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8/9/2019 Silicon India Aug 10 Issue
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BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY IN THE U.S. & INDIA AUGUST - 2010 SILICONINDIA.COM
PUBLISHED SINCE1997
sil iconindia
Bobby Srinivasan,President & CEO
In My Opinion: RajatMohanty, PaladionNetworks VC TALK: Dharmesh Thakker,AdvancedTechnologyVentures Mobile Special
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s i l i c o ni
Publisher
Harvi Sachar
Editor-in-Chief
Pradeep Shankar
Managing EditorChristoJacob
Deputy Editors
Jaya SmithaMenon
Editorial StaffAnonyaRoy BennyThomasBinuTPaul EurekaBharaliGargiSinha JubyThomasKukilBora PragyanAcharya
Roshna Sankar VimaliSwamy
Sr.Visualizer RaghuKoppalSubscription Manager P Magendran
M
ai
li
ng Ad
d
re
s
s
SiliconIndia Inc44790 S. Grimmer Blvd
Suite 202,Fremont, CA 94538
T:510.440.8249, F:510.440.8276
siliconindiaJuly2010, volume 13-08 (ISSN 1091-9503)
Published monthly by siliconindia,Inc.
siliconindias circulation is audited and certifiedby BPA International. siliconindia is available throughmainstream retail outletssuch asBarnes& Noble,Borders,andTowerRecords.Itis alsoavailableatethnicAsian IndianstoresinmajorIndianhotspotsacrosstheU.S.Themagazineis alsodis-
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Visit www.siliconindia.com or send email [email protected]
AUGUST - 2010
[Technology]
Mobile Space at the Cusp
of RevolutionBy Rajiv Kumar, Rocketalk
Doing IT Services Business
with SMBs and StartupsBy Prathapan Sethu, QBurst
Mobile Productivity in the
EnterpriseBy David DSouza, Moprise
Best Practices in Designing
Mobile ApplicationsBy Y K Maheshwari, Mphasis
[Business]
Back Office Systems Take
Center Stage in Driving
Consumer ExperienceBy Neeraj Vyas, Aricent
[Management]Business Emerges from Behavior
While Behavior from BeliefsBy Juby Thomas
[Technology]
Opportunistic Co
New ParadigmBy Mohan Hebbar,
Symphony Service
[Management]
How Shared Serv
Business Service
Management Hel
Deliver Increased
Your CustomersBy Bill Emmet & At
Williams, BMC Softw
[Entrepreneur 101]
Designing a Winni
Organizational CuBy Gunjan Sinha
[CIO Profile]
Technology Will
Subservient to Bu
By Vimali Swamy
[SI 20 Profile]
[In My Opinion]
Tortoises Do Not Win in
Market PlacesBy Rajat Mohanty,
Paladion Networks
[Infocus]
[VC Chakra]
California Based Zenprise
Raises $9 Million
Mavenir Systems Raises
$13.6 Million
[CEO Spotlight]
Harness the Power of
Collaboration
Unified Communication: Its Time
for Alternative Solutions
[VC Talk]
Investment Trends The
Evolution of Tech in
CleantechBy Dharmesh Thakker, Advanced
Technology Ventures
06
08
12
14
22
34
36
38
40
42
44
46
26
28
30
32
Contents August2010
16 Cover Story
Editorial
Globalization and outsourcing are the important elements ofany business in any country. Both globalisation and out-
sourcing banks much on immigration for its success. But re-cently the immigration row is heating up in the U.S and European
Union. To resolve this dispute in U.S, following the European Unionstrategy by U.S may not hold good and should rightly align with theU.S economical growth.
For instance, recent President Obamas battle to block a con-troversial new immigration law aimed at driving more than
400,000 undocumented workers out of the state of Arizona is rais-ing difference of opinion in the state. It is said that nearly half the
U.S. population wants immigration to slow down. But will the
slow down really help U.S? The answer is the state should knowto separate wheat from the chaff.
The U.S is home to about 1.6 million Indian origin people, mak-ing them the third-largest immigrant group in the country after Mex-
icans and Filipino. Compared to other immigrant groups, the Indianforeign born are much better educated -- nearly three-quarters of In-
dian-born adults have a bachelor's degree or higher. Now Indians adds
to the credits innovating and playing a great role in the U.S. in allfields, whether it be business or research. For instance, recent Guru-
raj Daeshpandes appointment as the Co-Chairman of U.S. PresidentBarack Obamas National Advisory Council on Innovation and En-
trepreneurship and Gunjan Sinha, SiliconIndia Chairman and the Ex-ecutive Chairman of Metricstream representing the Board of U.S -
India Endowment for Science and Technology is a recent testimony
to the fact the contribution of Indian origin people cannot be ignored.It is one of the idiosyncracies of the neo-liberal New World Order
that while there is a free trade in finances, goods, and services, thepolicy on immigration is still not matching the trade policies. While
slamming the door shut in the face of many desperate economicrefugees is fine, it should not be at the cost of devastating the most ed-
ucated, most skilled workers from the same countries, many of whomhave played a crucial role in the economical growth of the U.S.
While a huge immigration row leads to tightening immigration
laws, to the flipside these are the countries that proclaim to other worldto leverage on Globalization. Now its high time to get into action
and re-examine U.S. immigration policies to determine whether they
are moving in the right direction and strike a right balance betweenglobalization and barring the potential people who can drive the U.Seconomical growth.
Please do share your thoughts with us.
Christo JacobManaging Editor
High Time to Re-examine!
By Christo Jacob
Bobby
ulingRoaming Space
R
the
ROAMWARE
8/9/2019 Silicon India Aug 10 Issue
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M
ine has been a rela-
tively short journey asan entrepreneur so
far. Its been just over
a decade since we
started our company specializing as aniche information security player. Oneof my key learnings in this short span
has been on the need to evolve businessmodels with time. In my opinion, the
relationship between business models
and time is a less discussed subject inmanagement studies. Fledgling entre-
preneurs could do well by understand-ing the dynamism between the two.
Almost all successful businesses alterthe initial models created during their
startup phases. And whats more inter-
esting is that they keep changing theirmodels even as they succeed with the
existing model, suggesting that firmsshould adopt a very active approach in
pursuing business model changes.Young companies should constantly
ask how do we innovate our businessmodel, which is still contributing rev-
enues and profits, since future effec-
tiveness of this is likely to be
undermined by changes in its ex-ternal environment or competi-
tion?We started out as a focused
information security player and
even today we call ourselves a
focused information securityplayer. Does that mean that weare the same company that we
were 10 years back? On thecontrary, looking back it
will be difficult for me to
s i l i c o nisilicon i n d i a |6|A u g u s t 2 0 1 0
find similarity between what we were
even five years ago and where we are
today. Ten years ago, when we startedour company, we were ahead of the
markets in our part of the world. In-formation security was in very nas-
cent stages then. That gave us theinitial momentum and business suc-
cess as we could take a unique posi-
tioning of security specialists in themarket. But soon many established IT
players entered the domain alongwith a crowd of startups competing
with us, and we quickly r ealized thatto continue our success we will need
to keep changing what we are doingand somehow stay ahead of the mar-
ket. It helped that information secu-
rity was a dynamic and fast evolvingfield and a company that can contin-
uously evolve will get a premium inthe market. Without going into
specifics of what we did, I have triedto generalize the learnings we have
had as a team:
Intuition is an important ally ofentrepreneurs. I have already said
that business models should be vary-ing with time. The most common
view is that it should adapt to envi-
ronmental changes. But environmen-tal changes are often ambiguous and
young companies do not have thereach and resources to monitor such
changes. Also young companies needto be ahead of changes so that they
can compete with more establishedcompanies. In this scenario where
lack of data is coupled with the need
to be predictive, intuition often is theonly thing going for an entrepreneur.
By intuition, I dont mean an eurekamoment or path-breaking idea but
more sedate gut feel on what weshould incrementally change or do
differently for being ahead in market.Such intuition often comes from an
entrepreneurs cognition of environ-mental threats and opportunities
based on whatever limited interac-
tions with market participants arethere as well as from own internal
beliefs and influences.
Trial and error experiments shouldback up the intuition based decisions.
In my experience, its very easy to fallin love with an idea if it is based on
ones own beliefs and concepts. Bas-
ing the change of business model on anarcissist devotion to own idea, with-
out the backing of market data andanalysis, will only decrease the firms
chances of survival. Not only can themarket acceptance be a problem but
also the inertial pressures within the
firm to preserve status quo can defeatany new initiative. We are not talking
of creating a new business model be-
cause the earlier model is a failure andcompany is struggling for survival,wherein any change is accepted inter-
nally as better than the status quo.
Here we are talking of a scenariowhere the business model change is
more proactive to ensure continuedsuccess and hence can face internal in-
ertia in a firm. Again, young compa-nies do not have the luxury of market
research and consumer analysis to get
data for backing the new model. Thisis where the most tried and true meth-
ods of problem solving lies, trial anderror method comes in. Despite its
lack of sophistication, sometimes itsthe most efficient choice as it always
guarantees a learning. I feel there arefive stages for a young firm to carry
out trial and error experiments. It ob-
viously starts with idea formulationwhich may have been from intuition.
Before falling in love with the idea,
the idea needs to be v
market. It is best done
the idea on limited scalewishing customers or
there is a validation thlikely to appeal to a sign
of target market, onlymoves to next level of b
creation. This is where
how the offering will pitched, and priced
There may be multiple the same idea. Small ex
to be carried out to abusiness model with few
prospects. Only aftemodel that makes most
fied, the company mov
stage of scaling up. Vecompanies tend to go
idea to scaling up stageing out small experime
tion of business modelsIntuition works bes
have the mindset to foll
their beliefs but still retaof skepticism on what
that they are always locontradictory evidence.
and error experiments o
tions and business modhelp in collecting evid
decision is made on chaness model, the thing th
most is time. There shminded focus on scali
where the company cansources at its disposal to
ness model forward. R
the mantra at this stageIt is obvious that the
is iterative. Successful nies will keep evolving
models or tweaking exand execute them faste
catch up. Its not abofaster but also about n
placent with existing may be successful todayout tomorrow. Its not th
wins that you have to lhare that loses once it
placent needs to be a le
in myopinion
By Rajat MohantyThe author is CEO and Co-Founder,Paladion Networks
TortoisesDo Not Win
in Market Places
Fledglingentrepreneurs could do
well by understanding
the dynamism andrelationship betweenbusiness models andtime, which is a lessdiscussed subject inmanagement studies
Often youngcompanies tend to godirectly from idea tothe scaling up stage
without carrying outsmall experiments on
validation of businessmodels, which are
quite essential
Rajat Mohanty
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silicon i nsilicon i n d i a |8|A u g u s t 2 0 1 0
in in
With an aim of equippingevery Indian student with a
laptop, the Human Re-source Development (HRD) ministrys
effort to bring out $30 laptops has in-
vited lot of criticism. Some of the In-dian media channels bring excitement
to the whole scenario by calling it asIndias yet another cheapest invention
after designing the worlds cheapestpassenger car Tata Nano.
On the flipside, the western mediais hesitant to call it as a laptop, It
doesnt appear to be a laptop at all, in-
stead, it seems to be a small (10 inches by 5 inches) storage device with a
bunch of wires emerging from it, re-ports Gizmodo. Whether it is $10, $20
or $30 all of them are doubtful aboutits success.
Until now, the China-based elec-
tronic equipment manufacturer MenQholds the credit for worlds cheapest
laptop EasyPC E790. India is trying to
break credit ts by bringing out the$30 laptop with key features like
touch screen display, built in key-board, 2GB RAM, Wi-Fi connec-
tivity, and USB support, and which
runs on solar power besides con-ventional power sources and supports
multimedia, Web conferencing, andLinux OS.
In 2009, MenQ launched $80 lap-top successfully. But it took one year
for India to unveil a prototype of $30laptop. The availability and distribu-
tion is the major concern of the hour.
Now Intel India has taken a step for-ward and plans to partner with the
union HRD ministry to commerciallyroll out the $30 laptop for students.
India has witnessed similar projectsin the past, but there has been no
progress other than the initial hue
and cry.It should be noted that in 2005,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) developed a similar prototype
of a $100 laptop, especially for chil-
dren of developing nations. But, at thattime, India rejected the offer, saying it
was too expensive, and decided to de-velop a cheaper alternative of its own.
In 2008, the Indian Institute of Sciencein Bangalore and the Indian Institute
of Technology -Madras worked on the
development of the low-cost laptop asa part of the OLPC project.
There was certainly a distinct lackof enthusiasm on the part of the gov-
ernment agencies in India towards theidea of OLPC and MIT projects. The
$30 laptop initiative should not be a
repetition of OLPC & MIT projects.
India to Make Headway in Educationwith Low Priced Laptops
India-born Gururaj Deshpande, Chair-man of the Bangalore-based Tejas Net-
works, A123,and Akshaya Patra, oncesaid, India is a land of limitless potential,
and he is now proving it just right. Theman who has to his credit taking three
multi-billion-dollar companies public and
once the richest Indian origin man in theworld is now again adding feathers to his
crown. Despande, popularly known asDesh is now appointed as the Co-Chair-
man of U.S. President Barack ObamasNational Advisory Council on Innovation
and Entrepreneurship.
Desh will support Obamas innovationstrategy by helping to develop policies that
foster entrepreneurship, create jobs, anddrive economic growth. He is one of the
26 members of the Council, which countsserial entrepreneurs, university presidents,
investors, and non-profit leaders among its
members and the only Indian co-chairingthe Council, with the other Co-Chairs
being Steve Case, Chairman and CEO ofRevolution and co-founder of AOL, and
Mary Sue Coleman, President of the Uni-versity of Michigan. Commenting on his
new role, Desh says, The U.S. spends ap-proximately $60-70 billion a year on re-
search, and I would be looking at ways to
get more out of that.Deshpande is an entrepreneur and phi-
lanthropist who serves as a member of theMIT Corporation and has contributed
around $20 million to make possibleMITs Deshpande Center for Technologi-
cal Innovation. The Deshpande Founda-
tion is one of the leading philanthropic
foundations in the areas of innovation, en-trepreneurship, and international develop-ment. Through its grants, the foundation
has helped launch innovative companies,assisted non-government organizations de-
velop an international presence, and
launched partnerships witmost remarkable change
world today.Born in Hubli, Karnata
graduated in electrical enthe Indian Institute of
Madras, and went to Can
masters degree and PhD.an academic before a fellow
him into the world of b1981, Deshpande has sta
public three multi-billionnies including A123 Syste
buted well on Nasdaq. Now
for Deshpande will be to equally between each of h
initiatives and his six busstone Capital, Sycamore N
Systems, HiveFire, Tejas Airvana Inc. He is the chair
five and an investor in the
Many Indians based inare involved in innovation
neurship, and the future o pends on this. The key
emerged from the work thagaged in, particularly at the
Institute of Technology (Mneed not only innovate, but
innovative ideas to market
pact by getting thinkers invevant ideas, says Deshpan
The 61 year old Dementoring his son Pawan
Hive Fire to dream big. pande does not need an
fame. Nevertheless, his br
N R Narayana Murthy. Sin
pande and his wife have bseveral non-profit initiativsupport for MIT, IIT, TiE,
Foundation, Public HealthIndia, and the Social En
Sandbox in Hubli. si
Deshpande on Obama PanelSupport Innovation Strategy
Gururaj Deshpande
Villages in Bihar have beenlifted out of darkness with an
uninterrupted, self sufficientpower supply and the credit for this ini-
tiative goes to Gyanesh Pandey, the
promoter of Husk Power Systems(HPS) that transforms piles of dis-
carded rice husk to light up the villages.Partnering with his friends Ratnesh
Yadav, Manoj Sinha, and Charles WRansler, Pandey has established green
power plants in 120 villages across
Bihar and 3 villages in Uttar Pradesh.After research and experiments, the
team decided that the most feasible wayto provide power to the villagers who
depended on agriculture would be togenerate electricity from rice husk.
Through this unique green technology,villages get uninterrupted power for up
to 6-12 hours by setting up a plant,which burns rice husk to generate gas
to run generators.
Becoming an entrepreneur was anevolutionary process. I had a good life
in America. I did not face any problemsthere, but I always had the feeling that
I must do something for our villages. Ido not feel as though I have made any
sacrifice. Today, there is hardly any-
thing I do other than work. It gives methe satisfaction no other job can ever
give, says Pandey who feels thatIndias acute power crisis must be
solved efficiently with renewable re-sources.
After resigning his job in the U.S.,Pandey returned to his home state in
2007, as his idea was to providepower to villagers who depended on
agriculture as their main occupation
in a cost-effective and environmen-tally-friendly manner.
The company is set to make prof-its by the end of this year and plans
to light up villages in other states likeMaharastra, West Bengal, Uttar
Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. Providing
electricity to villages across India isjust the beginning of Pandeys ambi-
tious plan to transform rural India.The company has already taken up
the initiative to educate 200 childrenfrom Tumkuha. si
Do You Get Electricity from Rice Husk? Bihar Does it
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silicon i n d i a |10|A u g u s t 2 0 1 0
The Think Tank Initiative has se-
lected nine Indian think tanks orindependent policy research in-
stitutions to receive $9 million tostrengthen their roles as influential
players in national policymaking. Thisis an initiative by the Canada-based In-
ternational Development ResearchCenter (IDRC), the William and FloraHewlett Foundation, and the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation to encour-age those institutions engaging in pol-
icy research focusing on national,social, and economic issues. Each
think tank will receive long-term fund-
ing, enabling them to conduct researchthat is fundamental to the development
of sound policy.The Indian institutions chosen in-
clude Centre for Budget and Gover-nance Accountability (CBGA), Centre
for Policy Research (CPR), Centre for
the Study of Developing Societies(CSDS), Indian Institute of Dalit Stud-
ies (IIDS), Institute of EconomicGrowth (IEG), National Council of
Applied Economic Research(NCAER), Institute of Rural Manage-
ment Anand (IRMA), Public AffairsCentre (PAC), and Centre for Study ofScience, Technology, and Policy
(CSTEP).The Initiative received over 300
proposals from a wide range of LatinAmerican and South Asian think tanks
that focus on broad national, social,
and economic policy issues. Followinga thorough and rigorous review
process, 28 institutions were selectedfrom seven countries in Latin America
- Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador,Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay, and
Peru, and five countries in South Asia
- Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan,and Sri Lanka.
The Think Tank Initiative aims tosupport local think tanks to produce
high-quality research that will improvepolicies and, ultimately, contribute to
more equitable and prosperous soci-eties. The $35 million investment inLatin America and South Asia follows
$30 million in grants to 24 think tanksin East and West Africa in 2009.
International donors continue toinvest in policy research undertaken by
western institutions and sometimes for-
get that it is strong local think tanksthat often generate the most effective
policymaking in developing coun-tries, says David Malone, President of
Canadas International DevelopmentResearchCenter.
9 Indian Think Tanks to Get $9 Million
Climbing four notches up, India
has been ranked the ninth mostattractive investment destina-
tion in 2009 with a total foreign directinvestment inflow of $34.61 billion.
India attracted sizeable overseas in-vestment despite the overall drop in
such inflows due to the global finan-
cial crisis, said the World InvestmentReport-2010, which was prepared by
the United Nations Conference onTrade and Development (Unctad).
The report noted, If the situationcontinues to improve, India is likely
to be among the most promising in-
vestor home countries in 2010-2012,as well as the third highest economy
for foreign direct investment in 2010-2012.
Rashmi Banga, a Senior Econo-mist at Unctad says, In 2008, though
India attracted higher foreign direct
investment worth $40.42 billion, its
ranking was lower at 13th. China
nudged further up to second positionat $95 billion from a third place last
year.The U.S. remained the top invest-
ment destination with inflows of $130 billion in 2009, followed by China,
France, Hong Kong, Britain, Russia,
Germany, Saudi Arabia, India, and
Belgium. Total inflows amounted to
$1.11 trillion, against 1.77 trillion in2008. In 2009, Indian firms and funds
also invested a lower amount of$14.89 billion overseas, compared to
$18.4 billion in 2008. But such out-flows are expected to rebound in
2010, sustained by merger and acqui-
sition opportunities associated withIndian and Chinese firms persistent
pursuit of natural resources and mar-kets, the report says.
The report also revealed that fiveIndian companies figured in the list of
top 100 non-financial trans-national
corporations, ranked by their foreignassets overseas. Among them Tata
Steel was ranked 15th, the state-runOil and Natural Gas Corporation in
the 20th position, Hindalco in 29thrank, Tata Motors in 40th position,
and Suzlon in 54th.
in
India Ranked 9th Most Attractive Investment Destination
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silicon i n d i a |12|A u g u s t 2 0 1 0
$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $
Zenprise, a provider of enterprisemobile management and device
management software com-pany, has secured $9 million in new
funding. The round was led by the
Menlo Park based Rembrandt VenturePartners with participation from the
existing investors, including IgnitionPartners, Bay Partners, Mayfield, and
Shasta Ventures. The funding is part ofa fourth round of funding raised a year
ago. To date, the company has raised a
total of $40 million. Zenprise, led byJayaram Bhat, will use the investment
to expand its sales and marketing ef-forts as well as to fuel research and de-
velopment activities.Based in Fremont, California, Zen-
prise offers tools for IT departments to
manage their teams smart-phones. Founded in 2003, Zen-
prise providesservice-management software
that delivers automated diag-
nosis and resolution of prob-lems across the Microsoft
Exchange and BlackBerry en-vironment. Currently, the company
has over 300 customers includingBoeing, Comcast, and Vodafone. The
company has seen 175 percent in-
crease in its revenue during the firstquarter of 2010.
The sheer volume and complexityof employee-owned and corporate-is-
sued smartphones entering the enter- prise is driving the demand for
Zenprises MobileManager software.
The use of consumer-friendly smartphones in
large companies has surgedin the past year or so, espe-
cially with the addition of
business and security fea-tures to the iPhone. Venture
capitalists are looking tojump on this trend too, and that is why
they approached Zenprise, eventhough the company was not planning
to raise more money at the time, says
Bhat, CEO, Zenprise.Zenprises extensive list of more
than 300 customers is globally spreadacross different verticals like con-
sumer services, government organi-zations, healthcare, legal, and oil and
gas firms.
California Based Zenprise Raises $9 Million
Pardeep Kohli founded
Mavenir Systems has re-cently secured $13.6 mil-
lion in a fourth round of fundingfrom North Bridge Venture
Partners, Austin Venture, AlloyVentures, Greenspring Associ-
ates, and Cisco. Mavenir has
raised a total of $65 millionsince its inception in 2005. The com-
pany plans to use the funding to attractmore top-tier mobile operators. Their
current customers include MetroPCS, a provider of no-contract wireless serv-
ices, and the Wisconsin-based wireless
company Cellcom.Richardson based Mavenir pro-
vides mobile convergence applicationsand solutions to mobile operators.
Mavenirs convergence solutions canquickly deploy and allow mobile oper-
ators to offer new voice and
messaging services withoutbuilding new infrastructure.
The company enables serv-ice continuity across wired
and wireless networks, al-lowing carrier customers to
get consistent service on
multiple personal devices.With its technologies, a customer can
use a single phone number to receivecalls on both mobile and landline
phones. The company offers solution toroute a customers call through a wire-
less network, office PBX system, or
4G, depending on a customers physi-cal location.
Mavenirs Converged Voice andMessaging solutions provide LTE op-
erators with a fast, cost-effective mi-gration path to IP Multimedia
Subsystem (IMS), which is a key com-
ponent for One Voice.Our growth potential in a $40 bil-
lion mobile infrastructure industry,driven by the entire network transfor-
mation to 4G has played a key role indrawing VC interest towards us, says
Pardeep Kohli, President and CEO,
Mavenir Systems. The company isgaining traction in the Mobile IMS
market and is competing with networkand system integrators and legacy net-
work vendors. But we look at ourcompetitors as potential partners for the
next generation solutions offered by
Mavenir. We can compete as well ascomplement them with some new in-
novative solutions, explains Kohli.With its 165 member team, the com-
pany is aiming high to grab a fair shareof the market. si
Mavenir Systems Raises $13.6 Million
Jayaram Bhat
Pardeep Kohli
8/9/2019 Silicon India Aug 10 Issue
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silicon i n d i a |14|A u g u s t 2 0 1 0
As organizations begin to explore the possi-bilities of federation to realize the full poten-
tial of Unified Communications (UC), one
will see more convergence with public col-laboration tools, social media,and other Web
2.0 applications. In practice, it is rare that onlyone UC suite is used exclusively, even after
an organization has standardized on a single platform such as Microsoft OCS or IBM
Lotus at the s ame time. The enterprise archi-
tecture will more likely include a combinationof authorized applications such as a specific
public IM and Skype, which will remain inuse, no matter what UC platform is deployed.
Users are already driving the change,whether the business likes it or not. Use of
collaboration tools such as Twitter andLinkedIn, alongside enterprise UC platforms
within the workplace now account for a sig-
nificant portion of new business opportunitiesfor many organizations. As take up increases
this trend is expected to expand significantly
and the line between UC and Web 2.0 blur, itis up to the organization to make sure that it is
managed in a secure and controlled way.
Harnessing the power of collaborationwithout compromising on an enterprises
integrity is the key to a successful UC im-plementation. Most companies have more
to fear from accidental data leakage due touncontrolled access to collaboration tools
than malicious theft. Managing the identi-
ties of users, as they traverse multiple col-laboration platforms, is also a key.
Organizations need to take a holistic ap-proach in securing all Internet based com-
munications, regardless of whether theychoose to enable or block their use. Whilst
most UC platforms provide some native se-curity and compliance functionality, it is
not always enough to support industry reg-
ulations and does not prevent users fromcommunicating using other Internet based
collaboration tools.
The change in the communications sector has
been remarkable in the past 5 years. The majorreason for this is convergence of devices, i.e.
unified communication driven by the new
generation of smartphones, Internet tablets,and PCs that allow users to access content and
technology on a common platform. Thoughthis trend has got the consumers excited, it has
also equally put the carriers in a fix. The pri-mary issue is the explosion of data that has
happened in the last few years.
While the data has increased exponen-tially, the network bandwidth of carriers has
not. Operators have seen their data trafficgrow at a staggering rate. Verizon Wireless
data traffic grew seven-fold in the two years
from 2006 to 2008. Over the last three years,AT&T has seen a 5,000 percent increase in
the data traffic on its network, and has expe-rienced significant network overload as a re-
sult; almost entirely due to increasing broadband use.
The smartphone penetration is merely
20 percent today, but it is slated to increaseto 50-60 percent in the near future, there-
fore causing an increased hazard for oper-
ators due to congestion of bandwidth.Linear thinking of gradually increasing the
network spectrum from 2G to 3G and nowto 4G will not work. Carriers need to look
out for alternative solutions like offloadingthe data onto wi-max and wi-fi. They need
to partner with the gateway providers like
us, Cisco, Juniper, and Stoke who providenetwork convergence and mobile data of-
fload solutions and accelerate the deploy-ment of next generation applications and
services.
Entrepreneurs today have to be slick asthey have to operate within limited capital.
Hence, apart from having a good product, it isimportant that they have the right go-to-
market strategy by picking the right channelsand penetrate the market effectively. si
Harness the Power of Collaboration
Unified Communication: Its Time for
Alternative Solutions
Kailash Ambwani
is the CEO ofFaceTimeCommunications.The companyenables the safeand productive useof UnifiedCommunicationsand Web 2.0.
Anjan Ghosal,
Founder and CEO,Intellinet-Tech. thecompany is aprovider of network
convergence andmobile data offloadsolutions.
CEOspotlight
siliconindia
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silicon i n d i a |16|A u g u s t 2 0 1 0
ulingRoaming SpaceRthe
ROAMWARE
COVER STORY
Quick FactsFounded: 2000
President & CEO: Bobby Srinivasan
Headquarters: San Jose, CA
Other Offices: Amman, Brussels,
Bangalore, Dublin, Hong Kong,
Johannesburg, Mumbai, New Delhi and
Singapore
Headcount: 374
Global Customer Base: 464 Mobile
Operator Networks, Banks and
Financial Institutions
Customer Footprint: 154 Countries
Investors: Shelter Capital, Primera
Capital, Doll Capital and Accretive
Vertical: Mobile
Website: www.roamware.com
Action is eloquence and Bobby Srini vasan, President andCEO, Roamware is proving it just right by showcasing
India not only capable of body shop business but also canbe armed to build smart global product company. Srini-
vasan, who left India in 1985 to pursue higher studies,had always dreamt of building a world class product completely out ofIndia that could transform lives of billions globally. It was this passionand sheer belief that helped him align his thoughts during the initial
years of founding Roamware. The mantra worked well, with Roamwareentrenched as the global leader in voice and data roaming solutions anda leading provider of mobile financial services. The companys compre-hensive suite of technologies and services helps operators globally tomake mobile roaming better and easier.
Now Srinivasan has a reason to be pleased with roaming revenuesforecasted to grow to $146 billion by 2011 . Founded in 2001, currentlyRoamwares products are deployed in over 464 mobile operator networksacross 154 countries and its services available to over three billion mobileusers globally. Additionally, Roamwares mobile finance solutions havebeen successfully deployed by major banks and operators around the
world, and serves a wide range of needs across the domains of mobilecommerce, banking, remittances and payments. For nearly a decade, wehave successfully nurtured and grown this business - despite the chal-lenges of global sales, delivery and support across diverse markets, e globalevents including wars, global pandemics like SARS and the financialmeltdown in 2008-2009, says Srinivasan.
By Christo Jacob
B
8/9/2019 Silicon India Aug 10 Issue
10/25
He could achieve this only because
he envisioned the business to be globalin nature at its inception.Srinivasan en-
sured that the senior management al-ways had the appropriate DNA required
to challenge the Roamware team in
building world class products. This phi-losophy of the company has cracked the
so called misconception of building yourinitial business within 10 miles from
where one lives. With his chin up, Srini-vasan proudly says Today we are oper-
ating across 154 countries, serving over
460 mobile operator networks aroundthe world.
Bee in the Bonnet
No matter where the customers are lo-cated, mobile operators need to drive
down the costs associated with their
businesses. Current roaming trends haveresulted in decreasing revenues, declin-
ing margins and fierce operator compe-tition. Moreover today telecom
operators could lose up to 10 percent ofroaming revenues because of quality is-
sues. According to a recent industry re- port, an average of 39 percent of all
mobile calls falls below the industry
minimum standard for voice quality.
Given that roamers represent a profitablecustomer segment, the implications of poor quality of service include lost
roaming revenues and potential churn.New regulations, roaming price reduc-
tions, stiff competition and a sharp rise in
data roaming traffic are some of the keydrivers forcing operators to search for
innovative business solutions to in-crease traffic, drive usage, optimize
costs, and meet their goals.Roamwares strategy from the incep-
tion has been to play the role of the pre-
ferred strategic partner on the roamingbusiness front for mobile operators glob-
ally and this philosophy has been thefundamental reason for the success and
widespread adoption of our solutions in
the world market, says Abraham Pun-noose, VP Global Marketing andBusiness Development ,Roamware .
Old-fashioned, bilateral relation-
ships among Mobile Network Operators(MNOs) are no longer sustainable as
they require massive manpower, signif-icant costs and an inordinate amount of
time. Established MNOs have spent 10-15 years setting up 400 to 500 roaming
agreements in place with contract / rela-
tionship management departments incharge of bilateral roaming relationships.
Its a timescale and a workforce alloca-tion that definitely does not fit at all in
new entrants requirements in terms oftime to market and operational effec-
tiveness. If MNOs continue to follow thetraditional model, it would be a tremen-dous waste of energy in negotiating hun-
dreds of bilateral agreements, energythat instead might be better utilized o
promoting their own core business.Once the roaming relationships are set
up, the dauntingtask for operators is to
leverage these agreements and garner in-cremental market share and consequent
revenues and profit.To address these challenges, one of
the earliest solutions from, Roamwarewas the innovative Roaming Replicator
solution that would reduce go to markettimelines for a full fledged roaming of-
fering in under 12 weeks. Built in a
modular way, the suite of roaming solu-tions reduce the overall complexity, pro-
vide operators with powerful technologysolutions to address business challenges
and enable them to focus on the end-cus-tomer instead of inter-operator relation-
ships. Today, Roamware is the pre-ferred and primary solution provider of
roaming solutions for the majority of tier1 mobile operators inlcuding AT&T, T
Mobile, Orange, Airtel, Maxis, Etisalatand Vodafone globally and this trust is
further reflected in joint hubbing initia-
tives with some of the major mobile op-erator companies across regions.
Our business model is a blend ofsoftware license, transactional revenue,
revenue share and managed services re-
sulting in a robust and predictable rev-enue model with recurring revenueconstituting 30 percent of companys
revenues. By 2012, recurring revenue is
expected to touch 50 percent of overallrevenue. The global footprint and market
penetration ensures that there is no rev-enue concentration in any region or se-
lect customers, effectively eliminatingrisks arising from regional downturn or
loss of key customers, says Richard
Grohol, EVP World-wide Field Opera-tions, Roamware. Today the company
enjoys a leadership position with itscomprehensive bouquet of roaming so-
lutions and other line of key businesslike carrier service, social network com-
merce and mobile financial services.Roamwares group relationships in mo- bile operator world include Orange,
Vodafone, Telefonica, Airtel, Claro,Orascom, Telia Sonera, Telenor, MTS,
Vimplecom, STC, T Mobile and Eti-salat among several others.
s i l i c o nindsilicon i n d i a |18|A u g u s t 2 0 1 0
Comprehensive Suite of Roaming So-
lutions
Its been nearly decade since Roamwarewas set up, and the company developed
its solutions completely out of Indiausing local talents. Srinivasans vision
was to create a world class product suitethat could meet global standards. The
company had the good fortune to work
in a market where they were surroundedby the Indian GSM operators who were
very focused on value added solutionsand services. The company always
wanted to build products in sync withcustomers business requirements and
we had the privilege of engaging most
of the operators in India and Asia Pacificat that time, clearly a market where the
adoption of value added services andnew services was far more advanced
and aggressive than the U.S Market atthat point in time. Within the roaming
segment, Roamwares product innova-
tion has been instrumental in drivingquiet a few industry standards. Key in-
dustry standards including Open Con-nectivity, Steering of roaming and global
roaming quality are standards that wereintroduced as a result of industry adop-
tion of innovative Roamware products,
says Dr. John Jiang CTO & EVP Prod-uct Management, Roamware
Dr Jiang, further adds the inventionof a Method and System for Cellular
Network Traffic Redirection waswidely embraced by the GSM Associa-
tions mobile industry standards knownas Steering of Roaming, empowering
a mobile roamers home network oper-ators system to direct any of its sub-
scribers to roam on its preferred roaming
partners network when using their mo-bile phones abroad. The network-based
approach that Roamware first created inits Roamware Traffic Redirection sys-
tems permits the mobile network opera-
tors to apportion outbound roamingtraffic to its roaming partners in linewith their business commitments, cus-
tomers service requirements and global
alliance and is agnostic to locations,time zones and mobile handset make.
Today, Roamwares voice and dataroaming solutions are installed in over
464 mobile operators networks across154 countries and generate incremental
revenues for mobile operators, whilst in-
creasing their operational efficienciesand reduce subscriber churn. The solu-
tions are built on the Roamware ServiceDelivery System (SDS), a carrier-grade
platform based on open standards thatenable seamless integration of multiple
applications which can be seamlesslyadded as blades to the core platform,each blade representing a product. The
robust carrier grade Roamware SDS (Service Delivery System ) is the under-
lying platform and bedrock of allRoamware products and solutions and
enables for our customers a range of ca-
pabilities that reduces timnew services, and const
cant barrier to entry foRoamwares thought lead
with our global executihave been the keys to o
outstanding effort has r
196 patent submissions ,several ground breaking
past few years and 28 ptill date, says Avnish Ch
tive Vice President Engin
Product Suite
Roamwares product po
of over 40 solutions acro
CDMA domains that aRoamware Service De
(SDS). The Roamware seamless deployment an
network applications ana mobile operators core
IT infrastructure.The Ro
the backbone of Roamwand supports the smooth
value-added applicationsembodies a modular, co
layered platform architables applications to ac
performance, while suppintegration with an opermanagement and operat
tems, through open and sprotocols and interface
operator to unify criticalnetwork information for
deployment of intellige
services on 2G, 2.5G anon an easy-to-use appli
ment framework. The papplications to deliver h
through redundant deploware and hardware elem
Applications are equtuitive web-based inte
ministrative operation
information provisionition of business and tec
The Roamware SDS inetwork interface supp
cols such as ISUP, CAvariants, as well as pass
Roamwares strategyfrom the in-
ception has been to play the role of
the preferred st rategic partner onthe roaming business front for mo-
bile operators globally and this phi-losophy is the fundamental
reason for oursuccess and
widespread
adoption of oursolutions in the
world
market.
Within the roaming segment,
Roamwares product innovation hasbeen instrumental in driving quiet a
few industry standards. Key indus-try standards including Open Con-
nectivity, Steering of roaming andglobal roaming
quality arestandards that
were introduced
as a result ofindustry adoption
of innovativeRoamware
products.
e platform is designed for easeof integration into existing infra-
structures. Because of the use ofopen standards such as
SOAP, XML, J2EEand its pluggable
component design,
it can easily integrate
with existing legacysystems andthird party
soware.
Our business model is a blend of
soware license, transactional rev-enue, revenue share and managed
services resulting in arobust and predictab
le revenue model andrecurring revenue
constituting 30
percent of companysrevenues.
Abraham Punnoose, VP Global
Marketing & Business Development
Avnish Chauhan
EVP Engineering
Dr. John Jiang
CTO and EVP Product Management
Richard Grohol
EVP World-wide Field Operations
8/9/2019 Silicon India Aug 10 Issue
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silicon indsilicon i n d i a |20|A u g u s t 2 0 1 0
capabilities for sniffing relevant infor-mation exchanged over the signalling
network. These interfaces are avail-able for SS7 and SIGTRAN and facil-
itate seamless compatibility ofRoamwares applications with evolu-
tions in network technologies.
Roamwares suite of services, builton the SDS, addresses a range of busi-
ness challenges including the quick rollout of roaming infrastructure, traffic
management acquisition and retention of
roamers, driving roaming usage , accel-eration of prepaid roaming, seamlessservice experience, quality of service,
market intelligence, cost optimization
among several others. In addition, theglobal availability of converged voice,
messaging and data services fosters sub-scriber loyalty and increases competitive
differentiation. Roamwares suite ofroaming services are Traffic manage-
ment, communication and service expe-
rience, virtual home environment,roaming and local multi-number, roam-
ing and network infrastructure and busi-ness intelligence and quality assurance.
In line with the strategic role that itssees for itself for is mobile operator cus-
tomers, the company has now rolled outa range of carrier solutions to enable anumber of roaming carrier services in
partnership with global voice and datacarrier partners. This would enable
Roamware to optimize roaming callscost and would carry the roaming and
interconnect voice traffic for its cus-
tomers. Dr Jiang says, We are com-mitted to the success of our customers
and operators readiness to allow us tocarry voice traffic is a reflection of the
confidence in our technology, strategicthought leadership and overall business
value we bring to the table.
Leveraging global footprint for Mo-
bile Financial ServicesThe company after building out a global
footprint in roaming space with an esti-mated 65 percent market sharehas cata-
pulted itself to the next level withMobile Financial Services. The move
into mobile banking and m-commercewas a logical extension for Roamware
as it leverages its existing global cus-tomer relationships, business partner-
ships and technology platform.According to Juniper Research, the
Service Provider market revenues will
exceed $5 billion globally by 2013.These revenues are based on the com-
missions and charges acquired from thegross value of money transactions de-
rived from mobile money transfer serv-
ices and remittances. Juniper Researchhighlights a significant opportunity forthe providers and vendors of mobile
money transfer (MMT) services as the
market takes off, beginning as early as2010. Moreover 315 percent of inter-
national money transfers currently han-dled by formal or informal agent
networks will be carried out using a mo-bile handset by 2015; generating $1.2
6.2 billion in service revenue.
Roamware is eyeing to grab this marketthrough strategic partnerships and ac-
quisitions.In line with their plans for the Mo-
bile Financial Services business,Roamware acquired Macalla, a leading
developer of mobile financial services(MFS) solutions and strive to become amarket leader in MFS, specifically ad-
dressing the needs of low income, un-banked communities across the world.
Macallas m-commerce and mobilebanking solutions are successfully de-
ployed by banks and operators around
the world; these solutions includecredit transfer, international remit-
tance, person to person transactions,top-up and bill payment. With
Macallas acquisition, Roamware aimsto build upon its roaming expertise and
its global operator relationships, saysRichard Grohol EVP, Worldwide Field
Operations, Roamware.
Roamwares Macalla Platform en-ables a wide range of innovative mobile
financial services including direct top-up, agent top-up, bill payment, person-
to-person payments, mobile banking,cross border VAS and both national and
international remittances. The platformis designed for ease of integration into
existing infrastructures. Because of theuse of open standards such as SOAP,
XML, J2EE and its pluggable compo-nent design, it can easily integrate with
existing legacy systems and third party
software, says Avnish Chauhan, EVPEngineering, Roamware. Adaptors and
plug-ins are used for major transportmechanisms such as JMS, IIOP, MQ
Series, Tibco, EJB and standard support
for CM, CRM, billing and locationbased services.For instance, Bank of Ireland iden-
tified the need to deploy a prepaid mo-
bile top-up service which takesadvantage of the increased consumer
use of SMS as well as using its existingATM channel. Using Roamwares tech-
nology which enables mobile transac-tions, Bank of Ireland launched a
prepaid mobile phone top up service.
The service, called Text Top Up, wentlive in 2005 and is available to all Bank
of Ireland customers in Ireland on Voda-fone and O2 networks.
The Roamware Macalla Platformenables Bank of Ireland customers to
top-up their own prepaid accounts andothers, including friends and family,directly from their mobile phones. To
do this, customers simply send a freetext message. The transaction is auto-
matically paid for via their Bank ofIreland account.
Registration is extremely easy and
instantaneous via any Bank of IrelandATM. Once registered, a customer can
top-up from his mobile phone anytimeand anywhere in Ireland or overseas.
The top-up call credit is applied auto-matically within a matter of seconds.
The Roamware Macalla Platformenables top-ups and associated
processes in a fully secure and reliable
manner. It also provides connectivitywith the mobile operators SMS de-
livery and prepaid billing systems aswell as the banks payments systems.
The platform includes a suite of web-based applications for call centre and
supervisor staff to ensure the smoothand efficient ongoing operation of the
service. Roamware Macalla worked di-
rectly with Bank of Ireland to deliverthe application together with a complete
range of consultancy, technical integra-tion and on-going support services.
From launch the system proved tobe a very popular service with Bank of
Ireland customers and exhibited an in-
crease in frequency of top-up as well asa higher transaction value. The service
has also proven popular with bank cus-tomers who travel abroad as they can
now top-up their phones as easily as at
home. Today the platform is used bymobile operators, banks and independ-ent service providers internationally in-
cluding VIVA (STC), mPay, Jawwal,
permanent tsb, O2, BMoneyText, Illuminat an
Aiming high
In a market that is largits IT services capabilit
to be on deck of on or
has built a world clascompletely out of India
instrumental in shapiroaming business in o
tries, says Srinivasa
vasan will be coperformance of Roamwgreat companies that Ji
about in Good to Great.
As a co-founder Bobby Srinivasans leadership, passion
and keen insight has been crucial to Roamwares suc-
cess. Due to his extraordinary vision and deep market
acumen, the company grew by over 25 percent in 2009
despite the worst economic downturn in recent history.
Srinivasans career has included senior level service with
SoftPlus (acquired by U.S. Interactive in February
2000), Objectivity, Hewlett Packard, Apollo Comput-
ers, the World Bank and Shearson Lehman Brothers
and this helped him to play the right card for
Roamware. Over the last nine years he has been in-
strumental in transforming the company from a start
up into a global leader in roaming and value added so-
lutions. In fact this earned him lot of applauds in the in-
dustry including Distinguished Honoree medal in
Executive of the Year in North America in the 2010 In-
ternational Business Awards and the Ernst & Young
Entrepreneur of the Year, 2010 Award Finalist for
Northern California The International Business Awards
are the only global, all-encompassing business awards
program honouring great performances in business
For him the early days of aligni ng Roamware were
focused around instilling values and cultural elements
within the enterprise. He credits the success of
Roamware to his leadership team, and the smart move
of building products in India. His continued focus on
achieving the vision has helped Roamware to achieve a
leadership team comprises of a multicultural, experi-
enced and professional team with global experience and
an optimum mix of mobile operator and technology
background. The core leadership team has worked to-
gether for over nine years with several decades of cu-
mulative experience in telecom, banking and enterprise
software, says Bishal Bisht, SVP Finance and HR,
Roamware. The leadership team has been recognized
for professional excellence in several industry forums in-
cluding Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year, Ste-
vie Business Awards and World Brand Congress.
Today the company is riding high receiving several
industry recognitions including the Frost & Sulli-
van Technology Innovation Award, Deloitte Tech-
nology Fast 50 and Deloitte Technology Fast 500
in 2006. In 2007, Roamware won the Red Her-
ring 100 Most Promising Private North Ameri-
can Technology Companies in 2007 and Deloittes
2007 Wireless Fast 50.
There is no looking back for Srinivasan, but
he believes that there are billions of pe ople who
own mobile phone and he aims to transform
each mobile phone a bank account for them,
where they get paid their daily wages and other
things. He says, How do we make that mobile
phone, more than just a mobile phone and that is
what we strive to do. Roamware is building mi-
crofinance applications and believes that it can
change the world of the unbanked and underbanked
and make them economic citizens of the world. I
am aiming at not just make money for the stake
holders but also want tos transform the lives of bil-
lions of po or people. That is what success means to
me and I think that is what we are going to do in
the next five years, says Srinivasan.
The Man Behind the Scene
e core leadership team has
worked together for over nine
years with severaldecades of
cumulativeexperience in
telecom, bankingand enterprise
soware.
Bishal Bisht
SVP Finance and HR
8/9/2019 Silicon India Aug 10 Issue
12/25
silicon indisilicon i n d i a |22|A u g u s t 2 0 1 0
seen prices decline from $5/W a coupleof years ago to less t han $2 now, yet the
balance of system (BOS) costs includ-ing labor, racking, inverters are still
hovering around $4-5/W and continueto affect the adoption rate. We find in-
novations such as micro-inverters, DC-
DC optimizers, innovative rackingsystems that can lower the BOS costs
for solar energy, as the critical missinglink to help solar energy achieve grid-
parity. Similarly, wind has the potential
to be 20 percent of our energy supply by2030 and a $100+ billion opportunityannually. Components, control systems,
and predictive analytics that reduce
downtime and can enhance project re-turns, help multiply wind energys foot-
print. More broadly speaking, gridstorage technologies that smooth out the
effect of intermittent renewables on thegrid are another area of strong interest.
As initial deployment of many of these
technologies in the U.S. and Europemitigates commercialization risk, they
can be applied to address the massivemarket opportunity in India and China
as well.Demand Side Management, our
other investment theme, includes bothenergy efficiency and peak load man-agement (like smart grid technologies
and demand response). This is wherewe see tremendous activity lately from
Silicon Valley software and networkingveterans. After all, if youve built your
career building large scale networking
infrastructure at Cisco, enterprise-classapps at Oracle, or complex analytics at
Google, its natural to use your expert-ise in building wide-area and local-area
networks for the smart grid and energyapps for utilities, businesses, and con-
sumers. From an investor standpoint,the relative capital efficiency, potential
to achieve attractive software-like oper-
ating margins, and potential M&A in-terest from the IT majors as an alternate
path to an IPO, align well with the ven-ture model. In this sector, we think the
low hanging fruit is in HVAC and light-ing controls with a specific focus on
commercial and industrial sectors.Lighting and HVAC consume over 50
percent of the $80+ billion in commer-cial energy usage in the U.S., and en-
ergy efficiency via intelligent controls
ranks high on the CFOs list driven byattractive ROI, bottomline savings, and
compliance drivers. Additionally, CIOsare increasingly faced with enhancing
the transactions per Watt in addition totransactions per dollar from their ever-
growing datacenter footprint. Holistic
monitoring, modeling, and control soft-ware solutions hold great promise in re-
ducing energy usage while regulatingheat density and enhancing server per-
formance as well.Other related areas we dabble in in-
clude transportation and engine effi-
ciency (a somewhat contrarian thesis toelectric vehicles) and recycling. There
is an attractive amount of cash in trashas we have discovered all the way
from recycling the 130 million cellphone and portable electronics that are
retired in the U.S. every year and creat-
ing a market in developing countries, totaking landfill gas for energy genera-
tion. How sustainable the underlyingtechnology is remains to be seen, but
these business models and operatingmargins are interesting enough to con-
sider.
New Areas of Opportunity for
Innovation
The wild-card in our mind is the appli-
cation layer for the smart grid. When
core routers and other structure were being ro
wide in the 90s, whguessed that killer apps
around e-commerce, soonline gaming? We are i
of rolling out effective
communications infrastutility grid, aka smart gri
applications that leveragfrom smart meters, plan
sion control systems for
tising platforms for appand energy conservatio programs for consum
sizeable opportunities t
tion ecosystem can addrA classic example in
residential energy efficnity. Over $225 billion in
sumed every year in theand small businesses, an
lion of that can be avo
conservation measures. Ostartups, the last time I
home area energy manbelieve that consumers
right thing to do. Howtion has historically bee
convenience and comfobelieve that homeownerfancy displays from Bes
the local utility to subsistill hard to see consum
energy usage constanttheir behavior to save $2
argue the mean-time-to
is probably in weeks, if novelty wears off. At t
consumers have continhours a day on gaming a
sites and are driven bimage or online avatar
that can crack the code ergy efficiency with con
image or incentivize the
virtual currency can staneedle on residential en
I havent seen that yet, bthat this class of smart ap
section of energy efficiand social media, a clean
Cleantech 1.0 from 2004-
08 was dominated bysolar and bio-fuel start-
ups, founded by semicon-ductor and biotech execs
in many cases. Massive global energymarkets ($6 trillion worldwide energy
spend, $300 billion U.S. electricity mar-kets, $20 billion India solar mission),rising energy costs, favorable regulatory
landscape, and technology maturitywere driving the first generation of start-
ups. By contrast, there seem to be agrowing number of software and net-
working gurus frequenting cleantech
entrepreneur circles and energy effi-ciency startups these days. At Advanced
Technology Ventures, where I focus oncleantech and software startups, we
have had the benefit of witnessing thistrend firsthand, given our involvement
in cleantech since 2004, and believe thismix is healthy for the overall cleantech
sector.
In 2008, at the peak of the cleantechinvestment cycle, about $2.5 billion in
equity was invested in solar energyalone with over 10 venture backed com-
panies raising over $100 million each.
Bio-fuel figures were not far behind atover $900 million in investments. Part
of the reason behind these staggering
figures is the use of expensive equitydollars to fill-in for virtually nonexist-
ent project finance and debt. Using sim- ple math, wed need to see 15-20
multi-billion dollar IPOs in the next fewyears to produce venture-like returns.
Moreover, startups need not only a tech-nology based advantage but also signif-
icant economies of scale (and a few
more billion dollars) to be cost compet-itive with First Solar and Chinese PV
players in the solar area for example, orelse they risk going down the path of
profitless prosperity. In short, a fewwinners will emerge, but until robust
project finance and debt markets
emerge, it will be largely a tough spaceexcept for those that invested very early
in these areas.
Investment Areas
Learning from our portfolio of 11 clean-tech companies, we have refined our
thesis to focus on two key areas: down-stream technologies for accelerated re-
newables deployment, and demand side
management.The billions that have been invested
in core research have prepared severalrenewables for prime time commercial-
ization. At the same time, the need forrenewables is rising by the day, driven
by rising costs and carbon footprint of
fossil fuel sources, and state and poten-tial federal Renewable Portfolio Stan-
dards. Recent events like the Gulf oilspill only exacerbate the problem. How-
ever, widespread commercialization hasbeen inhibited largely by the lack of grid
parity (price competitive with coal)
without subsidies, and intermittency ofmost renewables that requires grid up-
grades. Solar panels, for instance, have
Investment TrendsThe Evolution of
Tech in Cleantech
vc Talk: By Dharmesh ThakkerThe author is VP, Advanced Technology Ventures
Dharmesh Thakker
Holistic monitoring, modeling, and controlsoftware solutions hold great promise in reducingenergy usage and regulate heat density andenhance
It is still hard to seeconsumers watch theirenergy usage constantlyand change theirbehavior to save; theycontinue to spend hoursa day on gaming andsocial media sitesinstead
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s i l i c o ni n dsilicon i n d i a |26|A u g u s t 2 0 1 0
The mobile space is going
through unprecedentedactivity and innovation.
This momentum remindsme of the explosion in the
Internet space in the late 90s. On one
end of the spectrum, advanced devicesand platforms are being rolled out and
on the other end applications are un-folding at record speeds. Users in ad-
vanced markets such as the U.S, areexperiencing the mobile Internet on
Smartphones and advanced mobile
devices such as the iPad, whereasusers in markets like India and other
emerging markets are getting theirfirst taste of mobile data on their fea-
ture phones and that too at levels waybeyond the expectations of operators.
Technologies such as LTE and 4G aregetting rolled out at the network in-
frastructure level in markets such as
the U.S.Device makers such as Apple,
HTC, Motorola, Samsung and LG areon a path where Smartphones will be-
come the de facto devices in the hands
of users. Today, such devices have al-ready captured 40 percent of all mo-
bile devices sold in advanced marketssuch as the U.S. Users are finally be-
ginning to get comfortable with touchscreen devices. As prices drop with
higher volumes and better technology,
this number is expected to go up toover 75 percent of all devices sold
being Smartphones. These mobile de-vices are typically powered by mobile
operating systems like Android,
iPhone, Maeemo, Symbian^3, RIMand now Bada. Of these, Android
seems to be getting the highest quarterover quarter growth with a number of
OEMs shipping phones or in ad-vanced stages of design.
In markets such as India and
China, affordable, yet feature-richmobile devices have made a big dent
in the market share of establishedplayers. These devices are typically
based on the Mediatek chipset andhave features like WAP browser,
Bluetooth stereo, Qwerty keypads,Dual-SIM, 2 Mega pixel or higher
cameras, video cameras, and even Wi-
Fi, and are able to accept download-able applications. We now see
consumers trading up from theirvoice-only phones to these affordable
feature-rich phones.
These are the same consumersthat end up experiencing the Internet
for the first time on the mobilephones and in turn, downloading ap-
plications that are primarily orientedtowards entertainment or social net-
Mobile Spaceat the Cusp of
Revolution
working. We see a very high number
of users, from smaller towns and cities(B and C cities) that are discovering
the rich world of applications and the
mobile Internet on their featurephones. Users want the anytime, any-
where access in their hands, and oncethey taste this freedom, they are not
willing to give it up. As opposed to thetypical metro audience that wants the
Facebook and Twitter experience,these users are looking for interaction
and near-live entertainment with ei-
ther their friends or like-minded peo- ple. Their hunger for information
and entertainment seems apparent asyou look at their usage patterns.
Using mobile applications such as
RockeTalk, the creation and con-sumption of UGC content is very high
since the mobile phone, for the firsttime, allows these users to express
themselves using a medium that is ac-cessible and familiar.
With the explosion of Smartphones
and even feature-rich phones that allowdownloadable applications, app stores
are opening up at the operator level,
ecosystem level like those of Apple andAndroid, the device OEM level and in-
dependent app store players like Getjar.Of course, developers will have a harder
time trying to get their applications pro-visioned with a wide variety of App
Store SDKs but will also enjoy the re-sulting distribution. Discovery of appli-
cations will remain a challenge. Take
the example of the iPhone App Store,where over 200,000 applications exist.
On the Android App Store there areover 50,000 applications. A new appli-
cation, however interesting and engag-
ing, will have a difficult time attractingattention from the user base in this
crowded space. The winner is obvi-ously the consumer that will increas-
ingly have much more choice whenlooking for applications. As a proof
point, there have been over 4.5B ap- plications downloaded from the
Apple App Store alone.The debate of Apps vs browser
based applications has intensified aswell. While native Apps exploit the
underlying device capabilities,
browser based apps thus far have notbeen able to optimize access to the de-
vice capabilities such as the cameraand the address book. However, as
the HTML5 standards evolve, theseissues will get solved and browser
based apps that rival native apps may
actually become a reality. This willcreate a much easier ecosystem for
app developers since this will mitigatethe need for massive porting efforts
currently needed to cater to the hugenumber of mobile devices.
In India, the launch of 3G net-works will open up opportunities for
rich content, collaboration and com-
munication services. Applications that
use rich video, audio and music willmake use of this increased bandwidth
and data speeds, and ingreat user experience.
and augmented realitytions will begin making
the hands of consumering applications that r
tencies will also begin
presence felt. As the bevolve, we wont be t
game players like Zynweb based multi-playe
able on mobile phonesEnterprise applicati
bile are just at the be
curve. As devices imworks get better, the m
will get connected to thterprise systems with
user friendly interfacesuch as Wireless Heal
of innovation as the bevolve.
At the device leve
like NFC (Near Field
tions) will enable secand other secure traentry and exit. Wi-Fi
way into the mid to hisince it allows the netw
to be offloaded to low
networks.GPS on the mobile p
creasingly be part of and this will allow the
apps to offer more commation and services.
Longer battery lif
frontier as devices coup in terms of function
utes of use.In summary, the mo
the cusp of a revolutioarea of the network, acc
device itself and th
ecosystem. For the firsner will be the consu
higher than the operat
Technology: By Rajiv KumarThe author is CEO, Rocketalk
The cost of R&D centers inIndia has continued to
decline over the last twoyears, according to a Zinnovstudy. It says that R&D cen-
ters in India have helpedparent organizations save
$40 billion for the last threeyears and the cost has
declined by 0.9 percent in
Rupee terms, four percentin U.S. Dollar terms in FY
2010. The cost of R&Dcenters in India is $38,199
per person per year.
Location based and augmented realityapplications will begin making their wthe hands of consumers.
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silicon indisilicon i n d i a |28|A u g u s t 2 0 1 0
The best practice is to plan shortsprints and agree beforehand with the
customer not to make major changesduring the sprint. Change requests can
be taken up and implemented in subse-quent sprints.
Hire a Different Kind of Developer
If most of your customers are from the
SMB segment, you should considercarefully the kind of developer you
want to hire. Developers hailing from bigger organizations serving Fortune
500 customers may not work well withsmaller customers. Those developers
are more comfortable working in a silo
environment where a business analystdocuments the requirements, an archi-
tect designs the solution, and a QA teamvalidates results.
In an SMB environment, develop-ers should do more than coding. They
will need to directly interact with the
customer. They should be business ana-lysts, solution architects, and usability
experts all rolled into one. They should-nt just write code and expect QA to find
the bugs for them. In short, you shouldbe hiring the kind of people who can in-
teract directly with your customers and
can take full ownership of the problem.They shouldnt be mere technical ex-
perts.
Reduce Total Cost of Ownership
Very often solutions providers make the
mistake of trying to reduce the immedi-
ate cost of their solution, but not thelong term total cost of ownership. This
may work in the short term, but if youwant to earn the trust of your client and
do continuous business with them, youshould be willing to make short term
sacrifices. Most clients are themselveshappy to make short-term sacrifices in
return for long term savings.
For instance, you may be able to re-duce the immediate development costs
if you purchase a commercial, insteadof free open source, database. However,
if you add up the license costs and thefuture costs of upgrading licenses and
buying more licenses as the systemgrows, the long term cost of ownership
could be higher for a commercial data-
base. You have to educate your client onthe pros and cons of commercial versus
free open source and help them take adecision. Not that free and open source
is always better and cheaper. On thecontrary, there are many situations
where commercial software provides
lower cost of ownership over the longterm.
Embrace the Cloud
For SMBs and startups it might makesense to avoid investing in capital items
like servers and firewalls. Running their
own datacenter, however small, is anexpensive proposition as they could end
up hiring a full-time person for runningit reliably. An attractive alternative is to
sign-up with a cloud computing serviceprovider like Amazon, which offers a
pay-as-you-go model. The advantagesinclude zero upfront capital investment
and the ability to scale as the business
grows. Most cloud computing providershave datacenters in multiple geographic
zones; you can setup backup servers inother zones to ensure high-availability
of mission critical systems. There arealso data backup services available on
the cloud, where you can reliably
backup data.
Provide Mobile Access
Most small and medium business own-
ers and employees do not spend theirworking hours in front of a computer.
Many of them are on the field, traveling
between locations or mThis means that provid
that can be accessed odesktop browser is not
tive. Since most businesa smartphone, it is now p
vide them with realtime
reports so that they can qcisions, even while on
means that your solutimust be based on Applic
ming Interfaces (APIs)accessed in a secure
browsers, smartphones an
Choose Open Systems
One of the decisions tbuilding an integrate
buy or build subsyste plenty of Software
(SaaS) choices in the For example, there are
tions that provide pro
ment, document timesheets, expense
counting, and payrLeveraging them can o
the system developmehow do you choose the
tem? The most import
tion is that these Saamust provide program
through APIs. Your jthe different applicatio
other and create an inteexperience for your
there should be a way
plication data in a poso that in case you d
discontinue the use oSaaS application, you
all the data. You shoulclient locked into a p
vendor.
Conclusion
SMBs and startups aclients, but that is where
The practices describeprovide you with a road
successfully and profwith this fast growing s
SMBs and Startups
SMBs and startups are theengines of growth in ad-
vanced economies. The
Fortune 500 companieswill continue to dominate
IT spends, but because IT has becomemuch more affordable, its adoption is
now happening at a faster rate amongSMBs. If you are a small to medium
IT services provider yourself, you
will find it difficult to break into theFortune 500 club as they are domi-
nated by bigger and established ven-
dors. So focusing on the SMB marketmakes sense and this sector has itsown advantages. The sales cycle to
close a deal with a Fortune 500 com-
pany is typically long. In comparison,SMBs and startups make quick deci-
sions as there is less bureaucracy.However, successfully doing a proj-
ect with SMBs and startups and mak-ing a profit on it is a challenge. SMBs
count their beans and seek value. Sohow do you engage with them prof-
itably? Below are some tips on how
you can successfully conduct IT serv-ices business with SMBs.
Do Smaller Projects
Every one likes to win big projectsand close big deals. With SMBs,
however, you should look for smaller
and longer engagements than biggerand shorter engagements. Do not try
to do a large fixed-cost project withthem. An SMB may want to IT-enable
their entire operations at one go. Typ-
ically business owners want to geteverything done within 6-9 months
and then go into maintenance mode.In practice, this wont work. It is pru-
dent to break the big project intosmaller ones. Finish each project, de-
ploy it, get the business use it, get t he
payment, and then go for the nextone.
Develop the Solution IterativelyAdopt agile development methodolo-gies (see http://agilemanifesto.org/)
for delivering projects. Develop soft-
ware iteratively with each iteration orsprint lasting for 2 to 3 weeks. Dur-
ing the initial days of a sprint, providemocks to the client so they know
what to expect. While executing theproject, keep in touch with the client
on a daily basis. Do not sign-off a re-quirements document, go away and
develop software in an isolated envi-
ronment without client involvement.Deliver working software at the
end of each iteration. Let the end-users use the application and provide
feedback. Never force your solutionon the client. You may be the IT ex-
pert, but they are the domain experts.
Listen to them and take their view-points seriously.
Manage Changes
Change management methodologiesused in large enterprises will not work
in the SMB - startup world. Even if
you have worked out a detailed con-tract and have scoped the project to
the minutest detail, changes are in-evitable. In the small world, you have
to be comfortable with rapid changes.You wouldnt want to nickel-and-
dime every small change request, butsmall changes quickly add up landing
you in red.
So how do you handle changes?One of the principles in the agile man-
ifesto is collaboration over contract.This principle is very important in the
context of small businesses. If the userrequests a minor change do not show
them the contract or the signed-off re-
quirements document and make themgo through complicated change re-
quest processes.However, you need to protect your
interests too, so its about convinc-ing the customer of the time and
cost implications of a change. Its
also a good practice to recordchanges, even if you decide not to
charge the customer. The important
thing is to be flexible, do not raise ahue-and-cry over every change re-quest. At the same time, make the
customer realize that changes cost
time-and-money.
Doing IT Services Business with
You have to be comfort-able with rapid changes.You wouldnt want tonickel-and-dime everysmall change request,but small changesquickly add up landingyou in red
Technology: By Prathapan SethuThe author is CEO and Co-Founder, QBurst
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s i l i c o nindsilicon i n d i a |30|A u g u s t 2 0 1 0
Adoption of the personal computer by
businesses has been credited with 30to 60 percent growth in U.S. per-
sonal productivity in the 1990s.Microsofts Excel, Word, and Pow-
erPoint have changed the way people work acrossthe globe. Businesses quickly saw the value of these
tools and integrated them into everyones desktop.The knowledge worker came to the forefront; intel-
lectual property, not manufactured goods became
the unit of output. Keeping the machine working re-quired huge investments in IT people, hardware,
software, and later, services and connectivity. Theseinvestments and the resulting output fueled the
growth of the U.S. economy.Today, the PC is being augmented by more mo-
bile form factors such as advanced applicationphones and slates. However, the capabilities of mo-
bile devices are rapidly advancing and daily com-puting tasks will move off the PC and onto themobile. Mobile usage in the enterprise will be broad
based and no longer aligned with vertical roles likefield service or salesmen.
Docking stations willprovide the big
screen and
keyboardsrequired
f o rdoc-
u m e n tcrea t ion
but mobile de-vices in their
pure form will allow
us to remain engaged
throughout the day with 80 percent of the work. Our
corporate IT practices will evolve to capture the mo-bile opportunity for their broad workforce. Issues
such as device selection, application selection, andmanagement are different versus the PC. How will
people use these devices to improve productivity inthe work place? What applications will people use
to move their businesses forward? What resourceswill corporations deploy to gain the benefits of mo-
bile computing? These are all questions a business
must answer if it wants to remain competitive.Before we can understand these questions, we
need to define some basics. Mobile phones, in thiscontext, dont refer to a common wireless voice
phone but rather the new generation of applicationphones. App phones are differentiated from ordi-
nary mobile phones and smartphones because theyare first and foremost mobile computers. Older gen-
eration smartphones provided wireless voice com-munication and fixed function mobile services like
basic email and games. Apps were written and de-
veloped by programmers at the factory and em-bedded into the phone. A class of downloadable
applications could be written but often used esotericAPIs offered a cumbersome user interface and had
significant performance or functional limitations.
The modern app phones include CPUs, operatingsystems, user interfaces, and screens that are as rich,
expressive, and detailed as any available on todayspersonal computers. Todays app phone developers
more easily create complex applications using so-phisticated tools, user interfaces, libraries, and APIs
that are often more functional than their PC equiv-
alents. Whereas inexpensive desktop computationwas the must have feature for the PC generation of
computing, the app phone generation gains mobil-ity, instant availability, and universal connectivity
as its killer features. To deliver these benefits, theapp phone has made a clean break with the PC ar-
chitecture and value stream meaning the pricing
models, hardware, software, user interaction, and
w