Creating a roadmap

E-revolution 2011

Dr SS Channy; Ganesh Lakshmi Narayanan, MD, Dell India; Vijoy K Singh, secretary, IT and Finance, Chandigarh Administration; Shivraj V Patil, Governor of Punjab and administrator of UT Chandigarh; Raman Roy, CMD, Quatrro Global Services; Dr Omkar Rai, director general, STPI, Ministry of IT, Government of India; Shankar Agarwal, additional secretary, Ministry of Communications & IT, Government of India

Creating a Roadmap The two-day event reflected upon the importance of technology and other factors that assist SMEs in growth RUKHSAR SALEEM rukhsars@cybermedia.co.in

T

he two-day mega ICT event, E-revolution 2011, in Chandigarh with the theme: Time to Grow Big, underlined the importance of deployment of technology in SMEs and advised them to scale new heights. The speakers and panelist emphasized on the ďŹ ner points to be considered like work culture, innovation, and experimentation in all the areas of the venture or business.

The seventh edition of the two-day mega ICT event, E-revolution 2011, held between September 23 and 24, 2011, in Chandigarh was jointly hosted by the Chandigarh administration, Government of Punjab, and STPI in

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E-revolution 2011 association with TiE and Nasscom.

The event saw attendance from IT industry veterans and entrepreneurs hailing from diverse fields. In line with the mission of E-revolution 2011—to bring about overall development of Punjab and Chandigarh through technology—young entrepreneurs were motivated to take the plunge and graduate from the existing level to the higher ones.

The event was inaugurated by Shivraj V Patil, Governor of Punjab and administrator of UT Chandigarh; while the welcome note was given

by Vijoy K Singh, secretary IT and finance, Chandigarh Administration.

Among the other dignitaries present were—Dr SS Channy, principal secretary, department of industries, Government of Punjab; Ganesh Lakshmi Narayanan, MD, Dell India; Raman Roy, CMD, Quatrro Global Services; Dr Omkar Rai, director general, STPI, Ministry of IT, Government of India; Dr KK Sharma, Shankar Agarwal, additional secretary, Ministry of Communications & IT, Government of India and Pradeep Gupta, chairman, CyberMedia; and Ibrahim Ahmad, group editor, CyberMedia.

In his keynote address—Shivraj V Patil—called upon the private sector to invest in R&D and educa-

Shivraj V Patil, Governor of Punjab and administrator of UT Chandigarh called upon the private sector players to design a futuristic roadmap

tion along with the government to design a futuristic roadmap for the growth of SME sector.

Talking on the occasion, Dr SS Channy said that the government policies and schemes like promotion of the PPP model, plug-and-play facilities, have all been introduced to promote and benefit SMEs and there is an urgent need to increase the budget for IT in SMEs from 2.5% of the total spend.

Building Capabilities The first panel discussion of the day on the evaluation of SMEs and their readiness to deploy technology was moderated by Raj Nair, chairman,

Avalon Consulting and was attended by the likes of Dr Omkar Rai, director general, STPI, Ministry of IT; Rajiv Rao, director, SMB, Lenovo India; Nitin Shah, MD, Allied Digital; Alok Gupta , president, Indian Software Dealers Association; and Jagannath Patnaik, director, channel sales, Kaspersky Lab India. The discussion focused on the challenges faced by SMBs and the ways to overcome them. The issue of taxation burden on software products was brought into light by Gupta, who strongly suggested its need to be rationalized. Cloud computing being the buzz word today, all the speakers also emphasized on the importance of using this opportunity to enter into businesses and grow big.

Overall, the four important takehomes for the SMB entrepreneurs were to—‘have an ambition; a vision; a value system that one needs to create for his company; and trust the people working with him, confiding in them, and creating a core team who will grow with the entrepreneur when the company grows’.

Identify your Purple Cow

Vijoy K Singh, secretary, IT and finance, Chandigarh Administration addressing the audience

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The second panel discussion was followed by an engaging open house on the importance to identify—your core competency to grow, flourish, and survive global competition.

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Shivraj V Patil, Governor of Punjab and administrator of UT Chandigarh and Raman Roy, CMD, Quatrro Global Services

Raj Nair, chairman, Avalon Consulting asked the SMEs to identify their Purple Cow, which implies that each SME needs to identify its core competency instead of wasting limited resources in developing multiple and irrelevant competencies. Ananth Padmanabha, general manager, cloud services, Dimension Data India highlighted the relevance and acknowledged the drivers like low cost of IT construct, agility of IT, leveraging on existing environment, and ease of customization of cloud services for any SME. In the following session, three important points were discussed— practical tips for entrepreneurs, how

to go global, and how to manage risks. It was also explained how mobile technology, too, can be used

by SMBs to reduce cycle time and connect to customers without spending a fortune, and how social media platform can be used by SMBs to build their brand, make money, and launch social campaigns. In an open house session, the speakers suggested that SMEs ought to take calculated risk in taking decisions involving investment from venture capitalists and try to avail schemes and funds from the government. Mukund Mohan, CEO, Jivity encouraged audience of the event by sharing his 3 entrepreneurial experi-

...I CALL UPON PRIVATE SECTOR TO INVEST IN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, AND EDUCATION ALONG WITH THE GOVERNMENT TO BRING AWARENESS AND CREATE FUTURISTIC ROADMAP FOR THE GROWTH OF SME SECTOR DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication

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ences and underlined the fact that constant motivation is very important to set higher targets and for that collaboration with passionate and skilled team for the sustained growth is instrumental.

Tech Framework for E-inclusion The second day started with a panel discussion with participants like Dr Channy; SC Aggarwal, chief secretary, Government of Punjab; KK Sharma, advisor to administrator, Chandigarh Administration; Prakash Kumar, director, IBSG, Cisco Corp; Yogesh Kumar, director, IT, Chandigarh; Vijoy K Singh, secretary, IT and finance, Chandigarh Administration; and MP Arora, MD, Punjab Infotech. The discussion was moderated by Manish Verma, president, Sufi.

For the development of the tech framework for the e-inclusion—policy makers explained their limitations and assured that complex issues of SMBs that requires government’s November 15, 2011 | 81

E-revolution 2011 SMES HAVE AN EDGE OVER THE LARGE ORGANIZATIONS AS THEY CAN OFFER MORE AUTHORITY WITH RESPONSIBILITY, IMPACT OF DECISION-MAKING, SCOPE OF EXPERIMENTING AND INNOVATION, AND FLEXIBILITY OF WORKING

Raman Roy, CMD, Quatrro Global Services, addressing the audience and explaining the importance of modern economy over the traditional one

help will be referred to the center if needed and will be resolved in the fastest possible manner.

Innovation is the Key The open house discussion on innovation saw speakers sharing their unique, out-of-the box success stories. Kunwar Sachdev, managing director, Su-Kam Power Systems, asked the SMEs to innovate as owing to their size they can afford to be innovative right from deploying marketing campaigns to cost-cutting to flexi-working to providing policy framework to hiring.

Knowledge Economy Vijot K Singh, secretary IT & finance, Chandigarh Administration giving a momento to Shivraj V Patil, Governor of Punjab and administrator of UT Chandigarh

Rajiv Rao, director, SMB, Lenovo India; Dr Omkar Rai, director genera, STPI, Ministry of IT , Government of India; Raj Nair, chairman, Avalon consulting; Nitin Shah, managing director, Allied Digital; Jagannath Patnaik, director, Channel Sales, Kaspersky Lab India; and Alok Gupta, president, Indian Software Dealers Association

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The last session of the event concluded with a panel discussion on ‘Getting the Best Knowledge Workers’ in SMEs. Kevin Sandahl, managing director, Global Pueblo Sourcing cited instances from his experience about the importance of core values of integrity in conducting the business, cordial work culture and team to share success and failure with a sportsman spirit.

Taking over the discussion from Sandahl, Sairee Chahal, co-founder, Fleximoms, in the context of utilizing 50% of underutilized workforce said that SMEs have an edge over the large organization as they can offer more authority with responsibility, impact of decision-making, scope of experimenting and innovation, and flexibility of working. n DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication