Rail poll to collect techies’ inputs

The Southern Railway and Technopark authorities are jointly conducting a survey among techies on how to develop the nearby Kazhakuttam railway station.

“One of our major demands is to allow stops for more trains at Kazhakuttam railway station,” said Mr. Binu Shankar, chief executive officer, Group of Technology Companies (GTech). “Once that happens more techies will travel in trains and this would prompt the Technopark companies to invest in developing the station, which now lacks even basic amenities.”

An e-form is being circulated among employees of all Technopark firms seeking their inputs on various issues including trains they would prefer to have stops at Kazhakuttam and the facilities they expect.

The survey also seeks the opinion of techies on opening an unreserved ticketing counter at the Technopark premises.

“Based on these inputs, the railway authorities would be chalking out various proposals on allowing stops to more trains at Kazhakuttam and setting up more facilities at the railway station,” said Mr. Binu.

The Thiruvananthapuram divisional railway manager, Mr. Rajesh Agrawal, and representatives of leading Technopark firms, including Infosys, UST Global, IBS, TCS and Nest, had a meeting last month on jointly developing the railway station.

A demand for naming the station as Kazhakuttam-Technopark is also pending.

At present, only a few passenger trains and one express train are stopping at the station. The station lacks basic amenities and does not even have a full-fledged ticket counter.

Philippines is a wake-up call for Indian IT industry'

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 8:

The Philippines emerging as the most-preferred destination for voice-based BPO destination is a wake-up call for the larger Indian BPO sector, says Mr V. K. Mathews, Executive Chairman, IBS Group.

The Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) had declared recently that its call centre business had grown over 20 per cent in 2010 to overtake India.

COST ARBITRAGE

Speaking to The Hindu Group of newspapers here, Mr Mathews said the Indian IT industry could not afford to sit back and presume that the ‘cost arbitrage' would continue to sustain its leadership in the non-voice BPO sector.

In fact, this could well prove its undoing given that year-on-year salary increase of approximately 8-10 per cent is fuelling wage inflation.

This could erode the level of cost arbitrage over time, and it would cease to be the key factor in decision-making process with respect to offshoring.

Mr Mathews is a member of the Executive Council National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), representing the first and only company registered in Kerala.

INVESTOR INTERTIA

With billing rates under pressure, there's evidence of investor resistance building in tandem with the overall poor business sentiment.

The enthusiasm about the Indian IT story too seems to be on the wane.

These are not welcome signs for the industry. It's here that IT products companies make a difference. They represent a manifestation of the non-linear growth model.

(Linear growth is referred to a model in which the more the number of people working, the more is revenue expected.)

GROWTH TARGET

The Nasscom Executive Council has been discussing how to push the non-linear model. Asked if this would get reflected in lesser hires/recruitment, Mr Mathews said that need not necessarily be the case.

“We'll continue to recruit, but we'll also ensure that the revenue per employee goes up.”

He said the downgrading of the euro zone, if and when it occurs, could impact the industry.

But he hastened to clarify that the Nasscom projection for 16-18 per cent growth in IT exports for this year has factored in this possibility.

IT sector prepares to move up value chain

With India losing the top slot in voice- based Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) to the Philippines, the domestic IT sector is gearing up to reinvent itself. The National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) is spearheading the reorientation drive with the focus on innovation and enhanced employee output.

Talking to The Hindu here on Thursday, V.K. Mathews, executive council member of NASSCOM and chairman, IBS Group, said the stiff competition from aggressive rivals across the world was forcing the domestic IT industry to take a relook at its approach to business. The changes, he hinted, could include retraining the workforce to maximise output with focus on value- added products and services.

The Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) had declared recently that its call centre business had grown over 20 per cent in 2010, to overtake India.

Mr. Mathews said Indian IT companies could no longer afford an employee intake corresponding to growth. “With wage increase and inflation adding to the cost of IT employment, it has become imperative to increase the value and revenue output per employee. We have to move up the value chain.”

Highlighting the need to provide better services and products, he said it was important to understand customer needs and come up with a business innovation approach.

“The Indian IT sector evolved from body shopping to projects to ODCs. But we are still at the low end of the value chain. We do only what we are told to do. This has to change. We need an innovative approach based on value enhancement that appeals to the customer.”

Value addition, he said, would obviate the need to increase headcount corresponding to business growth. Asked whether this would lead to a reduction in employee intake, he said, “We can continue recruiting as long as there is need for recruitment. We need to grow in value rather than just numbers. In the BPO sector, we have already lost, because of rising costs. We cannot maintain the cost advantage in a globally connected economy”.

Mr. Mathews, who is also vice-chairman of the State council, CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) and chairman of GTECH, the industry body for software companies in Kerala, said the Indian IT industry would have to utilise people better if it was to maintain the momentum of growth. “We need to be innovative. One way of innovation is to promote entrepreneurship.”

Sticking to a success formula, he said, takes the excitement out of the industry. “Our IT service model is driven to death. That is responsible for the lack of excitement. Even for executives, the excitement is gone out, they are bored of doing the same thing. They have to be able to do something they love to do. Innovation and entrepreneurship create excitement”.

Mr. Mathews said entrepreneurship and mentorship were crucial for India's transformation. NASSCOM, he said, had promised to mentor 50 outstanding Akshaya entrepreneurs in Kerala. “Entrepreneurship cannot be taught in a classroom. Nine out of 10 attempts will fail. Society has to be more forgiving. Failure has to be seen as a step to success.”

He said the Eurozone crisis could impact on IT spending in India if it extended over a period of time. He, however, termed the NASSCOM forecast of 17 to 18 per cent growth as realistic.

Terming the government decision to scrap the STPI scheme as a disaster, Mr. Mathews stressed the need for a more supportive tax and regulatory framework for the IT sector. The government, he said, has to take an industry-friendly view and allow the sector to grow.

Nasscom to take up mentoring of IT units in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec. 9:

The Kerala Regional Chapter of the National Association for Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) will promote mentoring and entrepreneurship in the State's IT sector.

The risk-averse nature of people coupled with the public resistance to accept failure have conspired to nix entrepreneurial initiatives in the State, says Mr V. K. Mathews, Member of the Executive council of Nasscom.

FORBEARANCE NEEDED

Society has to be more forgiving. Failure has to be seen as a step to success, he said while speaking here to The Hindu Group of Publications.

Entrepreneurship cannot be taught in a classroom. Nine out of 10 attempts will fail. But entrepreneurship and mentorship are vital for industry transformation.

Mr Mathews is the Executive Chairman of the IBS Group, Vice-Chairman of the State Council of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Chairman of GTECH (group of Technology Companies), the industry body for software companies in the State.

The Nasscom Regional Chapter has decided to take head-on the challenges on this front by meaningful intervention in the grassroots Akshaya e-services delivery model.

UNIQUE MODEL

Describing Akshaya as a unique Government-to-Citizen (G2C) interface, Mr Mathews said 50 best performing Akshaya units in the State would be selected for mentoring at the hands of Nasscom.

Mentoring would help these units to firm up business plans, chart out a course for revenue growth, access technologies and even arrange finances, Mr Mathews said.

This would lead to ‘better conversions' at the entrepreneurial end.

The local chapter of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) is also engaged in a similar exercise aimed generating deployable business plans and models through a contest.

VALUE CHAIN

Giving a historical perspective, he said he Indian IT sector evolved from the body shopping concept to hosting offshore development centres.

“But we are still at the low end of the value chain. We are order takers. This has to change. We need to home in on a fresh new strategy driven by value-addition,” he said.

We need to be innovative. One way of innovation is to promote entrepreneurship. Sticking to a success formula takes the excitement out of the industry, he added.

IT sector in Kerala eyeing Brazil, S.Africa

Having tapped into the emerging market in Europe, the IT industry in Kerala is all set to extend its footprint to Brazil and South Africa.

The Group of Technology Companies (GTech), the industry body of software companies in Kerala, is spearheading an initiative to scout the Latin American and African market for fresh business opportunities and work out partnership deals with compatible enterprises in the region.

Last week, a GTech delegation comprising representatives of 13 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) returned from a successful business trip to Germany and the Netherlands with a handful of deals. The team held several rounds of discussions with business leaders in Munich, Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Eindhoven and Amsterdam.

“What struck us most was the upbeat feeling about Kerala in most of the places we visited”, said Syed Ibrahim, office bearer of GTech. Talking to The Hindu here on Wednesday, Mr.Ibrahim who also represents the Indo German Chamber of Commerce said, “Germany was always seen as a tough nut to crack for the IT sector in Kerala, basically because the traditional business methods in that country are different from that in the US. Most small and medium enterprises are family- held and hence partnerships are marked by long gestation periods”.

In March, GTech took up a campaign to create awareness about the emerging business opportunities in Germany. “That initiative paid off and resulted in the successful European tour by the delegation from Kerala. The Indo German Chamber of Commerce and Invest in Bavaria chipped in to open up investment opportunities for us”, Mr.Ibrahim said.

The Chamber, he added, would have a key role in improving bilateral trade between Germany and India from the current 32 billion Euros to 50 billion Euros by 2050. “Efforts are on by the Chamber to touch base with new markets and potential customers in the south western region comprising Kerala and Karnataka”.

He said the `market connect’ strategy to link SMEs in Kerala and Germany would reap rich dividends for the state. “It is upto the Government of Kerala to utilise the opportunity well”.

Binu Sankar, CEO, GTech said most of the members of the delegation who were travelling to Germany for the first time, were taken aback by the warm reception. “The German hosts had gone out of their way to receive us and organise networking sessions”, he said.

“While SMEs in Germany see China as a competitive entity, they are comfortable doing business with us because of the compatibility in terms of culture, transparency of operations and patience in doing business. It has opened up the possibility of a long-lasting relationship”, Mr.Ibrahim said.

Suresh V. P, one of the members of the GTech delegation who struck a deal with an Amsterdam- based company to develop applications for smartphones, said mobility- based solutions offered good potential for the IT sector in Kerala to forge links with European partners, considering the high penetration of smartphones. Mr.Suresh, who is Executive Director of Experion, a Technopark-based firm, also closed a deal with the Danish army to develop mobile applications for a fitness- based training module.

While Zesty, another Technopark- based company inked a pact with two firms, one each in Germany and the Netherlands, three other members of the GTech delegation are expected to finalise agreements soon in areas like e- learning, social networking and mobile applications.

Thriving in Europe, GTECH eyes Africa, Latin America next

After unlocking virgin SME markets in continental Europe, the Group of Technology Companies (GTECH), a professional grouping representing the SME sector in Kerala, is toying with the African and Latin American shores.

In the bargain, the small-scale technology sector in the State may be now emerging as the bulwark of new technology alliances and collaborations with compatible entities in the developed West and developing mid- and Far-West.

German visit

A GTECH delegation representing 13 SME companies has just had a fruitful outing to Germany and the Netherlands in the past week, says Mr Syed Ibrahim, office-bearer of GTCH and who represents Kerala on the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce.

With the establishment of a new German Consulate-General's Office in Bangalore, a southwestern region of the Chamber, comprising the states of Kerala and Karnataka, has been carved out for focused activities in South India.

According to Mr Ibrahim, the Chamber would have a huge role to play in boosting trade relations between Germany and India from the current level of €32 billion to €50 billion by 2050.

The southwestern region of the Chamber accounts for 16.7 per cent of the total FDI coming into the country, most of which is now directed into Bangalore.

Claming share

“We would like to claim a share of the cake to ourselves in Kerala,” Mr Ibrahim said, adding that the SME connectivity between Kerala and peers in Germany would be an ideal conduit to direct some of the business.

The German hosts had gone out of their way to receive the GTECH delegation and were eager to have back-to-back networking sessions in Munich, Stuttgart and Nuremberg. It was no different in both Eindhoven and Amsterdam either, Mr Ibrahim said.

“The German Chamber as also the GTECH are upbeat on the prospects. It is up to the State Government to make most of the emerging business scenario,” he added.

GTECH would now act as the one-stop destination in Kerala in regard to foreign companies looking for support in consummating tie-ups, according to Mr Binu Sankar, Chief Executive Officer.

Potential partner

Already, Kerala has emerged as a potential partner for SME businesses in Scandinavia and the rest of western European countries thanks to exploratory visits taken up by earlier GTEC delegations.

There is a major SME presence in German trade and business, and most are family owned, Mr Ibrahim said.

The fact that Indian companies are comparatively less obsessive about intellectual property rights and the lax IP regime here may, by default, have acted as rallying points for the mostly family-owned German counterparts.

In fact, this may have helped Kerala technology companies earn the Germans' vote of confidence, according to Mr Suresh V. P., Executive Director, Experion, a Technopark-based player in the mobility space.

Striking rich

A member of the GTECH delegation, Experion struck it rich during the visit, closing deals with an Amsterdam-based company and later with the Danish Army for mobility-based solutions.

Social networking solutions and the constantly evolving ‘app-ortunities' in the I-phone and Android markets are enough to ensure a constant pipeline of business for the SME sector in India, according to Mr Suresh.

KERALA TO HOST NASSCOM EC MEET FOR THE FIRST TIME

National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) is hosting its Executive Council Meet in Trivandrum on 29 September 2011. This is for the first time that the Executive Council is holding its meeting in the state of Kerala. The day-long meeting will be held at the IBS campus in Technopark. NASSCOM is the premier trade body of the IT-BPO industries in India with more than 1200 members whose combined turnover exceeds 95% of the industry’s revenue and employs over 22 lakh professionals.

The Executive Council is the highest decision making body of NASSCOM and consists of business leaders like Mr. Rajendra Singh Pawar Chairman NIIT, Mr. N Chandrasekaran CEO & MD TCS, Mr. T K Kurien CEO Wipro, Mr. Avinash Vashistha Chairman & Country MD Accenture , Mr. R Chandrasekaran President and MD Cognizant Technology, Mr. Bhaskar Pramanik Chairman Microsoft India, Mr. Sudip Banerjee CEO L&T Infotech, Mr. Ganesh Lakshminarayanan President, Dell India, Ms. Neelam Dhawan MD Hewlett-Packard India, Mr. Arun Seth Chairman BT India and Mr. Krishnakumar Natarajan CEO & MD MindTree.

“The EC venue was originally slated for a metro city but we could prevail upon them to choose Kerala. Hosting such meetings is an important step in bringing the state onto the IT map of the country. It is indeed a rare occasion to have so many of the top IT stalwarts in Kerala all together” says Mr. VK Mathews, Executive Chairman of The IBS Group and the key player in bring the Executive Council Meet to the state. “On the 30^th of September, we are arranging a meeting with the Chief Minister, the IT minister and other senior functionaries of the Government, which would be a wonderful opportunity to showcase the core competency of Kerala. This is critical to attract more IT investments into the state” adds Mr. VK Mathews who incidentally is the first NASSCOM Executive Council Member to be selected from Kerala. Mr. Mathews is also the Chairman of GTech, the industry body for the software companies in Kerala.

A two hour interactive session between some of the NASSCOM Executive Council Members and students of select Engineering & Management Institutes is also organized at Mar Baselios College of Engineering & Technology, Trivandrum on 30^th September. “NASSCOM Executive Council represents companies that are the largest recruiters in the country of graduates with professional qualifications. This is a unique, first of its kind opportunity for the students & faculty in Kerala to learn from business leaders first hand, the nuances of the industry and their expectations from the students and academia” says Anoop P Ambika, Secretary, GTech

Dutch offer to tone up agri infra, shipping sectors

The Netherlands Government is looking to engage with the Kerala Government through targeted initiatives aimed at sharing its niche technological knowhow and formidable skills of execution in a variety of areas.

Shipping, logistics, inland waterways and agriculture and food processing suggest themselves as automatic choices as areas of collaboration, Ms Marijke A. van Drunen Littel, Consul-General, Kingdom of The Netherlands, told Business Line here.

PORT DEVELOPMENT

She was in Thiruvananthapuram at the invite of the Group of Technology Companies (GTECH) to scout for opportunities of doing business in the small and medium IT industry space. There are two aspects to getting involved in shipping, she explained. The first one is port development.

“The last time we were here, we had discussions with the Chairman of the Cochin Port Trust,” Ms van Drunen Littel said. The Chairman, Cochin Port Trust, along with the Secretary of the Department of Shipping, New Delhi, have followed this up with a visit to the Netherlands.

Discussions are still on, and the guests from Kerala have now been put in touch with Dutch consultants on ways to developing the Cochin Port Trust area.

The Chairman of the port trust is on record having said that there is lots of spare capacity available at Kochi. He had also wanted a consultant to advise him to how best utilise this idle capacity.

INLAND WATERWAYS

“We are also looking at how we can get involved in the inland waterways sector in Kerala. There’s an MoU between the Indian Government and the Netherlands on developing waterways. We’re already working in the Hooghly area,” the Consul-General said.

The ship building industry, which is growing here, is another sector that also can hope to source technological and managerial inputs from the Dutch industry.

“We’ve specialising in moving heavy equipment through water. If we are to think of the depth of the waters, we should also think of the depth of the barges that can navigate them.”

In the context of Kerala, one might have to redesign barges that don’t go deep into the waterway and still can operate.

“We’ve the requisite technology available. Before I came to India, I was in Brazil where we were doing exactly the same thing over the Amazon and other rivers.

SHIP BUILDING

“We’ve been able to design ships that can negotiate the uneven terrain of the river bed that rises and falls along course. We hope to bring that technology here,” the Consul-General said.

Speaking about the need for developing hinterland connectivity, she said that in the Netherlands basically everything comes out into the Rotterdam port.

“From there we put them on to ships, barges and trucks or trains. And it’s a very sophisticated way of doing it. We’re also specialised in developing the inter-modals. That’s something one should be looking to achieve in Cochin port as well.

“How do we go to the hinterland, how do we reach the port from the hinterland. Those are things we’re specialising in, and a number of companies dealing with the job have been put into touch with the Cochin Port.”

MOU WITH KARNATAKA

According to Mr V. Vijay Kumar, Chief Representative, Netherlands Business Support Office, Chennai, an MoU has been signed with the Karnataka Government for putting up a comprehensive agriculture infrastructure and logistics project.

The Karnataka Government had appointed Mahindra Consulting Engineers to do a detailed study on how to improve the entire agri infrastructure in the State.

And Mahindra identified the Netherlands as the best in terms of sourcing requisite technology and efficiency in agro infrastructure and logistics and had in turn approached the consulate.

This led to the signing of the MoU between the Karnataka Government and the Netherlands Government. A team led by he State Agriculture Minister is going to Netherlands on September 20, subsequent to which we would start work on implementation of the project.

“We would like to do the same thing here, if the Kerala Government is interested,” Mr Kumar said.

INTEGRATED PACKAGE

In fact when the Netherlands delegation came to Bangalore, it was very impressed with the way Mahindra Consulting had done the background work.

The delegation could exactly get to know what it wanted to do, how it should go about doing it and start from where.

“If the Kerala Government is able to do such a pre-feasibility study on what it needs to do to improve logistics sector, then we can step in,” he added.

But, according to Ms van Drunen Littel, Kerala should look at developing the project in an integrated manner.

“This should provide for good ports, good infrastructure and supply and delivery mechanism, including cold chain and reefers etc., packaging the consignment and delivering them on time on ships/trains/trucks that are able to travel at the right speed to deliver at the right places…,” the Consul-General said.

Kerala mulls setting up ICT Academy on PPP model

Chief Minister Shri Oommen Chandy has requested Lakshmi Narayanan, the Vice Chairman of Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS) to explore the possibility of setting up an ICT Academy in Kerala on a Private Public Participation (PPP) model similar to the ICT Academy in Tamil Nadu (ICTAT). ICTAT is an initiative of Government of India, Government of Tamil Nadu and CII with participation of companies like CTS & TCS to improve the quality of students passing out in TN to make them industry ready and immediately employable in the ICT industry.

Lakshmi had called on the CM at his office in Secretariat during his visit to Thiruvananthapuram to address a meeting of the GTech Leadership Forum on September 02, 2011. The CM has asked GTech to coordinate this initiative and submit a proposal in this regard. On being asked about CTS expansion plans in Kerala, Lakshmi told that they want the Kochi centre to reach a critical mass and then they would consider expanding to other locations in Kerala.

Later interacting with the CEOs and top Executives of IT Companies in Kerala at the GTech Leadership Forum, Lakshmi shared his experiences of founding CTS and leading the company which is now expected to reach the 6 Billion USD revenue milestone by the end of this year. He confided that during their initial years, they didn’t have a vision to build a grand empire but to set modest goals and achieve them. “Customer satisfaction and values on how to do business was part of the culture and DNA of the company. We wanted to deliver not just a service but an experience”, he added.

Lakshmi also mentioned that availability of talent, cost of talent and the ease of doing business are some key factors that often companies decide on where to investment. He advised the budding entrepreneurs present there to specialise and focus on one or two competent areas and then develop in terms of quality and capacity.

K M Chandrashekhar IAS, Vice Chairman, Kerala Planning Board said, “To a great extent, the perception regarding Kerala is different but why Kerala was not a major IT contributor was something that needs some introspection”. He added that the Government was serious about infrastructure and was looking at Private Public Participation for skill development at a very large scale.

GTech is the Group of Technology Companies working out of Government owned IT Parks in Kerala. The GTech Leadership Forum is aimed at bringing the thought leaders on a common platform to formulate an action plan to facilitate the accelerated growth of the IT Industry in Kerala.

Praise for police

The Group of Technology Companies (GTech), industry body of IT companies in Kerala, has thanked the Police Department for its swift response in dealing with the anti-social elements who harassed an IT professional and his wife here on Wednesday.

In e-mails to the Chief Minister and the Director-General of Police, GTech said it was heartening that the police acted with alacrity and a profound sense of duty in apprehending the goons.

“Given the nature of the job, IT professionals have to work late at night and employees, especially women, find it intimidating venturing out on the streets. While most companies provide company transport, often short distances would have to be covered by foot. Lumpen elements do take advantage of the cover of darkness and play mischief.”

“If the police discharge its duty professionally, as it did on Wednesday, IT professionals who have to return home after dark will feel much safer. An ecosystem that supports free and safe movement of IT professionals at all times is an important consideration for companies when they assess various destinations to start operations. The commendable action on Wednesday sends the right signal and we will like to thank all the individual policemen for their prompt action,” said GTech.