In just a few years, cloud computing has reshaped the Indian IT market and the way that enterprises acquire and use IT products and services, feels Neeraj Dotel, country head, Compuware India, the Indian subsidiary of Detroit-based Compuware, a technology performance company. According to him, India is on a high growth trajectory, promising lots of opportunities for technology companies. In a conversation with Sudhir Chowdhary, he talks about the company?s growth strategy and plans for India. Excerpts:
Tech majors seem to be smitten by two new buzzwords these days: cloud computing and mobility. What have you done till now to establish yourself in this space?
According to a recent report by IDC, investments on emerging technologies such as social media, cloud, mobility and big data are on the rise. The total IT market is expected to grow to $43.57 billion in 2012, up from $37.46 billion in 2011. The business world has reached an inflection point, presenting the Indian enterprise with unprecedented challenges. As users become more mobile and applications more diverse, customers want a better understanding of how performance relates to business results.
Compuware is accelerating its business strategy to bring technology that addresses the most relevant issues confronting our Indian customers. We are responding to the surge in mobility, cloud computing, big data and networking with upgrades to our dynaTrace and Gomez application performance management (APM) tools.
Compuware is one of the first major vendors to offer a single solution for Web performance monitoring across traditional Web and mobile Web. Both the Gomez and dynaTrace PurePath solutions support mobile, and with the explosion of mobile applications, this is shaping up as an essential capability for APM toolsets.
How do you see cloud computing business growing in India?
Within just a few years, cloud computing has reshaped the Indian IT market and the way that organisations acquire and use IT products and services thereby reworking their strategies. Now the use of cloud computing is accepted as mainstream, this disruption is creating new opportunities for suppliers and catalysing major changes in traditional IT offerings. Cloud computing is increasingly being looked at by the enterprises as an enormous alternative as it lets them scale up or down, provides ROI, decrease the time to market.
Most enterprises want to move to the cloud for the great cost advantage that it offers. As IT cloud services enter a period of mainstream use, this is the critical time to develop strong cloud strategies and play a leadership role in taking advantage of the potential of cloud computing.
Today companies use cloud computing for many business-critical functions. Enterprise customers have indicated to us that while they are examining its capabilities they are also actively deploying pilot across the enterprise. The market will see rapid growth as more organisations turn to cloud-based computing and alternative deployment options.
What are the business opportunities that you see in the Indian market?
Compuware is one of the leading providers of software, experts and best practices to ensure technology works well and delivers value. Our solutions make the world?s most important technologies perform at their best for leading organisations worldwide, including 46 of the top 50 Fortune 500 companies and 12 of the top 20 most visited US websites.
Compuware has been a key player in the Indian market for more than three decades now. Today, Compuware is a recognised leader in APM. The domestic APM market, which currently stands at around $15-16 million is poised to touch $30 million by 2012 and $50 million in the next three years.
We have recently announced the availability of new website performance benchmarks in India for eight industries spanning across banking, brokerage, e-commerce, exchanges, insurance, media, portals, telecom and travel. Benchmarking provides the basis for comparing and tracking Web or mobile site performance against competitors in the industry and internet leaders.
What is the strategy behind improving your market share in India? Typically, who are your competitors?
Customers are looking for instant solutions catering to their needs. Compuware sees great potential for growth in Indian APM market, mostly because today more and more enterprises are realising the need to imbibe such solutions in their system to meet their deliverables with efficacy and faster processes. Subsequently, the enterprises too want a hassle free communication with their customers.
Leveraging our proven successes in key industries, we intend to deliver these best practices to companies in India, so that they can leapfrog the competition and set the pace for themselves as market leaders. Our key industries include financial services, telecommunications, media, ecommerce and retail just to name a few. As the APM requirements for each industry are different, we are able to leverage what we have done in similar world-leading companies and port a customised solution that works for India. We have increased our solution sales expertise locally in India and our local partner network is also continually being broadened to support our growing business.
It is hard to see any real competitor in the APM arena, where one can provide the complete end-to-end visibility of the application delivery chain. Customers tend to have siloed solutions in monitoring and managing certain portions but none in the industry can offer the visibility of applications right down to code level.
In the current economic situation, how is application performance management working in Indian scenario?
Organisations in India are looking for ways to increase efficiency and improve agility while meeting changing customer needs. By utilising the APM products, built on the Gomez platform, enterprises now have access to business-critical applications via the APM solutions in no time enabling them to meet the changing demands of customers, as well as drive competitive advantage. Compuware?s continued commitment to meeting this demand by providing world-class APM solutions that deliver outstanding value to meet the business needs of our partners and customers.
What are the new performance issues that must be solved by companies delivering websites and apps to mobile users?
Customers? expectations are growing tremendously?they expect websites to load as quickly or faster on their phones as on their home computers or laptops. Also, speed is crucial when accessing a website from a mobile phone.
The recent survey also showed that there were many issues that dogged access to mobile websites and applications. Around 58% of Web users in India had a problem accessing a website in the past year and 52% had a problem accessing an app on their phone. Slow load time and websites not functioning as expected are cited as the most common issue experienced when accessing a website.