Nilesh Kumar Purey, Vice-President, IT and Communication, Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Company Limited
With the rapid proliferation of smart devices and increased broadband access, enterprises have accelerated their adoption of mobility solutions. During 2015, the enterprise segment made significant investments in cloud technologies, big data analytics and virtualisation, with the aim of increasing customer engagement, tapping emerging opportunities and enhancing productivity. However, the lack of a robust support infrastructure in terms of network bandwidth remains a key challenge for enterprises in the information and communication technology (ICT) space. Select enterprise customers comment on the key technology trends in the enterprise space during 2015 and the mobility applications adopted by them, the challenges associated with the introduction of new applications, and the technology roadmap for 2016…
What were the key technology trends in the enterprise space during 2015?
The technology trends of 2014 continued in 2015, with social, mobile, analytics and cloud (SMAC) governing a major part of the technology landscape. However, in 2015, another dimension called the internet of things (IoT) was added. Today, technology leaders across various industry verticals including utility companies, banks and financial institutes are trying to harness the potential of IoT. Although the technology was being used earlier by many industry verticals like manufacturing and process industries in the form of machine to machine for managing process automation, IoT has now been made usable for other functions like sales and marketing, with the addition of analytics. The concept is still at a nascent stage and requires a lot of cooperation from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), regulators and industry bodies to make it cost-effective and widely accepted.
What is the current level of adoption of mobility solutions by Indian enterprises? What are the key challenges faced by them in adopting new technologies?
Today, mobility has become key for any business, and almost all businesses have mobile applications. Information consumption and creation has increased multi-fold on mobile platforms. In addition, e-commerce platforms and start-ups are effectively leveraging mobility as the only method of growth. On the enterprise front, mobility is playing a greater role in businesses like retail, pharmaceuticals, mobile handsets and telecom, where distribution is the key to success. It is not just enterprises that are taking up mobility solutions, even the government is laying a greater emphasis on their adoption for various citizen services. For instance, under the Digital India programme, all departments and citizen services will be made available through mobile applications. This brings in credibility and transparency and is in line with the government’s objective of “maximum governance and minimum government”.
There are three major challenges that every IT manager faces while adopting a new technology. First, he has to ascertain for how long the new technology will remain relevant to his or her business. This is because the technology landscape is rapidly changing as support systems quickly become obsolete. There is also peer pressure on IT managers to adopt new technologies without waiting for them to stabilise. This can lead to the selection of a wrong solution and ultimately a failed roll-out with a massive impact on costs. The second big challenge is support from OEMs. It is very difficult to ensure that OEMs will remain operational for a longer duration with the same management. This badly affects the decision-making process. Finally, the costs associated with technological solutions like storage are not coming down, leading to the delayed adoption of new technologies.
How have telecom operators performed with regard to addressing the needs of enterprise customers? What are your expectations from service providers?
Services from telecom operators have gone from bad to worse, and even the government and regulator have expressed their concern over their deteriorating quality. Earlier, customers used to be at the centre of all telecom operator activity, but now internal processes have taken centre stage. This has drastically brought down service levels and increased service delivery periods. Stringent penalties need to be imposed on poor service delivery.
What were some of the technology-related initiatives that your company adopted during the past year? What new initiatives are you planning to take in the near future?
As the country’s first greenfield smart city, Gujarat International Finance Tec-City should lead in the adoption of new technologies for public services. This year, we will enhance our capabilities in the IoT domain. We are also adopting enterprise resource planning solutions for utility billing. We have already developed a mobile application and will be enhancing its features during the year.
On the telecom side, we are planning to roll out a state-of-the-art carrier class meet-me-room (MMR) facility. We will host telecom connectivity from all operators at this MMR and distribute it across the city through a passive optical fibre network.
“It is not just enterprises that are taking up mobility solutions, even the government is laying a greater emphasis on their adoption for various citizen services.” Nilesh Kumar Purey
Which technologies are likely to gain traction among enterprises in 2016?
The year 2016 will feature the amalgamation of all previous technological solutions. The emphasis will still be on SMAC and IoT. Analytics is going to play an important role as well as it will extract higher value from all investments made in newer technologies. With government initiatives like the Smart Cities Mission, Digital India and Make in India, technologies supporting e–governance and all associated technologies like intelligent transport, intelligent metering, mobile applications, security and surveillance are going to gain traction. In addition, due to the growing concerns about climatic changes, I also expect technological solutions with green aspects to get preference over others.
