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'A CIO should be more of a business enabler'
By Rajagopalan
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Friday, 16 January 2009, 19:50 IST
Bangalore: At a time when data security and risk management are considered needs of the hour, the role of CIOs is recommended to be more of a business enabler rather than that of a technical geek. According to TC Meenakshi Sundaram, Founder, IDG India ventures, CIOs must analyze the risks and security measures of an organization and make balanced decisions on investments, more so in today's bleak economic scenario.
However, Sundaram said, "There is a conspicuous need for remote monitoring and controlling of networks, where every machine connected to a network can be controlled conveniently." He was speaking at 'A VC Panel Discussion on Technology Trends For 2009' at 'India's Greatest Technology Leaders.'
In this context, Mohanjit Jolly, Executive director, DFJ India threw light on the potential of web-based businesses in India, which are still in their infancy. Given the disparity in number of cell-phone and broadband Internet connections, Jolly opined that a revolution in communication was in the offing, with emerging technologies such as 3G and WiMAX at the helm. Jolly recognized jobs, real estate, travel, matrimonies and movies as the established market verticals in India. "Classifieds and business-to-business (B2B) are the emerging areas of development," he said.
Jolly also believed that web based businesses need to focus on languages, combination of online and mobile (ON-MO) solutions and communities for developments in the future and that, start-ups would target India-centric communication solutions in about four or five years. He also chose education as one sector that VCs would prefer investing anytime, as its benefits are immense to be ignored.
"SMEs contribute to an integral part of the GDP of the nation. The viable markets for SMEs lie in local areas," specified Rajesh Srivatsa, Managing Partner, Ojas Ventures. Highlighting the need for sustainability of an SME due to revenue reduction and customer base erosion in the wake of cutthroat competition, Srivatsa enlisted investment in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a possible solution to alleviate its unsteady market prospects. Srivatsa also envisioned virtualization and cloud computing as tech-trends applicable as long-term solutions for SMEs. He thinks poor Internet penetration and a lack of awareness hampered the prospects of SMEs in India.
