Driving Behavioral Change for Information Management through Data-Driven Gree...
India Edition
1. InMyopinion:
navin Chaddha,MD, Mayfield Fund
VCTalk:
Vishal Mehta,Co-Founder,Lok Capital
InConversation:
Lars erik holmquist,YahooLabs!
BUSINESS OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE U.S. & INDIA NOVEMBER - 2012 SILICONINDIA.COM
siliconindia
Deepak Bansal, CEO, Clearpath Technologies
LeveragingtheLeveragingthe
CLeaR PaTh
TeChnoLoGIes:
CLeaR PaTh
TeChnoLoGIes:
ProwessoftheInternetProwessoftheInternet
DifferentiatingLeadership
WhatMightworkfor
managingGeneration
TheImportanceofincreasing
operationalizationin
BusinessInsights
True MobilityTrend:
The Future of
Mobile Computers is Rugged
Director-HR, Citrix Systems
CEO, Clarabridge
CEO, Handheld Group
PUBLISHED FROM BANGALORE
`50
4. [In My Opinion]
Rules of the Road for the era of
Simplicity, Mobile and the Social Web
Navin Chaddha, Mayfield Fund
[Venture Beat]
BloomReach lifts `125 Crores in
Series C round of Funding
Devkumar Gandhi’s Dobango nabs
`30 Crores in Seed Funding
Skyfire pulls `50 Crores in Series D
Funding from Panorama Capital
SME marketplace Power2sme se-
cures `10 Crore from Inventus Capi-
tal Partners
Vizury grabs Rs.45 Crore in Series B
Funding to strengthen global business
Contents November2012
08 [VC Talk]
How Can Social Enterprises
Impact the BoP Segment
Vishal Mehta, Lok Capital
[CIO Insights]
Virtualization is akin to placing all
Eggs in a Single Basket
C R Narayanan, Tulip Telecom Ltd.
Staying Ahead of the
TECHNOLOGY CURVE
Amit Sethi, Yes Bank
[In Conversation]
Aligning Academic and Industry Re-
search
Lars Erik Holmquist, Yahoo! Labs
[Leadership]
Differentiating Leadership What Might
work for managing Generation
Dr. Pallab Bandyopadhyay, Citrix Systems
[Viewpoint]
Transformation of Corporate Software
for a Connected World
Sanjay Dhawan, Symphony Teleca Corp.
12
28
Achieving Active Archive Ambition
Floyd Christofferson, SGI
True Mobility Trend: The Future of
Mobile Computers is Rugged
Jerker Hellstrom, Handheld Group
The Importance of increasing
Operationalization in Business Insights
Sid Banerjee, Clarabridge
PLM – Enabling Smarter Decisions
and Better Products
Vivek Marwaha, Siemens PLM Software
India
"Work to live. Do not live to work"
A Success Mantra
Dr. Kshama Singh, Istitute of Management
Social Sciences & Research
Do you have it in you to be a Great
Leader?
Raj Reddy, Infosys BPO
Beyond Simple Reporting
Dheeraj Nallagatla, Nalgan Technologies
[Management]
Wake Up the LEADER in You
Ankur Lal, Infozech Software Inc
22
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30
36
COVER STORY
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siliconindia
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40
44
Navin Chaddha
By Rachita Sharma
Leveragingthe
ProwessoftheInternet
Leveragingthe
ProwessoftheInternet
24
46
CLeaR PaTh
TeChnoLoGIes:
CLeaR PaTh
TeChnoLoGIes:
34
26
By Rachita Sharma
5. I
have been involved
in the technology
industry for 20
years as a serial en-
trepreneur, corpo-
rate executive and
investor. There are
some key rules of the road
that have guided my journey
and these are especially rele-
vant in the current era when
the social Web is dominant,
mobile platforms are ubiqui-
tous and consumers are de-
manding simplicity. As an
entrepreneur, I believe that
living by some core beliefs is key to
leading teams and building companies
that last. Here are a few of my funda-
mental beliefs, illustrated with exam-
ples from the entrepreneurs that we are
working with.
The Customer is Queen:
Actively listening to your customers
and rapidly iterating to reflect cus-
tomer needs has never been so impor-
tant. From a vendor of
cloud-integrated storage appliances to
a mobile fashion marketplace, May-
field Fund entrepreneurs like Ursheet
Parikh and Guru Pangal of StorSimple
and Manish Chandra of Poshmark,
who constantly listen, react and re-
spond to customer feedback, are find-
ing a quick path to customer
engagement.
Discover innovation across the value
chain:
Innovation extends across the value
chain beyond the technology level to
product building, distribution and pric-
ing. Entrepreneurs like John Newton
and John Powell of Alfresco are using
open source models to build products,
distributing them through frictionless
free SaaS models like Jerome
Ternynck of SmartRecruiters, and
using break through utility pricing and
packaging models like leasing of solar
panels by Lyndon and Peter Rive of
Solarcity. Identify innovation points
across the value chain to rapidly and
successfully scale your company.
Focus - start-ups die of indigestion,
not starvation:
It’s really easy to lose focus as an en-
trepreneur with a big vision (or an in-
vestor who is presented with many
great opportunities). Phil Fernandez
has built Marketo into a large and suc-
cessful business by initially targeting
the marketer with a marketing au-
tomation application, a category that
was dismissed as being too narrow
when they first started. Nailing that
need first, allowed them to expand and
offer a comprehensive revenue per-
formance management platform to the
marketing and sales organizations.
Sticking to your roots and core com-
petencies will get you to your final
destination quickly and with much less
heartburn.
surround yourself with excellence:
As an IIT student in New Delhi, a
graduate student at Stanford, a serial
entrepreneur whose companies were
acquired by Microsoft or went public,
iinn mmyy
opinion
By Navin Chaddha, Managing Director, Mayfield Fund
Navin Chaddha, entrepreneur, investor
and leader of the Mayfield Fund invests
in early-stage IT companies that lever-
age the themes of mobile, cloud/SaaS,
social, energytech and big data. Some
recent Mayfield investments include Ap-
pcelerator, Branchout, Couchbase,
Fab.com, Gigya, Marketo, Solarcity, and
StorSimple. Navin has made over 35 in-
vestments of which 11 have had IPOs
and another nine have been acquired.
Navin was founder and CTO of VXtreme
which was acquired by Microsoft to be-
come Windows Media, and served in
various management roles at Microsoft
after the acquisition. He was also co-
founder of iBeam Broadcasting (NAS-
DAQ IPO), CEO and founder of Rivio
(acquired by CPA2Biz). Mayfield Fund
is a global venture capital firm with $3
billion under management and a history
of investing in relationships. They invest
early and globally in themes including
mobile, cloud/Saas, social, energy and
big data.
RulesoftheRoadfortheeraof
sIMPLICITY,MoBILeanDThesoCIaL
siliconindia
|8|N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 2
Navin Chaddha
6. as well as a venture investor over the
last decade, I have been lucky to be
surrounded by brilliant, hungry, hard-
working and persistent people. Learn-
ing from them has been exciting and
rewarding, as together, we have built
organizations beyond our personal ex-
pectations. Don’t fall into the trap of
hiring B people as they will hire C
people and you will soon find yourself
at the end of the alphabet.
Pain killers sell, vitamins do not:
You have to ensure that your company
addresses a real pain point of your tar-
get customer. Sometimes it takes a
while to evolve your idea or even
pivot from the original one to nail the
real pain, as was the case with Gigya,
which was founded as a social widget
and application distribution platform
with a media/advertising business
model. However, they evolved their
technology and pivoted to address the
much needed and cumbersome task of
enabling websites to become social.
Their SaaS offering is used by over
500 global businesses to leverage so-
cial logins, social apps and game me-
chanics that create loyalty and
engagement with their customers and
audiences.
Delight the user:
In an era of “appification” and “con-
sumerization of the enterprise”, prod-
ucts only have seconds in which to
captivate and engage users. UX/UI
design is playing a critical role in lead-
ing social Web e-commerce compa-
nies like Fab.com which are providing
curated experiences that will let them
grow into an Amazon-size platform
for design. Learn from these design
leaders and do not be afraid to iterate,
iterate and iterate until you get it right.
Capital efficiency is a must:
In an era of Big Gulps and multi-bil-
lion dollar valuations, it can be hard to
go against the mega-trend mentality of
the crowd. Do not be afraid to raise
small amounts of capital and spend it
efficiently so you can prove the prod-
uct-market fit and the go-to market
strategy before raising a lot of capital.
adapt continuously, as dinosaurs do
not survive:
As Eric Ries outlines in his book, The
Lean Start-up, the build-measure-learn
feedback loop is a new way of think-
ing about product development and a
must have mindset for entrepreneurs
today. Dinosaurs became extinct for a
reason, so free yourself from old mod-
els and stay nimble and in touch with
today’s times.
And finally,
Rememberthatitisamarathon,not
a sprint:
One of our most successful enterprise
infrastructure companies, 3PAR Data,
took over a decade from founding to
dominating the category of utility-
based storage and being acquired for
$2.35 billion by Hewlett Packard.
There were many twists and turns
along the way, according to their CEO
David Scott, but the company stayed
focused and patient through them all.
I hope these learnings will help in your
journey from founding to fame. Good
luck building great companies. si
siliconindia
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Thebuild-measure-learn
feedbackloopisanew
wayofthinkingabout
productdevelopment
andamusthavemindset
forentrepreneurstoday
7. T
he developer of big
data marketing
apps company
BloomReach raises `125
crores in series C round of
funding. This round of in-
vestment was led by New
Enterprise Associates
(NEA). The previous in-
vestors of the company,
Lightspeed Venture Part-
ners and Bain CapitalVen-
tures also made investment
in the company. The com-
pany plans to use the fund
raised to expand sales and
marketing efforts and ex-
tend R&D investment to
create big data applications
beyond search for every
online marketing channel including mobile, social and video.
Raj De Datta and Ashutosh Garg founded BloomReach in
2009 when they recognized the need for a more relevant web
due to the growing frustration with information discovery shared
by consumers and marketers. The company is headquartered in
Mountain View, California and emerged from its stealth mode
in February this year. With the current round of investment,
BloomReach has raised a total of `205 crores in funding till
date.
BloomReach created aWeb Relevance Engine that analyses
hundred crore customer interactions and semantically interprets
the products and services on over hundred crore web pages
daily.
With the Indian market growing exponentially, the company
is planning to tap this growth and enter the market within a year.
Some of the international clienteles of BloomReach include re-
tail biggies like Neiman Marcus,Williams-Sonoma and Crata &
Barrell.
BloomReachlifts`` 125Crores
inseriesCroundofFunding
T
he Nexage founder Devkumar Gandhi founded
Dobango in early 2011 as the first-ever social market-
ing platform for Pinterest. And recently the startup
raised a whopping ` 30 Crores in seed funding from John Os-
term, who has also made an investment in Nexage.
Gandhihasplanstousethefundtofullydifferentiatefrom
other early movers on Pinterest by focusing solely on mar-
keting campaigns beyond analytics. Being among one of the
first company to effectively monetize and run social market-
ing campaigns for brands on Pinterest, Dobango has spent the
past six months creating a way for brands to build and meas-
ure targeted social contests using pinboards.
Initially founded as a social gaming platform with casino-
style games available on Facebook, iPhone, Android phones
and the web; but when Gandhi saw an opportunity in social
marketing, he shifted his attention and planned to focus on
this platform for next one year.
“Pinterest is the greenfield opportunity in social media
marketing right now, and brands have struggled to figure out
how to execute marketing campaigns at scale.We have finally
cracked the code on this and have seen incredible results that
go beyond anything I have worked on in my career. This is
why we have decided to raise funds and go all in,” says De-
vkumar Gandhi, Founder and CEO, Dobango.
The company has plans to
expand the service by introduc-
ing content management tools
and analytics for brands. Cur-
rently focused on this platform,
Dobango creates a contest page
for consumers to post user gen-
erated content. Its social mar-
keting platform automatically
pins users’ content to the
brand’s Pinterest page and syn-
chronizes data from Pinterest to
track contest progress and no-
tify winners of daily prizes.
DevkumarGandhi’sDobango
nabs``30Croresin
seedFunding
siliconindia
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Raj De Datta
Devkumar Gandhi
8. siliconindia
|14|N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 2
N
itin Bhandari co-founded
Skyfire pulls in `50 crores in
fourth round of funding led
by a new investor, Panorama Capital.
Existing investors Verizon Ventures,
Matrix Partners, Trinity Ventures and
Lightspeed Venture Partners also par-
ticipated in this round of funding. The
fund will be used to meet the de-
mands of its growing list of wireless
operator customers and to increase its
global sales and marketing resources,
with further aggressive expansion
within Europe and into Asia.
Headquartered in Moutain View,
California, Skyfire is a provider of
mobile video optimization and cloud
solutions for mobility. The company
is dedicated to leveraging the power
of cloud computing to improve radi-
cally the mobile internet experience
for both Operators and Consumers.
Skyfire also plans to scale its
team and hire staff to cover existing
relationships and new opportunities
in Eastern Europe, Japan, Southeast
Asia and Australia, thereby adding to
its London and Silicon Valley offices.
According to the company, data
deluge is crushing mobile operators,
straining the user experience, and
squeezing operating margins. Skyfire
continues to innovate on other cloud-
powered products as well, with the
recently launched Skyfire Horizon
browser extension platform. This al-
lows the users to customize their de-
fault mobile browsers with
extensions, plug-ins, and toolbars
similar to how consumers currently
personalize their desktop browsers.
skyfirepulls ``50CroresinseriesD Fundingfrom
PanoramaCapital
Nithin Bhandari
G
urgaon based Power2sme, an
eCommerce B2B portal focus-
ingonthemanufacturingSMEs,
procured `10 crore in their second round
of funding. This round of funding was
lead by Inventus Capital Partners.
Through this round of funding this buy-
ing club for SMEs aims to expand its
product offerings and reach `1,000 crore
in annual sales on its platform in three
years.
Founded by R. Narayan with seed
capital of `2 crore, Power2sme is an on-
line platform which simplifies procuring
procedures for SMEs. They work across
industriessuchasmetal,polymer,textiles,
automotive,constructionandelectricalby
providing information and tools which
enable SME's to both improve their effi-
ciency and reduce their procurement
costs.
“We are strong believers in the po-
tentialofIndia'sSMEmarket,andourob-
jective is to expand our business with the
ability to cater to SMEs across multiple
sectors. We have an aggressive outlook
on growth, where we expect to end our
first year with annual sales of `50 crore,
growing to `1,000 crores over the next
three years,” says R. Narayan.
Power2sme’s current base of SME
clients includes companies with annual
revenues at between `10 crore and ` 250
crore including suppliers such as IOCL,
Haldia Petrochemicals, GAIL and Sree
Cements.
With this investment Parag Dhol,
Managing Director, Inventus Capital
Partners will join the company's board.
The purchase platform of the com-
panyisavailableforfreeofchargetotheir
customers. They focus on working with
large, established and trusted suppliers so
that their customers are assured of the
quality of the product that they buy from
them.
sMemarketplacePower2smesecures
``10CrorefromInventusCapitalPartners
Vizury grabs ``45 Crore in series B Funding
to strengthen global business
T
he digital marketing technology
company, Vizury Interactive,
raises close to `45 crore in series
B round of funding which was led by
Nokia Growth Partners. Existing in-
vestors OjasVentures and Inventus Cap-
ital Partners also participated in this
round of funding along with the seed in-
vestors who continue to remain invested.
Vizury plans to use the fund to
strengthen its presence acrossAsia,Aus-
tralia and South America, set up R&D
efforts and drive product innovations.
Established in 2008, Vizury is a dig-
ital marketing technology provider en-
abling e-commerce and online travel
companies maximize the value of their
digital data with a combination of cut-
ting-edge technology and impeccable
service. As a strategic partner, the com-
pany combines its deep domain expert-
ise, cutting edge technology and
exceptional service to deliver stellar re-
sults.
“We see this funding as an endorse-
ment of our approach to strategically
partner with our customers and help
them drive revenue using a combination
of cutting edge technology and enter-
prise class service. The capital infusion
will allow us to accelerate our invest-
ments in R&D, bring new products to
market and establish ourselves as clear
leaders in the space. Having such in-
vestors in our corner will be invaluable
as we make the next big leap,” says
Chetan Kulkarni, Co-Founder and CEO,
Vizury.
Chetan Kulkarni
R. Narayan
si
9. si
How Can Social Enterprises
Impact the BoP Segment
By Vishal Mehta, Co-founder and Partner, Lok Capital
S
ocial enterprises that
work towards inclusion
of the BoP segment
walk a tight rope be-
tween balancing their
profitability to sustain
themselves, and mak-
ing an impact on the socially backward
population.
Entrepreneurs who work for inclu-
sion of the BoP need to focus on deliv-
ering impact to the communities and
segments they want to serve and rest will
fall in place.As long as the value propo-
sition of the service they are offering to
their customers is clear and the sticki-
ness (relationship with customers) is
built into the business model, financial
viability/profits will automatically fol-
low. The whole social enterprise space
is at its infancy, so opportunity to inno-
vate is immense. There are many "low
hanging fruits" in this sector, so the best
thing which entrepreneurs can do, is to
choose any and drive it with 200 percent
execution focus.
Social entrepreneurs need to invest
good time in articulating their idea. This
is very important, because only then can
they communicate to stakeholders (cus-
tomers, investors, and others) what they
stand for, with minimal mismatch in ex-
pectations.
The imperative to set up social en-
terprises impacting bottom of the pyra-
mid population is felt now more than
ever. Social enterprises are not just about
financial inclusion anymore. It has
moved to several other sectors. As in-
vestors, we at Lok Capital believe in giv-
ing a lift to social enterprises across
sectors.
Lok Capital II will be focusing on
four key sectors - financial services, ed-
ucation, healthcare, and employment
services. The common thread is "inclu-
sion" i.e. services that are targeted to-
wards low-income, base of the pyramid
segments to drive inclusive economic
growth in India.
One key aspect that will drive the
successful delivery of BoP business
models is technology. Most of them im-
pact businesses, especially when they
are serving the BoP as "customer", are
trying to balance three things –
a) Quality
b) Accessibility, and
c) Affordability
We feel technology for impact busi-
nesses is as important for any other busi-
ness, but becomes significantly more
relevant from the accessibility and af-
fordability aspect. How can we utilize
technology for better reach and penetra-
tion (accessibility), and in a cost effec-
tive manner (affordability)?
Having said that, right technology
and application development will al-
ways need the right, minimum scale,
which is the other struggle for most im-
pact businesses. So within the life cycle
of Services Company the time to invest
in technology becomes important. In our
experience, technology for most of these
BoPservices companies is always an en-
abler and not the key value proposition
in itself. So the core product/service is
the key and only then technology can
further help establish its reach and de-
livery. Sometime people put too much
focus on technology too soon.
We have carefully selected sectors
where the "demand" for the services is
well established and proven. Therefore,
in theory, impact and financially viabil-
ity can co-exist. Achieving both, social
impact and financial viability is key to
proving Lok's social VC model.
Lok Capital is a Gurgaon
based venture capital firm. It
focuses on high potential fi-
nancial inclusion and broader
inclusion enterprises like edu-
cation, healthcare and liveli-
hood serving the bottom of
pyramid (BOP) segment.
siliconindia
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VVCC TTaallkk
Vishal Mehta
10. siliconindia
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E
very single time one needs an
opinion on a buying deci-
sion; they refer to a search
engine. Be it buying a cell
phone or selecting where you
will have dinner tonight, al-
most all our decisions are af-
fected by the results that appear on search
engines. In fact almost 64.9 percent of internet
users use search engines to look for a product
and 55 percent of the purchases made online are
through the sites that are listed at the search en-
gine with a higher ranking. The names that ap-
pear as the top results win a large share of the
market pie. But how do some websites make it
to the top while the others lose? The answer is
Search Engine Optimization or SEO which
today is an indispensable requirement for any
business.
This makes the SEO a highly sought after
industry. However,the technology used for SEO
is one that can be grasped easily by individuals.
This gives rise to a host of freelancers who do
internet marketing individually thus making it
an unorganized sector. In the year 2004, a young
BE student saw a vision of creating a substan-
tially big business in this unorganized sector.
By Rachita Sharma
CCOOVVEERR STORY
Deepak Bansal is your quintessential 20
something. He is polite, motivated and
looks like any other tech enthusiast. But
what sets him apart from the rest is the
fact that he is the founder of a unique
company that is transforming the SEO
industry. He founded ClearpathTechnol-
ogy to help businesses leverage the
power of the internet. Along with his
team of professionals and experts who
are matchless to the other SEO service
providers they analyze and develop var-
ious strategies to enhance their clients’
web presence and also help increase traf-
fic to their website.
The seed was sown in Bansal’s mind
when he realized that the internet was a
growing monster. With approximately
two billion people online, thousands of
businesses now have an online presence.
But unless their websites appear promi-
nently on major search engines, they can-
not tap into this vast community of
netizens.This is where Bansal positioned
Clearpath. He began doing SEO which
helped search engines find and rank web-
site higher than the millions of other sites
in response to a search query. The com-
pany today has more than 3500 ‘happy’
clients who have benefitted from
Clearpath’s technology.
Theinitiation
Clearpath had a modest beginning
with as few as four employees but has
now transformed into a market leader
and employs more than 600 employees
across major Indian cities, Delhi, Gur-
gaon, Noida, Mumbai and now Banga-
lore too. Headquartered in New Delhi,
the company was originally focused on
SEO. With the advent of time they un-
derstood the new demands of the indus-
try and added other tools of internet
marketing to their repertoire.
The Internet Marketing industry
which is a whopping $14 billion today
witnessed a sudden spurt owing to the
drastic increase in use of internet. Search
engine marketing as a domain is most
dominating in internet marketing and
grasps a share of over 50 percent in the
total business. Its ability to drive direct
traffic and thus direct sales makes it all
the more important. Clearpath could
sense this change in trend and thus
steered itself towards internet marketing,
a wide-ranged phenomenon which uses
SEO in addition to other web marketing
tools to attract the attention of potential
customers and also search engines.
Clearpath’s existing SEO expertise
helped them become game changers in
the field of Internet marketing as well.
They also moved with the times and
understood the value of sites such as
Facebook andTwitter which today are an
integral part of any internet marketing
campaign.Tapping into these new modes
of marketing gave them the much needed
edge against their competitors.They now
offer a bouquet of services right from pay
per click, social media, local listings and
reputation management. Clearpath has
been able to harness the industry better
than any other player in the market and is
working towards creating a substantially
big business within its sector. The com-
Prowessofthe
Internet
CLeaRPaTh
TeChnoLoGIes:
Deepak Bansal
The internet marketing
industry is cluttered
with a host of free-
lancers or home based
businesses. The pres-
ence of these small
players makes the in-
dustry a rather unor-
ganized sector
“
“
Leveragingthe
11. pany has also deservingly won several
laurels in the sphere of online marketing.
The recent honor awarded to them is the
‘Internet Marketing Company of the
Year’, 2012 by a prestigious publication.
Lovethyclient
The company understood that a 50
year old businessman who runs a rather
traditional business will not know the
value of internet. Also, a small startup
will suffers if its website is not picked up
by search engines. It is the work of an
SEO provider to assist their clients by
leveraging the power of the internet.
Clearpath does exactly this. Focusing on
Small and Medium
Businesses or SMBs,
the company helps
clients spread across
the U.S., United King-
dom, SouthAsia, India,
Canada, Europe and
Australia to make use
of the vastness of the
internet.
Bansal, a passionate entrepreneur,
convinces his clients about the use of
SEO and online marketing techniques.
Several of his clients who were unaware
and unsure about SEOs have benefitted
immensely from the technology and
today do not shy away from recom-
mending the company to others.
Raghvendra Agarwal, director of IRG
World, a corporate leasing company ex-
claims that he was not very sure of the re-
sults that Clearpath Technology could
bring to his company. But he was pleas-
antly surprised when Deepak’s ideas
helped his company. This is not an iso-
lated case. Clearpath replicates it with al-
most all of its clients.
The company’s tendency to retain the
clients by providing the best of services
has been the key in its success. With the
services extended in complete internet
marketing domain, Clearpath is a one
stop solution for any internet based busi-
ness.
To build a successful company like
Clearpath is no ordinary task and their
approach needs to be unique. Since a
majority of their clients are based outside
India, the round the clock work becomes
all the more important. The company is
dedicated towards its customers and do
not give them a chance to complain. On
the contrary their clients praises about the
way Clerapath’s team interacts with its
cients. Rebekah Fensome, a UK based
life coach and a long time Clearpath
client says that the team keeps her up-
dated all the time. She also adds that her
mails are answered almost immediately.
Making 3500 clients happy is not an
easy task for any organization. But a per-
sonal connect with their clients makes
this target attainable.
Clearpath focuses
heavily on building
healthy customer re-
lationships to better
comprehend their
needs and expecta-
tions. “We started
with small scale
companies, worked together, communi-
cated on a daily basis and in a sense grew
together,” says Bansal.
Peoplecentriccompany
Acompany can grow only when its core
strength, its people truly believe in it. In
today’s professional world, switching
companies within the same industry has
become a norm. But Clearpath boasts of
several of its original team members still
being with thecompany.Their dedication
seven years back has not waivered and
has now transformed to confidence in the
company. The company values its em-
ployees and works towards creating a
positive environment for them to work
in.
Clearpath also believes that a com-
pany is only as strong as its weakest em-
ployee and thus gives importance to
hiring the right talent. To work in the in-
ternet domain, you require the perfect
skill set. The company has worked hard
towards recruiting talented people to
work for them. After having tasted suc-
cess in the NCR region they have moved
their quest for quality to Mumbai and
Bangalore where they opened offices in
March and September 2012 respectively.
They believed that every region has its
own culture and it would work better to
have region specific employees who
would connect better with the clients.
Most of their back end work is done
from their head office in Delhi and the
new offices in Mumbai and Bangalore
comprising mainly of sales teams. The
company also has plans to expand to
Chennai next. With major business de-
velopments on their roadmap ahead, the
company still has a long way to go ac-
cording to Bansal.
Companywithaheartofgold
Before you pin down Clearpath as an ag-
gressive business focused only on mon-
etary growth, think again. The humble
company understands that it owes its suc-
cess to the society and thus wants to give
back to it.They are big on Corporate So-
cial Responsibility.They have set up var-
ious eye and diabetes camps. But a truly
unique achievement of the company
which cannot be lauded enough is their
effort to enrich the lives of physically dis-
abled individuals. The company em-
ployed three such special people and has
trained them with the necessary domain
knowledge. Clearpath believes that phys-
ical disability is only a minor setback and
not a major deal breaker for them as em-
ployers. They want to train such people
to give them a fair chance at living a life
with dignity and financial security.
The company aims at leveraging the
power of technology to help its employ-
ees provide more accurate and effective
output. They are also planning to foray
into mobile SEO which according to the
company is going to grow into an impor-
tant domain in the next few years. The
company is also set to expand its busi-
ness to other countries such as Dubai and
Singapore within the next year since
these are extraordinary business cities.
With a motivated team, plans of ex-
pansion in sight, loyal customers and
their heart in the right place, Clearpath
Technology can only pave its way up-
wards. Bansal’s vision of helping busi-
nesses gain high visibility on the internet
is growing by the day and working to-
wards paving a road to its clients success,
thus justifying its name.
“I have been dealing with Clearpath Technology for almost four years &
during this time have found them to be extremely reliable & professional.
They have been the backbone of our business promotion across four separate
businesses & they continue to deliver on their promise. I was skeptical at first
being that I am located in Australia, however their commitment to ensuring
our businesses have ranked well on the key search engines has negated any
borders. Thanks again and I would have no hesitation recommending
Clearpath Technologies to anyone interested in their services.”
Andrew Lawson, Owner of Sign A Rama
Salisbury a collection of hundreds of full-service sign stores
worldwide.
"The results have exceeded my expectations. Whereas before I was de-
pendent on being found through a web portal featuring my competition as
well, my clients can now get in touch with me directly. I am very pleased."
Rebekah Fensome, Owner of RebekahFensomelifecoah.com
a life coaching service that also provides Yoga Camps in Ibiza and U.K
si
Clearpath believes
thatacompanyisonly
as strong as its weak-
est employee
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12. CCIIOO IInnssiigghhttss
It is important that the higher au-
thorities in the company are directly in-
volved in the purchase requisition thus
avoiding any compliance made by the
secretaries while placing the order.
Portable devices and Mobile applica-
tions have ensured that the top man-
agement gets relevant information on
their mobile so as to allow faster access
for approval. This is an example of
proper knowledge management system
which is an extensively important im-
plementation in the current scenario.
ThemagicofVirtualization:
Virtualization is akin to placing all
eggs in a single basket. It has always
played an important role in reducing
the cost of operation, and little did
Tulip realize this until Narayanan
transformed the company to a virtual-
ized version and led to a whopping 70
percent deduction in power consump-
tion. This equates to a return of invest-
ment (ROI) time for virtualization
within a year.
Today’sCIos:atechnocratorbusiness
expert?
With the sand clock turning upside
down, it is time for the CIOs to change
their roles from just being technocrats
to that of business experts as technol-
ogy can be explained by vendors or
product specialists in the industry.
Spending more time with sales, prod-
uct development and the financial team
is of paramount importance and there
are some activities which compulsorily
need the attention of the CIO. Some
processes have nothing to do with tech-
nology but are more inclined towards
careful planning and standardization in
the organization.
For example, it usually takes about
25 days from billing to delivery of the
product to the customers. If the CIO is
capable of reducing the time frame to
18 days, then it can lead to positive
revenue growth.
Masteringtheartofadaption:
The more than 36 years of experience
in the industry has taught me that you
need to be the master in adapting the
changing environment. Initially every
management believed in microman-
agement of the employees rather than
developing faith and assigning respon-
sibility to them.
Normally every person who begins a
role in an organization starts as a tech-
nocrat. As the individual moves up in
the hierarchy, he has to go up in the
delegate and impose trust with the co-
workers. Emphasizing on microman-
agement will not lend enough time for
strategy and creative innovation.
Showing faith in employees’ abilities
can make them more perfect and inde-
pendent. This strategy has saved time
and helped me in discussion with the
various stakeholders in the organiza-
tion.
Technology is continuously
changing making it important for the
company to be flexible, scalable and
upgradable. This would enable the fu-
ture needs of the organization as flex-
ibility and scalability are big
challenge in the IT infrastructure in-
dustry. (As told to Vignesh.A) si
Roleandcurrentpriorities:
With multiple responsibilities within the organization, I wear
several hats. But three of my resposibilities are more impor-
tant. In my role as a CIO, I am responsible for internal IT, IT
strategy, alignment and compliance with regards to overall
IT aspects of the organization.
Roles vary within the organization depending upon the
need of the moment. Thus, I also act as the product develop-
ment manager. The overall experience of more than 36 years
within the industry at large has helped immensely in imple-
menting new initiatives within Tulip. The normal problems
faced, the pinpoints and how can they be addressed are some
of the issues solved within the organization.
The third cap is managing the network of professional
employees in the team and their projects
Currenttrendsintheindustry:
Tulip is a managed services and connectivity player. Rarely,
some of the entities may not be working to the satisfaction of
the end user; hence the trend is to give a deal for every trans-
action that the end user is going to do. This will eventually
lessen the possibility of dissatisfaction for the customer.
Normally there is a database administrator who looks into
the database structure. The applications manager, network-
ing consultant and web server manager analyze the system
as a whole. Together there are no discrepancies that can es-
cape the eye of the team members. Thus the second trend is
using multiple individuals within the firm to pinpoint faults
rather than a single individual.
C R Narayanan initialized the virtualization of Tulip
Telecom eventually leading to 70 percent reduction
of power consumption by the company. Narayanan is
the CIO of Tulip Telecom Limited (BSE/NSE:
TULIP), a data telecom service and IT solutions
provider that offers innovative IP based infrastruc-
tural solutions.With a market cap of Rs 563.33 Crore
employing more than 2,500 employees, Tulip is
India’s largest MPLS VPN player.
In a chat with Narayanan, he gives us prominent de-
scriptions on how the industry has changed and new
trends which are changing the course of IT.
Virtualizationis
akinto
placingalleggs
inasingle
Basket
C R Narayanan
C R Narayanan, CIO, Tulip Telecom Ltd.
emphasizingon
micromanagement
willnotlendenough
time for strategy
andcreativeinnova-
tion. showing faith
in employees’ abili-
ties can make them
moreperfectandin-
dependent
“
“
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F
ounded in 2004, Yes Bank (BSE: 532648) is
a private sector bank with a Market Cap of
Rs 14,733.12 Crore and employs over 5,642
employees as on March 31st
, 2012. Today
its is on the cusp of a major transformation.
In a candid conversation with Amit Sethi,
the CIO of Yes Bank, he emphasizes on the
importance of an innovative mindset. We also hear his views
about the transitioning role of a CIO and the absolute ne-
cessity for the IT team to transform to a business IT team.
Excerpts from the interview.
Chartingthegrowthgraph
Yes Bank began rapid expansion a year and a half back and
has reached a different stage in its maturity cycle where we
are on an upwards growth trajectory. Our aim is to obtain
retail liabilities and assets and build an entire retail franchise
for the bank from scratch. The atmosphere is exciting and
filled with enthusiasm.
The insights and learning
from our past experiences lead to
right choices today. This chal-
lenging environment needs us to
come up with innovative solu-
tions which will ultimately im-
pact the quality, cost efficiency
and also customer execution.
Being at the eye of growth is the
most satisfying point for any pro-
fessional.
But the frontrunner is always
innovation. Yes Bank is a ‘tech-
nology bank’ with technology as
an enabler and also a differentiator. Our sole purpose is to
keep Yes Bank ahead of the technology curve.
‘Customer’-driveroftransformations
A customer’s expectation from a bank has changed drasti-
cally because of the way technology empowers them. Inter-
net solutions are not enough and they want solutions on their
mobile and on social media. Customers’ expectation in re-
spect to customer service has also transformed. They require
instant gratification of needs. Banks today are transforming
using technology to keep pace with the customers.
Apart from external customers the bank staff and people
working in the back office also expect sophisticated tech-
nology to aid their functioning. Nobody wants to log into
10 different systems to complete one transaction. They want
all their work to be done on a single screen.
The entire technology landscape has evolved where we
have cloud based deliverables both on private and public
cloud. We are enabled to increase and enhance scale as the
customer wants. The entire process has become extremely
agile and fast.
ChangingroleofIT
There was a time when banks
used to own everything, but
today we function on partner-
ships. Banks maintain the core
operations and product and sales
infrastructure, but when it comes
to technology servicing, the or-
ganization forges partnerships to
help maintain the infrastructure
and enable a smooth function-
ing.
The role of technology is
changing to ‘business technol-
ogy’ today. It has become increasingly important for the
technology team to understand the business domain and
quarterly priorities. They must work
closely with partners who will be able
to deliver the right solutions. This pro-
vides more flexibility in terms of pric-
ing, and also helps in increasing agility.
IT is now measured in terms of de-
liverable values. Today, we do not talk
about uptime or project timeline only;
we talk about how IT has created busi-
ness value by delivering a particular
project. IT matrices are converting to
business matrices.
enablinginteroperabilityand
scalingoperations
In India, the volume of customers is
growing exponentially. The transaction
volumes and the scale of growth have
increased manifold. To cope with these
volumes we maintain a private cloud
environment where we can scale up as
required.
In terms of software, we have al-
ready got into a grid architecture which
means there is no glance or a single ap-
plication server to cater to everything.
And as you scale up, it simply keeps up
adding that to the application server so
that you can take the load and scale up.
There is a huge amount of unstruc-
tured data which is outside the core
banking environment which could be
residing on the web. Using various
partnership models that do all the ana-
lytics that we require, we define what
kind of big data analytics, and struc-
tured and unstructured data we want.
They also help us to get data related to
customer sentiment or lead manage-
ment or getting feedback on how par-
ticular product is performing in the
market or co-creation of the product in
the market.
We have started virtualizing our
end desktop. Due to the inherent secu-
rity features which virtual desktop en-
vironment lets you put, you can
actually put a board of restriction. You
have to patch up or the end user device
has to come at a particular level before
you can login into an infrastructure.
Since everything rests in the central
servers and nothing on local devices
we are able to tackle any security issue
surrounding BYOD.
strategiestobattlechallenges
IT leaders face a plethora of challenges
both internally and externally. Our
technical man force cannot do only
with technical skill set. They must also
possess soft skills such as leadership
and communication skills along with
marketing and sales skills. Our biggest
challenge lies in transforming the
mindset of our technical workforce.
They need to have a business outlook.
The IT team is expected to not just
reduce cost but also to increase profit.
To bring forth the value from IT, we
closely work with the business teams
to showcase to them the business ben-
efits that any IT project is bringing to
the organization. This lends a hand to
get funding for the whole project and
also builds a good perception of the IT
team. Convincing the management
forms one of the biggest challenges.
It is very important for the technol-
ogy team to have an innovative mind-
set to come up with solutions that help
us deliver better to the customer. We
must keep an open eye to identify
trends that will work for the benefit of
our organization and ultimately fulfill
our vision to become the ‘Best Quality
Bank of the World in India’.
(As told to Rachita Sharma)
Amit Sethi aids Yes Bank in expanding innovation exponentially in the tech-
nology and infrastructure segment of the industry.
Amit Sethi, Sr. President and Chief Information Officer, Yes Bank
Ithasbecomeincreasingly
importantforthetechnol-
ogyteamtounderstand
thebusinessdomainand
quarterlypriorities
staying ahead of the
TeChnoLoGY CURVe
staying ahead of the
TeChnoLoGY CURVe
si
Amit Sethi
CCIIOO IInnssiigghhttss
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RANK INSTITUTE NAME CITY, STATE COLLEGE SCORE
1 Sikkim Manipal University Manipal, KA 347
2 ICFAI University Hyderabad, AP 333
3 IGNOU New Delhi, DL 327
4 Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning Pune, MH 321
5 Annamalai University Annamalainagar, TN 319
6 Osmania University Hyderabad, AP 303
7 Anna University Chennai, TN 296
8 Yashwantrao C. Maharashtra Open University Nasik, MH 289
9 University of Mumbai Mumbai,MH 273
10 Dr. B.R.Ambedkar Open University Hyderabad, AP 259
11 Maulana Azad National Urdu University Hyderabad,AP 240
12 Netaji Subhas Open University Kolkata, WB 237
13 Delhi University New Delhi, DL 232
14 Shivaji University Kolhapur, MH 229
15 Maharishi Dayanand University Rohtak, HR 221
16 Andhra University Visakhapatnam, AP 217
17 Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University Ahmedabad, GJ 203
18 SNDT – Women’s University Mumbai,MH 200
19 Alagappa University Karaikudi, TN 197
20 M.P. Bhoj (Open) University Bhopal, MP 180
Note: The above ranked colleges are exclusive participants who responded to questionnaire.
On the education floor, an MBA reigns supreme. The management education sector
in India is booming and today there are 3,900 management schools with close to 3.5
lakh seats. Even with a host of management colleges closing shop, the demand for
good quality management education is still high. Amongst this crowd of MBA, hope-
fuls are hordes of professionals who are unable to leave their current jobs but still
nurse a desire to peruse an MBA degree.
To aid the growth of such professionals, siliconindia presents the first edition of
‘Top 20 Colleges/ Universities offering Distance MBA in India’ 2012. Our objective is
to arm professionals with extensive information that will facilitate their quest of iden-
tifying the best college/university to pursue distance management education from.
Colleges have been ranked based on stringent parameters such as number of in-
takes, pass outs, quality of course materials, course duration and E-learning plat-
forms among others. Mentioned ahead is the list of Top 20 MBA colleges with
composite score based on weightage of parameters analyzed by our research team
which conducted an online poll for students who have completed their distance man-
agement education.
We sincerely hope that our initiative will assist the future MBA aspirants’ educa-
tional journey.
15. aligningacademic andIndustryResearch
Current Initiatives for innovation at
Yahoolabs:
Mobile users are doubling every year. It
is not a stationary device and follows
you wherever you go. My current focus
at Yahoo! is to see how we can take ad-
vantage of the different situations that
users go through on a daily basis, like lo-
cations, their company (who they are
with), and what they are doing. Our area
of focus is to device ways to leverage all
this mobile data and users thatYahoo! is
gathering. We must be able to shift and
create an experience for users that goes
across all screens from the desktop to the
tablet to the mobile.
Yahoo! has over 700 million users
and we have witnessed them shift to the
mobile at a very fast pace. We are at a
point where we can start leveraging all
the data that we get from mobile and
help users get new experiences.
aligning academic and industry re-
search:
Yahoo! Labs is one of the few labs
which fall between academic research
and the product R&D.AtYahoo! we can
have a theoretical result that will be pub-
lished at an academic conference but the
result might also be taken to the product
leaders who could turn it into a million
dollar product.
A middle path between academic
and industry research helps a company
because it can help map out the future. It
can help companies understand where
users are at present and where the shift
will be in a few years.
In case of research we consider the
consequences of scaling.When a million
people begin to use a new service, a dif-
ferent behavioral set comes up. We can
build applications around this behavior
set.
A lot of research has been done in
the field of mobile. For instance, re-
search on location based services is very
relevant to how we design services
today. Such research can aid young start-
ups who build small scale social apps.
Lars Erik Holmquist, Principal Research Scientist, Yahoo! Labs
They have no idea about all the research
that has been done before that and for the
same reason their products are not very
good. So while you are building a prod-
uct, if you go back to see all the research
that has been done, you can apply that to
your product.
Researchaidingproducts:
We did a research on location based
services such as ‘Foursquare’. Interest-
ingly, early research projects and prod-
ucts in location, tried to track the user at
all the time which was kind of creepy
and also technically very difficult to do.
It drained out the phone batteries and the
locations were not exact and had anom-
alies.
Foursquare’s concept was very
smart. They allowed users to tell where
they were, be it a café, or a bar or home.
This does not give a particular line but it
gives a particular expression of the user
at a place. When we interviewed
Foursquare users, location was not just
a line on the map but was actually an ex-
pression. Location went from being a
property to being an expression. If de-
velopers can understand the social im-
plications of services, they can influence
services that will appeal to a bigger part
of the population.
Before developing an app they must
think deeper. For instance, apps which
introduce you to people who share the
same interests in your vicinity is a com-
mon idea. But how do you go about after
you receive the information? Develop-
ers must think about the social implica-
tions of such applications.
Ubiquitouscomputing:avision
Ubiquitous computing is a 20-year old
vision and has been very influential. 20
years ago, we had the main frame which
was the big computer and then came the
personal computers. The smartphone
and the tablet are influenced by the ubiq-
uitous computing heavily.
The cloud was not originally a part
of the ubicomputing vision but we have
actually turned towards it. It enables mil-
lions of people to use the same com-
puter, so we are back to the main frame
model. We have a down terminal be-
cause they just connected the system to
the main frame.
Increasingly mobile phones are be-
coming like that. If you talk to your own
phone, like using Siri , it senses the
sound and sends to the main frame
where it gets processed and comes back.
Computers now are ubiquitous but the
information is moving to a distant loca-
tion which makes the products poten-
tially much more powerful. By
connecting smart products to the cloud
we multiply the intelligence in a differ-
ent way.
Groundedinnovation
With grounded innovation, I try to bal-
ance the two axes of inquiry - under-
standing how the world works; and
invention - coming up with something
new.You do not just want to have some-
thing new because it might not be real-
istic or practical but you want to
understand the world and do your in-
quiry.
Innovation according to me is not
just inventing something new but it has
to be something that can be used. Open
source is a big innovation in how we
think of software. It has had an enor-
mous effect.
For instance, we worked to make
digital photographs more interesting by
introducing an element of surprise. We
added some filters and the results were
very different from conventional im-
ages. The images looked very much like
Instagram pictures which is now a mul-
timillion dollar business. This is an ex-
ample of grounded innovation.
My current priority is to takeYahoo!
‘Mobile’. It is very clear that with all the
deep understanding about mobile, we
can take existing products mobile and
also how we create entirely new prod-
ucts.
We are also studying how people use
the tablet at home which is a new prod-
uct category.
Yahoo! Labs is the perfect place for
me to be because after having done all
the dreaming, theoretical work and stud-
ies; I have come to a stage where we can
build products on a large scale. (As told
to Rachita Sharma)
Lars Erik Holmquist is the Principal Re-
search Scientist at Yahoo! Labs and heads
the Mobile Innovations group. Yahoo! Labs
is a division of Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO)
responsible for research into the science of
the Internet and creating the next generation
of businesses for the company. Headquar-
tered in Sunnyvale, CA, Yahoo! Labs delivers
both fundamental and applied scientific
leadership, publish research and create new
technologies that power Yahoo!’s products.
Prior to joining Yahoo! Lars was a profes-
sor in Media Technology at Södertörn Uni-
versity and was a co-founder and research
leader at the Mobile Life Centre, a joint re-
search venture between academia and in-
dustry hosted at Stockholm University, with
major partners including Ericsson, Mi-
crosoft, Nokia, TeliaSonera and the City of
Stockholm.
In a candid conversation with Lars, he opens
up about various researches and how it helps
Yahoo! build products for the masses
IInn CCoonnvveerrssaattiioonn
si
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that can be used by leaders to influ-
ence them. The traditional yearly an-
nual appraisal might not work for
them.
Gen Y in India favors equity as
opposed to equality and therefore
wants to get recognized by being paid
competitively. Finally everybody
wants to be a part of a winning team.
Kouzes and Posner described them as
"Creating Small Wins". Leaders need
to create opportunities for many and
also plan them in such a way that by
achieving them they feel more ac-
complished and thereby feeling more
significant. For managing Gen Y that
is the mantra for effective leaders. I
am trying to put forward some simple
actions that I believe can help today’s
leaders in effectively managing Gen
Y teams. These simple yet profound
actions will help them to excel in
what they do and distinguish them-
selves from others.
1) having a shared Purpose to mo-
bilize others and work together for
achieving it:
Most of the effective leaders have
their personal purpose. However, at
the same time they realize that it is
much easier to achieve a "Shared Pur-
pose" rather than one’s own. This is
the process where they manifested
their leadership capabilities in terms
of articulating their purpose in such a
way that the people start seeing
meaning into it and accept it as their
own. Leadership researcher Ram-
narayan, while studying successful
Indian leaders called them "Dream
Merchants".
2) Using personal network to seek
insight into organization problems:
Building a strategic personal network
and successfully using it, as a rela-
tively safe way to expose organiza-
tional problems and seek insight into
solutions is a hallmark of effective
leaders. Personal networks are largely
external, made up of discretionary
links to people with whom leaders
have something in common. In mod-
ern day business it serves as a safe
sounding board for a leader to use as
an internal learning network. What
makes a personal network powerful is
its power to provide a safety net while
learning by introspecting, reflecting
and observing from others about
unique organizational problems.
3)Institutionalizing innovative sys-
tems and processes:
One of the roles played by the lead-
ers that make them differentiated are
their ability to introduce innovative
systems and processes in their re-
spective organizations. But more im-
portantly, over time they
institutionalize them to make it a part
and parcel of the organizational life.
High Tech strategy experts Annabelle
Gawer and Michal A Cusumano re-
vealed in their bestselling book "Plat-
form Leadership" how Intel,
Microsoft an Cisco leaders created
number of innovative systems and
processes involving external vendors
to remain competitive.
4) empowering people - helping
them to move from a sense of pow-
erlessness to discover their own
sense of efficacy and power:
Believe in people’s ability is what
sustains extra ordinary team efforts.
The effective leaders are those who
nurture self- esteem in others. They
make others feel strong, capable and
move them from a sense of power-
lessness to a state where they start be-
lieving their own capability.
Leadership researchers believed that
the effective leaders become institu-
tion builder by carrying people with
them even when they seem to feel
powerless.
5)Leaving beyond organization
Identity:
One of the biggest problems with a
lot of leaders is the deep insecurity
about their own identity. Leaders
often get so hooked up with organi-
zational functions that they literally
feel out of life when those functions
are taken away from them. As a
leader one should not live in constant
apprehension at the thought of what
will happen if their institutional iden-
tity were ever to disappear. Jack
Welch successfully transitioned his
career into business writing, speaking
and consulting after his eventful
transformational journey at GE.
So what are you thinking? Lead-
ership is all about influencing, and we
all have an inherent capacity to
choose to build a new vision for our-
selves, to start following a different
course, to let go something which we
thought we will never do, embrace
something which we probably was
never comfortable with. But when we
do these things, which are guided by
a purpose we all excel and metamor-
phose ourselves from an individual
contributor to a true leader, perhaps
that is what Gen Y are looking for?
Theeffectiveleaders
are those who nur-
ture self- esteem in
others
““
T
he process of lead-
ing is something be-
yond managing.
While writing about
leadership chal-
lenges, leadership
researchers Kouzes
and Posner wrote, "If there is a clear
distinction between the process of
managing and the process of leading,
it is between getting others to do and
getting others to want to do. Man-
agers get other people to do but lead-
ers get other people to want to do".
This definition assumes greater sig-
nificance in the context of today’s
India where effective leaders are
those who can inspire and motivate
younger generation by helping them
to find a "Purpose". At the core of the
leadership effectiveness in today’s or-
ganizations, therefore, the emphasis
is not what you can achieve yourself
in an organization but help others to
achieve breakthrough results and ben-
efit the entire ecosystem. Anna Haz-
are’s popularity with Gen Y Indians
is a case in point where he was able to
connect with millions of young Indi-
ans by giving them a purpose and an
identity.
Gen Y today wants to feel signif-
icant. They are ready to work very
hard, provided they see an avenue to
reach their goals in life. In some
sense they are all knowledge workers.
It means that they want to get an op-
portunity to put their knowledge into
use in their day-to-day job function.
It is in this context the leaders in
today’s organizations must under-
stand what drives these GEN Y
knowledge workers. One of the key
drivers for them is opportunity to
learn new skills in actual job situa-
tions. Therefore they would want
leaders who can facilitate them to
learn, while working with them.What
else drives them? They are more IT-
Savvy and therefore want access to
information, especially those which
can enable them to not only network
with fellow professionals more effi-
ciently but to acquire knowledge that
can help them to contribute more sig-
nificantly in solving business prob-
lems. Challenging assignments
coupled with meaningful and data
based feedback are some of the tools
DifferentiatingLeadership
LLeeaaddeerrsshhiipp
Pallab Bandyopadhyay
By Dr. Pallab Bandyopadhyay, Director-HR, Citrix Systems
WhatMightworkfor
managingGeneration
Citrix Systems, Inc. (NasdaqGS:
CTXS) delivers virtualization,
networking and cloud solutions.
With a market capital of $11.80
Billion, Citrix employs over 6001
employees.
si
Nearly 2 in 5 U.S. tablet owners read
newspapers and/or magazines on
their device while 1 in 10 reading
publications almost daily. 37.1 per-
cent of tablet owners read a newspa-
per on their device at least once
during the month, with 11.5 percent
of tablet owners reading newspapers
almost every day.
Courtesy:Comscore
17. siliconindia
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sitioning them as more cost-effective and
as a way to counter the effects of eco-
nomic belt tightening”.
Evolving to this modelis highly complex
and a multi-stage process with a signifi-
cant number of technology decisions to
make, but clearly a must do to remain
relevant in the modern world of software.
Capitalizing on the powerof real-time
analytics:
One of the most powerful competitive
weapons in the software industry today
is analytics. For many organizations, pil-
ing terabytes of structured and unstruc-
tured data that changes at rapid velocity
needs to be managed and analyzed real-
time in a secure environment. Accord-
ing to market research firm IDC, the
business analytics software market grew
by 14.1 percent in 2011 and will con-
tinue to grow at a 9.8 percent annual
rate, to reach $50.7 billion in 2016,
driven by the focus on big data. ISVs
must have a clear plan to capture, ana-
lyze and create actionable, predictive in-
telligence in real time. This area
continues to evolve very quickly and is
likely to remain a key area of software
transformation for years to come.
Monetizing new market opportuni-
ties:
Software transformation has the poten-
tial to open new markets and new
sources of significant revenue for ISVs.
Simply mobilizing software can help
ISVs take their solutions in new markets
or geographies. Gartner states “SaaS and
cloud-based services help vendors to ex-
pand revenue growth by making it eas-
ier for end users to test and evaluate new
types of software, provision new users to
current technologies, and migrate users
off older versions to newer versions of
software.”
In some industries, client analytics can
also be significantly monetized. A goal
of any transformation plan should be top
and bottom line growth and mining new
markets is the shortest path to success.
Refreshing core software development
practices:
Modernizing traditional software devel-
opment practices such as agile multi-site
development processes, quality, automa-
tion and outsourcing of non-core product
lines to free-up R&D budgets, resources
for transformational initiatives are just
the beginning of core practices that may
need a refresh. Some of these can also
yield the biggest gains in terms of imme-
diate return on investment.According to
Voke Research “In the post-global finan-
cial crisis environment, software and
platforms continue to increase in com-
plexity and demand, and high profile
software failures are occurring at an
alarming rate. Software failures now
equal business failures, and as such, test-
ing has moved from obscurity to promi-
nence. The inextricable link of software
and the brand has made business leaders
aware of the need for quality software
with minimal business risk. The testing
of software at every stage of the lifecycle
with all aspects of the supply chain is a
standard and required practice, and con-
tinues to grow in importance.”
Summary:
The software market is undergoing a dra-
matic change. New technologies, solu-
tions and business model are not just
redefining the ISV landscape, but also
provide tremendous opportunities to in-
novate and create next generation solu-
tions. Symphony Teleca is the leading
software development partner in the
world today as recognized by Zinnov,
Global Services, Gartner and more.
T
he $120 billion a year
global enterprise software
industry is in a period of
rapid transition, with more
and more companies and
industries being run on software and de-
livered as an online service to a widening
range of connected devices.Advances in
processing, mobile devices, wireless net-
working, the Internet and other tech-
nologies have fundamentally eliminated
the defenses of established industries,
and software companies face unprece-
dented opportunities in the years ahead.
But to thrive, independent software ven-
dors (ISVs) must fundamentally trans-
form their traditional design,
development and commercialization
strategies and processes to be successful
in today’s highly connected world. There
are many dimensions to this required
transformation, however six are clearly
the most common today.
Incorporating New UserInterface De-
sign and Technology:
The staggering growth of Smartphones,
tablets and other connected devices cre-
ate a range of new usability challenges
for a consistent, cross-platform experi-
ence while providing complete enterprise
application functionality to the end user
across devices. Differences in screen
size, processing, power, wireless per-
formance, gesture and new user inter-
faces (UIs) such as advanced haptics and
more create a clear competitive need to
leverage the latest in UI design and us-
ability best practices. This area is sure to
get more interesting as companies like
Apple have filed patents that would
allow a device’s display to physically
change shapes. This could provide a
consumer with a raised button for exam-
ple or a 3D map that pops right out of the
screen.
Delivering Software to All Kinds of
Devices – including Autos and Em-
ployees’ Personal Devices (BYOD):
According to NPD In-Stat, the connected
device base will increase from 256 mil-
lion devices (2011) to at least 1.34 billion
by 2016. That is a 56 percent combined
annual growth rate. Connected devices
include tablets and Smartphones as well
as connected television and satellite sets,
video game consoles and Blu-ray play-
ers/recorders. Two of the hottest areas of
the mobile ecosystem today are the Au-
tomotive sector, where in-vehicle info-
tainment (IVI) has become of the
primary areas of competitive differenti-
ation among auto manufacturers, and the
bring-your-own-device phenomenon in
the enterprise.
Creating complete functionality in a mo-
bile environment along with optimizing
application performance over various
wireless networks - including cross- plat-
form delivery to mobile devices - can be
daunting. Testing alone all the various
combinations of devices, operating sys-
tems and wireless networks however is a
must for transforming software for the
connected world.
Addressing Client Demand for Soft-
ware “as a Service”:
Shifting from traditional software and
delivery models to software as a service
(SaaS) is fundamentally changing the
economics of software. It also can open
new markets, significantly reducing cap-
ital and operational costs, and enabling
ISVs to dramatically improve their over-
all business model. Gartner predicts SaaS
revenue will reach $14.5 billion this year,
a 17.9 percent increase from 2011 of
$12.3 billion, with strong growth pre-
dicted through 2015 when the market is
expected to be $22.1 billion. Also, ac-
cording to Gartner, “An increasing num-
ber of organizations are demanding
software functionality as a service (infra-
structure as a service [IaaS], platform as
a service [PaaS] and SaaS) or via cloud-
based services rather than on-premises.
As a result, vendors are offering more
technology as subscription-based solu-
tions and "pay as you go" offerings, po-
TransformationofCorporatesoftware
foraConnectedWorld
The inextricable link of
software and the brand
hasmadebusinesslead-
ersawareoftheneedfor
quality software with
minimal business risk
By Sanjay Dhawan, President and CEO, Symphony Teleca Corporation
Sanjay Dhawan
Headquartered in Palo Alto, Symphony Teleca Corporation delivers products combined with con-
temporary product development, systems integration, analytics and managed services to several
organizations globally. With 35 offices worldwide, the company employs over 6,100 employees.
si
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SGI (Nasdaq:SGI) develops, markets and sells a
broad line of mid-range and high-end scale-out and
scale-up servers plus data storage solutions and dif-
ferentiating software. With a Market Cap of $ 246.32
Million they approximately employ over 1,500 em-
ployees ending March 31st
, 2012.
VViieeww PPooiinntt
By Floyd Christofferson, Director of Storage Product Marketing, SGI
tems automatically index content in
multiple ways as it is created and mod-
ified. Using this meta data users can
search for data, and administrators can
easily set policies to automatically de-
termine which data should remain on
production disk drives and which can
migrate to lower cost, higher effi-
ciency second or third tier storage.
• Hierarchical Storage Management
(Tier Virtualisation):
Another cost-effective technique that
can aid in developing an active archive
is to virtualise tiers of storage through
the use of a hierarchical storage man-
agement solution. These enable multi-
ple tiers of disk and tape to appear to
users as one large aggregated volume
even though the data is actually dis-
tributed across multiple storage types.
The beauty of this system is that all
the data appears to the user to be on-
line in the high speed, expensive, pro-
duction disk at all times. But in reality,
even though the file appears to be right
where the user put it in the file system,
it has actually migrated to lower cost
storage. This approach delivers dra-
matic overall cost savings without the
need for users to learn and follow
where their content is located.
• Low power mass storage using
MAID:
A MAID system is another significant
tool in creating a lower cost active
archive. By selectively powering
down whole sections of the disk array
until the data is needed, MAID sig-
nificantly reduces the power and cool-
ing requirements of the data centre,
much like tape libraries do, but with
the added advantage of much higher
performance and proactive data pro-
tection.
ProtectingtheDataThatIsYourBusi-
ness
An active archive strategy requires ef-
fective planning and deployment of
management tools. When imple-
mented effectively it can considerably
reduce the overall cost of managing a
growing pool of digital data. Individ-
ual components can be upgraded or
changed without impacting the user
experience. In this scenario, scalabil-
ity becomes an asset, and not a
headache. si
T
he mainstream adoption
of HD, 3D, mobile and
streaming services pres-
ents an archiving chal-
lenge for the digital media
industry, in scaling storage and sup-
port systems cost effectively, and
therefore providing sufficient capacity
and speed of information retrieval re-
quired.
Even though more and more digi-
tal media files are filling up ever-larger
disk silos, propelled by the prolifera-
tion of mediums, the amount of data is
growing quicker than the need to ac-
cess it. For the digital media sector,
specific files are rarely accessed, but
the key is for that access to be imme-
diate and fast; business users and con-
sumers want them available at all
times.
For some businesses, this challenge
would be addressed through better
data management, but translated to the
digital media and production sector
the challenge becomes astounding.
The problem is more critical than the
realm of personal preference where
online media is accessible instantly,
such as services like BBC iPlayer or
Spotify, instead the issue is a business
necessity. The business needs to have
access to the full range of data at all
times.
always-on and accessible
An active archive
means data is al-
ways available in
an ‘online’ state. In
the context of an
active archive, ‘on-
line’ means that the
data is available in
an environment
that is immediately
and easily accessi-
ble to users, that is
not drawing power
or taking up unnec-
essary space, and
one in which the
data is protected
for a long time.
An active
archive strategy, when properly ap-
plied, significantly reduces overall
storage and data management costs
whilst improving efficiencies and the
ability for users to access all data.
In essence, the data should live
where it is most efficient. For exam-
ple, inactive data, WHICH IS BLA,
which has retention value can be
moved into an archive tier storage that,
although ‘online’ and visible to the
user, is typically in a powered-down
state using Massive Array of Idle
Disks (MAID) technology that com-
pletely removes power from the array.
These archives, while still available to
users, can be managed with very dif-
ferent disaster recovery techniques
that require less investment, and at a
fraction of the operational costs of
conventional disk-based file stores.
This is a vast contrast to a tradi-
tional archiving approach, where data
often ends up residing in an off-site
data tape store that required hours if
not days for data retrieval.
Implementing an active archive
There are numerous tools that can sim-
plify the implementation of an active
archive strategy. These can be cate-
gorised as:
• Digital Asset Management:
Leading digital asset management sys-
achievingactivearchiveambition
Enterprises are expected to
spend $28 billion on Big
Data this year and the
spending is expected to hit
$34 billion next year. How-
ever the buzzword will
phase out by 2020 when
Big Data will have become
the new normal.
Courtesy:Gartner
Floyd Christofferson
19. siliconindia
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W
e are going through
a radical shift in the
way people work
and use computers.
Increasing avail-
ability and affordability of wireless
broadband is giving the global work-
force true mobility, for the first time in
history. Many of them will use smartly
designed mobile rugged computers for
their everyday computing and commu-
nication needs, instead of traditional
laptops.
"We live in interesting times," said
Robert Kennedy in 1966. I am prone to
agree, although Bob and I surely refer
to vastly different developments and
scenarios. I would like to suggest that
we are presently going through a real,
radical shift in the way in which people
work and use computers. It is about true
mobility, for the first time in history.
With increasing availability and af-
fordability of wireless broadband, peo-
ple are no longer confined to the
traditional office environment. Soon we
will all be connected, everywhere and
always. Mobile operators are expanding
networks and increasing capacity to
handle the explosion of data traffic
stemming from the increasing use of
smartphones (that are in reality more
computers than phones).
Working from home or closer to the
customers can have several positive ef-
fects: it may make staff more content
and also more productive. It may make
the organization slimmer by reducing
the need for office space. And the soci-
ety as a whole may reap great environ-
mental rewards if this newly found true
mobility leads to fewer trips by car, bus,
train or plane to and from the office.
Another strong trend that drives true
mobility is the availability of much im-
proved so-called rugged, or ruggedized,
computers.As opposed to traditional, or
commercial computers, these comput-
ers are specifically designed to operate
reliably in harsh usage environments
and conditions, such as strong vibra-
tions, extreme temperatures and wet or
dusty conditions.
Standard computers are simply not
suitable for use in outdoor environ-
ments. They have poor battery life and
cannot withstand shock, dust and water.
They break too easily and too often,
thus making the price-benefit analysis
inferior to that of rugged computers (al-
though the latter are more expensive to
purchase). The total cost of ownership
is much lower, as much as 65 percent
lower per year, for rugged computers,
mainly because their durability mini-
mizes or eliminates the loss of produc-
tivity that is the result of computers
breaking down.
ordinary office workers embrace
ruggeddevices
Traditionally, rugged computers have
been used by field workers operating in
tough and 'naturally mobile' environ-
ments such as logistics, geomatics,
forestry, public transportation, con-
struction, mining, public safety and mil-
itary. But a strong parallel trend is that
even 'ordinary' office workers are now
also starting to use rugged computers
for a life 'on the go' to avoid having to
replace commercial laptops or handheld
devices or even smartphones so often.
Many blue collar workers, like garbage
collectors and train staff, have also
started using rugged computers and
handheld devices to make their work
more effective and productive.
Butwhatisaruggedcomputer?
There are two main standards for clas-
sifying rugged computers:
The American military standard for
equipment, MIL-STD-810. This is a
broad range of environmental condi-
tions that include: low pressure for alti-
tude testing; exposure to high and low
temperatures plus temperature shock;
rain; humidity, fungus, salt fog; sand
and dust exposure; leakage; shock and
vibration. The standard is comprised of
24 laboratory test methods. Generally
speaking, the more methods tested (and
passed), the more rugged the unit. So a
rugged computer would on one level be
classified by how many test methods it
has passed.
The IP scale, not to be confused
with Intellectual Property or IPaddress,
IPin this case stands for Ingress Protec-
tion and the ratings are displayed as a
two digit number. The first digit reflects
the level of protection against dust. The
second digit reflects the level of protec-
tion against liquids (water). So an IP67-
rated unit is totally dust proof and is
capable of immersion in water for at
least 30 minutes to a depth of one meter.
As everybody knows Apple has been
hugely successful with the iPhone and
the iPad. This success has also spread
into the ruggedized market where some
enterprises who traditionally would
have bought rugged devices have opted
for an iPhone or iPad as their enterprise
mobility hardware. The tremendous
success of Apple has more than any-
thing taught the broad masses that us-
ability is important, that design matters
and that the essence of mobility lays in
the size and weight (or lack thereof) in
a device. The manufacturers of rugged
equipment are learning quickly and are
now launching rugged smartphones and
other user-friendly and smartly designed
devices.
Rugged computers have become
much more sophisticated and advanced
in the last few years. They now have
faster processors to offer better and
broader use, and the ability to bring
desktop functionality out into the field.
Their batteries can work for eight hours
on a single charge – a full work day.
They may work on any choice of wire-
less frequency anywhere in the world.
They have high quality cameras that al-
lows in field image capture.
Ruggediscool
Rugged mobile computers have also be-
come much lighter and have much bet-
ter functionality overall, including better
displays and improved ergonomic de-
sign – all contributing to an improved
user experience. New screen technology
provides spectacular screen clarity and
brightness in any outdoor condition,
even direct sunlight.
They also look better – it has be-
come cool to own a rugged computer
(also because many famous athletes and
adventurers use them). Design and
functionality are two strong reasons
why the rugged computer segment is
growing faster than other computer seg-
ments.
Workingfromhomeorclosertothe
customerscanhaveseveralpositive
effects:itmaymakestaffmorecon-
tentandalsomoreproductive
““
Jerkre Hellstrom
si
Handheld is a manufacturer and lead-
ing supplier of rugged mobile comput-
ers employing over 44 people.
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True MobilityTrend:
The Future of
Mobile Computers is
Rugged
True MobilityTrend:
The Future of
Mobile Computers is
Rugged
By Jerker Hellstrom, CEO, Handheld Group
20. siliconindia
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I
t is no secret that customers are
talking, telling you exactly
what they like, or do not like,
about your brand, the latest
product they purchased, or
even their bad service experience.
Whether this feedback comes through
email, survey, chat, or particularly
now-a-days social media, as the
owner of that brand, it is up to you to
listen to your customers. Listening
and then acting on insights gleaned
through customer feedback drives
product innovation, improves cus-
tomer service, bolsters customer loy-
alty, and produces measurable ROI.
But what are the trends in the Cus-
tomer Experience Management
(CEM) industry today? As technol-
ogy advances, where is this space
headed, and what challenges face en-
trepreneurs vying to build a business
in this growing marketplace?
In order to overcome the chal-
lenges of handling Big Data, such as
efficiently analyzing vast quantities
of unstructured content that comes
from multiple feedback sources, or-
ganizations need to invest in a scala-
ble text and sentiment analytics
platform to automate the analysis
process. Through such types of tech-
nology, organizations can intelli-
TheImportanceof
increasing
Operationalizationin
BusinessInsights
Sid Banerjee
By Sid Banerjee, CEO & Co-Founder, Clarabridge
Clarabridge is a provider of sentiment and text analytical software. Instituted
in 2006 in Reston, VA, the firm strives to provide software solutions idiosyn-
cratically to utilize sentiment analysis and text analytics to automatically col-
lect, categorize and report on structured and unstructured data.
gently tag customer feedback for cat-
egorization and sentiment in order to
glean action-
able in-
sights. It
used to be
enough for
businesses
to just ana-
lyze the
data, hear
what cus-
tomers are
saying, and then react internally.
However, the trend in CEM today is
to not just listen to consumers, but to
engage with them.
Organizations need to prove to
customers that they are actively mak-
ing the customer a valued stakeholder
in business decisions by maintaining
an open dialogue with consumers.
Through social channels such as
Facebook, Twitter, and online com-
munities, organi-
zations need to
respond directly to customer com-
ments, answer questions, or follow up
with an unhappy customer. Compa-
nies are increasingly operationalizing
business insights as well. For many
organizations, any feedback collected
on products or services is generally
not routed to the operational depart-
ment best able to respond. This is a
huge untapped opportunity. Organi-
zations will only truly benefit from
social media when social interactions
are efficiently and quickly delivered
to the right people who use the feed-
back to take action.
As a company interacts and ana-
lyzes customer experiences over
time, they can build out a more com-
prehensive and nuanced profile of
customer interests, influ-
ences, and drivers of
loyalty, prof-
itabil-
i t y,
a n d
promotion.
Organizations need
to expand their customer en-
gagement beyond social media plat-
forms and build out the most holistic
view of their customers. After all, a
tweet may only say that a customer is
unhappy with the latest line of oat-
meal, but an email elaborates on
why—and tells you how to change it.
The challenges facing entrepre-
neurs looking to exploit opportunities
in the social and CEM space today
are not much different from the chal-
lenges for any entrepreneur. Starting
Clarabridge in 2006, we first sought
out creative, risk taking employees
who had a passion for coming up with
and translating new ideas into new
products. We raised capital when we
realized that our ideas needed to be
funded beyond our own ability to in-
vest. And as our business has grown
across the U.S. and now internation-
ally, we have created scalable sales,
marketing, support, and technology
organizations with the talent and abil-
ity to build ever more sophisticated,
market responsive solutions.
Through the entire process, we have
sought to do, as a company, what our
solutions do for our customers – lis-
ten. Our customers are our inspira-
tion, our source of creative ideas, and
ultimately, our partners. By listening
to them and translating their insights
into improvements in our business
and offerings, we are successful.
organizationswillbenefit from
socialmediawheninteractions
areefficientlyandquickly
deliveredtotherightpeople
India’s cloud services market
is expected to grow 32.4 per-
cent in 2012 to reach $326.2
million. Software as a service
(SaaS) is the largest segment
and is forecast to increase to
$115.6 million in 2012, while
infrastructure as a service
(IaaS) is estimated to reach to
$42.7 million in 2012.
Courtesy:Gartner
si
VViieeww PPooiinntt
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T
hese are challeng-
ing times for the
manufacturing in-
dustry in India.
With global eco-
nomic uncertain-
ties, manufacturers
are under a lot of pressure to cut costs
and increase revenue. The last time In-
dian manufacturing faced a similar crisis
was in the early nineties, after economic
liberalization in India opened up a pre-
viously protected market to global com-
petitors. A lot of people back then,
including many manufacturers them-
selves, thought that more efficient for-
eign manufacturers providing higher
quality products would completely wipe
out manufacturing in India.
What unfolded over the next twenty
years was something very different; In-
dian manufacturers not only overcame
the crisis, but emerged stronger than ever
before. They became efficient and high
quality manufacturers. The rapid expan-
sion in manufacturing over
the last two decades along
with several prestigious qual-
ity awards bagged by Indian
manufacturers bear testament
to this fact.
So, what is the next step for Indian
manufacturing? Before we answer this
question, let us look at some of the chal-
lenges manufacturers face today. Let us
start with the need for speed. With
shrinking product lifecycles and ex-
panding choices available to consumers,
manufacturers have to bring their inno-
vations to the market faster than their
competitors to stay in the race. Further,
with increasingly complex products, no
one manufacturer can possess all the
skills and competencies required to
bring a product to market. Manufactur-
ers are increasingly forced to work with
suppliers and partners across the world
providing key sub-systems and compe-
tencies. This brings us to our next chal-
lenge,globalization.Indianmanufacturers
have to target global markets to achieve
economies of scale. They also have to
work with global partners who may be
providing key competencies that are crit-
ical to product success. In this increas-
ingly globalized value chain, one faces
the next challenge of optimization. How
can manufacturers get the most out of
their resources and competencies that
are now spread across the world? How
do they achieve this while maintaining
flexibility to respond quickly to market
demands? And how do they do this
while paying close attention to the next
major challenge, sustainability. With in-
creasing concern for the environment,
governments around the world are en-
acting regulation to control the use of
harmful materials in the product and the
production process. Manufacturers are
also being made accountable for the safe
By Vivek Marwaha, Director Marketing, Siemens PLM Software India
Siemens PLM Software, a business unit of the Siemens In-
dustry Automation Division, is a leading global provider of
product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services
with seven million licensed seats and more than 71,000 cus-
tomers worldwide. Headquartered in Plano, Texas, Siemens
PLM Software works collaboratively with companies, de-
livering open solutions to help them make smarter decisions
that result in better products.
PLM–enaBLInGsMaRTeRDeCIsIons
anDBeTTeRPRoDUCTs
disposal of their products at the end of
life. In summary, manufacturers today
face unprecedented challenges and a
complex business environment. Just
being an efficient manufacturer is no
longer sufficient to achieve long term
success.
That brings us back to the question:
what is next for Indian manufacturing?
The answer lies in the practice of prod-
uct lifecycle management (PLM). PLM
is rapidly emerging as a critical enter-
prise application for manufacturers.
While PLM is a vast domain with sev-
eral solution sets, one could classify
them into three broad areas: digital prod-
uct development, digital lifecycle man-
agement, and digital manufacturing.
However, please bear in mind that
PLM is, first and foremost, a business
strategy. Products are the life blood of
any manufacturing organization, and a
disciplined approach to decision making
across the product lifecycle can unlock
tremendous value for manufacturers.
PLM software has evolved over the
years, from simple CAD tools, to inte-
grated information systems that contain
intelligent product and process informa-
tion, thus supporting effective decision
making across the lifecycle. Smarter de-
cisions would logically lead to better
products, providing long term growth
and profitability to manufacturers.
When Maruti Suzuki India Limited
(MSIL) experienced increasing market
pressures to introduce new product mod-
els in a shorter timeframe, they decided
to automate their die design process with
the help of digital product development
tools. This helped MSILbring down the
die design time and costs, while enhanc-
ing the quality of dies.
ForAvantha Power & Infrastructure
Limited (Avantha Power), it was a ques-
tion of reducing project delivery and ex-
ecution time for commissioning new
power plants. With the help of a digital
lifecycle management system, Avantha
Power was able to manage and share ac-
curate project information among em-
ployees and vendors in a secure envi-
ronment, thus achieving their overall
project objectives.
When Mahindra Vehicle Manufac-
turers Limited (Mahindra Vehicles) de-
cided to setup a new manufacturing
plant at Chakan to cater to the rising de-
mand for medium and heavy commer-
cial vehicles, they turned to digital
manufacturing technologies to help
them plan and simulate the entire plant
virtually before they started construc-
tion. This helped Mahindra Vehicles
bring down vehicle lead times and costs
significantly, as well as eliminate non-
value adding activities early in the
process, thus supporting their “first time
right” philosophy.
These examples should not give
one the impression that PLM is suited
only to large enterprises. Small and
mid-sized manufacturers face the same
challenges, and are increasingly turning
to PLM to help them deal with the com-
plexity of today’s business environ-
ment.
In summary, we are on the cusp of
what promises to be an exciting period
for manufacturing in India. Challenges
abound, but so do opportunities. Inno-
vative manufacturers who make
smarter decisions and build better prod-
ucts are sure to achieve success in the
years to come.
Vivek Marwaha
VViieeww PPooiinntt
Withincreasinglycomplexproducts,
noonemanufacturercanpossessall
theskillsandcompetenciesrequired
tobringaproducttomarket
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