Be Prepared For The Worst

It is unclear if India will echo the sounds of recession underway in the US.

But whichever way you look at it, there is no denying that there is a general
slowdown in the local market place.

Look around you. Businesses, which were growing in excess of 40 percent last
year, are readjusting their calculations to post in revenues of 20 percent this
time around. Sure there is growth, but it is not at par with those exhibited in
the past two years.

So are you geared up to deal with this slowdown? This is the time when you
ought to shore up your liquidity. This will help you invest into products and
technologies at the right time without having to worry about how it will affect
the fiscal health of your company.

But is that enough? If it is limited to your company then maybe it is. But
what will you do if your customers too start worrying about recession and then
decide that it is time they should put the stops on any IT deployments they had
planned at the start of the calendar year. And if this happens then irrespective
of whether the GDP goes up or down, you are going to be in a tight position.

And this is bound to happen as companies all over the world and in India are
trying to cut costs and reduce expenses to tide them through the rough phase
that economists are predicted. Maybe India will not have as turbulent a ride as
the US. But there is no denying that a lot of solution providers have branched
to the West seeking a global footprint for customers. They sure have to figure
out their contingent strategies, and pronto.

vinita bhatia

At times like these, you have to think like your customer is likely to. If he
thinks cost-cutting, then figure out how he can improve his network to get
better utilization of his IT resources. Has he got a lot of servers that are not
utilized? Why not suggest virtualization? Does his backend operations have
several desktops? Get him to shift to thin clients. And if he has been using
proprietary software till date, he might be open to deploying open source for
some not too critical applications.

Whatever you do, don't waive off the fears of recession because India has
been cushioned from it so far. Be prepared for the worst and then you will
always be safe. It might be a cynical approach to business, but then again there
is no harm done if it protects your interests.

Think about it.

Vinita Bhatia

vinitavs@cybermedia.co.in