NORTH-EAST REGION ON FOCUS FOR MAKING DIGITAL INDIA PROGRAMME MORE PERVASIVE: GOVERNMENT TO CONNECT 55,000 VILLAGES WITH PHONES BY DECEMBER 2016

The telecom department plans to take mobile network by December 2016 to nearly 10 per cent of Indian villages that are still unconnected, to make the government's ambitious Digital India programme more pervasive. Of the 6,00,000 villages in the country, about 55,000 are still awaiting mobile connectivity.

These villages fall primarily under the red corridor — a vast swathe affected by left-wing extremism — and in the Northeast. 

Under the Rs 1.13 lakh crore mega Digital India initiative, the government aims to connect every nook and corner of the country with broadband Internet, and deliver services electronically through mobile phones. The TRAI had earlier in a study revealed major network gaps in the northeast region. Arunachal Pradesh had the highest coverage gap at nearly 56 per cent, followed by Meghalaya with 38 per cent, Mizoram with 32 per cent and Manipur 24 per cent.

In September this year, the Cabinet had approved spending of Rs 5,300 crore to install 6,673 telecom towers across 8,621 villages, primarily boosting telecom network along national highways in the Northeast.

"The department is setting up telecom towers in Northeast with a pecuniary budget of Rs 5,300 crore and additionally deploying 2,199 towers in left wing extremism affected areas. Setting up mobile phone network in the Naxal-affected regions is one of the long-pending demands of the home ministry, which has recently asked the telecom department to fasttrack deployment. The work would be completed by the end of September 2015 as per recent news. 

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FOCUS ON CREATING AND LEVERAGING IT SOLUTIONS ACROSS SECTORS LIKE HEALTHCARE, EDUCATION AND FINANCIAL INCLUSION

With technology solutions at the core of Digital India plan, there is huge opportunity for IT players to use disruptive technologies to redefine paradigms for delivery of services like health, education and financial inclusion. IT will partner with the Government/s to restructure and refocus several existing schemes and implement them in a synchronized fashion. Transforming India into an IT-enabled society, ties in well with vision of 'Connect, Collaborate and Co-create', which advocates the empowerment of the Indian economy through large scale IT adoption across horizontals such as healthcare, education, agriculture and others.

Moving ahead with its aim keeping in mind two important stakeholders – Government, the enabler of technology solutions and end-user, the one consuming the solutions. With the expected outcome of not only bridging the digital divide but also empowering the citizens of the country, IT will play an important role in transforming the existing Public Service Delivery system, improve productivity, create jobs and induce economic activity in areas which were not digital connected. 

At URS Systems, we have extensive experience with IT transformation programs, and have helped many leading organizations use our approach to achieve results more quickly than they could have on their own. IT transformation services including service activation, service delivery platform, catalog-driven order management and inventory consistently based on leading products, assets and accelerators that streamline the transformation experience and improve business outcomes.

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Digital Revolution: Provide the Right User Experience!

The consumer has been at the forefront of mobility revolution in India. By the end of 2013, the total Internet user base in India was at 213 million, a 42 percent year-on-year growth. In the same year, mobile Internet user base grew 92 to 130 million. More than 100 million users from India are on Facebook. This growing adoption of mobility by Indian consumers is widely expected to fuel its adoption in the enterprise. In the last couple of years, surveys conducted by PwC among the CXO level staff cutting across industries have indicated a strong demand for mobility by enterprises. However, adoption of enterprise mobility is facing bumps along the road that are impeding adoption rates.

For Indian enterprises, challenges occur at different levels of the organization: senior management level and worker/employee level. A top concern for the senior management is security and compliance: how can data be protected from leaving the corporate walls? We also observe that senior management, under pressure to achieve short-term goals, cannot justify ROI for the additional investment. As far as workers and employees—the end users of mobility systems— are concerned, the key challenge has been providing the right user experience. Quite often, training sessions need to be conducted to overcome the learning barrier involved in understanding the system. Lastly, mobility architecture also comes with an overhead to manage the fragmented OS platforms. To sum it up, the top challenges impeding mobility adoption are:

(i) Security

(ii) ROI justification

(iii) Poor user experience and

(iv) Device fragmentation.

The good news for enterprises is that there are answers to all the challenges they face across the organization. Security concerns are being addressed by innovative solutions in the industry. Security software providers offer encryption at multiple layers: storage, network, cloud and mobile devices. Not only is data encrypted locally, it is also encrypted on storage devices that reside in the cloud. In the event of a data theft, the encrypted data is rendered useless since encryption keys are stored within corporate walls and the keys never leave the corporate firewalls. The Indian start-up ecosystem has started offering.

A majority of Indian CIOs says that enterprise mobility will play a critical role in conducting day-to-day operations in their organization. Many have also stated that mobility will be a key part of their enterprise strategy. However, enterprises, both large and medium, face challenges that are slowing mobility adoption.

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Shopping Behaviour has Changed!! More technology enabled with Multiple Channels...

The technology-enabled consumer’s shopping journey weaves in and out of many channels (web stores, mobile apps, social media, e-mail, kiosks, physical stores, contact centers and more).

During this journey consumers leave ever-larger digital footprints with a growing trail of personal data. This raises numerous questions and concerns, including:

• Who owns the data?

• What is the value of the data?

• How is the data being collected?

• How is the data being used?

• How is the data being protected against misuse?

Mutual Value is Key to Improved Digital Engagement

This growing complexity points to the importance of addressing digital engagement as a strategic business issue. Common principles at industry level can serve as a global foundation for creating an interoperable, flexible and accountable framework for coordinated multi stakeholder action. To develop trust and level the digital playing field requires balancing different stakeholder needs, with a goal of ensuring mutual value. Think of it as a “value triangle”: value to the consumer (in the form of rewards, better deals, more relevant offers, etc.), value to the business (improved insights, greater efficiency, more profitable growth), value to the society (improved efficiency, greater corporate social responsibility).

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6 Key Areas essential to any Retailer’s Transformation Strategy as Retailing continues to change rapidly because of digital technology

In the midst of the extraordinary change being driven by online retailing, major retailers worldwide are continually adjusting strategy to create value. But competing priorities and distractions can lead retailers to forget perhaps the most important underpinning of all strategic imperatives: customer empathy. The irony of this, and the appeal, is that based on this simple frame of reference – putting yourself in your customers’ shoes – most retailers already know how to win.

In the name of innovation, many retailers often implement new systems that are intended to reduce cost, improve sales and be good for customers, but, in fact, if they had listened to their customers the retailers would have learned they wanted something different.

Although all industries are still in the midst of digital transformation, other industries, such as travel and banking, aren’t as fixated on channels and haven’t fallen into this trap. They have learned to deliver seamless, convenient, non-intrusive, enabling experiences. Retailers that do the same have the best chance of balancing returns on investment and increasing share of wallet with delighted, brand-loyal customers.

Bottom-line takeaways in six key areas essential to any retailer’s transformation strategy: mobile, social media, personalized marketing, cross-channel integration, loyalty, and digital shopping.

1. MOBILE - Mobility is perhaps the most important channel of all. Retailers need to adopt a “mobile-first” model for deployment to shoppers and associates given the inherent rapid change and ubiquity of mobile interaction. The vast majority of shoppers are now connected almost every waking hour of their day. But retailers haven’t caught up.
2. SOCIAL MEDIA – Although shoppers are very active on social media, it’s their platform and they really don’t want the noise that many retailers generate: more than 60% of surveyed shoppers said their purchases are not influenced by social media.
3. PERSONALIZED MARKETING – Personalisation runs hot and cold. Retailers understand the power. Shoppers are hungry for more relevant, customized experiences.
4. CROSS-CHANNEL INTEGRATION – Customers want it all – the convenience of online shopping with the comfort and immediacy of the in-store experience. And they want to use their devices to research and price check while in stores. The tip of the Omni channel spear is “buy online pickup in-store.” It’s the most tangible, proven way to engage and identify customers across channels. 
5. LOYALTY – Loyalty programs, when done well, are good for retailers and their customers. But retailers are not leveraging loyalty anywhere near as well as airlines and hospitality companies. Shopper satisfaction with retail loyalty programs is generally low. Although retail loyalty programs do create loyalty, and shoppers are enrolling (92%), impact could be substantially increased by improving perceived value and ease of use.
6.  DIGITAL SHOPPING – Digital shopping (Web and mobile) continues to be an important – and threatening – channel both for transacting and influencing in-store purchases. More and more shoppers are looking to brand Web sites, e- tailers and other online competitors. With increased price transparency and expectations for faster, lower-cost delivery also comes increased threat to the bottom line. What do shoppers want? A collective experience online! No single feature is more important than the rest.

Shoppers want robust information, easy access to service, a variety of payment options, stored profile information, and real-time offers. Retailers must rely on their online experience, price and product selection to differentiate themselves from the competition.

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Digital innovations are now shaking up every industry: There's a much greater sense of urgency among the mainstream players to reorganize themselves as digital businesses.

Regardless of how you view "digital disruption" -- angst-inducing threat or energizing opportunity -- it's no longer a theoretical proposition. Digital innovations are now shaking up every industry -- the result of a confluence of three main trends.

The first is a technological one. Advances in cloud computing, data analytics, video, social networking, and, most important, the consumer-funded infrastructure of mobile devices and connectivity have laid the groundwork for business as unusual.

The second trend is a more social one. The broad consumerization of IT not only has made the unwashed masses comfortable with all manner of apps and devices, turning them into ready customers of innovative digital products, services, and features, but it also has made CXOs and line-of-business execs more keenly aware of what digital innovation can potentially do to transform their companies and industries. So they're leading the charge. Whether you like it or not, CEOs, CMOs, sales executives, HR leaders, and other "non-IT" types are involved directly in setting digital strategy and making the requisite technology purchases.

The third is a commercial trend, an offshoot of the first two. The biggest digital natives are getting restless to move into new markets -- for example, the search giant Google into financial, telecom, home automation, and package delivery; the social networker LinkedIn into media and content. They now have market caps to grow and shareholders to please. They're upping their game.

As a result, there's a much greater sense of urgency among the mainstream players to reorganize themselves as digital businesses. 

Whether you're the digital hunter or the hunted, all this digital disruption requires a new brand of leadership. "Becoming a digital business isn't an 'IT project.' It requires change across the organization, from sales and customer support to purchasing and product development."

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