NASSCOM EMERGE Community Catalyst for Growth of Emerging & Start-Up companies

Jagat, Good to see that you are one of the firms who is conducting these workshops. I just came back after a meeting with STQC. It would be good to know how many SME companies have benefitted by this program. Also, it would be good to know how much does it help in getting any business from the egov. projects. Most of the larger companeis have been doing the implementation. Is there an opportunity for the SMEs.?

Thanks.

Avinash

Avinash, we are just rolling out this program. We are targeting to cover 600 IT SME's all over India. Launch dates are :

We have had some interesting experiences with IT SME's under various IT SME development projects which we implemented like : Project VIKAS, Nokia OMS, DPR for ICT adoption by user SME's for Ministry of MSME, GTZ pilot project on ICT adoption by user SME's & i-centre for Brunei Govt.

Will mail you the invitation & keep you updated.

regards, 

jagat shah

Hi Avinash,

Certainly there is a huge opportunity for IT SME's to connect to egov & other biz. Of course, it will depend on not only skill sets of IT SME's but also on what is the structure of their company, Infra they have, Capacity, total strength etc.  So, to overcome these, we are working on IT SME consortia approach.  We have just today initiated one such with AUDA. Will keep you posted with progress.

jagat

Jagat,

Thanks for sharing this. Could you share with us as to how SME's with a good implementation base, yet have not done Government projects should approach/ particpate. Is attending the sessions at the dates adequate?

We are keen to get into projects of this nature and I presume that there are many SME's here also interested

George

Hi George,

Yes, attending the launch will give you an idea of roadmap. I have mailed you the invitation.

jagat  

Govt related projects especially meant for roll out for state gov, local bodies, panchayet etc are attractive and practical for large IT cos, who handle and manage approval and milestone tracking and sign off authorities and payment sign off and actual cash release agencies well.

SMEs 10-200 headcount cos can not be expected to have bandwidth or muscle to even span around and spend time and money. How can they benefit unless they are fronts of larger players.

My perception is that it is sheer waste of time for clear and ambitious SMEs. They should skip this sector to give priority to build and sell technology leveraged solutions for India and globe.

We all know how road infrastructure projects have progressed faster and done well ( almost all contractors are fronts of politicians who make sure payments are released on time). It is all nice to know and join such events to know. BUt not worthwhile for tech oriented SMEs.

Of course we can see new SMEs emerging at rural places through entreprenuership by rural but influential folks. That segment will find it of great value. Good luck to them. We welcome them as new Nasscom Community members and well wishers..

Most of the issues raised by Rajendra Raja are true. We were involved in a similar interesting project of connecting IT SME's to egov businesses in Canada & Switzerland. Success was achieved in both projects when IT SME's joined hands and formed a consortia. Then onwards there was no looking back & several consortias are in play today. Of course, the formation of consortia was not so easy. Thats where a project like this has to play a role.

IT SME's in India still need to learn a lot about marketing in particular. In our experience of having worked in 82 clusters in 10 countries, there is not much difference between auto parts SME & IT SME. Both have similar challenges in areas of marketing, production, finance & HR. Auto parts SME's in Jamshedpur & elsewhere are successfully operating under several consortia. Through consortia approach they divide their risks & multiply their opportunities. 

We hope the consortia approach, besides many other inititaives ( B2B meets between IT SME's of India & EU etc... ) under this project for IT SME competitiveness works.       

Yes, Mr. Jagat, Nice to see the wonderful efforts towards connecting SME's to eGov projects.

We are also one of the SME in Delhi interested in involved in government projects, but we don't get the information about the tendors.

We are Delhi based web development company.

I am also in planning to get the NASSCOM membership. Already spoken to Mr. Avinash on the same.

Looking forward

Brijesh,

There is an IT SME survey form in our site : www.clusterpulse.org . Pls fill up & mail us, we will connect you to appropriate biz. We have started a match making exercise under the project. You may attend the project launch at any of these places :

Best wishes,

jagat shah

GTZ - STQC project on " economic development through egov " launched in Rajkot & Bangalore. The launch was attended in large numbers by all stakeholders like state & central govt., egov departments, IT majors, IT SME's, IT associations, trade associations, IT training intermediaries & BDS providers. High quality interaction followed.   

Bangalore launch : attendance 102. Three egov opportunities emerged for IT SME's. 

Rajkot launch -  attendance 51. Two egov opportunities emerged for IT SME's.

Next launch :

8 Jan 2010 - Chennai

12 Jan 2010 - Ajmer

19 Jan 2010 - Hyderabad

28 Jan 2010 - Mumbai

ALL ARE CORDIALLY INVITED.

regards & best wishes for Christmas & new year,

jagat shah

I am glad that the first business between IT major & IT SME got concluded under the project. Account opened.  

jagat shah

Jagat, can you share more details so members /readers can get a sense of the value this platform brings. Please do share perspectives on the event and the follow-up that has led to the deals.

I agree with you that building a consortium of like-minded SMEs is a great way to build critical mass/ skills and take on larger competitors. How has this worked in other geos? How can this work in India? Please share some thoughts on this as well.

Best,

Arvind

Mr. Shah,

Do you have a plan to host a seminar in Dehradun. Is there any E-governance project emanating from the Uttrakhand Govt ? Plus I am aware that GTZ have a full time presence in Dehradun and are involved in a couple of non-IT related developement projects. Some of us have established facilities at the I.T Park & can operate as a consortium. Can you advise how best to move forward ?

Thanks,

Nalin Khanna (www.panbusiness.net)

Mr Shah, I didn't find the location to download the form for membership. Please advice me.

Thank you!

Brijesh Kumar

Dear Arvind,

Thanks for asking a very relevant question. What we are doing in the project is, at one end we are talking to IT majors to look at the shortlisted IT SME skill sets & start empaneling them for future eGov bids. On the other end we are working with IT SME's on soft skill development & market orientation, besides the technical certifications by STQC empanneled intermediaries.    

One of the tools which we are using in this process is IT SME consortia so that the hassle which IT Major may have to go through to shortlist IT SME's of various skill sets for a given eGov project is taken care of by the project. Of course, the final 'aye' will come from IT Majors. This approach has worked in manufacturing SME's in developed as well as developing countries like USA, Canada, Italy, India etc. I understand that it has been tried for IT SME's in India also, but I believe full time effort has not gone into this aspect.

Only after a few successes, we will be able to measure its impact.

regards,

jagat shah

Dear Brijesh,

I just now emailed it to you

jagat

Dear Nalin,

Dehradun is not one of the locations identified for this project. But you rightly mentioned that there is an ongoing GTZ project on manufacturing SME there & I have mailed to GTZ to find out what can we do there. Will come back to you soon on that one. About 4 years back, we had worked in Dehradun with a litchi cluster with state govt. & the consortia approach was very successful there.

How many members are there in the I T park there ?   

As regards, eGov opportunities in Uttrakhand, there are many & I suggest that you fill up the IT SME form, which I will email to you & we will start forwarding those leads to you.

regards,

jagat shah 

Dear Jagat / Avinash,

I couldn't attend the programme - GTZ - STQC project on " economic development through egov " launched in Bangalore on 16th Dec, 2009.  This is a fantastic concept of organizing a forum to identify SME's for E-Governance projects.

I was involved in development and implementation of many of the e-governance projects since 2005. Through this experinece, I was able develop a e-governance  framework and strategy, a workflow to create the solution for various government department services quickly. With this concept, I was able to develop the e-governance application for 35 services in 4 months time frame.

Since last 1 year, I have done extensive research and study on the requirement of various government departments under various ministries portfolio and created a white paper mentioning what is most critical for the departments to provide service more efficiently and effectively. 

Similarly many concepts are being thought to provide a better solution using cutting edge technology for national id and bank atm cards which can be made more secured but most of these opportunities are grabed by large companies. But SME's can also deliver better solution with minimal cost compared to large companies.

I hope this initiative will enable the government to consider some of the projects for SME's.  I am in the process of setting up a vertical for E-Governance Group for a venture from 2nd week of January, 2010. 

Regards

Vittaladas Bhat 

Dear Vittaladas,

We missed you in Bangalore. We had 130+ IT SME's & other stakeholders attending the Bangalore event.

We have the same launch event in Chennai on 8 Jan., in Hyderabad on 19 Jan. & in Mumbai on 28 Jan. It will be a pleasure to meet you. We invite you to share your experience in this event with the audience.  We would be glad to know in what way can we contribute to your verticle for E-Governace group.

regards & best wishes,

jagat shah

Hi George,

Its at Hotel Checkers, Saidapet - Chennai on 8 Jan. 2010 at 6 pm.

see you....

regards,

jagats shah