Enterprises are untangling the mess caused by

silos in infrastructure, information and applications. What is happening at each

layer are consolidation, rationalization, virtualization and automation.”






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