The World Bank on Wednesday said India leads all countries in exports of information communication technology (ICT) services.
In its latest report 'World Development Indicators 2009', World Bank said India's exports from the ICT sector increased from about $5 billion in 2000 to over $ 30 billion in 2006. This accounts for about 42 per cent of total service exports, it said.
At a time when there is a global recession and hundreds and thousands of people are being laid off, India's software industry employs about 1.6 million people, the report said.
China, though a distant second, is the next largest ICT services trader, with about $5.5 billion in ICT service exports, the report said.
The report said China and India were among the fastest-growing exporters. Export growth was led by manufactures in China and by services in India, it said.
Agencies
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Buy your software from a cloud to ease your budget
As small and medium businesses in India struggle to stay afloat during the global economic slowdown, they are opting for cheaper computing services, and a Boston-based entrepreneur is here to promote his solution, cloud computing, in which software is shared over a wide network of computers.
Sumeet Sabharwal, senior vice-president of outsourcing and IT hosting firm Navisite Inc, says cloud computing is a viable Internet model for small and medium businesses across India, especially in the technology hubs in and around the capital and in Bangalore.
"The demand for having a reliable hosted infrastructure has increased over the years in India as businesses are shifting to the Internet from off-line facilities. At the same time, users do not want to burden themselves with the cumbersome processes of installations and hardware specifics. They look for solutions that are flexible, to scale and automated from the deployment standpoint, to maximise profit and output," Sabharwal said.
He said cloud computing was "still in a nascent stage in India and users need to be educated. Demand will grow as medium and small business owners realise its financial upside. I think it is the technology of the future for a country like India".
"Cloud computing," explained Sabharwal, a Cornell University alumnus, "is a computer paradigm in which tasks are assigned to a combination of connections. It operates on three basic principles - computer, bandwidth and storage.
"It eliminates the manual tasks of shipping the software to the user and allows users direct access to the software from the net. This network of servers and connections is collectively known as 'the cloud', which is a kind of a platform."
Computing at the scale of the cloud, said Sabharwal, allowed users to access supercomputer-level power. "Using a thin client or other access points like an iPhone, BlackBerry or laptop, users can reach into the cloud for resources they need. For this reason, cloud computing has also been described as on-demand computing."
Cloud computing, where the "intelligent network acts as the supercomputer", is a way to increase network capacity or add capabilities without investing in new infrastructure, new personnel or licensing new software.
"It is a pay-per-use service and cuts business cost by at least 40 percent depending on how the businesses leverage it. At the same time, one can scale up or scale down on the network itself, going by the number of visits to a business site
and its growth," Sabharwal said.
"Clouds are of two types - the public cloud, where infrastructure can be shared horizontally depending on areas and geographies of growth - and large private clouds dedicated to big companies, mostly the independent software vendors
, retail firms and technology providers.
"Cloud Computing," said Sabharwal, "is also the most effective technology for hosted e-mails for medium-sized corporate firms."
Agencies
Sumeet Sabharwal, senior vice-president of outsourcing and IT hosting firm Navisite Inc, says cloud computing is a viable Internet model for small and medium businesses across India, especially in the technology hubs in and around the capital and in Bangalore.
"The demand for having a reliable hosted infrastructure has increased over the years in India as businesses are shifting to the Internet from off-line facilities. At the same time, users do not want to burden themselves with the cumbersome processes of installations and hardware specifics. They look for solutions that are flexible, to scale and automated from the deployment standpoint, to maximise profit and output," Sabharwal said.
He said cloud computing was "still in a nascent stage in India and users need to be educated. Demand will grow as medium and small business owners realise its financial upside. I think it is the technology of the future for a country like India".
"Cloud computing," explained Sabharwal, a Cornell University alumnus, "is a computer paradigm in which tasks are assigned to a combination of connections. It operates on three basic principles - computer, bandwidth and storage.
"It eliminates the manual tasks of shipping the software to the user and allows users direct access to the software from the net. This network of servers and connections is collectively known as 'the cloud', which is a kind of a platform."
Computing at the scale of the cloud, said Sabharwal, allowed users to access supercomputer-level power. "Using a thin client or other access points like an iPhone, BlackBerry or laptop, users can reach into the cloud for resources they need. For this reason, cloud computing has also been described as on-demand computing."
Cloud computing, where the "intelligent network acts as the supercomputer", is a way to increase network capacity or add capabilities without investing in new infrastructure, new personnel or licensing new software.
"It is a pay-per-use service and cuts business cost by at least 40 percent depending on how the businesses leverage it. At the same time, one can scale up or scale down on the network itself, going by the number of visits to a business site
and its growth," Sabharwal said.
"Clouds are of two types - the public cloud, where infrastructure can be shared horizontally depending on areas and geographies of growth - and large private clouds dedicated to big companies, mostly the independent software vendors
, retail firms and technology providers.
"Cloud Computing," said Sabharwal, "is also the most effective technology for hosted e-mails for medium-sized corporate firms."
Agencies
Wipro, HCL unlikely to make any campus offers this fiscal
To save on the cost of training, one of the leading domestic software exporter HCL Technologies said it will hire people 'just in time' of requirement rather than maintaining a bench.
HCL has been following the policy of just in time hiring, which has paid off well for the organisation, HCL Technologies CEO Vineet Nayyar said.
Declining to give a hiring outlook for the year ahead, Nayyar said the firm is unlikely to make campus offers.
"We have hardly made any campus offers... we have moved to the lateral strategy," he added.
Similarly, Suresh Senapaty, CFO of Wipro Ltd said the company will not hold any campus interviews this fiscal but will honour all the commitments made to 7000 fresh graduates last fiscal.
The overall global headcount of the company fell by 992, to 54,026, from December to March. However, the company clarified that it has not laid off any employee.
During the quarter the company has made a gross addition of 2,298 employees. In the BPO services segment, however, the headcount has came down to 11,426 from 12,750 in December.
Commenting on the BPO business, he said the company is trying to move away from voice-based services to platform-based services. So, it is unlikely that the company would make new recruitments for voice-based services.
Agencies
HCL has been following the policy of just in time hiring, which has paid off well for the organisation, HCL Technologies CEO Vineet Nayyar said.
Declining to give a hiring outlook for the year ahead, Nayyar said the firm is unlikely to make campus offers.
"We have hardly made any campus offers... we have moved to the lateral strategy," he added.
Similarly, Suresh Senapaty, CFO of Wipro Ltd said the company will not hold any campus interviews this fiscal but will honour all the commitments made to 7000 fresh graduates last fiscal.
The overall global headcount of the company fell by 992, to 54,026, from December to March. However, the company clarified that it has not laid off any employee.
During the quarter the company has made a gross addition of 2,298 employees. In the BPO services segment, however, the headcount has came down to 11,426 from 12,750 in December.
Commenting on the BPO business, he said the company is trying to move away from voice-based services to platform-based services. So, it is unlikely that the company would make new recruitments for voice-based services.
Agencies
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Is HP top PC maker in US?
Global shipments of personal computers fell 7.1 percent in the first three months of the year, but the decline was smaller than expected and research group IDC on Wednesday said the industry could turn around by the end of the year.
A second research group, Gartner Inc, calculated first-quarter PC shipments fell 6.5 percent from the same period in 2008. The two groups use different methods to track PC shipments.
IDC had predicted worldwide shipments would fall 8.2 percent in the quarter. The US market was also much stronger than IDC forecast, with PC shipments falling 3.1 percent from a year ago, compared with an expected 8.9 percent drop. By Gartner's count, US shipments dipped less than one percent.
"Based on the U..being the center of the financial crisis, and looking at trends of last recession, we were concerned that demand and growth would continue to decline," said Loren Loverde, an IDC program director.
Instead, the US PC market, which took a beating in the fourth quarter, benefited from intense price competition among PC makers as well as the growing demand for netbooks, or small, cheap, low-powered laptops.
Both groups reported that Hewlett-Packard Co used the trend to overtake Dell Inc as the top PC maker in the US HP's lower prices and more established brand among shoppers helped push its market share to 27.6 percent. Dell's share fell to 26.3 percent as it struggled to reorganize its consumer business, according to IDC.
Taiwan's Acer Inc, the No 3 PC maker in the US and a force in the netbook market, snagged 10.5 percent of the market. Apple Inc's share edged up to 7.6 percent, and Japan-based Toshiba Corp, the fifth-largest, took 6.6 percent.
Worldwide, HP's market share crept up to 20.5 percent while Dell's slipped a few points to 13.6 percent, IDC reported. HP's shipments rose 2.9 percent as Dell's plunged 16.7 percent.
No 3 Acer captured 11.6 percent of PC shipments worldwide. China's Lenovo Group's share was flat at 7 percent, and Toshiba's share edged up to 5.4 percent.
Chipmaker Intel Corp. on Tuesday said personal computer sales "bottomed out" in the first quarter. Neither IDC nor Gartner wanted to match Intel's bold assessment, but IDC took a more optimistic stance.
"I don't think Intel's comment was meant to say we're going to come roaring back next quarter," Loverde said. "It's likely we won't see growth deteriorate from here."
Before the release of Wednesday's numbers, IDC had forecast an 8.4 percent decline in the second quarter and a 4.5 percent drop in the third before seeing growth in the fourth quarter.
George Shiffler, research director at Gartner, said in a statement that retailers may be restocking inventory, but "this restocking should not be interpreted as a recovery in PC end-user demand. It's still unclear if the global PC market has hit the bottom."
Agencies
A second research group, Gartner Inc, calculated first-quarter PC shipments fell 6.5 percent from the same period in 2008. The two groups use different methods to track PC shipments.
IDC had predicted worldwide shipments would fall 8.2 percent in the quarter. The US market was also much stronger than IDC forecast, with PC shipments falling 3.1 percent from a year ago, compared with an expected 8.9 percent drop. By Gartner's count, US shipments dipped less than one percent.
"Based on the U..being the center of the financial crisis, and looking at trends of last recession, we were concerned that demand and growth would continue to decline," said Loren Loverde, an IDC program director.
Instead, the US PC market, which took a beating in the fourth quarter, benefited from intense price competition among PC makers as well as the growing demand for netbooks, or small, cheap, low-powered laptops.
Both groups reported that Hewlett-Packard Co used the trend to overtake Dell Inc as the top PC maker in the US HP's lower prices and more established brand among shoppers helped push its market share to 27.6 percent. Dell's share fell to 26.3 percent as it struggled to reorganize its consumer business, according to IDC.
Taiwan's Acer Inc, the No 3 PC maker in the US and a force in the netbook market, snagged 10.5 percent of the market. Apple Inc's share edged up to 7.6 percent, and Japan-based Toshiba Corp, the fifth-largest, took 6.6 percent.
Worldwide, HP's market share crept up to 20.5 percent while Dell's slipped a few points to 13.6 percent, IDC reported. HP's shipments rose 2.9 percent as Dell's plunged 16.7 percent.
No 3 Acer captured 11.6 percent of PC shipments worldwide. China's Lenovo Group's share was flat at 7 percent, and Toshiba's share edged up to 5.4 percent.
Chipmaker Intel Corp. on Tuesday said personal computer sales "bottomed out" in the first quarter. Neither IDC nor Gartner wanted to match Intel's bold assessment, but IDC took a more optimistic stance.
"I don't think Intel's comment was meant to say we're going to come roaring back next quarter," Loverde said. "It's likely we won't see growth deteriorate from here."
Before the release of Wednesday's numbers, IDC had forecast an 8.4 percent decline in the second quarter and a 4.5 percent drop in the third before seeing growth in the fourth quarter.
George Shiffler, research director at Gartner, said in a statement that retailers may be restocking inventory, but "this restocking should not be interpreted as a recovery in PC end-user demand. It's still unclear if the global PC market has hit the bottom."
Agencies
India's IT export target of $50 bn will be delayed, says NASSCOM
IT industry association NASSCOM said the export revenue target of 50 billion dollar by 2010 will be delayed by 3-4 quarters due to the global economic downturn, and warned of uncertainties in the near future.
The NASSCOM-McKinsey, however, presented an ambitious scenario for the Indian IT industry for the next 11 years saying the total revenue from export is expected to expand to 175 billion dollars by 2020 and revenues from the domestic market could achieve the 50 billion dollar mark.
"This, however, needs a concerted effort by both the industry and the government to ensure swift and sustained reforms in critical areas of education and infrastructure," NASSCOM said.
On the economic scenario, the organisation said the "global economic crisis will have far-reaching and as yet uncertain impact on the industry. Near term volumes and pricing is likely to come under pressure."
Commenting on the opportunities for the industry, Som Mittal, President, Nasscom, said, "The Indian IT industry is in the midst of unprecedented times because of the current economic environment. We expect the next few quarters to be extremely challenging with companies doing everything required to effectively overcome the challenges."
NASSCOM is of the view that the 2020 business landscape would be different from the one that was witnessed in the last decade as now it would be driven by global megatrends.
There are likely to be new verticals in the public sector, healthcare, media and utilities (which have adopted global sourcing only to a limited extent) along with new customer segments in the small and medium businesses.
"These new opportunities will result in export revenues of 175 billion dollar by 2020. On the back of these megatrends the Indian domestic industry too will experience significant growth and record a four-fold increase in revenues from 12 billion dollar in 2008 to 50 billion by 2020," it said.
"80 per cent of the incremental revenue growth by 2020 will be driven by opportunities outside of the current core markets, verticals and customer segments and the industry needs to redefine its value proposition to capture these," Mittal said.
The NASSCOM-McKinsey report said that India has been the destination for global sourcing over the last 10 years and has garnered a 51 per cent share of the industry today. India continues to be the most competitive among 25-30 low-cost locations even today.
Agencies
The NASSCOM-McKinsey, however, presented an ambitious scenario for the Indian IT industry for the next 11 years saying the total revenue from export is expected to expand to 175 billion dollars by 2020 and revenues from the domestic market could achieve the 50 billion dollar mark.
"This, however, needs a concerted effort by both the industry and the government to ensure swift and sustained reforms in critical areas of education and infrastructure," NASSCOM said.
On the economic scenario, the organisation said the "global economic crisis will have far-reaching and as yet uncertain impact on the industry. Near term volumes and pricing is likely to come under pressure."
Commenting on the opportunities for the industry, Som Mittal, President, Nasscom, said, "The Indian IT industry is in the midst of unprecedented times because of the current economic environment. We expect the next few quarters to be extremely challenging with companies doing everything required to effectively overcome the challenges."
NASSCOM is of the view that the 2020 business landscape would be different from the one that was witnessed in the last decade as now it would be driven by global megatrends.
There are likely to be new verticals in the public sector, healthcare, media and utilities (which have adopted global sourcing only to a limited extent) along with new customer segments in the small and medium businesses.
"These new opportunities will result in export revenues of 175 billion dollar by 2020. On the back of these megatrends the Indian domestic industry too will experience significant growth and record a four-fold increase in revenues from 12 billion dollar in 2008 to 50 billion by 2020," it said.
"80 per cent of the incremental revenue growth by 2020 will be driven by opportunities outside of the current core markets, verticals and customer segments and the industry needs to redefine its value proposition to capture these," Mittal said.
The NASSCOM-McKinsey report said that India has been the destination for global sourcing over the last 10 years and has garnered a 51 per cent share of the industry today. India continues to be the most competitive among 25-30 low-cost locations even today.
Agencies
Oracle may layoff 10,000 jobs after Sun deal
Global IT giant Oracle's $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems could terminate 10000 jobs, predicted a financial analyst, as per a report in IDG News Service.
Excluding charges related to the restructuring, Oracle expects the Sun deal to contribute $1.5 billion toward its earnings next year and $2 billion in the second year of the acquisition, making it more profitable in per-share contribution in the first year than the company had planned for the acquisitions of BEA, PeopleSoft and Siebel combined, according to Oracle President Safra Catz. Meanwhile, Tony Sacconaghi, a well-respected technology analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co said, "That profitability will come via layoffs." Sacconaghi had been forecasting $800 million in operating profit for Sun's fiscal 2010, rather than the $1.5 billion predicted by Oracle.
"In order to deliver $1.5 billion in profit, Oracle would need to boost profits by $700 million assuming no material revenue erosion, which suggests incremental headcount reductions of 5,500 to 10,000 depending on timing," Sacconaghi wrote in a research note. But, Oracle declined to comment on any possible layoffs.
The acquisition was announced Monday, just two weeks after Sun's previous suitor, IBM, had walked away from the table after being unable to come to acquisition terms.
Analyst firm Technology Business Research (TBR) agreed that layoffs are coming, predicting that sales and marketing staff will be hit hardest. "Oracle will rapidly rationalize Sun's cost-base," the company said in a report on the deal. "This means general layoffs and a reshaping of cost centers such as services and support."
Sun is already in the process of slashing between 15 to 18 percent of its workforce, or as many as 6,000 employees.
Agencies
Excluding charges related to the restructuring, Oracle expects the Sun deal to contribute $1.5 billion toward its earnings next year and $2 billion in the second year of the acquisition, making it more profitable in per-share contribution in the first year than the company had planned for the acquisitions of BEA, PeopleSoft and Siebel combined, according to Oracle President Safra Catz. Meanwhile, Tony Sacconaghi, a well-respected technology analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co said, "That profitability will come via layoffs." Sacconaghi had been forecasting $800 million in operating profit for Sun's fiscal 2010, rather than the $1.5 billion predicted by Oracle.
"In order to deliver $1.5 billion in profit, Oracle would need to boost profits by $700 million assuming no material revenue erosion, which suggests incremental headcount reductions of 5,500 to 10,000 depending on timing," Sacconaghi wrote in a research note. But, Oracle declined to comment on any possible layoffs.
The acquisition was announced Monday, just two weeks after Sun's previous suitor, IBM, had walked away from the table after being unable to come to acquisition terms.
Analyst firm Technology Business Research (TBR) agreed that layoffs are coming, predicting that sales and marketing staff will be hit hardest. "Oracle will rapidly rationalize Sun's cost-base," the company said in a report on the deal. "This means general layoffs and a reshaping of cost centers such as services and support."
Sun is already in the process of slashing between 15 to 18 percent of its workforce, or as many as 6,000 employees.
Agencies
Monday, April 20, 2009
World Wide Web conference opens in Madrid
A global conference on the World Wide Web got under way in Spain Monday, 20 years after the invention of the global information medium that has changed the daily lives of people around the world.
British software genius Tim Berners-Lee, one of the founders of the system, will give a keynote talk on Wednesday "which will reflect on the last 20 years and look forward to the next 20 years" of the Web.
Spanish Crown Prince Felipe and his wife Letizia are scheduled to attend the talk.
Over the five days of the 18th international World Wide Web conference, 105 research papers will be presented covering topics including interactive television, mobile web applications and the challenge of new media to traditional media.
The conference is organised each year by the International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee (IW3C2), a professional organization registered in Switzerland which promotes Web research and development.
It was held in China last year. The US will hold the next conference in 2010.
With the help of other scientists at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), Berners-Lee set up the system to allow thousands of scientists around the world to stay in touch.
In March 1989, the young Berners-Lee handed his supervisor in Geneva a document entitled 'Information Management: a proposal."
The supervisor described it as "vague, but exciting" and gave it the go-ahead, although it took a good year or two to get off the ground and served nuclear physicists in Europe initially.
The WWW technology -- which simplifies the process of searching for information on the Internet -- was first made more widely available from 1991 after CERN was unable to ensure its development, and the organisation made a landmark decision two years later not to levy royalties.
As recently as 1994 there were only 500 fairly modest Web sites worldwide, according to Microsoft. Now there are millions.
Berners-Lee, now a researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States and a computer science professor at Southampton University in Britain, still heads the World Wide Web Consortium (3WC) that coordinates development of the Web.
Agencies
British software genius Tim Berners-Lee, one of the founders of the system, will give a keynote talk on Wednesday "which will reflect on the last 20 years and look forward to the next 20 years" of the Web.
Spanish Crown Prince Felipe and his wife Letizia are scheduled to attend the talk.
Over the five days of the 18th international World Wide Web conference, 105 research papers will be presented covering topics including interactive television, mobile web applications and the challenge of new media to traditional media.
The conference is organised each year by the International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee (IW3C2), a professional organization registered in Switzerland which promotes Web research and development.
It was held in China last year. The US will hold the next conference in 2010.
With the help of other scientists at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), Berners-Lee set up the system to allow thousands of scientists around the world to stay in touch.
In March 1989, the young Berners-Lee handed his supervisor in Geneva a document entitled 'Information Management: a proposal."
The supervisor described it as "vague, but exciting" and gave it the go-ahead, although it took a good year or two to get off the ground and served nuclear physicists in Europe initially.
The WWW technology -- which simplifies the process of searching for information on the Internet -- was first made more widely available from 1991 after CERN was unable to ensure its development, and the organisation made a landmark decision two years later not to levy royalties.
As recently as 1994 there were only 500 fairly modest Web sites worldwide, according to Microsoft. Now there are millions.
Berners-Lee, now a researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States and a computer science professor at Southampton University in Britain, still heads the World Wide Web Consortium (3WC) that coordinates development of the Web.
Agencies
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