Bangalore, concede experts, has built up "almost universal" acceptance in the international software trade. But "the potential for replication of the Bangalore phenomenon is limited," says a study "Information Technology Deployment and Teletrade in Asia".

This study was part of a project of the United Nations University/Institute for New Technologies (UNU/INTECH) and was supported by the International Development Research Centre of Canada. Findings were presented at a seminar in Mumbai, and made available to India Abroad News Service here.

Bangalore has established a reputation of being a success story both in terms of amount of work it gets out-sourced to itself as well as the emergence of a large number of successful software firms. However, the city is not without its share of worries. One concern is sustainability, with questions being raised whether Bangalore would be able to maintain its prominent IT position due to "constantly degrading infrastructure in the city", said Sadanandan P, the National Centre for Software Technology, Bangalore associate director.

Bangalore's salary structure - that has drastically changed in recent years - is another concern. Bangalore firms seem to have clearly moved away from using their earlier low-price advantage as the main consideration in garnering business, the study said. "Now there is a clear move and awareness on how quality is more important than price. There is a clear move towards improving the quality and all the firms interviewed were very clear on this," the study team reported.

Researchers felt that chances of "replicating" Bangalore were limited because firms in the city were first entrants into the international trade. Companies here have established close and enduring relationships with clients. "This is something that cannot be done overnight by new entrants," said the study. It added that "enterprises and employees" in Bangalore showed "in-built adaptability" to the ever-changing nature of demands in the software industry. "This is something firms have become sensitised to and there have been concerted attempts to make sure they have learn-ability built into how they manage their business," the study said.

Firms like Verifone and Novel are not directly into trade in Bangalore. Instead, they made software and make it available to their parent organisations that, in turn, decide what to do with these products. Oracle software is producing products for 2002 or 2003, it was pointed out.IANS