Why's India Ignoring World's 2nd Largest IT Market?

Japan is the world’s second largest IT market after the United States. India’s software export to the Japan is $500 million, representing one per cent and it was very miniscule, said D. K. Sareen, Executive Director, Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) on Monday.

Addressing the members of Indo-Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he said, “the opportunities that Japan offered was immense, but we have not utilised it fully. If India increases its exports by 100 per cent, then we can achieve the full potential.”

While urging the Indian software firms to take part in the ‘Japan IT Week 2014’, he said it was the largest trade show wherein participants can find latest IT technologies and solutions. It would be visited by a great number of information systems manager, management executives, sales managers, system integrators and managers from IT system division.

Japan IT Week will be held for three days at Tokyo Big Sight from May 14. The participation cost is Rs. 2 lakh plus service tax. ESC would be providing a fully furnished 8.1 square meter stand.

The current slump in the economy has forced Japan to adopt new models for delivering software. More and more Japanese firms are open to the idea of using readymade software packages rather than custom built solutions, said an ESC member.

Japanese Deputy Consul General Koji Sugiyama said that Indian IT outsourcing was set to grow faster during 2014-15 than last year. He also urged the Indian firms to make good use of the Japan IT Week show that would also concurrently hold specialised shows on software development, data warehouse, embedded systems, data storage, information security, cloud computing, smart phone and mobile among other topics.

US$37b Marketing Opportunity For Indian Tech Industry, says Nasscom Chief

In the first ever assessment of opportunities for the Indian technology industry resulting from the emergence of digital technologies, National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) and SapientNitro today announced the launch of a research report titled ‘Marketing, Disrupted: Opportunities for the Indian technology industry’. The report finds that there will be USD 37 billion of CMO opportunity for the Indian technology industry by 2020, 17% of which will be purely creative in nature. Also, the spend on digital marketing is expected to grow from current 8% to at least 35% of the total CMO spend by 2020. The rising interest in outsourcing creative marketing work and digital marketing opportunity are contributing to the huge addressable CMO market.

R. Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM said, “Digital technologies are creating disruption in areas beyond those under the purview of the CIO. Clearly, new opportunities for Indian technology players are opening up, opportunities that demand closer coordination with new stakeholders in businesses and modify their services to address new kinds of needs.  Technology players must review and streamline their services and offer customized solutions for modern business to make the most of the new opportunity.”

The report, the first of its kind, analyses the disruption caused by the rise of digital technologies in marketing and its implications for the Indian technology industry. It attempts to prepare this industry to leverage this opportunity by delivering value to the new stakeholder – the Chief Marketing Officer. Marketers are actively participating in decision making related to technology. A significant 34% of the marketers surveyed cited new tools/technology investment as one of the key concern areas.

“Over the past few years, SapientNitro has been at the center of the massive transformation in the brand-consumer space, caused by the emergence of the digitally empowered consumer. We are delighted to have partnered with NASSCOM in defining this new opportunity for the Indian technology industry. We believe this report will mark an inflection point in the evolution of the industry as it offers compelling insights into the current disruption in the marketplace as well as the way forward for industry participants," said Rajdeep Endow, Managing Director, Sapient, India.

The report envisages a strategic direction for Indian technology companies to streamline their services and products roadmap, in sync with the current requirements of CMOs by looking at the holistic picture, building in-house capabilities and forging seamless and symbiotic relationships with marketing agencies. Further, the report also prescribes recommendations for global brands to remain relevant, connected and competitive in the new world.

Additional Highlights from the Report:

*  Technology share in CMO budget is increasing

*  Over 50% CMOs said spend on digital marketing and brand building will grow between 5 and 10% over the next 12 months

*  Over 70% CMOs find that their role in the CIO spends is growing.

*   17% of the estimated USD 37 billion opportunity for the Indian Technology Industry will be creative in nature.

*  Creative services alone is estimated to create an impressive 1,00,000 job market by 2020

*  8% of global CMOs surveyed have ventured into outsourcing and are already engaged with Indian technology providers for creative work, while an impressive 38% respondents are currently weighing the idea of outsourcing creative work.

M-Pesa Facilitates Money Transfer & Payments Via Mobiles Also In Karnataka

Vodafone India, one of India’s leading telecommunications service providers and ICICI Bank, India’s largest private sector bank, today announced the launch of ‘M-Pesa’ - a unique mobile money transfer and payment service in Karnataka. ‘M-Pesa’ is the trademark of Vodafone. The service was formally launched today by senior officials from Vodafone India viz.  Suresh Kumar, Operations Director – South, Atanu Batabyal, Business Head – Karnataka and Suresh Sethi, Business Head –M-Pesa. 

‘M-Pesa’ empowers the unbanked and under-banked sections of the population gain access to financial services via the mobile phone. ‘M-Pesa’ effectively leverages the combined strengths of Vodafone’s global expertise in the domain of mobile payments and significant distribution reach in India plus the security of financial transactions provided by ICICI Bank. This service will now be available across 137 Tehsils, 30 Districts through 2500 specially trained authorized agents including 600 Vodafone exclusive stores in Karnataka.

The innovative use of mobile technology makes it possible for customers to enjoy a fast, simple and secure way to transfer money and make payments. Using their ‘M-Pesa’ account, customers can at their convenience:

·  Deposit and withdraw cash from designated outlets

·  Transfer money to any mobile phone in India

·  Remit money to any bank account in India

·  Make payments to recharge mobile, clear utility bills and for DTH service subscription

·  Shop at select shops

·   Deposit Money & Earn interest

·   Participate in e-commerce/m-commerce.

Highlighting the relevance of ‘M–Pesa’ for the residents of Karnataka, Atanu Batabyal, Business Head – Karnataka, Vodafone India said, “Vodafone is always at the forefront to introduce innovative products and services that enrich the lives of our customers. We are delighted to bring to Karnataka, ‘M-Pesa’, a world class mobile banking service, in partnership with ICICI Bank. ‘M-Pesa’, is a safe, secure and convenient service to transfer money and make payments beyond the reach of traditional banking channels. For households where the earning members migrate to larger cities for earning livelihood, ‘M-Pesa’ will be the best way to send money back home to their families.”

Added Suresh Sethi, Business Head - M-Pesa, Vodafone India, “Vodafone is the world’s largest and leading provider of mobile payment services through ‘M-Pesa’, which offers millions of people including the unbanked and underserviced sections of society, basic financial services. Today, less than 5 percent of villages in India have a banking outlet. Financial inclusion is a national priority and we believe that with ‘M-Pesa’, we now have the ideal offering to facilitate the same across the country in compliance with all applicable regulations.”

Apart from Karnataka, ‘M-Pesa’ has been rolled out in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, West Bengal, Punjab, UP East, UP West, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, MP, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Assam & North East, Odisha, Haryana and Tamil Nadu & Chennai and will be made available pan India in the next few months.

How does it work?

Registering for ‘M-Pesa’ is easy and simple.

Prospects may self-register from their mobile phones followed by documentation and minimum payment at an ‘M-Pesa’ agent outlet OR visit an ‘M-Pesa’ agent outlet, fill up a form, submit identity, address proofs and deposit a minimum amount along with it, to open their ‘M-Pesa’ account. The MCSL Mobile Wallet gets activated immediately and the customer can do a variety of transactions like cash deposit, transfer money to any bank account, money transfer to any other ‘M-Pesa’ customer, recharge mobiles & DTH, pay mobile and utility bills. Once the documents are verified and approved by MCSL and ICICI Bank the customer can do other transactions viz. cash withdrawal and sending money to any mobile number.

New Large Data Centre Comes Up In Electronic City

Netmagic, an NTT Communications Company and India’s only Data center Infrastructure Lifecycle Management (DILM) service provider has announced the launch of its new data center in Electronic City, Bangalore. This 100,000 sq. ft. data center is the first time Netmagic and NTT Communications have collaborated in building an entire facility from the ground up, and thereby, draws from their combined engineering and operations expertise.

“This is a moment of pride for us, as this new data center will give Indian and multi-national enterprises an opportunity to experience the state-of-the-art data centers that NTT Communications operates across the world. The added advantage of Netmagic’s excellence in IT infrastructure management and service delivery in the Indian enterprise space, gives this data center the capability of becoming the new benchmark for data centers in India, said Akira Arima, President and CEO, NTT Communications at the unveiling of the data center. 

He added, “This facility is part of our Global Cloud Vision to become a genuine global ICT partner for enterprises, providing seamless  ICT solutions such as networks, data centers and applications, thereby capitalizing on the trend of enterprises’ migrating their on-premise systems to the cloud.”

"Bangalore offers a strong growth potential and a supply-constrained market, making this the most opportune moment to launch our new data center. Given the large concentration of data intensive activities in Bangalore, our objective is to accommodate enterprises’ demand to house their critical IT infrastructure closer to them, as well as ensure that our data centers have the scalability to meet their growing needs, while offering highly efficient services at the same time,” said Sharad Sanghi, MD & CEO, Netmagic. “The launch of this data center will enhance the confidence of our customers who have been part of our 16 year old journey and strengthen our position as one of India’s leading IT infrastructure management players”, he added.

This new facility also marks the formal launch of the Nexcenter brand of data center services in India. Under this brand, NTT Communications offers leading-edge data center services across the globe. In India, these services are offered through all 8 Netmagic data centers.

The data center will deliver Netmagic’s entire suite of services including managed co-location, dedicated hosting, cloud computing, IT infrastructure monitoring and management and security. It will provide enterprises customizable hosting space with high power and cooling densities and offer not only individual racks, but also highly secure cages and enclosed server rooms to meet the requirements of large global enterprises.

Consistent with Netmagic’s data center standards, connectivity from multiple telecom providers will be available from physically redundant paths allowing customers to architect on any network of their choice. Extending the ‘carrier neutral’ approach to building data centers, this facility is designed with high levels of redundancies and a stringent focus on security - both physical and logical. Enterprises can expect further attention to detail with amenities, such as a highly secure material handling system, based on bar coding and multiple checkpoints, adequate customer office space, dedicated storage space and heavy equipment handling systems.

One of the other strengths of this facility is that its location is one of the least prone to natural calamities and importantly, allows ready access to key resources. This makes it ideal for large enterprises, across India and other geographies to establish their disaster recovery and business continuity sites.

Over 100 Institutions Across India Now Works With SAP University

SAP India, a subsidiary of SAP AG has announced the success of signing 100 universities across the country through the SAP University Alliances programme. The milestone comes with the latest addition of University Visveswaraya College of Engineering, a top Engineering College in Bangalore. Students at 100 top colleges in India now have access to Information Technology training benefiting more than 250000 students from 1500 universities that have already participated in the SAP program across 120 countries worldwide.

Aligned with SAP’s mission to contribute to economic growth, the SAP University Alliances Program supports engineering, business and Information Technologyprograms in universities and colleges in India by providing students and lecturers with access to SAP software and training. It believes in 5 pillars of Learn, Apply, Share, Recruit and pursuing CSR to help the student community to acquire relevant skills to meet the industry requirements. The SAP training courses enables students to pursue SAP certifications and eventual hiring by SAP, partners and customers. This in turn addresses the industry skills shortage by providing a pool of IT graduates who are already trained with hands-on practice of the SAP software.

“Talent has become the de facto requirement in the technology industry today and SAP sees merit in contributing to talent enhancement efforts and help meet the growing skill demand of the industry,” said Crispian Tan, Director SAP University Alliances Program for the Asia Pacific & Japan region. “This landmark achievement reflects our commitment of ensuring that the next generations of graduates are ready and able to make an immediate impact in the job market and support  SAP’s Global focus of Inspiring Millennials to See SAP as the Employer of Choice or Dream Big to become Entrepreneurs”,  he added.

Mindtree Celebrates 10th Edition Of Osmosis 2014

Mindtree, a global technology services company, today celebrated the grand finale of Osmosis 2014 – its annual technology festival.  With ‘Expert Thinking’ as the theme, Osmosis 2014 engaged not just Mindtree Minds, but went beyond to connect with clients, students, IT professionals, partners and entrepreneurs.

Osmosis is a month-long celebration of technology at Mindtree, with various events and tracks crafted to showcase Mindtree’s technological depth. This year, Osmosis 2014 has five unique tracks – Techathlon, Value-Add Jam, Expert Speak–Webinars and K-Safari.

“We take pride in our diversity, technical expertise and strong values that create the foundation for delivering breakthrough solutions for our clients. As we continue to focus on the fundamental pillars that make a difference to our business, our greatest asset - our people, play a pivotal role in defining our success,” said Krishnakumar Natarajan, CEO and MD, Mindtree.

Techathlon, the technology derivative of the sports event ‘Decathlon’ required participants to take up challenges on coding, optimizing, and blogging. The Value-Add Jam was an event that sparked innovation and brought out a multitude of business and technology ideas that can add value to Mindtree’s clients.

The other events created a highly interactive platform for self-learning by collaboration among the audience and the SMEs. Expert Speak-Webinars provided an opportunity for the experts within Mindtree to share their knowledge both within and outside the organization.

Knowledge Safari culminated the month-long festivities in Osmosis, by taking Mindtree Minds through a ‘technology safari’. The Mindtree facilities transformed into a busy hub, with vibrant stalls put up all over. The stalls feature Mindtree’s technology implementations, partners and invited entrepreneurs. Osmosis 2014 finally concluded with a glittering awards ceremony.

Osmosis 2014 brought together more than 10,000 Mindtree Minds across 14 countries, to collaborate, share knowledge, challenge themselves and celebrate technology through Osmosis – helping knowledge flow spontaneously, across the organization.

SAP Labs India To Host Barcamp On March 29, 2014

SAP Labs India will be hosting the seventh edition of Barcamp Bangalore Spring Edition 2014 (#barcampblr) on the 29th of March at the Whitefield campus. #Barcampblr is an open to public, participatory, workshop focused event around people, ideas and collaboration.  

The unconference has no fixed agenda and will cover a variety of  topics including technology, design, entrepreneurship, business and management, photography and many more. Registered sessions for the Spring Edition include “7 Ultimate techniques for designing great User Experience”, “Wonderful world of Android userland customization”, “Engineering Virality: How to design a purple cow” and “How to make Non-Geeks understand Geek”, to name a few. In addition to these sessions, #barcampblr will also feature “Techlash”, a tech rapid-fire round where speakers present their ideas or demo creations through a series of five minute time slots. In its previous edition, Barcamp Bangalore witnessed over 250 participants in attendance and had over 60 sessions.