August 15th 2011 Issue

CLOUD WHITEBOOK /85

C100

SPECIAL ISSUE

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Vol XXIX No 15 I August 15, 2011 I Subscriber copy

The Business of Infotech

5,680

Vol-II

5( ,19(17,1* 7KH QHZ UXOHV 9HUWLFDOL]DWLRQ QRQ OLQHDU JURZWK WUDQVIRUPDWLRQDO FDSDELOLW\ DQG JUHDWHU RQVKRUH SUHVHQFH The DQ Top 20 in 2010-11

1,217

Infosys BPO

Aditya Birla Minacs

Accenture India

IBM Global Process Services

Exl Service

Cognizant BPO

Hinduja Global Solutions

Xchanging India

Convergys India

6%

-9%

12%

8%

27%

7%

27%

42%

24%

-7%

11%

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

871 16

17

24/7 Customer

HCL BSERV

Intelenet Global

12% -18%

8% 18

-17% -13% 19

BEYOND THE DQ200: THE NEXT 50 IT COMPANIES /67 136 pages including cover

MphasiS BPO 472

WNS Global Services

7%

3

645

Firstsource Solutions

28%

2

3i Infotech

Wipro BPO

25%

1

716

Aegis BPO

24%

857

TCS BPO

891

Genpact

893

REVENUE IN C CR 942

1,224

High > 31% Above average 20-30% Average 10-19% Below average <10%

1,292

1,436

1,518

GROWTH

1,545

1,685

1,833

2,249

2,352

3,928

%32

Special Subscription offer on page 114

20

How do you make your customers feel like the only ones on your network?

www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

Copyright 2011 Nokia Siemens Networks. All rights reserved.

CONTENTS August 15, 2011

Overview/15

Re-invent

Restructure

Regain The BPO segment is undergoing a major VTCPUHQTOCVKQP $WV VJGTG KU PQ FGſ PKVG VTGPF [GV

TOP20 BPO 1 | Genpact

12 | Cognizant BPO

2 | TCS BPO

13 | Hinduja Global Solutions

3 | Aegis BPO 4 | Wipro BPO 114

REGULARS

5 | Firstsource Solutions 6 | WNS Global Services

Online Content ........................ 8

7 | Infosys BPO

Edit ...................................... 10

8 | Aditya Birla Minacs

Inbox .................................... 11

9 | Accenture India

Ganesha ............................... 14 News...........................130-133 Afterthought....................... 134

4 | August 15, 2011

10 | IBM Global Process Services 11 | Exl Service visit www.dqindia.com

14 | Xchanging India 15 | Convergys India 16 | Intelenet Global 17 | HCL BSERV 18 | 24/7 Customer 19 | 3i Infotech 20 | MphasiS BPO 21 | Syntel 22 | Tech Mahindra DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

THE DQ 20

CLOUD WHITEBOOK

Rank

Company Name

150

Shwetha Computers & Peripherals

68

86 | Managing the Transition to Cloud Cloud adoption is a journey which needs to be carefully planned by having a roadmap in place for the applications to migrate to the cloud

193

Supreme Computers

68

201

Mega Compu World

68

202

Datamatics Global Services

68

203

Aftek Infosystems

70

204

Alco Infotech

70

205

Eastern Logica Infoway

70

206

Mahindra Engineering Services

70

207

Creative Peripherals & Distribution

71

208

Quick Heal Technologies

71

209

Softcell Technologies

71

210

Supreme Technologies

71

211

Jetking Infotrain

72

212

Ruckus Wireless India

72

213

Locuz Enterprise Solutions

72

214

Orient Technologies

72

215

D-Link India

74

216

Positive Systems

74

217

Tera Software

74

218

Apara Technology Enterprise

74

219

EdServ SoftSystems

75

220

Four Soft

75

105 | How Virtual Can Private Cloud Be? As virtualization becomes the foundation of a private cloud strategy, IT will be run and governed differently

221

Tavant Technologies

75

222

Blue Star Infotech

75

223

Prodapt Solutions

76

108 | Revving Up the RoI Cloud technologies must ‘talk’ easily to existing on-premise IT infrastructures and enable easy single-window management

224

New Wave Computing

76

225

Noveon Systems

76

226

Targus Technologies

76

111 | Building a Private Cloud A private cloud is designed to meet a customer’s internal IT needs and is a means to deliver IT as a service to an organization’s internal customers

227

Velocis Systems

78

228

Challenger Computers

78

229

Citrix India

78

230

Park Electronik

78

231

Elitecore Technologies

79

232

Artek Enterprises

79

233

International Marketing Company

79

234

AlliancePROSYS

79

235

Dax Networks

80

236

QuantM Net Technologies

80

124 | Cloud is Reshaping Hybrids Let’s see how a hybrid game is being played behind the cloud philosophy

237

Suntronic Systems

80

238

K Computers

80

239

Infrasoft Technologies

82

126 | All for Standards While many organizations are working on using the cloud for noncore, surround applications etc, there are instances of large organizations too shifting their core applications to the cloud

240

Ozone Systems

82

241

KLG Systel

82

242

Saboo Computers

82

243

Aruba Networks

83

244

Choice Solutions

83

245

Neilsoft

83

246

CCS Infotech

83

247

Print Link Computer & Communication

84

248

Microcare Computers

84

249

Digicom Systems

84

250

Peripheral Engineers

84

88 | Building a Case for Private Cloud IT should take a leadership role in helping companies move forward and extract the value available from IT 90 | Getting Cloud Ready Private cloud represents a productive way for technology services to be provided, consumed, and managed 94 | One Step at a Time Cloud puts focus on network and data management implying that organizations with inadequate risk management processes, clogged pipelines or poor data facilities will find it difficult to enjoy the benefits of cloud 98 | A Hybrid Model CIOs today must make the right choice between private clouds, public clouds and traditional IT to maximize benefits, minimize risk, and propel business 102 | Overcoming the Security Barrier In addition to the usual challenge of developing secure IT systems, there’s an added level of risk since essential services are often outsourced to a third party

116 | Building a Case for Private Cloud The top 3 reasons for going in for a private cloud include security concerns, quality of service concerns, and long-term costs 118 | Addressing SaaS Security Concerns On-demand applications or SaaS offer mid-sized companies major advantages like reduced operational complexity, trustworthy security, privacy protection, etc

63| Rankings: DQ Top20 IT Companies

EVENT 128| Cloud Computing: Taking Off…for the Clouds Microsoft’s big cloud and its ecosystem plan can be a game changer 6 | August 15, 2011

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TOP STORIES From 16th to 31st July 2011 z 20 Hot E-Commerce Start-ups z Tale of 20 E-tailers: Dataquest’s List of the 20 Hottest E-commerce Startups in India z Are we Ready for the Cloud? z Status of E-gov Projects z The Second Coming of e-Commerce z STPIs: Why are they Disappearing?

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8 | July 31, 2011

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EDITORIAL COLUMN Ibrahim Ahmad Group Editor

z Fortis Healthcare: Private Cloud Helps z High Altitude Clouds z Cloud Service Brokerage is the New Buzzword

Getting them In Shyamanuja Das Editor of Dataquest

z Tech, Telecom Dominate Most Valuable Companies List

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Edit

Getting them In Ibrahim Ahmad ibrahima@cybermedia.co.in

he NCPEDP-MphasiS Universal Design awards for the disabled people will be out by the time this column is published. Thanks to my friend Javed Abidi, the relentless fighter for the cause of disability in India and across the world, I was privy to the results and thought it fit to take this issue up.

Empowering disabled people is an important social cause, and CyberMedia has in the past associated with some such initiatives. I also believe that the IT industry will be one of the direct beneficiaries.

While I am, like all others, happy and celebrating the good show that Indian IT industry put up during the 2010-11 fiscal, it adds to our pleasure when we see that finally some work is beginning to happen that will provide access to those who have been denied it so far—people with disabilities.

Amongst the various categories of awards, it is a proud moment that 2 out of 3 awards in the ‘individual with disabilities’ category have gone to 2 young men who are IT experts themselves. For instance, Prasant Ranjan Verma has helped set up over 100 ICT labs for developing digital content that can be accessed by disabled people. Similarly, Shrirang Prakash Sahasrabudhey has developed tools that allow the visually impaired to access the computers and the internet, and is co-owner of several patents.

In the ‘working professionals’ category again, 2 out of 3 winners are IT professionals, in a sense. Prof Anubam Basu from the Computer Science Department at IIT Kharagpur is a winner because he played a key role in inventing cost effective assistive tools like Sparsha and Sanyog that help disabled children with education and communication. And PJ Mathew Martin of Ali Yavar Jang National Institute of the Hearing Handicapped, has come out with a design that allows disabled people access to mass media, and allows YouTube videos to have captions, for the deaf, and machine translation for the blind, in 61 languages. Just close your eyes and imagine a visually or hearing impaired person enjoying YouTube!

Finally, in the ‘organizations’ category also 2 of the 4 awards have gone to IT companies. My salute to all these winners. Clearly there are so many doable ways in which at least some part of the roughly 70 mn disabled people of India can be provided access and brought into the national mainstream. I am sure, focus and support from the big brothers of Indian IT (aren’t we missing them here) will be of great help. After all, revenue and bottom-line is not everything in life.

T

Vol XXIX No 15

August 15, 2011

CHIEF EDITOR: Prasanto Kumar Roy GROUP EDITOR: Ibrahim Ahmad EDITOR: Shyamanuja Das EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Atreyee Ganguly SR ASST EDITOR: Shobha Sivakumar SR ASST EDITOR: Stuti Das CONTENT EDITOR: Shrikanth G (Chennai) SR CORRESPONDENT: Shilpa Shanbhag (Mumbai), Drishti D Manoah (Delhi), Akanksha Prasad (Bengaluru) ASST EDITOR: Ekta Saxena ASST EDITOR: Onkar Sharma, Rukhsar Saleem

10 | August 15, 2011

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Vol XXIX No 014 I July 31, 2011 I Subscriber copy

The Business of Infotech

23,227

(DFK RI WKH '4 LV QRZ D EQ SOXV FRPSDQ\ WKRXJK WKH 1H[W DUH JURZLQJ IDVWHU 21,393

24,899

The $bn Club Â&#x2021; 8 new top execs in DQ20 Â&#x2021; 8 new entrants in DQ50 Â&#x2021; A quarter of DQ200 see leadership changes 14,111

The DQ Top 20 in 2010-11

Dell India

Intel India

Accenture India

SAP India

Mahindra Satyam

Tech Mahindra

Microsoft India

MphasiS

14%

28%

2%

35%

32%

35%

26%

34%

18%

18%

31%

-1%

11%

20%

15%

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

5,049

Oracle India

37%

4

4,819

Cisco Systems India

30%

3

4,711

Redington India

13%

2

4,498

Ingram Micro India

6,108

HCL Infosystems

5,672

HCL Technologies

22%

1

5,146

IBM India

9,274

Cognizant Technology Solutions

8,157

Hewlett-Packard India

7,934

Wipro

7,666

High > 31% Above average 20-30% Average 10-19% Below average <10%

Infosys

9,766

GROWTH

25%

150 pages including cover

The DQ Top20 volume 1(Dataquest, July 31, 2011) has a very good layout. The write-up on each of the Top20 companies is very apt and informative talking about the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s current focus.

Sonali PS, Bengaluru

12,137

14,132

Figures are in Ccrore _ $1= C45.62 for FY11

TCS

JULY 31, 2011

25,997

33,112

Vol-I

DQ Top20: The $bn Club

Special Subscription offer on page 134

This is with reference to the volume 1 edition of DQ Top20 (Dataquest, July 31, 2011). It was really well composed and too informative. Great job!

Priya Nair, Mumbai

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Are We Ready For a Social Media Policy?â&#x20AC;&#x2122; This is with regard to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Are We Ready For Social Media Policy?â&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Dataquest, June 30, 2011), the article was well-formed and touched upon the issue of social cloud cast. The author has very rightly termed social networking in ofďŹ ce as social media, because it is a viral platform of yet another WoM advertising. In todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s increasingly web buffet scenario, we need to tame the diarrhoea of words not the platforms (as well as security and productivity being the highlighted concerns in this issue).

Rohit Badhwar, program manager, Business Action Against Corruption (BAAC), Commonwealth Business Council, London UK

This is with reference to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Are We Ready For a Social Media Policy?â&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Dataquest, June 30, 2011). It has turned out very well. Well-written and very useful!

Anoop Handa, chief information officer, Fullerton India Credit Co

I want to congratulate the Dataquest team for a wonderful edition (Dataquest, July 31, 2011). The content was well-written and well searched with an in-depth analysis. Keep it up guys!

Mohan Nath, New Delhi

Stunted: STPI I really found your article â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Stuntedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Dataquest, June 30, 2011) fascinating to read. Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s advantage as an IT superpower will marginalize due to recent scrapping of STPI. I liked the detail in which the article is written and specially STP versus SEZ. Keep it up.

Diya Aggarwal, Mumbai

Platform at the Center This is with reference to your article â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Platform at the Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Dataquest, June 30, 2011). The article was very knowledgeable. It was interesting to know that Infosys is taking many of its existing platforms to cloud. Also it was very informative.

to read about the evolving successful system.

Prashant Mishra, Mumbai

Learning the Ropes I read your article â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Learning the Ropesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Dataquest, July 15, 2011)and found it really interesting to know how the CEO of Deals and You became an entrepreneur. It was an inspiring article.

Amit Kumar, Chandigarh

Evolving Language Technologies I found your article â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Evolving Language Technologiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Dataquest, June 30, 2011) very knowledgable and informative. As the technology is evolving, the English dominant communications technologies are turning into vernacular mediums so that it is accessible to every Indian.

I liked the ďŹ&#x201A;ow of the article. It is rightly said that the world is now taking lessons from India on how to manage the complexities of languages, scripts, etc, successfully.

Meeta Majumdar, Kolkata

Blessing in Disguise I happened to read the article â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Blessing in Disguiseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Dataquest, June 30,2011). It was amazing and really worth reading. The price hike is a thing to worry for Microsoft, but this hike is a way to strengthen and stabilize the market on a long-term basis. Good job!

Manoj Verma, New Delhi

AN Sharma, Chandigarh

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This is with reference to the article â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Collaborate to Prosperâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Dataquest, July 15, 2011). CIOs are adopting modern collaborative tools which are enhancing the organizational performance. The article was informative and in-depth. It was nice visit www.dqindia.com

114 August 15, 2011 | 11

Inbox Eating into Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Growth This is with reference to your article â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Eating into Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Growthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Dataquest, June 30, 2011). It was really surprising to know that Indian companies do not account for licensed software assets which causes large scale tax losses to the Indian exchequer every year. Keep it up.

Rahul Malhotra, New Delhi

Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Fastest Supercomputer: The SAGA-220 I read your article â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Fastest Supercomputer the SAGA-220â&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Dataquest, June 30, 2011) and found it extremely interesting. It was fascinating to know that the fastest supercomputer with an investment of huge amount has been designed by a team of 15 researchers. Technology is really evolving.

KV Srinivas, Chennai

Corrigendum

12 | August 15, 2011

n

The corrected graph of Texas Instruments (Dataquest, July 31, 2011, page no 87 ) is provided here.

3

Accenture www.accenture.com

5

Base Corporation www.basebatteries.com

Growth

33%

526

-2%

394 5%

95% 2008-09

5%

95% 2009-10

402 10%

Export

90% 2010-11

Domestic

Errors are regrettedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Ed visit www.dqindia.com

135

Check point www.checkpoint.com

45

Cisco www.cisco.com

23

Donjin Communication www.donjin.com

49

Featherlite www.featherliteindia.com

95

Galgotia galgotiacollege.edu

20

Grapecity www.grapecity.com

51

HCL Technologies www.hcltech.com

19 28-29 7

Kyocera global.kyocera.com

27

Leviton www.leviton.com

17

Matrix www.MatrixComSec.com

13

Mindlance www.mindlance.com

87

Mro-tek www.mro-tek.com

93

NEC www.necindia.in

77

Nikom www.nikom.in

81

NSN www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com Numeric Power Systems www.numericups.com

n The corrected graph of Accel Limited (Dataquest, July 31, 2011, page no 120) is provided here.

Page No.

Accel Frontline Ltd www.accel-india.com

IBM www.ibm.com

Adv.

head honchos www.headhonchos.com

This is with reference to Euronet India proďŹ le (Dataquest, July 31, 2011) on page no 129, the MDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s name is Sunil Nair. n This is with reference to Wipro proďŹ le (Dataquest, July 31, 2011) on page no 42, the key people in the management includes Sambuddha Deb, executive vice president & chief global delivery ofďŹ cer, and Dr Anurag Srivastava, chief technology ofďŹ cer. n This is with reference to HPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proďŹ le (Dataquest, July 31, 2011), the WebOS slate and smartphonesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;HP TouchPad, HP Pre3, and the HP Veerâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;are not launched in India as yet. n This is with regard to Dellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proďŹ le (Dataquest, July 31, 2011) on page 60, Suresh Vaswaniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s designation should read as chairman, Dell India and EVP, Dell Services. n This is with reference to Tata Technologiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; proďŹ le (Dataquest, July 31, 2011) on page 96, the highlights should read as: Appointed John Howaniec as president, PLM Solutions; ďŹ led a few patents in the area of automotive product development; and opened a new engineering center at Bengaluru.

2 37

PCI www.riello-pci.com

101

Sai Infosystems www.saicare.com

33

Schneider Electric www.schneider-electric.co.in

25

Socomec UPS India Ltd www.socomec-ups.co.in

47

Stulz www.stulz.com

39

Sukam www.su-kam.com

61

Thought Work www.thoughtworks.com Source: DQ estimates

n

Advertisement Index

Toshiba e-studio www.estudio.com Tulip www.tulip.net Tyco www.tycoelectronics.com Zoho Corporation Email: sales@zohocorp.com

120123 43 136 9 91

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

Ganesha

DR GANESH NATARAJAN

The Turtle Waltz

IT industry is likely to face a slowdown in growth and economic, political, and social factors will largely be responsible

DR GANESH NATARAJAN Dr Ganesh Natarajan is vice chairman & CEO of Zensar Technologies and a member of Nasscom’s chairmen’s council. He can be reached at maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in

n 20 years of international travel, I must have experienced every possible reason for flight delays, from the non-availability of a ladder at Saratov airport in 1995 to multiple de-icing needs at Boston’s Logan airport in 2009 but the recent experience at JFK, New York’s busiest airport has to take the cake. Over 70 aircrafts were delayed for an hour because they just stood lined up on the ramp waiting for the runway to be cleared of an army of turtles, that had emerged from the adjoining pond on a warm June morning to bask in the sun.

The turtle waltz was probably an omen of the times where multiple factors—economic, political, and social— seem to be in collusion to slow down the rate of growth of the IT sector. The launch of the election campaign in the US in the cloud of continuing unemployment levels and over half a dozen Republican candidates throwing their hat in the ring, will put a sharper sting into the election rhetoric that is likely to unfold during the Presidential battle. The continuing economic sluggishness in key Western markets with Japan down for the count also do not augur well for IT spending during the latter part of this year, although demand and new order inflow is robust at present for all IT firms.

Underlining this point in his keynote address at the recent World IT & BPO Forum held in Jersey City, former Harvard President and Obama’s economic advisor Larry Summers cautioned the 300 delegates that an economic recovery was going to be slow and painful. The picture he painted of the unfortunate American citizen who sees the loss of manufacturing

I

14 | August 15, 2011

“The next few months will be interesting, as demand problems get compounded by cost pressures caused by wage increases in India” and then service jobs to global destinations, and then raising of personal tax to help the ‘bail out of corporations’ would not be a pretty one if some political forces choose to raise the outsourcing bogey again in the coming months.

He argued passionately in his speech for the continuation of global sourcing, stating unambiguously that any move to limit American corporate freedom in this regard would result in their competitiveness being eroded and further aggravate the problems of boosting domestic and international demand for American goods and services. A galaxy of speakers including academicians, CEOs, and CIOs and my own plenary speech outlined the progress that the Indian industry has made in becoming true strategic partners in transformation.

The next few months will be interesting, as demand problems get compounded by cost pressures caused by wage increases in India and quality issues caused by an excessive focus on fresher recruitment by all IT firms. Strategic moves to improve quality of business and non-linearity of revenues will need to be accelerated for revenue and profit growth to sustain in the industry in FY12 and beyond!

visit www.dqindia.com

| DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

OVERVIEW

Re-invent

Restructure

Regain The BPO segment is undergoing a major transformation.

But there is no definite trend yet SHYAMANUJA DAS shyamanujad@cybermedia.co.in

I

t is increasingly becoming difficult to talk the CIO who is either fully responsible or the most about the BPO companies collectively as an dominant influencer of the outsourcing contracts industry. While we keep using the umbrella being decided. In BPO, in contrast, no single inditerm Business Process Outsourcing—and vidual within a large enterprise can be pointed to incorporating many xPOs such as KPO, LPO etc as the key decision maker or influencer for BPO under that—the fact is that these companies do deals in general. things as diverse as helping a credit card company But wait..., why are we discussing these in 2011? collect its dues from defaulters to manage clinical Aren’t these discussions so 1999-2000-like? Yes, data for a pharma company as part of its new drug they are. But there is a difference this time around. discovery process.

The same questions—relating to comparison of IT This is in sharp contrast to the IT industry and BPO opportunity—were being raised then to where 4-5 service lines—such as ADM, infrastruchelp IT companies take a decision on whether they ture management, package should enter this business.

All the revenues are export revenues only implementation, consulting, So, they were answered in a and testing—account for more than 80% of revparticular way. And going by the way this indusenues for more than 80% of the companies. It is try has grown, one can easily say that the deciDATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

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August 15, 2011 | 15

OVERVIEW

sion they took was right. Now, the same questions have a different objective: It is to decide whether the BPO segment can be treated the same way as IT—having an overall BPO strategy for a definite period. While the jury is still out on that one, it is probably time to treat it slightly differently. And in some ways, the actions and thoughts of BPO businesses reflect that they are coming to terms with this reality.

This is what it means. If you say the IT exports grew by a certain percentage—with a couple of exceptions—most companies must have grown either a little more or a little less. In BPO, the industry growth is an arithmetic average, with no major meaning. The growth rate of individual companies widely vary from each other. This happened in FY10. And this has happened in FY11 again (see table). There too, it is becoming increasingly difficult to point to a trend. Are the BPO units of IT companies doing better? Or are the pure plays scoring over them? You do not have an answer. Are the larger ones doing better? Or, are the smaller ones are catching up? You have 5 of the top 10 companies growing in double digits in FY11. The number is exactly the same when you take the bottom half of the table—the next 10. Are some companies consistently doing well and others lagging behind in the recent years? While one or two such examples are there, by and large, that is not the case.

Why is it happening? The answer to that lies in the nature of composition. Different companies that come under our umbrella term BPO do different things for different industries. So, the growth of each one depends on how its target verticals

Guiding Principles For DQ Top 20

(in fact micro-verticals, to be more correct) are performing. IT is still largely capital expenditure and/or discretionary. So, it is more in sync with general economic conditions rather than the state of affairs in a particular industry. It is not that an industry that is doing well would suddenly increase its IT budget. But with transaction processing or customer service, a higher volume of business with the customer automatically translates to higher business for the BPO companies. So elementary... my dear Watson.

But why do we—and that includes Dataquest— just refuse to acknowledge it?

The next section is precisely the answer to this question.

Diverse, Not Differentiated For all their diversity and heterogenity, the BPO companies in India are not exactly case studies in differentiation. The differentiation in the IT industry may be a compratively newer phenomenon, but it has begun. On the other hand, BPO companies are still way behind. Almost each of the BPO companies that we spoke to put a lot of emphasis on their differentiated approach and then went on to list exactly the same things as their differentiation. The buzzwords are common. The approach to business is common. Only a few details vary.

That says a few things about this community.

First, if everyone talks the same language and has the same strategies, why do the performances differ so much? That points to probably the most important finding of this year’s survey: Strategies are mattering less and less while execution is becoming more and more important. And you can

BPO Top 20: Over the Years Revenue in (`crore)

Growth

32% 25,214

13% 28,532

13% 32,246

221

19,163

2007-08

2008-09

16 | August 15, 2011

2009-10

Manpower (000)

Growth

2007-08

2010-11

visit www.dqindia.com

10% 244

2008-09

13% 277

2009-10

12% 311

2010-11

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

18 | August 15, 2011

visit www.dqindia.com

15 16

15 17

HCL BSERV 24/7 Customer 3i Infotech MphasiS BPO

Convergys India Intelenet Global

Accenture India IBM Global Process Services Exl Service Cognizant BPO Hinduja Global Solutions Xchanging India

Wipro BPO Firstsource Solutions WNS Global Services Infosys BPO Aditya Birla Minacs

Genpact TCS BPO Aegis BPO

All the revenues are export revenues only

Total (in USD)

Total (in `)

17 18 19 20

11 12 13 14

12 14 18 13

11 19 16 20

9 10

4 5 6 7 8

3 6 5 9 8

10 7

1 2 3

1 2 4

Rank Rank Company FY 10 FY 11

Rahul Singh, CEO P V Kannan, CEO V Sreenivasan, CEO Ganesh Ayyar, CEO

Hanumant Talwar, MD, India Susir Kumar R, CEO

PG Raghuraman, head, BPO Pari Sadasivan, India Delivery Leader Rohit Kapoor, CEO Francisco Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Souza, CEO Partha De Sarkar, CEO Nimish Soni, MD, India

Manish Dugar, head, BPO Mathew Vallance, CEO Keshav Murugesh, CEO Swami Swaminathan, head, BPO Deepak Patel, CEO

NV Tyagarajan, CEO Abid Ali Neemuchwala, head, BPO Aparup Sengupta, CEO

CEO/HEAD OF DIVISION

Listed on NASDAQ Division of Cognizant Listed on BSE, NSE Listed on BSE, NSE, Majority Owned by Xchanging Subsidiary of Convergys Privately held by Management & Blackstone Subsidiary of HCL Privately Held Division of 3i Infotech Subsidiary of EDS, an HP company, Listed on NSE, BSE

Listed on NYSE Division of TCS Subsidiary of Essar Group Subsidiary of Wipro Listed on BSE, NSE Listed on NYSE Subsidiary of Infosys Subsidiary of AV Birla Group Subsidiary of Accenture Division of IBM

OWNERSHIP

7.1

32,246

857 716 645 472

891 871

1,224 1,217 942 893

1,436 1,292

2,249 1,833 1,685 1,545 1,518

6.0

28,532

1,044 660 779 542

801 775

966 858 759 956

1,135 1,212

2,106 1,723 1,858 1,383 1,404

18

13

-18 8 -17 -13

11 12

27 42 24 -7

27 7

7 6 -9 12 8

311,167

10,884 8,875 1,358 7,800

11,000 9,168

13,030 8,000 10,000 2,439

17,500 16,200

24,637 14,800 21,523 20,700 10,398

276,648

10,205 7,574 1,683 9,000

8,800 8,600

11,769 6,500 7,117 1,800

13,000 15,800

25,462 13,794 21,958 18,610 8,867

Revenue Revenue Growth Manpower Manpower 2010-11 2009-10 2010-11 as on 31 as on 31 March 2011 March 2010 5,680 4,592 24 43,000 40,000 3,928 3,142 25 32,125 26,690 2,352 1,837 28 27,730 19,419

THE DQ BPO TOP 20 2010-11

12

7 17 -19 -13

25 7

11 23 41 36

35 3

-3 7 -2 11 17

Manpower Growth 10-11 (%) 7 20 43

OVERVIEW

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

OVERVIEW

see that from the composition of the table. All the some extent, many are succeeding. But it is just the top 3 companies—Genpact, TCS and Aegis—may beginning. be good in strategy but where they really stand out Onshore Capability: Ironic it may sound, but from the rest is execution. the industry—known here as offshoring indusSecond, despite a lot of effort by Nasscom, this try—is all set out to spread onshore as they—and community is not really united by interest, unlike their clients—realize that some services are better the IT industry. So, the level of communication delivered from the same geography. Genpact is not among themselves is fairly restricted. So, each is just building onshore capability, it is moving a lot reinventing the wheel, assuming it is innovation of P&L leaders to US from India. TCS, Aegis, Hinand differentiation. It is surprising to see how litduja Global Solutions, Aditya Birla Minacs, and tle they really know about each other beyond the Firstsource today have significant onshore capabilstrengths and weaknesses in those areas where they ity. Others too are following them. directly compete. That is not really expected from Verticalization: Most companies started with a mature industry. So, is it the maturity that is offering a single service such as customer interacthe gap? Or is it that it is not a coherent industry? tion and kept adding others and for a long time While it may sound shocking, our findings point measured the portfolio in terms of services they towards the latter. offered. While the IT industry took more than 20 Almost all the companies talk of change, of years to realize the value of approaching the clitransformation. A few of them—such as WNS, ents on a vertical-basis—and is still not fully conHCL, and Xchanging—are trying complete transvinced—BPO fraternity, thanks to its services that formation. Many others are are business-specific, realized carrying out some sort of it much earlier that a verticalALMOST restructuring or the other. based approach is bettet. TCS And believe it or not, the got 70% of its revenue last ALL THE COMPANIES priorities they are spelling out year from vertical-specific TALK OF CHANGE, OF are also very similar. Here is a services. Many others such as TRANSFORMATION. round up of the highest com3i Infotech, Xchanging, Exl mon factors. measure their revenues only A FEW OF THEM ARE based on verticals. VertiTRYING COMPLETE Most Preferred Buzzwords calization is also a common TRANSFORMATION. When we tried to compile the change factor for most most common buzzwoords in others on their transforMANY OTHERS Indian BPO today, the first mation journey. MphasiS ARE CARRYING OUT letters made an interesting achas just done it and HCL SOME SORT OF ronym—NOVICE-AT. No pun and WNS are at it. Verintended. And here we go... ticalization is one of the RESTRUCTURING OR THE Non-linearity: For an biggest buzzwords in OTHER industry (offshoring) used Indian BPO today. to time and material based IT Leverage: Begun pricing, revenue is a direct multiple of number of a couple of years back—this was our headline people employed. The problem with that is that it last year, as we called this segment IT-enhanced does not reward a supplier for being efficient and Services—leveraging IT to achieve non-lineraity is scaling up becomes difficult beyond a point. The still top of mind. More platforms are being built. industry is trying hard to break away from the Almost all the companies in our list have created model. Non-linear model or simply non-linearity some technology-based IP. Almost 25% of the deals is not a new phrase. But we had never noticed it signed by TCS were on its own platforms. About being explicitly coming out as one of the topmost 40% of the deals signed by Wipro had an IT comthings on the CEO’s mind—industry-wide. There ponent. are various manifestations of it—some of them are Cloud: This is the brand new buzzword of the buzzwords in their own right—such as better IT year that the IT industry has exported to BPO. leverage, platforms, consulting capability, knowlFor an industry that is based on the concept of edge-based services, etc. Almost every CEO that we variablization, cloud was a natural fit, as the model spoke to highlighted achieving this as a priority. To is helping BPO companies to club IT and busi22 | August 15, 2011

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OVERVIEW

ness services to offer them as a bundle. Business have become a category by themselves and the gap Process as a Service (BpaaS as it is called) is now a between the two and the rest is increasing. steady offering from many companies such as GenThe other BPO units of IT services firms— pact, TCS, Infosys and Cognizant. Infosys’ cloud Wipro and Infosys—have no major story there, strategy is based on a combination of platform and either positive or negative. HCL is still trying to BPO. This has made platforms even more relevant get out of the crisis and is a clear dark spot in the for BPO firms. company, whose other services are growing imEmerging Markets: While America recovered pressively. Cognizant—the growth machine—has last year, Europe was still slow. This has prompted transferred its growth DNA to BPO as well and many companies to look at newer geographies such that is not surprising. as Latin America, Asia Pacific, Xchanging had a bad year owand Middle East. Why, even ing to trouble at the head office Africa. While many still take but would bounce back. WNS is OFFERING CLIENTS it tactically, a few companies also a work in progress and it is WITH BUSINESS such as Genpact, TCS, Aegis, difficult to make any prediction, TRANSFORMATION IBM and Tech Mahindra see it either way. It is transforming as a natural way to grow and under a new leadership. So is THROUGH A have taken a more strategic Firstsource, which after years COMBINATION approach. Tech Mahindra has of inorganic growth, has taken OF CONSULTING, more than 2,000 people serving a sabatical from the M&A the African market in Africa. street.

TECHNOLOGY AND Analytics: Like in the IT Among the big group offBUSINESS SERVICES industry, analytics has become springs, only Aegis has gone IS EVERYONE’S a big buzzword, both for value past the threshold and is now addition as well as a service catapulting its parent Essar WISHLIST ITEM line for the industry. Both group to be a major player TCS and Exl saw analytics in IT-BPO. It remains a revenues growing up significantly. Genpact’s Smart company to watch. Aditya Birla Minacs and HinEnterprise Platfiorm is based on analytics. WNS is duja Global Solutions have illustrious parents but building a platform called WADE (WNS Analytics beyond a couple of acquisitions, they still do not Decision Engine). 24/7 Customer is now banking seem to have the mindshare of the parent group. It on its predictive (Px) offering to create differenis difficult to say whether they would drive themtiation and succeeding. IBM acquired Red Pill in selves like independent companies or will get an FY10 and has significantly leveraged its capability. Aegis-like backing from the parent.

Expect bigger things to happen this year—indusThat leaves Exl—which has impressed with its try-wide as far as analytics goes. growth after 2 years of not-so-spectacular perTransformational capability. Though companies formance. But it has been coming up since the last have just taken baby steps, offering clients with 2 years and its stock performance reflects that. business transformation through a combination of Despite a rising stock, this, by far, remains the best consulting, technology and business services is eve- bet for an IT company to acquire, as not only has ryone’s wishlist item. Some deals have happened. it put a good performance, it has skills and capaThere is a long way to go but the buzzword and the bilities that can be better leveraged. desire to make it happen is strong.

This year’s combined revenue growth at 13% is the same as last year. But IT exports grew just The Ranking about 5% last year and though we do not have the As pointed out above, the rankings do not show exact figure yet, it may touch 20% growth rate this any particulatr trend. There is no new entry. And year. So, the year was, to sum up, not a great year, the only 2 major ranking changes is in that of considering BPO has a much smaller base comHinduja Global which has moved up by 5 positions pared to the IT industry. and HCL, which dropped by 6 positions.

But, as we noted, it is transformation time The top two positions remained unchanged and like many companies in the list, the induswhile a steadily rising Aegis jumped to #3 position, try—that is if you can still call it so—is a work in replacing Wipro BPO. In fact, Genpact and TCS progress. n 24 | August 15, 2011

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BPO

Closer to Customer It is betting big on analytics and is moving its center of gravity to the US

T

he 24% growth figure for Genpact may surprise many as the common belief is it grew 12-13%. There are 2 reasons for the difference. One—this is a technical one—our figures are for April-March; Genpact’s accounting year is Jan-Dec when it grew 12.5%. And two, this is pure BPO growth. What has pulled down Genpact’s growth for the last 2 years is its negative growth in IT business. In fact, the other big metric for Genpact—share of nonGE business in total revenue—reached 62% of the total revenue in 2010—from 22% in FY05. In BPO, that is even higher.

Beyond these numbers, there was a larger change in Genpact. NV ‘Tiger Tyagarajan’ took over from Pramod Bhasin as CEO this year, though as COO, he had started implementing some of his plans earlier. In fact, some insiders say the change was responsible for a few senior level exits. But some of these are paying off, especially if one goes by the latest results.

One of the decisions is to move the center of gravity—business leaders with P&L responsibilities—closer to the customer, with Tiger himself shifting his base to the US. Another is to push what it calls the Smart Enterprise Process (SEP) which leverages its strengths in analytics and process reengineering to build smarter businesses for clients. This is in line with its long-term plan to establish itself as an expert and teacher of science of process.

Last year, Genpact bagged a few high-value contracts such as the one from Nissan to provide end-to-end HR services and help in execution of HR and re-engineering program for 7 years, provide end-to-end process and technology for its after-market planning and execution to Servigistics, a 6-year contract from Serco for providing F&A services, and a 7-year contract from MERS to provide mortgage services. It also renewed its contract with ICBC Leasing.

The company is now looking at newer geographies such as Latin America and South Africa where it plans to offer onshore services like it does in China, India, and the US. With a guidance of 23-25% growth, Genpact sees no threat to its #1 position for the time being, though TCS has been inching in closer.

RANK

1

GENPACT

NV (TIGER) TYAGARAJAN president & CEO Pramod Bhasin, vice chairman (non executive) Sanjeev Prasad, CIO Mohit Bhatia, CFO KNK Venkataraman, sr VP, IT services & software Peyush Mehta, head, HR Pankaj Kulshreshtha, sr VP, analytics & research Bob Pryor, EVP & head, sales, marketing and BD

HIGHLIGHTS l Completed the acquisition of Headstrong and Akritiv Technologies in 2011 and Symphony Marketing Services in 2010 l Won a contract from Manipal Health Enterprise to implement its SEP based services across 11 hospitals and another contract from Carnation Auto l Opened centers in Kolkata, Brazil, and Romania

Vertical Break-up (%)

Business Break-up (%)

12% 54%

BFSI

FACTSHEET

24% 5,680

Growth

l Start-up Year: 1997

4,592

l Address: DLF City, Phase V,

4,086

Sector 53, Gurgaon

39

including IT and India market)

GE

23

Others

Source: DQ estimates

37 63

l Employees: 45,500 (total

38 Non-GE

Manufacturing

2008-09 Total: 6,211 crore (including IT, April 10 – March 11 )

26 | August 15, 2011

2009-10

l Tel: 0124 402 2000 l Website: www.genpact.com

2010-11

India market revenue not included*

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DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

THE DQ 20

The Domain King Greater domain focus and coherent offerings have helped TCS BPO register consistent growth

T

RANK

2

TCS BPO

ABID ALI NEEMUCHWALA head, BPO Dinanath Kholkar, head, BFS & INS BPO VK Raman, head, domain services BPO Raj Agrawal, head, platform BPO Ranjan Bandopadhyaya, head (HR), BPO Shyam Kerkar, head, marketing Prashid Gupta, CFO Rajesh Agarwal, head, quality & compliance

HIGHLIGHTS l Added global delivery capability in Michigan and Manila l Licensed its legal platform to a few law firms in UK l Got a few clients on its Diligenta platform

wo factors differentiate TCS BPO from most others in our ranking: A far greater focus on domain-specific BPO and exemplary execution discipline, which includes the ability to make the right investment at the right time. While most large BPO companies today talk of similar priorities such as greater onshore delivery, platforms, and newer areas like analytics—and many even have a few showpieces in all those areas—TCS is the only company that has integrated each of these into its regular offerings.

TCS believes that domain specific BPO not just provides more opportunity to add value through technology leverage, the overall opportunity there is bigger too as companies are increasingly seeking to reduce cost and enhance efficiency in their core processes, as opposed to only the support functions, which used to be the case earlier.

TCS BPO’s share of vertical-specific BPO as a percentage of overall revenue stood at 69% in FY11. Going forward too, domain specific BPO would form the core of TCS’ BPO strategy.

However most of its horizontal BPO services did grow impressively, with the sole exception of customer service, which remained flat. Analytics revenue grew 95% to reach `195 crore in FY11. This year, it is seeing a lot of interest for its legal process offering, for which it has created a platform.

Its thrust on platforms continued too. As of March 2011, TCS had 9 platforms and 17 customers on them. From the 22 new contracts it signed last year, 5 were on its platforms. In fact, it is building a platform for clinical data management, as part of a contract that it signed with a large pharma company. Its process transformation methology FORE has got good traction with 10 customers as on 31st March.

Apart from the large pharma client, notable deals for TCS included a contract from a Canadian bank. But the biggest news was TCS’ success in bagging a 10-year pension management deal from UK’s National Employment Savings Trust. The deal, which created some political debate, and at one time faced the threat of being cancelled as a new government took over, finally stayed with the company and at the time of writing has already gone live.

FACTSHEET

Vertical Break-up (%)

Europe

40

Asia Pac (Excluding India)

North America

48 6

6

Others

6 6

49 Financial Services (Other than Insurance)

Total Revenues: 3,928 crore

30 | August 15, 2011

Growth

73%

Retail (Including online retail) and CPG Healthcare (Provider Side only) Insurance Media, Entertainment & Publishing 10

18

l Start-up Year: 2006

25% 3,928

3 Manufacturing & Logistics 3 Utilities 2 Telecom 2 Travel & Leisure 1 Technology (Computer HW & ISVs)

3,142 31%

1,817 Source: DQ estimates

Geographic Break-up (%)

2008-09

2009-10

l Address: TCS House, Raveline Street, Mumbai l Employees: 32,125 (Excluding India domestic business) l Tel: 022 6778 9999 l Website: www.tcs.com

2010-11

India market revenue not included*

visit www.dqindia.com

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

BPO

Everyshoring Champion Aegis’ is becoming a true global company recording big growth in new markets

W

hat differentiates Aegis from most other BPO firms is that it takes its role as a ‘customer management’ company more seriously than its positioning as a B2B service provider; ie, its approach is ‘consumption backward’ rather than ‘delivery forward’. This means it invariably tries to build onshore presence in all markets it targets and tries to tap the market opportunity in all the locations that it delivers from. It does not go into any market for pure delivery or purely for transporting jobs to another geography.

That explains why Aegis is the only company in our list which has a bigger (in fact, almost 3 times) revenue in APAC than it has in Europe. That explains why despite recording just 4% growth in North America and 20% growth in Europe, overall the company grew 27% (excluding India revenue). That also explains why it added 5,000 people in Argentina and 500 people in Saudi Arabia last year. In fact, now Aegis is charting out how it would fill in the gaps in its global presence—China, Japan and Russia—in particular. And of course, how it would grow Africa, Middle East, India and Latin America along with Europe and North America. Unlike others, its target is not just UK, but continental Europe as well.

Last year Aegis’ strategy got vindicated as its biggest deal came from Saudi Arabia—at $2 bn, that is one of the biggest services deals that any Indian company has won globally. Aegis got into a JV with Saudi Telecom to provide customer service to its 28 mn subscribers. Other major deals included an end-to-end deal from a US bank and one from an Australia/NZ based large utility.

Also notable last year was the fact that a lot of growth came organically, unlike in earlier years. Aegis dived deep into Latin America through its agreement with Y&R Inversiones Publicitárias, SA to fully acquire the latter’s stake in their JV. In terms of vertical, retail (104% growth), telecom (76%) and utilities (53%) were the stars. Its biggest vertical BFSI was flat.

This year, the company is looking at crossing the $1 bn mark.

RANK

3

AEGIS

APARUP SENGUPTA, global head R Vaidyanathan, head, India operation CM Sharma, CFO SM Gupta, CPO Peter Bloom, head, quality and customer experience Rahul Kamalakar, CTO Sandip Sen, president (Americas) and CMO Anil Modi, president (CCC) and global head, marketing and strategy Sudhir Agarwal, president, global M&A and business transformation Rajiv Ahuja, president, ASEAN & ANZ HIGHLIGHTS Honored as the best Indian company in the United States in technology, by Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) l Recognized as the Contact Center Outsourcing Services Provider of the Year 2011 by global consulting firm Frost & Sullivan l Positioned in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Customer Management Contact Center BPO Worldwide 2010 report, published in December 2010 l

FACTSHEET Vertical Break-up (%)

15 14 19

Telecom

24

BFSI

7 6 6

Healthcare (Provider Side only) Others (Automotive, Emerging markets, Government and etc) Retail (Including online retail) Utilities 4 Manufacturing & Logistics 3 Technology (Computer HW & ISVs) 1 Consumer Products & FMCG

193%

1,837

1,558

17 70 North America

Asia Pac (Excluding India)

l Employees: 27,730

6 Europe 4 Others (South America) 3 Others (Middle East & Africa)

1 Media, Entertainment & Publishing

2008-09

Total: ` 2,444 crore (Including Engineering Services Revenue)

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

l Address: 13th Floor, 11 KK Marg, Mahalaxmi, Mumbai 400 034

18%

Source: DQ estimates

Travel & Leisure

Geographic Break-up (%)

l Start-up Year: 1985

28% 2,352

Growth

2009-10

l Tel: +91 (22) 6660 1100 l Website: www.aegisglobal.

com

2010-11

India market revenue not included*

visit www.dqindia.com

August 15, 2011 | 31

BPO

A Challenging Time It was not a spectacular year but Wipro stuck to its strategy of IT-BPO integration

G

RANK

4

WIPRO BPO

MANISH DUGAR global head, Wipro BPO Harsh Bhatia, Puneet Chandra, Srijit Rajappan, head, delivery Richa Tripathi, head, HR Devender Malhotra, head, quality Subhasish Biswas, head, compliance PC Jain, CTO

HIGHLIGHTS l Company’s CFO, Manish Duggar, moved as Wipro BPO head l Won around 8 different awards l Added 2 delivery centers, one each in Okhinwa (Japan) and Lisbon (Portugal) l Won a deal from UK-based TalkTalk Telecom Group this year

rowth slowed down for Wipro in FY11 and the BPO business was not an exception. The year also saw exit of Ashutosh Vaidya, who left to join Dell as global BPO head. Manish Dugar took over as the head of BPO. North America continued to lag, while Europe grew by an impressive 41% followed by APAC which grew 26%.

Wipro, which undertook the IT-BPO integration journey some time back, went further on that path. It also turned to outcome based pricing in some cases. Platforms also got added, though it is yet to have a very large platform-based business, unlike say TCS. Examples like offering franchise model, billing based on call resolved rather than overall number of people taking the calls, providing platform-based service are some of the nonlinear offering of the company that form around 40-45% of the total contracts signed.

Wipro BPO added around 25 customers in the last 1 year taking the total number to 92; out of these 4-5 customers belonged to the Mega-Gama accounts.

Starting with 2 international locations in 2007, the company grew to more than 20 centers in 2010, and added around 4 more in the last one year. These include onshore, nearshore, offshore and hybrid delivery. Total headcount remained almost flat. Unlike 2009, when the firm added 12% to its headcount (one of the highest in the industry), the net addition for coming years remained flat. The underlying strategy is definitely to bring up the revenue per employee. Wipro BPO realized 10% growth in revenue per employee.

Despite the concern of slow recovery, Wipro BPO could clinch a handful of long term deals. The integrated suite of process management tools (BASE), that has done over 17 installations so far, had the majority of them coming in FY11.

In verticals, while healthcare and financial services (other than insurance) saw a negative growth of 4% and 14%, respectively, communication and telecom grew by 42% and manufacturing by 45%.

FACTSHEET Vertical Break-up (%)

29 64

16

Europe

Asia Pac (Excluding India) India North America

16 7 17 17 21

6 6 2 26

l Start-up Year: 2000 Growth

Technology (Computer HW & ISVs) Financial Services (Other than Insurance) Utilities Retail (Including online retail) Manufacturing & Logistics Travel & Leisure Consumer Products & FMCG Insurance Healthcare (Provider Side only) Telecom

Toal: ` 2,280 crore (Including India Revenue)

32 | August 15, 2011

15% 59%

2,106

7% 2,249

l Address: Special

Economic Zone, Plot # 2, 3 and 4, Greater Noida, UP 201306

1,829

l Employees: 24,637 Source: DQ estimates

Geographic Break-up (%)

2008-09

2009-10

l Tel: 011 3094 4747 l Website: www.wipro.

com/services/bpo

2010-11

India market revenue not included*

visit www.dqindia.com

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

BPO

No More Inorganic Growth It plans to stay away from the acquisition mode after inorganic growth earlier

G

RANK

5

FIRSTSOURCE SOLUTIONS

MATHEW VALLANCE, MD & CEO Sanjay Venkataraman, head, India BPO operations Carl Saldanha, CFO Gaurav Bahadur, head, HR Chandeep Singh, head, quality Prashanth Maranayakanahalli, CTO

HIGHLIGHTS l Incubating Anunta, an application delivery infrastructure company l Looking at refinancing its debt l It sold 51% stake in Pipal Research to Crisil

rowth slowed down further for Firstsource in FY11, as the company decided to stay away from the inorganic route, despite a cash kitty of $100 mn owing to a debt that it has to service. In fact, the company which came into being through an acquisition, and then grew through inorganic means, has not made a single acquisition since it acquired MedAssist for $330 mn in 2007.

Though the growth was slower, business was as usual. Financial services was the only vertical that registered a healthy growth of 18%. Its top 2 verticals—telecom and healthcare—saw marginal drops. Among the major wins were a GBP 80 contract from Barclaycard, UK (US business was already a customer), IP infrastructure and service provider GENBAND, and Axis Bank in India.

Firstsource is yet to undertake any major transformational journey, which many of its peers have started. Firstsource remains a player focused primarily on voice and healthcare/insurance processing. Some change is expected as Mathew Vallance took over the reigns from Ananda Mukerji, the founder CEO. There was major change in leadership which included appointments of Sanjay Venkataraman as executive vice president, Asia business unit; Gaurav Bahadur as executive VP, HR, and Smita Gaikwad as head, corporate communications. Sanjiv Dalal, erstwhile CTO relinquished charge to lead Anunta, a tech start-up being incubated by the company. Apart from Dalal, veterans like Aashu Calapa and Chandra Iyer left after long stints. Rajesh Subramaniam re-entered as deputy MD and CFO in succession of Carl Saldanha, whose term expires in the end of August 2011.

Firstsource also set foot on the Sri Lankan shores with a joint venture partnership with Dialog Axiata. It also opened a new contact center in Middlesbrough and 2 delivery centers, 1 each in Thane and Chennai. It has one of the highest percentage of revenue coming from onshore delivery among Indian companies.

Vertical Break-up (%)

Geographic Break-up (%)

Growth

34%

1,564

10%

1,723

FACTSHEET

6% 1,833

l Start-up Year: 2001 l Address: 6th Floor, Peninsula Chambers, Ganpatrao Kadam Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai 400 013

Healthcare (Provider Side only)

57

11 1

Europe

36 26

India Others

37

1

North America

Financial Services (Other than Insurance)

Source: DQ estimates

31

Others Telecom

2008-09

2009-10

l Employees: 26,413 l Tel: 022 6666 0888 l Website: www.firstsource.com

2010-11

Exports only

Total: 2,011 crore (Including India Revenue)

34 | August 15, 2011

India market revenue not included*

visit www.dqindia.com

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

BPO

Perestroika WNS’ shift from a delivery organization to a commercial powerhouse is a job half done

W

hen the founder CEO Neeraj Bhargava stepped down it took close to 2 years to appoint a successor. It seems it was worth the wait as the new CEO Keshav R Murugesh, appointed in early 2009, has been transforming the company. At the core of this transformation is changing the mindset from ‘our capability’ (delivery excellence, domain knowledge) to ‘what we can do for the customer’ (solutions, value add, transformation). On ground, it meant starting with building a strong sales team, divided into 2 parts, called hunting (cold calls, new clients) and farming (customer engagement and mining). That, of course, meant a lot of change at senior management team. While many old timers left, there were many appointments, including Mike Garber (global head, sales & marketing), Ronald Strout (head of America), CS Anand (head, shipping & logistics), and John Westfield (head, Travel BU). Some of the newcomers such as Kees Nijenhuis (head of healthcare), David Spencer (head, manufacturing, CPG and retail) left too. As many as 100 new salespeople were added.

With an overlaying slogan of ‘One WNS. One Goal, Outperform’, Murugesh has been focusing on 5 pillars of change, called differentiators: Verticalization, client first philosophy, non-linear model such as platforms, a mix of onsite-nearshore-offshore delivery and building transformational capability. WNS has created an analytics tool called WADE for CPG companies.

WNS, which consciously kept away from the domestic market earlier, started focusing on the Indian market and bagged 4 clients.

Global client wins included InterContinental Hotels Group, Star Alliance, Mashreq in Middle East and a financial services firm in UK. But the change is taking time. There were external challenges like the autoclave (onshore) business facing some rough weather due to the troubled UK economy, lower volumes in insurance, autoclaims, travel business, and change in pricing terms with a large travel client.

WNS revenues (less repair payments) dropped 9% last year, despite good traction in F&A and analytics businesses. In fact, it is the only company in the top half of our table to register a degrowth in FY11.

Hopefully, the new WNS will have more profitable growth.

RANK

6

WNS GLOBAL SERVICES

KESHAV R MURUGESH, CEO Alok Mishra, CFO R Swaminathan, head, HR Sanjay Jain, CTO

HIGHLIGHTS

Awarded NASSCOM Corporate Awards for Excellence in Gender Inclusivity 2010. l Won the Golden Peacock National Quality Award – 2011. l Set up its new European Headquarters in London, a delivery center in Manchester, and a office at Hyde Park Hayes, Middlesex. l

FACTSHEET

Revenue (` crore) Growth

Client Concentration (%)

l Start-up Year: 1996 52%

1,781

Europe

77 22

North America

1 Asia Pac (Excluding India)

Total: 2,808 crore (revenue including repair payment)

12

Top Ten Customer

13 16 25 34

Top Five Customer

4%

1,858

-9%

l Address: Plant 10, Gate No 4, Godrej & Boyce Complex, Pirojshanagar, Vikhroli, Mumbai – 400 079.

1,685

Source: DQ estimates

Geographic Break-up (%)

Top Customer Top Three Customer Others 2008-09

2009-10

2010-11

l Employees: 21,523 l Tel: 022 4095 2100 l Fax: 022 2518 8307 l Website: www.wns.com

India market revenue not included*

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

visit www.dqindia.com

August 15, 2011 | 35

BPO

Journey to 3.0 Infosys is betting on becoming a value added captive to its clients

W

hile Infosys’ BPO business grew lesser than the rest of the company (like most other ITS firms such as Wipro, HCL, and MphasiS), the company’s top agenda items were moving from a transacational model to a transformational model and upping process efficiency. Infosys BPO is now aligning further with the company’s cloud and platform offerings to provide integrated end-to-end services/ solutions to customers, in line with the new strategy—Building Tomorrow’s Enterprise (also referred to internally as ‘Infosys 3.0’). Much of it is at the concept level though.

FY11 saw financial services and manufacturing emerge as the 2 big revenue earners. During FY10, Infosys’ traction on CME had come down as a result of its dependence on one client but in FY11, it aggressively added newer services like financial, accounting and other processes in this area. FY11 saw addition of 14 clients and the total number of clients stood at 96 by the year end. It witnessed growing clout in areas like customer services (in which it was a late entrant), which contributed about 15% to overall revenues. The areas that saw most traction were strategic sourcing & procurement, LPO and analytics. Clearly what worked in Infosys BPO’s favor was its delivery capabilities and it functioning as a value added captive to its clients.

In the beginning of the year, it launched an enhanced sales support and fulfilment operations offerings with a focus on revenue assurance and revenue recognition and aimed at clients deriving more RoI. From a global delivery perspective, Infosys BPO has more centers outside India (7) than it has in the country (5).

The McCamish acquisition during FY10 also acted as a growth platform to deepen its engagements during FY11 in financial services and insurance industries. Despite the growing changes like vendor rationalization and more emphasis on cost saving and more demand for value, the operating margins remained healthy, like the parent company.

RANK

INFOSYS BPO

SWAMINATHAN DANDAPANI, MD & CEO Ritesh Idnani, COO Vaitheeswaran S, vice president, delivery excellence, and head, India business Anantha Radhakrishnan, vice president and head, business transformation services, customer services and technology services Gautam Thakkar, vice president and head, enterprise services

HIGHLIGHTS l Growing traction in hybrid BPO model with multi-year deals with Faith-Life, a non-profit financial services organization that provides life insurance, health insurance, income protection and investment products in Canada l Won shared services deal from Global Group l Won CMO Asia Awards 2010 for Excellence in Branding & Marketing

Geographic Break-up (%)

Vertical Break-up (%)

33

34

14 2

9% 30%

Telecom

24

l Start-up Year: 1991

North America

Banking and Financial Services

27

FACTSHEET Growth

1,272

Europe

1,383

12% 1,545

l Address: 26/3, Electronics City,

Hosur Road, Bengaluru 560 100 l Employees: 20,700

Others

l Tel: 080-2852 2405

59 Retail

7

Source: DQ estimates

7

Rest of the World

Manufacturing 2008-09

Total : 1,545 crore

36 | August 15, 2011

2009-10

l Fax: 080-28522411 l Website: www.infosys.com/BPO

2010-11

India market revenue not included*

visit www.dqindia.com

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

BPO

Breaking the Mold Though market sentiment became positive and volume business grew, it was still a tough time

A

ditya Birla Minacs managed to break its slide down by growing 7% in FY11, partly because it managed to rebuild the business with the help of IT which it got through the PSI acquisition and partly on account of the Compass BPO acquisition in March last year.

It saw a surge in outsourcing deals for newer services (loan analysis and fraud), which clients earlier did inhouse or feared outsourcing. The growth poured in mainly from technology, telecom, manufacturing, and BFSI verticals. It signed 21 large deals in the American market including with a major Canadian bank for providing customer service and sales support for its retail banking and credit card businesses. The company garnered as much as $750 mn alone from contracts in FY11.

But like many BPOs, the company faced tough times while maintaining margins since the transactional value of deals with existing customers became aggressive. Given competition and skepticism, it worked on various pricing models—outcome based, transaction based or variable pricing which hit the company’s profits. Minacs also empowered its sales team and hired a number of sales and marketing professionals.

In addition, the company’s Indian operations, which started almost 2 years before, began yielding returns (though Dataquest does not consider India revenue of any company while ranking).

The company claimed to have about half-a-dozen clients and around 5,000 people working here. Its India revenues account for less than 10% of global revenues.

Minacs continued to expand in different geographies as it opened a new center in the Philippines in FY11. It expanded its non-voice arm, as it became a value-added reseller of Epicor ERP solutions in India and the Middle East with the belief that enterprises would increasingly focus on their core processes. Minacs is aspiring for $1 bn in the next 3 years for which it wants to acquire assets that enhance its existing portfolio. Compass acquisition has given it a firm foothold in the FAO segment too, enabling it to venture into industries like foods and beverages.

RANK

8

ADITYA BIRLA MINACS

DEEPAK PATEL, global CEO Milind Godbole, head, India BPO operations Anil Bhalla, COO, NA & EU Ramesh Kamath, CFO Paneesh Rao, head, HR Sasmal CK, head, quality Sean Pimenta, head, compliance Arvind Sood, CTO Scott Shafer, global Minacs marketing solutions leader Nilanjan Chaudhuri, global marketing & communications leader Michael Iseyemi, chief security officer Seshadri (Sax) Krishna, global telecom, technology, media & entertainment industry leader HIGHLIGHTS

Bagged contracts worth $750 mn Aggressive pricing ate up the margins l Started a new facility in Philippines l Client outsourced a lot of non-core processes l l

Client Concentration (%)

32 38 50 68

-2%

1,430

1,404

8% 1,518

l Start-up Year: 1999 l Address: 3rd Floor, Millennium

Top Customer

Towers, ITPL Main Road, Brookfields, Bengaluru 560 037

Others

l Tel: 080 4109 6000

Source: DQ estimates

14

FACTSHEET

Growth

-9%

Top Three Customer Top Five Customer Top Ten Customer

Total Revenues: 1,518 crore

38 | August 15, 2011

l Website: minacs.adityabirla.com l Employees: 3,850 (excluding

India headcount)

2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 India market revenue not included*

visit www.dqindia.com

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

Precision Air Conditioning

1

2

3

BPO

Role Model India continues to be Accenture’s global value hub

T RANK

ACCENTURE INDIA

AVINASH VASHISTHA chairman and geography managing director Milind Kharosekar, India BPO lead Rekha M Menon, executive director, geographic services, Accenture in India Kannan Sundaresan, lead, BPO operations

HIGHLIGHTS l India became the global F&A hub l Automotive CoE in Hyderabad is doing most of the automotive industry work for Accenture

Manpower Growth

35%

14%

25%

2008-09

2009-10

40 | August 15, 2011

l Start-up Year: 1987

1,135

l People: 17,500

1,058

13,000

l Address: 4/1 IBC Knowledge

Source: DQ estimates

12,500

7%

4%

FACTSHEET

27% 1,436

Growth

17,500

2010-11

Source: DQ estimates

9

he year saw Indian BPO industry moving towards embracing the model that Accenture has used in its BPO offering such as vertical approach, tigher integration with IT, platforms, customer mining, and robust global delivery while keeping away from commoditized services. Its India BPO export overtook that of IBM even as it continues to play the value game instead of a volume game. Last year saw Accenture recording industry-leading growth to jump one position in our ranking. It has consistently moved up ever since it made it into the list.

Acccenture’s BPO delivery out of India is primarily in the areas of F&A, customer service, procurement, HRO and industry specific services. Recent years have seen Accenture focusing more on F&A and industry specific services out of India. The deals that it won last year with an India delivery component in BPO includes a multi-year contract with Netherlands-based logistics company CEVA for providing F&A BPO such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, month end close, balance sheet reconciliations and reporting and a five-year contract with Statoil, an international energy company to manage the company’s Accounts Payables processes. The Statoil deal incorporates process reeengineering and automation. Recently, it won another F&A contract with Intertek.

Two verticals where Accenture does significant work out of India included insurance and pharmaceuticals. In insurance, Accenture has created platforms to offer services on. In pharma, it remains one of the top players in the clinical data management and analytics space with clients like Bristol-Myer Squibb, Wyeth, and Eisei.

Last year saw Accenture appointing Milind Kharosekar as India BPO lead. The new chairman of Accenture India, Avinash Vashishtha has significant experience in advising clients on BPO deals in his earlier roles. That will help Accenture BPO. In the domestic market though it managed to win some IT contracts—especially in the government sector—it is yet to make a serious foray into BPO, understandable considering that the Indian market is still largely about pure commoditized call center services.

2008-09

2009-10

Park, Bannerghata Road, Bangalore 560 079 l Tel: +91 80 4106 0000 l Fax: Tel: +91 80 4106 0001 l Website: Accenture.com/India

2010-11

India market revenue not included*

visit www.dqindia.com

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

BPO

End of An Era With the Daksh identity gone, another pioneer in BPO is now a division of a larger company

T RANK

10

IBM DAKSH

PARI SADASIVAN, VP, India delivery leader Gerry Von Kalm, director, finance, India delivery Seema Ajwani, VP, human resources, India delivery Ajay Mahajan, competency head, technical services, India delivery Atul Sood, chief quality officer (India and CRM global) Nandita Jain Mahajan, director, compliance, mitigation, continuity and chief privacy officer Ujwal Chablani, technology & service delivery leader, India

HIGHLIGHTS l Won NASSCOM award for Excellence in Gender Inclusivity (BPO Companies Category) l Won Frost & Sullivan award for the Contact Center Outsourcing Service Provider of the Year 2010

he year saw IBM Daksh—which started as Daksh eServices, way back in 2000, as one of the first independent BPO companies in India, before being acquired by IBM in 2004—finally losing its maiden name and coming to be known as IBM Global Process Services. With that, the last link with the past—one of the founders Pavan Vaish, who had taken over as CEO some time back—called it quits. IBM veteran and former HR head of IBM India, Pari Sadasivan, took over as the India Delivery leader. The change was done as part of a global rebranding exercise and will bring all BPO units globally under one umbrella.

That meant another big change. We considered IBM Daksh an Indian company, despite its ownership and took the entire revenue for our ranking all these years. With this change, keeping in with our practice, we have taken only the revenue accrued from India this year. That meant a smaller revenue and a 3-position drop in its ranking. However, to show a realistic picture, the growth has been calculated in relation to revised revenue for FY10 as well (ie, the revenue accrued from India operations in FY10 as well, which is an approximate estimation). Like others, the revenue for IBM Global Process excludes the India domestic market revenue.

Beyond the change at the top level, there were some other changes at the top level too. Navnit Samaiyar, who was heading the manufacturing vertical at Genpact joined to take charge of CRM delivery. Ranjan Lall joined to take charge of F&A delivery and Saju George moved from Manila to take charge of HR delivery.

IBM bagged a deal from Airtel Africa to provide customer services in some countries, along with Indian companies Tech Mahindra and Spanco. Among other deals, it bagged a contract from a major financial services firm.

FACTSHEET

Manpower Growth Growth

l Start-up Year: 1999

7%

16,000

-1%

3%

15,800

16,200

l Address: DLF Building No 8, Tower B 4th Floor, DLF Cyber City, DLF Phase II, Gurgaon 122 002, India

15%

1,486

-18%

1,212

7% 1,292

2008-09

2009-10

42 | August 15, 2011

2010-11

Source: DQ estimates

Source: DQ estimates

l Employees: 16,200 (excluding India domestic business)

2008-09

2009-10

l Tel: 124 4635 100 l Fax: 124 4263 311 l Website: www.ibm.

com/services

2010-11

India market revenue not included*

visit www.dqindia.com

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

BPO

BPO’s Own String of Pearls EXL’s value-based acquisition strategy is beginning to pay off

A

fter two years of less than spectacular growth, EXL Service impressed in FY11, recording one of the highest growth figures among the Top20 BPO players in India.

Continuing with its strategy of acquiring specialized players in both third party (Inductis) and captive (Schneider, Amex Travel Services) space, it grabbed PDMA in FY11 for $14 mn. This gave it 40 client relationships but, more importantly, a platform for life insurance policy administration. This year too it has continued with that strategy and has acquired Outsource Partner International (OPI Global), which was one of the largest pure-play F&A player. The OPI acquisition too gives it a few platforms.

EXL’s overall revenue grew 27% y-o-y on the back of new client wins, scope expansions with existing clients across service lines and geographies. The transformation business particularly grew rapidly across all businesses be it analytics, process re-engineering and design and process management. In 2010 alone the company won 26 new clients across outsourcing and transformation services including 6 clients in Q4 2010, taking the total to 120 clients including over 60 insurance companies. Not just that, it also expanded multiple strategic outsourcing relationships with the migration of over 110 outsourcing processes in 2010. It won 2 new strategic accounts—one in insurance and one in healthcare (payer side).

EXL is the only Indian BPO company which has a strong skillbased (as opposed to technology-leveraged) non-linear practice through its transformational business, which it is further building up. The company is reportedly looking at hiring 500 CAs/MBAs/ engineers to enhance its analytics, risk management, and operational re-engineering services.

Geography-wise, Americas did very well, growing 41% but despite acquiring strategic clients in Northern Europe, its European operations dropped marginally (by 3%).

RANK

11

EXL SERVICE

ROHIT KAPOOR, chairman Pavan Bagai, head of BPO, COO and head, delivery Vishal Chhibbar, CFO Sanjay Gupta, head HR Dhiraj Sarin, head, quality Amit Shashank, head, compliance Baljinder Singh, CTO

HIGHLIGHTS l Strengthened its global client services and business development teams by hiring 4 additional vice presidents l Rohit Kapoor became the chairman of EXL Service Holdings while Vikram Talwar, the executive chairman will be the non-executive chairman of the board

FACTSHEET Client Concentration (%)

Vertical Break-up (%)

Growth

11% 13%

869

l Employees: 13,030

966

l Address: A-48, Sector 58,

8 6 6

Travel & Leisure Financial Services (Other than Insurance) Healthcare (Provider Side only) Manufacturing & Logistics 3 Others

Total Revenues: 1,224 crore

44 | August 15, 2011

14

Top Customer

25 41 57 75

Others

Source: DQ estimates

19 10 Insurance

l Start-up Year: 1999

Noida 201 301

Utilities

48

27% 1,224

Top Three Customer Top Five Customer Top Ten Customer

2008-09

2009-10

l Tel: 0120 2445900/ 2444822 l Fax: 0120 249 0304 l Website: www.exlservice.com

2010-11

India market revenue not included*

visit www.dqindia.com

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

BPO

Carving its Own Identity An integrated services delivery model helped Cognizant provide synergetic BPO offerings

C

RANK

12

COGNIZANT

FRANCISCO D’SOUZA, president and CEO R Chandrasekaran, president & MD, global delivery T Sridhar, senior vice president, managed services Ramesh Gudalur, VP & practice head, BPO Vipul Khanna, VP & practice head, BPO

HIGHLIGHTS l Ranked on Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Finance & Accounting outsourcing for the first time l Entered into a multi-year deal with Visma for delivering finance and accounting services to Norway Post l Got eSCM Maturity Level 4 certification for BPO

ognizant entered BPO much later than its peers, with an approach that made analysts believe that it is cautious and somewhat defensive about its foray into the area. What strengthened the perception is that it did not treat BPO as a separate unit, insisting that it is an extension of IT. While that meant it focused on an integrated IT-BPO play, 2 years back, it did start talking about BPO as a service line and even appointed a head for the BPO business. It entered our rankings last year and this year has jumped 2 positions, recording the highest growth among the Top20 companies.

Unlike many, BPO grew faster than rest of the company for Cognizant. Cognizant’s thrust on the area was further established as last year it was reportedly in talks to buy out Genpact, the largest BPO company. In fact, 2 of its acquisitions—UBS captive in 2009 and CoreLogic captive earlier this year—had significant BPO/KPO component.

Cognizant’s BPO strategy is driven by aligning industry-specific capabilities along with IT in its traditional focus verticals such as banking & financial services, healthcare & pharma, and manufacturing/retail/logistics and telecom. The company calls it ‘vertical BPO or v-BPO’. In pharma for example, it was one of the top 3 companies globally in clinical data management with customers like AstraZeneca, Sanofi, and Eli Lilly.

Last year too, Cognizant saw increased business in financial services, retail, telecommunication, media, and some niche travel and leisure businesses such as restaurants, hotels, and airlines.

While Cognizant offers processes such as transaction processing, F&A, data analytics, data management and voice, its choice of verticals are based on where it could add significant value using technology.

Last year also saw the company launch what it calls Business Process-as-a-Service (BPaaS)—which is an integrated offering of platform and BPO on a cloud model.

23%

Manpower Growth

27%

Growth

l Address: 5/35, Old

858

5,100

Mahibalipuram Road, Thoraipakkam, Chennai 600 097

2009-10

2010-11

Source: DQ estimates

671 Source: DQ estimates

46 | August 15, 2011

l Start-up Year: 1994

28%

6,500

2008-09

FACTSHEET

42% 1,217

8,000

2008-09

2009-10

l Tel: 044 4209 6000 l Fax: 044 4209 6060 l Website: www.cognizant.

com

2010-11

India market revenue not included*

visit www.dqindia.com

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

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BPO

2011: A European Odyssey The company closed a long-standing gap by getting to Europe through an acquisition

L

ast year, Hinduja Global Solutions closed a long-standing gap in its portfolio—lack of European presence—by acquiring UK-based Careline Services. The acquisition not only gave the company a revenue of more than `100 crore, a workforce of more than 1,000, some 20 marquee customers and 3 delivery centers, it also helped in registering an impressive growth (24%). The growth propelled Hinduja Global Solutions to record the highest jump in our ranking (based only on non-India revenue) by moving from 18th position last year to 13th this year.

While the company faced a few cost challenges in the first half of the year because of the expansions and acquisition of Careline Services, it picked up quite well in the second half. Hinduja Global bagged around 21 deals last year, 3 out of which were mega deals from the healthcare and insurance sectors. The maximum growth came from financial services (other than insurance), which grew by 27.3%, followed by healthcare and insurance that grew by 17.9%, consumer products and FMCG grew 13.8% while telecom grew 11.8%.

While most BPO service providers are trying to build tools and platforms, HGSL stuck to its philosophy of partnerships to offer technology enhanced services. With the cloud model becoming popular, access to technology is not an issue, believes HGSL, and it is not keen on investing significant time and energy to develop own IP which, it believes, may dilute its core strength of customer service and process knowledge. HGSL is in partnership with companies like Talisma, ITC Infotech and Defiance Technologies.

Despite the big acquisition in Europe, around 75% of the revenues still came from the US and North America. The new focus regions are Central and Latin America, Jamaica, China, Europe (Germany, Netherlands, Italy and France) and Canada.

This year, the company went for yet another rebranding exercise, branding itself as HGSL. This is the third time it has done so in the last 4 years.

RANK

13

HINDUJA GLOBAL SOLUTIONS

PARTHA DE SARKAR, CEO Ramesh Gopalan, head, India BPO operations Srinivas Palakodeti, CFO Anthony Joseph, head, HR Ashwin Hoskote, head, quality Kanti Mohan Rustagi, head, compliance Subramanya C, CTO Sridhar K, head, India operations & strategic initiatives, domestic Sanjay Sinha, head, mergers & acquisitions, HR & new initiatives

HIGHLIGHTS Crossed the `1,000 crore mark in annual revenue for FY11 l Acquired Canada-based OLS this year l Appointed Srinivas Palakodeti as CFO, Anthony Joseph as head, HR and Sridhar Krishnamurthy as head, strategic initiatives and India ops l Set up 4 centers—1 each in Guntur (AP) and Siliguri (WB), a second center in Durgapur (WB) and the SEZ unit in Bengaluru l

FACTSHEET Geographic Break-up (%)

Insurance Consumer Products & FMCG

23 20

26 26

5

16%

l Address: HGSL House, 614, Vajpayee Nagar, Bommanhalli, Hosur Road, Bengaluru 560 068

759

India

32 38

19

Asia Pac (Excluding India)

11

Europe

l Employees: 19,442

North America

2008-09 Total Revenues: 1072 crore (Including India Revenue)

48 | August 15, 2011

l Start-up Year: 1995

661

Others Financial Services (Other than Insurance) Telecom

15%

Source: DQ estimates

Vertical Break-up (%)

24% 942

Growth

2009-10

l Tel: 080 2573 2620/50 l Fax: 080 2573 1592 l Website: www.hindujagsl.com

2010-11

India market revenue not included*

visit www.dqindia.com

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

BPO

Entering A New Phase With the company deciding to chase deals of all sizes, India might play a more important role

E

ven as the parent company went through turbulent times—as analysts questioned the valuation and integration of Cambridge after GBP 100 mn of goodwill was written off—leading to a sudden exit of founder CEO David Andrews handing over charge to an interim CEO, the India operations was stable, even though India too came to Xchanging from the Cambridge acquisition. While many senior Cambridge executives left in the USA, in India, it is virtually the erstwhile Cambridge team that has taken over the Xchanging India management, with India MD Nimish Soni elevated to lead the entire Asia operations recently. The integration of the earlier Xchanging operations and Cambridge operations were complete.

In some restructuring in India, the BPO operations in Cambridge Solutions—that is listed in India—has now (this year) become 100% owned by Xchanging, even though Xchanging continues to hold 76% in the rest of the company. While Xchanging did get a few clients to India, it surely got impacted with all the uncertainities in the US and the headquarters.

On the operational front, apart from completing the integration, the Chennai center, which is a global hub for technology, scaled up. Sebastian Ritz, the current global CTO, who was driving the tech development, handed over responsibility to the India team.

Its Shimoga (Karnataka) center, which is built as a low-carbon, zero-energy building, made headlines as the company signed an MoU with the Karnataka government during British PM David Cameron’s visit last year. Xchanging is now looking at a similar center in a tier-3 location in North India.

With a new global CEO, Xchanging has changed its strategy from focusing on large, high value contracts (called EPP) to chasing contracts of all sizes in its chosen domains—banking, securities processing, and insurance—India is likely to see accelerated growth. India is also the hub for its Asian operations, which is now growing in markets like Singapore and Malaysia. In Asia though, the company is looking at more of a platform-leveraged services strategy.

RANK

14

XCHANGING

NIMISH SONI, MD, Xchanging India Milind M Joshi, head of operations Srikrishna M, CFO Ramaswamy Kavalapara, head, HR Srikantan Hosur, head, quality & compliance

HIGHLIGHTS l India MD Nimish Soni would now lead Asia operations l BPO operations in India becomes fully owned by Xchanging. Cambridge to continue reporting IT revenues separately l Built a new center in Mumbai

FACTSHEET Geographic Break-up (%)

Vertical Break-up (%)

14% 23%

956

838

95

1 Healthcare

(Provider Side only)

68

20 12

1 Others

50 | August 15, 2011

l Address: Xchanging Tower,

SJR iPark, EPIP Area, Whitefield, Bengaluru - 560 066

Asia Pac (Excluding India)

l Employees: 2,439

Europe North America 2008-09

Total Revenues: 895 crore (Excluding India Revenue)

-7% 893

Source: DQ estimates

Insurance

Services 3 Financial (Other than Insurance)

l Start-up Year: 3,500

Growth

2009-10

l Tel: +91-80-3054 0000 l Website: www.xchanging.com

2010-11

India market revenue not included*

visit www.dqindia.com

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

BPO

Great Comeback After 3 years, Convergys is back into the growth mode in India

C

onvergys was one of the first US based customer management companies to tap the India opportunity and grew very rapidly in the country. That kept it relevant, while many of its competitors in the US lost out to the offshore/India based companies. But it was also one of the first to discover the second coming of Philippines and for last 3/4 years, Philippines became its focus. As its employee base more than doubled in 3 years in Philippines, India saw a decline from a peak of close to 11,000 people to less than 9,000. In fact, had it not been for its significant volume of tech support, India would have seen sharper decline.

The good news is for the first time in 3 years, the headcount has gone up—that too by 25%, making it one of the highest figures among the large BPO companies. It is back again at the same levels where it was at its peak—with more than 11,000 people and plans to reach 12,000 by the year end. The additions have been across all locations in India.

Multiple factors drove the change. One, the demands are up again. Two, in the last 2 years, its US and Canada headcount has gone down substantially, which has grown in offshore locations. Three, Philippines is reaching critical stage with 25,000 plus employees already. And finally, more tech support work has come its way, for which India is a better location. In fact, the share of tech support jobs in India has gone up from 22-23% level in FY09 to close to 35% in FY11. It added 4 new clients in India in telecom, technology and financial services, even as most of the older clients continue. The revenues also grew after 2 years.

Last year saw Hanumant Talwar taking over as India MD (he was deputy MD earlier), as Sukanta Srivastava, the earlier MD moved to a global role, based out of the US. Apart from driving growth, Talwar—a veteran of the industry—has focused on leveraging Indian talent. India is now a net exporter of talent with more managers and team leaders being moved to other locations from here.

RANK

15

CONVERGYS INDIA

HANUMANT TALWAR, MD, India Sandeep Girotra, head, HR Ipininder Singh, head, technology Ashutosh Pahare, sr director, operations Sanjit Bal, director, business development Jaspreet Oberoi, director, training Rajesh Patel, director, financial services

HIGHLIGHTS

Appointed Sandeep Girotra as head, HR Won national award for quality from Quality Council of India l l

FACTSHEET

Manpower Growth

Global Manpower Break-up

2008-09

-17%

10,000

Growth

25%

11,000 -12%

-7%

-2%

816

801

l Start-up Year: 2001 l Employees: 11,000+ l Address: DLF Atria,

11% 891

8,800

70,000

2010-11 2008-09

54 | August 15, 2011

2009-10

2010-11

Source: DQ estimates

2009-10 Source: DQ estimates

70,000

75,000

2008-09

2009-10

Jacaranda Marg, Phase II, DLF City, Gurgaon 122 002 l Tel: 0124 256 3500 l Website: www.convergys. com

2010-11

India market revenue not included*

visit www.dqindia.com

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

BPO

Change, the Only Constant A first generation BPO firm, Intelenet is the only one that survived with its identity intact

I

RANK

INTELENET GLOBAL

SUSIR KUMAR, CEO & MD Prabhu Srinivasan, COO Suresh Ramani, COO Ramachandra Panickar, CFO Manuel D Souza, head, HR Umesh Vyas, head, quality Sandeep Aggarwal, EVP, sales solutions & transition Rajendra Deshpande, CTO

HIGHLIGHTS

Opened facility in Guatemala to serve as a near-shore destination for global clients with North American operations in 3 languages— English, French, and Spanish. l Plans to get into China l Entered into a 5-year pact with Tata Teleservices to offer finance and accounting processes l

FACTSHEET

Geographic Break-up (%)

Vertical Break-up (%) Healthcare (Provider Side only)

25 17

Telecom Travel & Leisure 11

5

Financial Services (Other than Insurance)

747

12% 871

l Address: Intelenet Towers, Plot CST No. 1406 – A28, Mindspace, Malad West, Mumbai 400 064

775

North America

Media, Entertainment & Publishing

51

Europe

Utilities

4 Asia Pac

(Excluding India)

2008-09 Total Revenues: 1,206 crore (Including India Revenue)

4%

45

Insurance

1 1

14%

Manufacturing & Logistics

2

38

l Start-up Year: 2000

Growth

Source: DQ estimates

16

ntelenet, which started as a 50-50 JV between TCS and HDFC has come a long way, changing the ownership 5 times since its inception but managed to retain its identity and CEO. Blackstone, which bought into Intelenet in October 2007, finally decided to exit, selling the company to Serco, the UK based public services company which made its second India acquisition, similar to but bigger that its first.

Overall, Intelenet grew 7% but that is primarily due to a drop in its India revenue which is significant for the company. Its revenue excluding the India business—our basis for ranking—rose a little sharper at 12%. That was primarily driven by the growth in North America. Its #1 market, Europe (read UK) grew just 4%.

Intelenet is neither a true global player nor has it managed to export the India model to other emerging markets the way companies like Spanco and Tech Mahindra have done. It remained an offshore plus domestic company with the 2 businesses operating as silos, thanks to the completely different dynamics that they have. That forced Blackstone to look at selling to a strategic investor rather than pursue a path to IPO. It is expected that under Serco, the domestic business may be expanded to emerging markets while the offshore business could run as a back-office to Serco.

Last year had seen one of its customers, Barclays, which had exited the company in 2007 to repurchase 13% stake. Around the same time, Intelenet announced the delisting of its domestic business Sparsh, which it had bought from Spanco earlier.

FY11 saw marginal growth in its biggest vertical, telecom and financial services, while healthcare jumped impressive 34%.

Travel and leisure too saw growth of 11% while most other areas that recorded good growth rates are new areas with much smaller base. Intelenet continued to scout for growth geographies and forayed into new markets like Middle East and Latin America where it set shops. It increased footprint to 42 locations across 7 countries around the world.

Total Revenues: `871 crore

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

2009-10

2010-11

l Employees: 2,890 (excluding India headcount) l Tel: 022 6677 6000 l Fax: 022 6677 8210 l Website: www.intelenetglobal.com

India market revenue not included*

visit www.dqindia.com

August 15, 2011 | 55

BPO

Work in Progress HCL BPO recognized the need to change, and is finally transforming itself under a new CEO

C RANK

17

HCL BPO

RAHUL SINGH, CEO R Rangarajan, COO Abhay Chaturvedi, CFO Sundaresan Ramamoorthy, chief risk officer Manpreet Singh Khurana, CTO Subrat Chakravarty, head, HR AK Zalpuri, head, quality

HIGHLIGHTS l Tied up with Cforia to improve ‘Order-toCash’ business service and Trintech to provide better F&A services to clients in UK l Headcount of employees increased by 7% l Consciously restructuring portfolio of offerings for bright future aspects l Plans to downsize 1,200 workers in Northern Ireland

all it ironic if you like, but the year saw HCL Technologies record one of the highest growth figures in the entire Indian IT industry. Its BPO unit recorded one of the sharpest falls (6 positions) in our ranking. It also recorded the biggest percentage de-growth.

So, what went wrong? Nothing particular in FY11. In fact, HCL BPO’s problem has been there for some time. HCL was one of the first IT companies to tap BPO, way back in 2001. It is still continuing with the commoditized voice processes model prevalent at that time. While Wipro also went through a similar phase post the acquisition of Spectramind, it recognized the problem early and the then CEO of Wipro BPO, TK Kurien changed the business model completely. HCL recognized the problem much later and it is only in May 2010 that it roped in BPO industry veteran Rahul Singh to initiate the change. Since then, he has been steadiily making changes. If AMJ 2011 results are any indication, he is on the right track. The company is now talking the same language— transformational deal, better tech leverage, blended play, outcome based pricing, verticalization, and a seamless global delivery—as the rest of the industry.

Singh has taken some drastic steps. His thrust on signing deals with enough scope to do value-add has resulted in longer sales cycles compared to typical call center deals but it is expected to increase margins. Some of the older commoditized telecom and insurance businesses have been dispensed with. One example is transfer of the telecom expense management business (obtained through acquisition of Control Point) to Tangoe. In fact, telecom and insurance saw the sharpest drops in revenue last year while new areas like media, entertainment, publishing (MEP) saw impressive growth. HCL won 8 new clients in FY11.

Its opened facilities in Poland and Mexico. It also plans to open in one more location in Asia, most likely Philippines. It has tied up with Stellar Asia Pacific to expand in Australia and APAC. This year will decide if HCL BPO will manage to turn around successfully.

FACTSHEET l Start-up Year: 2001

Growth

Service Line Break-up (%)

Vertical Break-up (%)

22%

-3%

1,077

1,044

Retail (Including online retail)

14 10 8 5 Media, Entertainment & Publishing 3 Manufacturing & Logistics 35 Telecom 2 Utilities

31 26

Insurance

39

Customer Interaction (Customer Service, Telesales, Collections) Customer Interaction (Tech Support) 2 F&A Outsourcing

l Tel: 0120 258 9690

2 Other Knowledge Services Vertical Specific Services 2008-09

Total Revenues: 857 crore

56 | August 15, 2011

Noida 201 307 l Employees: 10,884

Source: DQ estimates

Others

23

Financial Services (Other than Insurance)

l Address: B 34/3 Sector 59,

-18% 857

2009-10

l Website: www.hclbpo.com

2010-11

India market revenue not included*

visit www.dqindia.com

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

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THE DQ 20

Bringing in Predictability Among the voice companies, 24/7 is the most aggressive when it comes to leveraging IP

O

ne of the oldest closely-held BPOs to survive the consolidation, 24/7 Customer saw growth rate declining to just about 7% but its decision to pursue the IP-rich path by creating an R&D unit, iLabs, is paying off.

Through its predictive solutions, Px, the company was able to achieve the highest CSAT in the industry for a media service provider and could increase conversion rates in telesales from 2% to 12% for a bank in UK and from 18% to 29% for a financial services provider in the US. Last year, it bagged business from a satellite television provider in the US, an Australia based telecom services provider and from a wireless service provider in UK. When the India domestic opportunity came, like many, 24/7 too explored the opportunity but was a little late in addressing it. While the India business turned completely commoditized and 24/7 was pursuing an IP led strategy, it did not pursue the opportunity further. It stands as one of the few voice players who do not play in the domestic market. 24/7 Customer bagged business in all its major verticals—financial services, telecom, retail, travel and technology. Most of its verticals saw growth except retail.

With the growth in the adoption of smartphones and tablets, the company could transform the digital experience to the customers of its clients. It did add new customers and brought a change in its clients’ business scenario which helped them grow in FY11.

It launched the cloud based version of its predictive software to provides a contextual solution within the first contact the agent makes with the customer.

It also launched an online predictive customer service app, Wow!px (which predicts the most probable queries and resolves them) on the iPad as part of its B2B twitter analytics tool, 24/7 tweetview (launched in 2009 and has a userbase of over 300 companies).

The big story in FY 2010 broke out when Philippines surpassed India as 24/7 Customer’s largest delivery geography due to the growing dominance in the voice market, the main focus area for 24/7 Customer.

RANK

18

24/7 CUSTOMER

PV KANNAN co-founder & CEO Shanmugam Nagarajan, co-founder and chief people officer Madhu Ranganathan, chief financial officer Kathy Juve, chief client officer, US Mike Hughes, managing director, UK & Europe Bharathwaj V, chief marketing officer Ravi Garikipati, chief technology officer, innovation labs Prashant Cherukuri, chief information officer Animesh Jain, chief delivery officer (India)

HIGHLIGHTS l Opened its state of the art contact center in Nicaragua l Introduced careers in Social and Interactive Media for career in online customer service l Teams with Corporate Executive Board to develop customer effort management solution l It appointed Mike Hughes, former CEO of Orange India Services, as the managing director for the European region

FACTSHEET l Start-up Year: 2000

Geographic Break-up (%)

Vertical Break-up (%)

62

Telecom

8 7 7 5

18% 49%

Financial Services (Other than Insurance) Technology (Computer HW & ISVs)

660

l Address: Embassy Golf Links, Off

8% 716

560

30

Asia Pac (Excluding India)

Retail (Including online retail) Travel & Leisure

56

Others

14

Source: DQ estimates

11

Growth

Europe North America 2008-09

Total Revenues: 716 crore

58 | August 15, 2011

2009-10

Intermediate Ring Road, Bengaluru 560 071 l Employees: 8,875 l Tel: 080 3058 2470 l website: www.247customer.com

2010-11

India market revenue not included*

visit www.dqindia.com

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

BPO

Tough Road Ahead Just a year after storming into the Top20 BPO list, 3i Infotech sees the BPO business falling

3

i Infotech got into the Big League in BPO with a series of acquisitions—mostly onshore—and positioning itself as a major player in the payment/remittance processing space.

It started with acquisition of J&B software in 2007 and followed it up by acquiring Regulus Group in 2008. It also acquired JP Morgan’s Treasury Services’ national retail lockbox to further consolidate that business. But last year saw the business falling by 18%, largely on account of the overall decline in transacations because of a slowdown. This pulled down the overall growth of the company and hit the bottomline, which forced 3i to do some serious rethinking. The result was its decision earlier this year to sell the global billing and payments unit, comprising Regulus Group, J&B Software, to an affiliate of PE firm Cerberus Capital Management, LP for $137 mn (an amount slightly higher than its purchase price).

One of the major reasons for this setback was its failure to grow beyond North America.Though 3i had tried to grow its BPO business in the Middle East, by targeting the mutual funds market in that geography, that has failed to grow. It had even targeted the African market by entering Nigeria in partnership with local firms.

But that business too has not done enough to compensate for its sharp decline in North America.

The decision to exit this business has come at a time when the market is rife with speculation that ICICI Bank is seeking to sell its 20% stake to either IBM or a PE player. Though this sale would affect the topline it would strengthen the balance sheet, enable payment of bank borrowings (more than `2,000 crore) and help the company in its intention to concentrate on its core strength as an IT products and services player. This is not the first time that 3i Infotech has decided to exit a business. It had earlier hived off its e-governance kiosk business and Taxsmile. The India BPO business is robust though. After this sale, the purchase that ensured 3i Infotech made heads turn has affected its ranking, but its moves this fiscal will be most watched as they will have the potential to change the rules of the game.

RANK

19

3I INFOTECH

V SRINIVASAN, MD & global CEO Kathy Hamburger, CEO and president, 3i Infotech North America Parag Patankar, MD & CEO, 3i Infotech BPO Amar Chintopanth, DMD & chief financial officer Alka Tiwari, head, HR Joytin Mehta, head, quality Shivanand Shettigar, head, compliance Pankaj Chawla, president, India, Middle East, APAC & Africa Som Sarma, president, Western Europe and global head, IT services Chandrashekar MS, president and global head, software products MB Battliwala, sr general manager and head, global marketing & PR

HIGHLIGHTS

After the sale 3i Infotech will focus on the Indian BPO segment (`200-crore business). l It set up a global billing and payments center of excellence (CoE) to deliver best practices and highly customized solutions. l

Vertical Break-up (%)

Client Concentration (%)

FACTSHEET 49%

779

Telecom

21

Healthcare (Provider Side only)

13 10

43 Financial Services (Other than Insurance)

4 Insurance 4 Others 2 Manufacturing & Logistics 2 Technology (Computer HW & ISVs) 1 Media, Entertainment & Publishing

27

Top Three Customer

19

Top Customer

35

Top Five Customer

49

Top Ten Customer

523

l Employees: 1,358

2008-09 Total Revenues: 645 crore

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

l Address: 6th Floor, Akruti Centre Point, MIDC Central Rd, Next to Marol Telephone Exchange, Andheri (East), Mumbai 400 093.

-17% 645

Source: DQ estimates

Utilities

l Start-up Year: 1999

Growth

2009-10

2010-11

l Tel: 022 3914 5700 l Fax: 022 3914 5520 l Website: www.3i-infotech.com

India market revenue not included*

visit www.dqindia.com

August 15, 2011 | 59

BPO

Vertical Path MphasiS has restructured its business along verticals

B

RANK

20

MPHASIS BPO

GOPINATHAN PADMANABHAN executive vice president & head, global delivery Ganesh Murthy, executive vice president & chief financial officer Elango R, executive vice president & chief human resource officer MG Raghuraman, senior vice president & chief information officer Seshagiri Dhanyamraju, senior vice president & head, strategy benchmarking & technology innovation Sivaram Nair, senior vice president & company secretary, general counsel, global ethics and compliance officer

HIGHLIGHTS l Partnered with Trintech to provide financial solutions to banking and capital markets l Member of the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development l Expanded global delivery footprint in Continental Europe

eginning November—when the HP (Mphasis’ parent) financial year starts—Mphasis has segmented itself along the verticals: Banking and capital market (BCM), insurance, information technology, communications and entertainment, and emerging industries. This is in contrast to application services, infrastructure outsourcing services and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) as its primary segmentation earlier.

BPO exports’ revenues, as estimated by Dataquest, dropped 13% in the year ending April (as opposed to others in the list which are for April-March). While transaction processing business jumped a huge 155%, both customer service and KPO dropped.

Customer service saw a degrowth of 17% while KPO business dropped by 52%.

The company recently acquired Wyde (an international software vendor and creator of Wynsure), which is the 2nd acquisition

by MphasiS in the insurance vertical after having acquired AIGSS (the AIG captive center in India) in 2009. This is an indication to the fact that the company has diverted its attention to the BCM and insurance vertical, though its business in other verticals are continuing at the usual pace. Primary reason for having a strong presence in these 2 verticals is the strategic acquisition of portfolio solutions, and solutions that complements the business which it does on the transaction side.

As of now, MphasiS has its footprint in the US (caters to a lot of brokerage houses particularly in the retail side and has clients in corporate banking sector), Canada and UK (caters to the credit services market), Australia and Singapore (banking and mortgage). Though the company continues to grow on its revenues from HP, its parent company, it is also trying to grow through its direct business.

The billing rates for BPO services remained stable (QoQ) at $7 per hour. For domestic business, it has established a BPO center in Raipur, Chattisgarh and the center will provide services to Idea Cellular, which has a large presence in Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh. It saw its BPO head Raj Patil exiting in the year.

FACTSHEET

Manpower Growth Growth

Service Line Break-up (%)

28%

8,429

9

-13%

-5% 542

7,800

l Start up year: 2000

-13% 472

l Address: 65/2, Bagmane Tech Park, Bagmane Laurel, 1ST floor, CV Raman Nagar, Benguluru 560 093

Customer Service

KPO Transaction Processing

Total: 617 crore (Including India revenue)

60 | August 15, 2011

2008-09

2009-10

2010-11

Source: DQ estimates

48

9,000

Source: DQ estimates

43

33% 571

7%

2008-09

2009-10

l Employees: 7,800 l Tel: 080 4004 4444 l Website: www.mphasis.com

2010-11

India market revenue not included*

visit www.dqindia.com

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

BPO

Focused and Growing

RANK

21

S

mall enough to listen, big enough to deliver’ is how Syntel’s KPO arm is positioned. It consciously stayed away from the commoditized services space and worked with limited number of customers with deeper relationships. Just 10 clients contributed almost the entire revenue, making its contribution per customer one of the highest in the industry, with 97% revenue coming from capital markets’ vertical.

A major win last year was a multi-sourcing deal from UK’s financial services statutory regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), with BPO as one of the services. It also won a contract in the Pharmacovigilance (healthcare sector) area. It leveraged its IT relationships like Humana and Trizetto to get KPO work too. Even an agreement with an affiliate of State Street Bank had a KPO element. In terms of geographic reach, Syntel reaped rewards of its investments in Europe at a time when the market was a witness to turbulent times. KPO, started just a few years back, already accounts for 15% of the revenue. ‘

SYNTEL PRASHANT RANADE CEO

HIGHLIGHTS Growth

49%

Source: DQ estimates

2008-09

2009-10

2010-11

l Start-up Year: 2003 l Address: Unit 112, SDF IV, SEEPZ, Andheri (East), Mumbai 400 096 l Employees: 4,842 l Tel: 022 6704 6402 l Website: www.syntelinc.com

Focusing on Future Markets

RANK

22 TECH MAHINDRA

T

SUJIT BAKSI president, BSG & corporate affairs

HIGHLIGHTS

Growth

202

Source: DQ estimates

ech Mahindra BPO, that started with tapping the domestic space by president, corporate affairs, Sujit Baksi—a BPO industry veteran—has grown rapidly, both in India and the offshore business. Apart from BT, for which it handles multiple processes, it has some of the biggest names in telecom globally such as AT&T, Bell Canada, Etisalat, and airtel. Last year, it achieved major success when Bharti airtel chose it as its largest partner for providing customer services in Africa (in 7 countries).

It already has built a 2,000-people operations in Africa. Few Indian BPO companies have even begun to tap that market. Middle East is the next target. Most of its engagements (except BT) are on outcome based/gain sharing model and the company does not want to get into T&M model. Last year also saw Mahindra Satyam’s BPO business being aligned with Tech Mahindra’s BPO business, being led by Baksi, though in IT they still operate separately. In fact, BPO forms part of what the company calls Business Services Group comprising customer service, back office, and process consulting.

62 | August 15, 2011

384

360

330

Acquired facility in Airoli for KPO operations Saw a few changes in KPO HR and operations leadership in FY11

7%

9%

Secured a 3-year multi-million dollar contract for backoffice operations in Philippines and started operations at Manila in the Philippines and has recruited 600 people Plans to open centers in Sri Lanka and Brazil

2010-11 l Start-up Year: 2008 l Address: A-6, Sector-64, Noida 201 301, India l Employees: 14,000 l Tel: 0120 423 1921 l Fax: 0120 423 1927 l Website: www.techmahindra.com

visit www.dqindia.com

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

RANKINGS

RANK

COMPANY

CEO

Revenue 2010-11

Revenue 2009-10

Revenue 2008-09

1

TCS

2

Infosys

3

N Chandrasekaran

33,112

26,576

25,894

25

3

S D Shibulal

25,997

21,355

20,392

22

5

Wipro

T K Kurien

24,899

21,949

20,959

13

5

4

Hewlett-Packard India

Neelam Dhawan

23,227

17,831

15,760

30

13

5

Cognizant Technology Solutions

Francisco Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Souza

21,393

15,646

12,741

37

23

6

IBM India

Shanker Annaswamy

14,132

12,388

12,048

14

3

7

HCL Technologies

Vineet Nayar

14,111

10,983

8,764

28

25

8

HCL Infosystems

Harsh Chitale

12,137

11,956

12,445

2

-4

9

Ingram Micro India

K Jaishankar

9,766

7,234

7,668

35

-6

10

Redington

P S Neogi

9,274

7,024

6,576

32

7

11

Cisco Systems India

Naresh Wadhwa

8,157

6,057

6,084

35

-1

12

Oracle India

Sandeep Mathur

7,934

6,321

5,962

26

6

13

Dell India

Ganesh Lakshminarayanan

7,666

5,709

4,266

34

34

14

Intel India

R Sivakumar

6,108

5,160

4,340

18

19

15

Accenture India

Avinash Vashishtha

5,672

4,800

4,400

18

9

16

SAP India

Peter Gatenberg

5,146

3,924

2,891

31

36

17

Mahindra Satyam

C P Gurnani

5,049

5,084

-1

NA

18

Tech Mahindra

Vineet Nayyar

4,819

4,359

4,215

11

3

19

Microsoft India

Bhaskar Pramanik

4,711

3,910

3,361

20

16

20

MphasiS

Ganesh Ayyar

4,498

3,920

3,299

15

19

21

Schneider Electric India

Srinivas Chebbi

3,990

2,620

2,651

52

-1

22

Lenovo India

Amar Babu

3,566

2,396

2,482

49

-3

23

Acer India

WS Mukund

3,421

2,749

1,989

24

38

24

Capgemini India

Aruna Jayanthi

3,140

2,448

2,278

28

7

25

Patni Computer

Phaneesh Murthy

2,980

2,991

3,011

0

-1

26

Emerson Network Power India

Sandeep Nair

2,725

2,500

NA

9

NA

27

Aricent

Sudip Nandy

2,580

2,303

1,925

12

20

28

L&T Infotech

Vijay Kumar Magapu

2,458

1,911

1,819

29

5

29

CSC India

Brian J Manning

2,361

2,018

2,130

17

-5

30

Tulip Telecom

Col HS Bedi

2,351

1,966

1,608

20

22

31

Samsung India

Ranjit Yadav

2,208

1,664

1,290

33

29

32

Syntel

Prashant Ranade

2,177

1,711

1,567

27

9

33

3i Infotech

V Srinivasan

1,924

1,538

1,676

25

-8

34

Savex Computers

Anil Jaggasia

1,916

1,166

841

64

39

35

Zylog Systems

Sudarshan Venkatraman

1,916

980

750

96

31

36

Glodyne Technoserve

Annand Sarnaaik

1,751

749

501

134

50

37

Rolta India

Kamal K Singh

1,742

1,453

1,361

20

7

38

Moser Baer

Ratul Puri

1,620

1,882

1,938

-14

-3

39

Polaris Software Lab

Arun Jain

1,585

1,349

1,377

17

-2

40

Texas Instruments

Biswadip Mitra

1,572

1,082

NA

45

NA

41

Prithvi Solutions

Vuppalapati Satish Kumar

1,559

1,905

1,976

-18

-4

42

Mindtree Consulting

Krishnakumar Natarajan

1,509

1,296

1,238

16

5

43

Sony India

Masaru Tamagawa

1,504

944

NA

59

NA

44

RP Infosystems

Kaustuv Ray

1,495

936

521

60

80

45

Spanco

Kapil Puri

1,478

1,183

25

NA

46

Compuage

Atul H Mehta

1,413

1,088

804

30

35

47

ICSA India

G Bala Reddy

1,404

1,237

1,100

14

12

48

Sonata Software

B Ramaswamy

1,393

1,381

1,591

1

-13

49

EMC India

Manoj Chugh

1,351

1,110

623

22

78

50

Canon India

Kensaku Konishi

1,322

944

690

40

37

51

Dimension Data

Kiran Bhagwanani

1,259

1,067

1,015

18

5

52

Tata Technologies

Patrick R. McGoldrick

1,256

1,087

1,229

16

-12

53

TPV Technologies

Mukesh Gupta

1,200

800

1,133

50

-29

54

Infotech Enterprises

BVR Mohan Reddy

1,188

953

890

25

7

55

NIIT Technologies

Arvind Thakur

1,188

879

937

35

-6

56

NIIT Ltd

Vijay Thadani

1,141

1,123

1,148

2

-2

57

Sai Infosytems

Sunil Kakkad

1,138

792

453

44

75

58

Neoteric Informatique

Paras Shah

1,135

945

812

20

16

59

Zensar Technologies

Ganesh Natarajan

1,109

922

866

20

6

60

Supertron Electronics

VK Bhandari

1,107

927

611

19

52

61

Rashi Peripherals

Suresh Pansari

1,098

838

709

31

18

62

Core Projects & Technologies

Sanjeev Mansotra

1,091

846

678

29

25

63

iGate Global Solutions

Phaneesh Murthy

1,050

857

852

23

1

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

visit www.dqindia.com

Growth 2010-11

Growth 2009-10

August 15, 2011 | 63

RANKINGS

RANK

COMPANY

CEO

Revenue 2010-11

Revenue 2009-10

Revenue 2008-09

Growth 2010-11

Growth 2009-10

64

KPIT Cummins Infosystems

Kishor Patil

1,023

732

793

40

-8

65

Seagate India

Rajesh Khurana

1,006

980

835

3

17

66

Hexaware Technologies

Atul Nishar

985

969

1,090

2

-11

67

Iris Computers

Sanjiv Krishen

965

961

924

0

4

68

CMS Infosystems

Rajiv Kaul

912

720

NA

27

NA

69

Honeywell Technology Solutions Lab

Dr. Krishna Mikkilineni

910

841

996

8

-16

70

Bartronics

Sudhir Rao

907

817

588

11

39

71

Beetel Teletech

Vinod Sawhney

901

595

1,070

51

-44

72

Vakrangee

Dinesh Nandwana

890

428

294

108

46

73

InďŹ nite Computer Systems India

Upinder Zutshi

883

664

490

33

36

74

Symantec India

Ajay Goel

870

810

720

7

13

75

Xerox India

Konstantin Klein

840

571

672

47

-15

76

Asus India

Albert Tung

820

499

64

NA

77

Huawei India

A Sethuraman

806

441

83

NA

78

Genpact

NV Tyagarajan

805

844

896

-5

-6

79

SFO Technologies

N Jehangir

804

581

556

38

4

80

Persistent Systems

Dr Anand Deshpande

776

601

594

29

1

81

LG India

Soon Kwon

766

650

537

18

21

82

Xenitis Infotech

Shantanu Ghosh

750

748

880

0

-15

83

Allied Digital

Nitin D Shah

746

673

556

11

21

84

Sapient India

Karndeep Singh

736

624

550

18

13

85

Intex Technologies

Narendra Bansal

733

593

467

24

27

86

TE Conectivity

KK Shetty

730

562

540

30

4

87

CA Technologies India

Amit Chatterjee

722

642

604

12

6

88

Apple India

Manish Dhir

720

476

394

51

21

89

Sify

Raju Vegesna

696

684

616

2

11

90

Birlasoft

Arup Gupta

693

617

603

12

2

91

NCR India

Jaivinder Singh

680

513

361

33

42

92

Mascon Global

Sandy Chandra

674

1,095

1,119

-38

-2

93

Geodesic Information Systems

Kiran Kulkarni

672

487

494

38

-1

94

ITC Infotech

B Sumant

636

568

NA

12

NA

95

Network Appliance India

Rajesh Janey

624

377

305

66

24

96

Geometric

Manu Parpia

621

512

598

21

-14

97

Juniper Networks

Ravi Chauhan

610

550

465

11

18

98

Adobe Systems India

Naresh Gupta

600

482

460

24

5

99

Gemini

R Ram Kumar

600

346

279

73

24

100

Mastek

Sudhakar Ram

583

770

996

-24

-23

101

L&T Integrated Engineering Service

Dr. Keshab Panda

570

381

372

50

2

102

SunGard India

Atul Sareen and Akila Krishnakumar

569

NA

NA

NA

103

Sasken Communication Technologies

Rajiv Modi

546

574

698

-5

-18

104

Numeric Power Systems

R Chellappan

535

480

437

11

10

105

Applabs

Sashi Reddi

533

477

490

12

-3

106

Prime Focus

Namit Malhotra

530

453

354

17

28

107

Diebold India

Naresh Hosangady

516

423

376

22

13

108

Onmobile

Arvind Rao

515

452

372

14

22

109

Quest Global

Ajit Prabhu

515

422

378

22

12

110

Synechron Technologies

Faisal Husain

509

337

253

51

33

111

Epson India

Eiji Kato

506

400

312

27

28

112

Take Solutions

Ram Yeleswarapu

506

366

340

38

8

113

IBS Software

Rajiv Shah

502

372

315

35

18

114

Sharp India

Sunil K Sinha

500

400

153

25

161

115

Steria India

Mukesh Aghi

499

468

664

7

-30

116

LGS Global Solutions (Earlier Lanco Global)

Rao Karusala

486

382

295

27

29

117

Subex

Subash Menon

483

463

573

4

-19

118

Fujitsu Consulting India

Rajeev Gupta

481

323

273

49

18

119

Kingston India

Scott Chen

450

330

250

36

32

120

AMD India

Ravi Swaminathan

435

415

405

5

2

121

Data Care

Anil Mhaske

432

300

275

44

9

122

Western Digital

Khwaja Saifuddin

431

171

126

152

36

123

Tata Elxsi

Madhukar Dev

416

388

419

7

-7

124

Financial Technologies India

Jignesh Shah

406

340

642

19

-47

125

Accel Frontline

NR Paniker

396

271

274

46

-1

126

Ness Technologies India

Dr. Satyam Cherukuri

391

382

395

2

-3

64 | August 15, 2011

visit www.dqindia.com

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

RANKINGS

RANK

COMPANY

CEO

Revenue 2010-11

Revenue 2009-10

Revenue 2008-09

127

Maxtone Electronics

128

Fortune Marketing

129

Growth 2010-11

Growth 2009-10

Champak Raj Gurjar

382

400

341

-5

17

Manoj Gupta

381

327

265

17

23

FCS Software

Dalip Kumar

380

271

190

40

43

130

Zenith Infotech

Akash Saraf

375

313

223

20

40

131

Zicom Electronic Security Systems

Anand Swaminathan

373

528

376

-29

40

132

Omnitech

Atul Hernani

373

217

172

72

26

133

Unisys India

Kumar Prabhas

370

311

260

19

20

134

Mediaman Infotech

Dushyant Mehta

369

321

292

15

10

135

Autodesk India

Rajiv Nair

349

273

251

28

9

136

Cybage Software

Arun Nathani

348

294

278

18

6

137

McAfee India

Ambarish Deshpande

341

328

295

4

11

138

Commscope Systimax

Natarajan Viswanathan

320

270

291

19

-7

139

R Systems International

Satinder Singh Rekhi

305

310

328

-2

-5

140

Microland

Pradeep Kar

301

241

230

25

5

141

Gigabyte Technology

Sunil Grewal

294

218

169

35

29

142

Tata Interactive Systems

Sanjaya Sharma

281

193

162

46

19

143

Jupiter International

Alok Garodia

280

274

260

2

5

144

Red Hat India

Anuj Kumar

278

228

203

22

12

145

Comviva

Manoranjan Mohapatra

275

220

165

25

33

146

Zenith Computers

Raj Saraf

270

310

325

-13

-5

147

Nucleus Software

Vishnu R Dusad

270

292

329

-8

-11

148

Value Point Systems

RS Shanbag

270

153

171

76

-11

149

Google India

Rajan Anandan

261

171

162

53

6

150

Shwetha Computer & Peripherals

Lalith Kothari

260

150

135

73

11 -10

151

GlobalLogic

Peter Harrison

255

180

201

42

152

Compage Computers

Gunganti Mahendra

250

161

143

55

13

153

Cranes Software International

Asif Khadar

242

235

3

NA

154

Systime

Vishal Grover

242

218

269

11

-19

155

Mindtek

Pankaj Agarwal

241

227

282

6

-20

156

Euronet India

Sunil Nair

241

205

173

18

18

157

Vmware

T Srinivasan

237

142

110

67

29

158

InterGlobe Technologies

Vipul Doshi

233

169

38

NA

159

Rittal

Ajay Bhargava

230

144

131

60

10

160

Toshiba

Kenji Urai

230

120

103

92

-100

161

Transcend

Gordon Wu

226

130

NA

74

NA

162

Frontier Business Systems

Ravi Verdes

224

210

210

7

0

163

Technocrat Infotech

Asif Khan, Debasish Biswas

224

181

140

24

29 -38

164

Xchanging India

Nimish Soni

221

204

327

8

165

Roop Technologies

Umang Gupta

220

190

185

16

3

166

Tally

Bharat Goenka

217

93

20

133

365

167

Cadence Design Systems (India)

Jaswinder Ahuja

216

199

211

168

Allied Telesyn India

Subhasish Gupta

215

120

169

Netgear

Atul Jain

213

116

170

Team Computers

Ranjan Chopra

211

175

171

Progressive Infotech

Prateek Garg

210

211

182

0

16

172

Lalani Infotech

KL Lalani

205

178

125

15

42

173

Techcom

Sandeep Kedia

205

157

174

Ramco Systems

PR Venketrama Raja

204

168

175

Brocade Communications India

Rajesh Kaul

203

104

176

Precision infomatic

V Murali

202

177

RS Software

Raj Jain

178

Atrie

179

Lipi Data Systems

201

9

-6

79

NA

84

NA

21

-13

31

NA

188

21

-11

95

NA

180

190

12

-5

200

166

149

20

11

Ravichandran

198

180

173

10

4

Mukul Singhal

196

165

183

19

-10

180

Balaji Solutions

Rajendra Seksaria

195

119

100

64

19

181

Aptech Ltd

Ninad Karpe

191

129

217

48

-41

182

Sogo Group

Jayamuni Rao

186

169

116

10

46

183

Smartlink Network Systems

KR Naik

186

149

139

25

7

184

WeP Peripherals

Ram N Agarwal

185

171

172

8

-1

185

HDS India

Vivekanand Venugopal

184

109

94

69

16

186

Embee Software

Sudhir Kothari

183

153

140

20

9

187

TVS Electronics

SS Raman

181

190

190

-5

0

39

NA

184

-10

9

188

Checkpoint India

Bhaskar Bakthavatsalu

181

130

189

Caltron

PL Suhasaria

180

200

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

visit www.dqindia.com

August 15, 2011 | 65

RANKINGS

RANK

COMPANY

CEO

Revenue 2010-11

Revenue 2009-10

Revenue 2008-09

190

California Software

191

Visesh Informatics

S (Sam) Santosh

177

197

258

Peeyush Agarwal

177

124

192

Venktron Digital Systems

Ajay Singhania

175

153

193

Supreme Computers

Rakesh Jain

175

194

Aldous Glare

George Thomas

175

Growth 2010-11

Growth 2009-10

-10

-24

43

NA

102

14

50

125

115

52

9

132

107

33

23 111

195

Sandisk

Manisha Sood

174

148

70

18

196

Logitech

Subrotah Biswas

172

130

110

32

18

197

Megasoft

GV Kumar

169

262

353

-35

-26

198

PC Solutions

Devendra Taneja

160

155

139

3

12

199

Polycom

Neeraj Gill

160

110

82

45

34

200

Datamation

Pawan Kumar Agarwala

160

90

60

78

50

201

Mega Compu World

Mahendra Baid

155

150

140

3.33

7.14

202

Datamatics Global Services

Rahul Kanodia

155

146

179

6.16

-18.44

203

Aftek Infosystems

Ranjit Dhuru

154

182

220

-15.38

-17.27

204

Alco Infotech

Pankaj Kadia

150

119

100

26.05

19.00

205

Eastern Logica

Gaurav Goel

148

108

85

37.04

27.06

206

Mahindra Engineering Services

Prashant Kamat

147

145

135

1.38

7.41

207

Creative Peripherals & Distribution

Ketan C Patel

145

96

84

51.04

14.29

208

Quick Heal Technologies

Kailash Katkar

145

105

57

38.10

84.21

209

Softcell Technologies

Sunil Dalal

143

110

na

30.00

NA

210

Supreme Technologies

Vinay Dugar

140

125

115

12.00

8.70

211

Jetking Infotrain

Suresh G Bharwani

138

158

186

-12.66

-15.05

212

Ruckus Wireless India

Manjit Singh

138

101

na

36.63

NA

213

Locuz Enterprise Solutions

Vijay Wadhi

135

87

64

55.17

35.94

214

Orient Technologies

Ajay Sawant

135

105

103

28.57

1.94

215

D-Link India

Gary Yang

134

133

132

0.75

0.76

216

Positive Systems

Sampath Kumar

126

107

98

17.76

9.18

217

Tera Software

CS Ravindran

126

102

82

23.53

24.39

218

Apara Technology Enterprise

MS Sidhu

125

119

90

5.04

32.22

219

EdServ

S Giridharan

122

53

9

130.19

488.89

220

FourSoft

Rajshekhar Roy

122

133

195

-8.27

-31.79

221

Tavant technogies

Sarvesh Mahesh

122

107

87

14.02

22.99

222

Blue Star Infotech

Suneel M Advani

121

131

155

-7.63

-15.48

223

Prodapt Solutions

Vedant Jhaver

121

97

52

24.74

86.54

224

New Wave Computing

S Vasudevan

120

85

100

41.18

-15.00

225

Noveon Group

Jaimon Joseph and Sheeja Jose

120

110

97

9.09

13.40

226

Targus Technologies

Col Balwinder Singh

120

130

115

-7.69

13.04

227

Velocis

Atul Bansal

120

135

101

-11.11

33.66

228

Challenger Computer

Akhtar Hussain

118

105

89

12.38

17.98

229

Citrix India

Sanjay Deshmukh

118

100

87

18.00

14.94

230

Park Elektronik

Ajaya Kumar

116

103

94

12.62

9.57

231

Elitecore

Hemant Patel

115

83

66

38.55

25.76

232

Artek Enterprises

Anubhav Gupta

111

118

109

-5.93

8.26

233

International Marketing Company

Divakar Prabhu

111

95

79

16.84

20.25

234

Alliance Prosys

Jeevan Reddy

110

100

50

10.00

100.00

235

Dax Networks

Sudha Jagadish

110

109

99

0.92

10.10

236

QuantM Net Technologies

Pawan Khurana

108

94

97

14.89

-3.09

237

Suntronic Systems

Pradeep Biyani and Sandeep Biyani

107

90

75

18.89

20.00

238

K Computers

Kishan Thumala

106

52

52

103.85

0.00

239

Infrasoft Technologies

Hanuman Tripathi

101

108

99

-6.48

9.09 44.74

240

Ozone Computers

Shija K Thomas

100

55

38

81.82

241

KLG Systel

Kumud Goel

99

242

235

-59.09

2.98

242

Saboo Computers

Rajesh Saboo

95

67

58

41.79

15.52

243

Aruba India

Shalendra Singh

91

29

NA

213.79

NA

244

Choice Solutions

KV Jagannath

91

88

85

3.41

3.53

245

Neilsoft

Ketan Bakshi

91

89

122

2.25

-27.05

246

CCS Infotech

Hasan Abdul Kader

90

75

75

20.00

0.00

247

Printlink Computer & Communication

Rajesh Dora

90

85

48

5.88

77.08

248

Microcare Computers

PK Chowdhary

89

83

69

7.23

20.29

249

Digicom Systems

Akhtar Ali

85

55

55

54.55

0.00

250

Peripheral Engineers

Rajesh Kumar

87

83

55

4.82

50.91

66 | August 15, 2011

visit www.dqindia.com

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

The DQ Next 50 Rank

Company Name

Rank

Company Name

201

Mega Compu World

226

Targus Technologies

202

Datamatics Global Services

227

Velocis Systems

203

Aftek Infosystems

228

Challenger Computers

204

Alco Infotech

229

Citrix India

205

Eastern Logica Infoway

230

Park Electronik

206

Mahindra Engineering Services

231

Elitecore Technologies

207

Creative Peripherals & Distribution

232

Artek Enterprises

208

Quick Heal Technologies

233

International Marketing Company

209

Softcell Technologies

234

AlliancePROSYS

210

Supreme Technologies

235

Dax Networks

211

Jetking Infotrain

236

QuantM Net Technologies

212

Ruckus Wireless India

237

Suntronic Systems

213

Locuz Enterprise Solutions

238

K Computers

214

Orient Technologies

239

Infrasoft Technologies

215

D-Link India

240

Ozone Systems

216

Positive Systems

241

KLG Systel

217

Tera Software

242

Saboo Computers

218

Apara Technology Enterprise

243

Aruba Networks

219

EdServ SoftSystems

244

Choice Solutions

220

Four Soft

245

Neilsoft

221

Tavant Technologies

246

CCS Infotech

222

Blue Star Infotech

247

Print Link Computer & Communication

223

Prodapt Solutions

248

Microcare Computers

224

New Wave Computing

249

Digicom Systems

225

Noveon Systems

250

Peripheral Engineers

DQ 200 150

Shwetha Computers & Peripherals

193

Supreme Computers

We have added two companies whose revenues make them eligible to feature among Top 200 companies, but which could not be featured in Vol I. The profiles of these two companies—Shwetha Computers & Peripherals (Rank 150) and Supreme Computers (Rank 193)—have been carried here, followed by the profiles of the next 50 companies, beyond the DQ 200.

NEXT 50

Shwetha Computers & Peripherals Growth

RANK

150

11%

135

100% 2008-09

150

100% 2009-10

100% 2010-11

n Authorized sub-distributors for ASUS, AMD, LG, Sony, Toshiba, Gigabyte, Biostar, Cooler Master

l CEO: Lalith Kothari l Start-up Year: 2003 l Products and Services: Hardware, peripherals l Address: Shop #4 & 5, Chenoy Trade Center, Parklane, Secunderabad 500 003 l Employees: 170 l Tel: 040 6638 2325 l Fax: 040 6632 7710 l Website: www.shwethaperipherals.com

Supreme Computers

14% 50%

Supreme credits its growth to the booming laptop sales that contributed around 85% of its distribution business, with the remaining coming from servers. It invested significantly in product and soft-skill training that helped it win around 50 clients, namely Nalli, Accenture, and Sundaram Group, etc.

Overall the company derived 65% revenues from distribution, followed by 20% from retail (Laptop Plus) and 15% from corporate accounts. In retail, it introduced Apple iPad and airtel 3G dongles.

102 Source: DQ estimates

193

2008-09

l CEO: Rakesh Jain l Start-up Year: 1994 l Products & Services: hardware, system integrator l Address: 18/18, Majestic Plaza, (Opp Indian Bank), Narasingapuram Street, Mount Road, Chennai 600 002 l Employees: 62 l Tel: 044 4214 9998 l Fax: 044 4216 8578 l Website: www.supremecomputers.in

175

153

RANK

2009-10

2010-11

n Opened a new retail store, Laptop Plus n Diversified portfolio with laptop services

Growth

Mega Compu World did marginally better in FY11 and is hopeful of positive RANK growth in the coming year with the anticipated addition of Dell and Lenovo’s distributorship to its portfolio. Seagate and Intel are the major contributors to its overall revenue. Mega Compu World admitted that an increase in the credit days will contribute to the increase in the turnover of the company.

201

140

100% 2008-09

Growth

359%

179

6%

155

146

94%

6% 2008-09

visit www.dqindia.com

-18%

93%

Export

7%

Domestic

2009-10

91%

9%

Source: DQ estimates

Datamatics continued to benefit from its decision of combining BPO and IT services which happened in FY10, but IPs stole the show in FY11. Its ‘Meter to Cash’ incited interest from the likes of IBM, SAP, Microsoft, etc, while ‘EPM and I-Q suite’ culminated in clients like HDFC Securities, Standard Chartered, World Bank, Idea, etc. Middle East saw a lot of traction while the company also penetrated new geographies like Bosnia.

l Vice Chairman & CEO: Rahul Kanodia l Start-up Year: 1975 l Products & Services: Provider of end-to-end BPO and IT solutions l Address: Knowledge Center, Street No 17, MIDC, Andheri (East), Mumbai 400 093 l Employees: 2,808 l Tel: 022 6102 0000 l Fax: 022 6102 0130 l Website: www.datamatics.com

100% 2010-11

Domestic

Revenue (` crore)

Datamatics Global Services

202

100% 2009-10

n Seagate Premiere’s #2 distributor in India, 2011 n Bagged regional distributorship of LG

l MD: Mahendra Baid l Start-up Year: 2005 l Products & Services: Computer hardware and peripherals l Address: Mega Compu World. No 2/1, OTC Road, SP Road Cross, Bengaluru 560 002 l Employees: 45 l Tel: 080 4114 3441/3442, 2299 8325 l Fax: 080 2299 8419 l Website: www.megacompu.co.in

RANK

7% 160

7%

150

Source: DQ estimates

Mega Compu World

68 | August 15, 2011

Domestic

Source: DQ estimates

Around 6 years ago, Shwetha ventured into distribution and today it makes about 50% of the revenue from this. Last fiscal, this business got a fillip with the addition of Samsung and Apple range of notebooks. Around 40% of the distribution revenue came collectively from Intel, Seagate, and Acer. On the retail front, this Hyderabad based sub-distributor garnered around 10% of its revenues from the newly opened stores at Warangal, Hyderabad, and Vizag.

73% 260

2010-11

n Set up a public charitable trust, ‘Asha’ as part of CSR n Acquired a controlling stake in Bengaluru based Vista

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NEXT 50

Revenue (` crore)

Aftek Infosystems

Growth

203

-17%

220

-15%

182

154 97%

97%

3%

3%

2008-09

2009-10

97%

Export

Source: DQ estimates

In FY11, Aftek was striving to return to profits, its turnover having declined again. For the year ended March 2011, it clocked `154 crore as against `182 crore in the previous year. The company continued to witness sales slump but on a positive note was able to increase its profit from `0.28 crore in last year to `14.55 crore this year. In order to revitalize its transportation offerings, the company revived its various transportation services under 1 complete framework known as Aftek Transportation Framework (ATF).

RANK

-44%

3%

Domestic

2010-11

n Added VoiceKeyID to the Android platform n Also created a mobile security solution, AmSecure

Alco Infotech

26%

Growth

FY11 was the year of new partnerships for Alco Infotech. The company added Emerson and APC online UPS, Lenovo PCs, Acer TFT, HP’s range of printing and imaging products, Quickheal and Norton’s security software and Digilink’s networking products to its portfolio. Around 20% of its business came from printing and imaging solutions, 15% each from TFT and notebooks, 5% from hard drives and security software, with networking products and local tenders accounting for the rest. It catered to almost 800 dealers/resellers in the Eastern region.

150 19%

RANK

204

119 100

100%

100%

2008-09

2009-10

Domestic

Source: DQ estimates

l CEO: Ranjit Dhuru l Start-up: 1986 l Products & Services: Embedded systems, application development, managed services, hardware engineering, testing l Address: Aftek House, 265, Veer Savarkar Marg, Shivaji Park, Dadar, Mumbai 400 028 l Tel: 022 2445 4016 l Fax: 022 2444 6330 l Website: www.aftek.com

100% 2010-11

n Bagged deals from SMBs and corporates n Opened 2 retail stores in Kolkata

l CEO: Pankaj Kedia l Start-up Year: 1997 l Products & Services: Hardware, peripherals, software, networking, power l Address: 1, Princep Street, First Floor (Near Orient Cinema), Kolkata 700 072 l Employees: 105 l Telephone: 033 2234 5578/ 79/80 l Fax: 033 2234 5576 l Website: www.alcoinfotech.com

Eastern Logica Infoway

37%

148

Growth

27%

205

108 85

100%

100%

2008-09

2009-10

Domestic

100%

Source: DQ estimates

This distributor is credited for taking the Lenovo market share in West Bengal from 7% to around 21% today. Only a regional partner last fiscal, Eastern Logica was upgraded to a regional distributor for Lenovo. A larger pie of the company’s business (around 68%) came from distribution, followed by retail (30%) and the remaining from services. The distribution segment grew by 35%, while retail saw almost 100% growth, with the addition of 8 new outlets within Kolkata.

RANK

2010-11

n Appointed Trend Micro’s second sub-distributor for consumer business in WB n Awarded best RD by Lenovo

l CEO: Gaurav Goel l Start-up Year: 2002 l Products/Services: Hardware, software, networking, laptops, peripherals, lifestyle products, storage, mobiles l Address: 16, GC Avenue, Kolkata 700 013 l Employees: 110 l Tel: 033 4012 9999 l Fax: 033 4012 9925 l Website: www.easternlogica.com

Revenue (` crore)

Mahindra Engineering Services

Growth

A late entrant to the engineering services arena, Mahindra Engineering ServRANK ices is playing the value game—end-to-end design of full products, even though it means slower volume and hence slower revenue growth. After successfully designing a 20-seater mini bus for US truck maker Navistar for the Columbian market earlier, it designed power bikes for Mahindra Racing and MotoGP 125cc racing. It is also designing a streamliner to cross 500 mph barrier. However as part of internal restructuring, its aerospace design team was transferred to Mahindra Aerospace, a sister company.

7%

1%

145

147

135

l CEO: Prashant Kamat l Start-up Year: 2008 l Products & Services: Engineering services l Employees: 1,025 l Address: Embassy Tech Zone-SEZ, Wing B, Plot #3, Phase II, Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park, Hinjewadi, Pune 411 057 l Tel: 020 4021 9000 l Fax: 020 4021 9099 l Website: www.mahindraengineering.com

70 | August 15, 2011

visit www.dqindia.com

100%

100%

2008-09

2009-10

95%

Export

Domestic

5%

Source: DQ estimates

206

2010-11

n Opened a sales office in China n Converted a sedan of a European automaker to a pick-up vehicle

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

NEXT 50

Creative Peripherals & Distribution

145

RANK

l CEO: Ketan C Patel l Start-up Year: 1992 l Products and Services: Distribution, retail, AMC l Address: 375/377, Babu Building, #20, 2nd floor, Lamington Road, Grant Road (E), Mumbai 400 007 l Employees: 100 l Tel: 022 2382 2222 l Fax: 022 2890 3558 l Website: www.ecreativeindia.com

14%

96 84

100%

100%

2008-09

2009-10

Domestic

2010-11

84%

105 78%

57

100% 2008-09

n Received Maharashtra IT Award for security solution n Planned launch of newer security solutions

Softcell Technologies

30% 143

Growth

From being a premier Microsoft reseller, Softcell evolved into a leading partRANK ner for software (70% revenue from software) vendors like Adobe, Quest, and PTC amongst others. Overall the company billed about 2,600 customers in FY11, 8% more than FY10. The engineering services SBU was a major contributor—it was a platinum partner for PTC and gained around 15% engineering services revenue from PTC products and services. Overall services revenue grew by 35% and accounted for 18% of Softcell turnover.

209

110

100% 2009-10

l CEO: Sunil Dalal l Start-up Year: 1989 l Products and Services: Internet hosting, engineering services, system integration, storage and security l Address: 301, Prabhadevi Industrial Estate, Veer Savarkar Marg, Prabhadevi, Mumbai 400 025 l Employees: 360 l Tel: 022 6600 6700 l Fax: 022 2422 4912 l Website: www.softcell.in

Domestic

100% 2010-11

n Hardware business grew 80% n Hardware accounted for 13% of total revenues

Supreme Technologies

Growth

210

l MD: Vinay Dugar l Start-up Year: 1995 l Products and Services: Laptops, desktops, peripherals, packaged software, networking l Address: 35, Chittaranjan Avenue, Kolkatta 700 012 l Tel: 033 2211 9355 l Fax: 033 2211 9361 l Website: www.supremetechno.com

visit www.dqindia.com

12% 5%

115

140

9%

125

100%

100%

2008-09

2009-10

Domestic

100%

Source: DQ estimates

Banking heavily on the growing SOHO segment in the East, Supreme Technologies has almost all the big brands like Dell, Intel Sony, LG, AMD, Lenovo and others in its kitty either as a sub-distributor or an RD (for Dell and Sony in WB). In FY11, Dell contributed 30-35% of its revenues and Sony another 10-12%. There was increased thrust on retail following the opening of new showrooms in Kolkata.

RANK

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100% Domestic 100% 2009-10 2010-11

Source: DQ estimates

l CEO & MD: Kailash Katkar l Start-up Year: 1993 l Products & Services: Anti-virus software l Address: 603, Mayfair Towers II, Wakadewadi, Shivajinagar, Pune 411 005 l Employees: 392 l Tel: 020 4106 0400 l Fax: 020 6602 5985 l Website: www.quickheal.com

38% 145

Growth

RANK

208

100%

n LFR customers like Croma, Landmark, etc, got added n eScan and AOC got added in its distribution portfolio

Quick Heal Technologies Low-cost products like anti-virus did well for Quick Heal especially among the SMBs. Anti-virus revenues jumped by 12% to reach `24 crore but, more importantly, it gained 60% in licenses from the SOHO segment. While new channel connect programs touching 50 cities helped, the company forayed into newer segments like UTM too. Armed with a `60 crore investment from Sequoia Capital India, Quick Heal ventured into global markets, adding partners in Italy, Kenya, Bangladesh, Syria, and Malaysia.

Source: DQ estimates

207

Source: DQ estimates

In FY11, Creative followed a conscious decision of keeping distribution revenues to around 40%, corporate account to 22%, OEM business to 12% and distribution in large format retail (LFR) business to 20%. The move paid off as the company witnessed muted growth in OEM business and looked at offsetting this mainly with increased business from LFRs. Last fiscal, Creative expanded its presence in Surat, Nagpur, Kolhapur and Indore. Overall, it witnessed around 20% growth from these additions.

51%

Growth

2010-11

n Home segment contributed nearly 80% to revenues n To offer IT solutions in retail, govt, and corporate segment

August 15, 2011 | 71

NEXT 50

Revenue (` crore)

Jetking Infotrain

Growth

211

-15%

186

-13%

158

138

100%

100%

2008-09

2009-10

Domestic

100%

Source: DQ estimates

Another bad year, not only did revenues plummet but profits too declined by 31%. But then, Jetking launched the world’s first tablet PC program and partnered Wipro & IBM for courses. Remedial measures are being taken changing the focus to networking and virtualization and establishing CoEs in Kolkata, Chennai and Kochi. Various online forums indicate that the malaise lies with the quality of franchise centers, categorization of centers into platinum, gold, silver, and bronze might help.

RANK

2010-11

n Bagged Gujarat government’s contract `10 crore n Expanded into Africa, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam

l CEO: Suresh G Bharwani l Start-up Year: 1990 l Products & Services: Education & training l Address: 5th Floor, Amore Bldg, Junction of 2nd & 4th Road, Khar (W), Mumbai 400 052 l Employees: 2,688 l Tel: 022 6741 4000 l Website: www.jetkinginfotrain.com

Ruckus Wireless India

37%

138

The growth in FY11 came primarily from deployments in the hospitality and education sectors. Major deployments happened at Hyatt Regency; JW Marriott, Bengaluru; Lovely Professional University; Lemon Tree Hotels, Leonia Resorts; Marriott Hotels; Mumbai airport (through YOU Broadband), Thapar University; Oberoi Hotels; and Westin Hotels. Naturally a host of VARs like Zen Exim, Telexcell, iValue Infosolutions, VNPL, and others came into the Ruckus fold during the year to support so many deployments.

RANK

101

100%

Domestic

100%

2009-10

2010-11

n Deployed Next Gen 802.11n in Seven Hills hospital, Mumbai n Appointed Manjit Singh as MD, India & Saarc region

Locuz Enterprise Solutions

55%

Growth

Few years back, Locuz ventured into the government sector with mid-size deals. In FY11, starting with a couple of `5 crore tenders, it finally hit the jackpot when it inked a deal with DRDO worth `10 crore. The agreement included deployment of database and HPC solutions. The fact that 3i Infotech had a strategic stake (26%) in Locuz probably helped. The government sector alone fetched around 45-48% of Locuz revenues while 35% came from IT/BPO and 10% from education.

135

RANK

213

36%

87 64

100%

100%

2008-09

2009-10

Domestic

100% 2010-11

n Bagged around 250 deals in FY11 n Signed at least 5 deals worth between `5-10 crore

Orient Technologies

29% 135

Growth

Orient’s growth in FY11 came largely from its newly introduced government vertical. It bagged around 4-5 large deals in government that added around `10 crore to its topline. BFSI and SMB were the other growth verticals for Orient, though it was offset somewhat by muted growth in manufacturing, pharma, and IT/BPO. The company also doubled its deal pipeline—nearly 70 deals were signed including those in storage consolidation, virtualization, data center services, thin clients, and yearly PC purchases.

RANK

214

l CEO: Ajay Sawant l Start-up Year:1991 l Products and Services: Solution providers l Address: 49H, New Havens, 2nd floor, Parsi Panchayat Road, Andheri (E), Mumbai 400 069 l Employees: 620 l Tel: 022 6715 8819 l Fax: 022 67158 989 l Website: www.orientindia.com

2%

103

105

100%

100%

2008-09

2009-10

Domestic

100%

Source: DQ estimates

l CEO: Vijay Wadhi l Start-up Year: 2000 l Products and Services: Managed services, IT infrastructure, system integration, HPC consulting l Address: #4, 6th Floor, Orion Tower, Bldg #9, Mindspace, Cyberabad, Hyderabad 500 081 l Employees: 258 l Tel: 040 3050 9001/5 l Fax: 040 3050 9006/7 l Website: www.locuz.com

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Source: DQ estimates

l MD: Manjit Singh l Start-up Year: 2008 l Products & Services: Wi-Fi systems, mobile internetworking products & solutions l Address: Level 14&15, Concorde Tower, UB City, Vittal Mallya Road, Bengaluru 560 001 l Employees: 20 l Tel: 080 4030 0609 l Website: www.ruckuswireless.com

72 | August 15, 2011

Source: DQ estimates

212

2010-11

n Opened new office in Singapore to focus on ASEAN n Started cloud computing operations

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NEXT 50

Revenue (` crore)

D-Link India

Growth

Even as D-Link was celebrating its silver jubilee, the jubilation was mixed.

Despite the growth in switching and wireless, and significant traction amongst SMBs and education space, other businesses either remained flat or declined.

An organizational reshuffle was inevitable and it came in the form of Tushar Sighat returning to D-Link as the CEO. This followed the return of Kerman Rana as VP, sales, from Digilink. A new corporate office in Mumbai and a warehouse facility in Goa were the silver linings.

RANK

1%

1%

132

133

7%

8%

134

93%

92%

2008-09

2009-10

Growth

Distribution business grew and accounted for 75% of Positive’s revenues, after it moved to a daily selling target in FY11. Out of this 75-80% came from components, while the remaining came from laptops (added Toshiba to the kitty). Another 15% of its business came from retail, followed by 5% from services. Positive had 10 stores in Kerala, with 3 more locations planned ahead. On the services front, the company added around 50 clients, taking the total to 450.

RANK

216

18% 126

9%

107

98

100% 2008-09

Tera Software

Growth

100% 2009-10

Domestic

100% 2010-11

217

24% 126

24%

102 82

100% 2008-09

100% Domestic 100% 2009-10 2010-11

Source: DQ estimates

FY11 for this Hyderabad based SI was all about deals and gains, ending the year with 35 deals in the kitty and an order book of `860 crore. The highlight was a UIDAI deal worth `235 crore to enrol around 8 crore people in 2 years, one from the census department for National Population Registration (`270 crore) as well as the Nagaland SWAN (`20 crore). Around 40% of its business came from SI with BPO accounting for the rest, though this proportion would change to 20:80 this fiscal.

RANK

n Partnered with L1 Identity Solution for biometric products n Bagged deals with National Remote Sensing Agency

l CEO: CS Ravindran l Start-up Year: 1994 l Products & Services: Hardware, peripherals, UPS l Address: 8-3-113/2B, Kesava Nagar, Srinagar Colony, Hyderabad 500 073 l Employees: 170 l Tel: 040 2373 0553/6833 l Fax: 040 2374 3526 l Website: www.terasoftware.com

Revenue (` crore)

Apara Technology Enterprise

Growth

5%

32%

125

119 90

100%

100%

2008-09

2009-10

Domestic

100%

Source: DQ estimates

The major growth drivers for Apara in FY11 were services (60% contribution RANK to revenue), information management, and security (about 10%). Apart from marquee deals like Ericsson and ICICI, Apara also bagged smaller deals in the BFSI and FMCG domain adding 45 new clients as a result. The second half of FY11 was the beginning of the company doing business for HP, and it added 15 new clients for HP solutions. Ninety percent of its customers were repeated, through which Apara garnered 80-85% of its revenues.

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92%

2010-11

n Awarded Platinum Star Partner Award from Samsung India Electronics

l CEO: Sampath Kumar l Start-up Year: 2000 l Products & Services: Hardware, software, storage l Address: 39/1568, Madakkappilly Lane, Chittoor Road, Ernakulam, Cochin 682 016 l Employees: 70 l Tel: 0484 414 0000 l Fax: 0484 414 0099 l Website: www.positivesystems.in

74 | August 15, 2011

Domestic

Source: DQ estimates

Positive Systems

l CEO: MS Sidhu l Start-up Year: 1992 l Products & Services: SI, data center solutions l Address: Suite 801, 7th Floor, Oxford towers, Kodihalli, Airport Road, Bengaluru 560 008 l Employees: 225 l Tel: 080 2520 1383 l Website: www.apara.com

8%

n Sales head Rajesh Sahore quit within the year n Created vertical specialist partners for infrastructure

l MD: Gary Yang l Start-up Year: 1994 l Products & Services: Networking and structured cabling products l Address: Kalpataru Square, 2nd Floor, Unit No 24, Kondivita Lane, Andheri Kurla Road, Andheri (East), Mumbai 400 059 l Employees: 151 l Tel: 022 2921 5700 l Fax: 022 2830 1901 l Website: www.dlink.co.in

218

Export

Source: DQ estimates

215

2010-11

n EBITDA grew by 200% n Partnered with Expand Networks for WAN solutions

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NEXT 50

EdServ SoftSystems

130% 122

Not just revenues, even net profits more than doubled for EdServ in FY11.

Partnerships blossomed—the one with IL&FS Education strengthened EdServ’s presence in the school segment, where it targeted solutions on the K-Yan platform in regional languages like Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Marathi, and Kannada; and the other with CAclubIndia.com was to offer CA coaching services through India’s largest online CA platform. It also launched HUMTUM, a mobile based app which provided access to its knowledge portal, LAMPSGLOW, through smartphones.

RANK

l MD & CEO: S Giridharan l Start-up Year: 2001 l Products & Services: IT & non-IT training l Address: EdServ SoftSystems, New No 139, Panna Plaza, I Floor, Arcot Road, Kodambakkam, Chennai 600 024 l Tel: 044 6453 7217 l Website: www.edserve.in

Growth

489%

53

9 100% 2008-09

100% Domestic 100% 2009-10 2010-11

Source: DQ estimates

219

n Planned to raise $35mn in GDR n Signed e-training partnership with Corel

Four Soft -32%

2008-09

l CEO: Rajshekhar Roy l Start-up Year: 1999 l Products & Services: Software solutions and IT consultancy services for freight, transportation, logistics and supply chain l Address: 5Q1A3, Cyber Towers, Hitec City, Madhapur, Hyderabad 500 033 l Tel: 040 2310 0600/601 l Fax: 040 2310 0602 l Website: www.four-soft.com

Growth

l CEO: Sarvesh Mahesh l Start-up Year: 1991 l Products & Services: Building solutions and providing end-to-end services l Address: 2, CSRIE-II, Guava Garden 5th Block, Koramangala, Bengaluru 560 095 l Tel: 080 4119 0300 l Fax: 080 2563 0530 l Website: www.tavant.com

Blue Star Infotech

2010-11

14% 122

23%

87 98%

98%

Export

98%

2% 2008-09

2% 2009-10

Domestic

2% 2010-11

n Partnered with Thermo King, for warranty solutions n Among the top 20 employers in DQ-IDC Best Employers Survey

Growth

222

l Chairman & MD: Suneel M Advani l Start-up Year: 1983 l Products & Services: Software products, services, consulting l Address: SDF VI, Sector 188, SEEPZ, Andheri (East), Mumbai 400 096. l Tel: 022 6695 6969 l Fax: 022 6697 3866 l Website: www.bsil.com

visit www.dqindia.com

6%

155

--15%

-8%

131 84%

121

81%

Export

16%

19%

Domestic

2008-09

2009-10

75%

25%

Source: DQ estimates

New clientele (Meridian Pharmaceuticals, Aster Infrastructure, PVR, Madison Communications, Nippo Batteries, Christ Nishotech, Dorf Ketal Chemicals) as well as new solutions (‘iRoadGenie’ app for the iPhone and on Enterprise Social Computing) were the showstealers for Blue Star. FY11 also witnessed a spree of partnerships with Virtual Ark and Microsoft (cloud computing), QlikView (BI) and IBM (Enterprise Collaboration). Contribution from travel & hospitality (20%) and domestic market (21%) also increased.

RANK

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2009-10

107

RANK

221

122

n It achieved CMMI Level 5 Certification (version 1.2) n Strengthen focus on Japan with Suzuyo partnership

Tavant Technologies Existing accounts in verticals like e-business (45%), financial services (30%), and manufacturing (25%) got Tavant good business in FY11. It added 8 new clients. In the domestic market, Tavant bagged a deal from one of the major players in the capital market (front-end application development).

Some other deals which led to growth were from a US based financial services group (application development, BI and data warehousing) and a diversified media company (web application development and mobile application development).

-8%

133

Source: DQ estimates

220

14%

195

Source: DQ estimates

Four Soft saw a dip in revenue as it forayed into BPO services to offer freight settlement reports, customer service and transaction entry. The year also marked new market entries with the company winning a contract with Japan based Vantec to automate the management of its warehousing facilities across multiple locations. It partnered with UNIFO Solutions India to offer SaaS solutions to its US and UK customers. It appointed Prof Janat Shah as an additional director in the board after the demise of non-executive director, Palem Mangamma.

RANK

2010-11

n NAV Elixir was certified for Microsoft Dynamics n Domestic revenue touched `30 crore

August 15, 2011 | 75

NEXT 50

Prodapt Solutions

25% 121

Growth

97

RANK

223

52

100% 2008-09

100% Domestic 100% 2009-10 2010-11

Source: DQ estimates

FY11 was more muted for Prodapt compared to FY10—it was the same for all IT services companies focusing mainly on telecom. The company made investments in the US and strengthened its team, and consequently revenues doubled from the existing clients there. The successful integration of Pacific Crest Technology acquired earlier helped too. Prodapt also invested to strengthen 2 competency centers—one for telecom operators and the other for telecom OEMs.

87%

n Switched to a client/partner delivery model n Set up new facility in Chennai

New Wave Computing

41% 120

Growth

While the systems business comprising servers, storage, and PCs culminated into a strong topline for New Wave in FY11 (Lenovo and IBM remained its mainstays), the new principals added (EMC, Vmware, Microsoft, and TCS) will be the growth drivers of the future. It was recognized as the best business partner for IBM and one of the top 2 partners for Lenovo in the country. New Wave inked deals with various banks and educational institutes like IIM and SIT, Tumkur (for implementation of TCS SMB cloud venture iON).

RANK

100

-15%

85

224

100% 2008-09

100% 2009-10

100% 2010-11

Domestic

Source: DQ estimates

l MD & CEO: Vedant Jhaver l Start-up Year: 1999 l Products & Services: Software consulting, testing services, application development & maintenance l Address: 9, Seshadri Road, Alwarpet, Chennai 600 018 l Employees: 711 l Tel: 044 6650 2222 l Fax: 044 2498 6633 l Website: www.prodapt.com

n Won a major contract with Cognizant for Lenovo products

l CEO: S Vasudevan l Start-up Year: 1999 l Products & Services: Distribution of IT hardware, components, peripherals, laptops l Address: #611, 2nd and 3rd floor, 80 Feet Road, 6th Block, Koramangala, Bengaluru 560 034 l Employees: 110 l Tel: 080 2550 4607 l Fax: 080 2550 4608 l Website: www.newwavecomputing.com

Noveon Systems

Growth

Primarily a distributor, Noveon Systems looked to diversify its portfolio and expand geographically. Last fiscal it added LG in its re-distribution portfolio; it also opened a 4-floor multi-branded store in Kochi with plans to set up another IT mall. Noveon is also moving to other cities in Kerala with distribution as well as retail presence plans. As part of its diversification, Noveon is also setting up a team to look at corporate and other accounts.

RANK

9% 120

13%

110 97

100% 2009-10

Domestic

100% 2010-11

n Regional distributor for HP, Belkin, Microsoft, Acer n Sub-distributor for Toshiba, Samsung’s major products

l CEO: Jaimon Joseph, Sheeja Jose l Start-up Year: 1997 l Products & Services: Hardware, software, storage l Address: Above Syndicate Bank, Opp Shipyard, MG road, Cochin 682 015 l Employees: 40 l Tel: 0484 307 7954 l Fax: 0484 3077954 l Website: http://www.noveonsystems.com

Targus Technologies

Growth

226

l CEO: Col Balwinder Singh l Start-up Year: 1997 l Products & Services: IT integrated solutions, server & storage solutions, networking solutions, managed services l Address: Plot No 218, Phase IV, Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon 122 016 l Employees: 396 l Tel: 0124 474 2300 l Fax: 0124 474 2335 l Website: www.targustech.com

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-4%

13%

-8% 120

130

115

100% 2008-09

100% 2009-10

Domestic

100% 2010-11

Source: DQ estimates

Targus was one solution provider who walked the talk of going global in FY11. It formed a new business unit IBG (International Business Group) that adopted the direct client approach model; set up an office in Singapore where it generated $1 mn business and then targeted Australia, Japan, and Africa—mainly the large corporates and telecom operators. Telco business paid off in India too—a `5 crore order from IDEA telecom infrastructure setup, `2 crore from Dish TV, and `5 crore from MTS. RANK

76 | August 15, 2011

100% 2008-09

Source: DQ estimates

225

n Set up 2 national locations in Amritsar and Chennai n Partnership with HP ESSN, Riverbed, and Juniper

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Velocis Systems

Growth

227

-11% 120

101

100% 2008-09

100% 2009-10

100% 2010-11

Domestic

n Opened office in Dubai n Awarded ‘Best Services Partner’ in India & Saarc by CA Technologies

Challenger Computers

12% 118

Growth

The highlights for Chennai based Challenger in FY11 were major orders for training and supply of peripherals (to UP and Odisha governments) as well as other rural development projects. The icing was however Challenger’s recognition as the associate partner for all Tamil Nadu government orders. With education contributing the highest (60%), Challenger plans to increase contribution from telecom segment (10%) with the addition of MTS and other telecom products into its portfolio. On the retail front, the highest contribution came from Samsung (only IT products) followed by Intel and Dell (all products).

RANK

228

18%

105 89

100% 2008-09

100% Domestic 100% 2009-10 2010-11

Source: DQ estimates

l CEO: Atul Bansal l Start-up Year: 2007 l Products & Services: IT infrastructure, messaging & collaboration, business applications, and IT managed services l Address: A-25, Sector - 67, Noida 201 301 l Employees: 550 l Tel: 0120 248 4186 l Fax: 0120 248 4223 l Website: www.velocis.in

n Opened a new office in Ambattur n Associate partner for all TN government orders

Citrix India

Growth

In India, Citrix was driving its business in FY11 primarily through partnerships and the distribution channel. It partnered with Cisco for virtual desktop infrastructure and extreme networks for its virtualization management solution. Vouching for the future of desktop virtualization, the company planned to include nearly 50 LHPs and more than 100 CSA partners in the next 2-3 years. Citrix solutions had maximum traction from the IT/BPO, telecom and financial services domain. Emerged as one of the top 3 SaaS vendors with Citrix Online.

100

RANK

229

18% 118

15%

87 40%

60% 2008-09

40%

60% 2009-10

41%

Export

59% 2010-11

Domestic

Source: DQ estimates

l CEO: Akhtar Hussain l Start-up Year:1997 l Products & Services: Distribution of IT hardware, components, peripherals, laptop and mobile accessories l Address: 6, Narsingapuram Street, Chennai 600 002 l Tel: 044 859 1545 l Fax: 044 851 7770 l Website: www.challengerpage.in

n Extended desktop virtualization portfolio n Emerged as one of the top 3 SaaS vendors with Citrix Online

l Area VP (India subcontinent): Sanjay Deshmukh l Start-up Year: 1999 l Products & Services: Desktop and server virtualization, network security, cloud computing l Address: Citrix Systems India, 5th floor, The Sirius, #69/3 Millers Road, Bengaluru 560 052 l Tel: 080 4134 1000 l Fax: 080 4130 3000 l Website: www.citrix.com

Revenue (Rs crore)

13%

Growth

Park Electronik’s revenue, propeled by positive sentiment and new initiaRANK tives in FY11, jumped up by more than 12%. The company beefed its retail presence with 3 more retail outlets in Greater Noida and Noida. In addition, Park strengthened its product portfolio by including Canon and Toshiba for Haryana region and Siemens for North region. It also took its channel network to 500 with a substantial addition of 100 more.

230

l MD: Ajaya Kumar l Start-up Year: 1993 l Products & Services: Distributor l Address: 406, Eros Apartment Nehru Place, New Delhi, Delhi 110 019 l Tel: 011 2641 6376 l Website: www.computerparkindia.com

visit www.dqindia.com

-8%

94

116

10%

103

100%

100%

2008-09

2009-10

Domestic

100%

Source: DQ estimates

Park Electronik

78 | August 15, 2011

34%

135

Source: DQ estimates

In FY11, Velocis further strengthened Augment and its other offerings with RANK the launch of its celebrity express dashboard with implementations at IBM, airtel, and Cairn Energy. Though its top 10 clients contributed 70% to the topline, even new orders comprising Birla Financial, Max Hospital, and ERNET were impressive. With a balanced spread across the vertical that it operates in, Velocis was making impressive inroads into banking in Dubai (fund transfer system) and e-governance (HARTRON in Haryana with airtel).

2010-11

n Opened 3 retail outlets n Added Canon, Toshiba and Siemens to its product line

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Elitecore Technologies

26%

RANK

231

110%

100% 2008-09 l CEO: Hemal Patel l Start-up Year: 1999 l Products & Services: IP based technologies and products l Address: 904, Silicon Tower, Behind Pariseema Building, Off C G Road, near Lal Bungalow, Ahmedabad 380 006 l Employees: 500 l Tel: 079 6606 5606 l Fax: 079 2640 7640 l Website: www.elitecore.com

83

66

100% 2009-10

Domestic

100% 2010-11

Source: DQ estimates

FY11 was earmarked for geographical expansion—not only did Elitecore add 1,700 resellers across 110 countries taking the total to 5,000 resellers, it also expanded its operations across 30 countries including Poland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Argentina, and Chile. It sold 15,000 UTM appliances and interestingly around 40% of its overall revenue came from its subscription and AMC business.

39% 115

Growth

n Won awards for UTM and its OSS/BSS platform

Artek Enterprises

Growth

-6%

8%

The decline in revenues was due to the losses Artek suffered in its distribution business, mainly because it lost the D-Link account last year. Artek primarily had 2 lines of business—distribution (40% of revenues) and SI (60%). Growth came from deals with RITES, a project for Railways for `1.7 crore; the IIT Jodhpur expansion project worth `1.2 crore; and an NHPC surveillance project on radio links valued at `20 lakh.

RANK

118

109

111

100% 2008-09

l CEO: Divakar Prabhu l Start-up Year: 1993 l Products & Services: Distribution of IT hardware, components, peripherals, laptop and mobile accessories l Address: 39/4755-A, Madhavan Nair Road, Ravipuram, Kochi, Kerala 682 016 l Employees: 50 l Tel: 0484 237 2656 l Website: www.imccochin.com

20%

95 79

100% 2008-09

100% 2009-10

Domestic

100% 2010-11

n Opened 3 Dell exclusive stores n To foray in a big way into smartphones and tablets

AlliancePROSYS

Growth

In order to increase its geographical penetration in the north, this Hyderabad based reseller opened offices in Chandigarh and Delhi. This move was part of its national expansion plan after opening offices in Mumbai and Chennai.

But the game changer for Alliance in FY11 was taking advantage of Microsoft (its major principal) shifting focus to small-and-mid market solutions. In order to bring other principals to the league of its major principal, AlliancePROSYS focused on security products and also shifted to a service model. Bagging data center contracts was another major FY11 feature.

17% 111

Growth

RANK

233

100% 2010-11

n Partnered with Buffalo, HP, Fluke Networks n Enhanced portfolio

International Marketing Company The growth for this Kochi based partner came mainly from its major vendors, Dell (consumer products) and Sony (notebooks). It opened 3 Dell exclusive stores in Calicut, Thiruvananthapuram, and Kochi, and also appointed upcountry partners to support Dell’s ambitious expansion plans. Dell’s smartphones business however did not contribute as expected. In order to reduce its dependence on the major vendors, IMC expanded its portfolio by adding Epson (printers) and Tally (software).

Domestic

Source: DQ estimates

l Director: Anubhav Gupta l Start-up Year: 1979 l Products and Services: Distribution, system integration l Address: 505, Madhuban Building, 55 Nehru Place, New Delhi 110 019 l Tel: 011 4576 4000, 4161 8378/79 l Fax : 011 2621 6934 l Website: www.artek.co.in

100% 2009-10

Source: DQ estimates

232

100%

10% 110

100

RANK

l CEO: K Jeevan Reddy l Start-up Year: 1996 l Products & Services: Distribution of IT hardware, components, laptops l Address: #1-10-198, ITPI Building, Beside Post Office, Begumpet, Hyderabad 500 016 l Tel: 040 6616 1616 l Fax: 040 6616 1617 l Website: www.allianceprosys.com

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visit www.dqindia.com

50

100% 2008-09

100% Domestic 100% 2009-10 2010-11

Source: DQ estimates

234

n Awarded ‘Best Upcoming Partner’ by IBM n Awarded ‘Best Reseller for South’ by Microsoft

August 15, 2011 | 79

NEXT 50

Growth

1% 110

10%

Non-closure of most of the telco projects (barring few WiMax ones) in the last RANK fiscal, due to the 2G scam, had major impact on performance. Government (always a strong point with 35% revenues) provided some succor through the hospital computerization project for Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra LAN project, the GPoN project for VSNL, and a part of Manappuram’s SIAN project. To counter the slowdown in its traditional strongholds, it forayed into newer domains like IP surveillance and a NAS device.

235

109

99

100% 2008-09

100% 2009-10

Domestic

100% 2010-11

Source: DQ estimates

Dax Networks

n Launched iSCSi NAS for SMBs and SOHOs n Won a `7 crore deal to computerize TN hospitals

l CEO: Sudha Jagadish l Start-up Year: 1989 l Products & Services: Networking products and services l Address: No 11, Second Cross, Karpagam Gardens, Adyar, Chennai 600 020 l Employees: 99 l Tel: 044 4292 3558 l Fax: 044 4292 3567 l Website: www.daxnetworks.com

QuantM Net Technologies

15% 108

Growth

QuantM witnessed a 25% rise in profits, thanks to its innovative offering around cloud and managed availability. It launched its own cloud computing offering, Qloud which contributed 18% to the topline, 16% came from information availability, security and management; managed availability services (12%); virtualization (15%); data center (12%); and the remaining from outsourcing, ERP on cloud, etc. Some of its projects included production IT infrastructure for a telecom giant, and managed availability services for an energy consulting firm.

RANK

-3%

97

94

100% 2008-09

100% 2009-10

Domestic

100% 2010-11

Source: DQ estimates

236

n Set up its own captive data center (Citadel) for offering hosted solutions

Suntronic Systems

19% 107

Growth

Primarily a sub-distributor, Suntronic entered the retail bandwagon a few RANK years back. In FY11 while 80% of its revenues came from distribution, retail contributed 15% and SI 5%. In the distribution pie, about 40% came from Intel, followed by Seagate (10%) and Western Digital (8%). Last fiscal, Suntronic also profited from the growing PC demand as it realized growth from the Intel sub-distribution. The company added Dell Vostro, which accounted for 5% of the overall pie.

237

20%

90 75

100% 2008-09

100% Domestic 100% 2009-10 2010-11

Source: DQ estimates

l CEO: Pawan Khurana l Start-up Year: 1991 l Products & Services: Hardware, software, storage l Address: 547-A, Sector 37, Pace City 2, Gurgaon, Haryana 122 001 l Employees: 380 l Tel: 0124 237 0315/18 l Fax: 0124 237 0319 l Website: www.quantm.com

n Opened 2 retail stores in Kolkata n Introduced i-Ball for subdistribution

l CEO: Pradeep Biyani, Sandeep Biyani l Start-up Year: 1994 l Products & Services: System integrator, sub-distribution, retail l Address: Gandhi House, Ground Floor, 10, Bentinck Street, Kolkata 700 001 l Employees: 48 l Tel: 033 2213 7434 l Fax: 033 2213 7434 l Website: www.suntronicsystems.com

K Computers

104% 106

For this premier HP partner from Andhra Pradesh, FY11 was all about looking at increasing its offerings as well as targeting new segments. The topline was strengthened by an equal contribution across all 4 quarters from HP’s storage, server, and desktop offerings. K Computers also added Dell as its new principal and forayed into managed services. Though it catered to both government and enterprises, in FY11 SMBs contributed the highest (40%) to its revenues.

RANK

Growth

52

100% 2008-09 l CEO: Kishan Thumala l Start-up Year: 1995 l Products & Services: Distribution of IT hardware, components, peripherals, laptops l Address: #1-2-288/32/A/3, Opp. NTR Stadium Bus Stop, Domalguda, Hyderabad 500 029 l Employees: 40 l Tel: 040 2767 3705 l Fax: 040 6656 2834 l Website: www.kcomputers.in

80 | August 15, 2011

visit www.dqindia.com

52

100% 2009-10

100% 2010-11

Domestic

Source: DQ estimates

238

n Awarded the ‘Best Storage Partner’ by HP

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Energy Management Solutions

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IBMS

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Infrasoft Technologies

Growth

Infrasoft Technologies have had significant client wins for various products like anti-money laundering solution, microfinance and loans origination system, and core banking solution. Its revenues climbed up marginally to `108 crore from `101 crore in 2009-10. For its core banking solution, it had 13 new customer wins in India, 4 banks in Africa for its OMNIEnterprise. It was also featured by Forrester USA, as one of the global top 10 universal banking solution providers.

9%

RANK

Source: DQ estimates

239

2008-09

l CEO/MD: Hanuman Tripathi l Start-up Year: 1995 l Products & Services: Financial services provider l Address: SDF III, Unit No 86–87, SEEPZ, Andheri (East), Mumbai 400 096 l Employees: 498 l Tel: 022 6649 2222 l Fax: 022 6649 2233 l Website: www.infrasofttech.com

-6% 101

108 99

2009-10

2010-11

n Won Awards for best technology services n Four banks in Africa selected InfrasoftTech’s OMNIEnterprise

Ozone Systems

82% 100 Growth

240

45% 55 38

100% 2008-09 l CEO: Shijo K Thomas l Start-up Year: 1999 l Products & Services: Hardware l Address: Ozone Chambers, YMCA Lane, Kottayam l Employees: 155 l Tel: 0481 230 4865 l Fax: 0481 230 0625 l Website: www.oxygendigitalshop.in

KLG Systel

n Partnered with Sony and Samsung (laptops), LG, Seagate, Reliance, WeP, Logitech

Growth

241

-14% 235

-59% 99

100% 2008-09

Saboo Computers

visit www.dqindia.com

100% 2010-11

42% 95 16% 67

58

100% 2008-09

100% 2009-10

100% 2010-11

Domestic

Source: DQ estimates

One of the oldest sub distributors from Kolkata, Saboo witnessed a uniform growth in FY11 across all its businesses. While retail contributed 30% share, 30% came from PCs and 20% from components with SI from government and other sectors accounting for the rest. It added around 120 channel partners, taking the total count to 800 and introduced HCLI, Frontek, and Bit-defender to its portfolio. Saboo’s SI clients included American Express, Bengal Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals, SAIL, and National Small Industries.

www.saboocomputers.com

Domestic

Growth

RANK

l CEO: Rajesh Saboo l Start-up Year: 1990 l Products and Services: Hardware, system integrator l Address: 6, Ganesh Chandra Avenue, 1st Floor, Kolkata 700 013 l Employees: 62 l Tel: 033 2236 5173 l Fax: 033 2236 5175 l Website:

100% 2009-10

n S Srikanth appointed as the CFO n KL Goel resigned as the wholetime director

l CEO: Kumud Goel l Start-up Year: 1985 l Products & Services: Software and services for power and infrastructure industries l Address: Plot No 70A, Sector 34, EHTP, Gurgaon 122 004 l Tel: 0124 412 9900 l Fax: 0124 412 9999 l Website: www.klgsystel.com

242

3% 242

Source: DQ estimates

KLG Systel seems to be losing its ‘power’—the 66% drop in the power solutions business led to the steep revenue decline in FY11. Coupled with an increase in the cost of goods sold, it suffered losses of `54 crore compared to `17 crore profits it made the year before. The `90 crore APDRP project from Chhattisgarh offered little solace. To tide over the financial crisis, KLG has now planned a corporate debt restructuring of `332 crore.

RANK

82 | August 15, 2011

100% Domestic 100% 2009-10 2010-11

Source: DQ estimates

A majority of Kottayam based Ozone’s business came from distribution, thanks to its channel ecosystem of 200 partners. But more importantly it strengthened its retail presence with 8 retail showrooms under the brand Oxygen, the digital shop. It also sold its own line of PCs called Ozone PCs. The partner also derived significant revenues from services through Oxygen Care, its services’ centers for the likes of HP, Intel, Compaq, and Lenovo.

RANK

n Two new retail stores in Kolkata n Distributor for Microteck, TVSE

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

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Aruba Networks

214% 91

In the WLAN space, while the biggies were busy getting their business strategies right, Aruba was silently nibbling away at their shares. In the last 1 year, Aruba Networks India bagged around 50-60 deals. Education (65% growth), enterprise (25% growth), IT/BPO (15% growth ) and hospitality (60% growth) proved to be the lucrative verticals. Aruba clinched around 20-25 deals from the education space only, the highlight being the one in IIT Delhi. Around 25% of the overall deployments were generated from Aruba’s global account.

RANK

Growth

243

l Country sales director: Shalendra Singh l Start-up Year: 2007-08 l Products/services: Network solution provider l Address: #12, Subrmanya Arcade, Tower D, Ground Floor & First Floor, Bannerghatta road, Bengaluru 560 029 l Employee: 1,200 l Tel: 080 4067 6000 l Fax: 080 4141 0054 l Website: www.arubanetworks.com

29

100%

Domestic

2009-10

100%

2010-11

n Installed 250 access points, providing a centralized WLAN solution

Choice Solutions

Growth

244

l CEO: KV Jagannath l Start-up Year: 1991 l Products & Services: Facility management, IT products & services (hardware, software), data center/IT consulting services, MSP, RIMS, solar products l Address: Plot No 50, Road No 72, Prashasan Nagar, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad l Employees: 550 l Tel: 040 3244 6863 l Fax: 040 2784 0156 l Website: www.choice-

solutions.com

17% 85

100% 2008-09

3% 91

4% 88

100% 2009-10

Domestic

100% 2010-11

Source: DQ estimates

Reduction from principal revenues (product sales) and more focus on services business was the key strategy. Nearly one-third came from services thanks to deals like the 100 KVA Electricity system for Vikasa Soudha, Bengaluru, and solar power generation system at 79 branches of Bank of Baroda, rural electrification projects in Chhattisgarh and Sunderbans in West Bengal. An additional 10% revenue came from ‘outside India’ services, mainly in Africa. To focus more on SMBs, it expanded to tier-2 cities like Dehradun and Vizag.

RANK

n Completed ISO 9001:2008 certification to develop Washington state’s K-12 data system

Neilsoft

Growth

Neilsoft managed to grow last year, albeit marginally, aided primarily by a 50% plus growth in the Indian market and despite a drop in export revenues, largely due to a slump in one of the major markets—the Middle East. The only IT-leveraged engineering services firm competing in the construction engineering space, Neilsoft bagged about a dozen contracts including a 3-year contract from Pantaloon Group and a 60-storey project from Oberoi Group last year. The company expects a 30% growth this year and expects to see 50% revenues coming from India in the next 3 years.

100% 2008-09

l Chairman & MD: Ketan Bakshi l Products & Services: Engineering services l Address: Pride Parmar Galaxy, 8th Floor, 10/10+A, Sadhu Vaswani Chowk, Pune 411 001 l Employees: 750 l Tel: 020 2605 3003/4 l Fax: 020 2613 1755 l Website: www.neilsoft.com

n Hired Ajit Joshi as president, IT division and head, operations n Provided design service for an offshore vessel to Daewoo

2% 91

89

CCS Infotech

100% 2009-10

Domestic

100% 2010-11

20% 90

Growth

CCS primarily had 5 lines of businesses—SI (20%), own brand of PCs (25%), campus networking (10%), FMS (15%), and distribution (30%). It ventured into distribution only a couple of years back as Infologics and last year it added Acer and Samsung to the portfolio. It sold its own brand of PCs and servers as CCS Knight Series. CCS bagged around 10 deals ranging from `20 lakh to `1.5 crore that included a BHEL lease contract and a few state government orders.

RANK

246

75

100% 2008-09 l CEO: Hasan Abdul Kader l Start-up Year:1989 l Products and Services: Hardware, networking, software l Address: CCS Towers, 14, Periyar Road, T Nagar, Chennai 600 017 l Employees: 150 l Tel: 044 2834 1121 l Fax: 044 2834 0784 l Website: www.ccsinfotech.com

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

-27%

visit www.dqindia.com

Source: DQ estimates

245

75

100% 2009-10

Domestic

100% 2010-11

Source: DQ estimates

RANK

21% 122

n R&D for HP, Acer, Samsung n Added Clients like IIT Chennai, IGCAR, Kalpakkam, NLC, AAI, TNSTC

August 15, 2011 | 83

NEXT 50

Print Link Computer & Communication

Growth

Primarily a distributor from Bhubaneswar, Printlink witnessed a huge traction last year in both services and solutions. With deals like the Odisha SWAN and SDC in partnership with Spanco, solutions contributed `20 crore and services, `5 crore with the remaining coming from distribution. It bagged around 15 deals (average size `1.5 crore), largely from manufacturing, education, and government. A known sub-distributor of Dell, Printlink garnered around `40 crore from this account.

6% 90

77% 85

RANK

48

100% 2008-09

100% 2009-10

Source: DQ estimates

247

100% 2010-11

Domestic

n Bagged an order to set data center for a coal mine in WB n Distributor for Sony, Nikon, Digilink, and Digisol

printlinkindia.com

Microcare Computers

Growth

One of Hyderabad’s premier resellers of HP, Microcare leveraged the relationship optimally with 60% contribution to its revenues coming from HP PSG after the PC market witnessed a revival in fortunes following a lull. Beyond HP, it also had Samsung/Samtron monitors in its kitty. Also an authorized service provider for TVSE, Microcare benefited from the Andhra Pradesh government (50% contribution), riding on the back of projects like power distribution and RTO. RANK

248

7% 89

20% 83

69

100% 2008-09

100% Domestic 100% 2009-10 2010-11

Source: DQ estimates

l CEO: Rajesh Dora l Start-up Year: 1997 l Products & Services: System integrator, sub-distribution, retail l Address: 783 Sahid Nagar, Bhubaneswar l Employees: 180 l Tel: 0674 254 1624/36 l Fax: 0674 254 1637 l Website: www.

n Recipient of HP Best Regional Reseller Award for last 3 years n Targeted to cross the `100 crore mark for FY12

l MD: PK Chowdhary l Start-up Year: 1989 l Products & Services: Distribution of IT hardware, components, peripherals, laptops l Address: 103, Ratna Towers, Ammerpet, Hyderabad 500 073 l Employees: 125 l Tel: 040 2374 3254 l Fax: 040 2374 0305 l Website: www.microcareindia.com

Digicom Systems

55% 85

Growth

Digicom’s growth largely came from enterprise business (70% of revenues) that included servers, storage and data center services. It set up data center equipment for Nokia Ovi services (end-to-end), provided thin client solutions to an educational institution, as well as solutions for design and automation industries. Its own brand of desktops and workstations accounted for another 10% of revenues while the remaining 20% came from imaging, power, networking solution, accessories, consumables, and contractual services.

RANK

55

55

100% 2008-09

Peripheral Engineers

Growth

83 55

100% 2008-09

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5% 87

51%

100% 2009-10

100% 2010-11

Domestic

Source: DQ estimates

While its local peers were testing the waters in retail, the largest partner from RANK Patna chose to continue with distribution. In FY11, Peripheral Engineers derived 35% of its business from Lenovo, another 30% from Microteck, and 20% from LG. It spotted the opportunity in upcountry market and focused on adding more reseller partners—25 got added last fiscal taking the total number to 100.

It also added Intex to its distribution kitty.

l CEO: Rajesh Kumar l Start-up Year: 1994 l Products & Services: Distribution, retail l Address: Meha Masarai, Emarat Rezvi Apartment, Bank Road, Patna 800 001 l Employees: 40 l Tel: 0612 221 9013/1177 l Website: www.peplworld.com

100% 2010-11

Domestic

n Software reseller for Microsoft, Adobe, Red Hat n Server reseller for HP & IBM

l CEO: Akhtar Ali l Start-up Year: 1998 l Products & Services: IT infrastructure solutions l Address: 17 1st Main, 1st Cross, Dollars Layout, Kes Colony, JP Nagar, 4th Phase, Bengaluru 560 078 l Employees: 75 l Tel: 080 2658 8005 l Fax: 080 4120 9977 l Website: www.dgcomweb.com

250

100% 2009-10

Source: DQ estimates

249

n Targeted 15% growth in FY12 n Inaugurated Lenovo LES Lite stores in Patna

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

Cloud WhiteBook MANAGING THE TRANSITION TO CLOUD

—Sameer Padhye The author is senior vice president, global service provider segment, Cisco Systems BUILDING A CASE FOR PRIVATE CLOUD

—Murali Meenakshi Sundaram The author is technology consultant, CSC India GETTING CLOUD READY

—Anuj Sharma The author is EMC certified cloud architect, EMC Corporation, India ONE STEP AT A TIME

—Vivekanand Venugopal The author is vice president & general manager, India, Hitachi Data Systems A HYBRID MODEL

—Lakshmi Narayan Rao The author is national manager, cloud consulting services, HP India OVERCOMING THE SECURITY BARRIER

REVVING UP THE ROI

—Pradyumn Lavaniya The author is the director, private cloud, Microsoft India BUILDING A PRIVATE CLOUD

—Rajesh Awasthi The author is director, telecom and cloud business, NetApp India BUILDING A CASE FOR PRIVATE CLOUD

—Dhruv Singhal The author is senior sales consulting director, Oracle India ADDRESSING SAAS SECURITY CONCERNS

—Rohit Madhur The author is the director, SAP Business ByDesign, SAP India CLOUD IS RESHAPING HYBRIDS

—Venguswamy Ramaswamy The author is global head, TCS iON ALL FOR STANDARDS

—Anand Ramakrishnan The author is GM & head, cloud computing services, Wipro Infotech

—Akash Saxena The author is VP, offering management and development, global technology services, IBM India HOW VIRTUAL CAN PRIVATE CLOUD BE?

—Vishy Narayan The author is the principal architect cloud practice, Infosys

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

visit www.dqindia.com

July 15, 2011 | 85

Managing the Transition to Cloud Cloud adoption is a journey which needs to be carefully planned by having a roadmap in place for the applications to migrate to the cloud

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ustomers across the globe, including service providers, enterprises and communities, irrespective of their demographics, are focused on 3 priorities: How to optimize opex (operational expenditure); how to improve their customers’ experiences; and how to roll out new monetized services quickly with minimal/mitigated risk.

It’s no longer about having great technology solutions to solve these problems—it is about how these customers can bring those technology solutions to life with business and profitability metrics that add up. Cloud enables virtual compute, network, and storage resources to be leveraged at a scale delivering content, applications, and services.

It has now been established that cloud based solutions and cloud computing improves agility, reduce costs, and allow organizations to maintain focus on core competencies. Adoption is accelerating and cloud solutions have achieved a critical mass resulting in more flexible, cost-effective answers.

Cloud computing offers 3 critical capabilities to meet the increasing need for speed and flexibility at lower cost. This includes, firstly, the flexibility of resource allocation which refers to the ability of cloud systems to meet a wide variety of demands; secondly, the efficiency of resource allocation which refers to the ability to meet demands with minimum capital, operations, and energy resources; and thirdly, the democratization of resource allocation which refers to the ability to deliver information technology directly to anyone with a need for those resources.

These 3 capabilities together enable both 86 | August 15, 2011

greater agility and better cost optimization for the delivery of IT services.

Managing the Transition

CLOUD ENABLES VIRTUAL COMPUTE, NETWORK, AND STORAGE RESOURCES TO BE LEVERAGED AT A SCALE DELIVERING CONTENT, APPLICATIONS, AND SERVICES

Cloud adoption is a journey which has to be carefully planned. You must have a roadmap in place for your applications to migrate to the cloud, for managing quality of service, and maintaining same level of user experience. The goal is to provide a truly integrated, interoperable and innovative end-to-end experience for cloud service delivery and consumption.

The journey starts with increasingly capable pubic cloud services and private cloud platforms for the enterprise. From there, new Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and protocols, virtual private clouds services, hybrid cloud capabilities and open standards for cloud will appear and evolve over time. The key to gaining advantage of cloud computing in the enterprise begins with establishing a trusted approach to the cloud without which, the economics of cloud computing make little difference. Trust in the cloud centers on 4 core concepts: n Security: Traditional issues around data and resource access control, encryption, and incident detection n Control: The ability of the enterprise to directly manage how and where data and software is deployed, used and destroyed n Service-level Management: The definition, contracting and enforcement of service level agreements between variety of parties SAMEER PADHYE n Compliance: Conformance with The author is senior vice required regulatory, legal and general inpresident, global service dustry requirements (such as PCI, HIPAA provider segment, Cisco Systems maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in and Sarbanes-Oxley) n visit www.dqindia.com

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

Building a Case for Private Cloud

IT should take a leadership role in helping companies move forward and extract the value available from IT

N

ow more than ever, CXOs are exploring cloud adoption as an imperative for meeting the increasing IT demands and improving agility of their processes and applications while simplifying overall IT Infrastructure and Operations (IT&OS).

While agility, convenience and attractive commercial models are the key adoption drivers for public and hybrid clouds. Private clouds offer enterprises the required levels of privacy, security and control, and more importantly, capability to support production environments, providing the key business advantage of cloud adoption at the same time.

Business Requirements As customers look for more efficient approaches to enterprise IT, private cloud hold the promise of extending similar benefits as derived from public clouds, such as self-service and scalability (in 88 | August 15, 2011

visit www.dqindia.com

a limited fashion), while additionally providing the required degree of control over resources through dynamic workload management to meet the organization’s unique IT needs.

High volume, standardized services across an enterprise can be automated and offered out of a catalog through engineering in a private cloud. Organizations look towards a private cloud to gain operational efficiencies and improved quality of service through standardization and automation, which reduce operational costs and free IT Infrastructure and Operations (IT O&S) staff from routine maintenance activities to focus on tasks rendering business value.

For economic benefits, IT O&S can meter the services delivered out of the private cloud on a pay-as-you-go model. Where stringent service-levels have to be met, IT O&S can look to define SLAs explicitly against the service catalog and redirect the IT staff DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

to focus on mission-critical functions for a satisfactory service delivery. Thus the flexibility and control to elastically manage resources with overall Quality of Service (QoS) becomes a key element in the private cloud.

Traditional private cloud model would mean high investments on the capex. Recently, many private cloud vendors are providing private cloud options that are comparable to public cloud subscriptions like offering private cloud on-premise with billing as a service, bringing down the barrier for adoption of the private cloud. Low barriers to entry and exit provide private cloud adopters the much-needed agility towards piloting new technologies without the risk of heavy capex.

For IT O&S with stringent security and compliance requirements, looking to leverage the business value from cloud, the ability to manage optimum security and comply with internal and regulatory policies makes private cloud the right choice.

The following benefits are perceived by enterprises seeking private cloud adoption: n Improve agility and accelerate cycle time by scaling on-demand—expanding and contracting resources as needed n Improve quality of service and dynamically alter service definitions based on unique business needs n Manage risk and security n Mitigate risk and improve RoI for implementing new business and mission-critical solutions based on business priorities n Limit capex in IT investment thus freeing up capital for strategic business investments While a few of the above benefits cut across private, public and hybrid clouds, security, control and flexibility related benefits are unique to private clouds.

Private clouds hold the following promises: n Integration with existing enterDATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

prise management systems towards integrated solutions n Integration with public clouds n Integration with non-cloud virtual server environments Factors influencing the IT O&S to move to private cloud n Executive pressure on IT to provide private cloud solution n Impression that the development team is going to public IaaS to meet needs n Infrastructure and operation must internalize the private IaaS cloud: highly standardized, automated virtual pool, self-service by developers, shared across business unit, in a full utility model with pay per use charge back accounting n Work on virtualization and cloud needs on separate thread. At appropriate time, transport the virtual image to the cloud, having reached maturity n Four private cloud solution types—select that is suitable for the business needs—enterprise management vendors, OS/hypervisor vendors, converged infrastructure vendor, and pure play cloud vendors n Unlike, public cloud, elasticity is not unlimited n If the I&O team is not ready, full utilization of private cloud may not happen

MANY PRIVATE CLOUD VENDORS ARE NOW PROVIDING PRIVATE CLOUD OPTIONS COMPARABLE TO PUBLIC CLOUD SUBSCRIPTIONS LIKE OFFERING PRIVATE CLOUD ON-PREMISE WITH BILLING AS A SERVICE

Critical Success Factors for Implementing Private Cloud Limitations In addition, the private cloud onpremise models have a lock-in period to manage capex cost-effectively. Sometimes one may feel that it is better to invest in the infrastructure itself, weigh the existing options, and make the decision that is right for the business.

Cloud is transformational and provides compelling business advantages.

IT should take a leadership role in helping companies move forward and extract the value available from IT as service and cloud technologies—be it private, public or hybrid. n visit www.dqindia.com

MURALI MEENAKSHI SUNDARAM The author is technology consultant, CSC India maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in August 15, 2011 | 89

Getting Cloud Ready Private cloud represents a productive way for technology services to be provided, consumed, and managed

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loud’ is undeniably one of the game changing technologies sweeping the IT industry. If you are a CIO, cloud concepts will most definitely impact your role and the business going forward. Gartner has indicated that cloud computing is the top priority for CIOs this year. According to a recent survey by IDC, while 14% of Indian organizations are already using cloud computing, another 76% are considering cloud computing adoption in the near future. A further trend is that the current level of private cloud adoption stands at 14% with a further 20% planning on implementing private cloud by early 2012. A further 28% of organi‘

90 | August 15, 2011

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zations said that they will implement private cloud by 2013.

So, what is a private cloud? How is it different from a public cloud? And what does it mean for an organization? Private cloud is a more efficient and flexible way to organize, manage, deliver, and consume IT services. For large organizations, private clouds offer the benefits of public cloud without the major drawbacks—not knowing where data resides, data protection, retrofitting of current applications, etc. The benefits of a private cloud ranges from cost to business performance to IT performance. Most significantly, private cloud is a platform for business agility. A private cloud lets DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

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you rapidly access and analyze information and make decisions, lets you scale business operations and tap into new information and expertise within the organization and in the market place—on demand, and all this while safeguarding sensitive information and other business assets.

Being an IT leader of your organization, how do you start the journey to the private cloud and what do you need to consider before you do? The first question should be ‘what business benefits can the private cloud deliver to my business?’ Is it simply about IT efficiency or is it about decreasing time to market or staying ahead of the curve when it comes to innovation or expanding out into new markets?

The second key question to discuss is ‘how can the private cloud help to deliver that it wasn’t able to before?’ There are 2 other priorities when it comes to figuring out your cloud roadmap. The first is metrics. Once you know what success looks like to the business, how to ensure that you demonstrate the value that you are delivering?

You also need to be realistic about the work that lies ahead. To realize the compelling business benefits of a private cloud, you need a good roadmap and keep it up to date. This is your guide to dividing, prioritizing, connecting your efforts and maximizing your efforts at every stage of the journey.

Private cloud represents a more productive way for technology services to be provided, consumed, and managed. It combines the flexibility and cost advantage of a cloud with management control over service delivery and security. It offers a sensible migration path for existing applications—virtualize and revamp the ones you want at your own pace. It preserves your investment in infrastructure, applications, and information while putting all these resources to much more efficient, effective, and agile business use. For example, technology assets may be defined and packaged differently.

The work of the IT department may be 92 | August 15, 2011

structured and provisioned differently as a catalogue of business services, through the ITaaS platform. Business people may consume services differently through the pay-by-use for selected services. IT can manage the services and environment with greater transparency, performance, and value.

As with any transformational change, the journey to the cloud can seem daunting. Don’t think of private cloud as a new technology, rather think of it as a better way to organize and manage the technology resources you have. Success is all about recognizing what needs to be done, breaking the efforts into right pieces, discovering their interdependencies, anticipating how they will fit together to yield the desired benefits, and executing with purpose. A few of the pieces may be complicated on their own, but the real complexity lies in orchestrating the overall journey with the business objectives firmly in sight.

The challenges in the journey to the private cloud may have less to do with technology than with staff capabilities and business IT relationships. As you think of your organization’s journey to the private cloud, ask these basic 4 questions which will help you successfully migrate. n What’s our current status? n What bases will we need to cover? n Who needs to be on board? n Where do we need help?

Finally, if you haven’t started to plan, experiment and implement your private cloud, now is the time. As we emerge from the recession, most companies have some catching up and re-investing to do, including their IT capabilities. Do you want to patch a few cracks and put on a fresh coat of paint on a conventional, fragmented, and inefficient computing environment that under serves your business? Or will you seize the opportunity to configure your private cloud and thereby give real business purpose to your technology improvements, remove constraints, and unleash new forms of business agility? n visit www.dqindia.com

PRIVATE CLOUD IS A MORE EFFICIENT AND FLEXIBLE WAY TO ORGANIZE, MANAGE, DELIVER, AND CONSUME IT SERVICES AND FOR LARGE ORGANIZATIONS, IT OFFERS THE BENEFITS OF PUBLIC CLOUD WITHOUT THE MAJOR DRAWBACKS—NOT KNOWING WHERE DATA RESIDES, DATA PROTECTION, RETROFITTING OF CURRENT APPLICATIONS, ETC

ANUJ SHARMA The author is EMC certified cloud architect, EMC Corporation, India maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

One Step at a Time Cloud puts focus on network and data management implying that organizations with inadequate risk management processes, clogged pipelines or poor data facilities will find it difficult to enjoy the benefits of cloud

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loud is the flavor of the times.

Not a day goes by without a vendor, service provider, or article proclaiming the benefits of cloud.

More than another IT fad, cloud benefits are real. By breaking down IT silos through virtualization and allowing IT applications to be offered like metered electricity services, it allows businesses to maximize new opportunities faster or improve cost efficiency in business.

Cloud, like any IT paradigm, has its challenges. It requires a rethinking of security and compliance and puts focus on network and data management. This means organizations with inadequate

94 | August 15, 2011

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risk management processes, clogged pipelines, or poor data facilities will find it difficult to enjoy the benefits of cloud.

However these challenges are often whitewashed by the promises of many vendors. This so-called cloud washing sees a significant vendors’ push to sell their equipment to customers and create the fear that they may be left behind.

In the swirling confusion, many have bought into ‘cloud-ready’ equipment that is seemingly at odds with those bought earlier. The result—many cloud systems turning into nightmarish storms.

Building the Cloud You Need So how do you ensure that the cloud DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

works for your own organization? It all begins with how you view the cloud.

Taking a business perspective always helps. Often the challenge to build cloud environments are presented in technical terms like IT security, compliance, and risk management. What is not mentioned however are the organizational and cultural issues surrounding cloud adoption.

Questions You Need to Keep in Mind So before you begin your cloud journey, it is well advised to consider the 3 questions below: n Is my organization buying into virtualization that is deployed to its fullest extent?

Virtualization is critical for cloud. In addition to some amazing cost savings and streamlining of the IT environment for better utilization of resources, virtualization’s ability to separate the OS and application from the hardware makes it ideal for delivering on-demand cloud services.

Whether it is storage, network or server virtualization with virtual machines, it allows enterprises to migrate infrastructure to the cloud and pool their disparate and heterogenous resources together.

If you are looking for a cloud service provider to build and host your cloud environment, examine how the company leverages virtualization to offer you better benefits. n What are our expectations from cloud as it gets increasingly sophisticated?

Adopting a cloud environment is only the first step. As more services are offered using this platform, the environment will necessarily become more complex. Organizations that are ill-prepared for this will face significant growth, security, and performance challenges in the near future.

You need to also understand that not all cloud systems are made equal.

A public cloud allow the companies to take full advantage of the internet and its resources, while a private cloud builds a 96 | August 15, 2011

cloud infrastructure within the 4 walls of an organization. n What is our plan for utilizing services from external sources?

One of the major benefits of cloud services is that you can now subscribe to services that are already available externally. The IT team can now focus on subscribing to services that enhance or add value to an organization, instead of being worried about IT infrastructure management or developing applications to meet business requirements. This allows the organization to quickly utilize key services or re-package services to meet user or market demands.

However utilizing external services can be a huge concern for many organizations that are not built to look beyond their own IT environment. It requires a rethinking of IT policies and management.

In addition, you need to look out how an external service provider charges you and meets your future needs. Cloud allows the use of pay-per-use and chargeback models to simplify cost management and improve budget forecasting, while offering the ability to scale up, down or out, according to customer needs. This ability enables enterprises to meet increasing demands of applications and servers, support multiple servers with changing workload requirements, and extend the platform’s capabilities and value to heterogeneous storage.

VIRTUALIZATION IS CRITICAL FOR CLOUD, APART FROM COST SAVINGS & STREAMLINING OF THE IT ENVIRONMENT FOR BETTER UTILIZATION OF RESOURCES

Taking it Step by Step More importantly, a methodical approach to adopting cloud services is well advised. What should be avoided, however is the urge to simply ‘jump in’ without a clear understanding of how the service will be delivered, what the different SLAs for the service will be, and the expected outcome/benefit to the business.

Together with the right expertise and utility based pricing model, the right strategy provides a framework for you to VIVEKANAND VENUGOPAL The author is vice president & build a cloud system the way you want general manager, India, it and when you want it, without being Hitachi Data Systems maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in cloud washed. n visit www.dqindia.com

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

A Hybrid Model CIOs today must make the right choice between private clouds, public clouds and traditional IT to maximize benefits, minimize risk, and propel business

I

n the global marketplace, enterprises must move quickly to capitalize on the latest growth opportunities and stay one step ahead of the competition. IT services play an important role in fostering the innovation required to fuel new business ventures. Today, CIOs need to be in a constant state of readiness to provide their users with the technology services to enable innovative business opportunities and respond to customer demands.

Cloud with its promises of fast delivery, flexibility and cost savings, has emerged as a viable option for providing agile IT services. By utilizing cloud services, enterprises can look ahead to anticipate customer 98 | August 15, 2011

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needs and predict business trends without having to worry about the IT infrastructure, platforms, and applications that might be required to support them.

From a business perspective, appeal of cloud is clear—speed, flexibility, and economics. The idea of going to a portal to request a service that is instantly provided has innate appeal, compared to the experience with most internal IT departments. For years, businesses have been asking for better user experience with intuitive user interface, access to data, and their business processes anytime, anywhere. They want fast access and a flexible model that adapts to the business changes.

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

While end users believe that it is allowing them to respond faster to their business needs; without a comprehensive plan and governance model, they could jeopardize the security of their enterprise data and applications.

Additionally, CIOs cannot effectively track, measure, and budget for this shadow IT, so businesses don’t have a true picture of how their resources are used. CIOs are struggling with 70% of resources captive in maintenance and operations.

The CIOs need solutions today that will accelerate the deployment of service-oriented environments, matching the speed, flexibility, and economics of public clouds but without the risk or loss of control.

The Hybrid Choice CIOs are mapping their path to the cloud and identifying where public and private cloud solutions will be leveraged—a mix of IT delivery methods to meet their users’ demand.

In a hybrid world of IT delivery choices, where public cloud and private cloud are becoming viable options along with traditional IT services, the onus is now on IT leaders to determine which of their current and future technology projects would benefit most from which model. They also must determine how to turn this mix of services into a blended environment where both the management and the end-user experience are seamless and simple.

Making the decision to go with a cloud model or a traditional IT service is one that enterprise executives rely on CIOs to lead, regardless of whether the idea for a new application comes from IT or a different department entirely.

In order to make the right choice, CIOs should first consider the scope and nature of the application.

If the application in question has sensitive or confidential data, moving it to a public cloud that is located off-site may not be the best solution due to real or perceived security and privacy risks.

100 | August 15, 2011

Applications earmarked for cloud services must be able to reside on shared compute resources and the resource requirements for those programs should be clearly understood up front, to prevent poor performance or unexpected fees once the application is moved to a cloud service. Also required is consideration regarding how the governance of an application—control, policy changes, and upgrades, might be altered in a cloud model.

Optimize the Mix To make the most of a hybrid environment, there needs to be a unified management approach. In doing so, CIOs can deliver the services their users demand without putting additional management strain on the IT department.

Application and system management tools are evolving so that IT services— cloud based or traditional, can subscribe to a common management layer and offer a unified view of an organization’s services portfolio.

Predefined, fully automated workflows help speed and simplify service delivery, allowing self-service and automation technology to be applied.

With these tools, users can get themselves the services they need, quickly provisioning IT assets by accessing a self-service portal to build, manage and monitor services.

This orchestration in essence makes managing hybrid IT delivery environments as standardized and unified as managing homogenous environments but at the same time allow the enterprises to choose the best delivery method for the task at hand and optimize that method for their own use.

A service delivery roadmap helps IT leaders chart their options going forward, which gives them an opportunity to weigh the advantages of different methods and (hopefully) avoid pitfalls.

CIOs today must make the right choice among private clouds, public clouds and traditional IT to maximize benefits, minimize risk and propel business. n visit www.dqindia.com

CLOUD WITH ITS PROMISES OF FAST DELIVERY, FLEXIBILITY AND COST SAVINGS, HAS EMERGED AS A VIABLE OPTION FOR PROVIDING AGILE IT SERVICES.

BY UTILIZING CLOUD SERVICES, ENTERPRISES CAN LOOK AHEAD TO ANTICIPATE CUSTOMER NEEDS AND BUSINESS TRENDS

LAKSHMI NARAYAN RAO The author is national manager, cloud consulting services, HP India maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

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Overcoming the Security Barrier In addition to the usual challenge of developing secure IT systems, there’s an added level of risk since essential services are often outsourced to a third party

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loud is a new, efficient model for consuming and delivering IT-based services made possible by virtualizing resources, automating processes, and standardizing tasks so they can be offered as easy-touse services.

In today’s environment the biggest risks perceived by clients in their journey to adopt cloud is security.

Security Challenges Although the benefits of cloud are clear, so is the need to develop proper security for cloud implementations—whether public or private. Embracing cloud computing without adequate security controls can place the entire IT infrastructure at risk.

Cloud computing changes the basic expectations that influence how we assess security and perceive risk, while the intent of security remains the same—to 102 | August 15, 2011

visit www.dqindia.com

ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information—cloud computing shifts control over data and operations.

In addition to the usual challenges of developing secure IT systems, cloud presents an added level of risk because essential services are often outsourced to a third party. The externalized aspect of outsourcing makes it harder to maintain data integrity and privacy, support data and service availability, and demonstrate compliance.

In effect, cloud shifts much of the control over data and operations from the client organization to their cloud providers. Even basic tasks, like applying patches and configuring firewalls, become the responsibility of the cloud service provider, not the user.

This means that clients must trust their providers and understand the risk of how these providers implement, DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

deploy, and manage security on their behalf. In fact, some organizations choose private or hybrid models over public clouds because of the risks associated with outsourcing services.

In addition, the massive sharing of infrastructure with cloud computing creates a significant difference between cloud security and security in more traditional IT environments. Users spanning different corporations and trust levels often interact with the same set of computing resources. At the same time, workload balancing, changing service level agreements, and other aspects of today’s dynamic IT environments create even more opportunities for mis-configuration, data compromise, and malicious conduct.

With services a few clicks and a credit card away, how can we be sure that control processes, security policies, and proper decisions are made? Will the speed of the cloud put us at risk?

Handling External Providers Most organizations are looking at ways to leverage the services of external cloud providers. These clouds would be used primarily for workloads with a low-risk profile, where a one-size-fits-all approach to security where few assurances is acceptable, and where price is the main differentiator.

For workloads with a medium-to-highrisk profile involving highly regulated or proprietary information, organizations are choosing private and hybrid clouds that provide a significant level of control and assurance. These workloads will be shifting into external clouds as they start offering tighter and more flexible security.

Security Elements to be Considered Organizations considering cloud based services must understand the associated risks and ensure appropriate visibility.

This includes broad-based visibility into change, image, and incident management, as well as incident reporting for tenants and tenant-specific log and audit data.

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n Authentication: Authorization and Accountability: Organizations need to ensure that authorized users across their enterprise and supply chain have access to the data and tools that they need, when they need it. n Data Security: All sensitive data needs to be properly segregated on the cloud storage infrastructure, including archived data. Encrypting and managing encryption keys of data in transit to the cloud or data at rest in the service provider’s data center is critical to protecting data privacy and complying with compliance mandates. The encryption of mobile media and the ability to securely share those encryption keys between the cloud service provider and consumer is an important and often an overlooked need. n Image Security: All of the typical application security requirements still apply to the applications in the cloud, but they also carry over to the images that host those applications. The cloud provider needs to follow and support a secure development process. n Data Isolation: In shared cloud environment, clients want to ensure that all tenant domains are properly isolated and that no possibility exists for data or transactions to leak from one tenant domain into the next. To help achieve this, clients need the ability to configure trusted virtual domains or policy based security zones. n Physical Security: And finally, the cloud’s infrastructure, including servers, routers, storage devices, power supplies, and other components that support operations, should be physically secure.

Choosing the right vendor for assessing the risks associated with cloud computing like data integrity, recovery, privacy, and tenant isolation is critical to the adoption of cloud technologies.

These risks call for automated end-toend security with a heavier emphasis on strong isolation, integrity, and resiliency in order to provide visibility, control and automation across the cloud computing infrastructure. n visit www.dqindia.com

IN EFFECT, CLOUD SHIFTS MUCH OF THE CONTROL OVER DATA AND OPERATIONS FROM THE CLIENT ORGANIZATION TO THEIR CLOUD PROVIDERS. EVEN BASIC TASKS, LIKE APPLYING PATCHES AND CONFIGURING FIREWALLS, BECOME THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDER, NOT THE USER

AKASH SAXENA The author is VP, offering management and development, global technology services, IBM India maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

How Virtual Can Private Cloud Be?

As virtualization becomes the foundation of a private cloud strategy, IT will be run and governed differently

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n their quest for agility and growth to attain competitive advantage, enterprises look to IT for answers.

And virtualization has provided one such answer, enabling enterprises to create multiple virtual machines or instances with each instance a computing resource independent of the underlying physical hardware. Virtualization helps save costs, enhance agility and

CONSIDER THESE NUMBERS: •Fifty-six percent of 2,300 global respondents said server virtualization was the top priority for IT managers in 2011 •Forty-two percent of respondents are considering or implementing a private cloud option, according to a survey of 525 data center owners and operators •Eighty-nine percent of respondents of another survey say that private clouds are the logical step for organizations implementing virtualization

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go-to-market speed, create new business streams and increase revenues.

Virtualization provides the foundation for cloud computing, thus making it the building block of today’s agile infrastructure and an integral part of the CIO’s cloud strategy and roadmap.

However the journey from virtualization to the cloud is a complex one. As more enterprises deploy private clouds, the primary benefit they stand to gain is the maximization of investment in IT. At the same time, enterprises need to understand the issues involved in the progression from virtualization.

Virtualization and Private Cloud Virtualization is at the core of the private cloud. However in transforming their IT and data centers, enterprises seem to be pushing more of their IT onto private clouds than public. This trend is driven by the value drawn out of IT investment maximization through the private cloud.

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Additionally, private cloud offers greater stability in terms of security, standards, and integrated cloud environments. It is important to note that the private cloud could be the first step in an enterprise’s journey to cloud adoption. While virtualization abstracts the resource from the underlying physical hardware, thus allowing agility, the private cloud offers an automated framework to access and manage the virtualized resources.

As business needs grow and IT becomes complex, the enterprise requires a fool-proof IT governance framework to consume and manage its virtualized environment with agility, scale, automation, and flexibility. The enterprise must add management layers to the virtualized setup to provide IT as a service allowing it to access IT cost-effectively and efficiently through SLAs. As virtualization becomes the foundation of a private cloud strategy, IT will be consumed differently and it will be run and governed differently. The private cloud dynamically changes the way IT is deployed, provisioned, consumed, and managed. In such an environment, CIOs discover that the private cloud offers greater security and they are able to exercise better control over their IT assets.

How To Get to Private Cloud For all the advantages of adopting private cloud, CIOs are still challenged by the appropriate strategy to get there.

First let’s consider the challenges involved in an enterprise’s efforts to virtualize its IT environment. Most enterprises are saddled with heterogenous legacy systems that are often incompatible with virtualization. Further, for organizations that have scale, can extend the private cloud and also reap the benefits of the public cloud by enabling extreme automation.

In this context, when an enterprise embarks on the virtualization roadmap, its baseline is the existing IT setup.

In order to derive maximum value, the enterprise must take a top-down and bottoms-up approach for a 360-degree view 106 | August 15, 2011

of the enterprise allowing visibility into AS VIRTUhow existing business needs to map to ALIZATION BEthe physical infrastructure.

As an enterprise builds a private COMES THE cloud from its virtualized environment, FOUNDATION it needs to address the following key OF PRIVATE aspects: n Service orientation involves viewCLOUD STRATing and packaging the raw IT assets as EGY, IT WILL a ‘service’ rather than as a standalone BE CONSUMED virtualized IT asset n Automation is the provisioning and DIFFERENTLY configuration of the IT assets based on AND WILL the dynamic needs of the users as per the ALSO BE RUN pre-defined SLAs n Service management as opposed DIFFERENTLY to IT management involves maintain& IN SUCH ing, monitoring, and management of configurations, and changes and interde- AN ENVIRONpendencies so as to ensure the service is MENT CIOS delivered effectively and efficiently DISCOVER The ability to design increased THAT PRIVATE workload density and manage agility in a private cloud environment will depend CLOUD OFon the ability of IT resources to do away FERS GREATER with the traditional operational approach.

Having a clear cloud vision, strategy, and SECURITY AND roadmap can help make the transition a BETTER CONsmooth experience.

TROL OVER Enterprises are building private clouds to ensure agility, on-demand scal- THEIR IT ASability, and cost-effectiveness. However, SETS to get there smoothly, they need to have a well-defined roadmap that builds on their virtualized environment. With no single roadmap, the journey must be undertaken in the overall context of cloud strategy, the elasticity they are willing to build into it, and adopting a service design approach to deploying a scalable and agile private cloud. A successful private cloud will help organizations in moving workloads to the cloud, help leverage elasticity and will set the stage for larger aggregated cloud adoption including public cloud. The CIOs who succeed shall be the ones who have a clear vision of their cloud ecosystem, understand the need for a robust strategy, and are VISHY NARAYAN passionate about making all the intervenThe author is the principal tions, technological, and otherwise to architect cloud practice, Infosys maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in make this succeed. n visit www.dqindia.com

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

Revving Up the RoI Cloud technologies must ‘talk’ easily to existing on-premise IT infrastructures and enable easy single-window management

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he value of cloud computing to enterprises is well-known but the true inflexion point on the return on investment in cloud technologies comes when an enterprise is able to leverage existing investments in on-premise technologies and seamlessly manage the transition of being a cloud user.

The heterogenous nature of an enterprise or government’s IT footprint must be an important consideration when evaluating the transition to cloud.

Enterprises of this nature must take clear steps towards making a structured transition to the cloud—

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adopting a private cloud is the best approach. But a private cloud is only as useful as the seamlessness it brings. There are 2 key goals in this discussion—first, cloud technologies must ‘talk’ easily to existing on-premise IT infrastructures and enable easy single window management. Second, cloud technologies must ‘talk’ easily to other cloud platforms.

It is easy to see that all the core demand is for a cloud platform that is both interoperable and open.

“While cloud computing has gathered much steam in the recent past, CIOs have identified security and interoperability as the key issues DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

impeding rampant adoption. The key is to offer seamless movement across cloud environments and develop industry-wide standards that work with most vendors and service partners,” says Praveen Bhadada, engagement manager, Zinnov Consulting.

Vendor Participation While this brings a huge opportunity for system integrators, it is as much the responsibility of the enterprise to demand this from their technology vendors and partners. It is the equal responsibility of the vendor to ensure that their technologies do not compel customers to create new silos of applications and data.

Things to Keep in Mind Here is a simple checklist to tick off when large enterprises or governments evaluate the cloud. n Will my cloud solution enable data portability? This means that can data be moved in and out of any cloud application or platform to another cloud platform, or even back to an on-premise deployment without losing fidelity. Data portability is more than a fundamental requirement for an open cloud. It is the core assurance that any business or government must seek before embracing cloud computing. n Am I being provided a secure migration path? With a secure migration path that preserves existing investments, customers will not only be assured of their data security, but while running ‘private clouds’, they will also be able to take advantage of public cloud platform services. n Will the solution help me manage multiple virtual environments through a single window? This means that irrespective of the server environments and virtualization vendor, the CIO or data center head is not tasked with the job of integration. True efficiency is when the CIO 110 | August 15, 2011

can remain focused on how technology can add more and more value to business. Virtualization technology management should enable service centric management—moving from service ‘monitoring’ to true service centric ‘management.’ n Will my cloud solution support multiple standards? This will make it easier for applications and platforms to interconnect. So look for cloud platforms that support as many of the internet protocols as possible, such as HTTP, XML, SOAP, and REST. Check if it supports some key cloud standards including Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) frameworks for data centers and virtualized systems, web standards like SOAP, REST, AtomPub, and federated security standards. n Does my cloud platform allow applications to be written using any programming language? Employees in a typical IT organization in an enterprise reflect the heterogeneity of the IT footprint itself and there usually will be application developers trained in multiple tools and languages. The transition to the cloud should not mean that sections of employees suddenly find themselves lacking the programming skills to manage and develop applications. The organization should not be forced to reallocate resources, or invest in heavy re-skilling or training.

Finally, do remember that the cloud is not just a technology that dramatically changes the way an organization accesses and manages data, but it also brings with it a need for change in the organizational mindset. The IT organization suddenly becomes the forefront for its ability to demonstrate fiscal prudence, while magically being able to support not just existing businesses but even large-scale growth with relatively minimal cost. The CIO becomes the change leader. n visit www.dqindia.com

THE IT ORGANIZATION SUDDENLY BECOMES THE FOREFRONT FOR ITS ABILITY TO DEMONSTRATE FISCAL PRUDENCE, WHILE MAGICALLY BEING ABLE TO SUPPORT NOT JUST EXISTING BUSINESSES BUT EVEN LARGE-SCALE GROWTH WITH RELATIVELY MINIMAL COST. THE CIO BECOMES THE CHANGE LEADER

PRADYUMN LAVANIYA The author is the director, private cloud, Microsoft India maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

Building a Private Cloud

A private cloud is designed to meet a customer’s internal IT needs and is a means to deliver IT as a service to an organization’s internal customers

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rivate clouds are hosted inside an organization’s firewall to be used by the employees while public clouds comprise infrastructure or applications hosted by service providers and offered as services to enterprises that outsource some applications for financial, architectural, management, or other business reasons.

Catering to Internal IT Needs A private cloud is designed to meet a customer’s internal IT needs and is a means to deliver IT as a service (ITaaS) to an organization’s internal customers.

In practice, one might evolve existing virtualized infrastructure into a private cloud, or one can choose to supplement existing infrastructure with private cloud deployment.

IT budgets in most organizations remain flat but the demands on IT continue to rise. The CTO is usually pressured to deliver more with less, there is DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

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need to increase business agility, reduce costs, and improve efficiencies.

With private clouds, IT infrastructure remains internal, but applications are decoupled from servers and can be moved without disruption to address usage and performance needs. Services are offered to internal customers from a service catalog with metering and chargeback capabilities on a shared IT infrastructure that delivers greater cost savings, utilization, and efficiency. A high degree of automation makes these processes simpler to manage.

There is no question that private clouds can deliver breakaway business advantages. The question is how to take full advantage. How do you evolve to the private cloud model without sacrificing previous investments? Or compromising security? Or limiting future options?

Steps to Build a Private Cloud #1 Understand Typical Islands of Inefficiencies: August 15, 2011 | 111

n Application Silos—The standard IT architecture for data centers, these traditional environments were built and optimized to run specific applications.

However this typically delivered poor server and storage utilization. One of the challenges in deploying applications in a silo topology is the inability to share resources to better leverage the investment in servers, networks, and storage. n Zones of Virtualization—Virtualization significantly improves utilization and efficiency. Further, it also provides the foundation of shared IT infrastructure of pooled compute, network, and storage resources to delivery capacity on demand and meets fluctuations in resource requirements. However one often finds Zones of Virtualization within a single organization.

#2 Understand the Building Blocks for a Private Cloud: For most part these are the same as for any virtualized infrastructure based on hypervisor technology, servers, network and unified network storage. This would typically consist of: n Scalable servers with enough network interfaces and memory n Shared Unified Network Storage n A network infrastructure adequate to support high storage utilization #3 Consolidate, Virtualize: Early adopters of the private cloud have found that virtualizing and consolidating servers and storage are necessary prerequisites to cloud implementation. Virtualization and consolidation by themselves provide a number of significant benefits: n Increase asset utilization, reducing the amount of IT infrastructure needed to accommodate your existing workloads n Simplify management by reducing the number of devices you have to manage and allowing you to manage many virtual machines from a single console. n Enhance availability by providing simplified means for implementing high availability and disaster recovery 112 | August 15, 2011

for many applications with more rapid restart in the event of failed services #4 Unlock the True Potential of the Private Cloud: Standardization of procedures and ensuring repeatable processes are integral to improving quality and provisioning times and reducing support costs and risk in a cloud computing environment. n Standardizing services and processes: Creating a service catalog of storage services attached to SLAs that satisfy the majority of infrastructure requests from internal customers introduces consistency, and streamlines the IT request and delivery process. n Automation: The higher the automation of regular practices like provisioning, activation, backup, and replication in a cloud environment, the better the ability environment can scale to meet the dynamic nature of delivering IT as a service. n Chargeback: For distinguishing between a virtualized environment and cloud is cost awareness. This requires visibility into the existing environment and mapping of resources to the services being delivered. Although many organizations may not be ready to actually initiate chargeback, this cost awareness is valuable for planning and management purposes. n Self-service: Environment in which internal customers can request and receive appropriately configured IT resources with little or no IT intervention is an important step in cloud deployment. This is achieved by defining a service catalog of standard configurations with SLAs attached to services and data protection levels allowing administrators to scale resources on demand, choose different levels of performance and data protection, and automate recovery from application errors.

Making the transition to cloud requires more than technology; it requires a paradigm shift in IT that includes significant changes to IT processes and the roles and responsibilities of IT staff. n visit www.dqindia.com

EARLY ADOPTERS OF THE PRIVATE CLOUD HAVE FOUND THAT VIRTUALIZING AND CONSOLIDATING SERVERS AND STORAGE ARE NECESSARY PREREQUISITES TO CLOUD IMPLEMENTATION

RAJESH AWASTHI The author is director, telecom and cloud business, NetApp India maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

Building a Case for Private Cloud The top 3 reasons for going in for a private cloud include security concerns, quality of service concerns, and long-term costs

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loud computing is a significant advancement in the delivery of information technology and services. By providing demand access to a shared pool of computing resources in a self-service, dynamically scaled and metered manner, cloud offers compelling advantages in speed, agility, and efficiency.

Organizations can choose among various deployment methods such as private clouds, public clouds, community clouds, and hybrid clouds.

A closer look reveals that various models offer benefits, some of which are common. An outsourced

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model, a public cloud is hosted and managed by a service provider with multiple tenants availing of cloud services. On the other hand, a private cloud is designed for the exclusive use of a single organization with the in-house IT team controlling and managing the infrastructure and the operations (though it is also possible to outsource this in the form of ‘hosted private clouds’ or ‘virtual private clouds’).

Trade-Offs Between Private and Public Clouds Public clouds are often faster and cheaper to get started, providing DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

a ‘low barrier to entry’. However private clouds can offer lower costs over a breakeven period. For IT projects, this tends to range from 2-4 years.

A second trade-off is that in a public cloud model, the service provider is responsible for providing the infrastructure, software and the services while in a private cloud model, organizations can maintain control over security, regulatory compliance, and quality of service.

Lastly, while private clouds require both capital and operating expenditures, public clouds typically result only in operating expenses.

Will organizations choose public or private clouds? A survey with the Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) revealed that the adoption of private cloud solutions are growing in many companies, often outpacing use of public platform service providers. Nearly 30% of the respondents had a private cloud and another 15% were planning or considering it. These numbers are significant and show that the adoption of private clouds is quite strong. Similarly, a survey conducted by a leading analysts firm among large organizations found that over 40% of approximately 1,000 organizations surveyed reported plans to implement some type of private cloud in the next few years.

Driving Factors for Private Clouds What drove the choice for private clouds? The top 3 reasons included security concerns, quality of service concerns, and long-term costs. This underscores the fact that organizations are still not comfortable entrusting sensitive data to public clouds.

Large organizations require integration flexibility and control over quality of service and security DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

and we have a scenario where large organizations will gravitate towards private clouds.

In many cases, organizations will go through an IT optimization process to facilitate this change.

According to the MIT Sloan Architecture Maturity model, organizations will progress from IT silos into the standardized technology stage, where companies begin to shift IT spend from local applications to a shared infrastructure model and then into the optimized IT core stage, where processes are digitized and companies move to a more enterprise view. And finally into business modularity phase where digitized processes put in place in the previous phase are exposed as services to IT clients.

Viewed from a cloud perspective, these stages align with the IT transformation that an organization will progress on along its journey to cloud services. Following this, the organization will move towards standards for hardware and database software, including a portfolio rationalization effort that migrate applications running on non-standard hardware and software onto standardized infrastructure.

PUBLIC CLOUDS ARE OFTEN FASTER AND CHEAPER TO GET STARTED, PROVIDING A ‘LOW BARRIER TO ENTRY’ BUT PRIVATE CLOUDS CAN OFFER LOWER COSTS OVER A BREAKEVEN PERIOD

Conclusion Private clouds are gaining increasing acceptance among large organizations. Converting existing data center investments into a private cloud allows IT to provide a more flexible, agile, and transparent environment to businesses. In addition, it also reduces administrative costs by allowing business users to get access to cloud resources directly.

However as public clouds will mature, eventually organizations would want a hybrid model that will give the economies of scale and management simplicity of a public cloud, better service level guarantees, and security of a private cloud. n visit www.dqindia.com

DHRUV SINGHAL The author is senior sales consulting director, Oracle India maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in August 15, 2011 | 117

Addressing SaaS Security Concerns On-demand applications or SaaS offer mid-sized companies major advantages like reduced operational complexity, trustworthy security, privacy protection, etc

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loud represents a paradigm shift in the way applications and IT services are developed, sold, deployed and consumed giving customers increased agility and higher speed of innovation with reduced upfront costs and TCO. While cloud services are still in a nascent stage, cloud computing is already a $16 bn market and growing at 27% CAGR. The shift to the cloud represents threat as well as an opportunity for application providers.

These days, market change is relentless—ever-increasing customer expectations, shrinking product life-cycles, and appearance of new rivals—all accelerate the pace. However mid-sized companies are more agile vis-à-vis larger companies as with fewer organizational layers and less-rigid processes.

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great products and services, they need business processes that contribute to their overall operational excellence. To begin with, they need fully-functional business applications to increase visibility and control over key areas of their business.

On-demand applications, also known as SaaS, offer mid-sized companies many advantages over traditional onpremise software solutions including reduced operational complexity, trustworthy security, privacy protection, and high system availability. Typically, such solutions are managed by a third-party vendor and on-demand access to the solution and the associated company data requires only a standard web browser.

While this certainly simplifies the IT requirements, one question that both IT and business executives ask is ‘how secure is SaaS?’.

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

Secure Web Based Access Advances in the reliability of data centers, encrypted internet connections, and current operational technologies make SaaS comparable in security to on-site installations. While connecting to a SaaS solution is simple for its users, it is difficult for attackers, hackers, and unauthorized personnel. SaaS provides secure access through multiple levels of both physical and software defenses, that is, through a combination of dedicated connectivity appliances, virtual private networks (VPNs), and unique user IDs and passwords.

A crucial element of SaaS topology is a connectivity appliance that controls access from the company’s web browsers to on-demand proprietary information.

From the network, the connectivity appliance creates a dedicated connection using encrypted VPNs to the data center running the SaaS solution, allowing access only to authorized parties. Such unique architecture also isolates customer-specific business data so that other companies which are also customers of the IT vendor maintaining the SaaS solution in a multi-tenant environment, cannot access company-specific data.

Privacy and System Protection To provide enhanced integrity, a SaaS solution should use an advanced data management solution to store customer data and securely isolate each customer’s business information in its own database.

For power backup and redundancy, the data center maintains multiple connections so that even if the local power grid fails, the data center supporting SaaS has an uninterrupted power supply for short-term outages and a diesel generator backup power supply for longer outages.

Role Based Access and Security Data access is restricted by user types.

Remote login to the company’s solution in the data center is also monitored and recorded. SoD helps reduce the potential DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

for damage from one person by applying segregation of duties through user authorizations—SaaS provides a high level of control for multimodule software.

The SaaS solution enables the business leader to build effective and efficient internal controls, based on a catalog of pre-defined SoD rules, to avoid common businesses conflicts.

Easier Regulation Compliance Security and privacy concerns are crucial to most of the SMBs reluctant to implement a SaaS solution. Today most SaaS providers have Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) 70 Type II audit certification, ensuring that they have demonstrated controls in place.

Moreover, the technical safeguards of renowned SaaS providers exceed the capabilities of some smaller and even mid-sized firms. Nevertheless, anyone considering a SaaS solution should look closely at the SaaS provider’s security and privacy services and ask specifically about SAS 70 Type II or ISO/IEC 27001 audit certification.

However when it comes to quality standards and regulations for accounting-relevant systems, a SaaS solution ensures that data is stored, processed, and retrieved in an accurate and timely manner to provide a complete view of a company’s financial situation.

The bottomline is that business management solutions, whether onpremise or on-demand, can help midsized companies connect their internal processes and give them control over their business. SaaS provides the ability to do all that with a significantly reduced IT footprint and do so affordably via a subscription based model.

Additionally, SaaS solutions also help to reduce the risk of data theft and business disruption by leveraging the skills of an outside IT vendor to maintain the reliability, availability, and privacy of the company’s business software and data.

Either way for mid-sized companies, anything that can provide an opportunity to reduce costs is good. n visit www.dqindia.com

DATA ACCESS IS RESTRICTED BY USER TYPES. REMOTE LOGIN TO THE COMPANY’S SOLUTION IN THE DATA CENTER IS ALSO MONITORED AND RECORDED. SOD HELPS REDUCE THE POTENTIAL FOR DAMAGE FROM ONE PERSON

BY APPLYING SEGREGATION OF DUTIES THROUGH USER AUTHORIZATIONS

ROHIT MADHUR The author is the director, SAP Business ByDesign, SAP India maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in August 15, 2011 | 119

Cloud is Reshaping Hybrids Let’s see how a hybrid game is being played behind the cloud philosophy

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ow would the cloud compute look like 10 years hence? We may think that most computing, if not all, would move to cloud. At the same time, technology has its surprises. Outside cloud there are changes affecting the course of cloud. Slates, for example, are an area where popular OS like iOS and android tend to play a hybrid game, playing between the device and cloud.

The mix in hybrid computing is getting to be strategic.

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Let’s get back to the original basis of cloud. They say computing would be like electricity—consumed by tapping a public service. But electricity is more of hybrid than ever before ie, when good part of our lifestyle is charged on lithium batteries.

The foremost challenge in pure cloud lies in the capacity of centralized computing. Just visualize, if all the computing today moves to servers on cloud, the world would have no place for data centers. With density of data increasing DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

(video, voice, IVR, and conferences), the potential computing capacity can be met only if devices are exploited. Computing would not escape the metaphysics of utility services.

Challenge: Usability on a Big Scale Expectations from the device has increased, whether it is multi-touch animated interaction or holding highly persistent data. It is departing well from the earlier promise of light-weight net PCs that was thought to be more ubiquitous. Rather, browsers are increasing in size and are almost taking over as the OS. It is a myth that devices are to become lighter. Rather, they will become computing heavy even if data and applications reside on cloud. This is one of the ironies in the old basis of cloud computing.

In this context, the foremost challenge in application development lies in its design for scalability and usability at the same time. Soon multi-touch, IVR, and data laden user interfaces will be the norm, asking for a different form of local computing. Isn’t the in-memory computing (dynamic local cache technologies) some indication of this? Also, the behavior of browsers and HTML is evolving rapidly for local computing.

This is perhaps why a popular technology like HTML5 is still in development and yet to be ratified as standard. Cloud strategy is getting to be about exploiting what is not yet a standard.

The 3 Strategies So all cloud players must frame a strategy to exploit devices. Here we see 3 categories of players emerging. n Cloud Aggregators with Device Leverage: These players will exploit the computing power of the device to provide rich user experience. On the other hand, their revenue model would rely on aggregated stores on cloud. The device OS would be the key to leverage device capabilities and extend aggregated services. Compliance to open standards hence will not be DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

sacrosanct. The player may even make THE FOREdevices. Apple is the foremost example MOST CHALin this category.

LENGE IN n Cloud Apps with Browser Leverage: Here the game is played PURE CLOUD with apps on cloud, using the evolving LIES IN THE HTML5 or such emerging technoloCAPACITY OF gies in the future. The browser gets to emulate the OS. It would eventually CENTRALIZED turn into a device platform, which on COMPUTING. one hand would claim to comply with JUST VISUALHTML standards, and the other hand would provide niche API and libraries IZE, IF ALL THE for browser extensions and add-ons.

COMPUTING These will reside in the device and be dynamically updated. Ironically, brows- TODAY MOVES ers are the strongest source of de-stand- TO SERVERS ardization today contrary to popular ON CLOUD, belief—Google Chrome exemplifies this.

THE WORLD n Cloud Platforms with Onpremise Apps Leverage: This game is WOULD HAVE most complex. Here reliance on browser NO PLACE FOR seems less, and also on the OS. Rather DATA CENTERS the players will tap on-premise applications like their email servers and portals to extend their cloud services, which would be mainly platforms and middleware. The cloud would host enterprise scale applications to complement applications residing in private servers.

Large firms which would have rich legacy applications may find this suitable to their transition to hybrid cloud. One may find Microsoft taking this approach.

In all the cases, we see demarcation between on-premise and cloud being redefined into well defined points of device leverage. The players consciously choose to be non-standard in those points—some in the browser, some in OS, and some in the apps that they choose to keep within the device.

In fact, the choice is determined by the nature of applications. A cloud ERP provider, for instance, will hook up to on-premise enterprise systems to connect with other apps. On the other hand, utility apps would seep into the browser as extensions and morph into multiple VENGUSWAMY RAMASWAMY devices. Every case, there is no fullThe author is global head, scale standardization—as the laws of TCS iON maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in competition keep telling us. n visit www.dqindia.com

August 15, 2011 | 125

All for Standards While many organizations are working on using the cloud for noncore, surround applications etc, there are instances of large organizations too shifting their core applications to the cloud

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ll things new and interesting should raise debate— more the debate, more the interest—and cloud computing is no different. The fact that there is a lot of debate around standardization for cloud in itself augurs well, since it shows significant interest that cloud has generated from both the User Community as well as the Originators.

Why the Need for Standardization?

Many forms of cloud are present today such as public, private, hybrid, and community clouds. These are not 126 | August 15, 2011

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standalone models and there would be a lot of interaction, not just among clouds but also between clouds and traditional IT systems. We also know from past experience that standardization will go a long way in enabling and easing this integration with standard APIs that can be read by the target system and will also reduce the cost of integration.

The second reason for standardization is the migration ‘To’ and ‘From’ the cloud. The former is where the action is today. However in the next few years, there will be various stages in an organization’s lifecycle when they will want to move their applicaDATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

tions from the cloud, particularly the public cloud, to their own premises which will again need standardization.

The third reason is that no single cloud service provider will be able to fulfill all the IT requirements of a business and the future appears to be tending towards a more collaborative IT model. Services would come from multiple cloud service providers and integrating the same across clouds as well as with the on-premise applications can best be done through standardization.

Considering the above it becomes imperative to have standards.

When Do We Standardize?

Having established the need for standards, let us now see where the cloud itself is and whether the impact of not having standards currently is high.

Cloud computing is in a state of evolution today. In my opinion, in the product lifecycle, cloud adoption is tending towards the growth phase and in the final part of the introduction phase. From a cloud originator standpoint, multiple individuals and organizations are working on various technologies, building platforms, building applications, and putting up elastic infrastructure to run the platforms and applications.

On the user adoption front, organizations are working towards experiencing cloud computing in a small way. Most of these organizations are working on using the cloud for either non-core, surround applications or for burst capacity for their infrastructure.

There are few instances yet, of large organizations shifting their core applications to the cloud. Of course, there are smaller organizations that are adopting cloud in a big way however, although the number of such organizations is many, their contribution to the cloud in terms of revenues is not high.

Considering the fact that we are still at an evolutionary stage, I think DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

it is too early to drive standardization for 2 reasons: n Today, technology providers of the cloud layers such as the virtualization, operating systems, application, database, and orchestration are yet to establish a clear direction in terms of their own technology roadmaps, architecture, licensing policies, etc.

Cloud service providers, who put all of these together, are also doing so in their own proprietary model/approach.

These aspects are still dynamic and need to mature with vendors declaring their intent and roadmaps, after which standardization can follow. This is likely to happen over the next 2 years when we will see more adoption of the cloud. One of the key enablers to standardization is the need for leading technology providers to come together and agree on working standards, which is some time away. n The second reason for suggesting a delay in adoption of standards is the cost of standardization itself, which will add to the cost of cloud initially due to various cost elements such as building of standards, training, development based on standards and adoption of tools and technologies that enable these standards. Such investments are warranted only after there is a clear sense of direction that the cloud would take so that the money is well-spent. Considering the fact that integration and migration from the cloud is not very high and is not expected to be very high in the next couple of years, the cost of waiting and then, adopting standards would not be too high.

ON THE USER ADOPTION FRONT, ORGANIZATIONS ARE WORKING TOWARDS EXPERIENCING CLOUD COMPUTING IN A SMALL WAY LIKE USING THE CLOUD FOR EITHER NON-CORE, SURROUND APPLICATIONS OR FOR BURST CAPACITY FOR THEIR INFRASTRUCTURE.

Summary Standardization, though important, isn’t a necessity at this point of the cloud lifecycle. In this evolving landscape, innovation needs to be encouraged and the focus should be on maturing the cloud through increased adoption. Till then we can let the cloud take its own shape. n visit www.dqindia.com

ANAND RAMAKRISHNAN The author is GM & head, cloud computing services, Wipro Infotech maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in August 15, 2011 | 127

Cloud Computing

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer speaks with attendees at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2011

Taking Off…for the Clouds Microsoft’s big cloud and its ecosystem plan can be a game changer IBRAHIM AHMAD ibrahima@cybermedia.co.in

I

f 640,000 IT players across the world, including the large ones who service conglomerates and the teeny weenies who help out neighborhood shops and homes are showing interest in cloud, there must be something in it for them.

Last month’s mega meet of Microsoft’s 15,000 plus channel partners was a clear indication of the building momentum of cloud, and how CEO Steve Ballmer is planning to shift gears for taking the flight high up towards the clouds. Plus his statement that “Someone said we have 95% of our business through partners, I can’t find the last 5% myself. So, I’m just going to say we’ve got 100% of our business with partners” clearly indicates who Microsoft’s co-travelers are going to be.

At a time when cloud is being touted as the solution for all problems—of vendors as well as customers—Microsoft’s key executives are focusing on explaining and convincing how partners will benefit from the transition to cloud computing by helping customers improve agility, focus on business goals and reduce costs. “Cloud computing is as big a transformation as we have ever seen and, together with our partners, Microsoft will help customers through the shift,” said Satya Nadella, president of the server and tools business at Microsoft. “By betting on Microsoft’s comprehensive approach to cloud computing, partners can embrace this transformation and build strong and vibrant practices that will advance how business gets done,” Nadella added.

Let’s take the Office 365 front for instance. Microsoft claims that more than 50,000 organizations have started trials—a rate of more than 1 every 25 seconds in the first 2 weeks after the cloud based productivity service was released. According to Jitendra Kulkarni, CEO, Winspire Solutions from Singapore, “Businesses of all sizes are embracing the service, and I am very sure that more and more partners will use the cloud route as that offers better reach and ability to sell and support.” According to a Microsoft sponsored Forrester Consult-

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DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

ing survey, customers will get an RoI of more than 300% with a payback period of just 2 months with Office 365.

Of course, it’s going to be a numbers game, specially for the ecosystem. And this is one area in which Microsoft is a big power to reckon with. Kurt DelBene, president of the Microsoft Office division said, “The ecosystem of Microsoft partners has more than doubled in the last year and now includes more than 41,000 partners and 300,000 trained specialists on the cloud service.

Partners who are first movers to the cloud are building robust recurring revenue streams, ultimately growing and transforming their businesses.”

Clearly, Microsoft is confident of its big ecosystem that is growing.

At the Los Angeles partner meet, it was not just power point sessions— actually quite a few new schemes and plans were announced to encourage and enable partners to adopt cloud.

For giving customers a better cloud experience and creating a path for partners to transition of their businesses to the cloud, Kirill Tatarinov, president of Microsoft Business Solutions, announced that the next update of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online will be available in the fourth quarter of 2011. This update will enable partners to offer enterprise customers Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online with Microsoft Office 365 and will feature enhanced social collaboration capabilities. In addition, new Microsoft Dynamics ERP RapidStart Services were announced, which help partners quickly configure and set up consistent and repeatable steps common across the life cycle of an ERP deployment, reducing the initial implementation time so they can focus on delivering profitable value-added services. Built on the Windows Azure platform, the extensible service will be available in September.

Similarly, the company announced that partners could now sell their apDATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

AT THE LOS ANGELES PARTNER MEET QUITE A FEW NEW SCHEMES AND PLANS WERE ANNOUNCED TO ENCOURAGE AND ENABLE PARTNERS TO ADOPT CLOUD

plications through the Windows Azure Marketplace to reach more customers and get more revenues. This capability builds on the extensive set of partner data offerings already available for sale through the Windows Azure Marketplace. Other initiatives to help cloud in the very near future include System Center 2012, which helps customers build private clouds and manage applications across both private and public cloud systems, and Windows Server 8, which will be the next step in private cloud computing.

Taking note of the increasing importance of data in both public and private cloud computing, Microsoft also announced the availability of a community preview of the new Microsoft SQL Server, codename ‘Denali’.

With this, partners and customers can begin testing the features of ‘Denali’ including Project Crescent for visual data exploration and SQL Server Developer Tools codenamed ‘Juneau’, for a modern development experience across server, business intelligence, and cloud development projects.

To prove that the cloud route is paying dividends, Microsoft shared results of another Forrester Consulting survey that found that partners deploying solutions on Windows Azure are generating 20% to 250% in new revenue by reaching entirely new customers. visit www.dqindia.com

Going beyond product upgradation announcements, Microsoft also announced changes in partner commissions, providing them improved cash flow and enhanced opportunity. Ballmer said they plan to pump in about $4.1 bn as incentives for partners—such as solution providers, developers, SIs, VARs and distributors—to move to cloud.

The fact that Microsoft’s partner ecosystem: 640,000 partners with 15 mn employees generate $580 bn in total revenue—$8.70 for every $1.00 Microsoft makes—is clearly exciting for the partners to be on its side. “It makes a lot of business sense to be with Microsoft in this cloud journey,” said Rishikesh Trivedi of Epicor Software who had come from Dubai.

And the cloud story is not just being written with the channel partners.

Microsoft has already tied up with over 30 telecom operators who will offer popular business and consumer products and services through their cloud. And there are some discussions going on with credit card players such as Amex and MasterCard for reaching out to the market via their clouds. “Let’s use cloud to sell the cloud,” as Jon Roskill, head, Worldwide Partner Group, Microsoft suggests.

While Microsoft is meticulously putting together its big cloud plan, to ultimately get everybody on board Microsoft’s cloud flight will actually need a lot of pushing and convincing.

As Ballmer himself put it, “We’re allin on the cloud, 100%, and we need partners who want to come with us.

Doesn’t mean that the business has all transitioned in the last 12-month period of time, but we’re all in. It is where things are going and we need you to decide whether you’re coming with us.”

But if the tiger is taking the cloud flight, whatever be the apprehensions, that flight has got to be exciting. n The author was hosted in Los Angeles by Microsoft August 15, 2011 | 129

News

‘LifeSize has a well-rounded portfolio ’ What are the recent market trends in the video communications segment in India?

India is a key market for LifeSize (a division of Logitech and the first company to develop and deliver highdefinition video communication products). India is on the cusp of a new revolution with the emerging technology platform to deliver high-speed data and voice on a single network.

As voice traffic growth stabilizes, data and video are set to become the core focus areas. One of the key factors responsible for this change is the growing penetration of smartphones and data devices.

How are you using the potential of the Indian Market?

trends in UCs are truly global, where any form of communications is just a click away, delivered at lower costs, and increasing the productivity factor in businesses. Mainly we’re seeing cloud solutions, mobile/tablet, and virtualization as the key trends in UC today.

—Vaibhav Kshatriya, country manager, India, LifeSize Communications

The potential of the Indian market is one of the reasons why we have our R&D center in Bengaluru.

With the advances in infrastructure roll outs across India that is accelerated by broadband, we are seeing a lot of growth in Unified Communications (UCs). The key

How does LifeSize view Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype from a business point?

This is a great move for our industry and it’s a great opportunity for LifeSize ie being wellpositioned in the rapidly evolving video communications industry.

LifeSize’s vision is to provide HD video communication solutions to workers in businesses

of all sizes, anytime, anywhere, regardless of whether the workers are in the board room, their office, a remote site, or on the road. Specifically with Microsoft and Skype, LifeSize is the only major video communications company working with both the organizations.

One area of specialty for our business is the enterprise meeting room.

LifeSize has a wellrounded portfolio of infrastructure, management, and endpoint solutions for enterprise-class HD video conferencing and our systems are already qualified for and inter-operable with both Microsoft and Skype.

DRISHTI D MANOAH drishtim@cybermedia.co.in

People CSC Appoints Narendra Nayak as BU Head CSC has appointed Narendra Nayak as the business unit head for its new sales unit which will target Indian domestic market including banking, insurance, manufacturing, healthcare, and government sectors. Through an internal assessment, CSC expects this domestic market to witness a CAGR of 16% by 2014.

Matt Grob is Now Executive VP & CTO of Qualcomm Qualcomm has promoted Matt Grob as its executive vice president and chief technical officer. He has succeeded Roberto Padovani, who will continue to work as an executive vice-president for the organization. Grob is responsible for R&D activities, corporate engineering services, next-generation wireless technologies, and provide direction for external audience and universities.

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New CTO for Smart ID Biometrics, smart card provider Smart Identity Devices (Smart ID), announced Mahendra Pratap as the chief technical officer. He will be responsible for the technology role, strategy, and product portfolio in the financial space. Pratap was the co-founder and executive director, HCL.

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

News

People

Infosys Announces New Executive Council Infosys has appointed a new executive council which includes executive board, the current EC members, and heads of key and strategic business units.

New EC includes S Gopalakrishnan, CEO and MD; S D Shibulal, COO; Srinath Batni, director and head, delivery excellence; V Balakrishnan, CFO; Ashok Vemuri, senior VP and head, banking and capital markets and strategic global sourcing. This EC will work with the board in devising business strategy and policies.

Convergys India Appoints New HR Head

Arun Seth Joins Alcatel-Lucent India Alcatel-Lucent India has named Arun Seth as its chairman. He will work with Rajeev Singh, president, APAC & India on strategy and advise Munish Seth, president and managing director, Alcatel-Lucent India for value creation in Indian region. Arun Seth will continue to work as the non-executive chairman of BT India. Earlier, he has handled important profiles at the UB Group and HCL.

Sandeep Girotra has been appointed by Convergys as its new head of human resources for the customer management operations in India, Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). He is responsible to lead HR teams in India and EMEA. Before joining Convergys, he was with General Electric and handled important roles in Asia and other countries.

SAP AG Appoints Simon Dale as Tech Head, APJ SAP AG has appointed Simon Dale as its head of technology and innovation for Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) region. Dale is a part of global team along with Dr Christoph Kollatz, executive vice president, SAP HANA under Dr Vishal Sikka, member of the SAP executive board technology and innovation.

Dale brings an extensive experience, as he has previously worked as SAP APJ’s chief technology officer and in-solution sales.

Tiger Ramesh Replaces Nick Sharma at CSS

Sunil Bhatia Joins Blue Star Infotech as MD Blue Star Infotech, a software company, has announced the appointment of Sunil Bhatia as the managing director of the global operations. Earlier, he was a partner with Accenture, served in IBM.

Tiger Ramesh has been appointed as the global CEO of CSS, an ICT company. He is the co-founder of ‘Bangalore Labs’, remote IT infrastructure management company and Quintant Services, an integrated technology and operations business service provider which later was acquired and integrated with iGate Solutions (now, iGate-Patni) where Tiger contributed to its BPO and BSP units. He has also worked as the country manager, Nortel Networks for India and the Saarc region.

Balaji Moves from Ericsson to Sony Ericsson Sony Ericsson has named P Balaji as its new managing director for India operations. He is responsible for positioning Sony Ericsson’s android based Xperia smartphones in the Indian android market and handling network of operators and distributors in India. Prior to this role, he was with Ericsson, AT&T, Lucent India, and Tata group.

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

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Former Wipro CIO Joins Anthelio as COO Anthelio, a healthcare IT provider, has announced the appointment of Laxman K Badiga as the chief operating officer. Prior to working at Anthelio, he played many crucial roles in Wipro Technologies for 30 years and lastly was its chief information officer.

He is also on the IT panel of many state governments in India and Confederation of Indian Industries (CII).

August 15, 2011 | 131

News

‘Data recovery as a service in the cloud is an opportunity’ Please highlight the importance of a recovery strategy.

As business scales up, it becomes more prone to risks. Investment in a recovery strategy becomes imperative to reduce a company’s exposure to data loss. DRM solutions help to reduce, operationalize, and implement this requirement. However a recovery strategy must be able to analyze how much data loss is acceptable. For example, data loss from an ATM is not acceptable and if there is a downtime, how soon will the network take to come upstream.

For instance, RTGS cannot remain unoperational for more than 4 hours.

Could you please tell us about any particular

—Lakshman Narayanaswamy, co-founder & VP, Sanovi Technologies

drivers that supported investment in DR and business continuity solutions?

Banks in India have been late to jump on to the bandwagon of ICT adoption and core banking functions still remain untouched by the benefits of IT. But of late, banks are required to report to the RBI on the loopholes

and the measures taken to tackle it. Banks are subject to not only RBI guidelines but also international guidelines, and are also required to comply to BS25999 standards. Even the need to fulfill promises made to the customers are ensuring that banks tread the path of ICT adoption.

Hence the banking segment is witnessing a huge amount of investment in DR and business continuity solutions.

Are there any challenges faced in the implementation at banks?

The bigger challenge is to align the IT implementations to the company, implement, and adapt to it.

The success rate is higher in smaller banks than the larger ones. We have seen

Industry

Integrated Document Printing Launches in India Pitney Bowes India, an integrated mail and document management company, has launched an Integrated Document Printing (IDP), an in-house mailstream solution with a printer and post-printer solution together. This product is made for customer facing facilities like banks, financial and insurance services, real estate, and hospitals. IDP can handle 62 pages-per-minute with automatic folding, selective inserts as per the customer profile, sealing the document, and can generate MIS reports to track mail piece.

‘Tata Sky Mobile Access’ Launches in Collaboration with Ryz Media Tata Sky, DTH provider, in collaboration with Ryz Media has launched ‘Tata Sky Mobile Access’, an app for Apple devices. It enable subscribers to use their iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch as a remote to control electronic devices in their homes. It can be downloaded free of cost from the iTunes store and will work across all Tata Sky boxes.

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successful implementations at HDFC, Yes Bank, Corporation Bank, Bank of Baroda, banks in the Middle East, etc.

Will cloud computing change the market scenario?

Cloud computing and virtualization are important in the aspect of driving the cost factor southwards.

Cloud means different to different individuals but it is subject to vagaries that could take place when one functions from a data center. So the management needs to plan about investment in the beneficial strategies. We perceive data recovery as a ‘ service in the cloud’, as an opportunity.

SHILPA SHANBAG shilpas@cybermedia.co.in

Paul Writer Introduced Marketing Hall of Fame Paul Writer, the marketing advisory firm has announced the launch of virtual Hall of Fame. This program can identify marketing campaigns which uses modern marketing tools either in isolation or as a mix of print, radio, and electronic media.

Marketing campaigns will be recognized through editorial research and nominations through www. paulwriter.com.

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

News Industry Disseminate Information Through SMS Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister, Delhi, on the inauguration of CitizenCentric State Consultation Workshop on egovernance announced that Delhi government will utilize mobile messaging services to disseminate information to people. The workshop was jointly organized

by Delhi IT department and Nasscom. She further added that usage of technology for e-governance has improvized the work culture, enhanced accountability, responsiveness, transparency, and cost savings to citizens and government.

Wipro Launches Easy-Upgrade Wipro Technologies has launched ‘Wipro Easy-Upgrade’ solution for Oracle E-Business Suite, which can enable complete assessment, implementation, and management of Oracle applications.

Wipro claimed that this solution can deliver upto 40% reduction in assessment costs for organizations planning to implement Oracle E-Business Suite—R12 or Oracle Fusion applications.

HTC ChaCha Lands in India

Transformer Tablet Launched for ` EJ &Jdia ASUS has announced the launch of ASUS EEE Pad Transformer TF101 tablet. This android v3.0 honeycomb based tablet has Nvidia Tegra 2 dual core processor, qwerty keyboard, a multi-touch touchpad, 2 USB ports, a 3.5 mm audio jack, and a built-in SD card reader with 6-16 hours of battery backup.

HTC, a Taiwan based mobile company and Tata DOCOMO, Indian telecom service provider jointly has announced the launch of HTC ChaCha—a smartphone priced at `15,990 in India. This android based smartphone has features like full qwerty keypad, 2.6 inch screen, 5 megapixel camera with auto focus, LED flash, and a VGA frontfacing camera for video calling.

Infosys Loses a Major Bank Client Infosys has lost a multi-million and multi-year contract of implementation of Finacle Solutions with Union Bank of California. It is reported that due to change in business priorities of the bank, it discontinued the project although both the concerned parties were satisfied with the progress of the project from last year. Finacle project contributed 5% to the overall sales revenue of Infosys.

Indiavibes Wins Graham Bell Award Indiavibes, web TV has won Bloomberg UTV-Aegis Graham Bell Award’11 for the category ‘innovation in mobile content application’. Selection criterion for this award includes innovation, market potential, social potential, sustainability, and interoperability in the fields of telecom, internet, media, and edutainment. The award was received by Andrine Mendez, founder and CEO, Indiavibes TV.

% ) 1A?D 0PNEGAO = IJ !A=H HCL Technologies has announced its agreement with Mecom, a European media company worth ¼90 mn for the outsourcing of Mecom’s IT operations, as its transformation IT partner. HCL shall provide infrastructure as well as application management services to Mecom. The agreement is for 5 years and may extend for another 2 years.

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

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Jetking Launches JetTab Jetking Infotrain has launched JetTab, priced at `12,999. This android based tablet PC is also offered with a 12 day course. JetTab has 2 variants—Ready to use and Do it yourself (DIY) model. “The objective of entering the market with the later version, DIY, is to make people not just use but learn about everything that goes into the making of the tablet,” says Suresh Bharwani, MD, Jetking Infotrain.

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Afterthought

Shyamanuja Das The author is Editor of Dataquest shyamanujad@cybermedia.co.in

BPO: The Perpetual Transformation

ike it or not, the big BPO wave started in India as IT-enabled services. Ever since, it has always been hyphenated, compared and contrasted with the IT industry, which till today, is considered the big brother. And not without reason.

Outsourced business services is not something that the world discovered in late 90s. It is the commonality with the IT services—especially its ability to be delivered from anywhere in the world—that the world woke up to at that time. And since it grew along with a vibrant IT industry, BPO lent to and borrowed from IT services. But thanks to its heterogenity—in sharp contrast to IT—somewhere down the journey, it has started seeking an independent path. Independent from IT services yes, dissociated from IT, no.

Last year was a landmark year as far as that separation is considered. Paradoxical it may sound, but this coincided with an enhanced leverage of IT—the technology, not the service line. IT-BPO integrated deals at one time was a dream that everyone was pursuing. At that time, it meant that the CIO and the CFO/head, HR would just sit together and decide to outsource their entire functions to a large company, usually with an IT heritage. That has never happened, beyond in certain cases, especially in the public sector.

What, on the other hand, has happened, is that increasingly, a BPO outsourcing contract has moved from being “your mess for less” as many call it to something that requires the service provider to transform processes, through use of technology, consulting capability (derived from a thorough understanding of process) and of course, a more efficient execution of

L

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the services. Many call them integrated IT-BPO deals. I have no major quarrel with them because IT is integrated with BPO but that is not the same as saying IT services and BPO services are being outsourced together. I still do not understand why someone would even think of outsourcing his data center hosting and customer analytics in a single deal!

The big wave that we are seeing in BPO now is verticalization. While the IT industry too talks of verticalization, what it means there is the ability to understand the customers’ problems so that you can create a solution. In BPO, it means understanding the business itself so that you can deliver the services day in and day out. In IT, once you get into the execution part, you do not need to know the client’s business.

In BPO, bagging a deal is just the beginning. The real understanding is needed when you are executing. An associate in a BPO firm would know at least part of the function that he is working on. That need not be the case in IT. That is why verticalization means different things for these 2 segments.

That also explains why the BPO industry is always transforming itself. Businesses change. Even with change in cycles, the business from a particular vertical becomes less or more important. And that requires change on the service provider side as well.

So, in a way, this segment—I have argued in the analysis inside why this is not really an industry—would always be under some change. And these would be different for different companies. Those who learn how to keep changing and drive some of that change would win. Whether they are also into IT business or not is an irrelevant point.

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DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

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