The Chairman of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) B.V.R. Mohan Reddy said tech disruption, changing customer expectations and cyber security would be the three challenges the Indian software industry has to face in future.
In an interaction with The Hindu at the fag end of his one-year stint as Nasscom chief, Mr. Reddy said that as the world moved increasingly towards digital, re-skilling the existing workforce on the newer technology would become a challenge.
“The transformation for the industry, especially because it is outsourcing-driven industry, has to be much faster to cope with the technology transformation around the world”, Mr. Reddy, who would be stepping down as Nasscom chief on Wednesday, pointed out.
Changing customer expectations
Similarly, changing customer expectations would become a challenge. “Initially, India was known for its price arbitrage. Slowly the global industries started discovering quality and capacity in India. Now, customers expectations are that whether you can participate in a risk-reward model where you do all the work, take the risks and share the rewards. Transforming ourselves to this new environment is a challenge”, he said.
According to Mr. Reddy, the third challenge and an area of concern is that of Cyber Security. “On the one side, we talk about IT but on the other hand the technology is more vulnerable than ever. It is said that the wars of the future will be fought without a single drop of blood. Wars will be fought digitally. As data is going to be more and more valuable, data security will become more valuable”, he said.
On his achievements
Talking about his achievements as Nasscom Chairman, Mr. Reddy said that he focused on three KRAs (key result areas) of “empowerment, engagement and inclusiveness”.
“Nasscom was founded with the focus being on IT Services. But the stakeholders have grown into different areas over the years”, he said adding that the IT industry today not only consists of IT Services but also six other sections like BPM, Engineering R &D, Products, Internet and E-commerce, GIC (Global In-house Centres) and domestic markets.
As each of these seven sections has its own priorities and challenges, he said, seven sectorial councils empowered to address the issues with all stakeholders were created within Nasscom.
Stating that 1,700 out of the 1,800 member of Nasscom were small and medium enterprises (SMEs) whose challenges and issues were different from those of the large enterprises, Mr. Reddy said that engaging the SMEs had been his focus area.
“I personally travelled across the country (in this regard). We have also initiated a website and a social network where there is constant interaction amongst the various interest groups and the Executive Council (of Nasscom)”, he said.
Mr. Reddy said that his third KRA was to make two representatives from the SMEs to be permanent members of the Nasscom Executive Council as almost all the 18 members of the council were from large companies. “This not only made the SMEs voices heard but also created more participation and involvement from the SMEs”.
