Transcript Success Mantras for the - Computer Science

Success Mantras for the IT
Industry in the Next Decade
Aditya P. Mathur
Professor, Department of Computer Sciences
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN 47907.
July-Dec 2003: Visiting Professor, BITS, Pilani.
Keynote Address
At Rakshapal Bahadur Management Institute, Bareilly, India.
Saturday October 11, 2003
Last update: October 11, 2003
Our flight path…
What is “success” ?
India’s role during the economic boom of other
countries.
India and the IT revolution in the past decade.
What have we achieved and what not?
A different path for the future of IT in India.
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Success

Economic
Increase in foreign exchange reserves
Improvement in infrastructure
Preferred developer for most clients
Positive impact on local economies

Other
Improved opportunities
Improved respect in the international community
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Comparison against?
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India
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Others
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Some Statistics [Ref: Skoch Consultancy]
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Software exports:
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Revenues: $8 billion in 2002
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30% growth
Software/Hardware domestic:
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Revenues: $5 billion in 2002
PCs sold:
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1.8 million
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14% growth
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Statistics: National Level
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Poverty:
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Reduction from 44% to 20% below poverty line over
15 years.
Foreign exchange reserves: $86.2b (August 2003. 7th
largest in the world)

IMF dues paid off in 2000

Loans to 7 heavily debted African countries written off.
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Statistics: Manpower
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Engineering colleges: 1064-->0.3M engineers/year
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Engg. Diploma granting colleges: 1231-->0.22M diplomas/year
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Institutes: 737-->37K MCA/year
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Total IT professionals: 0.15M in 2005-6
Reference: The Hindu Aug 11, 2003
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Statistics: Comparison of Annual Revenues
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India’s revenue from software: $8b in 2002
IBM
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2001: $85.0b
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2002: $80.0b
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2003: $21.6b (second quarter)
Microsoft
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2001-2002: $28.37b
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Office products: $18.9b
Intuit
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2002-2003: $1.6b (tax and accounting products)
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Services in the past
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Pre-WW II: Malaysia tea gardens
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‘70s: Middle east construction boom
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90’s: IT boom
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Where are we?
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India has done well in the software services market. Market likely to
grow.
India has perhaps the largest trained manpower for use in
providing software services and software products. This
resource is on the rise.
Revenues from software product sales are dismal (less than
$300M/year?.
Few “Made in India” software products sold worldwide.
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Questions

Should India remain primarily a software service provider?
What happens to India’s innovation, creativity, and world image?
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How far can the software services sector take India?
Which nation became developed based solely on services?

Should we remain a mere resource of talented manpower to
be used by the developed nations?
We have done it thrice. Are we developed now?

Can we learn something from Japan (or Korea) ?
Perhaps yes…
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The Japanese Approach to Industrial Dominance
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After WW II: Economy in shambles.
Product development goes full steam. Technology borrowed
shamelessly from the west.
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Products are inexpensive but poor quality.
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Improvement in quality and sophistication becomes the norm.
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The Japanese Approach to Dominance [2]
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Significant investment in applied and basic
• Japan:
• US:
• Germany:
research:
3.29% of GDP
2.6% of GDP
2.5% of GDP
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Major failures encountered (e.g. the Fifth generation project)
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However…poduct quality and variety improves.
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In 40 years, Japan is a (respected) world leader in many areas.
Source: Statistics Bureau, MPHPT
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Of course, hard work, discipline, and
government support were at the
heart of the Japanese revolution.
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Mantra One
Invest in software product
development and marketing.
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Mantra Two
Invest in basic and applied
research in IT.
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Mantra Three
Spread education in
software engineering.
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Mantra One: Strategy: Product Space
Invest in software product development and marketing.

Partial product space:
•
OS:
Windows, RT, etc.
•
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Office:
Word, Powerpoint, Excel etc.
Application: SAP, Banking, ERP, etc.
Client specific: Embedded
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Very high risk/cost
High risk/cost
Medium risk/cost
Low risk/cost
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Mantra One: Strategy: Development
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Reverse engineer. Offer backward compatibility. Attractive pricing.
•
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For capturing the market of existing products.
Novel design: Identify need and create new products
•
For creating new national and international markets.
•
Requires market research and innovativeness in
product development.
Exploit the Internet in novel ways for marketing and use.
•
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Develop an SSP paradigm for software delivery and
use.
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Mantra Two: Strategy
Invest in basic and applied research in IT.
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Industry/University collaboration.
•
Inculcate habits of innovation, creativity,
experimentation. And, most importantly, belief
in oneself.
•
Both short and long term research published in
international conferences and journals.
Industrial research labs.
•
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Focus on short term “proof of concept” idea
prototyping and evaluation.
2% of industrial revenues towards research-->$160M/year
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Mantra Three: Strategy: Product lifecycle
Spread education in software engineering.
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Product lifecycle.
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Life cycle notions are different in service sector
than in product sector.
•
Product life cycle requires long term
commitment to maintenance and support. This
is not as necessary in short term service
oriented projects.
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Mantra Three: Strategy: Quality
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Quality Assurance
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Focus on extremely high quality products
•
Do not emulate Microsoft. Emulate Sony.
•
Inculcate quality culture amongst students.
Teach them techniques for testing and quality
assurance and how to apply them in practice.
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