Do you wake up and smell the coffee or do you simply reach for your smartphone? Chances are that if you're of a certain age, say between 18-30, you will reach for your phone. According to a Cisco survey, nine out of ten respondents check their smartphones for updates in email, texts and social media sites, often before they get out of bed. So what is the ideal smartphone? What applications or features are people looking for in device that is meant to be intelligent? The revolution is here - Smartphones have become permanent fixtures in our daily lives and offer near-universal access to information power, allowing each one of us to get literally and figuratively glued on to these interesting gadgets and devices all day long. A smartphone is like a powerhouse of information in our hands. That is because a smartphone is possibly more capable than an average human being! This handheld superpower has transformed daily routines of people. The indomitable demand for next generation technology claims the need for powerful and innovative mobile solutions. Services and applications are custom made for every specific business proposition so as to enhance functionality and efficiency as well as for leisure.Even though smartphones were originally crafted for business functions, smartphones and social networking have become almost synonymous. The rapid growth of social media and adoption of smartphones have positively impacted the rise of social networking on mobile phones. Also, the fact that social networking apps offer seamless integration with other phone functions has only added to the trigger. According to CNET, Facebook and Twitter mobile users spent time browsing on their mobiles than hours spent on computers. In India, social networking is no longer a fad for smartphone users. It is one of the most favoured activities of the smartphone users in this country and currently, social networking properties (apps/sites) are the most accessed, second only to 'search'. Surprisingly, almost 93 per cent of the smartphone users in the country access social networking sites via their mobile handsets, according to a report by Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights. But smartphones are not all about social networking. Today, many smartphone users have transitioned in full or in part to using web-based applications for creating, editing and managing documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Office productivity apps like Quickoffice, which integrate with cloud services like Dropbox, Box.net and Google Docs, help users to manage their work while on the go. While Documents To Go provides apps for working with Word, Excel, Powerpoint and PDF, Office Mobile has impressed many tech reviewers for integrating the same and syncing them with a sharepoint site. Evernote is a digital repository for all kinds of information: text notes, handwritten notes, audio files, photos, and web clippings. Different apps give your business visibility that extends beyond the Internet and literally into your customers' pockets and purses. Your customers needn't log onto their computers and search the Internet to find you. With an App, they'll have all of your information - literally - in the palm of their hand. These days, Apps are the "New Web Site," accessible to consumers who are on the go and on their phones. On another front, the rate of adoption of mobile gaming is constantly increasing due to a number of factors and the question that arises is whether smartphones will eventually replace gaming consoles. Gaming functionalities on smartphones have become even more prominent, evolving rapidly from the days of Snake, which first came pre-loaded on Nokia handsets back in 1998.The biggest appeal of mobile gaming is that you can play games while you're on the go.With mobile web browsing costs and payment plans becoming cheaper almost by the month, Smartphone 'contactless' technologies are likely to be the future. Technologies like Near Field Communications and Augmented Reality are enhancing the functions of smartphones for users across the world. NFC technology was used successfully at the London 2012 Olympic Games. More than a million NFC-enabled Android devices are now being sold every week and NFC Tags can link to text, mobile web links or be used for NFC contactless payment. Scanning works by 'tapping' an NFC enabled phone near an NFC Tag (within 1 to 3 cm). Augmented Reality is designed to add a 'virtual' overlay to real objects such as posters, maps, magazines, buildings and scenery, with the AR images 'triggered' based on mobile camera images or GPS. For example, AR can also add a historical context, overlay video, audio commentary or a virtual 'what it might have looked like in the past' aspect to heritage sites and buildings, which is especially useful where the current visitor site is just a featureless field.With all these features, one is compelled to carry these wondrous devices in one's pocket, all day long. With a few taps and some swipes, smartphones fetch you information, make purchases, create art and conduct business with equanimity, for which it was originally crafted. These phones have evolved to satisfy almost any purpose and its explosive growth globally, and within India, is witnessing quantum leaps in technology at frightening speed. It is time for us to get into the big league riding this revolution. Annie Mathew, Director, Alliances and Business Development, BlackBerry, India
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The key challenge of the modern enterprise’s IT infrastructure is to connect a diverse range of elements – its own staff, branch offices and data centers as well as its business partners and end-customers. In addition, each of these elements demands high-quality network and application performance. Failure to deliver totally reliable, high-quality IT infrastructure can affect each user’s ability to complete key business transactions and hence could potentially impact the company’s bottom line. The modern enterprise therefore needs to address this comprehensively, with an end-to-end performance platform and mitigate potential risk to the business due to under-performing IT infrastructure. The Changing IT LandscapeBusiness operations are ever-evolving and this growth is geographic, too – major enterprise IT workloads are now commonly dispersed among remote branch offices, which makes communication and data transfer performance between locations extremely critical to ensure productivity. Workplace trends are gearing towards the increased preference for a BYOD (Bring-Your-Own-Device) culture, increased use of social media, remote working, and reliance on web-based services for in-house tasks.Further, the increasing number of connected devices is contributing to increased internet traffic. And, with more enterpriseslooking to drive business processes and activities via the internet, business internet traffic is constantly increasing. Thirdly, the growing emergence oftechnology trends including cloud computing, Big Data and M2M communication areonly going to exacerbate the problem of traffic growth and congestion in the internet realm.With nature’s adapt-or-perish mentality extending to the organisational framework, enterprises have been slowly migrating to new and evolving business norms. Thecloud is one such pattern. Among the factors that have spurred on this change, globalisation, volatility across political, economicand social arenas, and virtualisation remain the top contributors.Network Performance Problems: One of the biggest roadblocks for modern businessestoday is heir dependence on wired and wireless networks for business productivity. These networks have become so integrated with business structures that a network slowdown often constitutes a company-wide crisis. Slow or unresponsive applications that support key business processes can cause revenue loss, reduced customer satisfaction, employee productivity and impact brand reputation.Further, there is such a large disparity in cost and availability of bandwidth for enterprises, that network and application performance enhancements will be unavoidable to bridge the qualitative gap with business expectations.A Complete IT Performance Solution In the hunt for solutions to improve the reliability, availability, scalability and security of their IT systems, organisations depend on measures to increase the visibility into and efficiency of both their private networks and Internet-based activities. The following are the three key technologies organisations must implement in order to ensure comprehensive IT performance delivery:• Application-Aware Network Performance Management (AA-NPM)• WAN Optimisation Controllers (WOC)• Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)Emerging demand for services like partner networking and web-based e-commerce now needs to be supported by application performance management and acceleration technologies. These new realities come with a four-fold set of requirements, or the four pillars of application networking solutions: application availability, optimised application performance, robust application security, and traffic visibility for backend analytics.Also, IT operations are increasingly looking to have visibility into all application and network traffic across all environments – physical and virtual – from the user to the networkc ore and also the cloud. They are trying to know what each application is doing, who’s using it and how well it’s performing, in any environment. The following three-pronged approach could help organisations counter their IT performance issues.• Firstly, WOCs and ADCs can help eliminate network and application performance problems inside the Enterprise IT environment• Secondly, a combined ADC and WOC strategy can accelerate both the publicand private cloud• Finally, the combination of “cloud-enabled” ADCs and WAN optimisation technology will allow enterprises to leverage full potential of both their own internal ITinfrastructure as well as cloud-based servicesBusinesses need to ensure that their networking solutions provide powerful toolsfor visibility and performance management in a dynamic environment where bothprivate and public infrastructure will be present. As business transformation continues and new IT service models emerge, organisations face increasingly complex IT environments. As their IT infrastructure adapts to these new realities, enterprises are expected to move more of their technology footprint into the cloud.In this scenario, enterprises should harness the best of modern ADC, WOC and network & application performance management (AA-NPM) technologies to build a complete end-to-end IT performance platform that can deliver optimum performance to any user, any application, anywhere.(Robert Healey is Marketing Evangelist, APAC and Japan, Riverbed Technology)
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Cricket fan or not, it was hard to miss the 'Gayle storm' as Chris Gayle stormed to 175 runs from mere 30 balls this IPL season! The internet went into an instant 'Gayle' mode, riding high on the IPL hits. Even the 'Not Again Cricket!' segment of the audience turned to digital media to check the facts! Cashing in on the swiftly changing fortunes of digital media, ESPNcricinfo, the global digital destination for cricket, has launched various products for cricket fans that have debuted across online and mobile services in India and globally in time for the IPL 2013 season.“Video is an area where we have been delivering a lot more in the way of content, and fans have taken to it quickly. Overall, video use on ESPNcricinfo each of the past 3 months has grown in the triple-digit percentages compared to the same period last year, and we have millions of video views every month along with year on year growth in our fantasy cricket games as well,” says Ramesh Kumar, Head of ESPNcricinfo & Digital Media, India when asked about the users response on these platforms.A look at the comprehensive range of the IPL products available across digital devices this season!The Social ScorecardHow about keeping a track of your performance along with your supporting team! Managing a virtual ‘social’ scorecard combines standard scorecard information and stats with the functionality of social media – allowing fans to access a rich trove of stats, news and player info, engage in debates and discussions, follow all other matches simultaneously, listening commentators detailed updates, fetch a live graph pictorially that depicts how the match is progressing and so on!The StandsAn online forum designed entirely around cricket fans and their voice, ‘The Stands’ acts as an interface for its fans to file reports and commentary as well as to showcase photographs shot by fans and create interesting captions of pictures thereafter. A chance to speak to Rahul Dravid acts as an icing on the cake!The Cordon If you thought following your favourite columnist would be enough to gather all the hoo-la-hoo about IPL, think again! ‘The Cordon’ is a single home for the work of a group of sports journalists and bloggers in cricket such as Sambit Bal, Andy Zaltsman, Alison Mitchel, Andrew Hughes, Jarrod Kimber, Anantha Narayanan, Kamran Abbasi, Samir Chopra, Paul Ford and more. Fans around the world can read and follow the latest stories and collection of writers, listen to podcasts, comment, discuss and share with fans and friends. Bose, Bhogle And Player DiariesSince its inception, IPL have always been associated with Indian film industry in some or the other way. This season is no exception! Rahul Bose, Indian actor, screenwriter and director , will author a blog focused on the socio-cultural aspects of the IPL. Commentator Harsha Bhogle will also file a weekly video diary through the duration of the tournament along with player diaries featuring IPL players.The HuddleA visual treat for fans via Google+ Hangout will be hosted by Cricinfo’s editorial team that includes Sambit Bal, Sharda Ugra and more, will be an off-beat take on the matches, tactics, gaffes, controversies, off-field action and results of IPL 2013. . Fantasy Cricket Apart from the ongoing Indian T20 fantasy league, a new game ‘Cricket Predictor’ on Facebook gives the users an account to sign in and play with friends, predicting the winner of each matchup during the game. IPL Travel GuidesDelivering guides for fans travelling to each IPL destination was never so simple! The ESPNcricinfo Travel section is a central repository for all the information that IPL fans need to travel and experience the matches – and their host cities - in person. It serves as a special travel section dedicated to fans that includes tips for travellers, user submitted insights, local knowledge, photo galleries and more.
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About $30 billion of consumer spending in India today is influenced by internet and with growing access and use, the financial impact of internet is expected to touch $150 billion by 2016, according to a Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report. “India’s internet penetration – about 125 million in 2011, is expected to nearly triple to 330 million by 2016,” said Arvind Subramanian, a BCG partner and coauthor of the report.Pre-purchase research like price comparison, product research, and search for locations to discounts and offer; drag maximum people to internet. “This influence is evident in high-priced product categories like automobiles, laptops, consumer durables etc – where the purchase cycle is long or requires significant investment,” Subramanian says.Of the total financial impact of internet, only 20-30 per cent - $6 billion to $10 billion – materialises into online purchases in India. The number remains unimpressive given the size of India’s population and how quickly consumer spending is growing overall, the report states.The main reason being cited for the stark difference between online research vs actual purchases happening are online payments. “Low penetration of credit cards and lack of trust among the consumers makes them just research about products,” says Subramanian. “India requires something like Alipay escrow accounts, a payment method widely followed in China,” he adds. The other reasons for lower conversion rates are infrastructure issues that lead to delivery problems and logistics challenges and well-entrenched behaviours. Maximum conversion rates are seen in air travel bookings where about 42 per cent people research for the product and 21 per cent end up buying it online, while the lowest can be seen in high ticket items like automobiles and consumer durables like TVs. (See Table) According to the report, consumer online spending is growing in insurance, utilities, direct-to-home satellite-TV subscriptions, and other categories that involve frequent repeated purchases or regular transactions such as bill payment and premium renewal.However, according to Subramanian online product reviews are yet to take off in India, mostly because there aren’t enough sites offering reviews. “social media are popular but drive only about 25 per cent of commercial consumer traffic. Most people in India look at Facebook and similar sites for entertainment, not product information or advertisements,” he says.According to the report, about 34 per cent of the internet users are from small urban areas and 25 per cent are from rural areas. Interestingly, 45 per cent of urban consumers with access to internet use only mobile devices to connect.
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The spin in the century has brought a series of transformations for the Indian economy and influenced by this change, cities have become the focal point for future developments. As a result, the real estate sector is constantly transforming to meet the developing requirements. Even cities such as Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad in South India have acquired a place on the global real estate map – a standing that was restricted just to Mumbai and Delhi in the past.There is an approaching requirement on office, retail and even residential space to serve the sprouting needs, leveraging economic growth. With continued international interest in the real estate sector, and multinationals inflow in the country, real estate has begun to augment its service offerings. Design, customer satisfaction and value additions have now started to play a crucial role in urban India.Real estate has become more organised, creating opportunities for tie-ups with international real estate organisations. Also, with the ease of funding from international players, Indian firms are imbibing international practices. This move is fuelled by synergising of efforts of stakeholders, including the government, to standardise the practice and magnify standing of the real estate industry.Ever since it opened its gate towards a liberalised FDI domain, the Indian real estate market has been on a high growth scale. After this, the sector has seen several firms emerge as leaders and powerful brands in the industry, especially in South India. Backed by strong professional management teams, the 21st century real estate sector aims at providing housing solutions by gaining a customer’s delight through innovative methodologies like Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)- where the project is completed in a shorter time span, along with successful marketing strategies.Realty markets across the country have grown by leaps and bounds. Today, the real estate industry in South India has become one of the major investment sectors. Building and strengthening its real estate development, southern India has emerged as one of the most sought after destinations in the country.South Indian real estate markets that include Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kochi have witnessed rapid growth over the last few years – driven primarily by a highly mobile IT workforce that provides a heavy influx of potential residential property buyers. This has resulted in South India emerging as the hub of IT sector and the main arm of outsourcing business for the US and the UK. With more and more foreign investors looking forward to establish their back offices through the prime locations of South India, the scope of corporate real estate has become immensely high.The IT sector, which churns out huge power jobs for educated Indians, is the reason behind the real estate boom in South India. These jobs are indirectly helping the Indian real estate by taking it to new heights of prosperity. For companies that are looking for offshore business, India has become a favourable investment destination due to low cost of labour. In Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore, areas such as Oragadam, OMR, Porur, Tellapuur, Miyapur, Shamshabad, Kutatpally, Punjagutta, Jubilee Hills, Whitefield, Sarajapur Road, Kannakapura Road and Banerghatta Road have come up as lucrative real estate deals.Supported with finance schemes and other such monetary support, consumers tend to seize the opportunity of real estate purchase. On the contrary, the residential market has been an ardent follower of the 'affordability' mantra. Thus, there arises a strong need for a commitment to develop world class residential and commercial complexes that combine aesthetics with the functional, and follow constructional parameters that would be a landmark in the true sense. In south Chennai, Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) – which begins at the Madhya Kailash temple in Adyar in South Chennai and continues till the south of Mahabalipuram in the Kanchipuram district – has geographically evolved to become the IT corridor that houses many IT/ITES companies.This state highway is also home to numerous educational institutes and deemed universities that certify lakhs of aspirants every year towards well-designated careers. With the Chennai Metropolitan Transport Corporation running nearly 400 trips on this stretch daily, OMR comprises a budding population of information technology professionals. This in turn results in a logical influence on real estate development, with a slew of residential apartments, hospitals, supermarkets, and leading retail chains to spring up along the IT Corridor. The Tamil Nadu government recently announced the longest elevated corridor in the OMR road which is 45 KM long. I strongly believe that all real estate players by investing in such potential locales will turn people’s dreams into reality, investments into wealth, by executing large-scale real estate projects to bring international standards for a new way of living in Chennai – bringing a further boom to the sector in South India.(The author is CEO, MMRF Realty & Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd)
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Fairy tales usually begin with 'Once upon a time…' and conclude with a happy ending. Once upon a time, in the financial year 2008, the Indian securitisation market had a booming business volume of more than Rs 60,000 crore. Since then, it has seen a sharp decline in business: but will new budget proposals provide a fairy-tale ending?The recent decline in the securitisation market is largely due to the lacklustre participation of Mutual Funds (MFs), which are considered to be the largest subscribers in the securitisation market followed by banks and non-banking financial company (NBFCs). One of the key reasons MFs have shied away from the securitisation market is the ambiguity surrounding the taxation of securitisation trust.The modus operandi of securitisation trusts is to raise funds from investors such as MFs, banks and NBFCs by issue of 'pass through certificates' and buying loans from financial institutions out of the issue proceeds. The securitisation trust earns interest income from the borrower.The income-tax authorities initiated proceedings against securitisation trusts alleging that their income was liable for taxation as 'business income'. The entire income of the securitisation trusts was, consequently, subjected to tax at the maximum marginal rate. Trusts argued that since MFs, being the beneficiaries in the securitisation trusts, are exempt under the tax laws, the securitisation trusts should not be liable to pay any tax (based on the principles of trust taxation). Even so, the tax authorities issued tax demands running into hundreds of crores sending tremors through the MF industry and trustees of such securitisation trusts.In order to clarify the ambiguity surrounding taxation of securitisation trusts, the finance minister has proposed a special taxation regime for securitisation trusts outlined below:Income earned by the securitisation trust will be exempt from tax provided it is regulated by SEBI or RBI.Securitisation trusts will be liable to pay additional income-tax (similar to dividend distribution tax payable in case of companies) depending upon the status of the recipients:Individuals and Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) - 25 per centAny other person - 30 per cent.However, if the income is distributed to a recipient who is not liable to tax (like MFs), no additional income-tax will be payable. Income received from the securitisation trust will be exempt from tax.The said proposal may give the much needed impetus to the securitisation market especially in cases where the beneficiaries of the securitisation trusts are MFs. However, while the intention of the finance minister was to remove the ambiguities surrounding the taxation of securitisation trusts and to reduce litigation, the proposals do not address every impediment to the growth of the securitisation market especially where tax paying entities such as banks and NBFCs are the beneficiaries of the trust.For instance, the expenses incurred by such investors held to be expended for the purpose of earning the exempt income received from the securitisation trust could be disallowed. Furthermore, banks and NBFCs have previously been able to set-off existing losses against the income from securitisation trust, now the income from securitisation trust being exempt in the hands of banks and NBFCs will not be eligible for set-off (however, the income would be subject to additional income-tax).Is this a happy ending? Clearly, the finance minister has given heed to the representations made by the bleeding securitisation industry, but only time will tell whether the securitisation market will relive its previous highs.Vishal S. Shah is Senior Manager and Rajesh Nathwani is Assistant Manager, PwC India
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Dr Pallab Bandyopadhyay joined Citrix as Director, HR, in 2010. Citrix is a NASDAQ listed $2.6 billion-revenue company, which is a leading provider of virtualisation, networking and software as a service (SaaS) technologies for more than 230,000 organisations worldwide. A doctorate in Human Resource Development from XLRI, Jamshedpur, Bandopadhyay worked in Dell Perot, Cambridge Solutions, Sasken communication and Ashok Leyland Information Technilogy among other companies. It is tough time now for HR practitioners thinks Bandyopadhyay as any function that does not add real value to the organisation are excised these days through downsizing, de-layering and even complete outsourcing. And to succeed now, HR has to deliver values not only to its internal customers but also to the organisation’s customers, investors and the community at large.What made you to choose HR as a profession?I am in HR for reasons of internal commitment. To make work places more democratic and fair, and to help enable every individual to discover their potential, learn and grow both personally and professionally.What has been the biggest achievement in your career?To be remembered by professional colleagues in every organisation that I have worked for. To be able to work collaboratively with global business leaders in software domain to build shared leadership and consensus on complex people management issues, providing strategic HR leadership to achieve business and people growth in multi-cultural and multi-locational fast growth environment in India.What have been the primary traits/qualities that have helped you attain your present position?Ability to learn, unlearn and re-learn continuouslySolid Conceptual Knowledge in Human Resource / Organisational behaviour and development areasRelate with people and empathise with them, especially in difficult situationsWhat are the challenges you are facing in organisation?Some of the challenges involve making every individual feel significant and sustaining a culture where creativity and innovation is harnessed to bring out the best in every individual. Also needed are how to future-proof the organisation by building agility and nimbleness in attracting and retaining the best in class talent.What are the steps a company should take to develop and motivate future leaders?Having a shared purpose to mobilise like-minded people together and work together for achieving itInstitutionalising innovative systems and processes to enable continuous learningEmpowering individuals in their work roles – helping them to move from a sense of powerlessness to discover their own sense of efficacy and powerEncouraging individuals to live beyond Organisation IdentityWhat is your rate of attrition? How do you prevent it?Our attrition rate is in the range of 8 to 10 per cent. There will always be push and pull factors for attrition. We focus on eliminating push factors and check attrition.How do you retain talent in your company?We provide an opportunity to work on cutting-edge technology since we are a leader in cloud and virtualisation. Also, we allow work-life balance since and are among the top companies in the world to do so. We allow career growth through management and technical career pathFurther, we provide an opportunity to file for patents since our engineers have contributed to filing of close to 120 patents so far from Bangalore.All this, together with providing best in class benefits like BYOD (bring in your own device), medical insurance for self and dependant family members, cab service for to and fro journey from home to office, lunch and snacks at cafeteria, book and broadband reimbursement, employee stock purchase plan, RSU, spot bonuses etc help us retain talent.What sets your company apart from other companies as far as work culture goes?Ours is a culture of innovation, respect for individuals and a concern for work-life balance What is the biggest challenge you face when selecting people?Our challenge is to find extremely competent individuals in specific domain/technology coupled with culture-fit. Out of every 100 resume that we look at, we end up selecting 5 per cent and rejecting the rest.How do you keep track of employees' satisfaction or dissatisfaction?We do a Global Employee Survey (GES) every year, track feedback at the organisational, SBU and team levels. We work closely with the leadership team along with employees to develop plan for action at all these levels. Before we go for new GES, we share the action plan that we implemented based on last year's feedback. How has HR been important to the bottom line of the company?The major challenges that today’s organisations are facing are attracting, developing and retaining quality human resources in face of global competition. This obviously would mean that the HR function in any organisation is a significant player in the management team. In the last few years, knowledge economy has transformed the human resource function into a significant management function by living up to the expectations of all stakeholders, be it employees, shareholders, board or the society at large. Today’s successful leaders talk about a meaningful contribution that their human resources (HR) counterparts are enabling their organisations to perform. The stakes are really high for HR now, since in most contemporary organisations, any function that does not add real value to the organisation can be excised through downsizing, de-layering and if required by completely outsourcing. As a matter of fact, the efficacy of HR function is now being judged based on research studies that have conclusively proven that the HR function enhances an organisation’s competitive advantage by adding tangible and measurable economic value. HR function is finally delivering values not to its internal customer but also to the organisation’s customers, investors and the community at large.How has the downturn affected HR?Realistically speaking, downturn leads to churn and churn in organisation needs to be managed efficiently. This requires effective change management coupled with positive and productive transition. HR is a function that can help organisation leaders to achieve this. Just like an accountant needs professional education and training to set right books of accounts in an organisation; a doctor requires knowledge about human anatomy and many years of practiced skills before he/she goes for a surgery; a marketing manager needs to apply the knowledge that he/she has learned through consumer behaviour and marketing techniques; HR professionals possess the skills and knowledge to manage people especially during the downturn. How should HR be integrated with the core line of business?During the last few years, most organisations have witnessed spectacular growth. In the process of attaining this explosive growth, organisations have realised that the most valuable asset for them are their human resources. In today’s scenario, the only true long-term differentiator between two similar organisations is their ability to attract, develop and retain their high performing workforce. Other factors like technology edge, financial strength and the systems and processes are no more the true differentiators, since market forces will ensure parity on such parameters in the short term itself. Is HR function alone in an organisation capable of making this differentiation? My answer is absolutely no. In fact, to a great extent this responsibility lies with every line manager. But HR professionals need to partner with line managers and drive this whole process. In order to do so, they need to acquire a different set of competencies which can completely re-conceive and re-configure the HR function - by changing its focus from activities to outcome. HR therefore needs to be fully integrated to business through strategic business plan.A recent survey has questioned HR's actual contribution in an organisation. Would you like to comment on it with particular reference to your organisation?There are many studies which have conclusively proven that organisations that are performing well are positively co-related with strategic application of HR function. At Citrix, HR always works with business to bring in competitive advantage.If you could change three things about HR practices, what would they be?HR should directly contribute to organisation’s capability building througha) Facilitating work groups for higher productivity: Planning and facilitating meetings and work group sessions that achieve the group’s objective, efficiently utilising the group’s talents and experiences and constructively managing the group’s dynamicsb)Applying technology at work-place: Using emerging and appropriate office automation technologies (ranging from simple and user friendly products to complex and comprehensive project management tools) to carry out all HR related process work to accomplish cost and time optimisation. c) Making meaning out of social environment that impacts business: Understanding current and future political environment, relevant social issues, demographic and ethnic trends and governmental regulations that can have impact on business now and in foreseeable future, interpreting, articulating and coaching the leadership team on these issues continuously
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Sandeep Soni's association with Hero BPO began in May 2010. With its focus on social media and data analytics, the 13-year-old company is spread across 4 geographies with around 40 million customer contacts. The President and CEO of Hero BPO talks to BW Online's Poonam Kumar about how emerging technologies will have impact on businessExcerpts: When did Hero's BPO business start and what is its role in the growth of the Hero Group?Hero BPO was established in 2000 and is a part of the $5-billion Hero Group which has over 30,000 employees and around 23 operating companies as its subsidiaries. Hero BPO has leveraged the Hero Group’s legacy and expertise into one of India’s leading BPO services provider.With over 13 years of experience in serving blue chip companies, we are spread across 4 geographies with around 40 million customer contacts for our clients. The Hero Group is one of the leading and diversified business conglomerates of India and Asia Pacific with key industries that drive economic growth, enjoying a leadership position in automotive industry, engineering and design, infrastructure, financial services, consulting, logistics, education and information technology.Hero BPO has won several awards and accolades over the last decade and some of them include Nasscom's top 15 Indian BPOs, CCA Global Excellence Award 2010 and Top 100 Most Innovative Companies 2009: NeoIT & Global Services. We are an ISO: 27001 certified company. What is your focus area? What kind of services does Hero BPO provide to the customers?Our focus is on social media, as well as data analytics. We follow/implement a multi channel communication strategy with customers to ensure a seamless flow of excellent customer interaction and experience. Our analytics include the examination of business information using statistical analysis to discover and deduce historical patterns and make predictions to improve business performance. We apply classic and proprietary analytical techniques to customer data with clear business goals in mind and deliver findings that are both understandable and actionable.We, at Hero BPO believe that for increased customer satisfaction and growing market share one needs to maintain a perfect balance between online and offline media presence. With our experienced skill set and workforce, we make sure that the customer gets to choose from an array of languages and channels to communicate. This, we believe is the most important part of forging a more trustworthy relationship with the customers and adding value to overall company asset. Who all are your customers?Our customers choose to partner with us because we provide an effective solution for cost reduction, increase in revenues, and improved brand value for clients, thereby reducing their spend on advertisements, which helps to further bring down costs, as well as a continuous focus on improving customer experience and satisfaction.Our rationale is to focus on building brand advocacy which means optimising the chances of our client’s customers in having positive conversations about the client’s company. This is crucial because today brand perception and delivery is becoming all the more important for the survival of any business. Standing out from the crowd in a positive way makes it more likely that a business will secure opportunities from competition and increase customer retention. What are your growth markets?For Hero BPO, the growth areas are spread across Europe, US, and AustraliaWhat opportunities do you see in India?Opportunity lies in the growth of two key areas - social media and data analytics. We believe that the chance lies in increasing customer interaction via stronger social media presence, effectively using the latest technology to promote customer experience and thereby improving upon company’s image and building on a stronger brand value. Some facts about the extent of social media in India...India has 45 million Facebook users and will have the highest number of users by 2015. The current male to female ratio is 73:27 while the highest usage is in the age group of 15-25 years, mostly from non-metros. Hence, such demographics give an idea about the kind of audience that exists and remains untapped. Media presence is saturated via traditional methods however, innovative ideas can help change the perception of a company when they cultivate an image according to the age group and help build a longer customer relationship.You have created job opportunities for multi-skilled people India and abroad. Can you elaborate?In an attempt to increase efficiency and slash recruitment costs, we are constantly training our employees to turn into a multi-skilled workforce. We provide training in different domains and skills to cater to the current requirements as well as the new integrated deals which the company is pursuing by providing varied options to the clients i.e. data, customer service, sales, back-end and voice skills by a single team. This has helped increasing efficiency, improving turnaround time and in turn gave us an efficient number of employees with an aim to optimally using our manpower for varied organisational requirements.What are the emerging technologies that will have impact on the business according to you?Context-based Services: The connection between where you are and what you are doing would drive the next wave of digital services. Services that know the users’ needs and wants inside out will take businesses ahead. These services need to assist the user in the next step of a decision they make or a query they submit. This will start form letting a brand know about what trends its loyal buyers and potential buyers follow, to letting those buyers know more details about the brand pre and post their purchase decision. Converging Data Architectures: Though keeping to the old approaches of structured forms of data may make the IT leaders feel in control, but adapting to a new approach to manage unstructured data can give a completely different control- the control to provide a whole new conception from a set of data. IT leaders should be evaluating their data portfolios for opportunities to rebalance the use of relational and non relational databases. Today’s data architects now have more choices for solving unstructured data problems than simply jury-rigging relational databases to do so.Industrialised Data Services: Companies dynamically look for data within and without their own organisations and even look for opportunities to share their data outside. But this data sharing is mostly ad hoc, approach needed next is the data management. This would enable the business to leverage data and gain insights that can facilitate better product development, customer loyalty and relationship management. Social-driven IT: The one window into the mind of the consumer, in the words shared by the consumer himself is via social media. This cannot only enable one to gain insights from online audience but also facilitates one to communicate customized messages. The initiating of leading organisations to take to social media has started but this still needs to go a long way.How do you think cloud technology is going to evolve further?The future of Cloud technology is huge. It has penetrated human lives to such an extent that it is becoming an intrinsic part now. In the next 5 years, we will see an exponential growth in mobile applications. Also, the untouched “big data” is another key area of growth in the use of cloud-based technologies not only to manage the huge amount of data but also to extract useful information and business intelligence data at anytime, from anywhere. Increasingly, IT companies of all shapes and sizes are turning to this new technology since it lessens the time spent on lower-value activities and allows the team to focus on bigger strategic activities that have greater impact on the business. Industry experts believe that this trend will only continue to grow and develop even further in the coming few years, since it is probably the most cost efficient method to use.How do you help customers adapt to shifting business environment using emerging technology elements?Most businesses work on a model which incorporates increasing the point of contact with the customers. For instance - footfalls in a mall/shop which is further drilled down to various other parameters such as revenue, sales, after sales and customer experience. So a typical business would be focused on increasing footfalls but may neglect customers who are also exploring via the internet media. We basically assist customers who have set up an alternate line of business via online shopping and explore such web enquiries and effectively help the client to close the leads and increase sales by converting those enquiries that the client is otherwise unable to focus on.What percentage of your customers rely on emerging technologies and others to drive business?These emerging technologies are yet to be deployed. Though, the next decade is likely to witness an increasing trend in the use these technologies and the future looks extremely bright for companies that will go on to incorporate such technologies. However, the current viability of most of these technologies is questionable since they are still in the nascent stages of development. At the most 5-10 per cent of our current customers would actually incur heavy expenditure to improve their business revenues.
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