The word software and India/Indian often share a symbiotic relationship. Though software is a very broad term still Indians enjoy the privilege of being or at least the perception of being, the forerunners of software industry.
The question arises what is the role of Indian Software industry and why is it important ? A study by Harvard reveals that the consumers of softwares are primarily western countries with US being the primary developer of these software and India playing a big role in maintenance and support of these softwares.
I have seen many large Indian software companies moving from a "software" company to a purely "testing company", the reason being huge demand, better profits and easy support. But are these factors sufficient for a long term growth of a company ? I guess for any company one of the factors in its long term strategy should be value creation for its clients/users. Low cost does create value but it has to be fueled by innovation, which many Indian companies lack and as a result increasingly the clientèle will shift to those places who are just low cost producers. Its happening, talking to some of my friends at IBM I came to know that many jobs have shifted from India to China. I know a big US based company who has shifted the base of a software division from India to Russia. The reason was Russians along with low cost producer, are innovative and efficient. Personally I feel that increasingly companies will move to lower cost producer countries (at least in Software) like Mexico, Russia, China, Philippines etc. There will be jobs cuts in India and before that happens India certainly would have to start thinking seriously from the perspective of innovation.
I am not sure to what extent companies are engaged in Research and Development. If they have active R&D group its great, if not then increasingly companies should spend on Research and Development, they should spend on training their employees so that they are ready, a greater effort need to be made in order to look for opportunities so that they start understanding the software product life cycle.
The question arises what is the role of Indian Software industry and why is it important ? A study by Harvard reveals that the consumers of softwares are primarily western countries with US being the primary developer of these software and India playing a big role in maintenance and support of these softwares.
I have seen many large Indian software companies moving from a "software" company to a purely "testing company", the reason being huge demand, better profits and easy support. But are these factors sufficient for a long term growth of a company ? I guess for any company one of the factors in its long term strategy should be value creation for its clients/users. Low cost does create value but it has to be fueled by innovation, which many Indian companies lack and as a result increasingly the clientèle will shift to those places who are just low cost producers. Its happening, talking to some of my friends at IBM I came to know that many jobs have shifted from India to China. I know a big US based company who has shifted the base of a software division from India to Russia. The reason was Russians along with low cost producer, are innovative and efficient. Personally I feel that increasingly companies will move to lower cost producer countries (at least in Software) like Mexico, Russia, China, Philippines etc. There will be jobs cuts in India and before that happens India certainly would have to start thinking seriously from the perspective of innovation.
I am not sure to what extent companies are engaged in Research and Development. If they have active R&D group its great, if not then increasingly companies should spend on Research and Development, they should spend on training their employees so that they are ready, a greater effort need to be made in order to look for opportunities so that they start understanding the software product life cycle.
1 comment:
Thanks for writing this.
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