An Optimistic outlook for the Indian IT industry in Fiscal Year 2018

The chairman of Wipro, Azim Premji expressed a positive outlook on the Indian IT industry prospects for the current fiscal despite the economic volatility globally. Looking ahead, the industry sees a volatile economic environment. However, the economic prospects for main countries of exports are getting a bit better. The global political uncertainties heavily weighed on the business sentiment that impacts the industry in Fiscal Year 2017. The optimism of Wipro for the current fiscal came out from the fact that marketplaces look to spend on technology since it is becoming a key differentiator. Today now more than ever, the importance of Information Technology could not be denied.

DRASTIC CHANGES IN EXPERIENCES AND EXPECTATIONS OF BUSINESSES AND CONSUMERS

Over the past year, there is further evidence of drastic change in the experiences and expectations of both consumers and business models. Careers in computer information technology continues to rise as more and more people are opting to delve into the digital world. The central element that drives the change is digital. According to Premji, the IT services firms are key in delivering digital to organizations. Furthermore, the stated that the success would depend on its ability of redefining and aligning itself with a new global paradigm as well as the disruptive developments in the industry. The firm ended fiscal year7 with a consolidated income of Rs 55,040, recording a 7.4 percent growth.

DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM GROWTH

The digital ecosystem rose from 17.5 percent of its revenues in the first quarter of FY17 to 22.1 percent during the fourth quarter. Moreover, he stressed that Wipro has performed considerable investments in both organic and inorganic fronts to transform business offerings to service the new customer requirements. The chairman put emphasis on the fact that the company goes beyond just making financial capital with value in other aspects, like environmental, social, human and intellectual. The social sphere activities of the company are not only limited to India, but in the overseas markets as well where it has its presence.

THE INDIAN IT INDUSTRY POISED TO WITNESS GROWTH

Despite the headwinds, such as delayed in decision making because of the uncertainties in macro-economic, visa issues, trade protectionism and slower traditional services growth, the information technology industry in India and business processing management industry is poised to witness a seven to eight percent growth during FY18. In general, NASSCOM releases the guidance numbers in February each year, but postponed it citing geopolitical factors. The industry added more than $11 billion revenue during 2016-2017, rising at 7.6 percent in reported currency terms. This was lower compared to the revised range pegged at 8 to 10 percent from 10-12 originally estimated growth. The outlook comes on the back of economic and political uncertainties, which affected discretionary and decision making spend in the past year. Furthermore, NASSCOM cited a boost in requirement for automated based projects and integrated digital capabilities from customers that were key investments for the industry. The growth during the year will be driven by adoption of new technologies and modernization of operations, like the cognitive and embedded analytics, cloud platforms, internet of things, embedded analytics and enterprise customers scale digital projects.

RE-SKILLING FOR EMERGING JOBS

It is imperative for new and existing talents to re-skill to prepare for emerging job roles that require new sets of skills. For the fiscal year 2017-18, it has been stated that the industry would hire 1.3 to 1.5 people on a net basis. It is also looking to establish a digital skills platform, together with its members to re-skill over a million people in the IT industry workforce in the next four to five years. At present, a lot of top companies have already more than 50 percent of their staff are trained in digital services.

The economic momentum of India suffered setback because of demonetization. The economy is expected to recover and growth would accelerate gradually to 7.7 percent by 2019-2020. The World Bank said that the demonetization caused immediate cash crunch and thus the cash reliant sectors activity was affected. Inflation would stabilize, supportable by favorable structural and weather reforms. So far, normal monsoons have offset increases in the prices of petroleum. Exchange rate has appreciated, which partly reflects the expectations of a narrowing inflation gap between the US and India and limited external vulnerabilities as the present account deficit is expected to stay below 2 percent of GDP.

Challenges to the favorable growth outlook of India could stem from the global environment uncertainties, which include the growing global protectionism and a sharp decline in the economy of China that could delay a meaningful recovery of external demand further. There is a big uncertainty on the extent in which demonetization caused informal, small firms to exit and shed jobs.

The positive outlook of the IT industry of India will give rise to more IT professionals providing outsourcing services.

The growth of the Internet of Things

The present projection data from Cisco is that the Internet of Things or IoT would reach 50 billion devices by 2020. The internet these days is driven by wired and wireless networks that keep people connected through their day-to-day lives. With the new digital devices advent that constantly link people to the web, the networks have become more than a simple vehicle for communications and information. Now, they enable people to track daily habits, monitor health, manage the use of home energy and track almost any other data imaginable. The devices make up what is called the Internet of Things, web connected objects linked through networks that could interact with one another and with people.

THE INTERNET OF THINGS EXPLOSION

The internet is not only developing, it is exploding, and the numbers prove it. Nowadays, there are more connected devices than there are people on the planet. The expansion is not just from smart phones, computers and tablets, it also includes millions of other devices that have IP addresses. Ubiquitous, fast Wi-Fi and increasing home broadband speeds drive the IoT and the ever-expanding web.

EXPONENTIAL GROWTH OF IOT ON TOP OF EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE

The Internet of Things is built on top of the infrastructure. Nevertheless, IoT also has its own extension of what could be classically known as the internet. As the cost and size of communication technologies and sensors continue to decline, the IoT grows in leaps and bounds. Governments and businesses struggle to integrate the evolving technology, using analytics to segregate insights from data’s treasure trove that boost delivery models in transportation, health care, defense and security, infrastructure management and many other areas. The IoT’s exponential growth proves to be a regulatory concern, pressuring governments to keep pace with the ever evolving technology.

THE INTERNET OF THINGS IN 2020

By the year 2020, the Internet of Things would be:

• Privacy takes center stage as multiple things become sources of data. There is also new pay-for-privacy model that will emerge, which protects data and let consumers control over their data.
• IoT objects standardization, systems, sensors and processes start as huge players in the industrial internet market converge to evolve industry standards.
• Intervention apps materialize as the advent of advanced analytics and smart sensors enable IoT apps to move far beyond simply monitoring.

THE MATURING MARKET

As the IoT market matures, so will standards. Innovation and technology, via the growth of the internet and subsequent development of both open and proprietary standards, would help ready the market to take on the internet of things challenges and also pave the way for future innovation. The complexities would be deeper, but would also make the opportunity much greater.

Technology is moving towards an IoT based environment, and the implications seem robustly beneficial to people as well as the world. Accommodating human and worldly needs in real-time could give way for a more technologically aided and harmonious way of living.

THE PROS OF THE INTERNET OF THINGS

Each new technology faces millions of challenges in its initial stage. The IoT also poses some concerns. However, there are indeed benefits of the internet of things that people and businesses have partaken of since its inception. Some of these include:

1. Transportation. The internet of things simplifies and eases the whole process through introducing a monitory sensor, which helps track distance and time locations as well as other contributing factors.

2. Promotions. A lot of businesses use IoT for sending mobile promotions to frequent shoppers. This is done through keeping track of shopper history and interest. It uses location-based tracking of physical shoppers and those shopping over the web as well.

3. Inventory management. As managing fleet, inventory tracking and management is a major task as well. The internet of things is used for tagging radio frequency sensors for tracking products’ location in real time. It’s been instrumental in keeping tabs of the inventory level and stock it in advance, which make alerts for unforeseen stoppages, placing orders automatically and more.

4. Assessing web user intelligence. The internet of things is used by third party web data aggregators for a better understanding of the customer via tracking them on social media. This is necessary in identifying the major customers as well as their preferences.

5. Vending technology. IoT played a large role in boosting the working of vending machines, via enabling them to communicate in monitoring inventory levels, determine price and others.

6. Facilitates maintenance and warranty services. IoT enables product tracking. In turn, this helps in keeping track of products that need warranty or maintenance. Also, this helps in crisis moments such as thefts to track and place a product.

The internet of things see exponential growth since its inception. Moreover, it would continue to explode and become very prominent by 2020.

What is Web Accessibility Initiative or WAI

The World Wide Web Consortium’s WAI or Web Accessibility Initiative is an effort to boost World Wide Web’s accessibility for persons with disabilities. In general, disabled persons could encounter hardships when using computers, as well as on the web. Since persons with disabilities usually need non-standard browsers and devices, it is essential to make a website more accessible as well as benefits a huge range of devices and user agents, such as mobile devices that have limited resources.

WEB ACCESSIBILITY INITIATIVE LAUNCH

W3C launched the WAI in 1997 with The White House and W3C members’ endorsement. It has working groups as well as interest groups working on technical reports, guidelines, education materials and other documents which relate to the different components of web accessibility. The components include web browsers, content, media player, evaluation tools and evaluation tools. WAI develops guidelines as well as other reports via the same process as otherW3C parts. The same as other W3C initiatives, WAI consists of a number of working groups and special interest groups with their own focus.

AUTHORING TOOL ACCESSIBILITY GUIDELINES WORKING GROUP

The Authoring Tools Accessibility Guideline Working Group creates techniques, guidelines and supporting resources for tools that build web content, which range from desktop HTML editors to content management systems. There are two types of accessibility requirements, which is the user interface on one hand and content produced by the tool on the other.

MAKING THE INTERNET MORE ACCESSIBLE TO PERSONS WITH DISABILITY

Web Accessibility Initiative seeks to make the internet more accessible to persons with cognitive, auditory, physical, neurological, visual and speech impairments. This is hugely accomplished via what the organizations considers ‘inclusive design’. The inclusive design includes features such as the following:

1. Presenting similar content in various ways.

2. Providing text options for non-text content.

3. Designing pages so content would appear and operate in predictable ways.

4. Making certain that content is easy to hear and see.

There are numerous reasons why people could be experiencing different degrees of cognitive, auditory, physical, and neurological, speech and visual disabilities. For example, some people may have disabilities from birth, from a disease, illness, accident or develop impairments with age. Some may not consider themselves to have impairments even if they indeed experience such functional limitations.

DIVERSITY OF ABILITIES

AUDITORY

Auditory disabilities could range from mild or moderate hearing problems in one or in both ears, to uncorrectable and substantial hearing impairment in both ears. Some who have auditory disabilities could hear sounds, but at times not sufficiently to comprehend all speech, particularly when there’s background noise. This includes those who use hearing aids or others to enhance sound.

NEUROLOGICAL AND COGNITIVE

Neurological and cognitive disabilities include disorders of any part of the nervous system, such as the peripheral nervous system and the brain. This impacts how well people move, hear, speak, see and comprehend information. Neurological and cognitive disabilities don’t necessarily affect a person’s intelligence.

SPEECH

Speech impairment include difficulty in producing speech that’s recognizable by others or through a voice recognition software. For example, the clarity or loudness of someone’s voice could be hard to understand.

PHYSICAL

Physical disabilities or sometimes called motor disabilities include limitations of muscular control, like involuntary movements such as lack of coordination, tremors or paralysis, weakness, sensation limitations, joint issues like arthritis, missing limbs or pain that impedes movement.

VISUAL

Visual impairments could range from mild or moderate vision disabilities in one or both eyes, to uncorrectable vision loss in both eyes. Some have reduced or lack of sensitivity to certain colors or what is called as color blindness, or increased sensitivity to excessive color brightness. The variations in colors and brightness perceptions could be independent of the visual acuity.

THE RELEVANCE OF WEB ACCESSIBILITY

Increasingly, the web is an important resource in various aspects of life, such as employment, education, commerce, government, recreation, health care and more. It is paramount that the web should be accessible to provide equal opportunity and access to people with disabilities. The web could also help disabled persons to participate in society more actively. The web offers the possibility of unprecedented information access and interaction for a lot of people with impairments. Accessibility barriers to audio, print and visual media could be overcome more easily via web technologies. Making a website accessible to disabled persons is paramount. It is important to use good quality content. The site should be written in understandable, clear sentences. This helps able bodied and disabled users alike. Most sites use interactive elements and scripts. Even something simple such as an email form must be tested thoroughly. Make sure fields are labelled and the error messages make sense.

It is without doubt that the web should be a more-friendly place for people with disabilities. That is why the WAI is very important to make the web more accessible to different kinds of people.

A look at the future potential of the Information Technology industry in India

Today, the IT industry in India is undergoing change. The future potential of the industry will do well if it updates its offerings and capabilities in line with the emerging market imperatives and technologies.

THE IT INDUSTRY TRENDS IN INDIA

News on the coming death of the IT services industry in India begun to trickle a few years ago. It was reported that the country is no longer the automatic choice for back-office work and IT services in the world. Regardless of the prognostications, there’s also optimism on the prospects of the Information Technology industry of India for the coming decade. The IT industry in the country has gone through and has survived difficult times before. An example of this is the dot-com crash in the early 2000s as well as the financial crisis in 2008. Another is the major IT services organizations that devote significant resources to hire development and training, providing world-class facilities as well as educational programs for existing and new employees. Lastly, some are starting to adopt new business models and develop new platforms and products to wean off low value-add services, fixed-price pricing models and time-and-materials.

With the changing trends in the technology industry, the Indian IT industry is growing at a 4 percent rate a year, would continue offering opportunities for IT services companies that operate at all phases of the IT worldwide value chain. Primary customers, CIOs for IT services tend to risk-averse as well as like to perform business with companies that they have prior good experiences. All these factors will continue offering opportunities for the IT services companies in India for the foreseeable future. Nonetheless, not all companies would do well or survive even in the highly-competitive and new global business environment. Only companies that continuously upgrade their offerings and capabilities in line with emerging technologies as well as market imperatives could hope to survive and to prosper in this scenario. For the IT service providers in India, there are five priorities to pursue in order to carve out a fair share of the IT services revenue in the future.

The first priority is to continuously build and upgrade capabilities. Continuous upgrading and capability building are essential for a company’s growth and survival. Industries contain the seeds of their destruction via incursions by new enterprises that use innovations to destroy the advantage of the incumbent. Established companies could counter forces of creative destruction via capability innovation and building. Building capability requires the internet and particularly, external knowledge sources and capabilities, acquisitions and mergers, joint ventures, licensing and strategic alliances. The second priority is not just to explore but to exploit as well. Exploitation is using and developing things that are already known whose returns often are achievable and predictable in the short term. On the other hand, exploration is the pursuit of knowledge of things that could be known. Whose returns are not certain and possibly in a distant future. Successful organizations achieve innovation via internal and external sources and more and more on external innovation sources, like open innovation.

Another consideration is to provide ‘responsibility arbitrage as a new value proposition. Foreign multinational firms go to India to leverage the low-cost structure, scale, technology flexibility and expertise of Indian IT service providers. Today, with the growing competition from other locations, Indian companies should offer something that is considerably more valuable to clients to distinguish themselves from the competition. This includes service and guaranteed results consistency or the chance for them to benefit from ‘responsibility arbitrage. To provide service guarantee, firms would have to be extremely selective when it comes to industry verticals, technology domains and the clients that they serve. No company could be everything to everyone.

Often, IT service providers in India bill their foreign clientele on a time-and-materials basis. Much of the risk in this scenario rests with the client. Consistent with the third priority, more and more firms should start moving towards outcome-based, non-linear business models wherein pricing is based on the achieved results as well as the provider having some skin in the game. Traditional sources of competitive edge for the IT service providers in India, such as talent, low cost, scale, flexibility and expertise are increasingly passé. IT companies in India should become partners with their clientele and get involved in conversations on ‘why do it’, ‘what to do’ and not just on ‘how to do it’. Conversations that involve the latest business and technology trends increasingly involve people at a C-suite level. The benefits that IT providers offer their clientele substantially increase as they move up the value chain relationship and from the back office to front office. For the IT sector in India to retain its health, it would have to deal with the challenges on two fronts. First is the changing nature of business and second is one of perception.