SMB INDUSTRY HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE THE LARGEST GROWTH DRIVER FOR THE ECONOMY.

It is imperative for SMBs to ensure maximum output with minimum investment. Small business need to optimally utilize their resources for enhanced productivity. With the smart phone boom, mobile applications have become a standard business tool. SMB players need to focus on adopting specific applications which cater to their business needs and enhance operational excellence.

Analyses of data on the basis of consumer behavior patterns plays a vital role for companies to understand the need of their consumer and thereby realigning their marketing strategies. SMBs should adopt mobility solutions to foster growth and enhance consumer experience.

SMB players need to utilize services such as email, messaging, CRM, social media to ensure they reach out to their consumers and potential consumers. In India, mobility drives the holistic strategy of e-commerce success stories like Flipkart, Snapdeal and Jabong. Snapdeal has witnessed a 25-fold growth in mobile based transactions and more than 50% of their sales come from mobile devices in the last year.

Another strong development for upsurge of mobile-based payments is the greater adoption of mPOS (mobile point-of-sale) solutions. Modern mPOS solutions are convenient to use, ensuring the SMBs to convert their mobile into a POS device and drive transaction volumes by accepting cards anywhere, anytime. This would help the SMBs to increase sales, add value to customer experience and take small retailers community to a cashless route.

To conclude, the SMB industry has the potential to be the largest growth driver for the economy. The players need to move beyond traditional practices and adopt solutions which would give them the required impetus to script greater success stories in the coming years.

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LEVERAGE THE OPERATORS’ EXISTING ASSETS LIKE THE BSS/OSS ECOSYSTEMS:

The Software Defined Networking (SDN) technology is very promising and expected to help operators in reducing costs and boosting service innovation. The cost reduction factor derives naturally from centralizing the network control functions. Following the Network Function Virtualization concept, it ensures that the control function can be implemented on standard equipment (even PCs).

Software Defined Networking (SDN) is currently a widely discussed topic in the telecommunications industry. There are high expectations regarding the technology, including reducing network maintenance costs and unleashing innovation, thus opening the way to new revenue sources and better network monetization. SDN is a concept where the main principle is to separate the control plane from the data plane, and to move the controller function out from today’s routers.

To make the promises of SDN technology come true, there is a need for a platform, enabling a business application that will help opening up telecom networks. The specifications and APIs for this kind of a business application need to be defined to shape the network according to what is required and make it “smarter”. In order for the latter to happen,  a controller needs a comprehensive end-to-end view of the network and all connected services. However, the SDN concept does not define, how to provide such an end-to-end view.

One idea is to leverage the operators’ existing assets like the BSS/OSS ecosystems and prove that SDN won’t make BSS/OSS investments obsolete. IT architecture, where BSS/OSS investments can not only be saved, but even act as a significant enabler for the SDN “revolution”. This means that telecom operators will be able to provide significant added value to the SDN ecosystem.

But the real strength of this technology is in its potential to speed up innovation and open up the network. The “smartness” of the SDN controllers comes from the ability to access a complete end-to-end view of the network. Instead of implementing a completely new infrastructure for an SDN controller, the end-to-end view can be delivered by the existing BSS/OSS systems.

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SECURITY FOR THE WAY WE LIVE

The biggest shift in the industry is that we need to move beyond thinking of security as a set of extra steps, processes, or systems built around our computing environment. As computing becomes more pervasive and embedded, often unseen, in our daily lives, we need to design holistic approaches to security that match the way we live and work.

It’s an exciting time to be in the security industry. There won’t be just one single answer or solution. Many players will be involved in a holistic, systems-based approach to security. And the environment will continue to evolve, as endpoints expand and innovative new technologies enter both our business and personal lives. Security practitioners and developers will be challenged to be innovative and collaborative in adapting to the constantly evolving threat environment.

Applications: Security isn’t something that can be tacked onto an application at the end of its development. Even in an environment with significant time-to-market pressures, application developers need to be part of the holistic approach to security, delivering vulnerability free software that considers the implications of sensitive and/or regulated data.

People: The boundaries between personal and professional online activities and identities are blurring. Corporate security measures must accept this reality and support people with everything from online identity controls to simplified, embedded processes, making secure computing as easy and transparent as possible.

Layered defenses, but across multiple dimensions
Despite what any security vendor may wish you to believe, there’s no single way to secure either your personal data and identity or corporate systems and data. While layered defenses have been a best-practice in corporate security for many years, in today’s increasingly complex security environment we need to expand our thinking to layers across many dimensions. Specifically, security requires holistic approaches that span people, infrastructure, data, and applications.

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IT PREDICTIONS FOR MANUFACTURING AND SUPPLY CHAIN INDUSTRY

We will see manufacturers and their partners accelerate the implementation of initiatives that will deliver on the promise of the Internet of Things (IoT). Embedded sensors streaming data combined with analysis will provide better levels of supply chain visibility, production support and customer experience optimization, as innovative manufacturers embrace the possibilities enabled by IoT.

Increased servicing will be required of automated equipment. Specialized equipment makers will be positioned to create new revenue streams by providing maintenance services on a predictive basis with the use of sensors.

Ability to sense demand in real-time and respond by changing prices or promotions through the utilization of segmented logistics, inventory and performance capacities, will allow for optimization of integrated responses.

Re-shoring will remain a focus as manufacturers search for efficiencies and innovation, but supply chains will still be complicated, requiring increased visibility provided by the industrial IoT.

While labor and production in emerging markets manufacturing has been appealing, improvements in innovation and product quality will keep production facilities running and entice new facilities to open, which will compete with re-shoring.

Faster times to market with more specific products and shorter lifecycles (PLM) will result in short-term shifting and outsourcing of logistics facilities, production and suppliers. Manufacturers will have to quickly onboard suppliers and partners to support rapid product development and match the capabilities and products desired by customers.

3D printing will become central to manufacturing strategy. Additive manufacturing will provide additional flexibility for service parts or unique products with short life cycles. These capabilities will flourish and will be adopted as a central part of a manufacturing strategy.

Manufacturers will continue to focus on maintaining cost and service certainty, even in the face of adverse events and risks. Scenario and response planning will require processes spanning multiple departments with the ability to understand forecasted outcomes, and manage real-time deviations from planned outcomes.

Manufacturers who embrace The Digital Enterprise concept will differentiate themselves and attract the best, most sought after talent.

With the rise of IoT and the ability to make massive amounts of data actionable through streaming analytics and dynamic, structured collaboration, governments will continue to increase funding for groups to create a new manufacturing revolution.

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HAVE WORKFORCE WHO CAN SHIFT GEARS AND ADAPT TO CHANGING TECHNOLOGY: DATA TEAM NEEDS A COMMON GOAL AND GROUP CHEMISTRY:

The modern IT workforce is approaching a critical stage, there are plenty of steps that savvy CIOs can take to make sure their workers are poised for success in the rapidly changing enterprise -- it just requires a subtly different approach to finding and maintaining talent.

Overall, a shift needs to take place in which soft skills become just as important as nuts-and-bolts technical know-how. Here are my top three considerations for IT leaders hoping to bridge the IT skills gap at their companies:

1. Start early. Become actively involved in building the industry workforce you wish to hire from. Businesses are increasingly partnering with educational institutions to help develop and execute curriculum that's aimed at preparing students for the real world. For the CIO, this could be as simple as STEM education to make sure the future workforce has a strong foundation.

2. Develop the talent you have. While new talent acquisition is an important part of maintaining a strong workforce, your best ROI will almost always be to develop the talent you already have.

Instead of hiring experts on cloud or big data, for example, CIOs will need to hire and retain people with general tech backgrounds and provide them with the tools they need to become experts in the latest enterprise technology. IT shops should set aside an annual budget for employee training that balances the financial realities of the department with the need to keep employees’ skills up to date. Large organizations may benefit from a formal internal training program, while IT departments with tighter budgets may look to creative options, such as peer trainings in which employees share their knowledge with one another. Whatever your training budget, make sure every dollar spent on professional development addresses skills your organization needs now or will likely need in the future.

It's also important to create career paths that make sense for both the employee and the organization. There are business benefits from internal promotion by reducing the time and cost of external hiring, and internal promotion also helps keep valuable intellectual property in-house. Meanwhile, employees with clear roads toward advancement are more likely to remain at a company and stay motivated to perform at a high level.

3.  Look for the multi-dimensional candidate. When you do seek out external talent, think carefully about what you really need -- not just now, but in the future. Just as technology is changing, the role of the IT employee is also changing and will continue to do so. Instead of hiring candidates with specific tech skills or knowledge, it will instead be important to look for talented people who have general technical knowledge but who also have soft skills such as communication, leadership, and ambition. For example, if there are two candidates, one with more ambition and another with deeper experience in cloud computing, I’ll hire the ambitious candidate every time. The thinking is that the candidate with the right attitude will be able to learn cloud, and will also stand ready to learn whatever new disciplines the future holds.

In the long run, having an IT staff with diverse skills will be critical for IT taking a larger role in the business. The specifics of new technologies will change, but skills like leadership and ambition will only grow in importance.

In short, the sky is not falling: CIOs can find ways to prepare their workforces for the challenges of the digital enterprise. However, CIOs and other IT leaders must understand that now is the time to think critically about where IT is headed, and the kind of workforce they'll need to realize that vision. By focusing on finding the right kind of people, with a foundation of technical knowledge and the right soft skills, CIOs can ensure they have workers who can shift gears and adapt to changing technology.

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REDIFINE ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE IN 2015: INTEGRATION MOVES INTO THE CLOUD

Enterprise technology has become scattered, as an increasing number of cloud-based apps, virtual services, and connected devices and sensors have proliferated across company departments. In 2014, businesses realized they needed to connect the new cloud solutions they had adopted with on-premises systems that make up their traditional IT portfolio. Established middleware, including enterprise service buses and custom code have proved to be insufficient to keep up with demand. In the coming year, businesses that have not adopted a rapid integration strategy will have to focus on finding faster, more efficient ways to connect the expanding universe of data and endpoints.

Cloud-based integration platforms will provide the fastest and easiest way for companies to ensure that new technologies are quickly linked to the rest of the organization – including legacy, on-premises systems.

Three integration innovations will redefine enterprise architecture in 2015: virtual integration, cloud-based platforms, and managed APIs:

• Virtual integration allows applications to access information from external systems without actually moving data from one application to another, delivering immediate insight across systems, a smaller storage footprint, and eliminating the need to synchronize redundant datasets.

• Cloud integration platforms enable a new generation of hybrid integration designed and managed on a single cloud platform that can run in the cloud or securely behind the firewall.

• Managed APIs are the new building blocks of digital business. Managed, integrated APIs are not your father’s SOA API. They are specifically designed for today’s scale and security needs, delivering massive throughput, throttling, analytics, monitoring, and centralized lifecycle management.

Together, these new integration innovations will redefine how we do business with our customers, partners, and employees.

Death of ESB & Rise of Real-Time API Integration

The importance of big data and the cloud has forced companies to rethink their traditional IT infrastructure in order to leverage the vast stores of information coming from the Internet of Things, cloud, social and mobile endpoints.

For example, the Internet of Things demands a new level of high-volume, external-facing APIs that operate in real time. The ESB integration model architected more than 10 years ago, before the cloud revolution, was never designed for the scale or speed of modern digital commerce. Instead, the next generation of integration technologies, such as PaaS integration platforms, delivers a new level of agility, and connectivity, in minutes instead of months.

Self-Service Integration: The End User Shift

With more business processes leveraging connected applications and data, integration solutions will become increasingly accessible to the average business user. Instead of relying on IT specialists to connect different business processes across various applications, the modern wave of integration solutions will empower line-of-business users to manage links between the solutions that they know best. As end users demand more control over the technology they use on a day-to-day basis, business IT and integration providers will focus on opening up APIs to allow people across the company to quickly bring on and connect new technologies to legacy solutions.

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WHERE IS INDIA LAGGING BEHIND IN ICT AND TELECOM TECHNOLOGIES?

We import 99.99 per cent of ICT and Telecom technologies today, incurring a cost of USD 120 billion. This bill is estimated to increase to USD 400 billion by 2020.

Will we have the money to foot that huge bill? If USD 120 billion, which is Rs 800,000 crore, circulates within the country, it will generate thousands of millions of crores.

We have to strive for self-sufficiency and build technologies. Transfer of technology, licensed production or joint ventures rarely give a country any true strength and often become an addictive habit. No donor country will transfer their best technology and therefore, whole scale imports are not sustainable in the long term. All the systems are supplied by foreigners, which makes India very vulnerable.

What should be done to achieve self-sufficiency in these technologies?

We need to change the system. The world is racing ahead. We are completely at the bottom in every single metric in science and technology while China is far ahead. If we have the money to import technologies worth USD 120 billion then I am sure we can spend a couple of billion dollars trying to build technologies in India.

But, we must collaborate with the rest of the world. China did it by sheer government willpower over the last 20 years. For instance, China has sent 200,000 junior professors, PhD students and post doctoral students to the US to work in top universities. They go back and create great value at home. Thanks to the bureaucratic mindset, one of our best institutes of higher education, IIT-Delhi, is ranked 250th in the world.

The Indian government has no way of funding them other than some interaction through some Commonwealth fund. The technology base in India compared to the world is less than 1 per cent today. Why can’t we invest a few billions dollars in education, R&D and in building technologies?

Won’t Indian talent come up with innovative, indigenous technologies?

Great talent is available in Africa and Malaysia too. Give me an example of one idea or anything hi-tech that we have made in this country in Telecom or ICT.

We need more PhDs, but there are no takers for it in India as there are limited jobs for researchers today. There is enormous talent in India.

While we are very well connected in arts and literature, we live in a completely isolated system when it comes to science and technology. The government comes into the picture and bureaucrats run the show. While there is no shortage of talent, we are in a bureaucratic prison, which we must come out of. 

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