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Looking for business leads? Want to be seen among the top level CXOs and decision maker? @CeBITINDIA

The premiere edition of CeBIT in Asia is all set to get off to a very strong start. From 12-14 November over 600 companies spread over 9 topic clusters will showcase global enterprise technology innovations. 200 of these 600 exhibitors are international companies who are completely new to the Indian market. iSPIRT is a key strategic partner to CeBIT India and together the goal is to showcase India as a Product Nation both in Bangalore this year and Hannover in 2015. With a clear focus on IT.BUSINESS.100% the event invites Enterprise Technology Buyers with a clear B2B focus. As per the latest forecasts received from the organisers, the event, will garner close to 25,000 visitors. CXOs, IT Resellers, MSMEs and Government Officials from State and Central Ministries form the majority of the visitor base. The focus end user sectors for the event are BFSI, Automotive and Manufacturing, Retail, Healthcare, Education, R&D and Hospitality.

Want to Win the CeBIT Challenge? Here’s your opportunity

“If you are a start-up, then +91 is your code to connect with seasoned entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, mentors and accelerators and win a chance to showcase your ideas to a global audience at CeBIT 2015, Hannover, Germany.”

Technology, as the industry of choice for many of today’s start-up businesses, attracts investors and venture capitalists, and has enormous payout potential. While the appeal of launching a tech start-up is easy to understand, some entrepreneurs fail to cope with the unique risks they face being in the competitive world of technology. This is where +91 comes in.

The genesis of +91 lies in the Start-up Village that was started at CeBIT Hannover as an international initiative for digital pioneers, innovators and ground breaking start-ups. Initiated over a decade ago, the Start-up Village has since been supporting outstanding business talents and their exceptional business ideas, providing them with a platform for dialog, and therefore stimulating and accelerating innovation in the field. 

CeBIT INDIA

Business Technology +91 Start-up Challenge is being organized alongside CeBIT INDIA – Asia’s leading Business Technology and ICT Procurement Event will be held from 12-14 November 2014 at BIEC, Bangalore. CeBIT India needs no introduction. With the aim of showcasing New Perspectives in IT Business, India’s first CeBIT will cover the key IT trends of Cloud Computing, Strategic Big Data, Enterprise Mobilily and Social Media.

Along with its large exhibits, CeBIT India will also feature a series of engaging conferences, workshops and seminars by global thought leaders like Vishal Sikka CEO, Infosys and Mark McDonald Global MD, Accenture at their CeBIT Global Conference. You can download the brochure for +91 Start-Up Challenge for CeBIT India here

PLUGGED IN:  

Along with CeBIT India, a Consumer Electronic Show for consumers called PLUGGED IN will be organized, parallel from 14 – 15 November, 2014 at BIEC, Bangalore. Consumer Technology +91 Start-Up Challenge will be held at PLUGGED IN

PLUGGED IN is the largest consumer gathering and showcase of consumer electronics & technology in India! It is is a comprehensive convergence of all stakeholders in the Consumer Electronics & Technology sphere to engage, educate and entertain consumers like never before. It is a platform for new product launches and showcase of game changing technologies in the consumer technology industry. For more information visit the PLUGGED IN website. You can download the brochure for +91 Start-Up Challenge for PLUGGED IN here

iSPIRT SaaS Pavilion @ CeBIT India

With a view to showcase India’s product strengths, CeBIT India has partnered with iSPIRT to create an exclusive SaaS display. The organisers have built a smart all-inclusive package, which includes fully built and functional display space, central meeting area facilities and prime space on the CeBIT India show floor. In recognition of our partnership with CeBIT, iSPIRT members on the SaaS pavilion are offered a preferential participation rate. In addition to the SaaS pavilion, CeBIT and iSPIRT will work closely together to showcase product innovation in the +91 zone. Please don’t miss the opportunity and contact the CEBIT India team(Mls(AT)HMF-India.com) at the earliest, who will provide you details information on the challenge. You can find more information about the SaaS pavilion here.

WHAT DOES A START UP GET?

  • Showcase & Market:  An exclusive opportunity for start-ups to showcase and market products to their customers at +91 Start-up market
  • Workshops:  Exclusive access to workshops conducted in the +91 Zone by industry experts covering the core business aspects-Marketing, Finance, Operations and more.
  • Mentors: Interact with the best minds in the industry on one-one basis, receive valuable suggestions & feedback to enhance and add value to your business.
  • Network & Interact: An opportunity to network with fellow entrepreneurs, angel investor and venture capitalists, accelerators, experts & support programs, as well as interact with 25,000+ business visitors of CEBIT India & Plugged In
  • Attract investments:  With investors coming from all domains of thetechnology ecosphere, you get the best chance to attract investment.
  • Visibility: visibility through extensive media coverage and promotion across all mediums

AND WIN AN OPPORTUNITY TO SHOWCASE YOUR PRODUCT AT CEBIT IN HANNOVER, GERMANY.

WHAT NEXT? 

Participation for CeBIT India +91 Start-up Challenge is limited to only 50 Start Up companies and PLUGGED IN +91 Starts-up Challenge is limited to 25 Start Up companies. Please don’t miss the opportunity and contact the CEBIT India & PLUGGED IN team(Praveen.Nair(AT)HMF-India.com) at the earliest, who will provide you details information on the challenge.

 

 

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The Most Important Technology Trends of 2014, According to Gartner

Leading market analysts issue their latest technology trends every year. Gartner, Inc., the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company has defined the top 10 technology trends and drivers that will be strategic for Indian organizations in 2014.

134459715These technologies can impact an organization’s long-term plans, programs and initiatives. Implementing business process improvements, revenue growth through differentiated products and services, and business expansion are the top business priority areas of investment for Indian organizations.

Gartner’s top 10 strategic technology trends for Indian companies in 2014 include:

Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics

The BI, analytics and performance management segment is the hottest software market in India, fueled by IT prioritization and expanding business buying centers. A competitive business environment and economic conditions are also forcing enterprises in India to focus on using fact based decision-making tools to rationalize costs and time for businesses.

Mobility Solutions

Mobility in enterprise has created a huge opportunity for IT leaders to reduce costs, increase productivity and enable smooth business transactions. Swift growth in the prevalence of mobile devices, a decline in their price, and falling data plan costs have the potential to completely transform some business models.

Cloud Computing

Although still in its infancy in India and other emerging markets, cloud adoption is increasing. Led by infrastructure-as-a-service engagements in the data center, disaster recovery and storage areas, there is a broad range of providers that target large organizations as well as SMBs. This fast growing adoption by a diverse range of organizations has catalyzed providers to invest in high quality data centers and innovative cloud infrastructures, as well as a portfolio of cloud-related offerings such as security, communications and managed services.

 Social Media and Computing

Social media in India has seen exponential growth in the recent past with enterprises using it for customer support and customers using it to offer opinions. A growing number of enterprises used social media to connect with their customers and for marketing campaigns in 2013 and social media is playing a pivotal role in Indian politics with the government and political parties increasingly using it to connect with citizens

Machine to Machine (M2M)

The M2M market in India is in a nascent stage but growing rapidly. Indian enterprises driven by demands to improve agility and productivity are evaluating the use of M2M-enabled solutions.

 Hosted Virtual Desktop (HVD)

In India, server-based computing, which is also referred as “hosted shared desktop” or “terminal services,” is seeing more adoption. More than 80 percent of desktop virtualization implementations are based on HVD. Organizations are only looking at desktop virtualization from the point of cost requirement, and they overlook other benefits such as full data backup, bring-your-own-device (BYOD) support, extended hardware life cycles, security, compliance and anytime-anywhere access.

 Personal Cloud

Adoption of cloud computing in India is currently limited to the private cloud. Organizations are focused on protecting their applications located in enterprise app stores, as well as the content on employees’ personal devices used at work. Tablets are becoming the first-choice user device and this form factor’s explosion is creating device ubiquity. Users are creating their own personal digital ecosystems with their own sets of apps, games and media. Content is starting to shift to the cloud but, in the future, the cloud will become the primary storage for personal content, and local versions of the content will exist only as staged or cached elements.

 The Internet of Things (IoT)

The IoT delivers tangible value to enterprises through the ability to better utilize remote assets and creates business cases in three key areas – operational technology (OT), digital supply chain and customer interaction.

 Collaboration Technologies

Collaboration technologies (otherwise known as workflow management or team collaboration) consist broadly of – real-time electronic meetings, content delivery, desktop and application sharing, text chat, group document markup with electronic whiteboarding, security and remote control. More advanced features include integrated voice over IP, file sharing, videoconferencing, content archiving, media streaming, feedback and polling. Real-time collaboration technologies not included in the Web conferencing category include instant messaging and stand-alone audio conferencing.

 3D Printing

In India interest levels in 3D printing are slowly picking up and this is reflected in the increased presence of providers in the 3D printing space. Because of the country’s large population base, high volumes and low cost requirements, 3D printing is expected to take off rapidly and revolutionize industries as diverse as aerospace, consumer goods, healthcare, retail, manufacturing and the military. 3D printing has the potential to radically transform design, manufacturing and the supply chain model in India.

According to Gartner, while Indian companies may be keen to invest in new technologies, there are still barriers to full-scale adoption including business readiness, a lack of capacity for organizational change and low levels of IT funding. Implementing business process improvements, revenue growth through differentiated products and services, and business expansion are the top business priority areas of investment for Indian organizations.


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Cloud Services and Mobile Apps

In addition to vendors of traditional on-premise products that are shipped or downloaded via web, a different generation of providers is fast emerging. They are leveraging new technologies and business models, often interchangeably referred to as cloud services, Web 2.0 or SaaS (Software as a Service). (Not all SaaS products are truly cloud based but the differences are not relevant for this discussion.)

SaaS considerably simplifies application deployment and upgrade challenges. Software is hosted at one site (vendor’s own or through a provider). This reduces development cost since the deployment environment is controlled. There is no distribution expense, though deployment charges can become considerable to support a large base of users.

The SaaS model is important for India. Making geography irrelevant, it enables anywhere, anytime apps and services for a fl at world. Indian Web 2.0ventures can now reach out to the world market without the huge cost of sales that enterprise software companies have to bear. They can compete directly against global players.

Cloud services adoption will depend on resolution of a few major concerns. One is security of personal and corporate data in the cloud. Secondly, guaranteed near 100% uptime will be critical for mainstream enterprise apps to move to the cloud. Reliable access will be a big factor in India for a few years, despite the phenomenal growth in broadband connectivity. Uptime has been an issue even in US, with large players like Google and eBay facing major outages in their online services.

The most widely used cloud service is web-based e-mail such as Google’s  Gmail. The standard bearer for commercial SaaS apps is Salesforce.com, which crossed $1 billion in revenue in 2009 in just ten years. It provides web-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution for sales, service, marketing and call center operations.

With over 1.5 billion people going online, SaaS offerings will only proliferate. Amazon.com, which started with selling books over the web to consumers, is now a full-service online merchandise store. Examples in India include IndianRailways.com (train bookings), MakeMyTrip.com (travel services), naukri.com (job related portal) and shaadi.com (matrimonial related).

Similar to cloud services, software apps on mobile phones are becoming more common, driven by the explosive growth in usage. In 2009, cell phone ownership had reached 3.5 billion worldwide and over 400 million in India. Cell phone growth is highest in India, with 10+ million being added each month, cutting across income barriers. The Indian mobile market is unusual in its extensive usage of texting (SMS) and multiplicity of languages. With its ubiquity, mobility and low cost, it is the ideal delivery platform for simple apps (and supporting middleware).

Though SaaS and mobile app vendors often look like a services rather than software firm, they are included in the book because software is the foundation and key differentiator for their business.

There is another reason. With its late liberalization, India largely skipped making huge investments in an entire generation of technology (land lines, minicomputers and even standalone software apps). This proved to be a boon in disguise, and led to rapid adoption of latest advances like broadband and mobile by a booming market. In similar fashion, consumers and businesses may take to this new breed of software products. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) especially benefi t from SaaS by not having to invest upfront in IT infrastructure (servers, software licenses) and buying subscriptions only as required. Similarly, the hand-held is rapidly morphing into a highly integrated device, and is poised to become the key accessory for humans to interface with their environment. The vast majority of Indians will skip the PC and directly use an integrated
device at work and home.

Since the Indian psyche is different, entrepreneurs can build unconventional solutions that refl ect local reality for domestic users. The intersection of new technologies and India’s growth economy has opened a window of opportunity for new firms to leapfrog past existing players with exciting new products.

Reprinted from From Entrepreneurs to Leaders by permission of Tata McGraw-Hill Education Private Limited.