/dqc/media/agency_attachments/3bO5lX4bneNNijz3HbB7.jpg)
Follow UsWith cloud computing evolving as a
feasible option for several enterprises to simply run their complex
business processes, off-late, it is becoming increasingly evident
that the entire ecosystem of enterprises and the players within it
are steadily gearing up for cloud adoption. Holding on to similar
convictions, a part of the Tata group and India's largest IT
services, consulting and business solutions firm,
Tata Consultancy
Services (TCS), has recently organized a grand event for the launch
of business solutions on the cloud under the brand name 'iON'.
Targeting the small and medium businesses (SMBs), Tata's 'iON'
is the first-of-its-kind fully integrated information technology
cloud-based solution with a combination of hardware, networking, and
office and business software on a payper- use model. “TCS is all
set to become a more popular brand with small and medium-size
businesses in meeting the growing demands in the SMB segment,” said
Venguswamy Ramaswamy, Global Head-SMB, TCS.
The need for IT with small and medium
businesses is growing. SMB is a segment that is characteristically
different from large enterprises. Explaining about targeting the SMB
segment, Ramaswamy said, “Till date, IT industry has judged this
market as attractive for niche solutions in hardware and software.
Yet, the business need of the SMBs demand holistic partnership. As
there are too many options available with very little in-house
knowledge, the plight of SMBs is far from being met, which calls for a
different
service model. We have built a unique business model that makes IT
available in an integrated fashion on the cloud,” Ramaswamy said.
He added that the journey for coming up with an integrated cloud
solution for the SMB segment started around two and a half years ago.
Initiating the effort for building the 'iON' cloud solution for
small and medium enterprises, the company conducted an elaborate
study of the Indian SMB market to understand their IT demands to
address the market. Having done a clear study on the SMB segment, it
was observed that the Indian SMBs were
under the deep clutch of capex mode, which further was posed as a
severe bottleneck for them to migrate easily to cloud computing, and
thus, TCS started architecting a cloud-based solution named 'iON'
for Indian SMBs. It was the brainchild of N Chandrasekaran, CEO and
MD, TCS.
According to TCS, 'iON' provides
ondemand business solutions using the very latest in scalable cloud
computing technology. It has been developed to deliver IT in the
third generation service model to SMBs. Using a payper- use business
model, iON helps SMBs leverage world-class technology solution as a
key business differentiator. It removes the need for SMBs to invest
in IT assets or retain scarce IT talent. iON uses cloud computing
technology with a pay-per-use business model and addresses the entire
spectrum of SMB's technological needs ranging from business
solutions like HR, finance, inventory and domain-based ERP as well as
e-mail, document management and website services. The cloud-based
solution is pre-configured with hardware; network and software
bundled together and backed by business, technical and consulting
services.
TCS has been placing a lot of emphasis
on enabling small and medium-scale businesses to use IT as a service
in their business plans. The company is targeting the Indian SMB
market first with the offering called 'Itas- a-service', and expects
a revenue of $1 billion from the segment in the next five years with
its affordable cloud computing model. According to research firm,
Zinnov Management Consulting, the total Indian market for
cloud is projected to be worth $260 million by 2011. It also stated
that the IT growth in India is the fastest in the world and that
Indian SMBs are looking for business improvement in the face of
challenges like lack of management bandwidth and tight budgets.
According to Ramaswamy, for these companies, cloud computing is
certainly a viable option since the Indian SMBs are set to spend more
than $16 billion on computer technology.
Explaining about the price
reasonability of the solution for the SMBs seeking to cut down their
budgets on capital expenditure, Ramaswamy cited an example of the
cloud solution for the education vertical, which is being priced at
Rs 70 per student a month. Using this 'IT-as-a-service' cloud
solution, Monica Doshi, COO, KarROX Technologies said, “Considering
the complexity of our business, the TCS team has been very supportive
in implementing our requirements. We have introduced 'campus management
system',
which acts like a digital campus, where in a center it could track
the availability of lab and faculty online and also place orders for
ourseware on diminishing inventory. This information can be centrally
monitored in the head-office on a daily basis.”
Also, several channel partners across
the country are very optimistic in their outlook for the SMB segment;
seeing increasing demand for cloud computing solutions from
enterprise customers. Shailesh Mallya, AVP-Marketing and
Communication of Mumbai-based Lauren Information Technologies said,
"For the TCS SMB cloud service, we signed up this deal three
months ago and until today, our customers in the cloud computing
space is increasing day by day. We see this business growing at an
aggressive rate in the years to come. We are predominantly seeing
traction for cloud-based solutions from the upper midmarket to large
enterprise customers and not SMBs as of now. We recently tied up with
two clients to have cloud setup. Our client base is gradually
increasing with the brand name of TCS."
Not only Lauren Information
Technologies, but also Secunderabad-based Cache Peripherals, recently
entered this business with a deal with TCS and is confident that they
will see some cloud computing deals this year. Director-Gumidelli
Sailesh confidently said, “I certainly feel that SMBs are ready to
migrate on cloud computing since it makes perfect commercial sense.
The significant driver of cloud computing in the SMB segment is
because of the lower costs for running the technology, innovation and
lower risks involved. With cloud, no upfront capital expenditure is
needed, as there would not be any requirement to hire huge
administration staff as problems like upgradation, software patching
and others would be taken care by the cloud service provider. The
adoption costs are also lower as per the pay-per-use model by TCS. In
my view, for most new businesses which will be set up in the future,
cloud is the most viable option to adopt.” “It is one year since
we have deployed this solution for the admission, HR, procurement and
assessment processes. We intend to deploy these solution across 115
locations. Initially, we intend to deploy pilot rojects and then we
will deploy at all locations,” said Ryan Pinto, CEO, Ryan
International School.
Ajay Pahwa, CEO, Kaya Skin Clinic also
said in concurrence, “We have seen a lot benefits like high
bandwidth at low costs. This helps us to translate better when it
concerns customer needs. The best part is we are able to incorporate
the solution on the basis of pay as you use. It helps us to maintain
and track the history of our customers and also in our day-to-day
business.” Also, Ajay Sawant, MD of Mumbai-based Orient
Technologies, has signed up a deal with TCS for the adoption of cloud
c o m p u t i n g technology two months ago and is now expecting to
touch the revenue of $1 million by the end of this year with this
tie-up. But, Sawant is also of the view that there is still a long
way to go for small and medium sized enterprise to s u c c e s s f u
l l y implement the cloud technology. He added, "The
penetration of cloud computing in Indian SMB is not huge at the
moment and there very few deployments have actually happened. The
public cloud will gain more momentum among the SMEs. This is our first
year on cloud computing deal with TCS and we hope to generate
a revenue of over 10 percent on our total business on cloud by the
end of this year.” Adding to the abovestated comments, Prof (Dr) BV
Somasekhar, Vice Chancellor, Suresh Gyan Vihar University said, “The
gross enrollment ratio for us is expected to jump to 30 percent in
2020 from its current figures of 12.6 percent. In order to match this
gross enrollment ratio that is expected to increase economic progress
IT deployment becomes a necessity. In the future, the education field
is going to witness an amalgamation of various eduction bodies like
AICTEE among others. The government is going to invite foreign
universities to set base in India which will pose a challenge for
Indian universities who will then have to put their best foot forward
to match steps with their global counterparts.”
However, speaking about the initiative
of bringing in cloud service for SMBs, Ratan Tata explained that
through this, TCS will empower the SMEs, which contributes to over 45
percent in the country's GDP. He further assured, "We will
modify the entire system and there will be powerful technological
changes.” TCS assured its SME audience that it will provide all
help to its customer's; starting from the level of hardware,
software and even network solutions and services for the customers'
connectivity with cloud platform.
(With
inputs from: Shilpa Shanbhag)