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Social business is growing in India: Himanshu Goyal

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The rise of social media has paved way for more opportunities to drive business transformation. In that perspective, India is a big market for social business. Himanshu Goyal, country manager, Social Business Evangelism and Sales, IBM, spoke to Ibrahim Ahmad on the challenges of social business and the India scenario.

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Excerpts 

Ibrahim: Can you name a few prominent organizations that have embarked on this journey in India?

HG: One good example is the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) which has been using our social business solutions to improve operational efficiency, achieve compliance with government regulations and simplify program content updates and management processes, and has been able to reduce cost and time involved in maintaining and updating the websites. GNCTD has about 130 departments, including the Department of IT(DoIT), having their own websites hosted either by the National Informatics Center or a third-party vendor. As a result, the DoIT experienced challenges in content consistency when updating or maintaining the sites, leading to legal and compliance risk issues. In light of these concerns, DoIT sought a centralized web content management solution to link each department's website to a single location, which would help simplify the updates process and maintain regulatory compliance.

Another interesting example is of the Shriram Transport Finance Company, India's largest commercial vehicle financing company, moved to the IBM collaboration Cloud to improve communication with its field sales force. With 488 office and services centers and more than 16,000 employees and growing, they needed an email solution that could accommodate rapid growth and perform with speed and consistency. The company chose IBM LotusLive iNotes to provide all of its field sales reps with reliable, cost-effective and easy-to-use Cloud email, which can be accessed on the road, at their desk and from their mobile devices. Some others on social include Asian Paints, Paragon Footwear, Dr. Reddy's Lab and Minilec Industries.

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Ibrahim: What kind of companies in India do you see as early adopters of social media for business?

HG: India is seeing a good response in terms of social media adoption in business. The rise of social media has prompted business leaders to find out ways to create opportunities that drive business transformation through the use of social media and create a tangible business value. It has instilled curiosity in both large and small enterprises to find out new business opportunities. In India, sectors such as IT and ITeS, BFSI and manufacturing were the early adopters of Social media for business purposes. Apart from these, travel and transport, PSUs, government and educational institutions too were not behind when it came to embracing Social.

Ibrahim: How large according to you is the market for this in India?

HG: The Indian market for Social Business is growing at considerable pace. The McKinsey Global Institute recently published a report stating that the market size of Social Business will grow upto $4.5 billion worldwide, by 2016. According to the report, the ‘annual value that could be unlocked by social technologies', was estimated to be $1.3 trillion. So we can say that India is a huge market for Social business deployments.

Ibrahim: What is the kind of investment required for a mid-sized organization of about 2000-3,000 people, and what is the kind of time-frame when we start seeing benefits?

HG: Typical investments on Social for a mid-size organization varies according to specific business requirements and objectives. It depends on the kind of environment they want to set up and the licensing price accordingly. One can expect benefits starting from the third month of implementation. In some cases it can take up to one year.

Ibrahim: How do you see mobility and BYOD affecting customers and what is the TCO story?

HG: Mobile collaboration means taking your desktop with you. This solution extends messaging, communication and collaboration for use on mobile and wireless laptops and handheld devices. With mobile collaboration software you can be productive wherever you are. Our solution lets users synchronize their e-mail, calendar and contacts. They connect and share while on the go using real-time communications software and social networking tools. And they provide security rich access to resources. IBM Connections is a globally recognized leader by IDC, with the most comprehensive support to the broadest set of mobile devices in the market today. For companies, the ease of technology expansion is a key aspect of realisable TCO.

Ibrahim Ahmad is Group Editor of CyberMedia

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