- News>
- ICE Economy
Branding will be key to enhanced software product exports
New Delhi, Aug 10: Before Indian IT industry can hope for a larger pie of the software product market and export 11 billion dollars worth of packaged software by 2008, as projected by Nasscom, building India brand in product space will be crucial.
New Delhi, Aug 10: Before Indian IT industry can hope for a larger pie of the software product market and export 11 billion dollars worth of packaged software by 2008, as projected by Nasscom, building India brand in product space will be crucial.
''The world does not expect quality software products to come from India. In products space we are at a stage where we were in services in 1970s. It will take a lot of effort before our products can be accepted abroad,'' chairman and managing director of India's most successful software products company, i-Flex, Rajesh Hukku, has said.
Mr Hukku was, however, hopeful that an Indian brand in IT products space can be established in five-to-ten years. ''India can be a producer of good quality software products. Developing a product does not need much capital and is a labour intensive process. There is no shortage of quality manpower in India,'' he said at a Nasscom seminar here last week.
At present India has a meagre 0.2 per cent of the 180 billion dollar software products market. Mr Hukku, however, cautioned that a product cannot be built just on an idea. ''To be successful a product has to solve some current and future problem,'' he said.
''There is a lot of risk involved in products and is a long haul game. But it is an only exponential model and can give huge returns,'' he said.
For any product to be successful a business model was needed, Mr Rajiv C Mody, chairman of Sasken Communication Technologies Ltd and convener of Nasscom Product Forum said.
Mr Mody said that for Indian IT companies wanting to make it big in product space, domestic market can be a good test bed. ''To establish credibility of a product there is no magic and shortcuts,'' Mr Hukku said.
I-Flex chairman said that for a product to be successful international benchmarking, scalability and aftersales support were essential.
Mr Mody said that it was opportune time to create world class product companies from India. ''In times to come we can see many saps and oracles from India,'' Mr Hukku added.
Bureau Report
Mr Hukku was, however, hopeful that an Indian brand in IT products space can be established in five-to-ten years. ''India can be a producer of good quality software products. Developing a product does not need much capital and is a labour intensive process. There is no shortage of quality manpower in India,'' he said at a Nasscom seminar here last week.
At present India has a meagre 0.2 per cent of the 180 billion dollar software products market. Mr Hukku, however, cautioned that a product cannot be built just on an idea. ''To be successful a product has to solve some current and future problem,'' he said.
''There is a lot of risk involved in products and is a long haul game. But it is an only exponential model and can give huge returns,'' he said.
For any product to be successful a business model was needed, Mr Rajiv C Mody, chairman of Sasken Communication Technologies Ltd and convener of Nasscom Product Forum said.
Mr Mody said that for Indian IT companies wanting to make it big in product space, domestic market can be a good test bed. ''To establish credibility of a product there is no magic and shortcuts,'' Mr Hukku said.
I-Flex chairman said that for a product to be successful international benchmarking, scalability and aftersales support were essential.
Mr Mody said that it was opportune time to create world class product companies from India. ''In times to come we can see many saps and oracles from India,'' Mr Hukku added.
Bureau Report