Mumbai: India could achieve 50 per cent of capital expenditure in information technology and become a major player globally by 2010, announced Geoff Johnson, Gartner Group's research director during a presentation on "Network Convergence" at a concluding Summit 2000 on e-reality. Johnson however, warned that continuing presence of the government and present terms and conditions for IT businesses would be a major problem to be tackled on a priority basis. "The revenue sharing of nearly 15 per cent and lack of proper infrastructure are a matter of real concern," he opined.Johnson who had worked for more than 15 years for an Australian telecom network said that the regulator will have a major role in the fast changing IT sector in India. "The regulator should not only work as a watchdog but also play a role of a developer," he added. Johnson said that the government's role in decision making and implementation of various IT initiatives will have to recede fastly. Otherwise, he warned that it would be a major deterrent in the entry of new players mainly from the private sector. "Ones these corrective measures are taken, players like AT&T, NTT, Worldcom will collaborate with the public and private utilities to tap the emerging market in network converge in India," he hoped.
As far as network convergence is concerned in India, Johnson said that convergence in communications, computing, broadcasting and new media is only in its adolescent stages. However, he added that radically new business models will continue to emerge to capture the advantages created by Internet working. According to him, electronic commerce is slammed into e-business simply because networking technologies facilitate new markets and productivity paradigms. Internet working persists as a "balloon" rather than a "bubble" because new pricing and productivity levels are created.
Vendors' opportunities will flow from creative integration of emerging technologies with both wider and more penetrating levels of partnering than today's economy. Johnson pointed out that distinctions between service providers of all types will rapidly blur (networks, professional services, applications) under the pressure of bundling compelling solution packages. Johnson said that with the cheap bandwidth availability in India aswell as Asia Pacific region, the transmission of data will simply become costless.
"The smaller companies with great ideas will cash in on on the situation to mark their presence and make their fortunes," he opined. Johnson said that four out of 10 chief executive officers (CEOs) say more than 10 per cent of their companies' revenue will come from electronic business in the next five years. By 2005, at least 25 per cent of global 2000 enterprises will be "hybrid" e-business, he added. By hybrid, he means the companies going businesses in the traditional sectors as well as in the fast growing IT and IT enabled services.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.