In the 2013-14 fiscal year, industry lobby Nasscom expects Indian software export revenue to grow by 12-14% in dollar terms, the slowest pace since the 2008 global recession.
One of the biggest challenges Indian software firms are facing in the recent time is to move away from existing people-based, low-cost software services business that is being commoditized and even threatens to be replaced by software robots. On the one hand, the century old, IBM is pushing its solutions to replace manual efforts needed to offer healthcare services; on the other, top outsourcing, customers like GE are increasingly offering software bundled with their traditional industrial products. Some companies like IBM are driving this type of disruptive innovation but many Indian services firms are at risk.
This is ironic because the global delivery model was such a disruption, such a tectonic shift and now the game has come full circle. There are many Indian IT services companies, those who have done an excellent job riding the great outsourcing wave for the past fifteen years or so.
However fantastic growth and fat margins have made many companies quite complacent so there has been very little game changing innovation after the global delivery model.
There has been innovation in hiring, in training and in new service lines but a lot of this innovation is incremental and overall the IT services business is quite commoditized as a result. Companies are competing in highly contested “red oceans” where differentiation has evaporated and margins are withering.
There is still a fair amount of growth left especially with the US economy recovering but the game is getting tougher. More importantly, to feed the machine, many companies are continuously diluting their hiring standards and as a result, the talent pool and the culture across a lot of the industry is pretty worrying. If this were not enough, there are some other tough headwinds. This is the best time to get ready for the career jobs. Please visit www.fulltimejobs.com to know the details. |
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