Guru talk: D.

Ravi Kumar, Acropetal VC Talk: Hemant Taneja, General Catalyst

EMPOWERING TECHNOLOGY LEADERS OF TOMORROW November 2010 thesmarttechie.com

Satish Kumar, CEO

 th
EMPOWERING TECHNOLOGY LEADERS OF TOMORROW

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The Smart Techie November 2010
 Contents - November 2010

18 COVER STORY GLOPORE IMS

Strengthening
the Global IMS
Satish Kumar, CEO
Footprint By Vimali Swamy

[Guru Talk] 8 [Technology] 36 [Technology] 52

Choosing the CRM Solution for Smartphone Popularity A Double Edge
Your Business Sword for Security
By Team Talisma By Vishak Raman, Fortinet

38 [Event] 54
10 Best Practices for Effective Siliconindia Creates IT Security Aware-
D. Ravi Kumar Application Management in a ness @ Security Conference 2010
Virtual Environment By Eureka Bharali
Building UpAMedium Scale Organisation By Edgardo Salinas Contreras,
By D. Ravi Kumar, Acropetal Quest Software
[Tech Products] 56
[In Focus] 10 40
Successful Integration of Technol- [People Manager] 58
ogy in Schools- Opportunities and Focusing on Possibilities & Oppor-
[Tech Buzz] 14 tunities
Challenges
By Sanjiv Pande, NIIT By C Mahalingam,
[VC Talk] 16 Symphony Services
The Need of the Hour: Entrepreneurship 42
in Clean Energy The Power of Real-Time Information [Technology] 60
By Hemant Taneja, General Catalyst By Roger Li, Oracle How to Choose a SaaS-Based IT Serv-
ice Management Solution
[Venture Beat] 17 44 By Bob Johnson, BMC Software
Technologies Driving Cloud
[Feature] 24 Computing

25
India to Grab the Infrastructure Man- By Saji Thoppil, Wipro
agement Services Market
By Binu Paul 46
Diversity in Technology Leadership
[Company Spotlight] 30 By Ajay Pal Singh Arora, Société
IndianTelecom Industry Sees A Satura- Générale
tion Point Ahead?
By Vimali Swamy 48
Bridging the GapGetting the Students
[Technology]34 Industry Ready
IndianTelecom Industry Sees A Satura- By Srinivasan Viswanathan, Datsi
tion Point Ahead?
Appnomic 26
By Binu Paul 50
Mobile Business Applications Next Ad-
Infinite 27
35 vancement in Mobile Convergence inTarvo 28
CyberAttacks EnterprisesfarfromEquipped! By Rajamani Srinivasan, SAP Indian
By Renjith VP Sub-continent
Maintec Technologies 29

The Smart Techie

|6|
October 2010
 GURU TALK By D. Ravi Kumar
The author is Chairman & MD, Acropetal Technologies
ment, my experience shows that success
and development of organizations de-
pend on certain basics. These basics
over a period of time become integral to
the identity of the organization and also
help set it apart from others.
Although these may vary by a few
degrees; Talent, Values, Commitment to
Clients, Quality, Investment in Technol-
ogy and Corporate Governance are what
most successful organizations are built
on. These basics are what take a small
Building Up organization to the next step, that of
growing into a medium to large organi-
zation.
A Medium Scale
B
Our world is increasingly dependent
Organisation on the soft skills of its employees and
talent is of foremost importance for a
successful organization. Identifying and
hiring correct talent is a part battle. The
key factor here is the organizational
value proposition that helps attract fresh
talent. The other, and extremely critical
uilding up a medium scale organization needs a focused ap- in Information Technology, is retaining
proach to meet the end goals, which in turn need to be clearly that talent. While most organizations
defined right at the onset. While approach and execution de- wage a headhunting battle, it is critical
pend on various external factors, they can be refined with time that the parent organization takes steps
to better meet and suit the needs of the organization and its to prevent the loss of talent. It should be
clients. ensured that employees feel valued and
Having said that, building a medium scale organization can be challeng- appreciated and that this feeling is preva-
ing with constant concerns regarding funding, talent and clients. There must be lent among all tiers of your organization.
several organizations that have fallen prey to inadequate plans and derisory im- Employee inclusion in the development
plementation. The funding is the biggest concern and reason for most ventures of organization, its values, and vision
not reaching the next levels in growth. In this phase where the organization has can majorly influence retention. It is es-
just been set up, talent acquisition is another big concern. Talent acquisition and sential to give importance to the em-
retention in the face of larger competitors is difficult and tricky. Challenges like ployee feedback and take that into
these are real and faced everyday in the initial term of the business. consideration for various organization-
In this globalized economy organizations are at a greater risk for repercussions wide initiatives. Employees need to be
that can make or break development. The challenge then arises in aligning your goals with treated as enablers. They are the ones
those of your global clients. The fact that our revenues are interlinked with that of an- who can work towards the shared com-
other economy makes it tougher to survive global economic meltdowns, such mon goal of achieving success and trans-
as the one experienced in the past few years. While larger organizations form an organization by attracting more
have the funds and the diversifications to help tide over a downturn, talent, giving optimal performances, and
the medium and smaller enterprises can be severely affected. infusing new ideas into the system. Var-
Concerns on a local and global scale make sustained growth in ious mentoring programmes keep tal-
any organization a constant battle. Steps need to be taken that can ented employees engaged and also help
bridge the need of the present with the growth and development them learn from experienced profes-
plans for the future. An organization needs to align its growth to its sionals in other departments.
long term goals and is consciously taking steps in that direction. Values help administer the opera-
The resources, diversification and the strategic decisions are all in tions of an organization. If values are
D. Ravi Kumar tune with the end goal; that of growth and success. mere words that employees do not as-
While there are no sure shot formulas of success and develop- sociate with, then they are of little use.
The Smart Techie
|8|
November 2010
It is imperative to promote these values
and integrate them into our daily
processes. Another way of looking at it
is to absorb the basic approved princi-
ples that your employees work on and
instill them as organizational values.
This guarantees that in the long run em-
ployees will always make decisions or
at least know to make decisions based
on these core beliefs.
Values help administer the operations of an
organization. If values are mere words that
employees do not associate with, then they are
of little use.
It is my belief that it does not mat-
ter how large or small your organiza-
tion is, all that truly matters is how
committed are you to your clients. By
commitment I not only mean the time-
lines and your dedication to the project,
but also communication between the
two parties. Project managers should
communicate openly with clients re-
garding all aspects of the project. They
need to understand in-depth what the
client wants and needs. This commit-
ment leads to a better understanding
and in turn allows you to offer the best
solution. Flexible solutions, offering
newer technologies, and open commu-
nication go a long way in ensuring that
a client is assured of effective and effi-
cient services on a long term basis.
Quality is the critical aspect of sus-
tained organizational growth. Certifica-
tions like the ISO impart confidence to
clients that basic systems are in place for
delivery processes and that there is as-
sured product quality. Quality then needs
to be applied towards continual im-
provement and in setting systems ap-
proach. Your end product, process and
technology when integrated on this base,
will help achieve constant augmentation.
To ensure continued success and
growth of the organization, one needs to
focus on growth in competency based
verticals. This will allow you to build on
domain expertise and bring competen-
cies to better delivery and service ap-
proaches. Investments into newer and
more advanced technologies and devel-
opments also enable organizations to be
better prepared for changing global re-
quirements. Sectors like Healthcare and
Energy and Environment, which are
gaining momentum in India, but have
considerable reach elsewhere, ascertain
sustained growth. These investments
have a global appeal in terms of rev-
enues, geographic spread and technical
expertise. This investment in technolo-
gies of the future is necessary and yet has
to help your organization reach that sin-
gle end goal.
Corporate Governance is the final
but most vital building block in the rise
of an organization. We have all wit-
nessed the meteoric rise and fall of sev-
eral organizations just because they
lacked in proper governance. There have
to be audits that check for accountability,
transparency and the roles of various
management personnel and strategic al-
liances and partners. The corporate gov-
ernance will ultimately help you reach
your organizational long term goals by
controlling processes and operations to
work for benefitting your stakeholders
both internal and external.
An organization can be on the fast
track to success if and only if the plan-
ning, implementation and the re-
sources all are focused in providing
the necessary push to take the organi-
zation to the next level. The basics dis-
cussed in this article, are like the dots
on the map that help you accomplish
your organizational growth faster and
reach your destination sooner.
The Smart Techie
|9|
November 2010
in
W H
Indian Animation Industry to Reach $1.7 Billion by 2012
ith over 150,000 skilled
animators, Indian anima-
tion industry is currently a
$1 billion industry but is expected
to grow at a compounded an-
nual rate of 30 percent and
reach a market size of $1.7
billion by 2012 with over
450,000 skilled animators.
A study conducted by
the Associated Chambers
of Commerce and Industry
(Assocham) shows that the
domestic animation industry
will undertake all its production ac-
tivities within India instead of
spending its funds in U.S., Canada,
Malaysia and the Philippines for
making advanced animated movies.
According to the Associated Cham-
ber of Commerce and Industry the
industry in foreign countries are
growing at a high rate because of the
special policies and initiatives of the
T
India to Have Its Own OS
wo software engineering cen-
tres set up by the Defence Re-
search and Development
Organization (DRDO), in Bangalore
and New Delhi, with 50 scientists are
working towards creating a futuristic
computing system including India’s
own operating system. “There are
many gaps in our software areas; par-
ticularly we don’t have our own oper-
ating system,” said V.K. Saraswat,
Scientific Adviser to the Defence Min-
ister and DRDO Director-General.
“India currently uses operating sys-
tems developed by western countries.
In today’s world where you have
tremendous requirements of security
on whatever you do, economy, bank-
ing or defence, it’s essential that you
The Smart Techie
|10| November 2010
in
Tata Gifts $50 Million to Harvard Business School
governments and they urged the gov- which are
ernment to help the industry by giv- missing at arvard Business School (HBS) million donation from Achievement Award, in
ing them adequate funding, guidance present, As- has received a $50 million gift Tata makes it the 1995.
on manpower de- socham from Tata Group for the fund- largest gift the school Nitin Nohria, Dean of
velopment and added. ing of a new academic and residential has received from an HBS hailed the donation
recognition of Their building on the school’s Boston cam- international donor in as a “historic gift” and
the animation s t u d y pus for participants in the school’s its 102-year history. said his focus will be on
showed broad portfolio of executive education An alumnus of business ethics, a cause
I n d i a programs. HBS hopes to break ground HBS, Ratan Tata at- he has long championed,
would need for the building next spring will name tended the School’s particularly during the fi-
more skilled pro- it Tata Hall. Advanced Manage- nancial crisis.
fessionals like creative an- Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata ment Program — one Ratan Tata Earlier last month,
imators, conceptualizer, Group, made the gift on behalf of the of three comprehen- Anand Mahindra, Head of
visualizer, 3D modellers, char- Tata Companies, the Sir Dorabji Tata sive leadership pro- the Mahindra Group too
acter designer and digital effect Trust, and the Tata Education and De- grams offered by HBS Executive gave the school $10 million. He had
artists to handle multimedia soft- velopment Trust, the philanthropic en- Education — in 1975. He received the taken graduate and postgraduate de-
courses. ware like 3D studio Max, Maya tities of the Tata Group. This $50 School’s highest honor, the Alumni grees there.
By recog- and Tictactoon. The chamber also
nizing ani- expressed concerns that the growth
m a t i o n might be restricted due to the short-
courses, students age of manpower and specialized
and youths will training institutes, lack of govern-
conveniently get ment funding, hi-tech studios and tax
the bank loans incentives.
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in in

T
M&A on High-Tide in Indian Healthcare IT Spending to Reach $ 609.5 Million by 2013

M
India With Deals
Worth $44.2 Billion
ergers and acquisitions
(M&A) deal value in India
has reached a record high of
$44.2 billion so far this year According
to a report by mergermarket, an M&A
intelligence service provider, M&A ac-
tivities in India generally saw signifi-
cant improvement in the past three
quarters with 183 deals worth $44.2 bil-
lion announced, the increase was 24.5
percent in volume terms and 312.9 per-
cent in terms of deal value. “We expect
to see a lot more strategic activity in
India as private equity players shy away
from the sky-high valuations being de-
manded by shareholders,” said Anjali
Naik, Deputy Editor - APAC, merger-
market. She also added that the con-
sumer, travel and hospitality sector may
see a large number of M&A deals and
India
may trade into
newer territories
in the coming
months.
The Government’s auction of 3G
and broadband wireless access (BWA)
spectrums worth $11.009 billion and
$5.473 billion, respectively contributed
significantly to the deal tally. A sector
wise analysis shows that the technol-
ogy, media and telecom sectors lead the
market with 47.3 percent of the total
M&A deal value till date, while, the en-
ergy, mining and utilities sector, came
second with 26.3 percent
in deal value for the first
three quarters of 2010,
the report
said.
According to the report,
Rothschild decorated the top
spot on the financial advisors
league table in the first three
quarters of 2010, as it advised on M&A
transactions with a total value of $27.4
billion, while, Ernst & Young topped
the deal count financial advisers table
by advising on 18 deals. Some of the
announced deals so far this year include
the $10.7-million Bharti-Zain deal,
Vedanta’s 60 percent stake buy in Cairn
India worth $9.1 million, the $3.7-mil-
lion Abbott Laboratories-Piramal
Healthcare deal.
he ‘IT in the Healthcare In-
dustry - Emerging Trends and
Market Opportunities in
India’ report from Springboard Re-
search shows that the Indian health-
care IT spending is to grow from $
274.2 million in 2009 to $ 609.5 mil-
lion in 2013. “The spending on basic
computing products is expected to
increase over the next five years, as
hospitals build and upgrade their IT
infrastructure”, noted Tulika Sheel,
Analyst, Vertical Industries at
Springboard Research. “Moreover,
with new and upcoming applications
such as telemedicine and e-prescrip-
tions penetrating the healthcare ver-
tical in India, IT investments on
software would further increase with
a focus on integrated billing and on-
line availability of patient records
across hospitals”, she added.
According to the report, 23 per-
cent of the healthcare respondents
who currently use or plan to use
Cloud Computing cited “reduced
hardware infrastructure costs” as
well as “simplified resource and
server provisioning” as the primary
reasons for adoption. At the same
time, factors that are delaying the
adoption of Cloud Computing in the
industry are high initial investment,
integration with existing systems
and lack of knowledge. The report
states that Healthcare Information
System (HIS) is the largest IT solu-
tion implemented in healthcare and
drives majority of the tier 1 private
enterprise investments, with major-
ity of respondents citing implement-
ing HIS.
Another 28 percent of respon-
dents stated Process Automation and
Business Alignment, and Integration
(within and outside of the organiza-
tion) to be their primary pain point,
overruling concerns over Novdata man-
27,2010 Pune
agement and storage. Dec “Vendors in
the healthcare vertical should look
04,2010 Delhi
to offer industry specific solution in-
cluding back-end and front-end ap-
plications and involve clinical
members to actively participate and
understand the solution and its im-
pact on the hospitals for better clin-
ical services,” said Nilotpal
Chakravarti, Research Manager,
Vertical Industries at Springboard
Research.

I
India 88th on 2010 Legatum Prosperity Index
ndia has been ranked as the 88th
country among the 110 countries
ranked in the 2010 Legatum Pros-
perity Index. The prosperity index is
The London-based Legatum Insti- steadily. This helped India to achieve
Business
tute that compiled the index had
ranked India at the 78th position in
its top spot in the sub-index by being
the 44th in Economy. India got ranked
Intelligence
Conference
their 2009 rankings; the country fifth from the bottom at 105th position
Nov 27, 2010 Pune

based on 89 variables over 110 coun- slipped 10 positions to its present in the Social Capital sub-index mak-
Jan 22, 2010 New Delhi

tries, grouped into eight sub-indexes, rank. Poor rankings in Social Capital ing this the country’s lowest sub- At the SiliconIndia BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE CONFERENCE, you will learn about the
and claims to comprehensively rank together with Health care, Entrepre- index rank. challenges, solutions and future of BI from top industry experts and leading-edge

the level of prosperity in 110 nations
of the world. “The Legatum Prosperity
Index is the world’s only global as-
neurship and opportunity, and Educa-
tional system constituted to this
collapse in rank. According to the
In the list lead by Norway and fol-
peers. There will be exciting technical sessions, delivered by the people who know BI TOPICS
• Emerging Trends and Technologies in the
lowed by Denmark (2), Finland (3),
best – the experts who design, build and support the products, the partners and
Business Intelligence Market
Australia (4) and New Zealand (5), the
consultants who specialize in deploying Business Intelligence solutions, and the
customers who use BI products each and every day. You'll experience a complete • BI Design and Implementation Challenges

sessment of wealth and well being. It index India’s inflation rate of 8.4 per- U.S. came at the 10th position while technical immersion, shared with a developer community that is passionate about all • Integrating Search and Business Intelligence

uses a holistic definition of prosperity,
which includes factors ranging from
economic growth to health and educa-
cent, which is around the global aver-
age, and a high gross domestic
savings rate of 34.3 percent indicates
UK came at 13. India’s close neighbor
China is ranked at 58th while Nepal
and Pakistan are 91st and 109th respec-
exciting developments in the business intelligence world. • Design approaches for real-time BI
• Best Practices for Data Warehousing
Also, there will be a special 'Customer Business Value' track, which will highlight • Building Interactive Dashboards
case studies from enterprises using BI products, sharing lessons learned in • Building a BI Solution Leveraging Analytical Reporting

tion, to personal freedom and gover- a relatively stable national economy, tively. The last country on the list and
deploying business intelligence applications in their organizations. Learn how • Creating and Defining Customized Analytical Functions

nance,” said Ashley Lenihan, Legatum
Institute’s Senior Fellow.
and the country, despite current low
standards of living, is growing
the only country that came after Pak-
leading companies use BI software to improve operations, reduce inefficiencies, • Analyzing Data with Advanced Visualizations
• Business Intelligence for the Mobile Workforce
istan was Zimbabwe (110).
and enhance business performance. Case Studies: Healthcare, Banking, Telecom,
Manufacturing, Insurance, Retail, Financial Services, Utilities (Power), Technology • Open-source BI tools
Sector, Media sector

|12|
Learn from the BI experts. Don't miss this unique opportunity. Limited Seats
The Smart Techie November 2010
Register Now at www.siliconindia.com/events
For speaking and sponsorship opportunities write to events@siliconindia.com or call 080-43402006
 Compiled By Hari Anil

SG GSC India Talent New mixed-signal devices

Scholarship from Lattice Semiconductor
Lattice Semiconductor launched its third-generation
mixed-signal devices, the Platform Manager family. Con-
sisting of two devices, the LPTM10-1247 and LPTM10-
12107, LPTM10-1247 device monitors 12 voltage rails
and supports 47 digital I/O, while the LPTM10-12107
monitors up to 12 voltage rails and supports 107 digital
I/O. It is expected to simplify board management design
significantly by integrating programmable analog and logic
to support many common functions, like power manage- Nokia Siemens Networks
ment, digital housekeeping and glue logic. By integrating
these support functions, Platform Manager devices can re- brings TD-LTE to India
National Instruments duce the cost of these functions compared to traditional ap-
proaches, improve system reliability and provide a high Nokia Siemens Networks, a global enabler of telecommu-
launches LabVIEW 2010 degree of design flexibility that minimizes the risk of cir- nications services, demonstrated the Time Division Duplex
cuit board re-spins. The product is available at commer- version of LTE (TD-LTE) using broadband wireless access
National Instruments, a developer of automated test cial and industrial temperature ranges. High volume of (BWA) spectrum in India. They demonstrated high-defini-
Sociètè Gènèrale Global Solution Centre (SG GSC), a
equipments and virtual instrumentation software, has LPTM10-1247 device in a 128-pin TQFP package is tion video streaming and three-way video conferencing. In-
subsidiary of the France based Sociètè Gènèrale Group,
launched LabVIEW 2010, a graphical programming en- priced at $3.75. teroperable TD-LTE dongles from Samsung were used to
as part of their CSR initiative has expressed interests in
vironment used to develop measurement, test, and con- achieve a peak throughput speed of 110 megabits per second
addressing the issue of employability skill gap. In an
trol systems. According to the company, LabVIEW (Mbps) and low latency in the range of 10-20 milliseconds.
attempt to nullify the employability skill gap in India Alcatel-Lucent sets up a
2010 with its new features, like off-the-shelf compiler The company’s Flexi Multiradio Base Station and Evolved
they have launched a unique scholarship program - ‘SG
technologies that execute code an average of 20 percent new RDC Bangalore Packet Core were the base of the end to end demonstration.
GSC India Talent Scholarship’, which promote pro-
faster, will reduce time. LabVIEW 2010 provides a new The first video call by Gurdeep Singh, chief operating
fessional education for students with financial con-
hardware configuration tool with which users can ac- Alcatel-Lucent has opened a new regional delivery officer of Aircel, was conducted with the 4G mobile tech-
straints. The scholarship includes the fee for the
cess and configure their LabVIEW Real-Time remotely center (RDC) in Bangalore providing services to nology running on commercial hardware at the Nokia
complete duration of the course; including tuition,
via a Web browser. With the new LabVIEW, engineers manage, operate and maintain multi-vendor fixed Siemens Networks’ Bangalore R&D facility. TD-LTE tech-
boarding and lodging.
and scientists can trace the implementation of test sys- and mobile telecommunications networks based in nology ensures high-speed mobile broadband connectivity
This academic year, SG GSC offered scholarships to
tem requirements to virtual instrument (VI) programs India or around the world. “Our new center houses and a superior performance from mobile applications across
11 students from Indian Institute of Management; Ban-
and monitor low-level details about the execution of sophisticated systems, equipment and personnel to a wide range of devices. “Our TD-LTE trials across the
galore, Indian Institute of Management; Kozhikode, and
critical VIs for quick application monitoring and de- manage our customers’ network operations so they globe prove our capability in driving rapid commercial TD-
International Institute of Information Technology; Ban-
bugging. can concentrate on their core business, while re- LTE network deployments aimed at facilitating a new wave
galore. SG GSC will also assign a mentor from their
According to Jayaram Pillai, Managing Director - ducing operating expenses and increasing network of advanced mobile broadband services.” says Juha Lap-
senior leadership team, who will maintain regular con-
India, Russia and Arabia, National Instruments “We quality.” says Vivek Mohan, President Services palainen, head of mobile broadband sales at Nokia Siemens
tact with the student, acting as a ‘friend, philosopher
aim to empower Indian engineers through user-defined, Business for Alcatel-Lucent. Networks.
and guide’, as well as monitor their progress.
software-based approach for developing test, control, The Bangalore center is staffed with more than 100 The company is working towards TD-LTE development
“India has tremendous intellectual capital which
and embedded applications and the India LabVIEW network operations specialists and is already providing and commercialization, is fully prepared and committed to
doesn’t surface in view of lack of the ability of the in-
Conference facilitate the exchange of information
Ashish Rajpal and round-the-clock services for more than 10 customers. support the LTE activities. To achieve this, the company is
dividual to afford exposure through good renowned In-
ideas about innovative advances in technology and our The company as a whole currently manages more than in talks with many operators globally. They are actively par-
dian Institutes. It is SG GSC’s attempt to make this
products,”. Presently National Instrument supports over 90 networks supporting more than 220 million sub- ticipating in tests and trials for both Frequency Division Du-
possible for few highly deserving students through fi-
130 SMEs in the country. “With the flexible pricing for scribers worldwide. Alcatel-Lucent’s major clients in- plex LTE (FD-LTE) and TD-LTE technologies, while
nancial assistance”, says Nippi Kochhar, CEO of So-
the Indian customers, the company aims to cater the clude service providers like Reliance Communication, working with telecom operators and device manufacturers to
ciètè Gènèrale Global Solution Centre.
growing SMEs in India.” says Pillai. AT&T, Vivacom, Bharti Airtel and BT Global Services. strengthen the network.

The Smart Techie

|14| November 2010 The Smart Techie
|15|
November 2010
 VC TALK By Hemant Taneja
The author is a Managing Director at General Catalyst

The Need of the Hour

Compiled by ST Team

Netmagic raises $16 Million in Series C Funding

N
who brought in the best local opera-
tional expertise. This combination al-
lows us to leverage on the best

Entrepreneurship in

U
Clean Energy
nlike traditional energy technology sector in the late 1990s.
and much like technol- The keys to unlocking this entrepre-
ogy, clean energy of- neurship opportunity are to under-
fers an opportunity for stand the unique demand drivers of
entrepreneurs to play a this sector, and to de-risk the chal-
significant role in contributing to the lenges by building a diverse team that
Indian economy. From a macroeco- has local operational expertise and
nomic standpoint, clean energy offers global technological leadership.
an opportunity for India to create The demand drivers for clean en-
manufacturing and infrastructure ergy in India are very different from
jobs, potentially many times more those in the U.S. The thrust comes
than the few lakh jobs created by the not from a need to stop climate
change, but primarily from a need to
build an energy secure future. The in-
vestment commission of India claims
an average supply demand gap of 9
percent and peak gap of 14 percent.
During a late monsoon season, much
like the most recent one, acute elec-
technologies from the west and com-
mercialize those in India. What we
have learnt is that indigenization of
technologies is important and India is a
great place for this. A lower cost sup-
ply chain gives anywhere between a
quarter and a third lower costs just off
the bat. The final ingredient to success
is a strong involvement in policy at the
state and federal levels. Just like the IT
revolution gave rise to Indian MNC
firms like Infosys, Wipro and TCS, we
hope the new initiatives in solar energy
will create global leaders in India.
The unique thing about clean en-
ergy is that businesses of different
scales can be created. Localized mi-
crogrids can be built with a few crores
of rupees whereas a 100 MW solar
plant can cost a few thousand crores.
We see many startups in India that aim
to work on varied problems like LED
lighting solutions, solar lanterns, solar
PV manufacturers, waste-to-energy
power producers, smart grid deploy-
ment, distributed generation and recy-
cled organics, etc. We also see huge
etmagic Solutions, a Managed
IT Hosting Service provider,
has raised close to $16 million
in Series C financial round lead by
Nokia Growth Partners and Cisco
Systems. Fidelity International and
Nexus Venture Partners who invested
in the company’s second round of
funding in 2008 also took part in this
round. The company will utilize this
investment to enhance its presence in
the data center market in India by
opening new centers and expanding
the existing ones. The funds will also
be used to increase investments in de-
veloping cloud computing technolo-
gies.
“We are delighted to have raised
fresh capital from Nokia Growth Part-
ners and Cisco, and their industry ex-
SOFTTEC
pertise and global experience will help
as we continue our growth in managed
hosting and cloud computing. Their
investment reinforces our industry and
technological leadership and the po-
tential for this market in India. We will
utilize this round of funding to in-
crease our datacenter footprint and in-
crease investment in R&D efforts for
our Cloud Computing platform,” said
Sharad Sanghi, Managing Director
and CEO, Netmagic Solutions.
Upal Basu from Nokia Growth
Partners said the venture firm is on a
lookout for leading technology com-
panies with significant potential for Sharad Sanghi
future growth and industry leader-
ship. Netmagic has this potential and which includes about $4 million from
hence the investment. Netmagic till their first round in 2000 and $13.5
date has raised about $17.6 million, million in 2008.

tricity shortages are present in those
parts of the country dependent on
hydro power. Ultra mega coal plants
and imported oil & gas cannot solve
all the problems. Recognizing this,
the central government has set a
2010 siliconindia
Nov 13, 2010 New Delhi
opportunities to build capital light
Nov 20, 2010 Pune
startups in energy efficiency services
and microgrids management. Energy
Dec 11, 2010 Mumbai
losses in India are among the highest
in the world and large parts of India are
still not grid connected. Water is an-
The testing community today, and test managers in particular, are facing a number of new problems such as Platinum Sponsor

20GW solar target by 2020 under the other interesting space that could pro-
increasing complexity, ever-increasing demands to reduce time-to-market & the need for testers to take on more

national solar mission.

varied roles in the organization. Keeping this in mind, SiliconIndia is organizing Software Testing Conference on
vide a windfall to entrepreneurs if
This is a must-attend event for testing professionals and leaders.

We, at General Catalyst Partners, played well at the right time.

anticipated this need in 2007 and Great teams create great compa-
TOPICS

started Sunborne Energy to build nies. Being trained in entrepreneurship

world-class solar power plants in
India. To make this venture work ef-
• An optimum approach to n-tier architectured application testing
• Building an Automation Framework around Open Source Technologies
in the U.S. gives one an inherent ad-
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• Cloud Testing: The future of software testing
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• Globalization testing- Getting your software World-ready
operational expertise to build a win-
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senior business executives in India

Hemant Taneja
ning team.
Learn from the Senior Testing Leaders. Don't miss this unique opportunity. Limited Seats

The Smart Techie

|16| November 2010
Register Now at http://www.siliconindia.com/events
For speaking and sponsorship opportunities write to events@siliconindia.com or call 080-43402006
COVER STORY

GLOPORE IMS
Strengthening
the Global IMS
Footprint By Vimali Swamy

A
Sitting (left to right): Vivek N. Joseph, Sunil P Rao, PS Ravindranath, Satish Kumar, Ashwini SKumar and Ananth Krishna
Standing (left to right): Pradeep Parameswaran, Sumithra Sen and Sunil Dutt

QUENT, a leading mar-
keting and creative
staffing agency, pro-
vides design and con-
tent management,
publishing and other creative services
to its global client base from its off-
shore studios located in India. Part of
its client acquisition process revolves
around demonstration of its IT Infra-
structure capabilities in terms of high
availability, network performance, se-
curity and business continuity. A
growing client base and increasing de-
mands meant that the company build
a further resilient IT Infrastructure that
could be managed round the clock
through out the year and could be
scaled with ease as the per growing
business needs and a decision to build
another studio in Bangalore was made.
But due to limited in-house ex-
pertise in infrastructure development
and management, the company de-
cided to selectively source the entire
planning, design and deployment of
the IT Infrastructure. Since ‘time to
market’ was a critical factor along with
key features like disaster management
and recovery program, network secu-
rity and data backup, the challenge
was to find an IMS partner that would
bridge the gap quickly by leveraging
its ITSM capabilities and map the
company’s growing IT Infrastructure
GLOPORE IMS At A Glance needs to the generic publishing indus-
The global IMS market is currently estimated
try. Despite a large number of IMS
to be $126 billion and NASSCOM report show
Founded: vendors in the market today, it chose
2006 GLOPORE IMS as its ITSM partner. that revenue from IMS will triple from its
CEO:
Conducting a quick but detailed
Satish Kumar
requirement analysis through exten-
current levels due to adoption of RIM, Cloud
Headquarters:
sive discussion with the company’s Computing and Shared Services.
Bangalore
management team, GLOPORE IMS
Other Offices:
advised them on how they could Incubated from IIMB-NSRCEL in medium and large companies world-
Boston (U.S.), UK
maximize their ROI through the dif- 2006, GLOPORE IMS is a Bangalore wide with the help of a wide network
Employees:
Over 350 ferent options available. Once the based fast growing globally focused IT of strategic partners. GLOPORE IMS
Customers: management zeroed in on the appro- Service and Infrastructure Manage- aims to be among the leading Indian
Over 80 priate option, GLOPORE IMS ment Services Company (ITSM/IMS) IMS company to set the benchmarking
Website: quickly and effectively deployed it Company. With offices in Boston standards for IT Service Management
www.gloporeims.com
and set up the infrastructure in the (U.S.) and UK, the company offers industry. GLOPORE IMS is already
new studio in no time. managed infrastructure services to recognized by many venture capital-

The Smart Techie

|18| November 2010 The Smart Techie
|19|
November 2010
ists as the best startup (in services sec-
tor), at Startup City SiliconIndia event
in 2009 & 2010!
Betting on the billion dollar market
Infrastructure management is a crit-
ical function where even minutes of
downtime can cripple a client’s busi-
ness. Still, due to the high level of
expertise, time and cost involved,
companies are ready to outsource
this to independent vendors to man-
global clients, GLOPORE IMS began
its business by offering services in the
What Do Clients Have To Say About GLOPORE IMS?
domestic market. “From the begin-
ning we knew that IMS was a market
(* + &, ,!'&+ (-, '*/ * 1 !& $(!& -+ ''+ , *! , '(
,!'&+ / + . *1 !%(* ++!. %-$,!($ +'$-,!'&+ (*'('+ 1, %* $ ,
that would grow not only globally but
, !* +,*'& -& *+, & !& ' '-* -+!& ++ + / $$ + , !* !$!,1 ,' +, $!+ also in India. We saw very early that
$ 0! $ & * +,*- ,-* , , '-$ + $ + ( * '-* *'/!& & + as companies across industries begin
!* ,'* ' ( * ,!'&+ '$-,!'&+ moving towards complete computer-
ization; India itself would become a
+ '& &, +,! "' '* -+ & , % + '&+-$, major consumer of these IT Infra-
structure Management Services. Thus
instead of exploring export opportu-
&, ,' ! &,! 1 * + ' !%(*'. % &, !& '-* '+,!& -+!& ++ 1 ! &,! ! ,

age it for them. The global IMS mar- nities, we decided to first focus on
-+!& ++ (*' $ %+ . *1 )-! #$1 & *'- , !& * , . $- !& '$$ '* ,!& /!, -+
GLOPORIANS @ Work
ket is currently estimated to be $126 India market and then go global,”
,' +, $!+ *' % ( '* !%(*'.!& , (*' ++ + , % % % *+

billion, presenting a huge opportu- says Dr. Rangan. Perhaps one of the The other part of the strategy is the and partnered with them as a pure play
* . *1 / $$ )- $! ! &', "-+, !& , *%+ ' '% !& #&'/$ -, $+' , -+!

nity. It is no surprise that every one, few companies who early on saw the conscious decision to remain a pure focus partner, where there is no trade
& ++ -% & 1 / &, & 0,* %!$ ,' &+-* , , / + -+!& ++ ( *,& *

from traditional IT services players, big domestic opportunity, GLOPORE play company. Today, in most IT serv- off to be made and they can comple-
* 0,* % $1 + ,!+ ! /!, , + *.! &'/ & , % /!, % &1 ', *

both big and small, to startups in IMS’s strategy worked in their favor. ices companies, IMS, though large, is ment their partners’ services to go to
!&!,! ,!. +

India are trying to grab a piece of It provided GLOPORE IMS with the one of the many services they offer for the market and scale up and grow.
-*'( $!+% '*('* ,!'&

this multi-billion dollar pie which is platform to quickly ramp up and ma-
currently dominated by the likes of ture its mix of ITSM service offerings
3 '- , ++' ! ,!'& /!, + & . *1 + '*, & $!%!, ,'

IBM, EDS and CSC. A recent
NASSCOM report shows that rev-
enue from IMS will triple from its
current levels as a result of the steep
growth seen in RIM, Cloud Comput-
ing and Shared Services.
But Satish Kumar, Founder, Chair-
man and CEO of GLOPORE IMS had
envisioned the growth opportunity in
IMS way back in 2005 when he was
working for a multinational company,
HQ in U.S. After deep discussions
with several industry experts, he re-
turned to India for good to found
GLOPORE IMS in 2006 along with
Ashwini SKumar and Dr. Srinivasa
Rangan, Co-Founders and Directors.
As a pure play IMS provider,
GLOPORE IMS helps companies in-
tegrate their business & IT strategy
with IT Operations through unique
mix of IT Service Management serv-
ices offerings including ITSM Trans-
formation – Assessment, Gap
Analysis, Roadmap, Implementation
Consulting & Training Services, Man-
aged IT Services, IT Infrastructure
Management Services and Remote IT
Infrastructure Management Services.
But unlike a traditional IT services
provider that works as an arms-length
,,!& ,* !& !& '-& ,!'& ,
'' $''# '*/ * ,' , #!& , !+ * $ ,!'&+ !( '*/ * ,' ', * * + + / $$ 4
! & *2
service provider, GLOPORE IMS be-
lieves in being more than just another
IMS provider. “We prefer to be the
mini McKinsey & Company of IMS
Industry,” says Kumar, referring to the
consultant – client relationship it
shares with its customers. By engag-
ing with the CXOs right from the re-
quirement tracking stage and
understanding the client’s end to end
current business status, end goals and
best approach to achieve them. GLO-
PORE IMS helps customers to focus
on their core business and achieve
their business objectives through IT
Service Management Excellence.
Using a selective sourcing model, it
enables companies to retain control
over strategic IT functions while they
selectively source multi-year Managed
IT Services from GLOPORE IMS
through well defined Service Level
Agreements (SLA) in alignment with
their business objectives. “While we
help our customers to improve the
quality of IT Services, we help them
transform their capital expenditures to
0( *! & -*!& , !+ *! +,!&, / + . *1
*.! + & ((-* % *'-( ' '%( &! +
operational expenditures, predict and
reduce total cost of ownership (TCO)
for IT Service Management on an on-
going basis. We help them achieve
faster growth by increasing their pro-
ductivity,” adds Kumar. This approach
has been a key reason behind the com-
pany’s ability to clinch large deals.
Today 350 plus people strong with 80
plus customers and many more in the
pipeline, GLOPORE IMS, amidst sev-
eral large players, is stealthily firming
its foothold in the global IMS scenario
with a three prong strategy.
The Three Step Business Model
Instead of following the rat race and
blindly entering the buzzing IMS
market and trying to succeed with a
trial and error method, Kumar and
team had a well thought strategy be-
fore starting company — be a pure
play IMS company focusing on In-
dian market through customer centric
alliances.
Unlike most services companies
that started with and continue to serve
and achieve the growth it has accom-
plished today.
One of its success stories in India
is with Educomp Solutions, a glob-
ally diversified education solutions
provider and country’s largest edu-
cation company. Winning a tough
competition against several well es-
tablished Tier 1, 2 and 3 companies
offering IMS, GLOPORE IMS
started its journey with Educomp
Solutions as its partner in South
India covering all the four states
(Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala
and Tamil Nadu). And within just
three months, it replaced Educomp’s
other IMS partner that had been in
the market for 20 years, to become
its partner in Central India as well.
“We accomplished this purely be-
cause of the team strength, our ITSM
capabilities and the know how in the
IMS space,” beams Kumar. Today
Educomp Solutions is one of GLO-
PORE IMS’s large customers and
the deal size itself is almost as big as
any international mid-size IMS deal
one can have, highlighting the well
thought strategy of using India as
lab, a maturity ladder and to build its
cost leadership.
With companies across industries moving
towards complete computerization, India itself
is becoming a major consumer of IT
infrastructure services.
their clients. This makes the ability to
work with partners very limited as at
some point the partners in IMS tend to
become competitors in another service
area, creating hard-to-manage compe-
tition-co-operation tension. IMS is an
offering that is replicated across differ-
ent businesses by various vendors. By
being a pure play IMS company, GLO-
PORE IMS focused on creating a de-
livery engine and extending it to the
ecosystem. “By ecosystem we mean
that if one of our customers is con-
sumer of other services like ADM or
BPO from another well established
firm, then we could extend our IMS ca-
pability to them as well, leveraging on
the existing relationship we have with
our customer and boost the ecosys-
tem,” explains Kumar. The company
today has forged strong relationships
with some of the top vendors of soft-
ware, hardware, SIs and other business
applications in different geographies
The final step to the strategy was to
expand its geographic presence
through strategic partners. Every com-
pany has a need for a wide range of
services and, most of the times, a single
firm may not be able to provide all of
it. This is how system integrators work;
they bring together the vendors and
providers of the services from multiple
areas to meet the customer’s require-
ment. GLOPORE IMS realized the po-
tential in a similar setup for IMS too.
“Since, most of our customers would
require other services apart from IMS,
we decided to look for partners who
could support us in providing end to
end service. This would be mutually
beneficial for all three — the customer,
the partner and us,” explains Kumar.
In the initial years, after having
built its capability that is today both
mature and capable, the company since
last year has been focusing on finding
partners across different geographies,

The Smart Techie

|20|
November 2010 The Smart Techie
|21|
November 2010
developing customer centric alliances.
With a strong partner ecosystem in
Africa, GLOPORE IMS successfully
took on the opportunity with one of the
largest telecom operators in the world
and be their delivery partners in 19
countries across the continent. “We are
helping our partner with their onsite
IMS strategy, pre-sales, transition man-
agement, building resources, skills,
tools & automation maturity and we
become their remote delivery engine
for entire Africa,” says Kumar. Simi-
larly, just last month it forged a part-
nership in Sri Lanka and Maldives with
a company that has been there for the
past three decades. The partner com-
pany has most of the leading compa-
nies across verticals like airlines and
banks in that region as its clients.
“With our partner in Sri Lanka, we will
extend our RIM and IMS offerings to
its clients. In Middle East too we are
forging a partnership with an estab-
lished company to take our IMS and
RIM services through them across
Middle East. In India we have a strong
partner in Chennai-based Sundaram
Infotech, through which we are trying
to make in roads into the BFSI and the
automotive sector. The times are in-
deed exciting!” says Kumar. Presence
across geographies through strong al-
liances with local partners is the reason
why GLOPORE IMS is able to have an
edge over other IMS vendors.
Creating a Value Chain
GLOPORE IMS today has positioned
itself in services market with a mix of
ITSM service offerings that help com-
panies benefit from better integration
of Business and IT strategies with their
organization’s operations along with a
strong value chain in terms of business
model, services and execution. A com-
bination of this has been instrumental
in company’s rocketing growth over
the last few years.
Despite all the above factors,
Kumar understands that the foundation
and the real strength of the company lie
The Smart Techie
|22|
November 2010
in its management and associates. The
underlying culture at GLOPORE IMS
is ‘entrepreneurial’ and Kumar ensures
that it does not get diluted as the com-
pany continues to grow. From a team
of 18 people, in 2006, GLOPORE IMS
today is 350 plus member strong and
hopes to grow tenfold to 3500 by end
of next financial year. With a strong
mentorship from project & COE heads,
the company sees to it that every pro-
fessional at the company is given
ample challenging opportunities and
global exposure to develop their capa-
bility and expertise to the full. All as-
By being a pure play IMS company, GLOPORE
IMS is focused on creating a delivery engine
and extending it to the ecosystem.
sociates are encouraged to be
entrepreneurial in thought and action.
“GLOPORE IMS is a team of
members who are part of a professional
family, eager to learn and grow to-
gether. We refer our associates as
‘GLOPORIANS’ and not as employ-
ees and by working together actively,
we seek to identify and bring out the
hidden capabilities in GLOPORIANS
to match our promised service deliv-
ery,” says Ashwini SKumar, Co-
Founder, Director and AVP - HR,
Finance & Accounting , GLOPORE
IMS, “Associates are allowed to make
decisions and get a chance to learn
from their mistakes and contribute to a
better working environment, inner sat-
isfaction and excellence through their
learning and growth within GLOPORE
IMS family.”
Since, the management plays a
critical role in shaping the company;
Kumar handpicks the people to join
leadership roles. “At the end of the
day, every associate at GLOPORE
IMS should be an ambassador of the
value that the company stands for,”
says Kumar.
The road ahead
Since its founding, GLOPORE IMS
has been enjoying a healthy streak
of growth but now with the expand-
ing global foot-print, the company
hopes to grow by 3-4 times year-on-
year and, in few years’ time, hopes
to either go public or forge bigger
alliances with a strategic investment
partner. “By 2011-12 we hope to be
the chosen IT Service Management
partner for 250 global customers
and be among the top 10 global IMS
companies by 2015,” envisions
Kumar.
At the same time, GLOPORE
IMS strongly believes in building a
healthy ecosystem. At the rate at
which the IMS space has grown in
the last three years, it is critical that
there is a pool of skilled resources
available in the years ahead, not only
for the company itself but for other
players in the space as well. To
achieve this, GLOPORE IMS has
been working with several tier 2 & 3
degree colleges to empower young
and dynamic graduates through its
“IMS Gurukul” programs to trans-
form them into professional IMS ex-
perts and create employment
opportunities for them.
At $126 billion the opportunities
in IMS space is ample and enough for
every player. With GLOPORE IMS
growing by leaps and bounds both in
terms of customer and partners, its vi-
sion of being one of the Top 10 IMS
Company does not seem too ambi-
tious. “Despite all the competition
and hunger for growth, the ultimate
idea for GLOPORE IMS is to be able
to co-exist amongst other large global
IMS vendors!” says Kumar.
 FEATURE By Binu Paul
I
India to Grab the Infrastructure
Management Services Market
ndian IT companies have realized
that infrastructure management
services (IMS) as the next big op-
portunity for business. India saw a
tremendous growth in the infra-
structure management space both in pri-
vate and public sectors. The government,
both the centre and state, is launching
many projects that needs IT infrastruc-
ture management at various levels.
Cloud computing and virtualization
created large areas of opportunities
for infrastructure management in
India. As the demand for infrastruc-
ture outsourcing is also coming from
the medium-sized firms globally apart
from the large ones, the size of business
opportunities widens further for the In-
dian players to grab a good bite of the
largely untapped market.
On the path to recovery, many
medium and large companies are in-
creasing their outsourcing projects to
reduce the cost and to focus on their
core areas. This makes the infra-
structure management services in-
dustry to grow in an unprecedented
way, which opens a large spectrum of
business opportunities to the leading off-
shore locations like India. The Indian
vendors account for a market size of $1.4
billion growing at a CAGR of 44 percent,
reveals a Zinnov study on infrastructure
management services. The current global
market size of IMS is estimated to be
$370 billion and is expected to grow at a
CAGR of 4 percent over the next four
years. It also states that the current IMS
spend is expected to be around 12 per-
cent to 20 percent of the total IT budget
of the companies, which will certainly
rise in the coming years. Almost 40 per-
cent of the global IMS market is out-
sourced, which is around $150 billion.
|24|
The Smart Techie November 2010
Fast adoption of virtualization, cloud
computing and automation by Indian
firms gets them an edge over their com-
petitors to pocket major IMS projects.
The enormous amount of investments in
IT infrastructure and the present IT envi-
ronment makes India a top contender for
large IMS projects across the globe. The
avail-
ability of
large number of skilled
professionals gives an upper hand for
India to be preferred as the best offshore
destination for infrastructure manage-
ment.
Globally EDS, T-Systems, IBM and
Hewlett-Packard are considered to be the
top vendors of infrastructure manage-
ment services while many Indian com-
panies like Wipro, HCL, Microland, TCS
and Infosys are also the prominent play-
ers in the IMS market.
Banking Financial Services Insur-
ance (BFSI) is the major contributor to
the IMS industry in India. Nearly 43 per-
cent of the $1.4 billion IMS market
comes from BFSI in India. Many multi-
national banking giants such as RBS,
HSBC and Standard Chartered have
started their operations in India to man-
age their IM services. Telecom services
are the second largest contributor to the
infrastructure management services in
Name Founded CEO Descrip on
India.
The Indian IT industry have already
Offers highly automated technology, intelligent analysis and process
identified business services management Appnomic Systems
methods to large and mid-size companies. With a unique delivery
solutions, threat management solutions, Bangalore 2006 D . Pa d m a n a b h a n
model, it enables companies to be more efficient and enhance pro-
applications management solutions, appnomic.com
duc-vity by over thirty percent.
systems management solutions and
network management solutions as Ctrl S A Cer-fied Tier IV datacenter which specializing in custom-built IT In-
the emerging infrastructure man- Bangalore 2007 P. S r i d h a r R e d d y frastructure and Services, Co-loca-on Services, Managed Services,
agement solutions which they ctrls.in and Disaster Recovery & Business Con-nuity Planning Services.
should be focusing on. The smart
Futuresoft Solutions Specializes in all areas of IT, ranging from Managed Services, Strategic
players have started to focus their in-
New Delhi 1988 Vi p u l D u t t a Outsourcing, Business Solu-ons, Cloud Compu-ng, Infrastructure
frastructure management with a busi- futuresoftsolutions.com Set up & Op-miza-on and Product Retail.
ness services aspect rather than a purely
technology-centric view. Glodyne Technoserve Provides technology led business solu-ons across two SBU’s; Tech-
Remote infrastructure manage- Mumbai 1997 A nnan d S ar naai k nology Infrastructure Management Services (Technology IMS) and
ment (RIM), which is the way of re- glodynetechnoserve.in Applica-on Soware Services
mote monitoring and managing the
Offers niche ITSM \ ITIL \ COBIT best prac-ces based Consul-ng,
infrastructure components of an Glopore IMS Training and Managed IT Services. A pure play IMS company it caters
organization, has got much mo- Bangalore 2006 Sat i s h K um ar to maedium and large players in ver-cals including Telecom, Bank-
mentum of late. India has been a gloporeims.com ing, Insurance, ITES-BPO, Hospitality, Retail, Financial Services,
significant beneficiary of this shift. Healthcare, Educa-on, and Manufacturing.
The challenge is to manage diverse Infinite Computer
technology infrastructure and manage Solutions
A provider of IMS, Intellectual Property (IP) Leveraged Solu-ons and
multiple vendors. Concerns over security 1999 Up i n d e r Z u t sh i Applica-on Management Services with focus on Telecom, Media,
Bangalore
Manufacturing, Energy & U-li-es & Healthcare industries.
and data privacy also need to be ad- infinite.com
dressed. inTarvo Technologies A provider of Integrated Lifecycle Management (ILM) support serv-
According to a Nasscom report, up Noida 1995 P ra v in J a i n ices for Technology Products for Original Equipment Manufacturers,
to 75 percent of all infrastructure man- intarvo.com EMS Companies, Distributors, Large Corpora-on and Retail Chains.
agement roles could be outsourced glob-
ally, which would create a $26 billion to An IT Solu-ons provider whose core focus is to provide Remote In-
Maintec Technologies
frastructure Management (RIM), Remote Data Center Management
$28 billion revenue potential by 2013. It Bangalore 1998 C. S. G u p t a
and Applica-on Development / Maintenance services on IBM Main-
also states that the Indian companies maintec.com
frame Pla,orms.
could capture approximately 50 percent
of this revenue. With remote infrastruc- Netmagic Solutions
A IT Hos-ng Service Provider, specializing in Internet Data Center &
ture management gaining ground and in- Managed Hos-ng, Infrastructure Management, Managed Security,
Mumbai 1998 Sha r ad S ang hi
Cloud Compu-ng, Applica-on Hos-ng, Messaging & Collabora-on,
creasing cost-saving efforts by netmagicsolutions.com
Disaster Recovery & Availability and Professional Services.
outsourcing, infrastructure management
service seems to be the next big business Silver Touch
boom for the Indian IT industry. Technologies
1992 Vi p u l T h a k k a r
A provider of provide IT Infrastructure Solu-ons, System Integra-on,
Ahmedabad Network/Server Management services across India
silvertouch.com

I
D Padmanabhan
n an online business, profit lies
in great user experience and
performance of the online app.
When millions of people
flocked to one of India’s lead-
ing travel portal for their online travel
booking, the company realized the
difficulties in monitoring and manag-
ing the performance levels of the ap-
plications, which comprise of their
five business critical online booking
applications having about 26 types of
transactions. The biggest challenge
was to get real-time information on
the performance of the critical rev-
enue producing transactions. Added
on to it was the dearth of internal re-
sources who could monitor it n real-
time. The company talked NVP
funded Appnomic who specialize in
automating application and infra-
structure performance management.
Witnessing the intricacy of travel
portal’s applications, the Appnomic
team configured its AIPM tool to
monitor and analyze the performance
in a non-invasive model, whereby the
online portal’s management & opera-
tions teams were empowered with ac-
cess to real-time transaction
performance dashboard views. “We
integrate our tools in our service de-
livery to automate 60 percent of IT
operations, and also reduce the time
spent on fault isolation by 25 percent
for performance issues on critical IT
applications,” says D Padmanabhan
The Smart Techie
|26|
November 2010
Appnomic
Automated Infrastructure
Management
By ST Team
(Paddy), the MD and CEO of App-
nomic.
The growing separation of physi-
cal and logical layers in IT infra-
structure is bringing to the forefront
automation of IT operations, inte-
grated performance monitoring and
remote based delivery services. This
approach of remote service delivery
coupled with automation not only
provides increased cost reduction but
also reduced cycle times or errors and
less dependence on people resources
for routine IT operations tasks.
The Appnomic Service Automa-
tion Platform (ASAP) with its process
flow management which includes run
book automation, SOP document
management and action execution on
third party systems can automate all
routine IT operations functions for an
enterprise. Its reporting module pro-
vides both high level SLA reports and
detailed task level reports to measure
efficiency.
The past three years economic en-
vironment in the western market has
discouraged investment and adoption
of new technologies by enterprises.
However, now with the emergence
and adoption of cloud infrastructure
and willingness of companies to
adopt innovative IT management ap-
proach has gradually increased their
spending in the sector. With the
change in the attitude, Appnomic,
with its unique proposition of au-
tomation based Infrastructure Man-
agement is poised to gain substantial
revenue increase. The company has
an innovations group, as opposed to a
typical software development team,
and practices new methods across all
functions of the company whether its
delivering patentable technology or
service delivery using new processes
to serve the dynamic customer needs.
While the concept of “Simplify-
ing and Automating IT Manage-
ments” sounds exciting and
lucrative, delivery and management
of such a promise needs depth
across the three dimensions of
process, people and technology.
Appnomic has invested and contin-
ues to build on these facets and that
has helped them in gaining promi-
nent client s like, Cypress, Ramco,
Everest Bank, Yatra and Rediff. “We
have helped our clients identify
areas of concern, optimize and
transform their end to end IT infra-
structure. We have reduced their
cost of IT operations while adding
significant value to the quality of
service delivery to their internal &
external customers,” maintains the
CEO. Today, after four years of
being in the industry the company
envisions expanding its technologi-
cal capabilities and service delivery
to cover more geographies and also
attain a better position for managing
cloud based IT infrastructure.
Infinite
I
Concentrating More on IMS
By Hari Anil
nfrastructure management is a
critical function where even min-
utes of downtime can cripple a
client’s business and this makes
most global companies unwilling
to hand over control of their networks
to offshore companies. Infinite Com-
puter Solutions, founded by Sanjay
Govil in 1999, with its onshore and off-
shore business model, is fully prepared
to seize this opportunity. The company
which started with AMS as its offering
is now focusing more on IMS business,
trying to make the most of the massive
$126 billion global IMS market, cur-
rently dominated by the likes of IBM,
EDS and CSC. A recent Nasscom report
shows that revenue from IMS will triple
from its current levels as a result of the
steep growth seen in RIM, Cloud Com-
puting and Shared Services.
“By 2014, we hope to achieve one
third of the company’s revenue through
IMS services.” says Upinder Zutshi,
Managing Director, Infinite, who sees
the company’s IMS services gaining a
steady momentum. The IMS offerings
in the company revolve around its ex-
pertise in remote infrastructure and net-
work management, enhancing data
center and IT security services, produc-
tion support and End User Computing
Services. Its focus is towards building
capabilities that enable it to offer end-
to-end IMS as a Managed Service Of-
fering and this has led it to make
investments to build capabilities; both
in Infrastructure and in people.
The Build Operate Transfer
(BOT)/BOM model that the company
uses helps its customers to leverage on the company has faced three major chal-
its infrastructure, technology, people lenges; foremost being the limited ex-
and process to save huge investments. pertise in the Indian market, the
This model works very efficiently, es- financial slowdown across the U.S. and
pecially for its customers, as they can the Europe, and its focus towards build-
focus on their business functions and ing a capability to offer managed IMS
leave the technology to Infinite. Further, services and the early decision it took to
the company’s approach has been to invest in capabilities that would enable
partner with customers to ensure their it to manage client infrastructure end-to-
success with accountability for their IT. end. The company has managed to suc-
This approach helped in developing In- cessfully address all these challenges
finite’s capabilities in the IMS space. over time. This has been done by suc-
The major competition in the IMS cessfully retaining and up-skilling ex-
space comes from large MNE’s which isting talent to overcome the limited
have mostly adopted the approach of expertise available in Indian market. By
taking over the customer’s IT assets. providing clients with IT services that
Small and medium Indian firms cannot helped them to have substantial savings
adopt this approach as on their IT, the company assured its
they lack the size and ca- clients who were nervous about an un-
pabilities required for it, certain future. Infinite’s early decision
so Indian companies to invest in capabilities that enabled it to
focus on providing re- manage client infrastructure has paid
mote support. Infinite, off, providing it with experience in
with its expertise and this space to effectively com-
infrastructure that pete with its global counter-
enables provision parts.
of managed serv- Infinite believes in a
ices, has built collaborative approach
competency to with customers, partners,
compete in this shareholders and em-
space. The com- ployees. Its current
pany differenti- focus is on further de-
ates well with velopment of its IMS
not just the capa- services offering as a
bility, but under- One Stop Solution,
standing of strengthening relation-
customer strat- ships with customers
egy or vision and partners and making
In the them the first choice for
IMS space Upinder Zutshi customers in IMS space.
The Smart Techie
|27|
November 2010
C
ompanies which used to
keep IMS services in-
house due to data sensi-
tivity issues are now
increasingly outsourcing
their IMS activities to reduce cost and
focus on their core areas. About 40
percent of companies are now out-
sourcing their IMS services and a
growing interest of the same is now
seen in Indian companies too. Be-
cause of the availability of highly
skilled labour, India has gained
ground across the world in IT soft-
ware side; the next logical movement
could be in IT hardware and IMS
space. With digital convergence and
multi-brand scenario more and more
of IMS activities will be outsourced to
third Party Service Partner’s where
the vendors who have skill set for all
the above fields will be clear a win-
ner.
inTarvo Technologies, founded in
1995, with offices in all the major In-
dian cities and service centers in more
than 200 cities, is one of India’s
largest service provider of Integrated
Lifecycle Management (ILM) for
technology products. It leverages on
its relationships with the fortune 500
companies in IT, CE, Electronic Se-
curity and Telecommunications fields
to ensure seamless IMS services to its
customers. According to the company
its ILM expertise can act as a differ-
entiating factor for them in the IMS
space. The company promises to take
care of the customer requirements
end-to-end so that their IMS customer
gets seamless service beyond IMS
into a complete lifecycle support. This
goes from supporting diverse elec-
tronic devices for onsite as well as
backend support, integrating solutions
in IT, CE, electronic security and
The Smart Techie
|28|
November 2010
inTarvo
Bringing Complete Lifecycle
Support to IMS Space
By Hari Anil
telecommunication into complex so-
lutions like BMS (Building Manage-
ment Systems) which integrate these
on single platform. And with presence
across multiple cities means the com-
pany is also uniquely positioned to
support large multi-city facilities.
When it comes to competition the
company again considers this country
wide network as its advantage. Ac-
cording to inTarvo most of the IMS
companies across the country are at a
regional level or at best with support
offices in only the main cities and as it
has a country wide office network
which comprises of more than 400 of-
fices it enjoys a unique position. By
focusing on quality processes, people
and continuous skills enhancement
the company has managed to retain
most of its vendors for the past 15
years.
Like most of the companies in the
IT space one of the main challenges
that inTarvo faced was the challenge
of retaining skilled manpower. The
company considers itself to be a cra-
dle for skilled technical manpower in
Sudheer Puthhiran K
IT, CE, Electronic security and Tele-
com industries. It has started training
institutes under the brand name of
iStep. “People continue to be the key
element of inTarvo’s success; em-
ployee retention is thus our focus.
Host of programs are organized to
boost the employee morale like an
annual festival Aagaman and Little
champ. With unique recruitment
process of ‘Ek ka Dus’, an internal
references program, we have also in-
creased the employee retention.” says
Sudheer Puthhiran K, President,
Field Services, inTarvo.
After recent slowdown in the IT
spending, especially in the corporate
segment, the company has plans to
enter into value added services. In
the coming financial year inTarvo
plans to pursue the automation busi-
ness, e-waste management, global
repair centre, installation and repair
of high-end switches, medical elec-
tronics, networking and storage sys-
tems. The company also plans to
reach more than 1000 cities in the
next 18 months.
Maintec Technologies
I
India’s Emerging IMS Company
By ST Team
n 1998, outsourcing was re-
stricted to Y2K remediation and
Off-shoring was still in its nas-
cent stage with body-shopping
being more prevalent. Compa-
nies had not yet gained the confidence
to outsource critical Infrastructure Man-
agement Services (IMS) and mostly
kept it in-house or outsourced it to near-
shore sites. Amidst this insignificant
scene C. S. (Sonny) Gupta witnessed a
bright IMS future and thus founded
Maintec Technologies. The company
began servicing clients with a focus on
providing IBM Training and Y2K re-
mediation services on Mainframe plat-
forms. Over a period of time, Maintec
has emerged as an offshore outsourcing
destination. Twelve years after founding
Maintec, today Sonny modestly smiles
at his own accurate vision, when he sees
more number of critical processes being
offshored from across the globe.
In his bestseller “The World is Flat”
Thomas L Friedman has explained how
staff functions outsourced to India will
transform all forms of American
businesses. Maintec took the
clue and readily began to tight-
ship its Remote IT Staffing divi-
sion. “We thoroughly gauge the
technical expertise that the as-
signment needs and then take
into account the client’s or-
ganization’s culture and
working patterns before
we propose suitable can-
didates for projects.” says
the CEO. Maintec under-
stands that companies are
paying premium for
weekend and third shifts, which can be
significantly reduced. Maintec’s off-
shore IT resources function on a
24x7x365 basis ensuring clients com-
plete coverage for their Software De-
velopment & Maintenance and IT
Infrastructure needs. Maintec’s Hire,
Train and Deploy (HTD) program, a
turnkey, no-obligation solution for
clients, has to its credit of creating ex-
tremely niche skills which are not read-
ily available in the Indian market.
“Bridging the gap of Project require-
ments by enhancing skills has been the
key ingredient for success in the HTD”
says Naveen.V, Managing Director of
Maintec Technologies, India who
though its 100 percent subsidiary
ProED Training has had the distinction
of imparting training to over 600
Batches, 12,000 skilled Data Develop-
ers with 100 percent employment to its
alumni.
RIM as an industry can realize $26-
28 billion in revenue by 2013, with
India capturing as much as 50-55 per-
cent share of this. Maintec’s core
focus is to provide Remote Infra-
structure Management (RIM), Re-
mote Data Center
Management and Application
Development & Mainte-
nance services on IBM
Mainframe and
Midrange Platforms.
Though the competi-
tion is with biggies
like HCL, TCS, In-
fosys, Wipro, Cog-
nizant, Patni, Tech
Naveen.V Mahindra, IBM, HP
Sonny Gupta
and Accenture, Maintec has been able
to maintain its edge through the Global
Delivery Center that consists of com-
plete z/OS, AS/400 (iSeries) and AIX
Infrastructure. They have in-house Data
Center in Bangalore with an ES/9000
Mainframe staffed with a full fledged
and System Team. This platform has
been upgraded to the latest z Series
Mainframes. Maintec can provide
clients with fully managed z/OS, z/VM
and zLinux Environments with flexible
delivery models – Onsite at client’s
premises or Remotely at Maintec Data
Center.
A huge opportunity lies ahead for
Maintec in the RIM market which is
touted to be the next big offshore
prospect for India after application de-
velopment and maintenance (ADM)
and BPO. Maintec has been aggres-
sively creating awareness among CIO’s
of fortune companies about the effective
business values they get post the slow-
down era, by developing strategic asso-
ciations with a well-rooted offshore IT
solutions provider specialized in the
RIM domain.
Internally at Maintec, each em-
ployee is given an opportunity to be in-
dependent with focus for on-going
learning both at a personal and profes-
sional level. The entrepreneurial spirit
runs deep at all levels of the organiza-
tion. The company’s goal for 2011 is ex-
pansion of the RIM service offering to
UK and European markets apart from
the existing US geography.
The Smart Techie
|29|
November 2010
 COMPANY SPOTLIGHT
The
Gourmet
IT Services Provider
M
ajor League Baseball
(MLB), the highest
level of professional
baseball in the US
and Canada, has 30
clubs in the league. Every month the
central commission brings out a finan-
cial audit wherein the clubs need to re-
port the revenue gained from all sources
right from ticket sales to the sales of food
and beverages during the matches to that
from advertisements and media broad-
casting.
Though there were several ERP and
financial applications available in the
market from large software vendors,
there was none that suited and under-
stood the tasks required by MLB. The fi-
nancial application had to be built from
the scratch. Despite a myriad of large IT
services companies in the industry, today
there are only few who provide custom
application development. MLB ap-
The Smart Techie
|30| November 2010
By Vimali Swamy
Bala Chandra, CEO
Vernalis Systems
proached Vernalis Systems, a small IT
services company based in New York.
Understanding the criticality of the proj-
ect the company, in a very short time,
built the solution. Today, post the suc-
cessful application development work,
MLB has become one of its major cus-
tomers. The history of the company is
filled with a lot of such success stories.
Founded in 1999, Vernalis Systems
is a pure play IT services company, spe-
cializing in critical custom applications
development across the Web and mo-
bile. Today, a decade since its humble
beginnings, the company has created a
strong footprint as a gourmet IT services
provider along with additional service
lines of engineering and media. They
count several large players across areas
like healthcare, energy, sports and enter-
tainment, private equity, workspace
technologies, marketing services, emer-
gency preparedness response, travel,
banking, compliance, and manufactur-
ing as their customers.
The Birth of the Company
Vernalis Systems was founded by indi-
viduals with immense experience in var-
ious aspects of IT by having worked in
some of the major organizations around
the world. The team of professionals
leading the company is composed of ex-
perts in their respective fields, having the
breadth and depth of experience that
spans across a wide technical spectrum
and subject matter expertise.
From day one, the core philosophy
of the company was to build sustainable
systems and not body shop like other
large IT players. While in the initial
years the company started as a consult-
ing firm, it soon re-positioned it self as a
critical IT services provider. From serv-
icing a few large niche clients in New
York and surrounding areas the com-
pany slowly broadened its customer
base and today it has a grip on several
key markets including US, Europe, and
India in the areas of Technology, Engi-
neering, and Media.
The company in 2003 set up their
India operation, which serves as the de-
velopment center. “From a customer
point of view, we specialize in critical
applications. Most of the applications we
develop are not cookie cutter kind. There
is a grave challenge when it comes to
just maintaining the resource and tech-
nical competency as the development
work happens across different platforms
like iPad, Android, and traditional Web
application simultaneously,” explains
Bala Chandra, CEO, Vernalis Systems.
This is where the company’s specialty
lies in. “We do not aspire to become a
large scale IT company but rather a spe-
cialty gourmet provider,” he adds.
Small is Beautiful
In an age where every one is aiming at
grabbing a large market share and rak-
ing in big ‘moola’ by stepping into every
possible area of IT services, Vernalis
Systems believes in standing apart by of-
fering specialized critical custom appli-
cation development.
In custom applications development,
the challenge starts right from the re-
quirement tracking stage. Since the re-
quirements continue to evolve,
developing an application around it is
like ‘trying to shoot a moving target’.
Since this kind of work requires in-depth
technological expertise, one of the
biggest challenges for the company has
been getting the right people. “It is pre-
cisely the reason we chose value and not
volume in terms of resources. We want
to be the SWAT team, where failure is
not an option,” says Chandra. Today, 11
years since inception, Vernalis Systems
is 120 people strong and only aims to
scale up to 300 in the coming years.
The Three Pillars of Business
But where it lacks in resource strength, it
makes up with the varied technology ex-
pertise it brings to the customers. Its
three service areas are technology, engi-
neering, and media. A technology neu-
tral company, it broadly classifies the IT
business into three segments - traditional
software development, mobile, and busi-
ness intelligence. Since the spectrum of
traditional software is very wide, the
company takes up projects only where a
packaged solution does not fit a cus-
tomer’s requirement. For example, the
company is currently developing a bio-
metric system for a client in Dominican
Republic. Since there is no pre-devel-
oped or packaged software or prototype
available for their specific requirements,
Vernalis Systems has a team deployed
that is working with the client and un-
derstanding the project specs and re-
quirements. Today, the International
Player Acquisition System (IPAS), a
biometric system, is under development
and soon would be ready for realtime
application.
“Software development is a human
job and errors are inevitable. Being
open in communication from the
beginning helps forge a credible
relationship with the customers and
bridge the gaps”
Mobile is another area where the
company has a strong foothold, as it
constitutes about 30 percent of the busi-
ness. “We started mobile development
back in the days of PALM and over the
years we have done numerous projects
on Symbian and Blackberry and today
on iPhone and Android,” says Chandra.
Now it has even moved over to devel-
oping apps on iPad. Most of the projects
in this segment essentially involve de-
veloping key features of certain enter-
prise applications as an extension on any
mobile platform.
Now with the iPhone and Android
slowly displacing Blackberry within en-
terprises, the company too has begun to
explore opportunities in this arena. One
of the recent applications it has built on
iPhone is ‘WeCab’, a cab sharing appli-
cation for US markets that is currently
productized for New York. Quiet satis-
fied with the product, the customer now
plans to extend it to other geographies as
well.
For Vernalis Systems, it is all about
staying in tune with the trends in the in-
dustry. Within just a few months of the
launch of iPad, the company is already
geared up with an interactive learning
application for it. Chandra and team
have developed an interactive activity
book, a story book with pictures, where
the story line changes depending on the
activity chosen.
Business intelligence is the third part
of the company’s business and consti-
tutes about 20 percent of the revenue. It
soon plans to launch its flagship BI
product ‘BACPAC’, which will co-exist
with building access control systems and
provide tremendous value additions to
the organizations by leveraging the un-
tapped data potential and providing busi-
ness intelligence in helping the
organization in streamlining processes
like employee on-boarding and exiting,
workspace utilization, emergency re-
sponses, and more.
Engineering design is a separate
thread of service line of Vernalis Sys-
tems. Leveraging first class design facil-
ities, equipments, and software
knowledge this division has already
made a significant mark by providing
maximum design Balaefficiency
Chandra,inCEO
the areas
The Smart Techie
|31|
November 2010
of industrial machinery and automation.
Vernalis Systems boasts of a team of de-
sign engineers who are highly proficient
in the latest engineering design and
analysis tools. This team provides design
solutions for their clients in Germany in
the automobile and manufacturing sec-
tors in the areas of design adaptation, de-
sign optimization, finite element
analysis, and industrial animation for
clients like Blohm-Jung, Stuertz, Georg,
and more.
Media division of Vernalis Systems
completes the triangle of their services.
Ranging from designing and developing
marketing initiatives online, using rich
media technologies for compelling and
interactive brand experiences through
storyboarding, scripting, and character
creation, the company exploits digital
media for maximum gain.
Providing creative services to author
Marc Levy in France during his book
launch and building rich interactive pro-
motional Web presence, brand building
and promotion for real estate giants in
India, and a restaurant major in the US
are a few to mention about their creative
solutions.
Customer is King and Employees are
Assets
For Chandra, it was a conscious decision
to keep the company a relatively small
enterprise offering niche services. But in
an age of cut throat competition, where
its larger peers are striving hard to win
customers on the basis of human re-
source and other infrastructure capabili-
ties, Vernalis Systems treads a different
path. “For us, it is not the number of cus-
tomers that matter but rather the length
and depth of customer engagement. At
any given time we have 25 active proj-
ects that vary anywhere between three
months to 2 years,” says Chandra.
“Empathy” to customers is the un-
derlying culture within the company.
Unlike most vendors who act on the or-
ders of the customers, at Vernalis Sys-
tems, the idea is to involve with every
aspect of the project right from the be-
The Smart Techie
|32| November 2010
ginning. Instead of waiting for the cus-
tomer to provide specifications, the
company helps think them through the
requirement. Since the company has a
lateral experience in different industries,
it sits with the customer right from the
early requirement definition stage and
helps them think through the process.
Because of the strong technology back-
ground the company brings to the table,
it is also able to suggest the right tools
the customer can look at deploying in
order to lessen the cost and make the
process simpler. “The involvement in
client’s business is so deep that by the
time the project is completed, they treat
us like consultants rather than just de-
velopers. This is the big differentiator,”
believes Chandra.
“Due to the lateral experience in different industries
the company helps customers right from the early
requirement definition stage and counsels about
right tools one can deploy to lessen the cost and
make the process simpler”
It is this, in combination with hon-
esty and transparency, that has worked
wonders for Vernalis Systems. Every
customer is made aware of the fact that
all the development work is being done
in its development center in Chennai.
Apart from the 110 engineers at Chen-
nai, the company has six project man-
agers in its US office and two in London
and Germany. These managers act as
both the cultural and business interfaces
of the company, thereby providing a
level of comfort to the customers. While
design and architecture are done from
Chennai, the managers onsite focus on
business analysis and project manage-
ment.
In order to keep the communication
clear between the company and its cus-
tomers, the company has developed an
internal Web based project management
tool - COLLABRIA. Since every project
is a custom application development, the
requirements keep pouring in time to
time, and hence everything about a proj-
ect is documented with in COL-
LABRIA. Since everyone from cus-
tomers, project managers, developers,
and technical architects have access to
it, one can monitor the progress at any
given time, thus cutting down the com-
munication and response time between
the company and the customer. “Soft-
ware development is a human job and
errors are inevitable. Thus we believe to
be open in our communication from the
beginning thereby forging a credible re-
lationship with the customers. Collabria
helps bridging the gap,” says Chandra.
The relationship that the company
has forged with its customers is so deep
that today most of the new projects come
only via customer reference. A testimo-
nial to this is reflected in their significant
client retention rate and the fact that they
have started or are in process of starting
joint ventures with several of their cus-
tomers. Not only have their customers
provided several credible leads that re-
sult in tangible projects, but Vernalis
Systems has also started technology cen-
tric joint ventures with their customers.
These joint ventures span various verti-
cals including healthcare services, phar-
maceutical, and social networking. Most
recently, they deployed a mobile appli-
cation: Connect5 with one of their long-
standing customers. Connect5 is a social
networking application that rivals
foursquare. Connect5 is a location-based
iPhone application that shows you what
a venue is like and how your friends are
doing in realtime.
In order to further enhance cus-
tomers’ trust in the company, it con-
stantly conducts audits to ensure the
standards are met. Clients are also in-
vited to the company’s premises annu-
ally in order to get a first hand
experience in the company’s work cul-
ture and ethics.
While customers are the utmost pri-
ority for the company, it is not unobser-
vant to the employees who are the real
assets. Even though the team is sepa-
rated geographically, the working cul-
ture melts the time zones and distances,
giving the global clients an experience
of working with one team.
JV Partners
Enablement
Technology
Team Team
Costs
Vernalis Systems Business Model
Every professional in Vernalis Sys-
tems is groomed to be proficient in mul-
tiple technologies, handling various
development methodologies, conversant
in working with global clients from di-
versified domains. With an appropriate
mentoring program in place, the man-
agement strives hard to groom the next
generation of leaders within the organi-
zation and inculcate in them the values it
stands for. Because of the nature of the
projects and the challenges the teams
face, the company believes that its pro-
fessionals are much more experienced
and industry savvy in comparison with
current industry standards.
“Our open and transparent way of
working means all our employees di-
rectly see and experience that their suc-
cess, their team’s success, the client’s
success and the organization’s success
are directly linked with each other;
which greatly fosters an exceptional
level of personal motivation and inspi-
ration, which is one of the key ingredi-
ents of our success,” says Chandra.
This transparency, along with their
core competencies, has served Vernalis
Systems well in breaking ground within
new cultures. It has developed a signifi-
cant presence in Germany. The German
market, a net exporter of services, is tra-
ditionally known for providing engi-
neering services as opposed to utilizing
them. Germans are also known for their
appreciation for dedication, commitment
and excellent execution. Through a
tremendous amount of ambitious mar-
Customer
Relationship
Value VS Business
Customer
Relationship
Proposition Segments
Team
Success Revenue
keting and salesmanship, coupled with
the company’s extensive portfolio of
success, they established a foothold in
both computer aided engineering design
and IT services.
The Road Ahead
Today, a decade since its humble begin-
ning, the company has been seeing con-
stant growth. With about a handful of
customer acquisition per year, it ensures
that the quality is not compromised to
quantity.
As the world gears up towards
taking the enterprise solutions, social
media applications, and end user so-
lutions to the mobile world heavily
supported by major players and plat-
forms, the company is making sure it
is in the right place to leverage on
this opportunity.
Vernalis Systems is today well po-
sitioned to play a very significant role
in providing mobile applications, busi-
ness intelligence, application support,
and engineering design combined with
media backed solutions for our global
customers. The company is also playing
a predominant role in building solutions
that pave way to green and environ-
mentally conscious corporate and end
user world. To provide additional band-
width for the increased clientele and to
further provide more services to the
clients, the company is currently work-
ing on setting up offices in the Middle
East and in the Asia Pacific regions.
Additionally, having garnered var-
ied business expertise, the company has
launched a venture capital fund to en-
courage budding entrepreneurs. Vernalis
Systems already has a stake in multiple
companies in the areas of logistics, in-
frastructure development, and talent
management. These entities together
employ over 1,000 people. “The idea is
to diversify and try applying the busi-
ness lessons learnt over the years, and
influence these businesses in a positive
way,” says Chandra.
The company actively promotes
community welfare and takes a unique
approach by providing a platform to
its staff members to contribute to the
different channels of social welfare or-
ganizations. Among several welfare
initiatives, it is notable that Vernalis
Systems has joined hands with Rang
De a non-profit micro financing or-
ganization. Many of its employees are
social investors through Rang De in
extending help to the needy. The com-
pany not only does social investment
but also contributes its time and effort
to Rang De.
Having closely worked with energy
conservation associations, Vernalis Sys-
tems also has become a well informed
energy consumer itself and promotes en-
ergy conservation and environment
friendly approach in all possible ways in
its daily life. The company actively pro-
motes greening solutions and provides
subsidized technology support to global
energy conservationists.
With the ideology of not falling
into the rat race and growing at one’s
own pace instead of the industry de-
mands, Vernalis Systems continues to
stand for a cause.
The Smart Techie
|33|
November 2010
 TECHNOLOGY
I
IndianTelecom Industry Sees A
Saturation Point Ahead?
ndia’s inspiration machine and
former President Dr. APJ Abdul
Kalam had shared his vision of
Indian tele-density reaching
over 75 percent well before the
year 2020. Keeping alive his expecta-
tions, the urban tele-density has
reached the 100 percent landmark and
the rural tele-density is slowly shoot-
ing up. The overall tele-density has in-
creased to 58.17 percent in July 2010.
Indian telecom industry is in a rapid
expansion phase with more operators
and subscribers adding up in a fast and
steady rhythm. Given the fact that
most of the providers offer free con-
nections, the subscriber base is shoot-
ing up each day. The competition
between the operators has intensified
to a state that they are actually com-
peting to slash prices.
The penetration of mobile connections
in India has been skyrocketing in the
last couple of years. A Gartner study
predicts that mobile connections in
India will cross 660 million, growing
at 27.3 percent in the current year. The
revenue from mobile services is ex-
pected to reach $19.8 billion by the
end of the year, up by 19.7 percent
from last year. The customer base has
increased tenfold from 46 million in
2001 to 470 million in 2010. The In-
dian mobile industry is expected to
score a double-digit growth rate till the
end of 2012 and the penetration of mo-
bile connections is projected to reach
The Smart Techie
|34| November 2010
By Binu Paul
72.5 percent by 2012 and 82 percent
by 2014.
Rural market is the center of focus
for the operators now. By introducing
more low-priced handsets, every
provider is trying to made inroads to
the villages and expand their reach to
the remote areas.
Bharti Airtel tops the list of tele-
com service providers in terms of rev-
enues with Rs. 38,800 crore. Although
saw a dip in its revenue for the second
consecutive year, BSNL still holds the
second spot with revenue of Rs.
30,240 crore. Vodafone becomes the
third largest player with revenue of Rs.
23,200 crore. Reliance Communica-
tions recorded revenue of Rs 22,130
crore coming at the fourth place. The
fifth place is held by Aditya Birla
Group’s Idea Cellular with revenue of
Rs. 11,390 crore.
The government has received a
whooping revenue of Rs. 67,719
from the 3G allocation earlier this
year. The private operators who have
spent large amounts on 3G bidding
are worried over its success in the
near future as generally only an 80-
90 percent penetration determines
success of a particular technology.
Many analysts believe that 2G will
still rule the roost for at least the next
two to three years and feel that only
10 percent of the population will mi-
grate to 3G any time sooner. Al-
though delayed for a few months,
most of them are planning to roll out
their 3G services by the year end.
Looking at the rapid growth of
Indian telecom sector, some foresee
a point of saturation at some time in
the distant future. Is there going to be
an opposite turn at which point the
industry will stabilize itself in terms
of pricing and offers? Should we fear
of a market collapse in telecom in-
dustry as a result of intensified com-
petition? If it happens ever, it will
only be the strongest players who
would survive.
TECHNOLOGY By Renjith VP
A
Cyber Attacks
Enterprises far from Equipped!
n operation Aurora loot-
ing intellectual property
from Google, Adobe
and Microsoft;
$1,109,790 stolen from
many firms at UK; Zeus Trojan packs
for personalized malware available at
$700 online; 92 percent of MNCs ex-
periencing a malicious security breach
at some time according to Pricewater-
house Coopers and the question —
‘Are enterprises prepared for new gen
cyber attacks?’
Gone are those days when cyber
attacks were an issue of unease only to
the government and military. In-
creased use of internet-enabled de-
vices in the workplace has paved way
for big time cyber attacks in enter-
prises by a better resourced and so-
phisticated breed of cyber criminals.
One of the main reasons why busi-
nesses have become more vulnera-
ble is the proliferation of new
technologies and the growing depend-
ence on IT. A research carried out by
Accenture showed that 73 percent of
organizations believe they have ade-
quate policies in place to protect sen-
sitive information, yet more than half
have lost sensitive data within the past
two years.
Alarms started off in mid-Decem-
ber, when Google detected a highly so-
phisticated and targeted attack on their
corporate infrastructure originating
from China that resulted in the theft of
intellectual property. Much to their
woes, it was not constrained to China
but went on to access Gmail accounts
based in U.S. and Europe. Infiltration for 42 percent of total attacks. Over the
happened through accounts of human past four months, an average of 130
activists in China but was identified to instances of malware were found
have aimed not just Google but twenty every day simply by searching for
other large companies from a wide content on popular, “trending” topics
range of businesses—including the In- via Twitter, Google, Yahoo! and Bing.
ternet, finance, technology, media According to the Secu-
and chemical sectors. rity Tracking Study
It was followed by a carried out by the
recent hacking of Ponemon Institute in
Ford Motor August this year, 83 per-
Credit Co.’s cent of multinational
computer companies believe they
database that have been the target of a
illustrates the cyber attack over the past
potential loss 12 months. A Cyber security
and devastation survey by Narus says more
present in than 71 percent of respon-
cyber-risk. En- dents are concerned that their
tering through a data- company is not equipped to
protect itself from cyber at-
tacks; approximately 88 per-
cent think the
government is not
base equipped to protect itself.
oper- The survey by Narus pro-
ated by poses a ‘cyber security ecosystem’
credit-reporting to tackle this issue. Realizing that one
agency Experian, hack- company cannot possibly offer tech-
ers downloaded the Social Security nology and services to cover the vast
numbers and addresses of 13,000 cus- needs among organizations, cyber se-
tomers. curity vendors must cooperate with
To add to the story, Cyber attacks each and form a “cyber security
are on a rampage with applications ecosystem” and to offer more value to
like Adobe Flash, PDF or Internet Ex- their customers. Improvement of
plorer frequently targeted by attackers. areas like security training, awareness
Adobe, which had to face the music and comprehension of threats by ex-
this time, saw a top web-based attack ecutive management and security au-
from April to June, related to mali- dits can also tackle cyber terrorism to
cious PDF activity, which accounted an extent.
The Smart Techie
|35|
November 2010
 TECHNOLOGY
Choosing the
CRM Solution
W
forYour
ith customer satis-
faction and cus-
tomer delight being
the cornerstone of
success in today’s
corporate world, Customer Relation-
ship Management (CRM) plays a vital
role in ensuring organizational effi-
ciency and success. From enhancing
relationships with existing customers,
identification of potential customers,
assessing customer needs, serving as a
sales and marketing enabler to ensur-
ing efficient dissemination of cus-
tomer information throughout an
organization, Customer Relationship
Management is an efficient business
strategy that uses technology to not
only organize and automate customer-
centric business processes but also
strengthen customer relationships and
offer increased customer value.
In today’s highly competent CRM
vendors market, choosing an ideal
CRM solution can be challenging. The
key to identifying the right CRM so-
lution lies in understanding how it will
address your overall corporate goals
and objectives. The first step in select-
ing an ideal CRM solution is to iden-
tify the specific CRM objectives to be
The Smart Techie
|36| November 2010
By Team Talisma
Business
a d -
dressed. How
can customer
relationships be
strengthened? Is
there a need for marketing, sales and
service activity automation? How can
customer service be improved? How
can operating costs be reduced? Is
there a unified source of customer in-
formation available to employees
across the organization? Identifying
these CRM objectives, linking them
with the overall corporate objectives
and ensuring active leadership in-
volvement from day one will deter-
mine how effective a CRM solution
can be to your business.
Perhaps the most important factor
to consider when choosing a CRM so-
lution is the level of functionality re-
quired. Does the solution offer
real-time updates of customer infor-
mation and feature detailed analysis,
tracking and forecasting capabilities?
Does it address the automation of each
module in the marketing, sales and
service lifecycles? What are the vari-
ous customer touch points or commu-
nication channels supported? Does the
solution offer a complete, unified view
of customer informa-
tion and interaction? These
are some of the key function-
ality considerations to be ob-
served.
Cost efficiency is another major
deciding factor while considering a
CRM solution. As in the case of any
investment, the ROI should justify the
investment. In today’s era of customer
experience, fostering customer rela-
tionships yields bigger returns. CRM
solutions enable considerable reduc-
tions in operating costs and contribute
to higher revenues. Conducting a cost-
benefit analysis plays a vital role in re-
alizing the need of a CRM solution.
Ascertaining if the CRM solution is to
be On-Premise or Hosted should also
be factored in while considering a
CRM solution. Data security consid-
erations should be given paramount
importance while deciding on an on-
premise or hosted solution. While
hosted solutions yield a faster return
on investment, on-promise solutions
ensures data security. Organizations
should, therefore, weigh out the bal-
ance between faster ROI versus secu-
rity considerations.
Is the CRM solution scalable to ac-
commodate future growth and evolve customization required and ensuring adoption. Ensuring the application
with growing business requirements? the CRM vendor can cater to these user interface is familiar to the user
As businesses grow, the need for CRM requirements is essential. A back- and highly user friendly is imperative
solutions to expand in a cost-efficient ground check on the CRM vendors’ to the efficient use of the CRM solu-
manner will be critical in ensuring the experience, client list and product tion. Does the solution offer easy
effectiveness of the CRM solution in maturity can be a rewarding exercise navigation and offer a unified, 360˚
the long run. Users that anticipate in deciding if they will be able to view of customer information by in-
growth should ensure CRM solutions cater to specific requirements. Does tegrating data from various chan-
are capable of being rapidly scalable the CRM solution feature localiza- nels? An easy-to-use solution that is
without disrupting existing systems tion support with local language op- self explanatory will ensure less staff
and IT infrastructure. tions and local support capabilities? training, lesser implementation
How soon can the CRM solution This is particularly useful when deal- costs, efficient user adoption and
be deployed? In today’s fast paced ing with international customers. faster ROI.
world, time is money and rapid de-
ployment time plays an important role Choosing an ideal CRM solution catered to specific business
in realizing faster ROI of a CRM so- requirements can make a world of difference to both
lution. While rapid deployment is 20es-
sential, it should not come at theHAL
November, 2010
costConvention Centre, Old Airport Road, Bangalore.
customer relationships and organizational profitability
of quality. An ideal CRM solution
should adhere to rapid deployment 10 am - Ease
4 pm of integration with existing Choosing an ideal CRM solution
schedules while ensuring quality and legacy systems is one of the key con- catered to specific business require-
catering to complexity and customiza- cerns when implementing a CRM so- ments can make a world of difference
tion requirements. lution. The ability to make upgrades not only to customer relationships
CRM solutions revolve around and enhancements to the existing IT but organizational profitability as
customer focus and customer cen- infrastructure without altering the ex- well. Clearly established expecta-
tricity. Customizing to cater to the isting IT infrastructure should be an- tions and objectives by both user and
demanding customer requirements is other parameter to be kept in mind vendor coupled with committed man-
of paramount importance in any in- while choosing a CRM solution. agement involvement and dedicated
dustry and more so in the CRM in- One of the key reasons that cause user adoption will seal the deal in re-
dustry. While seeking a CRM the unsuccessful utilization of a alizing a satisfying and rewarding
solution, determining the level of CRM solution is inadequate user CRM experience.
Senior Techie
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 TECHNOLOGY
The Author is Head - ADM, Quest Software
10
V
irtualization has
changed the world of
IT, as it provides signif-
icant cost savings and
business flexibility. It
also brings new and difficult chal-
lenges to application management,
making the traditional, physical per-
formance monitoring tools and ap-
proaches insufficient for the virtual
world.
Virtualization slows down re-
sources and may create conflicts at the
physical level that will impact appli-
cation performance. Other challenges
facing IT include monitoring the
health of the virtual machines, analyz-
ing data, alerting staff to problems,
and performing additional administra-
tive tasks. All of these issues require
both a new approach and new genera-
tion of solutions to ensure continuous
service delivery and support.
Virtualization facilitates increased
business continuity, disaster recovery,
flexibility, and agility; reduced down-
time and cost, operational efficiencies
in backup, high availability and stor-
age. Savings come from the consoli-
The Smart Techie
|38| November 2010
By Edgardo Salinas Contreras
BEST PRACTICES
fOR EffECTIVE APPLICATION
MANAGEMENT
IN A VIRTuAL ENVIRONMENT
dation of hardware, including mainte-
nance, hardware upgrades and addi-
tional application-driven hardware
purchases that no longer are necessary,
as well as elimination of multiple soft-
ware purchases for all the hardware.
Reduced man power and less power
consumption also means reduced util-
ity costs.
Many organizations don’t fully
reap the benefits of virtualization be-
cause their virtual infrastructures are
hindered not just by the challenges,
but also by poorly performing appli-
cations that don’t meet SLAs or end-
user needs. End users need to stay
productive and satisfied with the per-
formance of the system, so an effec-
tive application management plan
should, first and foremost, consider
their perspective and eliminate per-
formance issues that hinder their pro-
ductivity.
Good planning and a set of best
practices are the keys to a well-devel-
oped virtual environment that achieves
optimal performance, contains costs
and provides significant ROI to the or-
ganization, and ensures the virtualiza-
tion initiative effectively supports end-
user objectives and business-critical
applications.
To meet the operational challenges
of virtualization you need to have a
thorough understanding of your virtual
infrastructure, and manage the rela-
tionships and interactions between all
of the components in the environment.
To start with, thoroughly understand
the technological maturity of your or-
ganization. Does it have a low level of
maturity, with little monitoring, a
chaotic environment and frequent cus-
tomer complaints? Or, is it a highly
matured organization in which SLAs
are always met and customers are to-
tally happy.
An application performance man-
agement plan must be a continuous
improvement process that evolves as
the needs of the organization change.
It is important to continuously under-
stand and monitor your organization’s
maturity at all levels once initiated.
Other steps to mitigate performance is-
sues that affect business-critical oper-
ations include measuring everything
continuously, choosing software solu-
tions judiciously and introducing and
embracing new processes. This in-
cludes restructuring the service
model to more of a service manage-
ment model that focuses on the end
user’s perspective of the quality of IT
service.
What is a best practice?
Application performance management
is about people, process and technol-
ogy bound together to keep the busi-
ness competitive and attractive, and to
retain customers by improving the out-
put to the end users.
A practice becomes “best” when
continual measuring of the process ad-
justment indicates you have moved
from where you started to where you
wanted to go. Following are 10 best
practices for effective application
management as you begin building
your virtualized environment:
1. Develop an application perform-
ance management plan
The plan is the most important part of
application performance management
and should be undertaken from the end
users’ point of view. Understand end
users’ expectations, develop SLAs that
are meaningful to them, and recognize
that you will continually tweak your
plan as more of your environment is
virtualized.
2. Create a project team that has
the same goals
The team must understand that for a
virtualization initiative to be
successful, the organization must walk
before it can run. This means starting
small, measuring and monitoring the
parts of your environment that have
been virtualized, and slowly adding
more. It means adjusting to new tools
and approaches to effectively protect
and maintain the environment.
3. Make sure the end user perspec-
tive and your applications’ capabil-
ities in the virtual environment are
communicated, documented and
understood throughout all of IT
This is critical to improving the deliv-
ery of performance to end users, as
well as making sure IT is aligned with
the business goals.
4. Understand all components of
your environment and how they in-
teract
Many of the challenges of managing
applications in a virtual environment
stem from the way virtualization tech-
nology leverages the four core re-
sources: CPU, memory, disk, and
network. By understanding the impact
of resource sharing, and gaining in-
sight into the key components of the
virtual environment – data centers,
data stores, clusters, resource pools,
ESX servers, and VMs – your organi-
zation can better support the applica-
tions running in the virtual
environment.
5. Know your applications and what
virtualization will do to them
Know the application’s technical pa-
rameters, measure and monitor them
continuously before you start building
your virtual environment and after.
6. Carefully choose the software so-
lutions you need to facilitate optimal
performance of your virtual infra-
structure
Weigh the complexity and the cost of
solutions, and choose those that
allow you to see the entire virtualiza-
tion infrastructure in a single view to
gain understanding of how it impacts
the entire application environment.
7. Have the capability to determine
the root cause of an incident or
problem before end users are af-
fected
A good understanding of the way the
components of your virtual environ-
ment work and interact will help to de-
termine the root cause of incidents,
and meet performance and SLA ob-
jectives. Combine that understanding
with tools that help you determine a
problem exists, communicate why it’s
a problem and show how to resolve it
.
8. Measure business-critical appli-
cation performance and communi-
cate findings to business leaders
Show them the business-critical appli-
cation performance history in a way
that is relevant to them (number of
successful transactions, availability,
etc.).
9. Act on your findings
With business leaders, examine the ap-
plication performance history to deter-
mine what the problems are, and
create a plan to improve it. Make sure
you take into account both current and
planned future work, and any changes
in business priorities. Reprioritize
your processes from both IT and busi-
ness perspectives, and make the
changes that will provide the most re-
turn and flexibility, but also reduce
cost and risk.
10. Continuously measure and mon-
itor everything in your virtual envi-
ronment
Start by measuring what you under-
stand, with the end user in mind. Track
measurements over time to see trends,
and develop a baseline. You need to
know where you are to show improve-
ment when your processes take you to
a different level.
Virtualization must be implemented
with care and planning if it is to suc-
cessfully support applications and min-
imize negative effects on end users.
With a sound plan, processes that pro-
mote optimal performance of the vir-
tual infrastructure, knowledge of how
and where to contain the costs of im-
plementing a virtual environment, and a
good understanding of both the envi-
ronment and its applications, you can
virtualize with confidence and your or-
ganization can fully realize the benefits
of virtualization.
The Smart Techie
|39|
November 2010
 TECHNOLOGY By Sanjiv Pande
The Author is President - School Learning Solutions, NIIT
Generally schools like
to believe that more
the hardware, the
better is the solution.
Nothing can be farther
fromtruth
system have shown limited results.
India’s 75000 odd private schools ac-
count for 7 percent of total institutions
but enroll 40 percent of country’s 219
million students. About 142 mn chil-
dren are not in the schooling system.
Other major business opportunity
exists in the form of tutoring and many
mom and pop stores are making merry.
How much does this appeal to the con-
any institution to be very careful in se-
lecting the right technology and con-
sider its consequences in detail. They
may not only end up wasting huge
sums of money but also playing with
the lives of hundreds of young minds
whose future is trusted to a school by
parents.
Challenges in successfully integrat-
ing technology solutions in schools:
‘Wonders of technology’ is a theme
that every teacher and every student
would have spent reams of paper writ-
ing on. However we need to under-
stand that technology in itself in
neither a genie nor a master. It is what-
ever we make out of it. NIIT has been
involved in bringing up people and
computers together successfully for
over 27 years now. Our work in tech-
nology in K-12 education space in
India over the past decade has given us
management with the trauma of inte- IT skilling and Change management
grating the piecemeal solutions into These are perhaps most critical factors
their system and sub-optimal utiliza- for successfully integrating technol-
tion of resources. ogy in the learning ecosystem of a
school. It is easier to get children used
Technologyenabled learning solutionsspace has
seen lots of excitement inthe past few years
especially as schools are experimenting with it to
provide toolsthat positively impact learning
inschools.
Lack of right pedagogy in learning to technology however the bigger
solutions challenge is to impact the mindset of
For technology to make sense to its teachers and support staff. A simple
users in educational institutions, it is hardware support does not work.
imperative to have a strong pedagogi- Teachers need a specific type of sup-
cal framework. After all it is not about port which may be more academic
technology but about education. It has than technical. While office staff may

I
science of an interested corporate
some rare insights into kind of chal- been observed that off-the shelf tech- need detailed training and re-training
player has to be seen since tutoring is
lenges that schools faces in integrating nology solutions end up impacting the on features of a solution. One size
looked down upon by many. Lots of
technology successfully: learning ecosystem negatively by cre- does not fit all is the mantra here.
Successful Integration of Technology in players are also operating in areas like
ating a passive learning environment.
pre-schooling, school ERP’s, text-
Schools- Opportunities and Challenges Lack of integrated solutions Technology over-shadows the real Total Cost of Ownership
books/stationery items and provision
Schools as a rule always fail to see the purpose of learning. Many times a school, while going
t is very rightly said that ‘Nothing is permanent but change’. However if of other technology enabled learning
bigger picture while trying to integrate ahead to adopt a solution, overlooks
we look at how the world has changed around us in the last few solutions etc. Apart from text-books,
ICT into their system. Their approach Hardware focus without emphasiz- the total cost of owning a solution.
decades, it would be right to say that more than change, the pace at stationery and related items, other
which change happens, is fascinating to watch . One of the most impor- at best is piecemeal. Normally a ing on content There may be lots of hidden costs in-
business opportunities have just
tant contributors to this mind-boggling change and its pace has been school spends on setting up a com- Generally schools like to believe that volved in use of a solution. Some-
opened up and many players are en-
technology. As in other spheres of human life, the impact of technology in puter lab and creates a small computer more the hardware, the better is the times even if it is considered, the cost
tering these segments every day. Tech-
how we educate our kids or how they educate themselves is also of great sig- department that takes care of computer solution. Nothing can be farther from is highly underestimated. These costs
nology enabled learning solutions
nificance. In this write up we shall dwell a bit on the challenges we face as education program of the school. truth. Be it in classrooms or in labo- can include hidden costs like higher
well as opportunities that lie ahead of us in integrating technology successfully space has seen lots of excitement in
When it comes to automating the ratories, the content is the key to the electricity bills, consumables, secu-
into our learning ecosystem in schools. The focus will be on private schools of the past few years. More and more
back-office operations, it is seen as a effectiveness of a solution. Even in rity etc.
India since the govt. K-12 education institutions are still in the infancy stage schools are experimenting with tech-
separate activity and without fail some the case of content schools are lead to
as far as integrating technology is concerned. nology solutions to provide for tools
local player holds the key to their ad- believe that more the content the bet- Obsolescence of technology
that positively impact learning in
ministration engine. If it comes to in- ter it is. This happens to push aggre- Technology gets outdated very fast. It
School education market in India: deeper we shall know that this sector schools. However as happens with any
tegrating technology in classroom gated content to un-suspecting is very important for a school to con-
Opportunity paradox may show lots of promise but chal- great business opportunity, lots of
there will be another vendor vying schools under the garb of covering sider before purchase, which is an ap-
There have been so many studies and lenges over-shadow the hope and op- small and big entrants try to make a
their attention. There is a severe prob- entire syllabus and all topics. Cus- propriate technology to invest in.
estimates which have painted a very portunities that exist. Education quick buck by churning out unmindful
lem of lack of an integrated solution tomers also tend to get carried away Newer technologies are being rolled
rosy picture of India’s School Educa- continues to be a Not-for-Profit indus- and half-baked solutions, at the click
which can address the needs of all the by look and feel. One needs to under- out which reduce the impact of obso-
tion market. It is currently pegged at try in India which makes many gen- of a button. Well meaning and well in-
stake holders like students, teachers, stand that quantity of hardware and lescence. It is better if a school goes
more than $40 billion promising a uinely interested private players stay tentioned schools who really want to
management etc with a single solu- content in a learning solution is the through an extensive exercise of defin-
double digit annual growth rate. So far away from the core business opportu- make a difference to the learning
tion. A school as a result has to either last thing that a school should look ing the vision and scope of IT integra-
so good, however anyone who gets nity of setting-up and running brick ecosystem for their students unfortu-
deal with multiple vendors for differ- for. Aggregated content has obvious tion program and involve other parties
smitten by this side of story, needs to and mortar schools. At the same time, nately end up burning their fingers. It
ent solutions or at times develop in- issues of irrelevance to the curricu- who can help them in coming up with
be highly careful. If we look a bit efforts by Govt. through its schooling is therefore extremely important for
house solutions. This leaves the school lum being followed by the school. a well defined plan.

The Smart Techie

|40| November 2010 The Smart Techie
|41|
November 2010
 TECHNOLOGY By Roger Li
The author is Senior Vice President, Oracle Fusion
Middleware, Oracle Corporation, Asia Pacific Division
Power
The
Real-Time
Information
of
E
veryone knows the importance of real-time ac-
Many organizations are wary
cess to real-time information. Organizations
that are integrating data from disparate sources
of data integration projects,
and distributing it in real time have found that
believing they involve data they can cut costs, reduce risk and improve
business insight at the same time.
With more organizations operating around the clock in
migrations that are
multiple locations and time zones, the need for real-time in-
complicated, expensive, and
formation is imperative. Data must be continuously avail-
likely to impact day-to-day able for transactional processing by mission-critical systems
and to support business intelligence activities. It must also
be accessible across the enterprise, anywhere in the world.
operations.
As most business activities today are transaction-
based—whether making purchases, paying bills, updating
account information or managing patient records within
hospital networks—end users are demanding the right to ac-
cess, analyze, act on, integrate, store, and verify transac-
tional data, often in real time and without system
interruption or downtime.
The Smart Techie
|42| November 2010
The number one challenge facing
organizations that want to provide
real-time access to real-time data is
integrating an ever growing amount
of information from heterogeneous
enterprise IT environments. This
must be done while ensuring no serv-
ice interruptions or performance
degradation to critical business appli-
cations. Data integrity must also be
assured as information is moved be-
tween systems
. better analyze which products are
High performance data integration
Many organizations are wary of data
integration projects, believing they
involve data migrations that are com-
plicated, expensive, and likely to im-
pact day-to-day operations. However,
data integration and replication solu-
tions exist that facilitate the capture,
routing, transformation, and delivery
of transactional data between hetero-
geneous databases in real time with
minimal overhead. Best of all, the
benefits of data integration can be felt
almost immediately.
Take Hyundai Securities as an ex-
ample. To ensure its systems could
utilize information from a range of
sources, the investment bank imple-
mented a data integration solution
that captures and updates critical in-
formation as changes occur without
impacting on the source system or
network performance. This provides
continuous data synchronization
across heterogeneous environments
and enables real-time updates.
For Hyundai Securities, this
means transactions are based on con-
sistent information even if they take
place between different systems.
Transactions are completed faster,
more efficiently, and with minimal
wait time for customers. The bank
can now process over 5,000 transac-
tions per second, more than five
times the number it could complete
previously.
India’s largest department store
chain, Shoppers Stop, has also bene-
fitted from faster data refreshes. The
company uses a data integration tool
to load information about customer
buying patterns and store sales per-
formance from multiple enterprise re-
source planning systems into its data
warehouse. This reduced the time it
took to refresh data in the data ware-
house from half a day to one hour,
which ensured managers received
timely sales, inventory, and loyalty
program data. As a result, they can
selling through stores and maintain
optimum inventory levels.
With more organizations operating around the
clock in multiple locations and time zones, the
need for real-time information is imperative.
Accurate customer views
The ability to access integrated data
to build an accurate customer profile
will help organizations tailor their
offerings and increase sales oppor-
tunities. For instance, a better un-
derstanding of customer groups has
made it easier for Hyundai Securi-
ties to undertake targeted marketing.
This can help improve campaign re-
sponse rates and potentially deliver
greater revenue to the securities
firm.
Similarly, Shoppers Stop can an-
alyze customer buying behavior,
which helps managers develop mar-
keting campaigns that meet the re-
quirements of specific customer
segments based on their purchasing
history.
Ensuring compliance and data se-
curity
Data integration solutions can help
organizations that operate in multi-
ple locations to capture and distrib-
ute information from a central
database. The Bombay Stock Ex-
change deployed a data integration
and replication tool to synchronize
and integrate data across mixed en-
vironments, avoiding the need for
expensive data migration. Transac-
tional data is captured from its core
system, delivered to multiple target
databases at several locations, and
made available online for analysis.
This allowed the stock exchange
to meet regulations set out by the
Securities and Exchange Board of
India that required daily stock trans-
actions to be monitored online in
real time. In addition, transactional
data was replicated at a disaster re-
covery site to eliminate downtime
caused by planned and unplanned
outages and adhere to regulatory
guidelines around data security.
Lower total cost of ownership
Because data integration solutions
support the legacy databases of het-
erogeneous systems and integrate
information from these systems in
real time, organizations can avoid
the need for costly data migration
activities, as Hyundai Securities
found. Its solution also reduced the
administrative burden on the firm’s
staff by eliminating manual transac-
tions. As a result, it has reduced
total cost of ownership while in-
creasing the availability and timeli-
ness of information.
Real-time data is a necessity not a
luxury for today’s growing busi-
nesses. A data integration solution
that use unique log-based change data
capture and replication technology
that enable the capture, routing,
transformation and delivery of trans-
actional data between multiple data-
bases in real time can be deployed
quickly, cost-effectively and with
minimal impact on the business.
The Smart Techie
|43|
November 2010
 TECHNOLOGY
The author is GM - Compute & Storage Practice,
Wipro India, Middle East and Africa
C
loud computing should
be the most talked about
buzzword today. Hardly
a day passes when one is
not confronted with one
or other newly brewed material on the
subject. No surprise that it is discussed
around many drawing boards today as
the next big thing hitting us after the
WEB.
There are many cautious souls who
have seen the hysterical drive around
the internet & WEB technologies dur-
ing the dot com days and the bubble
that followed leaving many scattered.
While a decade down the line there is
a clear unison that the WEB is here to
stay and is becoming ever more em-
bedded into our lives. The bandwidth,
The Smart Techie
|44|
November 2010
By Saji Thoppil
Technologies
Cloud
Driving
Computing
Blade based systems have
brought unprecedented level of
optimization in datacenters today.
security, browser capability etc. re-
quired its own time to attain the level
of maturity to deliver services at the
level acceptable to make web as pop-
ular a platform as foreseen during the
days of the dot com bubble.
Similarly the success and the broad
acceptance of Cloud Computing is
going to be based on a few enabling
technologies. What is interesting to
note is the level of maturity attained by
many of these technologies at the time
of this writing.
Therefore we try to analyze these
technologies from the technology
viewpoint and understand the crucial
role played by some of the technology
advancement making Cloud Comput-
ing a reality.
Virtualization: Basically a technology
that abstracts the various hardware
subcomponents and permits multi-ten-
anting a system and thereby optimiz-
ing the hardware usage. An essential
component for any public cloud (a fac-
tory scale capacity meant for broad
consumption mostly on internet) or a
private cloud (an exclusively deployed
capacity typically in secured network
of the owner). It is no more the elite
technology reserved to mainframe sys-
tems, the choice of very matured & sta-
ble virtualization software from
licensed to open source software are
today plenty. The virtualization tech-
nology embedded by leading processor
vendors is a further boost.
Bandwidth cost: The bandwidth price
of network has come down to a point
that it is suddenly making it com-
pelling to access an entire suite of serv-
ices from internet. This means the
business case for a public or a commu-
nity cloud (very similar to public cloud
by meant for consumption by a closed
community) becomes much easier. The
bandwidth cost is expected to ease fur-
ther and making it ever more com-
pelling.
· X86: The significant performance
& reliability improvement recently
seen with systems based on x86
processor is pulling more customer and
as well equally the ISVs to embrace it
for critical business systems. Suddenly
we see commodity hardware capable
of delivering large scale business criti-
cal services in a private or a public
cloud at compelling price points. Spe-
cific RISC, GPU based processors will
also have a role to play in the cloud,
but is expected to attract only niche ap-
plications.
Blades: Blade based systems have
brought in unprecedented level of opti-
mization in datacenters today. While
the shared chassis meant better com-
pute per watt of electricity, it also meant
extreme flexibility in engineering and
maintaining datacenters. The IMAC
(Install, Add, Move and Change) on
hardware is suddenly simplified to a
few minutes of physical work.
Unified management: Convergence
of Hardware and the network inter-
connects is not only cutting down the
datacenter floor space but also en-
abling single unified management of
datacenter hardware. Something that
has been the struggle with all the En-
terprise Management Software. This
means the overall capacity for a pri-
vate or a public cloud can be man-
aged as a single entity.
The bandwidth price of
network has come down to a
point that it is compelling to
access an entire suite of
services from internet.
Next Generation Datacenters: Most
often the business case for a cloud is
broken at the datacenter level, the
legacy cooling and build nature of
datacenter meant limited scope for
handling scale unit type capacities re-
quired in a private or a public cloud
to optimize the operation cost. The
new generation of datacenters is per-
mitting modular handling of capaci-
ties and making it possible to pack
huge capacities in small unit foot-
prints.
Licensing & distribution: ISVs and
licensing has always been an issue on
virtualized platforms, virtualization
meant reduced license sale and hence
vigorously opposed by many soft-
ware suppliers. With virtualization
now accepted as an essential compo-
nent in a datacenter, the software ven-
dors not accepting a licensing model
for virtualized system is only a hand-
ful. This and the advent of virtual ap-
pliances as a distribution format are
making rapid enablement of services
on private clouds. The same is also
valid for the IaaS (Infrastructure as a
service) and SaaS (Software as a
service) and also PaaS (Platform as a
Service)
Analyzing Cloud Computing
from this perspective makes one be-
lieve there is no real technical reason
why Cloud should not be the next big
thing coming our way in the Informa-
tion Technology evolution. There
may still be non- technical issues like
legal, compliance and some legisla-
tive in nature, which is going to hold
back many from taking the public
cloud way immediately. But most of
these concerns doesn’t hold good for
a secure Private Cloud and therefore
in all probability will be the first step-
ping stone for an enterprise to adopt
cloud in steps.
A real success of Cloud means we
are going to take many mundane non
strategic expenses going towards deliv-
ering and consuming information tech-
nology for today’s consumers either for
enterprise or individuals.
Software developers are able to
maximize spend on developing their
core IP and not spending on multi-plat-
forming, testing, packaging, distribution
etc., means we can expect a radical new
level of innovation coming our way. In-
novations we believe will also solve
some of our fundamentals problems.
The Smart Techie
|45|
November 2010
 TECHNOLOGY By Ajay Pal Singh Arora
The author is VP, Société Générale
3. Democratic: At the project incep- 8. Intelligent: A consulting team in an deeply rooted within us and the organi-
tion stage and at specific intervals of IT organization would need intelli- zation culture must allow a respect for

Diversity
project review, it is good to have a
democratic style of leadership, as
this would allow the end product to
be more innovative and have its own
gence leadership that can embrace the difference.
the future by navigating ambiguity All leaders in the organization must
and reframe problems as opportuni- be visibly involved in programs affect-
ties. ing cultural change and articulate poli-

T
in differentiating factors. This would cies that govern diversity. While playing
Technology allow the staff to have a high sense 9. Bridging: While multiple modules an advisory role for set-up of a garment

Leadership of personal growth and participation.

oday, the technology industry has reached a state where the leadership po-
tential is inherent and developed in the discipline itself. With the pressures
to ramp up fast, corporates feel less of a need to look at the other industries
for a policy to hire and choose the next leader from the existing team.
On the other hand, innovation, new practices, and differentiating factors tend to de-
velop when you mix staff from two different disciplines or depute a person from one in-
dustry to another.
The organizational culture becomes dependent on the
leadership style and the leader’s background and
hence alignment of the corporate objectives with
leadership background becomes more vital than the
basic skills.
Different facets of an IT project or an opera-
tions process may need different type of leader-
ship.
1. Autocratic: An autocratic leadership style becomes
important to ensure that the project schedules are met.
It leads to an effective supervision with faster de-
cision making, detailed instructions, and or-
ders. It is easier to get work done in an
industry where attrition rates are high
and lot of fresh engineers have to be ab-
sorbed as trainees. The style leads to a
more productive output while the
leader is watching. This should be bal-
anced while employees are engaged in
cultural and bonding activities beyond work
to ensure staff morale is not affected. A person
from the armed forces background may be in-
cluded to inculcate this practice among the rest of the
management team.
2. Bureaucratic: To keep the project costs under control, it would need a bu-
reaucratic leadership. All the costs are approved as per the procedure or pol-
icy although it may allow room for exceptions in specific circumstances. The
costs need to be approved in pre-set templates and forms and as per the pre-
cise rules set in. A public sector background person would infuse the prac-
tice of going by the rule book among the rest of the organization.
Most of the IT companies have a
young workforce that in itself brings
in the democratic culture.
4. Transformational: While leading a
large project or a program with hun-
dreds of staff, transformational lead-
ership would be more effective. The
leader has integrity, sets clear goals,
communicates the vision, inspires,
and expects the best from the team
that acts in a Liassez-Faire manner.
This would be applicable when the
staff is trustworthy and experienced.
A person with lots of tenacity and pa-
tience to make change fits here.
5. Transactional: For BPO delivery
management, a transactional leader-
ship style ensures a better compli-
ance to the service level agreements
or the key performance indicators
that have been set in for the process.
6. Creative: While developing a new
IT product that is expected to be the
Intellectual Property (IP) of the com-
pany or re-engineering a business
process, it is necessary to provide a
creative leadership. This would need
a highly diverse team across cultural
and national boundaries to be more
effective. Encourage people from the
advertising or music industry to be
part of such creative groups.
7. Corrective: Agile being a buzzword
in the IT industry, corrective leader-
ship is an asset when a product or a
project is being developed in an iter-
ative manner, allowing the team to
work with freedom and correcting
the output at regular intervals.
may be developed by different mod-
ule or project leaders, a bridging
leadership style is needed to integrate
all the components together and
make sure that the integrated whole
brings more value than its individual
parts.
10. Purposeful: An IT organization
also needs a purposeful leadership
that brings the leader and the rest of
the employees together on a com-
mon social cause for the commu-
nity or the society that the
organization is working in, thus en-
suring greater harmony with its
larger stakeholders and the envi-
ronment around.
As the IT market picks up again and or-
ganizations find it difficult to hire re-
sources, we should ask ourselves
whether we are looking at too shallow a
pool.
Hiring is one of the most difficult
decisions a manager faces and a wrong
decision can cause a serious setback.
This means that we end up selecting a
candidate with a disposition just like
ours – including personality, sensibility,
and work style.
In an organization with people of
similar backgrounds working together
for long periods, it closes the organiza-
tion culture and the management’s atti-
tude towards outside ideas and the
organization may lose out in the long
run.
All facets of leadership are impor-
tant in today’s IT organization. We must
embrace diversity to empower people
and capitalize on their strengths. It is
difficult for the existing staff to embrace
diversity as bias and prejudice are
retailing shop at Bangalore, I realized
how important it is to have sales execu-
tives who speak English, Hindi, Kan-
nada, Tamil, and Telugu to address the
different customers visiting the place.
Furthermore, the diverse staff under-
stood the different festivals, and specific
products and schemes could be
launched with their inputs. Also, it was
important to have both male and female
staff – female staff tend to be better at
customer service, while male staff are
important to handle some other tasks.
More so, it was essential to have a
younger and more experienced sales
force, as they could correlate easily with
a similar customer group and facilitate
cost management.
These are the same diversity ele-
ments that become important in an IT
industry. Multicultural and multina-
tional teams increase the ability to in-
crease sales, account management, and
customer satisfaction across continents.
At the same time, gender diversity is
important to look at managing teams
working in 24x7 shifts in a BPO. Varied
experience in the team allows making
a more competitive quote in compari-
son with the other providers.
In a nutshell, today’s leader needs
to encompass different styles of leader-
ship and adapt the leadership style to
the organizational context. Build a di-
verse team, identify the strengths of
each individual in the management
team and let it be known to others in the
group, so as to best deploy the talents
for the corporate objectives to be
achieved.
A highly flexible style of leadership
would allow faster achievement of
goals and a more satisfied employee
and customer base.

The Smart Techie

|46| November 2010 The Smart Techie
|47|
November 2010
 TECHNOLOGY By Srinivasan Viswanathan
The Author is Founder, Datsi
Bridging
F
the
orrester in one of its 2007 re-
port mentioned the need for
Indian IT industry to be
more like value add advisors
and innovators and go up the
value chain to compete with the upcom-
ing IT work force from different parts of
the world. While India engineering cen-
ters contribute a lot towards “product
and solution development and execu-
tion”, our contribution towards “product
conceptualization, strategic technology
future and thought leadership”, need
more impetus. One of the key accelera-
tors that will help propel India Engi-
neering towards Innovation Excellence
will be the vast talent pool generated by
Tier -2, Tier-3 colleges in India as they
will be major players of the future of our
IT industry. Touching these students
while in college and preparing them for
the Industry with a long term vision of
going up in the value chain is a chal-
lenge. Seeding these students with the
right principles of industry perspective
technology learning and work ethics will
help accelerate the transformation we
look for in a few years. Here we articu-
late the vision for an ideal student com-
ing out of the college, and propose ideas
on bridging the gaps. We think it is a so-
cial responsibility for all of us to be part
of this transformation.
Vision
We need to strategically profile the ideal
student passing out of the college, in
terms of Industry requirements. By vi-
sion we don’t mean the curriculum or
the contents of the individual courses in
universities. An ideal student ready for
The Smart Techie
|48| November 2010
Gap Getting the Students
Industry Ready
the industry should be able to independ-
ently think about the problem areas to
come up with solutions and have the
right attitude towards technology (both
software/hardware) development, inno-
vation and team work. He should have
the following key attributes:
1. Drive and creativity in IT problem
solving – Strong in fundamentals,
Programming skills, Algorithms.
2. Real Life Technology Exposure –
Good exposure to latest open source
technologies and any other major
technologies. Should have gone
through at least one complete project
life cycle with real life technologies.
3. Self Learning Abilities – With the in-
formation deluge in the internet era,
assimilation of the right information
on demand to produce right results.
4. Courage to delve into the unknown –
Ability to move to new technology
areas and learn without expensive
training or hand holding.
5. Pro-active thinking – More inquisi-
tive and questioning in nature to get
deeper understanding of the problem
at hand and analyze quality
tradeoffs in algorithms and
design with propen-
sity towards inno-
vation.
6. Work ethics and
S o f t
skills
–Integrity, commitment, hard work
and dedication, Good Communica-
tion skills, email etiquette.
7. Awareness – In general being aware
of the IT industry trends, and the hap-
penings in the industry.
Bridging the Gaps
How do we bridge the gaps between the
Ideal student described above and the
student passing out of the college? There
are several factors that contribute to the
widening of the gaps and adopting pro-
active measures in the right areas, will
help narrow the gap and help seed the
right principles in the students.
Emphasize Self-Learning and Pro-ac-
tive Thinking
Informational teaching gives the stu-
dents a bunch of information on a syl-
labus and later subject them to well
defined pattern of questions to which
they respond reactively. The latter we
term as reactive thinking. This kind of
exposure for 3-4 years tends to restrict
their thinking and creates lots of gravity
for the students to come out of it. Real
life problems and projects quickly tend
to take most of the stu-
dents out of the
comfort
zone and again they rely on training or
information to solve those situations.
Students tend to complement the gaps
with private training on specific tech-
nologies but quickly realize the need to
learn some other technology and so on.
This cannot scale in industry where
quick on-demand learning and parallel
learning is a key to success. A conscious
focus on the ability of the students to
learn by themselves i.e., Self-Learning
with guidance and Pro-active thinking
instead of reactive thinking is required.
The nature of the delivery of the course
syllabus needs some adjustment, and
below we give a framework of princi-
ples under which if we operate, the stu-
dents perform better from our
experience. Subjecting the students to
more patterns based on these principles
will transform them to be industry ready.
Accountability of the Final Year Proj-
ects including Work Ethics and Soft
Skills
More emphasis is required on the nature
and execution of the final year project.
It should go through the entire project
life cycle touching open source tech-
nologies, industry standard APIs, and a
framework needs to be put in place to
evaluate the project along these lines.
Original coding work on the project
should be evaluated based on the no. of
lines of effective code, innovative ideas,
and the actual result produced. Industry
people should get involved actively in
these projects and they should contribute
to the final evaluation as well. Work
Ethics and Soft skills evaluation should
be integrated with this project delivery -
on Integrity, hard work, commitment,
dedication, team work, communication,
email etiquette and presentation. Stu-
dents should go through the entire Proj-
ect life cycle concepts – “explore,
analyze, prototype, design, implement
and integrate “during the execution of
the project. Students should be encour-
aged to do original projects and con-
tribute to open source communities that
can lead to more young entrepreneurs. [[
We have had experiences of students
buying “ready-made projects” from out-
side and such practices should be
strongly discouraged by the college and
NASSCOM should take special effort to
backlist IT companies who provide such
ready-made projects to the students. This
just reduces the quality significantly.
Effective Jobs and Interviews
The demand-supply nature of the IT in-
dustry causes intense competition
among the companies to grab the fresh
students at the earliest. This has resulted
in job offers to the students during pre-
final year (3rd year) or early final year
(7th semester, 4th yr). These job offers
tend to cause a sense of relaxation
among the students with only getting
pass marks until they pass out, and a sig-
nificant amount of learning is compro-
mised during this period. NASSCOM
should give strong guidance to the In-
dian companies not to give out job of-
fers prior to final semester. Job
Interviews should focus on both funda-
mentals and more importantly on the
originality and quality of the project
work done by the student.
Mandatory Industry-University Con-
nection
We should pro-actively enable the In-
dustry-University Connection with some
measurable results imposed by NASS-
COM on the industry. We should form
an Industry wide special interest group
with investments from individual com-
panies in the form of people who will go
and teach students. Colleges should have
a mandatory one course in each semes-
ter taught by Industry people especially
on programming languages and funda-
mentals. Similarly projects should be
guided by one industry guide with re-
sponsibility to evaluate the student’s per-
formance on project technicals and soft
skills. While avenues (such as intern-
ship) exist today to make this happen,
lack of a framework of accountability
and metrics has resulted in dilution. Ef-
forts should be taken to have the indus-
try reach for Tier-2 and Tier-3 colleges.
Key Principles – The Pillars
We believe in the following three key
principles along with the above ideas to
transform the student to an IT profes-
sional. (a) Experiential Learning –
where the students should be exposed to
different real life technologies, experi-
ence and understand the nuances and
apply them to solve real problems. (b)
Rapid Fail-Fast Convergence Model
– Students should be encouraged to de-
velop real life code and programs, where
they should constantly go through the
cycle of Develop Fail Adjust 
Learn  Converge. By failing often, the
students learn fast, and converge to a
learning knowledge. (c) Big Picture
Connection and Cognition – Students
should know the individual pieces of the
technology puzzle how they fit in the big
picture (Technology Principles). Stu-
dents should know to connect the indi-
vidual pieces of the puzzle to form
patterns (Design Patterns). Students
should know to think long term based on
the quality tradeoffs to decide on a di-
rection of the technology project (Strate-
gic Vision). We have successfully
applied the three principles above in
helping to transform the students to an
Industry Ready Computer Professional.
We presented a holistic view of bridg-
ing the gaps in getting a student industry
ready that will help us set forth a bright
future for the students to become IT in-
novators of our country tomorrow.
The Smart Techie
|49|
November 2010
 TECHNOLOGY By Rajamani Srinivasan
The author is Vice President-Solution Engineering,
SAP Indian Sub-continent cent statistics show that 15 percent of
the connections are on smartphones,
which translates to about 95 million
connections. On a rough estimate, 50
percent of the smartphones are being
used for business purposes. That indi-
cates at least 40 to 50 million mobile
phone connections that are potential
users for running mobile business ap-
Mobile Business plications. BlackBerry alone has about
4,000,00 connections in India.
Mobile phones have even pene-
Applications trated rural areas. With the focus of
 Field service management
 Utilities: billing and collections
 Remote supply chain/rural supply
chain management
 Microfinance segments: mobile
SIM card-based banking, loan ap-
plication process and approvals,
etc.
Mobile business applications can also
originate outside the organization —
from an end consumer — or from a
user who is within the organization. As
an example, for an end consumer-ini-
The growth of mobile connections
and the introduction of 3G technol-
ogy are fueling this growth, and busi-
nesses are also finding smarter ways
of doing business and cutting down
on cycle times. PDAs are getting
converged into mobile phones, and
the convergence of mobile business
applications into mobile phones and
iPads is now a possibility. ERP ven-
dors like SAP are also increasingly
offering standard scenarios and tech-
nology for their ecosystems to co-in-

Next Advancement in
many corporations being business at novate, including the ability to
the bottom of the pyramid, there is orchestrate transactions between

Mobile Convergence
wider scope for capturing business
transactions happening in rural areas
on smart mobile handsets.
Thus, the next revolution would be
to build and deploy mobile business
The development of the mobile the
business applications would
increasingly be built by the
mobile business application
and the ERP application.
The development of the mo-
bile business applications would
increasingly be built by the

E
transactions by enterprise resource
planning (ERP) vendors, in close col-
laboration with telecom companies.
Telecom companies would use their
network reach to be able to connect the
ERP solutions with the centralized
hosting capabilities they may possess
nterprise software has long many organizations, business is operat- for the mobile applications. This may
been restricted to business ing almost 24x7. present a new revenue stream for
users who are expected to Mobile business applications are the them. ERP vendors like SAP are al-
perform the transactions or next revolution of extending enterprise ready offering mobile development
view information with lim- software to the business end user, who platform and standard customer rela-
ited user interface options — normally may carry a smart mobile handset like tionship management(CRM) and
a laptop or a PC. In today’s context, the an iPad, mobile phone, or BlackBerry, ERP-centric transactions that help
definition of business users business users in sales and customer-
has been extended to people facing functions to be able to perform
who perform business func- As of July 2010, India has more than transactions. Integration of mobile
tions, beyond the transac- 635 million mobile phone connections business applications back to enter-
tional users. The change has and is adding five to six million new prise software is a critical requirement,
also happened with man- and SAP, for example, already offers
agers and senior managers connections every month. the SAP NetWeaver Process Integra-
who seek to access informa- tor offering to be able to orchestrate
tion on a self-service basis rather than and who is connected online to a net- transactions.
be supplied information by others. work on a 24x7 basis. This is especially
The dynamic nature of business as relevant to the Indian context, with the Some examples of business scenarios
well as the freedom to operate from dif- explosion in the number of mobile con- that would be increasingly offered as
ferent parts of the world and at odd nections that have happened recently, mobile business applications are:
times have also created a need for alter- and with the introduction of 3G tech-  Traditional workflow approvals in
native methods of being connected to nology. As of July 2010, India has more an organization: PO, expense re-
the enterprise software that is deployed than 635 million mobile phone connec- ports, sales order, credit approvals,
in organizations. Approvals for transac- tions and is adding five to six million etc.,
tions are expected anytime since, with new connections every month. The re-  Field sales management
ecosystems that co-innovate
ecosystems that co-innovate with
the ERP vendors. India, with its
with the ERP vendors.
huge population of technically
tiated transaction, imagine one could skilled workers, will see a larger de-
choose a pizza catalogue from his mo- veloper community and organiza-
bile and make an order to the pizza tions that are working in synergy
center nearest to his location. The tele- toward building these applications
com company can route the pizza for diversified business scenarios.
order into the ordering system, which With a view to drive efficiencies,
could be on an ERP application, that is SAP is co-innovating with Sybase to
hosted either in their own data centre build pre-packaged scenarios around
or within the internal cloud of the sales and services functions within
pizza company. The ERP software CRM software and enterprise mobil-
running within the pizza company can ity, in order to offer complimentary
then process the order, then SMS back technology solutions. This will en-
to the end user who ordered the pizza able SAP to deliver capabilities for
the details of the order and also the its customers and partners to build
exact time when the pizza can be de- mobile business applications accord-
livered. ing to their enterprise needs. SAP
There are many other examples also offers business intelligence ca-
of how mobile business applications pabilities through its SAP Busines-
can be relevant, even simply within sObjects Mobile software, with
an organization. A sales executive which business users can view BI re-
tracking his or her opportunities or a ports on their BlackBerrys and other
purchase manager being able to ap- mobile devices.
prove purchase orders while on the Thus, transactions that are being
move are some other examples. performed by business users will in-
While the situation described creasingly be carried out through mo-
above is not quite new to the busi- bile applications, which will greatly
ness world, the change that is now increase the efficiencies of corpora-
happening is the widespread use tions and cut down the cycle time of
across industries and organizations. transactions.

The Smart Techie

|50| November 2010 The Smart Techie
|51|
November 2010
 TECHNOLOGY By Vishak Raman
The author is Regional director, India and SAARC, Fortinet
Smartphone
Popularity
A Double Edge
Sword for Security
A
re mobile phones and
other wireless devices
the new weakest link in
securing information
outside of corporate
networks? We all know that “bad”
guys take notice of new tech and
gadgets and create attacks based on
the latest trends—-how are enter-
prises keeping up? With mobile usage
of Facebook and Twitter rising users
can affect enterprise networks easily
without knowing it. What are some
best practices and concerns to avoid
horrible issues? What should wireless
gurus know about unforeseen security
issues created through wireless de-
vices?
The Smart Techie
|52| November 2010
range of more advanced mobile serv-
ices, such as real-time access to
high-quality audio/video trans-
mission. For example, with its
application portal, Apple,
which has a small percent-
age of the handset market,
has already changed the
way many people interact
with their smart phones,
while Microsoft and Nokia
are also talking up their own
similar portals. The level of per-
sonalization and customiza-
tion possible with these
portals will mean new
uses, both good and
bad, will be found.
This presents a big
concern for corporate
network managers as
users are no longer
bound by factory-in-
stalled applications. With
this greater usability, con-
sumers are now adopting
smart phones in greater num-
bers for business and for personal
use. iSuppli Corp. predicted in a
March 2009 report that the number of
smart phone shipments is expected to
grow to as high as 192.3 million units
this year, up 11.1 percent from 2008.
No doubt, the smart phone is be-
While malicious activities on
coming much more personal and in-
handheld devices like smart phones
dispensable to consumers, and where
have been relatively low, there are
consumers go, money goes, and crime
several indicators to suggest that
will soon to follow. This adds up to in-
things are about to change. Enter-
creased opportunities for virus infec-
prises will need to start thinking seri-
tions and attacks that will require a
ously about a mobile threat
focused approach to secure the mil-
prevention strategy to ensure that
lions of handheld mobile devices in
their networks are not vulnerable to
operation today, especially for enter-
the new threats that will abound with
prises. Smart phones pose an even
the increasing mobile activities of
greater security risk to corporations as
their users.
they have become the mobile office
The growing prevalence of 3G
for their ability to access corporate
networks is enabling broader band-
networks in real time, much in the way
width for mobile devices, which
that laptops have been able to do. This
means more of the bad content is get-
presents cyber criminals with the op-
ting in with the good. 3G also enables
portunity to use smart phones as the
network operators to offer a wider
launch pad for penetrating and access-
ing sensitive corporate data. Fortinet
believes the increased usability of
smart phones and other wireless de-
vices and the new business models
they enable will become the biggest
threat to corporate security in the near
future.
The mobile market presents a
unique position in terms of malware as
compared to the traditional PC market.
The platforms available for attack on
PC platforms are limited – Windows,
MacIntosh and Linux – while the
number of mobile platforms continues
to grow: Google Android, Apple mo-
bile OS, SymbianOS, Windows Mo-
bile, Palm. For example, we are just
seeing the tip of the iceberg with
Google’s Android OS vulnerability
discovered late last year. And just last
month, discovery of the new Sym-
bOS/Yxes.A!worm (AKA “Sexy
View”) mobile worm gives strong in-
dication that we may be on the edge of
a mobile botnet. This sophisticated
SMS-propagation strategy, which
hosts the worm on malicious servers,
allows cybercriminals to effectively
mutate the worm by adding or remov-
ing functionality.
A managed client capable of de-
tecting software installations and mon-
itoring file access in addition to
encrypting data and reporting status to
a central server is the answer for net-
work managers grappling with an ac-
tive mobile work force. Network
managers will want to look for solu-
tions that provide multi-layered pro-
tection for blended threats and that
protects across all device interfaces.
The ideal mobile client solution would
be part of an integrated, end-to-end
network security platform that offers
accelerated hardware and impinges
minimum performance impact on user
device and services. In addition, the
network security platform should offer
configuration management and control
with reporting, and flexibly-defined
profiles and policies for granular net-
work segmentation capabilities.
For the end-user, both corporate
and private, here are some tips to fol-
low for the safe usage of their mobile
device:
1. Similar to patch management on
PC platforms, apply any updates
to mobile platforms as soon as
they become available. For exam-
ple, Google quickly issued a fixed
when the vulnerability in its open
source Android OS was discov-
ered in late 2008. Be educated and
aware of threats that bridge to the
Internet.
2. Phishing scams looking for bank
account information or corporate
credentials are very real to hit
users on mobile devices, just as
they are with PCs. Just like social
networks, mobile networks
through voice contacts are highly
trusted. Attempt to verify the iden-
tity of any incoming messages that
are suspicious. Reply with some-
thing simple like “What is this?”
to ensure you are able to confirm
that the source of the message is
trusted.
3. Be aware of what you install. For
example, the worm SymbOS/Be-
SeLo used social engineering over
MMS to install itself. It prompted
the user to install an application
which had a file extension .mp3 or
.jpg; users should be aware of this
and not install anything that
haven’t confirmed as being from a
trusted source. Many users have
“jailbroken” phones, such as the
iPhone, which means that uncon-
trolled (unsigned) code can be run.
This is a very big security risk,
and users should be aware of the
risks they take when they unlock
phone functionality.
4. Disable communication channels
such as Bluetooth by default, only
enabling them on a per-session re-
quirement. This removes an attack
avenue. By taking simple precau-
tionary measures, it effectively helps
to harden your smart device.
The Smart Techie
|53|
November 2010
 EVENT By Eureka Bharali
A
Siliconindia Creates IT Security Awareness
@ Security Conference 2010
t a time when even un-
born kids flaunt the web
with their own accounts
and the cybercrooks glo-
betrot virtually to exploit
every network and system, security
providers have turned to don the roles
of defense forces in the virtual world.
A glance in India wherein individuals
and corporates turn a blind eye towards
the severity of cyber war threats makes
it imperative to create more awareness.
The attempt of SiliconIndia to enlighten
the Indian crowd about cybercrime,
malware incidents, data breaches and
compliance legislation through the Sil-
iconIndia Security Conference 2010
met with an applaudable response.
More than 600 attendees packed the
NIMHANS Convention Centre in Ban-
galore to listen to the experts from
Symantec, Novell, McAfee, Wipro,
Mindtree, RSA, Niksun, Juniper Net-
works and Paladion.
Securing the Networks
Computers and the networks that con-
nect the innumerous computers
around the world have gone on from
being wondrous innovations to per-
vasive business necessities in today’s
world. The challenge to system and
network security is the explosion of
Information. Unsecured information
has become a liability today. We also
see the growth of unstructured data
The Smart Techie
|54|
November 2010
pegging at over 60 percent per year.
It is expected that the total volume of
digital information will reach 1,773
exabytes by 2011.
With increasing business deals
being carried over the virtual world,
systems are getting more complex
and heterogeneous and thus more
prone to cyber crime or data
breaches. Shantanu Ghosh, Vice Pres-
ident, Enterprise Security & India
Product Operations at Symantec im-
mediately pinpoints the solution
which lies in a connected enterprise.
“It can be done through consumeriza-
tion of IT, social networking sites,
different mobile devices, and cloud
and virtualization,” he says. A holis-
tic information approach to security
should be taken in this regard that
should be risk based and policy
driven, information centric with ac-
tionable intelligence and well man-
aged infrastructure. And when we say
an information centric model, it
should compile information gover-
nance, information intelligence and
information infrastructure.
Data-driven Protection
Numerous concepts are put on test to
understand the data structure. One
such concept is Network Forensics.
While IDS, IPS, Firewalls and Log
Analysis are some of the state of the
art cyber defenses available, network
This Wipro expert takes on the crowd to
see their security aptness
Attendees exchange security tips
forensics is an evolving field in the
security landscape.
Ajit Pillai the Regional Director of
India and Middle East at Niksun ex-
plains, “Data is recorded, stored and re-
constructed in order to discover the
source of security attacks or other prob-
lem incidents. This leads us to the un-
knowns in the security breach and hence
to the truth. And the truth is on the
wire.” Cost of a data breach amounts to
around $204 per compromised record.
Nearly 50 percent of information resid-
ing in enterprises is sensitive. Competi-
tion, compliance and credibility black
hole are to be given more importance. It
is revealed that all Indian enterprises
surveyed lost revenue due to cyber at-
tacks and an average enterprise explores
17 standards and frameworks.
Nilanjan De, Co-founder & CTO,iViZ
Security Standards
A Windows-specific computer worm
called Stuxnet was discovered on July
13, 2010 which was attempting to take
control of industrial infrastructure
around the world. It was a Stealthy mal-
ware that propagates through USB
drives and exploits 4 zero-day vulnera-
bilities. This is just one of the examples
for the sophisticated nature of computer
malwares these days. To overcome such
flaws there are various strategies and
techniques used to design security sys-
tems.
However there are few, if any, ef-
fective strategies to enhance security.
Furthermore, by breaking the system up
into smaller components, the complex-
ity of individual components is reduced.
In doing so we can maintain the sys-
The excited crowd check out the security solutions on display
Shantanu Ghosh enlightens the crowd
on various threats
tem’s quality attributes, among them
confidentiality, integrity, availability, ac-
countability and assurance,“ Security is
at breach when you have Intel inside but
intelligence outside. Security systems
are to be standardized in India. Other-
wise, misuse of resources will damage
reputation of the company, loss of busi-
ness and revenue is affected. It sends out
a wrong signal to other staffs. It slows
down the availability of resources and
ultimately the productivity of the com-
pany is hit,” said Thiruvadinathan An-
nadorai (Thiru), who is the Principal
Consultant for Risk & Compliance, Se-
curity services at MindTree.
On similar lines, Bikram Barman,
Senior Manager, Engineering, Products
at RSA points that to address these chal-
lenges, virtual infrastructure architec-
tures need to have specific security poli-
cies and well-defined procedures.
Throwing more light on how to design
a secured system, Rajiv Motwani who
is the Manager, Product Security Engi-
neering at Citrix R&D India says,
“Server virtualization, virtual storage
solutions and patch management is very
important to have real security of infor-
mation and consolidation of data.
”
Attendees Thrilled
The event with the support of security
bellwethers like Symantec, Loglogic,
eEye Digital Security, Paladion and
QuickHeal drew attention of many
IT managers. Harsha Thennarasu E
the IT Head of ISKCON maintained
that monitoring networks is a major
headache to the IT heads across or-
ganizations and network forensics
will surely take care of that. There
was a common agreement that the
conference had insights for every at-
tendee, whether he is an IT expert or
an amateur technology user. “It was
quite useful and helped me in gain-
ing very wide knowledge on the In-
formation warfare, which I wasn’t
aware of,” says Virendra Yadav from
Wipro. Security has always been
looked over as a tax. Embedding se-
curity in the culture of the company’s
thought process will reduce the cost
and will help to create more value for
customers.
The Smart Techie
|55|
November 2010
 TECH PRODUCTS
By Hari Anil

BEETEL’s New 3G Phone:

TD590 powered by MEDIATEK
Beetel’s new phone TD590
comes with 3G compatibility. It
has a front VGA camera and a
3.2MP rear camera. It is a Dual-
Kingston Launches New 32GB SIM handset with EDGE and 3G
MicroSDHC Card Genius’ New Power Saver for fast downloads. The phone
Mouse supports motion sensing and has
Kingston has come with a widgets for social networking
new 32GB microSDHC Genius’ new Navigator 905 mouse with BlueEye sites like Facebook, Nimbuzz
Card. It is capable of stor- Tracking technology provides a powerful optical en- and Yahoo. Additional entertain-
Dell Streak Comes to India ing nearly 29,000 photos, gine with high laser precision that works on almost ment options include Stereo
over 6,000 songs and every surface and helps save up to 40 percent battery Bluetooth playback, FM Radio
Dell’s android run tablet Streak arrives in India. It sports more than 2,000 minutes with recording and java compat-
power. This new mouse includes a 2.4GHz radio fre-
a five inch capacitive multi-touch WVGA display and An- of video. Kingston claims ibility. TD 590 supports all high-
quency together with 2.4GHz anti-interference RF
droid 1.6 mobile OS. The tablet is powered by Qual- that the card has been resolution video formats with the
technology for wireless freedom and convenience.
comm’s 1GHz Snapdragon processor; this makes it the tested on the latest smart- user-interface having animated
This gives the user up to 10 meters working range
first in the world to use the processor. Streak has a 5MP phones including the HTC effects while navigating. Along
and 1200 dpi resolution for accurate cursor tracking
camera with LED flash and a VGA front facing camera Evo 4G and Shadow; Mo- with this a high-end chipset from
and speed. The mini-sized mouse (85mm) holds one
for video calls. In terms of memory it comes with a 512 torola Droid X; RIM MediaTek, which Beetel claims
AAA battery and offers a comfortable to grip for ei-
MB ROM, 512 MB SDRAM, 2 GB non-user accessible (BlackBerry) Bold 9000; to be the best chipset available in
ther hand. The Navigator 905 is also an ultra portable
Micro SD for system and applications files only. It has and, Samsung Instinct the market, lies at the heart of all
mouse as it includes a Stick-N-Go mount that allows
Wi-Fi, 3G HSUPA and Bluetooth, for connectivity. Inte- (SPH-M800) and works the functions of the TD590.
the user to attach the mouse to a notebook or laptop.
grated social media apps like Twitter, Facebook, and flawlessly. The card is Price: `6999.
Price: $29.20
YouTube also comes with the tablet. Dell India has tied up available with a variety of adapters including SD and
with Tata DOCOMO and will provide postpaid users with miniSD. Kingston also ships the 32GB microSDHC card
free 500mb data usage every month for a period of six with a small USB reader for convenient data transfers. Transcend’
s Three new 4GB DDR3 DRAMs
months. The 32GB microSDHC Class 4 card is backed by a life-
Price: ` 34,990 time warranty and free tech support. Transcend rolled out three new 4GB DDR3 DRAM modules using high-density 2-gi-
Price: To be announced gabit (2Gbit) DDR3 chips. A 4GB 240-pin DDR3-1333 Long-DIMM for desktops it
runs at 1333MHz with latencies of 9-9-9, a 4GB DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM notebook
memory module which operates at 1333MHz with latencies of 9-9-9, and a 4GB
Kobian With Stylish Sub Woofer System DDR3-1066 SO-DIMM that runs at 1066MHz with CL7 timings. Each module
is optimized for stable 1.5V operation. These modules are made with high den-
Kobian introduced their new Mercury IXA 480U sub sity energy-efficient 2Gbit chips, enabling conscientious users to take ad-
woofer speaker system, which they promise, with its clear vantage of the best power-performance ratio available for their desktop or
sound, will be a delight for music, games and movie enthu- laptop computer. By the adoption of high capacity 2Gbit DDR3 chips
siasts. The stylishly designed wooden base has a 5.25 inch using the 40nm-class DRAM manufacturing process, Transcend claims
long throw driver, and its speaker delivers an output power that their new DDR3 modules effectively increase a computer`s total
of 10W RMS Power with low distortion. This new sub memory capacity while reducing power consumption and prolong
woofer system’s uniqueness lies in the fact that it supports system lifetime. All of Transcend’s DDR3 memory modules fully
USB drive or SD card which is a rare treat for music lovers. comply with JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Coun-
It can effortlessly comply with desktop and TV for optimal cil) standards. These 4GB DDR3 DRAMs are built with
performance. Its exterior is attributed with a sleek black and 256Mx8 high-quality DDR3 FBGA chips for their improved
silver design which makes it an eye candy. electrical and heat dissipation characteristics.
Price: `1980. Price: `6800 with Transcend’s lifetime warranty.

The Smart Techie

|56|November 2010
 PEOPLE MANAGER

W
By C. Mahalingam
The author is Executive Vice President & Chief People Officer, Symphony Services.
He can be reached at mahalingam.c@symphonysv.com
hen you watch highly successful
Focusing on managers, you will notice a dis-
tinct characteristic. They are very
focused on the possibilities and
birds. After returning to the monastery,
he fell asleep for a few hours. Suddenly,
he was jostled and awakened in the mid-
dle of the night by his fellow monk.
“How could you carry that woman?”
cried out the agitated monk and contin-
ued his harsh language. “What woman?”
the sleepy monk enquired. “Don’t you
remember? That women you carried
very good at what is known as
‘adaptive execution.’ Both the
words are important. They execute
with a missionary zeal and are also
adaptive – able to change direction
as the real opportunity evolves. Fi-

nally, those with an entrepreneurial
mindset engage the energies of
everyone in their chosen area of pur-
risks on both people and ideas; (4)
can energize teams through inclu-
siveness and connection with peo-
ple; and (5) develop expertise in a
function or domain.
They are very optimistic: Making
the best of possibilities and opportu-
nities demands a high dose of realis-
tic optimism even in the face of

Possibilities opportunities, more than obsessed

across the stream?” his colleague suit. They engage people both inside seemingly difficult business climate.

&
snapped. “Oh, her,” laughed the sleepy
or bogged down with the past. They stand testimony
monk. “I only carried her across the
to the old adage: “Understand the past; and then let it
While it is important to remember the lessons from the past,
stream. You seem to have carried her all
go!” While it is important to remember the lessons
future is going to be very different and therefore possibilities and
the way back to the monastery.”
from the past, future is going to be very different and

Opportunities The key question to reflect on is: are

opportunities need maximum attention.
therefore possibilities and opportunities need maxi-
we unduly obsessed with our past? – and
mum attention. American philosopher William James
this includes our successes and failures and outside. They build and nurture Dr Martin Seligman, the proponent
said that you could change your life by changing your
in the past. Past has both its lessons and a network of relationships rather of positive psychology makes a
experience. For example, you do not sing because you
limitations. Future holds possibilities and than going it alone, making the most case that success in life and career
are happy; you are happy because you sing! Albert
opportunities. Future, no doubt, is uncer- of intellectual and other resources demands more of OQ (Optimism
Einstein, Thomas Edison, Steven Spielberg and such
tain and can be very intimidating. How- people have to offer. Quotient) than IQ (Intelligence
other creative people we all can relate to, unlocked
ever, for the prepared it can also be very They are very vigilant all the time: quotient). Author of best -selling
their power by remaining open to possibilities and op-

rewarding. What behaviors differentiate Those who make the best of oppor- book, “Outliers”, Malcom Glad-
portunities. While rear view mirror serves an impor-
the future-focused managers? How can tunities show a heightened state of well again makes a powerful case
tant purpose while driving on a freeway, you do not
we become one and craft a future of our awareness, characterized by great that IQ beyond a threshold of say
make great strides by looking into it all the time. An
choice? I will share some perspectives in curiosity, alertness and willingness 115 or so is not a great differentia-
occasional glance is not only helpful but is often nec-
the following paragraphs. to “satisfice”- a term coined by the tor. Dr. Warren Bennis who dedi-
essary. But an obsession with the rear view mirror can
 Entrepreneurial Mindset: Those Nobel Prize winning economist Dr cated all his life for researching and
come in the way of pressing ahead.
managers with an entrepreneurial Herbert Simon to refer to the deci- reporting on the field of leadership
mindset make the best use of the cur- sion making strategy involving in- coined a term “Wallenda Factor” to
Baggage of the past: Too much of living in the past
rent possibilities and future opportu- complete information. Succeeding describe the impact of one’s per-
is no road map to succeeding in the future. It can ac-
nities. Given the increasing in a “Butterfly” environment where ception of the outcome of an event
tually drain a lot of energy and block our making the
complexities in the business land- strategic inflection points occur all or effort. When the perception is
best of the future. Here is a nice story I came across
scape, those with this mindset use the time in the business environ- positive, the outcome tends to be
that captures the spirit of the emotional baggage that
the uncertainty to their benefit and ment, being vigilant becomes a key positive. Optimism plays a vital
many of us tend to carry from the past instead of chan-
leverage it for growth rather than success factor for grabbing the pos- role in this. In his study, all the suc-
neling our energies into the future.
lament it. This mindset is marked by sibilities and opportunities. Some of cessful leaders demonstrated a high
speed and confidence. Those with the characteristics of vigilant leaders optimism and never once used the
The Monks and the Young Woman:
this mindset also are passionate in are: (a) focus externally and stay term ‘fail’ or ‘failure’ in their con-
Two monks were strolling by a stream on their way
seeking new opportunities and rec- open to diverse perspectives; (b) versation with him.
back to their monastery. They were startled by the
ognize them even as they appear in apply strategic foresight and probe
sound of a young woman in a bridal gown, crying
the horizon. Contrary to popular be- deeply for second-order effects; and Everyone can make it: Making the best
softly. She needs to cross to get to her wedding but
lief, those with an entrepreneurial (c) encourage others to explore of possibilities and opportunities requires
was worried that crossing the stream might ruin her
mindset are actually very highly dis- widely by creating a culture of dis- all the three characteristics described
beautiful handmade gown. In their particular sect,
ciplined. They often maintain an in- covery. GE’s Jack Welch describes above. And these attributes are not some-
monks were prohibited from touching women. But
ventory of unexploited opportunities in his best-selling book, “Winning”, thing we must be born with. These can
one monk was filled with compassion for the bride
and revisit this inventory of ideas the following as the traits of growth be cultivated as a mindset and behaviours
and went ahead with helping the woman cross by
from time to time. Their discipline leaders: (1) creates focus that defines and overtime, they become our habits. As
hoisting her on his shoulders. She smiled and bowed
also shows in that they pursue only success in the market; (2) Clear William James, the American Philoso-
with gratitude even as the monk splashed his way back
the very best opportunities and do thinker who can simplify strategy pher quoted at the beginning said: “You
to rejoin his companion. The second monk was livid
not go after anything and everything. into specific actions; (3) has the can change your life by changing your
and started to scold all the way back. The offending
And such a mindset also makes them imagination and courage to take experience!”
monk did not react, but simply listened to the singing

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|58|November 2010 The Smart Techie
|59|
November 2010
 TECHNOLOGY
The author is Vice President and General Manager, SaaS Business,
BMC Software and Christopher Williams, Lead Service Support
Solutions Manager, BMC Software
SaaS-Based
How to Choose a
T
IT Service Management Solution
he choice on how best to
consume software —
whether on-premises or
through a Software as a
Service (SaaS) model —
is based on your specific requirements
at different points in your business and
organizational lifecycles. Each model
presents benefits that take into consid-
eration the IT skills available within
your organization and your budget for
capital versus operational expenses.
When you look at each model, it is
also important to consider the poten-
tial for growth in your IT infrastruc-
ture and the level of customization and
integration required.
The Right Approach
Choosing a SaaS delivery model for IT
service management can provide your
IT organization with many benefits.
Leaving the IT service management
infrastructure to a SaaS vendor avoids
the upfront costs of purchasing and
implementing the software, the capital
expense of buying hardware, and the
costs associated with compliance and
security best practices.
However, even after having chosen
The Smart Techie
|60| November 2010
By Bob Johnson
to adopt a SaaS model, you still need
to decide ‘how much’ IT service man-
agement you need. Do you need a tac-
tically focused, slimmed-down
helpdesk application focused on basic
workflow for incident management
and asset stores? Or do you need a
more full-featured system that pro-
vides detailed information about the IT
infrastructure and best-practice IT
workflows?
Even after having chosen to adopt a SaaS
model, you still need to decide ‘how much’
IT service management you need
Choosing the right IT service man-
agement approach is critical because it
will help determine not only your IT
costs, but also your business agility for
years to come. Here are the criteria
that have helped IT organizations like
yours choose the right level of a SaaS-
based IT service management plat-
form.
Key Criteria
The size of your user base, along with
your staff size and associated skill lev-
els, can provide important clues about
the range and complexity of your en-
vironment. We have found that IT or-
ganizations generally employ one
helpdesk professional for every 100
users, and that those organizations
with a maximum of 35 helpdesk pro-
fessionals are generally candidates for
a smaller, slimmed-down offering.
Firms with more than 35 helpdesk pro-
fessionals, on the other hand, tend to
have more demanding requirements
that call for higher-end IT service
management systems as well as a
skilled staff to implement them effec-
tively.
Other considerations might be
more important than size, however.
One is the current and future com-
plexity of your application environ-
ment and the IT infrastructure that
supports it. If your applications — as
well as the servers, storage, and net-
works that support them — are rea-
sonably simple and static, you could
consider a more basic solution to hold
down cost and complexity. The greater
the complexity the more you should
consider a comprehensive solution.
Another factor to consider is how
the solution will help you deliver IT
services more quickly and at lower
cost. If you have a very complex envi-
ronment, the automation and manage-
ment provided by a comprehensive
solution might actually reduce the cost
and time required to provide such
services, even though the solution may
appear to be more expensive than a
more basic alternative. If your envi-
ronment is less complex, a basic solu-
tion may be a better way to get that
agility and savings. A comprehensive
IT service management solution pro-
vides more information and enables
more processes.
If managing ‘what you do’ is be-
coming as important, or more impor-
tant, than ‘what you have’, you should
also consider a comprehensive IT
service management platform. Basic
systems usually provide only an asset
inventory application, rather than an
asset management system that uses a
configuration management database
(CMDB) to catalog information about
your IT assets.
Choosing the right IT
service management
approach is critical
because it helps
determine not only
your IT costs, but
also your business
agility for years to
come
The CMDB found in comprehen-
sive systems not only stores asset data,
but also normalizes and shares it with
an entire range of IT service manage-
ment tools. An enterprise-scale CMDB
improves the speed and accuracy of
helpdesk services, while also support-
ing more mature, enterprise-wide
change and release processes. In addi-
tion, an enterprise-level CMDB eases
asset and software license manage-
ment activities, ranging from provid-
ing software to users to retiring
unneeded software.
Integration
The ability to integrate other systems
— such as infrastructure discovery,
event management, or business appli-
cations — into your IT service man-
agement platform is usually found
only in more comprehensive solutions.
While most basic systems ship with
integration to authentication mecha-
nisms, such as LDAP, you should con-
sider a broader solution if you need
integration with infrastructure discov-
ery, event management, or such busi-
ness applications as ERP or CRM
systems.
With broad integration needs
comes the requirement for infrastruc-
ture discovery tools that enable track-
ing of IT components, such as servers,
network switches, and storage arrays
through their service lifecycles. By
tracking the IT service components
that provide critical business services,
you are better able to make the deci-
The Smart Techie
|61|
November 2010
sions required to resolve service slow-
downs or interruptions, or to meet in-
dustry, corporate, or legally mandated
compliance and governance standards.
Change Management and Service
Level Management
Comprehensive IT service manage-
ment solutions tend to provide higher
levels of support, as well as more ma-
ture processes around change manage-
ment and service level management.
You should give greater consideration
to change management the more you
are experiencing serious problems im-
plementing changes or security up-
dates within your normal maintenance
windows. You should also make it a
very high priority if you have experi-
enced slowdowns or crashes because
of changes made in error or in the
wrong order, or if the problems are
caused by ‘collisions’ among multiple
releases.
You should consider on-premises
deployment if you have significant concerns
about the reliability or speed of the Internet
access available to your enterprise
Moving to a broader IT service
management solution with mature
change management processes might
also help you reduce costs and errors
by grouping configuration changes or
by changing the order in which they
are done. Service level management
capabilities found in comprehensive
IT service management solutions may
be worthwhile if your business re-
quires interactions among multiple
applications and IT infrastructure
components, or if you need to provide
different levels of service to various
classes of users. Other considerations
include whether you must meet spe-
cific SLAs for users in different busi-
ness units or divisions, and whether
the business measures IT on its ability
to provide business services (such as
The Smart Techie
|62| November 2010
decision support for a manufacturing
system or policy underwriting) rather
than just applications and network
uptime.
Release Management and Data
Center Automation
The more you need mature release
management capabilities and data
center automation, the more you
should consider a comprehensive IT
service management solution. You
should give more consideration to re-
lease management to the extent that
you have experienced problems im-
plementing new application releases
within your normal maintenance win-
dows or have experienced application
outages or slowdowns due to soft-
ware that was released in error or re-
leased in the wrong order. The
streamlined release management pro-
vided by a robust IT service manage-
ment tool can help free your IT staff
from routine work to develop new
mission-critical applications or serv-
ices.
Data center automation may be a
requirement if your internal IT group
is having trouble matching the prices
that cloud service providers are quot-
ing for IT services. It may also be a
requirement if your IT staff is being
pulled away from strategic, business-
critical projects to ‘keep the lights on’
or deal with operational emergencies.
Finally, this may also be a require-
ment if the management is consider-
ing outsourcing part or all of your IT
operation to save money.
The On-Premises Option
While there are many benefits to de-
ploying IT service management
through a SaaS model, there are other
cases where on-premises deployment
may be the best option. On-premises
deployment is required, of course, if
your organization must comply with
government, industry, or corporate
guidelines that forbid corporate data
or systems being hosted outside the
enterprise firewall. It may also be the
best option when senior business or
IT management staff are, for what-
ever reason, fundamentally opposed
to moving critical systems to ‘the
cloud’.
On-premises deployment may be
a better fit the more you need to cus-
tomize the code (as opposed to just
reconfiguring the system settings) or
integrate it with locally hosted appli-
cations. You should consider on-
premises deployment if you have
significant concerns about the relia-
bility or speed of the Internet access
available to your enterprise.
In summary, there is a variety of
IT service management choices avail-
able to you. If you choose the SaaS
delivery option, consider looking for
an ITIL-based helpdesk that meets
the needs of organizations with
smaller or less complex require-
ments. An on-demand option, how-
ever, can provide a SaaS-based IT
service management solution for or-
ganizations that need more extensive
capabilities in such areas as incident,
problem, and change management, as
well as integration with other appli-
cations. Alternatively, if you choose
to go on-premises, consider whether
you need essential service desk capa-
bilities, or a full-featured IT service
management solution.
As you consider your current and
future requirements, look for a ven-
dor that provides the flexibility to
move your deployment between the
cloud and on-premises as needed.
This allows you to protect your in-
vestment, while also providing the
flexibility to adapt as your business
requirements change.
Regn. No. KRNA/BGE-1046/08-10 RNI REG.NO. KARENG/2006/16955