IT EYES HIGH GROWTH

IT EYES HIGH GROWTH

BANGALORE: It's been a happy 2010 for the tech industry. It ushered in glimpses of recovery, while the second half of the year brought in growth,hiring and resilience, pumping in a sense of confidence back to the markets which were shattered by the global economic meltdown. 

The highlight was the revival and the resilience it showed. IT companies posted good numbers clearly signalling that the risk of a double dip recession emerging and disrupting growth are now behind us. Besides, hiring plans and increments were back on board, demonstrating the feel good in the sector.

So while 2010 was characterized by restructuring, consolidation, pragmatic learning and smart budgeting, 2011 will continue to build on that and move ahead, say industry experts. "The outlook for 2011 is positive and promising and innovation would be the key going forward," they said. 

Kris Gopalakrishnan, CEO of Infosys Technologies, says, "The year 2010 brought us out of the recession. Growth is back, hiring numbers have picked up. Next year, the focus will be on innovation around emerging technologies like cloud computing and various mobile technologies. 

On the business side, companies will focus on new geographies, new industries and new ways of engaging clients." It's not going to be limited to new technologies though. Avinash Vashistha, CEO of Tholons Inc, says verticals like retail, healthcare and BFSI were key growth drivers during this year and these spaces will continue to remain sunshine sectors throughout the year ahead as well. "We expect IT and BPO sectors to grow in 30% and 20% range respectively. The outlook is positive for large players." 

There is a word of caution for small and medium companies though. Vashistha says small and medium enterprises were not able to participate in the growth story of 2010 and their future will continue to be grim in 2011 too. 

"That's why we see certain companies like i-gate are trying to quickly gain some weight and size," he said. Arup Roy, senior reserch analyst at Gartner India, echoes similar sentiments: "Though the industry is on a positive footing there are clear trends emerging that marginal players could face tough times and we can thus expect more consolidation next year. 

According to Siddharth A Pai, managing director, TPI, 2010 was an year of recovery and restructuring of the markets and existing contracts. "Many large 5/7 year deals were restructured and re-negotiated and large Indian service providers were able to win some of these contracts this year. 

Next year will bring in some incremental growth in such contracts won by domestic providers. That means more work will flow offshore, to India and other low cost destinations in 2011, which is good news." 

Innovation truly is key to going forward in 2011. In the product front, it will be about the point of design having an impact as a business advantage in architecture, engineering and construction and manufacturing spaces. 

"Customers today are no longer asking us if they should use a model-based design approach but how innovative solutions can help them solve challenges of creating sustainable designs, meeting the growing demand for infrastructure, and operating in a productive and profitable manner. 

Similarly for the manufacturing sector and the vast number of SMEs in the segment in India, good design is connecting ideas and innovation; turning those ideas into a real inventions," says Jayant Keswani, head marketing, Autodesk India & SAARC. 

On the end-user front, 2010 saw two fundamental shifts—mobile phones became more well rounded in terms of features/functionality across segments and the smart phone platform moved from being a privilege of the elite to more mainstream. As a result, users consumed a lot more infotainment services like music, email, and life enhancing services at the rural level. 2011 will be about smartphones demand soaring driven by 3G launch. 

"Companies are investing in building a strong services portfolio and ecosystem partnerships across services whether it is infotainment or business productivity services for enterprises and SMBs or life enhancing services for rural and non urban consumers," says V Ramnath, director , operator channel, Nokia India.