Nasscom Welcomes New Government Pre-Budget Policies on ICT & ITes

NASSCOM and the IT industry welcomes the focus of the Union Government on leveraging ICT for economic growth, and maximize reach of its policies for national development agenda. NASSCOM will continue to work closely with the Government and play the role of catalyst in implementing its governance agenda.

The Indian IT industry is no longer a monolith. Instead, there are two distinct segments that have different asks.

* Large IT services companies contributing 80 per cent of the Industry revenue are characterized by upfront revenue streams, high number of employees, relatively low investments. This segment requires regulatory predictability, stability and clarity, removing distortions in implementation and minimizing litigation which deter growth.

* Technology Start-up and SMEs contribute the balance 20 per cent revenue and are characterized by higher upfront investment for software product (IP) development, non-bankable assets, without immediate revenue stream. These companies are drivers of innovation and require Government investment and support across all levels of growth.

As the new government sets itself to decide upon budget 2014-15, NASSCOM, on behalf of Indian IT-BPM industry recommends the following interventions to government.

* In order for the industry to contribute on its role as a transformation agent and participate in the governance of the government, it is vital for the government to remove the impediments for the Industry and encourage the adoption of IT in government. NASSCOM would request the Government to streamline procurement process for technology products and services including SME participation, settle long pending dues on projects executed for Central and State Govt. and provide incentives for adoption of IT across sectors.

* It is recommended to launch an India Technology Entrepreneurship Mission (ITEM) to provide a supportive framework to technology start-ups and SMEs. Under this mission, difficulties related to taxation, regulations and funding environment to be identified and allocations made to address them to ensure a framework for funding and investments in low asset base IP driven early and growth stage of start-ups, simple regulatory requirements, incentives for IP creation and employment generation, policy interventions to mitigate cumulative tax liability from TDS, Service Tax, VAT, and prevent depleting cash due to needless temporary cash outflows towards taxes.

* In order to induce predictability, clarity and stability of taxation regime, the government needs to induce confidence building measures for the industry on business environment, enhance job creation and making India a preferred destination, NASSCOM requests the Government to clarify the royalty implication on software (both retrospective and on services), eliminate MAT on SEZ, and take steps to minimize litigations.

* The Government should work towards addressing the challenges of negative list like taxation of testing services and transactions between head office and branch office, renegotiate tax treaties, ensure cross border transfer pricing adjustments, introduce consolidated Income tax filing for Indian MNCs for easing compliance for Industry and Government, revisit notified Safe harbors, and clarify to bring in certainty in transfer pricing assessments. This will lead to significant base enhancement in the long term perspective.

* Finally, in order to generate employment in tier-II/III cities, NASSCOM recommends incentivize expansion into such towns and cities aiming at spreading employment opportunity, ensuring balanced growth, drive urbanization across country and encourage overall competitiveness of the Industry.

FinTech Lab Among Top Financial Tech Innovators

A group of 10 leading financial institutions and Accenture today launched an Asia-Pacific-wide competitive search for the region’s top financial technology innovators.  Selected companies will participate in the FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific, a 12-week program that helps early- and growth-stage financial technology innovators accelerate product development and gain exposure to top-level financial industry executives. Further information is available at www.fintechinnovationlabapac.com and applications will be accepted between July 1, 2014 and July 31, 2014

Entrepreneurs developing potentially game-changing technologies for financial services – particularly in the areas of Big Data and analytics, mobile and wireless, payments, risk management, security, compliance, and social media and collaboration technologies – are invited to apply. Senior executives from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Bank of China (Hong Kong), Barclays, China Construction Bank (Asia), DBS, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Ping An and UBS will select the winning applicants and provide mentoring to entrepreneurs from across Asia-Pacific who attend the program in Hong Kong.

“Hong Kong’s role as a regional hub for the banking industry and the gateway for China investment made it an ideal location to launch our new Asia-Pacific Lab,” said Sushil Saluja, senior managing director of Accenture’s Asia-Pacific Financial Services practice. “By fostering the development of the next generation of financial technology companies, the Lab will further strengthen Hong Kong’s status as one of the world’s leading financial capitals.”

The FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific is modeled on a similar program that was co-founded by Accenture and the Partnership Fund for New York City in 2010. The New York Lab’s 18 alumni companies have raised more than $76 million in venture financing after participating in the program; one participant was acquired for $175 million.  In 2012, the FinTech Innovation Lab London was launched by Accenture and a dozen major banks in London, with support from the city’s mayor and other government bodies. The majority of the participants in the inaugural program have gone on to sign deals with banks and collectively they have raised $10 million in new financing since participating.

Global investment in fintech ventures has more than tripled from $928 million in 2008 to $2.97 billion in 2013, according to a recent report by Accenture. During the same period, investment in Asia-Pacific fintech ventures has increased nearly fourfold to $104 million in 2013.

How the Lab Works

Through a competitive process, banks will select up to seven startups to participate in the program, which begins at the end of September 2014. In cooperation with the Lab, Cyberport and Airbnb will provide work space and housing to participating entrepreneurs. Chosen entrepreneurs will be mentored for twelve weeks by leading financial services industry executives who will help them fine-tune and develop their technologies and business strategies through a series of workshops, panel discussions, user-group sessions, networking opportunities, one-on-one meetings and presentations. The program culminates in December with an Investor Day presentation by participants in front of an audience of financial industry executives and potential investors.

“Financial institutions recognize more clearly than ever the importance of technology innovation but often lack hands-on exposure and engagement with promising ventures,” said Accenture’s Saluja. “On the other hand, startups often lack the resources and capital to endure the typical two-to-three year sales cycle for selling solutions to financial institutions. This program helps close the gap through a proven accelerator program.”

“Innovation is a core value of Bank of China (Hong Kong) and we take great pleasure to be part of this meaningful program that shares the same belief,” said Alex Lee, chief operating officer, Bank of China (Hong Kong). “The FinTech program provides an effective platform for financial technology innovators to better understand our needs, which helps drive banking innovation to transform the customer experience. Financial services companies are the largest buyers of technology-enabled solutions and we are delighted to be at the forefront of innovation.”

“China Construction Bank (Asia) is excited to help lead the way in fintech innovation by being sponsors of the FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific,” said Arthur Wong, head of information technology at China Construction Bank (Asia). “We recognize that innovation is the way forward for the industry and it plays a key part in the growth journey of the bank, which is committed to keep on enhancing customer experience and bringing added values to our client.”

“DBS has been on an innovation journey to shape the future of banking,” said Neal Cross, DBS chief innovation officer. “Our support of the FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific brings together the ideas and agility of the start-up world and DBS’ network and experience across Asia, as part of our efforts to enhance the customer experience and better engage customers in the digital landscape.”

“The increasing role of technology in financial services, particularly in insurance, is driving the kind of cutting-edge services that our customers in China demand,” said Richard Lee, head of the strategic consulting department of Ping An technology. “The FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific is an important development in ensuring the industry stays in tune with what customers want and expect.”

“This provides a unique opportunity for entrepreneurs who are seeking guidance and mentorship from both potential clients and funders,” said Simon Lucocq, head of Asia-Pacific technology and operations at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “We are pleased to be a part of a program that fosters innovation that will help the financial services industry across Asia-Pacific.”

“This program creates an opportunity for regional entrepreneurs to develop their ideas and receive the support necessary to make them happen here in Asia,” added Samson Chan, managing director, head of equities technology for Asia-Pacific at Barclays. “We recognize that the leading banks of the future need to be at the forefront of fintech in order to best service our clients.”

"HSBC has been part of the London FinTech program for the past two years and we are honored to be involved with the first program in Hong Kong this year,” said Raymond Cheng, chief operating officer, HSBC Asia-Pacific.  “Our involvement brings us into contact with a diverse, innovative group of companies that we can support, mentor and learn from. I believe programs like FinTech are essential for a healthy, thriving and developing financial services market and HSBC is committed to supporting the FinTech Innovation program as it expands into Asia.”

“J.P. Morgan is delighted to be a part of Asia-Pacific’s first FinTech Innovation Lab, an important initiative that we have supported in other regions around the world,” said Alan Goldstein, Asia-Pacific head of technology for J.P. Morgan’s corporate & investment bank. “As Asia continues to emerge as a source of business creativity and innovation, we’re excited to have an opportunity to work with some of the region’s newest entrepreneurs and businesses and help them find their own path to success.”

“Morgan Stanley already participates in The FinTech program globally and we are very happy that Hong Kong is being added. We have a significant technology footprint in Asia and a long history of working with our technology bankers in support of West Coast start-ups. It is very exciting that we can now bring some of those practices into Hong Kong,” said Jim McGill, Asia chief information officer for Morgan Stanley.

“Our clients demand access to state-of-the-art technology platforms so an initiative like the FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific not only gives us direct insight into the themes being pursued by technology innovators in the region, but is also an opportunity for UBS to provide hands-on mentoring to the companies which will help shape the industry's future,” said James Kennedy, chief technology officer for UBS in Asia Pacific.

“Cyberport is a creative digital community with a cluster of technology tenants and is committed to facilitating the local economy by nurturing IT industry start-ups and entrepreneurs,” said Herman Lam Heung-yeung, chief executive officer of the Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company, which is wholly owned by the Hong Kong SAR Government.  “The FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific at Cyberport will support the overall growth of the technology startup ecosystem in Asia-Pacific and increase innovation in the financial services industry, so we are excited to be working with Accenture and the consortium of financial services executives to drive this effort.”

“We are excited to see that the FinTech Innovation Lab now has a global footprint with this expansion to Asia-Pacific. The willingness of senior bank executives to mentor the next generation of fintech entrepreneurs speaks to their commitment to supporting innovation and growing tech jobs,” said Maria Gotsch, president and CEO of the Partnership Fund for New York City.

Vishal Sikka Named CEO of Infosys From August 1

Vishal Sikka named Infosys CEO; Murthy to quit as chairman As was being speculated recently, Indian technology major Infosys announced Thursday Vishal Sikka will take over as CEO and MD of the company with effect from August 1. 

As was being speculated recently, Indian technology major  Infosys announced Thursday Vishal Sikka will take over as CEO and MD of the company with effect from August 1. Sikka, who was earlier on the executive board of SAP AG, will take over from SD Shibulal, and said he was humbled to be leading an "iconic pioneer" in the IT industry. 

After completing his education, Sikka worked at Xerox's research Palo Alto Labs, but later ventured out on his own. He started his first company, iBrain, along with his brother, which was later acquired by PatternRX, Inc. His second startup Bodha.com was acquired by Peregrine Systems, where Sikka worked as Vice President for Platform Technologies, post the acquisition.

Sikka completed his schooling from Rosary High School, Baroda where his father worked as an officer in Indian Railways. After his Computer Engineering from MS University, Baroda, Sikka finished his BS in Computer Science from Syracuse University and his doctorate from Stanford University in artificial intelligence.

Sikka is a well known figure among the Silicon Valley elite and was the closest to Hasso Plattner, founder of SAP.

Murthy to step down on July 14

The company also announced a host of other top-level changes: founder NR Narayana Murthy, who returned from retirement to lead the company as executive chairman, will step down from June 14, and will be appointed Chairman-Emeritus. S Gopalakrisnan will step down as Executive Vice Chairman while KV Kamath will become the Non-Executive Vice Chairman of the Board. 

The company also elevated UB Pravin Rao as chief operating officer, while Murthy’s son Rohan Murty, who joined as executive assistant to his father, will leave the company on June 14. “I am pleased with the selection of Dr Vishal Sikka as our new CEO,” Murthy said in a press release. 

“Vishal brings valuable experience as a leader of a large global corporation. His illustrious track record and value system make him an ideal choice to lead Infosys.” Sikka will become the first non-founding member CEO of the company established in 1981 by Murthy, along with six colleagues, who were earlier working with Patni Computers.

 Infosys grew rapidly in the '90s to become the posterboy of the Indian IT industry, capitalising on a global services-outsourcing boom. But the company was left behind by its less-glamorous rival TCS in the latter part of the last decade, as changing industry dynamics coupled with internal challenges, witnessed the re-entry of Murthy last year and sparked a virtual exodus of top-level staff. 

Experts said Sikka’s appointment will put to rest the intense speculation surrounding the top post at the company and will likely bring stability to the top deck. Reacting to the news of the appointment, former CFO V Balakrishnan said he hopes Sikka will be able to meet the challenge of turning around Infosys. “Sikka has been a products man but the whole services business is changing too, and becoming more product-oriented with respect IP, etc.” On the news of Murthy stepping down as executive chairman, Balakrishnan said it was the right move as the new CEO would want to have his own executive team to implement his plans for the firm.

New Multimedia Messaging With EMS 7.0 Release

Infinite Computer Solutions, a leading IT and mobility solutions provider has added multimedia messaging capabilities to its Enterprise Messaging Service (EMS). This new capability is part of the company's EMS 7.0 release, available now.

Businesses are increasingly embracing mobile technology to cost-effectively and quickly deliver messages to key customers, business partners and employees alike. EMS 7.0 combines a foundation of core SMS and IP-Push messaging capabilities, with end-to-end security, delivery assurance, messaging analytics, and now with multimedia features to further enhance the enterprise customers messaging experiences and increase the effectiveness of enterprise mobile messaging campaigns. These features include photos, videos and scanner-ready mobile coupons that do not require any mobile app installation.

"Mobile messaging has a powerful reach unlike any other form of communication," said Anurag Lal, CEO of Infinite Convergence, a fully owned subsidiary of Infinite in the US. "By combining cost-effective mobile messaging with the rich experience that multimedia delivers, enterprises can now deliver more engaging and effective campaigns at a fraction of the cost of print and mail."

Infinite’s EMS is a flexible cloud-based solution that offers flexible APIs for simple integration with existing service infrastructures. The solution is built upon Infinite’s carrier-grade messaging platform, which today enables more than 130 million subscribers to exchange more than 900 billion mobile messages annually. With EMS, enterprises are able to deliver messages to mobile phone subscribers in more than 180 countries.

Features include global deployment, delivery assurance, end-to-end security, campaign manager, opt-in/opt-out capabilities and messaging analytics for even the most time-sensitive and confidential communications. With scalable customization and systems integration services, Infinite Convergence's experienced end-to-end service team helps enterprises across any industry, such as financial, retail, travel, hospitality and healthcare, leverage the use of value-added mobile messaging.

Brillio &Tableau Soft Partner For Real-Time Insights

Brillio, a global technology consulting firm specializing in optimizing innovation and application modernization for leading organizations, today announced it has entered into a strategic partnership with Tableau Software, a global leader in rapid-fire, easy-to-use business analytics software. With the partnership, Brillio will leverage the power of Tableau’s robust, highly visual and intuitive platform to provide enterprise customers with deep and real-time insights in data discovery, data exploration, analytics and dashboarding needs.

The expertise of Brillio’s analytics practice is bolstered by its well-defined analytics framework and specialty services, including descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analysis. The company’s team of data scientists has a proven track record in delivering business intelligence strategy and dynamic solutions that are aligned with each customer’s critical decision-making needs. Combined with Tableau’s data analytics platform, Brillio is providing a cutting-edge, end-to-end integrated solution for data-driven business decision-making to its customers. The Brillio and Tableau partnership gives Brillio’s customers the true competitive advantage needed in today’s dynamically evolving environment.

“Tableau empowers our enterprise customers and their users to see and understand their data and make the right business decisions continuously in real-time,” said John Johnson, senior vice president, Brillio. “Our customers rely on big data’s insights in order to remain competitive. Our partnership with Tableau gives us a strategic advantage as we continue to provide our customers with the most innovative and strategic business solutions.”

“Brillio brings a wealth of experience in delivering innovation to their customers,” said Hilary Feier, senior director of global strategic alliances, Tableau Software. “We look forward to working with the analytics team and helping them adds to their already deep analytics capabilities as they leverage emerging technologies to help their customers become more data driven. Only through such deep data insights can enterprise customers make real-time strategic business decisions and become the leaders in their respective industries.”

Learn How Customers Can Interact In Optimization

  

NICE Systems has announced the beginning of the end for the customer service run-around. With today’s announcement of the NICE Customer Journey Optimization solution, customers can now enjoy a personalized experience with much less effort, while organizations gain transparency to the customer experience across different channels and touch points – allowing them to reduce customer effort, increase customer loyalty, operate more efficiently, and maximize revenue opportunities.

Customers today use an average of six different channels to contact companies and service providers (source: NICE 2013 Customer Experience Survey). They switch quickly from web, to telephone, to social media, to chat, to interactive voice response, to visiting a retail location, depending on whichever is most convenient at the moment, all while expecting the company to remember what they said and did over several of their past interactions.

Yet companies as a whole, and divisions such as marketing, sales, and service, manage each of these channels as silos, optimizing the customer experience for each channel independently but losing track of the customer’s overall journey as they jump from channel to channel.

“Organizations must be able to connect all the dots in order to see the ‘big picture’ of how customers interact with them across channels and touch points,” said Yochai Rozenblat, President of the NICE Enterprise Group. “Customer Journey Optimization helps organizations know where customers have been, what they’re trying to achieve, and why specific issues led them down a particular channel.”

The cloud-based Customer Journey Optimization solution, based on the NICE Customer Engagement Analytics platform, uses predictive and real-time analytics as well as patented machine learning technologies to identify customer behavior patterns and help determine customers’ next move, likeliness to churn, or interest in a particular product or offer. Organizations can use this information to personalize the customer experience in real time by deciding which offers or messages to present to a customer while an interaction is taking place.

Journey visualization allows organizations not only to focus on the individual journey but also to understand the impact of the thousands of journeys that take place each day. By analyzing and monitoring cross-channel paths, companies can use NICE Customer Journey Optimization to detect important insights about groups of people who exhibit a similar pattern of behavior. This could identify problems and opportunities that might once have gone undetected.

“Our solution is unique in enabling companies to identify journey bottlenecks and reduce customer effort for whole segments of customers, while at the same time enhancing and personalizing the experience for each individual customer,” said Rozenblat. “Understanding the customer journey is instrumental to improving customer experience and driving brand loyalty.”

Virtusa Awarded BSA Verafirm Certification Based On ISO SAM Standards

BSA | The Software Alliance today announced that it has awarded the Software Asset Management (SAM) based Verafirm certification to Virtusa Corporation a global information technology (IT) services company providing IT consulting, technology and outsourcing services. This certification recognizes best practices implemented by Virtusa Corporation in SAM through the entire software life cycle from procurment, inventory management, deployment, license compliance to usage monitoring.

Verafirm certification is the first and only industry certification based on ISO SAM standards, enables companies to be IT compliant.

“Today, organizations are recognizing software as a strategic asset, making Software Asset Management a critical business tool,” said Vipin Aggarwal, India Chair, BSA | The Software Alliance. “We congratulate Virtusa on achieving this certification, which recognizes it as a highly ethical company with strong corporate governance. Globally, India is already at the forefront of implementing SAM and we look forward to continued success with increasing adoption among private as well as government organizations.”

Kris Canekeratne, Chairman and CEO of Virtusa said, “We are delighted to be the fourth company in the world to be awarded the BSA Verafirm Certification.  It reaffirms our commitment to the governance and protection of intellectual property rights of software publishers, our partners and our clients, and lead the industry in ethical business practices and corporate governance.”

Companies are increasingly feeling the pressure from software publishers, accounting laws, government mandates and their own customers to demonstrate the use of legal software. This is further escalated by complex licensing rules and models. Recognizing the need to provide an acceptable, common framework, the BSA has developed Verafirm Certified which is an enterprise-level certification based on ISO SAM standards, in collaboration with leading independent auditors.

Madu Ratnayake, Senior Vice President & Head of Digital at Virtusa said, “Verafirm certification enabled us to validate our software governance approach. We have systematically enhanced our intellectual property and software governance process with automation for optimization and sustainability.  We are delighted to be recognized with BSA Verafirm Certification for our intellectual property management efforts. ”

Verafirm is a simple, convenient, and effective free online tool that lays the foundation for an organization to manage its software assets, stay compliant and connect with customers interested in doing business with ethical companies. It provides a platform for companies to mitigate potential business liabilities, ensure documents are accounted for in case of audits, reduce costs, improve business efficiency and protect their companies from the security risks associated with outdated or pirated software.

In addition to the certification, Verafirm offers a suite of products to help organizations of all sizes and in all industries understand, manage, and certify their software asset management programs. Other products include, Verafirm Registered, Verafirm Verified, Verafirm Supply Chain and Verafirm Professional.

In India, Verafirm Certified has been tested through pilot programs that were conducted with Symphony Services in 2011 and Delhi International Airports Limited (DIAL) in 2012. In 2013, KPIT became the first publicly listed company to receive the prestigious Verafirm Certified from BSA.