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Follow UsWith cloud computing
evolving as a feasible option for several enterprises to simply run
their complex business processes, off-late, it is becoming
increasingly evident that the entire ecosystem of enterprises and the
players within it are steadily gearing up for cloud adoption.
Holding on to similar
convictions, a part of the Tata group and India's largest IT
services, consulting and business solutions firm, Tata Consultancy
Services (TCS), has recently organized a grand event for the launch
of business solutions on the cloud under the brand name 'iON'.
Targeting the Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs),
'iON'
is the first-of-its-kind fully integrated information technology
cloud-based solution with a combination of hardware, networking, and
office and business software on a pay-per-use model.
“TCS is all set to
become a more popular brand with small and medium-size businesses in
meeting the growing demands in SMB segment,” said the confident
Venguswamy Ramaswamy, Global Head-Small and Medium Business, TCS.
The need for IT with small
and medium businesses is growing. SMB is a segment that is
characteristically different from large enterprises. Explaining about
targeting the SMB segment, Ramaswamy said, “Till date, IT industry
has judged this market as attractive for niche solutions in hardware
and software. Yet, the business need of the SMBs demand holistic
partnership. As there are too many options available with very little
in-house knowledge, the plight of SMBs is far from being met, which
calls for a different service model. We have built a unique business
model that makes IT available in an integrated fashion on the cloud.”
He added that the journey for coming up with an integrated cloud
solution for the SMB segment started around two and a half years ago.
Initiating the effort for building the 'iON' cloud solution for
small and medium enterprises, the company conducted an elaborate
study of the Indian SMB market to understand their IT demands to
address the market. Having done a clear study on the SMB segment, it
was observed that the Indian SMBs were under the deep clutch of capex
mode, which further was posed as a severe bottleneck for them to
migrate easily to cloud computing, and thus, TCS started architecting
a cloud-based solution named 'iON' for Indian SMBs. It was the
brainchild of N Chandrasekaran, CEO and MD, Tata Consultancy
Services.
According to TCS, 'iON'
provides on-demand business solutions using the very latest in
scalable cloud computing technology. It has been developed to deliver
IT in the third generation service model to SMBs. Using a pay-per-use
business model, iON helps SMBs leverage world-class technology
solution as a key business differentiator. It removes the need for
SMBs to invest in IT assets or retain scarce IT talent. iON uses
cloud computing technology with a pay-per-use business model and
addresses the entire spectrum of SMB's technological needs ranging
from business solutions like HR, finance, inventory and domain-based
ERP as well as e-mail, document management and website services. The
cloud-based solution is pre-configured with hardware; network and
software bundled together and backed by business, technical and
consulting services.
TCS has been placing a lot
of emphasis on enabling small and medium-scale businesses to use IT
as a service in their business plans. The company is targeting the
Indian SMB market first with the offering called 'IT-as-a-service',
and expects a revenue of $1 billion from the segment in the next five
years with its affordable cloud computing model. According to
research firm, Zinnov Management Consulting, the total Indian market
for cloud is projected to be worth $260 million by 2011. It also
stated that the IT growth in India is the fastest in the world and
that Indian SMBs are looking for business improvement in the face of
challenges like lack of management bandwidth and tight budgets.
According to Ramaswamy, for these companies, cloud computing is
certainly a viable option since the Indian SMBs are set to spend more
than $16 billion on computer technology.
Explaining about the price
reasonability of the solution for the SMBs seeking to cut down their
budgets on capital expenditure, Ramaswamy cited an example of the
cloud solution for the education vertical, which is being priced at
Rs 70 per student a month. Using this 'IT-as-a-service' cloud
solution, Monica Doshi, COO, KarROX Technologies said, “Considering
the complexity of our business, the TCS team has been very supportive
in implementing our requirements. We have introduced 'campus
management system', which acts like a digital campus, where in a
center it could track the availability of lab and faculty online and
also place orders for courseware on diminishing inventory. This
information can be centrally monitored in the head-office on a daily
basis.”
Also, several channel
partners across the country are very optimistic in their outlook for
the SMB segment; seeing increasing demand for cloud computing
solutions from enterprise customers.
Shailesh Mallya,
AVP-Marketing and Communication, Mumbai-based Lauren Information
Technologies said, "For the TCS SMB cloud service, we signed up
this deal three months ago and until today, our customers in the cloud
computing space is increasing day by day. We see this business
growing at an aggressive rate in the years to come. We are
predominantly seeing traction for cloud-based solutions from the
upper mid-market to large enterprise customers and not SMBs as of
now. We recently tied up with two clients to have cloud setup. Our
client base is gradually increasing with the brand name of TCS."
Not only Lauren
Information Technologies, but also Secunderabad-based Cache
Peripherals, recently entered this business with a deal with TCS and
is confident that they will see some cloud computing deals this year.
Director Gumidelli Sailesh confidently said, “I certainly feel that
SMBs are ready to migrate on cloud computing since it makes perfect
commercial sense. The significant driver of cloud computing in the
SMB segment is because of the lower costs for running the technology,
innovation and lower risks involved. With cloud, no upfront capital
expenditure is needed, as there would not be any requirement to hire
huge administration staff as problems like upgradation, software
patching and others would be taken care by the cloud service
provider. The adoption costs are also lower as per the pay-per-use
model by TCS. In my view, for most new businesses which will be set
up in the future, cloud is the most viable option to adopt.”
“It is one year since we
have deployed this solution for the admission, HR, procurement and
assessment processes. We intend to deploy these solution across 115
locations. Initially, we intend to deploy pilot projects and then we
will deploy at all locations,” said Ryan Pinto, CEO, Ryan
International School. Ajay Pahwa, CEO, Kaya Skin
Clinic also said in concurrence, “We have seen a lot benefits like
high bandwidth at low costs. This helps us to translate better when
it concerns customer needs. The best part is we are able to
incorporate the solution on the basis of pay as you use. It helps us
to maintain and track the history of our customers and also in our
day to day business.”
Also, Ajay Sawant, MD of
Mumbai-based Orient Technologies, has signed up a deal with TCS for
the adoption of cloud computing technology two months ago and is now
expecting to touch the revenue of $1 million by the end of this year
with this tie-up. But, Sawant is also of the view that there is still
a long way to go for small and medium sized enterprise to
successfully implement the cloud technology. He added, "The
penetration of cloud computing in Indian SMB is not huge at the
moment and there very few deployments have actually happened. The
public cloud will gain more momentum among the SMEs. This is our
first year on cloud computing deal with TCS and we hope to generate a
revenue of over 10 percent on our total business on cloud by the end
of this year.”
Prof (Dr) B V Somasekhar,
Vice Chancellor, Suresh Gyan Vihar University said, “The gross
enrollment ratio is expected to jump to 30 percent in 2020 from its
current figures of 12.6 percent. In order to match this gross
enrollment ratio that is expected to increase economic progress IT
deployment becomes a necessity. In the future, the education field is
going to witness an amalgamation of various eduction bodies like
AICTEE among others. The government is going to invite foreign
universities to set base in India which will pose a challenge for
Indian universities who will then have to put their best foot forward
to match steps with their global counterparts.”
However, speaking about
the initiative of bringing in cloud service for SMBs, Ratan Tata
explained that through this, TCS will empower the SMEs, which
contributes to over 45 percent in the country's GDP. He further
assured, "We will modify the entire system and there will be
powerful technological changes.” TCS assured its SME audience that
it will provide all help to its customer's; starting from the level
of hardware, software and even network solutions and services for the
customers' connectivity with cloud platform.