New Media, Marketing and Entrepreneurship

India market and the SaaS/Cloud Computing landscape – Session three of the NASSCOM EMERGEOUT Conclave

Speakers: Kishore Madhyam – CEO, ImpelCRM, Sharad Sanghi – CEO & Founder NetMagic Solutions, Chandra Prabhakar – Global Head, OnDemand Solutions, Ramco Systems

Moderator: Ibrahim Ahmed – Chief Editor, Dataquest, Cyber Media group

Now we have Mr. Ahmed moderating the session, adding a quick point, I think one of the earliest propagators of cloud computing was an Indian professors in the US. The entire mindset about cloud computing and on demand computing is rising and therefore I am very very positive about the same.

We are glad to see the rising interest and concepts like this are going to be very very powerful. Ibrahim is now introducing the speakers on stage.

Interesting to understand from Mr. Sharad Sanghi from netmagic solutions on how netmagic understands cloud computing. I am particularly interested in knowing how easy it is to scale up and scale down applications using cloud. Making things simpler for the delegate to understand, we have Sharad simplifying the cloud and showing us the silver lining with it, along with some very interesting numbers.

Driving factors in india:

• Low cost
• High operational efficiency
• Elasticity
• Scalability

Sharad is creating the picture of how start-ups and emerging businesses are adopting the technology and what factors really are pushing the same out.

As long as you do your capacity planning well, cloud computing surely works

Energy efficiency is a crucial point Sharad has taken up, with cost of power going up every-time, Cloud is surely a solution. Sharad now ends his session with an introduction to the architecture.

And now we have Kishore from PK4 software. Kishore is a friend and I surely have seen him EMERGEOUT connected through the NASSCOM EMERGE community. Kishore starts sharing some very interesting numbers showing the delegate the Indian market. There are phenomenal names to follow in the saas space.

I personally like Narasimhan’s way of sharing his own learning’s saying that he may not be an expert but he has learnt

And we’re still not talking of the bottom of the pyramid says Narasimhan. Its amazing what people can do with software out in the field.

Narasimhan is now talking about how they as a company operates. We have got one of the largest optical brands in the world. Interestingly Narasimhan is now sharing his companies sales model.

• Adwords
• Website
• Eva
• Purchase
• Renewal

Being a Social Media evangelist myself, I can surely agree and connect to what Narasimhan is talking about. Sharing an example how the bounce rate to his site drastically reduced with a redesign of his website.

We dont have the freemium model, but yes you can have a free eval fo 15 days

Pricing is always an issue says Narasimhan. the biggest issue in this model is that companies don’t pay periodical. systems don’t exist in these companies. Training is a big issue, its critical but its expensive. There are always engineering choices to be made.

Narasimhan is actually creating the real picture for the delegates. I am particularly likeing the way he has simplistically made sense of the challenges and the headroom both which is available in the space.

What we don’t know:

• Decisions happen very quickly here
• Web – 2.5 % EVAL – 2.5 % purchase
  • us or the market?
• Feet on street
  • traditional model is beguiling
• Partners
  • “pull” more important than “push”
• Mobile client software
  • Not enough uptake

Now we have someone from Ramco Systems sharing theri experience as how did they deploy the technology. We have been focusing predominantly in the ERP space since its inception. We have been in the business with the SaaS model since the last 2 years making it available to the SME segment specifically.

Sharing his learning’s, he speaks of the challenges SME’s go through.

• Business challenge
• IT challenge

There is a lot of SME segment who are looking for such applications to counter these challenges

We are now seeing what the Ramco OnDemand ERP has for the enterprise scale operations. Talking about numbers, we are now understanding how Ramco has expanded with over 1500 customers who are satisfied with the deliverable(s). We have our own data center in Chennai.

The inability of the SME segment in deploying solutions in their own premise, creates a reference for us

We are now looking at the industry wise break up and how ramco is present across the various business verticals. Talking about the benefits in the various verticals, its interesting to know how technology is spanning across the business arena and how value is getting created far across.

This particular product will always be evergreen

We are now in the Q&A mode after a very comprehensive session. I am glad to be blogging the session and create value for many followers who are reading this blog.

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I am a Social Media Marketing evangelist and started my Internet career as a blogger almost 2 years back.

Since this time, I have connected with many people, from some of the best in the Internet domain to some real sharp entrepreneurs, who have given their comments on the various business models which startups and the established Internet/ Online companies are following.

Scale up or Shut Shop

Out of my interaction a couple of days back with a highly placed and successful Internet entrepreneur, a revelation jumped out, which in a way took me by surprise, as I was always present to it, but not really in the real sense of the action.

Over a cup of coffee, we discussed the following:

1. Is working with SME’s in India really that easy into Social Media?
   • Are they good paying customers?
   • Are they easy to grab?
   • Do they really have the time and resources?
2. How, many huge clients (some of the top companies in India and Abroad) are looking for all kinds of services into Social Media and are ready to pay for innovative and rewarding work

Now, I had this idea about how social media campaigns are made for these big fat clients, but never had someone who is doing it in real time, telling me, how much of it is true!

Thus came the BIG realization!

There are these big companies who are asking for partners in the online world, who could do some really innovative stuff. When I talk of innovation and results, I am in a way referring to the likes of Sunsilk Gang of Girls and TATA TEA Jaago Re.

But what I was not aware of was, trivial and almost commoditized offerings in Social Media as creation and seeding of content on the various Social Media channels, these BIG companies are asking for such services as well as an integral part of the offering and are paying good sums for the same.

Many small online marketing companies are offering the same set of services to their clients which represent the SME/ Startup space.

But would the business model sustain?

I am not saying NO, but surely I think its going to be very very difficult. Even if as an online marketing company your differentiation is the market that you are serving, you still have to consider that your market should be sustainable enough and you should have enough resources to crack the market. Some questions that you should answer:

1. How long is your sales cycle?
2. Do you have enough resources to hang onto your tables?
3. Is a low paying and yet more demanding market, the best way for you as a startup?

Moral of the story?

Am I saying that small online marketing companies would not sustain? Well, not really! But surely such companies would find it really hard to sustain. The model over a longer run is surely not sustainable. Moving up the chain and crossing over to the clientle, which is sustainable for your business, is an absolute essential.

Price war?

Not really, in my personal opinion, price is surely not a differentiating factor which smaller companies can establish and fight over. Otherwise the shark will surely eat away the smaller fish.

Finally

There is enough business around, all you need to do is create the right set of expectations with the client and deliver innovations which would help the client get a high over, through short term wins, and will also help you establish long term relationships with your high net worth client!

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