SOME TAKEAWAYS FOR IT PLAYERS

These are some inputs that I could collect from the DQ Week Solution Provider Summit hels at Kathmandu Nepal by Cybernedia Group. May be you will find this useful for your planning in this year.This comes to you courtesy McKinsey & Internationa Data Corporation.

* 2009 will be an year of capital non-availability
* Globally SMB spend has equaled Enterprise spend. (SMB is the star now)
* The Service Sector will be vulnerable sector along with segments such as Power, Infrastructure etc
* A V shaped recovery is expected for Economy in India (take less time to recover)
* What needs to be operationally managed well are supply chain, pricing, wastages & overheads.
* Apply war room tactics in operations. (Urgency, tightness, instantaneousness, alert, quick action, resource optimization)
* Use the time to build up additional capabilities/skills in the company and its people
* Do not go beyond 3 month plans. Give more attention to daily MIS by CXO/Profit centre heads.

Some statistics & findings:

* From 2008 to 2009 National Market share of hardware had moved from 59% to 55.5%, Service from 31.5% to 34.5 % and Software from 9.5 to 10%. This move will further in coming years. (Hardware share as part of IT spend is reducing whereas Services & Software spend is increasing.)
* PC market growth has come down to 3.5 % (by unit). Laptop is growing by 35% of overall PC market. IT compounded annual growth has come down to 18% from 25%
* By 2013, IT market in India will be worth INR 2,20,000 Crores.
* Cumulatively IT in India will grow by 16% in the next 5 years.
* The consumer, in coming times will not be too enamored by brands but by the benefit derived from product/solution
* Web 2.0. Social Networking & SaaS are growing considerably.
* Lots of New Services will get added to customer acceptability.
* From IT Infrastructure Build up and consolidation, it has now come to IT infrastructure Leverage.

TOP 10 PREDICTIONS AS PER IDC:

1. There will be slowdown in the growth of IT/ITES in India
2. Global IT spend will come down by half
3. India will be the fastest growing market for IT in A PAC
4. There will be growth in IT optimization technologies and IT usage( Virtualization/unified Communication/ITSM etc will get accepted by all IT users)
5. Telecom Vertical Growth will be significant.
6. Outsourcing will get consolidated to large vendors such as Infosys,TCS,HCL, Wipro, Suderland,Cognizant etc (beware small BPO players!)
7. Enterprises will look at an INTEGRATED SECURITY APPROACH
8. Though will not come to the mainstream, 'cloud computing' experimentations will continue
9. New Value Proposition will evolve for the CHANNEL.
10. Consumer will continue to be elusive to convergence

HOPELESS NEPAL

Last week, I had an opportunity to visit Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal in connection with the DQ Week Solution Provider Summit that was held there by Cybermedia, the leading Media group in the area of IT & high technology. For the last 5 years, every year, DQ week conducts this event in the beginning of the year. Last year, it was held at Andamans & Nicobar. About 100 leading IT solution providers from all over the country partake in the deliberations which in addition to being a knowledge & experience sharing event, is also considered as an annual get together by the fraternity.

Nepal always was considered as an exotic location by many. Lying on the belly of the mighty Himalayas with the planet Earth earth’s tallest peak as its crown, Nepal gave a high to its visitors who took pride in being on the top of the world. However developments of the last few years were not good for the Himalayan Kingdom (?). After the tragic death of King Birendra, who always kept a balance and tried his earnest to bring up the countrymen, the rule of his brother King Gyanendra was such a bad phase that it got together all the left guerilla group to fight the king. After prolonged agitation, people united under the Mao leader ‘Prachanda’ and fought the elections. Combining with the Madhesi (The Indians in Nepal) parties, a coalition Government was formed in Nepal. The traditional politicians of Nepal, coming under the Nepali Congress party was routed in the election. The first thing Prachanda did was to remove the King and declare the nation as a Republic. The Nepali Constituent Assemble is currently on, to frame the constitution, laws and penal codes for the new Republic.

In the process, the nation Nepal had slipped very badly in the economic and development front. To me the place looked pathetically downtrodden indeed. With about 18 hours of power-cut a day, with each of the ruling coalition parties at the throat of each other, the lawlessness, blame game and politicking fully on, the developments of the country took a back seat. I could not see dreams in the eyes of the youth of Nepal. They looked very deadpan and uninterested. The construction activities are unscientific, the roads are narrow and full of potholes and the vehicles, very old and archaic. It will take a long time, strenuous efforts and very good statesmanship from its leaders to bring Nepal forward. At this point in time, I do not see any hope for the ravaged nation.

The Solution Provider Summit too reflected the essence of the times that we are currently undergoing. It was just an event with not much of takeaways. Sadly the summit truly manifested the mood of the host country.

To add to our agony, we guys from Kerala (three of us) missed our connecting flight from Delhi to Cochin due to the delayed take off our flight from Kathmandu. The coordinator and the travel agent from the host side did precious little to help us out. This resulted in us getting stranded at the airports of Delhi and Mumbai for close to 16 hours, most of which formed part of a sleepless night.

The whole experience of the Summit and Nepal was like an eminently forgettable bad dream.

WELCOME 2009

Finally Year 2009 is here.

While saying good bye to Year 2008, lots of us must have had a sigh of relief. Indeed it had been a difficult year for many. Here is prayers and best wishes for a wonderful Year 2009 to all. I am sure like me; many of you would be really looking forward to having a joyous new year.

In the beginning of the year every one makes the New Year resolutions. After taking stock of what had happened to the year that went by, the turn to the New Year gives people an opportunity for probably changing course. A resolution will help the cause. Though one is not sure how far will one be ready to put efforts to make the resolution come true, it is kind of fun to make one. Personally for me I would look forward to a healthy year, by its true sense. This year is significant to me as this year I would come to the right side of my life span. So I am supposed to have more wisdom and maturity with the year passing. (My only worry is people would call me an old man now). A healthy body should leverage on my wisdom and maturity to make me a better package for the year.

What would one wish for the world? First of all, I would pray for the instances of terrorism to come down. Yes, if there is a big black blotch on the face of earth today, that is the after effects of the terrorist strikes that happen at the most unexpected hours. The worry is that the trouble spots of the world continue to be so. In Pakistan for one, there is still no diminishing of the activities of various terror groups. In Afghanistan, in spite of the America led, World control on it, there is plenty of news about the increasing activities of Taliban. In the Middle East, Israel had enough of the Hamas attacks coming through rockets that it had decided to strike the Gaza strip very severely and many are dying due to that and in the course, we would see more Hamas attacks. The infamous LTTE is on the run and Srilankan military had taken a vow to finish it off this year. In Bangladesh, the incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina reiterated that she is determined to get the country rid of terrorists. There are more sources of war activities however, the Kurds, the Iraqis, the Latin American terror groups, the African clans, the drug cartel of Colombia, The Russian mafia, the list is endless. One only hopes that in the year 2009, there would be a respite to such activities. It is time indeed.

The other hope is for the world to get back to normalcy in matters related to economy. In the USA, the effect of the huge recession is still making heavy impact. The world is looking forward to the incumbent President Barrack Obama doing something to rein the tumbling. (One can only pity him for he doesn’t have any magic wand but some policy making in the right direction will help) The economy of the planet Earth is dependent upon USA and any change happening there would affect other nations. With huge investments in US, other countries cannot think of USA going down and if that happens, the whole world will collapse immediately.

Will 2009 herald the power axis of the world to shift? The talk of India & China coming to economic leadership of the world is very much there. I do not think that all of a sudden it is going to happen. Such a thing, if it is to happen, will only be an evolution and that would take time. Such gradual evolutionary changes are not pain inflicting and it allows people to come in terms with it over a period of time.

I have inkling that Year 2009 will be a great year for humanity. Let us all pray that it evolves smoothly.

As smooth as silk, as the Thais say……