IT cos. told to target domestic market
By agencies   |   Wednesday, 07 September 2005, 19:30 IST
Printer Print Email Email
CHENNAI: Indian IT companies will be missing out on the Global IT Super Star status unless there is a balanced growth between domestic and export markets, Tamil Nadu Information Technology Secretary, Dr C Chandramouli said. Quoting a recent Gartner report, which stated that the Indian ICT companies may be missing significant opportunities by focusing on the much-hyped export market and failing to capitalize on the burgeoning domestic market, he said that it was high time to look inward. He said that domestic vendors were accounting for only 42 percent of the total ICT spend in India while the global players accounted for the remaining 58 percent of the IT spend. Referring to challenges, he said ICT companies should do some hard selling on outsourcing in the international market. "Convince the foreign firms that outsourcing is a win-win situation for both. Convince them that you are not grabbing their jobs, but improving their productivity and increasing their competitiveness," he added. Mentioning that information security was another major area of concern, he asked the companies to utilize the services of SETS (Society for Electronic Transactions and Society) for their security issues. "While the enabling environment would be given to you by the government, it is for you to battle and win," he added. CEO and President of Cognizant Technology Solutions Lakshmi Narayanan asked the IT SMEs to ensure that the right team was in place and aligned with the future strategy of the company. Lakshmi Narayanan also asked the IT SMEs to offer production-oriented incentives to the team and share the profits with them. He also asked the companies to keep their eyes open to learn from large companies. Mentioning about a model adopted by Cognizant to manage the attrition issue, he asked the companies to build business models and processes to overcome and manage those issues. Nasscom was in the process of formulating some standards, which could also be followed across the globe. "There will be a new playing field where no one will have advantage or disadvantage. It will be like a race. You have to chase and satisfy the standards," he added. He also urged the SMEs to participate in quality and standards initiatives. Referring to collaboration between large and SME firms and subcontracting by large companies, he said lot of changes should take place since the IT industry was predominantly people-driven. "We should get into factory type of software development for collaborative approach between large and small companies. However, the complexity would be to pitch in for the right people and assembling them into one to deliver solutions. Once that is in place, more collaborative approaches would happen."

siliconindia