Are you .IN it yet?

Registering for .IN domain names began in December 2004. Since then, solution

providers do not seem to be very enthusiastic about getting their corporate

website name changed. DQ Channels spoke to the leading solution providers of the

Silver Club, and found out that not even 50% of the top 25 ones have gone for

the .IN domain name.

Giving an organization an Indian identity has not seemed to attract too many

solution providers. Solution providers have preferred to be with their old

domain names rather than change them to the exclusive .IN. The initial fizz

about having a different domain name, which gives an Indian touch to the company

website name, has died down.

When an article on the same topic was done three months back, of the top

twenty-five solution providers mentioned in the DQ Channels Silver Club, only

seven had registered for the .IN domain name. Now, of the 18 solution providers,

only three more have registered themselves for .IN. They are: Wipro Infotech,

CMC and Tata Infotech.

India or international



The main reason not to go for the .IN domain is that customers are used to a

particular URL. On changing it, they may not be able to recollect the new

change. G Balakrishnan, MD, Ontrack Solutions commented, "The company site

name, www.ontrackin.com is widely known to people. The publicity material we

carry also has the same URL. Thus, we would not like to change the domain

name."

Omnitech Infosolutions' DD Buch shares a similar view point as he prefers

to play safe. "Our corporate URL has gone to a lot of clients and

customers. We do not want to take any chances by opting for a new

extension," he cautioned. The company website is updated every fortnight

and is an informative one, which is why he all the more feels that the existing

domain name should not be dabbled with.

Buch

does not feel that having a .IN domain name will give an added Indian identity

even to its international customers. Mathew Chacko, one of the Directors at

Precision Group seconds that. The company's URL is www.precision.co.in.

"I feel .CO.IN is better than having only a .IN domain. The .CO.IN domain

can stand for India in the commercial terms," he explained. While, for

Balakrishnan, when asked what 'in' stood for in the URL, he said it could

stand for India as well as International.

Mathew also opined that changing the domain name will not make a lot of

difference to his business either. In fact, he feels that not enough is told

that who would manage the DLS server and the load. "If any technical issue

comes up, then will the government interfere?" he asked.

.IN has Indian touch



On the other hand, Nitin Shah of Allied Digital Services has taken advantage

of the service provided for an Indian domain identity. The company, along with

its existing portal, will launch another customer service, known as

www.allieddigital.co.in. The new URL has the .CO.IN domain name. Sunil Bhatt,

TCO, Allied Digital Services, said that they chose this domain name for the new

portal as it would give an Indian identity to their organization and customers

would recognize them as an Indian player.

"Having several customers out of India, we have taken the .CO.IN domain,

as it will highlight our Indian identity, which is the biggest asset for Indian

in other countries," remarked Nitin. But as mentioned above, there are not

many who believe that a changed domain name can assert the Indian nature of the

company, and bring about significant business revenues.

Jasjit Sawhney, CEO, Net4India, one of the registrars for .IN domain names,

said, "Our assumption that the number of applicants would reduce after the

Sunrise period for trademark registered companies was wrong. There were more

companies that registered themselves from January 21, 2005 to February 16,

2005." This was the time when non-trademark registered companies could

apply. In the Sunrise period, there were a total of 2,800 registrations that

were done by Net4India, while after February 21, 2005, the registrar has been

making around 75 registrations per day. Jasjit remarked that the registrations

that now happen are more from SMBs.

Importance of corporate website



Solution providers do not update the portal very often. That is another

reason for going in for a re-haul of the website name. "Our site is more of

a corporate brochure. We update it once every six months. Though slowly we plan

to update it more often and gradually do that once every month. It is more

static a site than dynamic," said Mathew.

Also, Ontrack Solutions does not update the site very often, it does that

every two months. "I do not feel the need to update it very regularly, as a

person would see my site with a specific purpose and not just while surfing it.

The information that a prospective customer needs is there," explained

Balakrishnan. Citing a different case, Omnitech Infosolutions updates the site

as often as every 15 days. Yet, it would not like to register with a new domain

name.

AMISHI SHAH with inputs

from New Delhi and S Gopikrishna in Chennai