The industry reflects, looks ahead

Girija Pande, executive vice president and regional director for Asia Pacific, Tata Consultancy Services

	Girija Pande, TCS
	Web 2.0 has established itself with users all over the world appreciating the value of these new Web-based services. In 2008, I believe these tools will become ever more important in the company not just at home, paving the way for enterprise 2.0.

Q. What do you remember as the biggest industry news for 2007, and why?
Pande: The weakness of the dollar and the sharp depreciation against most currencies including the Indian rupee was the biggest industry news. While demand for IT services offered by firms like TCS continued to be strong on a global basis, the sharp appreciation of the Indian currency against the dollar posed challenges for many firms in this sector.

However, this risk was effectively mitigated through strong cost controls, increasing prices and improving the ratio of work done in off-shore locations like India or China.

Name three hot technologies to watch in 2008, and explain why.
Some of the hot technologies that came to the forefront in 2007 and will accelerate and expand in 2008 are enterprise 2.0, virtualization and green IT.

Over the last year, Web 2.0 has established itself with users all over the world appreciating the value of these new Web-based services.

In 2008, I believe these tools will become ever more important in the company not just at home, paving the way for enterprise 2.0. The combination of Web 2.0 interactivity in combination with SaaS (software-as-a-service) and a change in architectural design to promote SOA (service-oriented architecture) will come together to create a technology environment with service as the main focus. As the popularity of these technologies escalates, Enterprise 2.0 will come to the fore.

Moving ahead in 2008

 

 

1.	Socializing goes big in 2008
2.	The urge to merge in 2008
3.	New chips on the block
4.	Web threats dominate security landscape
5.	Battle for the mobile platform space in 2008
6.	The industry reflects, looks ahead

Looking back on 2007

 

 

1.	Looking back at 2007 with envy
2.	Predictions that went right and wrong
3.	2007's movers and shakers

Virtualization is already a mainstream tool for companies looking to consolidate applications within a data center. In 2008 as the market becomes more challenging, companies will look to virtualization to reduce costs, increase availability, and increase security. More companies will start looking for virtualization across many platforms-- they will look to infrastructure-wide virtualization solutions that not only deal with servers, but also personal computers, networking and storage devices.

Another major technology trends we'll start to see more of in 2008 is green IT. The shift in consumer opinion and the creation of new government regulations in favor of protecting the environment have pushed green issues into the boardroom of most major companies. Interestingly, IT outsourcing is one way for companies to become more eco-friendly. Companies have the potential to experience energy savings and help reduce their exposure to green legislation. IT outsourcing vendors can exploit economies of scale by sharing the same infrastructure across large numbers of customers, allowing them to reduce overall energy use.

The biggest challenge facing IT departments is...
... The underperformance of IT projects. In Asia, this is a particularly large problem. According to a recent survey by Dynamic Markets, nearly half, or 48 percent, of Asia Pacific IT projects failed to meet performance expectations, compared to 33 percent for global IT projects. A significant contributor to this problem is getting buy-in from business users. One in four companies surveyed stated that business users were reluctant to adopt new systems once implemented.

Work-life balance is...
... A part of TCS' culture, because we value the wellbeing of our employees. Organizations cannot afford to ignore the issue of work-life balance. Providing your employees with the flexibility to address personal commitments and interests, without compromising the needs of the organization is the difference between a good working environment and a great one.

At TCS, we created an environment where every month there are social events which happen across the globe, and this helps to foster our employees' interests. It is also particularly important to look after employees who are stationed away from their home country. They face additional stresses from being away from their family, friends, clubs, and social communities. When away from home, the company needs to provide for this.

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