Innovate to differentiate

February 25, 2010 4 comments

How much innovation has really happened in the programming world over the last 20 years?

In the past twenty years or so, the IT application development industry has had abysmal product-driven innovation. Prior to that, the industry had significant product innovations such as Case tools. They had the potential to dramatically improve productivity of programmers and redefine the whole application programming paradigm as the tools could automatically generate a significant part of the code.

Automatic code generator, test automation and codeless programming are all examples of product innovations in the development world. The bottom line here is that the product led innovation leads to significantly reduced programming effort and dramatically reduced cost for customers. It’s transformative in its impact. Read More

Getting into ‘products’ is not the only way for the IT industry to climb the value chain

February 16, 2010 8 comments

It has been a commonly accepted belief by many that, for the IT industry, going up the value chain means going into product development. They think that will break the linearity of revenue with people, i.e., growing revenues without adding more employees in the same ratio. However, I actually believe that building products is a lot more complex if you are not in the culture of using that product. For example, if you want to build a product for the American market, you have to understand the culture of usage of that product in the United States. Read More

The Case for Green Power

January 19, 2010 7 comments

The need for responsibility

At iGATE, our Green initiatives began with the Carbon Assessment exercise that I covered in my previous post. In the next few posts, I’ll share my thoughts and experiences on another important factor impacting an organization’s carbon footprint – Power Consumption.

First things first. Consistent availability of cheap power is vital to a smooth functioning of enterprises. It becomes all the more important when you consider that last year, Indian industry suffered to the tune of several hundred million dollars simply due to non-availability of electricity. To quote from data released by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), ‘A delayed monsoon and reduced coal availability at thermal power plants has pushed India’s power deficit in June to a five-year high of 13.8 per cent. Industry experts attribute this historic rise in the demand and supply gap of power mainly to the reduced fuel supply at thermal stations’. Read More

The First Coat of Green

December 16, 2009 17 comments

In the last twenty years, I have observed that the way organizations have been consuming natural resources has changed radically. I would like to believe that this is primarily due to the technological advancements that have taken place. This phenomenon becomes more visible when, we as organisations take into account the amount of carbon we release into the environment as part of our operational activities. Also known as Carbon Footprint.

As an organization committed to being Green, we realized that finding out exactly how much carbon we release into the environment should be the first thing to do. We felt that this was more than just an environmental issue. It was an important opportunity for us to meet our legal obligations, reduce operational costs, and improve overall efficiency. All of which eventually add up to a competitive edge and needless to say, a better brand image. Read More

Let’s connect

December 10, 2009 36 comments


Hello,

In my more than two decades of experience in the offshore outsourcing space, creating business models and service offerings for the information industry, I have always felt the need for a more personal medium that will enable me to share and learn more about the changes that are taking place in the world that we live in, or more specifically, how technology and communications can be made use of in a more efficient manner to bring about change.

This blog comes to you as an extension of me, my thoughts and personal beliefs, on the world around us, the continuously evolving scientific and technological climate and the impact that this is having on the way we live, work and play. And not just us, but rather the generations that will succeed us on this planet. Read More