Smarttechie Nov 11 Issue

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EMPOWERING TECHNOLOGY LEADERS OF TOMORROW thesmarttechie.comNovember 2011

` 25 only

Guru Talk:Ashish Gupta, Helion Venture Partners Most Promising IMS Companies

DeepKalraThe Trip Maker


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Vol 7 Issue 11 November 2011

Publisher Alok ChaturvediEditor-in-Chief Pradeep Shankar

Managing Editor Vimali Swamy

Deputy Editors

Christo Jacob Jaya Smitha Menon

Editorial StaffHari Anil

Sr. Visualiser Dipin DasVisualiser Hebert Emmatty

Circulation Manager Magendran Perumal

AdvertisingVirupakshi Pattar Shakuntala Vikram

Shrikanth Pandey Vasanth Raj

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Copyright 2010 SiliconMedia Technologies Pvt Ltd, Allrights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part of any text,photography or illustrations without written permissionfrom the publisher is prohibited. The publisher assumes noresponsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs orillustrations. Views and opinions expressed in thispublication are not necessarily those of the magazine andaccordingly, no liability is assumed by the publisher.

www.thesmarttechie.comThe Smart Techi

By the time this magazine reaches you, India's F1Grand Prix would have been over. It's indeed amoment of pride for all of us. It's a major step

forward for Indian motor sport and for sport in gen-eral in our country. With young fans aplenty, a grow-

ing Formula One interest, courtesy of KarunChandhok and Force India, a state-of-the-art track,there is no dearth of enthusiasm.

Built at a cost of about $400 million, the newBuddh International Circuit has certainly put to rest

perceptions about the capabilities of Indian sport afterthe chaotic preparations for last year's corruption-hitCommonwealth Games. Critics question the stagingof such an elite and costly event. Given the contex t ofa booming economy, high inflation, grinding pove rtyand severe malnutrition, corruption at all levels, stag-gering bureaucracy and land battles, is F1 somethingwe need to be proud of? Remember, such aspersionswere raised even during Chandrayaan, India's firstunmanned mission to moon.

So, what does bringing F1 race mean to India?The Common Wealth Games, which was solely

driven by the Government was filled with corruptionscandals and also raised questions on India's ability todeliver. Unlike CWG, the Buddh International Cir-cuit was built by private player-- the Jaypee Groupowns it. Hence, the government has to create con-ducive environment and encourage private players totake more of such initiatives to improve the standardof sports across the board.

F1 is not like Asian Games, the cricket World Cupor a Commonwealth Games which comes to Indiaonce in a while. This is an event, which will take

place every year and thus is a perfect platform forcompanies to build their brand on a long-term basis.F1 is not just about a three-day adrenalin burst amongF1 lovers, but will boost the Indian economy by $100million for just the three day event, plus lots more tocome, and for all income streams and all demo-

graphics.The previous F1 had 27 million India viewers

glued to the televisions. The Indian version will havemany more thereby fueling the motoring sp irit acrossthe nation. This is also an opportunity of showcasingIndia to 570 million viewers worldwide, to get India

recognized as a player capable of hosting thtechnologically-advanced sport in the world. it is a patriotic thing, for all of us to say, "Hewe can also do it."

F1 is a spectacle that draws crowds from

ent parts of the world. If you look at SingapMonaco F1 series, tourism during the Granweek is normally the highest for the whole ycould soon happen here in India too in the ycome.

It is likely that F1 will open the door for mthe top championships to come to India includMotoGP, Indycar, NASCAR and DTM.

We are all proud of the achievements of Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok. It took NarKarun years to achieve what they have done anmostly enhanced their skills by racing in internseries. If we were to go by their records, the rF1 is a long one. Until we give our youngstersfoundation, the road to the higher echelons of sport will always be tough. Now that we haown track, there will be boost to domestic rac

ries. It will prepare our young drivers for the intional championships.

While we all know what our country can dgiven all the problems we have to battle, we give up and believe it is worthless trying tosomething happen. Like Narain Karthikeyan omarked, "I never thought in my racing careewould be racing in India and here we are just the corner."

Next time when we wanted something dwanted to see progress in certain segments befremark "Not in our lifetime" let's believe we cforward to be the change we want to see arouWhether F1 or Chandrayaan, nothing holds uas a country when it comes to sailing into unwaters.

Please do share your thoughts with us.Pradeep ShankarEditor in [email protected]

Who says, not in our lifetime?

Editorial


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The Smart Techie |6|N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 1

36Ten Strategic Technologies for 2012

[Business] 39Marketing budgets getting too heavy?

Try Mini-marketing

By Vandana Subramanian

[Technology] 40How SMEs Are Democratizing Access to

Their Data

By Maneesh Sharma, SAP

42Human Resources Analytics

Sanjay Rai, ST Microelectronics[Feature] 46Why India is more lucrative R&D desti-

nation than China?

By Radha Bhongale

48Mobile Startup Where lies the

opportunity?

By Anamika Sahu

[Business] 50Smartphone Popularity: A Double Edge

Sword for Security

By Vishak Raman, Fortinet

[Feature] 52Why India lacks Interest in Research?

By Vandana Subramanian

[Technology] 54Ten Commandments of Software

Testing

By Munish Jha, Rishabh Software

[Business] 57Can an Idea be patented?By Anita Kalia, Origiin IP

[Technology] 58Subtle Hidden Trends in Business In-telligence and AnalyticsBy Haranath Gnana,Saama Technologies

[Tech Products] 60

[Technology] 62Its Festive Season! Stay Cyber Safe!

By Venkatasubrahmanyam Krishnapur,McAfee India

[Guru Talk] 8A Good Business Plan is a Window into your

Idea

By Ashish Gupta, Heli on Venture Partners

[In Focus] 10

[Tech Buzz] 14

[Venture Beat] 16

[VC Talk] 18Startups today need a GLOCAL Perspec-

tive!

By Nishant Verman, Canaan Partners India

[Business] 26Why do most SMEs remain SMEs through

their entire lifecycle?

By Gaurav Shah, DeGroup & IndiaSocial Fund

[Startup] 28How to overcome the first 24 months in a

start up...

By Gautam Sinha, MyFirstCheque

[Technology] 30Making Automated Functional Testing Work

in SaaS and Agile Environments

By Jim Walsh, GlobalLogic

32Sophistication Meets Malice

By Kenny Ke, Gemalto

34Information Technology: Charting an Inclu-

sive Socio-Economic Growth Gradient

By Rohit Pande, Classteacher LearningSystems

Appnomic Systems Ctrl S Futuresoft Solutions Glodyne Technoserve Glopore IMS inTarvo Technologies Maintec Technologies Mindlance Silver Touch Technologies Valuepoint

24

Contents: November 2011

Page20 coverstory


By ST Team


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The Smart TechiThe Smart Techie |8|N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 1

GURU TALK

Now I would like to discusssome of the topics that should becovered in a plan:

1. An articulation of the problembeing addressed - This includes bothwhy and how. The why isusually more important thanthe how because it capturesthe value proposition on whysomeone would pay for this

problem being solved.For example, consider an

enterprise software company.Understanding why an enter-prise will pay for the softwareis very crucial. The process of

building the software is itselfnot as complex. Even in thosecases where the how iscomplex, the why is oftenmore important because insuch cases where the reason isevident, there is usually anexisting solution and thequestion becomes why thissolution is better than theones before. For example, a

better encryption algorithm isgood but there are older ones

and the question becomeswhy this one will be moreuseful. One of the most im-

portant issues to think aboutin this context is the set of al-ternate solutions the customermay have.

2. How this solution will be taken to market - The problem of selling things isoften harder than building thesolution because there are somany competing demands on a cus-tomers money. This is also the hard-est question to answer right upfront

because without actually takingsomething to market it is not clear

what one will find. That is OK. Oneshould try to articulate whateverbest is currently visible.

3.Why this team is well posi-tioned to get the business started -and what other roles are needed to

complete the team. Teams are al-ways incomplete, even when thecompany is large. Being aware ofwhat is missing is the key.

4.Market size - What would acustomer pay for the solution, how

many customers there may be andwhat share of the market could onereasonably hope to get? For e.g., inthe car retail business the amountspent on a car is n ot important - it is

what the retailer gets to keep. Thissimple point is overlooked veryoften.

5.Forward looking financials forthe company. The financials willlikely be crystal gazing at this stage

but it helps precipitateestimating what it wthe business. It is verevenue numbers andall be different in rdoing this exercise

chance that smay emerge anthere is the beg

process of keecompany finanend of the day

out, even the bfail.6. Competit

portant to be anate ways a csolve the probtackling. For local pot-makcompeting withwith the factorSo its importantcredible altern

be viewed and competitors.

It is worth smore sentences teristics of the

have not foundfor what makeentrepreneur, bsome commonhave come to be

Intellectualability to recogwhat they are.

EmotionBuilding a comdemanding and dinate energy i

the team. Thinking big wh

small - This way prowhile not shooting fmediocre.

Ability to enthusthe journey - If othetaken along on the jowill be lonely. This skill for being able to ginning.

Every aspect of a business is impor-tant; and the business plan is onesuch aspect as it helps form theinitial interface between the start-up

business and its investors. Even more im-portantly, writing the plan forces detailsto be fleshed out and vague ideas to beclarified that would otherwise stay vaguewithin the spoken word. Mentioned

below are some points to keep in mind before we discuss the business plan it-self.

1. All business plans are work-in-progress and will have unanswered ques-tions. If all the answers were available,

then the company would not be a startup.The plan is a starting point and not anend point of conclusions.

2. Every topic covered in the businessplan will be incomplete but to differentlevels, because not all aspects of a busi-ness can be equally well thought throughfrom the get-go. However, it is still im-

portant to give some thought to eachtopic.

3. The plan will evolve both duringconversations with investors and ofcourse during execution. Don't be afraidto change things as long as you know andcan articulate why.

4. Prepare the plan at multiple levels- for introductory conversations keep the

material very concise and ideally re-stricted to less than 15 power pointslides. Different people will dig deeperinto different areas depending on the p er-son talking to you. So be prepared to godeeper, but not right away.

A Good Business Plan is a

Window into your Idea

By Ashish Gupta

Ashish Gupta

The author is Senior Managing Director, Helion Venture Partners.


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The U.S. Department ofState in a recently re-leased figures showed

that the number of H-1B visasgranted to Indian workers have

been increased by 24 percentin the fiscal year (FY) 2010-2011.

Despite a higher rate of re-fusal, the number of Indiansgranted an H-1B (SpecialtyOccupation) visa has grown signif-icantly, from 54,111 issued in 2010to 67,195 in 2011.

The figures show that India isthe single largest beneficiary of H-1B visas by a wide margin: in the

past four years, U.S. visas appli-cants from India have been grantedmore than twice as many H-1B

visas as the four next-highest coun-tries combined. These statistics il-lustrate the booming nature ofUS-India business relations.

Data also reveals that India isconsidered the leader in the is-suance of L-1 (intra-company trans-fer) visas, where more than 25,000L-1 visas were issued to Indian na-

tionals in FY 20cent of L-1 viworldwide.

However, therate has also gon

tially, which is bdue to either a riber of overall apcluding ren

procedural delayThe U.S. mi

had recently invested Ulion in updating and consular facilities in

bai, Chennai, HKolkata. Thanks to lo

plicants can now chtheir visa interviews guages like Bengali

jarati, Urdu, Tamil an


Neera Tanden, an Indian-American veteran of theObama and Clinton admin-istrations, will be taking over as

president of the Centre for Ameri-

can Progress, a major Washington-based think-tank next week.Tanden, 41, a former senior

Obama administration official whoworked as a close aide of secretaryof state Hillary Clinton when shewas the First Lady, US senator andthen during her presidential cam-

paign, will be the first IndianAmerican to take up the position.

Currently the chief operating of-ficer of CAP, Tanden will succeedJohn Podesta, who ran PresidentBarack Obamas transition teamand served as White House chief ofstaff to President Bill Clinton.

A graduate of Yale Law

School, Neera has proven expertisein areas like health care reform,economic growth, and justice, andcrafting foreign policies that reflect

our nations values and strengths,said a release from CAP.

I want us to focus on the big-ger and longer-term challenges thatthe country faces, she said addingher thinking on policy is also in-formed by difficult aspects of her

childhood.Born outside Boston to Indianimmigrants who had met in anarranged marriage, she and her

mother sunk into poverty after herfather left them when she was 5,she said.

The family survived on welfareand Tanden only managed to re-main in the public schools of pros-

perous Bedford, Massachussets,

through a programme that offeredfaster permits to developers whoincluded low-income housing unitsin their buildings.

Indian American to head U.S. Think Tank

India's first telecom business incu-

bator is being set up in Keralaunder Infosys co-founder and Ex-

ecutive Co-chairman Kris Gopalakr-ishnan. The Indian TelecomInnovation Hub will focus primarily

on student start-ups from collegecampuses and would be modeled ontechnology incubators in the SiliconValley.

"With the launch of Telecom In-novation Hub, the aspiring young

entrepreneurs of the state will get anopportunity to work closely with bigcompanies and create path breakingtechnologies," said Kerala Industriesand IT Minister P.K. Kunhalikutty.

The National Science and Tech-

nology Entrepreneurship Develop-ment Board (NSTEDB) of thecentral government's Department ofScience and Technology, Technoparkand MobME Wireless too have

joined hands to set up the hub.

It aims to incubate 1,000 prod-uct start-ups over 10 years and startthe search for a billion dollar com-

pany from a college campus by theturn of this decade under the men-torship of Gopalakrishnan. This is

one of the first public-private- partnership (PPP) technology busi-ness incubator in the country.Subject to the availability of land,its most likely location would beKochi.

Nations first telecom business incubator tobe set in Kerala

24 Percent Rise in U.S. Visas for Indians

Neera Tanden


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With years of experienceunder their belts and theknocks and set-backs that

they have faced along the way to position their company in the highladder of success, are your execu-

tives ready to take the present chal-lenge in the recent slump inthe global economy? If no,then are you ready to sendthem back to the schoolagain?

With the recent reces-sion that the world is fac-ing, the managementstrategies of the businessworld, even those of the

best executives are failing.And as a result, several big

business houses are send-ing or planning to sendtheir executives back to theB-school to gain a fresh

perspective about the busi-ness strategies.

Several B-schools arecontinuously receiving re-quest from corporatehouses to hold short-termmanagement development

programs on themes suchas measuring risks, man-agement complexities, em-

ployee retention or costcutting measures. Thismove is a part of the lessonlearnt during the meltdown of 2008,when several companies sent theirmid-and-senior level executives tomanagement schools for enhancing

their skills to increase their produc-tivity and motivate employees.

The entire perspective of view-ing the business globally haschanged due to the recession and

even the big corporate houses arereforming their yearly business

plans and the ways to deal with themarket, may be suppliers, distribu-tors and prevailing or perspectivecustomers. The corporates are

thinking twice before providing the

earlier trainings to their employees.It is commonly seen that during

recession the number of enrollmentin the management schools in-

creases and after completion of thecourse, they are more apt andtrained to handle crisis. Many exec-utives, to retain their position intheir companies, want to compete

with these newbies and do a hand-to-hand by joining short term man-agement courses. This not onlyenhances the personal skill of theemployees, but also decreases theattrition rate of the company as em-

ployees get a value appreciationwith such courses andtraining provided by thecompany. Companies aredesigning their training

programs to equip theiremployees to manage theeconomic meltdown.

Several B-Schools,from Harvard, Wharton,Stanford, University ofPennsylvania, IIM toTuck, Insead and Thun-derbird, are targetingIndia for executive educa-tion. The raid change inthe business environment

had made education com- pulsory for the execu-tives. According to a stat,executive education ac-counts for nearly 23 per-cent of Harvard BusinessSchool's revenue whereasthe full time MBA ac-counts only for 21 percentof its revenue.

Executives are optingfor increased study on in-novation to tackle issues

brought by the economic meltdownand this is gaining increased atten-tion from corporate for training anddevelopment. Today, we can find

several corporates infusing innova-tion as a part of their organization'sDNA to leverage it in terms of prod-ucts or services, sales, customer sat-isfaction and others.

Is it time for Executives to go back to School?


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The Smart Techie |14|N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 1 The Smart Techie

Lenovo, a global PersonalComputer manufacturer, an-nounced its strategy for the tabletmarket. As part of this globalstrategy, over the next sixmonths, Lenovo will introducetablets of varying sizes and plat-forms, thus building a rangecatering to all the individual

needs of its customers. Tabletsare extremely personal technol-ogy devices used primarily fordata consumption. Lenovostablet strategy is to create a fam-ily of tablets suited to various en-tertainment and mobilityrequirements. So whether its theIdeaPad for entertainment or theThinkPad for business, we havelistened to our customers and aredelivering Android tablets de-signed to meet their particularneeds, says Amar Babu, Man-aging Director-Lenovo India.

As part of this announce-ment, Lenovo launched its first

family of tablets the IdeaPadTablet K1 for consumers and therobust ThinkPad Tablet for busi-ness customers in India. Thecompany has also confirmed that

his launch will be followed up byanother tablet, IdeaPad TabletA1, which will allure first time

buyers with its high value-propo-sition. These tablets markLenovos first mobile internet de-vices featuring the Android 3.1

platform. The new tablets willfeature NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-

core mobile processors that offerseamless multitasking, faster web browsing with built-in Flash,console-quality gaming, and lowenergy consumption for im-

proved battery life.The company also added that

all of its tablets are designed tomeet the growing need for porta-

bility, superior performance, and power management. The userswill also get access to apps in theLenovo App Shop -- an app mar-ketplace, which features popularapplications that have been testedspecifically for Lenovo IdeaPadand ThinkPad Tablets. The

Lenovo App Shop offers appsacross a wide range of categoriesincluding entertainment, books,

productivity, social networking,weather and more.

Corbus, a global solutions providerfounded in 1994, inaugurated a new of-fice in Gurgaon, India on October 12,2011. The company, headquartered indowntown Dayton, Ohio, credits itscontinued expansion to delivering clientrelevant solutions while creating con-

sistent and trusted relationship with itscustomers.We are overjoyed with every new

office we open. It is illustrative of ourgrowth initiative coming to life. It is

proving that Corbus is offering relevantand valued services. Our success is a re-flection of the confidence our clientshave in us as a true business partner andthe trust that has them continuing towork with us again and again, saysDavid P. Spencer, President and COO,Corbus. The companys solution offer-ing includes Information Technology(IT), Supply Chain Management(SCM) and Project Management(PMO) services. It creates technology-empowered solutions with industryleading processes and technologies thatdeliver business value to global clientsthrough year-on-year savings.

The Gurgaon office is the second forCorbus in India and the most recent forthe global company, which has nowopened four U.S. based offices as wellas others in the U.K., Europe and Asia.

Deloitte announced its TechnologyFast 50 India 2011 winners. The programwas initiated in 2005 by Deloitte in linewith the regional programs in other partsof the globe Deloitte Technology Fast500, which is well established in NorthAmerica, Europe, Middle East and Africa(EMEA), and Asia, recognizes theworlds fastest growing and dynamictechnology companies.

Companies from Software, Telecom-munications & Networking, Computers &

Peripherals, Internet, Semiconductor,Components, Electronics, Biotech-nology, Pharmaceuticals & Medical

Equipment, Green Technology, and Media& Entertainment, participated in the pro-gram. Ubona Technologies, a telecommu-nications and networking player came inthe first position with a significant year overyear growth rate of 1353 percent. Softwarecompany, Aujas Networks, with a growthrate of 1010 percent came in the second

spot, and with 792 percent annual growthPrizm Payment Services came third.

The winners list was dominated bysoftware players, who took more than 72

percent share. The Top 50 companies haveachieved an average revenue growth rateof 296 percent over the last three years,suggesting the room left for growth in thecountry. Another significant observation ofthis year is that 14 percent of the winnersare from tier II cities. This points at thegrowing importance of tier II cities.

With consumers demanding infotainment on-the-go, Sony Ericsson is gearing up to build new textingexperiences for smartphones users. The company re-cently announced its FingerTALK campaign; thecommunication entertainment brand is expanding itsXperia range in the Indian market. Packed with socialmedia integration, smarter features, and access to over250,000 apps on the Android market, the new portfo-lio includes the Xperia neo V and Xperia pro. This newrange comes with special offers for Airtel mobile cus-tomers as well.

While both devices have their own unique features,Sony Ericsson has incorporated certain elementsacross this portfolio. So whether it is the camera capa-

bilities enabled by the Mobile Bravia engine, thexLOUD for enhanced sound output, Noise Shield fornoise cancellation, the 3D Panorama Sweep that cap-

tures breathtaking panoramic images, or the Exmor Rfor the quality photography even in low-light, will beavailable throughout the portfolio.

As part of the go-to-market strategy for this launch,Sony Ericsson has collaborated with Bharti Airtel, tooffer customers with 500 MB/month of free 3G/2Gdata usage for the first three months since the time of

purchase of any of these Xperia phones. We are de-lighted to partner with Airtel, Indias number one mo-

bile operator. This has further strengthened ourconsumer value proposition for the new Xperia mo-

biles. While Sony Ericsson will bring a powerful 3Gexperience with Airtel through this integrated offer,Airtel is empowering the new devices to deliver hi-speed communication entertainment options to users,on-the-go. With a price starting at Rs.9000, our multi-tasking smartphones are the most affordable & feature-

rich Android smartphones at 1 GHz, says P. Balaji,Managing Director, Sony Ericsson India. In addition tothis, Airtel mobile customers buying these new deviceswill also be able to enjoy free Mobile TV experiencefor 200 minutes or 2 months, whichever earlier.

Compiled By Hari Anil

Deloitte Technology Fast 50 India2011 Winners Announced

Lenovo Aggressively Targetingthe Tablet Market

Corbus Opens New Office in India

Kaspersky EndpWindows, Kasperskyveiled corporate secceived the highest independent testing, curity institute AV-Tness product full testi

in July and Auguswhich the beta verEndpoint Security 8evaluated along withendpoint security prowere approved, bution outscored the comdue to its performanremoval of malicioution to overall usabil

We are pleasedpendent testing revealof our new corporaearned top marks fomoval of malicious

performance and ufalse positive detec

software, says Nikitor of Anti-Malwaresky Lab. Specific atesting of the solutioncent result in real-which the level of zero-day malware ate-mail threats was evtesting the solution dof more than 230,000Another 100 percent in detection of wideswhich 5000 sampleseffectiveness was almoval of malicious 95 percent of actively

programs were detec

of them removed.As a result of thisolution received theout of 18 points - muaverage result (12.8 p

Kaspersky s Ne

Security SolutHigh in Indepe

Sony Ericsson Targeting theIndian Smartphone Market

with New Portfolio


9/33

The Smart TechieThe Smart Techie |16|N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 1

Compiled by ST Team

Mumbai-based venture capitalfirm Aavishkaar India, raisesaround Rs.280 crore for its

new fund Aavishkaar II. The fundingcame from CDC Group, KfW Group,Dutch development bank FMO, andthe International Finance Corpora-tion. The funding has also seen com-mitment from the telecom networkingequipment major, Cisco Systems.With this funding the company willinvest up to Rs. 2.25 crore in early-stage firms, and between Rs. 45 croreand Rs. 68 crore in later-stage trans-actions. The fund will focus on scal-ing up affordable models targetingthe bottom of the pyramid in sectors

like healthcare, water and sanitation,education, agriculture, renewable en-ergy and similar emerging sectors.

Founded by Vineet Rai in early2001, Aavishkaar aims to harnessthe entrepreneurial spirit at thelower levels of the pyramid to cre-ate inclusive economic develop-ment. Through various initiatives inmicro equity and micro financespace, the company is pioneeringthe approach of building a financialecosystem, which would nurtureentrepreneurs by providing riskcapital for scalable rural-focusedenterprises.

Rai is also the CEO of Aav-ishkaar, and the Managing Partnerfor their flagship SME fundAIMVCF, apart from two microfi-

nance funds AGIMDC I & II. He isalso the Co-founder and Director ofthe pioneering multiple bottom line

investment advisory industry, Intel-lecap. ; the Co-founder and Direc-tor of Chennai-based non-profitcompany Villfro Innovations Foun-dation; apart from which he serves

on the board of several portfoliocompanies and plays a number ofadvisory roles.

Aavishkaar Raises Rs. 280 Crore in Series DFunding

Chennai-based online appareldesign firm, eShakti raisesabout Rs.13.5 crore from IDG

Ventures. eShakti which was focus-ing only on the U.S. markets, plansto expand its product line in India,

with the introduction of a new brandZapelle. eShakti.com had raisedangel funding from Indigo MonsoonGroup in the past. B.G Krishnan,founder and CEO, eShakti.com saidthat the company plans to add ac-

cessories to its already existingproduct line, to scale its operations,add new product lines, and cater toIndian customers, with the funds.

T.C. Meenakshisundaram, Man-aging Director, IDG Ventures India,

who would be on the eShakti'sboard, said that the ability shown byeShakti in difficult and competitivemarkets like the U.S. is what had

been a comforting factor for them,and they feel that eShakti's unique-

ness would give them a competitiveadvantage.

IDG Ventures, a division of In-ternational Data Group, is an early-stage venture capital firm, whichinvests in technology and technol-

ogy-enabled companies. The IndigoMonsoon Group (IMG), is an in-vestment firm, which focuses onearly stage Internet, Mobile andTechnology Startups, either locatedin India, or targeting Indians.

eShakti Raises aroundRs.13.5 crore from IDG Ventures

Bangalore-based Via.com, anonline travel site, is planningto raise a sum of about Rs.

450 crore from PE firms by the endof the financial year to finance ex-

pansion in South East Asian coun-tries, like Singapore, Malaysia,Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines andVietnam.

Founded in 2006 by Vinay Guptaand Amit Aggarwal, Via.com wasformerly known as flightraja.com. Itwas incorporated in May 2007. Cur-rently they have presence across2,000 towns and cities through

20,000 partners. The company plansto use the fund for expanding thetravel business outside India and tofurther build the e-commerce verti-cal, said Vinay Gupta, Founder andCEO, Via.com. The company cur-

rently employs more than 650 peoplein the country and registered aturnover of around Rs. 2250 crore inthe last fiscal year.

Gupta is a professional turned en-trepreneur, who has previously held

prominent senior management posi-tions with leading multinational com-

panies in the U.S. Prior to Via.com,he was involved in several assign-ments such as consultancies in theRisk Management business withCredit Suisse, First Boston in NewYork and consultancies with Citibank

NA, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley

and BMW. Gupta holds a Bachelor ofEngineering Degree in ComputerScience from SV University and is

presently pursuing CFA from theCFA Institute of America. He is alsothe member of the institute.

Via.com to raise Rs. 450 crore

New Delhi-based mobile in-ternet services company,One97 Communications

raises Rs. 45 crore in series C offunding from SAP Ventures, the in-vestment arm of SAP AG. In the

past, One97 Communications hadraised funds from Intel Capital in2009, and SAIF Partners and Sili-con Valley Bank in 2007. The VAS

provider plans to use the funds toexpand its reach in the developingmarkets like Asia, Africa, and oth-

ers; add more people to its talentpool, and further its research anddevelopment.

One97 Communications,founded in 2000, is a pioneer in mo-

bile internet services and has a widedeployment of telecom applicationcloud platforms. It also invests inearly-stage mobile companies outof its One97 Mobility Fund (OMF).According to Jai Das, Managing Di-rector, SAP Ventures, the Comp anyis on an expansion mode in devel-

oping countries wphones are used to acnet, play games, buyshop online.

SAP Ventures, tharm of SAP AG, hasinvest in growth stagtechnology businessenterprises as custometerprises as go-to maThey are also interesnies which serve cons

professional lives.

One97 Raises Rs. 45 crorein Series C Funding

Vineet Rai


10/33


VC TALK By Nishant Verman

C

anaan Partners is a 24 year oldglobal venture capital firm with

offices in India, Silicon Valley,New York & Israel. We have raised 8funds and have $3 billion under man-agement today. Our international foot-

print helps us bring a glocal perspective to our entrepreneurs global insights combined with a local,hands-on expertise. Our focus areasare IT and IT-enabled services, essen-tially any space where technology is

playing a critical role in scaling up abusiness. This enables us to touch awide variety of industries while stillallowing us to add value more onthis later! In terms of stage, we areearly investors we prefer to be thefirst institutional capital in the firm.

Typical investment size ranges from$1 million to $15 million, though wehave invested both below and abovethis range previously. Our entire Indiateam has an entrepreneurial back-ground, and have co-founded orworked at startups before becominginvestors.

Within the broader technologyspace, we are looking for disruptions opportunities to transform industries.Some of these opportunities are evi-dent in customer pain points what is-sues are customers facing today andwould they be willing to pay to resolvethis pain? For example, think aboutthe rapidly growing ecommerce space

as consumers behavior changes topurchasing products online, it is creat-ing a new set of ecosystem opportuni-ties. If I live in a small town and amunsure of the Rs.25000 cellphone Im

buying, is there a way for me to expe-

rience the phone so that I dont haveto return it upon delivery? And if I just

finished reading the latest MichaelLewis book and want to discuss it,how can I connect with another readerin a different part of the country. Forthe retailer, payments continue to be achallenge both collection of CODand the high costs of returns. And inthe long-run, building brand imagewill be critical to survival how can Imake sure that customers think of mewhen someone mentions shoes justlike they think of BWM whensomeone mentions luxury car.These are new, exciting opportunitiesto innovate and build a credible busi-ness in the process.

Its a common saying that ideas

are cheap, the devil is in the execu-tion. Today if you look around, it isnot hard to spot promising trends Internet penetration is growing rap-idly, consumers are buying smartermobile phones, SMEs are lookingfor better ways to manage their back-end and retain customers, telcos aredesperate for new sources of revenueand of course ecommerce has creatednew challenges. So the problems areevident, the solution more elusive.Therefore we look for someone whohas peeled a few layers and tried toidentify what is the real problem theyare solving today, and what will theysolve tomorrow. Why will your cus-

tomer adopt your solution? Remem-ber just having a new offering is notsufficient in fact research hasshown that your product needs to be 3times better than existing solutions toget customers to switch. You can al-

ways bring the horse to the water, butyou cannot make it drink!

Fundraising is just part of the jour-ney and not an end in itself. Everyoneloves valuations starting with a B including us (especially at the time ofexit!). Your investors win only whenyou win, so well be happy to valueyou at your true potential howeveryour customers might be far lessagreeable! So definitely celebrate youroversubscribed funding round, butnever take your eyes off the ball.

Also remember that fundraising isabout much more than the money.What relationships do your investors

bring to the table? Can they help youin recruiting the hot-shot CMO youneed to scale your business? Can they

introduce you to 5 potential enterprisecustomers to accelerate your pipeline?These are some questions you need toask potential investors before accept-ing their check. Diligence your VCs

just like they will diligence you!

Startups today need aGLOCAL Perspective!

The author is Associate, Canaan Partners India.

Nishant Verman


11/33

D

eep Kalra madequite a few eye

brows raised when

he announced hisdecision to make hiscompany Makemytrip.com public inU.S. in 2009 for a company whichhad not made any profit for threeconsecutive years, it was a bold and

risky decision. But for people whoknew Kalra, the founder and CEO ofthe company, there was nothing sur-

prising. This unassuming and simpleguy was known for his unconven-tional decisions. He surprised Ana-lysts and Investors but theirapprehensions and doubts soonturned into optimism and support

when he laid his cards clearly andforcefully in front of them. Thus,Makemytrip became the 4th Indian

company to become public in U.S.raising an amount of $70 million andKalra became the Pied piper inspir-ing and showing the way for manyIndian companies who are hesitantto take the IPO way in U.S.


cover story

By ST Team


12/33


The making ofan EntrepreneurEntrepreneurs always tread on an un-conventional path. But Kalra gave an-other twist to his destiny when hedecided to set aside his experience todo something new in the space inwhich he had zero experience in. For

people who know him as a banker, itwould have made more sense if he hadstarted a company in the BFSI sector.But people who know him for the per-

son that he is, the choice to start an on-line travel portal would never be asurprise, since they know how font oftravelling the guy is. In Kalras ownaccount, he wanted to start somethingthat is closer to his heart. His idea wasto start an ecommerce company in theleisure travel section in India. Hestarted his baby steps with IndiaAhoy a high leisure travelers site.Back then, there was no company inthe Indian market that he could havemodeled his company after. He had tostart the company from scratch and pi-oneer the whole business model to

perfection, and this did not happenovernight.

An IIM grad, who took the con-ventional route initially, he joined thecorporate sector straight from college.In the early 90s he had a successfulstint at ABN Amro Bank at the seniorlevels, including vice-president, itwasnt an easy task to say no to thegolden handcuffs that the job in ABNAmro. It is here that he learned thetricks of the trade.

Athletes and entrepreneurs aresimilar in many ways, in the sense thatthey both follow their dreams. A suc-cessful entrepreneur is never afraid to

pursue his dreams and he will neverstop before he achieves it.

No wonder, Kalra felt dissatisfied

with the safe, secure and well paid jobin the banking sector. He joined AMFBowling, an American company thatwanted to setup bowling alleys and

billiard halls in India. It was not hiscompany, yet it initially gave him the

satisfaction of doing something new

and different than his mundane job. Heeven set up about 200 small bowlingalleys in the country. It acted as a crashcourse in entrepreneurship for him.Still he never got the necessary men-torship from the management of AMFBowling.

This might have been the prompt-ing factor behind his decision to move

back to the banking sector, this time toGE Capitals. It is said that, keep ashark away from blood, once it getsthe taste of blood it will be impossibleto keep it from wanting more. Kalrahad already tasted entrepreneurshipand it was only a matter of time beforethe entrepreneurial bug in him woke

up again.

The TriggerIn the late 90s, while in GE Capitals,he got the chance to be involved withthe burgeoning Indian internet indus-try and saw the huge opportunity theindustry is offering. It was the dotcomera, the time when internet companieswere the hottest commodities in theU.S. Even India had started feeling theripples of the industry and the marketwas opening up. He also got to meetsome of the brightest and greatestminds of this new age industry. Thesemeetings and interactions later trig-gered his entrepreneurial hormones.

During this period that he met San- jeev Bikhchandani, the founder of Naukri.com, and Ajit Balakrishnan,the founder of Rediff.com, two of thenew generation successful internet en-trepreneurs from India. Kalra got to

know them in person and was moti-vated by the duo. For him they werenot just inspiration, they were muchmore than that; they are what hewanted to be. This meeting proved to

be the push he needed to go back tothe arena again.

The Challenge& the AftermathFinally the time came when he couldno longer keep himself from going

after his dream. And so, in the 2000she ventured into the space of entrepre-neurship again, this time with his owncompany that he started with his life-time savings.

He hired his first few people, setup the office, and raised an initialfunding of $2 million from NeerajBhargava, Managing Partner of eVen-tures to take Indian Ahoy forward.Being new and inexperienced in theentrepreneurial space, he gave up 70

percent of his company to eVenturesfor the $2 million they put in the com-

pany, a nave move. With the dotcombust eVentures left India and made adistress sale and Kalra, who had by

this time realized that the move was abad one, bought his company back. Hewas all ready to make it big when theharsh reality hit him like a hammer onthe face. Indians are not particularlyforthcoming to new technologies andoptions in the market. This reluctanceis deep rooted and it is closely associ-ated to trust. India Ahoy came to themarket at such a time and Indians gaveit a cold shoulder. Indians were not

buying online, and Kalra learned thisthe hard way.

So, as any baby would, he fell, andhe fell hard. Financial issues started

breathing down his neck like a snakewaiting for the right time to strike and

the company shrunk to half o f its orig-inal size. The passion in him made himstick to his heels. He believed in hiscompany, he knew it was worth fight-ing for and decided that if he is goingdown then he is going down fighting,

and more over he had a team of peoplewho believed in him and the company.Together, they started searching for ashred of hope somewhere and theyfound that hope in the U.S. Indiancommunity. Immediately the com-

panys business model was rewrittenand started targeting the technologi-cally mature Non-Resident Indians(NRI); lo and behold MakeMyTripwas born. It was not an all fun ridethough; Dotcom Bust, 9/11 and SARS

shook the industry to the core andmade him wonder whether he is in thewrong business. But their resiliencekept them going. He and two of hiscolleagues went forward withoutdrawing salary for 18 months, and thisdedication, belief, and hard work fromtheir part paid well, as the companygrew at an exceptional pace and brokeeven in 2003.

Home ComingYears passed, still his primary ambi-tion, to be a major player in the Indianmarkets, lingered inside him. In 2005when Kalra came to India, he noticedthat the scenario has changed a lot.Low cost airlines has made air travel

an affordable dream for the Indianmiddleclass and the Indian Railwayshas started its website, selling ticketonline and people are actually buyingthem. He observed this with the fasci-nation of a child who is watching

something new and amazing. But, be-fore he takes the big decision to come

back, he needed to be sure. So he de-cided to field test Indian Railwayswebsite and its effectiveness.

Kalra booked 50 tickets from thewebsite with different addresses andwas amazed when all the 50 tickets gotdelivered without fail. Then he knewthe Railways system was perfect andthis might have installed the trust in theskeptic Indian minds. Based on this he

took the decision to bring his companyhome. Thus MakeMyTrip came backhome and got a grant reception fromthe domestic mass. Since then the com-

pany has established itself in the coun-try and has diversify its productoffering, adding a variety of online andoffline products and services. Thecompany currently enjoys about 50

percent of the market share.

The OfferingComing back to India went well, butthat was not the grand finale forKalra. He knew the potential of hiscompany and was willing to push itfurther. His motto was simple, offerthe maximum value for their cus-

tomers. The company stuck to thisever since it came on the right track.Then came the time to take it to thenext stage; IPO. He took it public lastyear and the offering is was nothingshort of phenomenal. When it was

listed in Nasdaq on Auit was sold for $26against the listing prishare, thus doubling it$900 million.

Then the company what can be called a dushare price came downhis team were least wknew for a fact that ttemporary loss of mthey will be on track

And, from the looks ofadamantly that they areUnder the great leadethe company is havinnow. With revenue of recorded a year over y54.3 percent in the qJune 30, 2011.

The Realm BeyonKalra seems to drivethrough an inorganic He believes that if a c

be successful in a new mto have a deep root in tory. His company is garoot in its new territorie

other companies, whiestablished in these m9, 2011, the company

proximately 79 percent Luxury Tours and TraSingaporean travel agvides hotel reservatiotours and other related

bound and outbound trgapore, thus increasing Singapore.

Kalra continues hisof the markets alike andthe growth of its offllike its franchises and furthering its prominmarkets. He and his te

higher plans for their chis belief, that Ideas cabut passion cannot be ball set to make Makemy

just an online travel porshop for all the travel n

Kalra had to start thecompany fromscratch and pioneerthe whole businessmodel to perfection


13/33

The Smart Techie

Businesses today face a consider-able challenge to effectively optimizetheir IT infrastructure and related op-erations and deliver ever-improvingservice levels to meet and exceed the

expectations of their business-userswithout compromising on quality andsecurity. More and more companiesare turning towards InfrastructureManagement Service (IMS) as the an-swer to this need. IMS is estimated to

be a $370 billion business and is ex-pected to grow at a CAGR of 4 p ercentover the next four years. The currentIMS spend is expected to be around 12

20 percent of the total IT budget ofthe companies and this percent is ex-

pected to increase in the future.Mindlance in Remote Infrastruc-

ture Management System (RIMS) pro-vides a flexible, affordable array ofservices which help its customers to

monitor and manage their infrastruc-ture more efficiently and cost-effec-tively. The company offers focusedsolutions in IMS and leverages its ITinfrastructure assessment tools andmethodologies to customize solutionsthat are closely aligned to the client's

business strategy. The company alsohas expertise in comprehensive remoteinfrastructure management, enablingnot only in cutting costs, but also in in-creasing the service levels and ex-

panding the reach.It offers a spectrum of Infrastruc-

ture Management Services that enableits clients to reduce IT overheads andimprove their efficiencies while gain-

ing access to a range o f skills at a verybasic cost. With enriched experiencein Industry standard InfrastructureManagement tools such as NetworkMonitoring, Server Monitoring, Ap-

plication Monitoring, IP Traffic Me-

tering and Profiling and Service Desktools, Mindlance ensures real time in-formation on the incidents, alerts andevents, and efficient responses and res-olution to all events and breakdowns.

We provide end to end servicesthat operate, maintain and monitor ITinfrastructure and cover the entirespan of IT Infrastructure right fromapplication management to storagemanagement. Our services help ourclients in mitigating risks; optimizetheir IT infrastructure, gain access toniche skills improve response-timesand improve their business efficien-cies, says Kamal Sharma, GroupCIO and Business Unit Head IT In-frastructure, Mindlance. The companyis well aware of the dilemma of theenterprises and has been providingRemote Infrastructure Managementservices to organizations with its

strong focus on Security, Networksand ITIL compliance. Its unique plat-form caters to all IT infrastructureneeds and transforms the IT infra-structure of customers.

The company believes in nurtur-ing minds and bringing out the best ofemployees. Being a U.S. MNC wefollow a flat organisation culture andfoster a relationship with employeeswhich help them being innovative andcoming up with plans and strategieswhich are beneficial for both the em-

ployee and the company, saysSharma. It conducts a series of em-

ployee engagement activities alongwith a lot of weekend activities, out-

door activities and CSR activities.Mindlance also collaborates withdifferent NGOs as a part of its CSRactivities. Recently it organized a do-nation camp, sparing a week as asmall contribution to the society.

Increased competitithe need for high perf

prise network, advan

support and services acographical areas. Howconstraints and marginder clients from improvof services and reduce structure management.

Mindlance with itsence after serving clieglobe has definitely coand will be keenly interup other IT enterprisesnear future. BFSI, Govcation and Healthcare creasingly getting intoinfrastructure switch years and the switch coup this year too. Thus,

target clients. We will lithe latest technologiesservices, IT consultinmanagement, Cloud comcurity and IMS to a lotnear future, adds Shar

Mindlance:Providing Flexible and Affordable RI

No. COMPANY NAME Description

1

Appnomic Systems

Bangaloreappnomic.com

Offers highly automated technology, intelligent analysis and process methods to largeand mid-size companies. With a unique delivery model, it enables companies to bemore efficient and enhance productivity by over thirty percent.

2

Ctrl S

Bangalorectrls.in

A Certified Tier IV datacenter which specializing in custom-built IT Infrastructure andServices, Co-location Services, Managed Services, and Disaster Recovery & BusinessContinuity Planning Services.

3

Futuresoft Solutions

New Delhifuturesoftsolutions.com

Specializes in all areas of IT, ranging from Managed Services, Strategic Outsourcing,

Business Solutions, Cloud Computing, Infrastructure Set up & Optimization and Prod-uct Retail.

4

Glodyne Technoserve

Mumbaiglodynetechnoserve.in

Provides technology led business solutions across two SBUs; Technology Infrastruc-ture Management Services (Technology IMS) and Application Software Services.

5

Glopore IMS

Bangaloregloporeims.com

Offers niche ITSM \ ITIL\ COBITbest practices based Consulting, Training and Managed ITServices. Apure play IMS company it caters to maedium and large players in verticals including Telecom, Banking,Insurance, ITES-BPO, Hospitality, Retail, Financial Services, Healthcare, Education, and Manufacturing.

6

inTarvo Technologies

Noidaintarvo.com

A provider of Integrated Lifecycle Management (ILM) support services for TechnologyProducts for Original Equipment Manufacturers, EMS Companies, Distributors, LargeCorporation and Retail Chains.

7

Maintec Technologies

Bengalurumaintec.com

An IT Solutions provider whose core focus is to provide Remote Infrastructure Man-agement (RIM), Remote Data Center Management and Application Development /Maintenance services on IBM Mainframe Platforms.

8

Mindlance

Bangaloremindlance.com

Helps its clients to get most out of their existing IT Infrastructure by delivering them,the solutions which are focused on reducing operational costs and maximizing the avail-ability and performance of their IT infrastructure.

9

Silver Touch Technologies

Ahmedabadsilvertouch.com

A provider of provide IT Infrastructure Solutions, System Integration, Network/ServerManagement services across India.

10

Valuepoint

Bangalorevaluepoint.in

Enables clients to setup and run businesses and critical applications. Its innovative range ofsolutions span across the entire technology lifecycle - from design to setup and managementof infrastructure, enabling clients to setup and run businesses and critical applications.


14/33


India has been the talk of theworld markets for quite a fewyears now from an economic

growth perspective. It is a nobrainer that the SMEs play an ex-tremely important role in drivingthis growth for any economy andIndia is no different. The Indianlandscape boasts of having morethan 30 million SMEs and morethan 60 million people being em-

ployed by them. Currently, theSMEs contribute to more than 20

percent to the GDP. These basicnumbers are just to understand howimportant the segment is especiallyfor India.

Obviously, a growth spurt in theSME segment will provide a

booster doze to the growth of ouroverall economy. However, mostSMEs have remained SMEsthrough their entire lifecycle,

which is a pressing issue, if Indiahas to sustain the economic growthin the coming two decades.

The two logical sides are the policy makers and the entrepre-neurs themselves.

Policy makers are working hardto create reforms that may be suit-able, however, the real thrust has-nt been given as yet to the SMEsegment. They are still busy tweak-ing the law to benefit only a few.However, we can not completely

blame them since they have done acommendable job in significantlyopening up the economy in the lasttwo decades.

After having interacted withmore than 2000 Indian entrepre-neurs in the last 4-5 years, therehave been some key observationsthat I would like to share. There aretwo parts to these key observations,

Why do most SMEs remain SMEs

through their entire lifecycle?

the entrepreneurs mindset and theentrepreneurs wherewithal; themindset being a much bigger issue.The Mindset:

First of all, let us understand that en-trepreneurship is for doers and not

just thinkers or dreamers. A dreamis a dream without action and doesnot lead anywhere. So the first les-son is to come out of the buildingand act. This is especially true foraspiring entrepreneurs and the firstgeneration start-ups.

A lot of new start-ups / ideas re-main on the shelf or in the jazzy

business plans. Nothing is doneabout those ideas in the hope thatsomeone will fund them. But a log-ical question, Why should someonefund you, when you are not willingto act on your own ideas? This is

precisely the reason why only 1 inabout 800-1000 start-ups getsfunded. Investors also like peoplewho act, simply because they are theones who create results and returns,

both. This is a mindset or a willissue. If you have the will, you willcreate the necessary wherewithalanyways. The only advice is, Getout of the building and start build-ing your business before even think-ing about Investors. If you build agood business, money will anywaysfind you.

On the SME front, the entrepre-neurs have already acted on the op-

portunity and have created a platform for the new generation totake off. Here is where the mindsetissues are prevalent. Most SMEsshow rigidity in the mindsets andtheir ways of doing business.

One thing that most SMEs ig-nore in todays times is their busi-ness model. There is a huge block inlearning somewhere. This is often

proven by their know it all atti-tude. The truth is its not the fittestor the strongest or the most intellec-tual who win the game; but it is theones most responsive to change win

the game. With the advent of tech-nology, the dynamics of doing busi-ness are changing by the minutetoday, If SMEs do not adapt their

business models to these changingdemands they will often remainwhere they are. The key lies inchange and the fluidity in the busi-ness models. Change in the way onethinks, one learns, one adapts andone acts.The Wherewithal:

Most of these businesses often havetraditional or old economy thought-

process driven business heads thatoften are not in a position to visual-

ize the new and global markets thatare available today and their everchanging dynamics. Ultimately, youare what you think you are.

The most important questionnow is how can SMEs then beginthe process of scaling up?

The simple answer is to revali-date the thought leadership and thecurrent business model. These arethe two most critical aspects thatneed engineering. What one can dois to create a pictographic represen-tation of their business, whichwould give a clear bird eye view.This essentially will help one under-

stand where exactly thwould be required in upwards.

With the availabilogy that simplifies glocation, the markets aand closer now than thSMEs know this fact; feel that the exercisthat far for a customhungry, which is not t

just about a million ttoday which make thiefficient and withinneeds to be understothat it is people who u

business everywhere fective networking tnewer markets.

The other extrething would be to hire one can trust, who hasexpertise and who wouinely real and pracThis would most oftagony of late unhappy

Essentially you neanswer a few very crilike these and more:

How do I introuct/service with no bu

How do I enticeand customers withoketing budget?

How do I determtheres really a markmy product/services?

What kind of phire: young, old, unprcheap, expensive, etc

How do I get ttheir current jobs wita lot of money at them

How do I tell my that he can not be CxOhe is a co-founder?

Finally, have theshare a fraction of youothers. Very few peoplwhat we are, becaustors, employees andstakeholder.

The author is Group MD & C EO DeGroup and CMD & C IO IndiaSocial Fund.

BUSINESS By Gaurav Shah

Gaurav Shah

Policy makersare working hardto create reformsthat may be suit-able, however, thereal thrust hasnt

been given as yetto the SME seg-ment.


15/33


STRARTUPThe author is Partner, MyFirstCheque

By Gautam Sinha

As I put my son through kindergarten I realizedthat there is some logic to the natural evolutionof learning that a human goes through.A kid spends two years in what is called pre-school

before starting regular school and these two years areenough to prepare him/her for the tougher academic rig-ors ahead. Typically learning alphabets, some basiccounting, recognizing basic shapes and most impor-tantly getting used to dealing with other kids your age.I call this the A, B, C and D of life (the first four steps).

Similarly when you start a company it is the first 24months (also called the graveyard years as more than90 percent of startups collapse during this period) wh erethe basic learning happens (and believe me this is veryexpensive education) and my attempt today would beto try and give a you perspective on what the A, B, Cand D of a start-ups life are

The A.. Focus on only one thing

Make sure that you are concentrated on achieving ONEobjective in this period.

This looks very easy and obvious but you would beamazed to know that it is very difficult to achieve asmost people fall victim in trying to do too manythings in the first few years and with limited resourcesthis is the best way to drive a startup to bankruptcy!

Break this objective further into measuring 1-3 met-rics. If it is more than three then do the homework againand make sure that it does not cross 3.

Put them on the board and look at them everydayand end of the day ask yourself the same question, Didwhat I do today move me towards my objective or awayfrom it?

HOW TO OVERCOME

THE FIRST 24 MONTHS

IN A START UP..

The BCultivate the art of

deafness

Do not spend too much time withpeople who tell you that you cant doit ! Self doubt is the biggest cancerwhich can ruin an entrepreneurial

journey and it is very important thatone can effectively block out thenegatives and concentrate only onthe job at hand.

Every single enterprise whichtoday has come to rule the marketstarted as you have started and whenthey started they were also told thesame thing that you are being toldnow i.e. you can not do it!

The C Do not front load mar-

keting costs

The length of your stay at the startup crease is directly proportional tothe amount of mistakes that youcan make during the first 24 months.This in turn is based on the length ofyour cash flow.

In business you need to be able totry new ways to sell/promote/hire toget your product/service across to themarket in a quick manner. Unfortu-nately every action that you take (es-

pecially new and seemingly untestedones) will involve costs /spends andthe more of these actions you can take(as some of them would bomb) thefaster you will succeed.

This flexibility is completely based on cash flows so take verysmall steps on spends but make surethat you take them nevertheless andtry out new things as NOT tryingthem is also not an option.

The D.Never think capital can

substitute effort or imagination

I have yet to come across a companywhich failed because lack of capitaleven though most people end up at-tributing their lack of success to that.

The ability to think and imaging(a unique gift to every human) is

what makes a persobusiness. Never be afrfunded or supposed

petitor.In fact, relax, as m

tends to make a bucomplacent (thereceptions to this rule the ones which creawhich outlive them) lazy.

The funny part of when one has more tneeds, especially in tof a business it leads

pansion or arroganwith customers.

Just keep your fodoing the things that as your objective /meto set the agenda andone else set it for you

Finally (and this isdo not forget to have

Happy Starting!

Gautam Sinha


16/33


off is that the level of skill requiredto maintain a subroutine library isgenerally higher and of a differenttype than that needed to maintaintest scripts. Obviously this require-ment will change your staffing pro-file and cost structure.

However, the benefit of this ap-proach is that you can accommodatechange much more readily. Moreimportantly, it will allow you tosafely write test cases before the ap-

plication has been fully imple-mented. Test script writers onlyneed to know (a) the software'sfunctionality and requirements and(b) the 'stubs' of the test subroutinesthat will be implemented. You cansignificantly compress your imple-mentation schedule by enablingyour development and test automa-tion processes to function in paral-lel.

Use a Domain-Specific Language

Approach

The next level of sophistication inscripted test development is referredto as 'keyword' or 'abstract' test au-tomation. In this approach, wordsfrom the problem domain, not theimplementation, are used to describetest scenarios in what is sometimesreferred to as a 'domain-specific lan-guage' (i.e., DSL). Translator or in-terpreter software is then used tomap the abstract keywords thatmake up the script into the key-strokes and mouse movements thatare required to drive the applicationunder testing.Sometimes this process utilizes verband noun analysis of the use cases oruser stories to produce a suitable setof keywords or abstractions to de-scribe test scenarios - even beforeany code is written. This functionaltest automation approach is the mostAgile because test cases can be writ-ten first and thus enable true test-driven development, even at thefunctional level.

Let us look at a test script for a(simplified) ATM / Cash Machineas an example. Using a simple self-explanatory syntax for this illustra-tion, a fragment of one test scriptmight look something like this:

VERIFY ACCOUNT_BALANCE =10000 INR MAKE_WITH-DRAWAL 1000 INR VERIFY AC-COUNT_BALANCE = 9000 INR

In this example, 'VERIFY' and'MAKE_WITHDRAWAL' would beverbs in our scripting language, and'ACCOUNT_BALANCE' would bea noun. Note that the terms used todescribe the test scenario are takenfrom the problem domain and makeno reference whatsoever to the im-

plementation. All knowledge of theimplementation is completely hid-den in the translator software. Inmany cases, this means that thetranslator must be quite sophisti-cated. For example, it may need toknow the page structure of the ap-

plication and then navigate frompage to page in order to execute therequired functionality.

Developing or customizing acomplex translator can be a largerinvestment up-front, but the long-term benefits are significant. Andalthough translator software is typ-ically custom-built for a specificapplication, general-purpose pro-grammable translators are begin-ning to appear more frequently.Regardless of its origin, the advan-tages of a sophisticated translatorinclude the following:

1. Test scripts that are written en-tirely in the problem domain are ro-

bust in the face of nearly anychange to the implementation sinceall possible implementations mustsolve the same domain-specific

problem. When you have thousandsor even tens-of-thousands of scriptsaccumulated over the course ofyears, the scripts themselves be-

come your major invveloping the translatively minor cost cominvestment.

2. As mentioned eaeasily write scripts bmenting the software,a true test-driven dev

proach. Although newsometimes require youscripting language, tgenerally easy to perftaken directly from th

3. Non-technical docan easily author tecause the concepts cfrom the problem dogood architecture, theself can be made robuof changes to the apptesting. This can beusing a state table to navigation, (b) takingthe object structure ofusing a data-driven ap

Using XML as a guage enhances the ltensibility and can proscript-driven approacdriven by the XML SXML is also easy to pthe-shelf tools.

Conclusion

Without a doubt, devbrary of reusable subdomain-specific langyour system requires avestment. However, where you (a) need totomize a SaaS productruly gain the benefittest-driven developmogy; (c) need to compand development scheas possible while still quality; or (d) must cstant change during pr

ployment, takisophisticated approatomation can be a life

project.

One of the major barriers to testautomation is the volatility ofthe application to be tested.

Even benign changes such as mov-ing a button to a different part of thescreen or changing a label from'Next' to 'Continue' can cause testscripts to fail. This problem is espe-cially acute when testing an applica-tion's functionally at the GUI level

because this tends to be the area inwhich changes are most frequent.For this reason, test teams have his-torically tended to avoid functionaltest automation until an applicationhas become stable. However, this ap-

proach does not work when buildingSaaS products or developing prod-ucts in an Agile environment wherechange is a constant. In this situa-tion, a more sophisticated test ap-

proach is required to avoid incurring'technical debt' (i.e., quality issues ortasks that are deferred to be ad-dressed later or not at all).

Develop a Reusable Subroutine

Library

The first level of sophistication intest automation is to develop a li-

brary of reusable subroutines thatwill encapsulate and hide an appli-cation's implementation details fromthe test scripts themselves. For ex-ample, you might implement a testsubroutine called'login_to_my_app()' that acceptstwo parameters: 'UserName' and'Password'. At runtime, this test sub-routine will first find the appropri-ate text fields in the application GUIand then execute the keystrokes and

mouse movements required to fill inthe given user name and password,thus completing the login operation.If the application's login GUIchanges (e.g., if the on-screen labelfor 'User Name' is changed to 'Login

Name'), then the'login_to_my_app()' test functionmight also need to be updated. How-ever, the scripts that called this sub-routine would not need to change.

The reason this type of abstrac-tion is a win for some projects isthat, in this scenario, a change to theapplication now only requires you tomaintain a single subroutine ratherthan potentially hundreds or thou-sands of test scripts. Since complexapplications frequently have thou-sands of test scripts, the savings ineffort and time is clear. The trade-

Making Automated FunctionalTesting Work in SaaS andAgile Environments

TECHNOLOGY By Jim WalshThe author is CTO, GlobalLogic


17/33

logon name stays the same, while theOTP changes with each logon.

OTPs can be generated in severalways and each method has trade-offsin terms of security, convenience,cost and accuracy. Simple methodssuch as a printed list of OTP numbersand grid cards can provide a set ofOTPs. These methods offer low in-vestment costs but are slow, difficultto maintain, easy to replicate and re-quire users to keep track of wherethey are on the list of passwords.

A more convenient way for usersis to use an OTP token which is ahardware device that generates one-time passwords. Some of these de-vices are PIN-protected, offering anadditional layer of security.

More advanced hardware tokensuse microprocessor-based smartcards to calculate one-time pass-words. Smart cards have several ad-vantages for strong authentication,including data storage capacity, pro-cessing power, portability and ease of

use. They are inherently more securethan other OTP tokens because theygenerate a unique, non-reusable pass-word for each authentication event.In addition, smart cards store per-sonal data and do not transmit per-sonal or private data over thenetwork.

Another solution leverages on thehigh penetration of mobile phones,using short messaging service (SMS)as a cost effective method for OTPauthentication. Using a strong au-thentication server to send a SMS-OTP, users are able to securelyaccess the network without the needfor additional authentication devices.In addition, SMS-OTP can also func-tion as a backup method for OTP de-livery when the users primary OTPdevice has been lost, stolen or bro-ken.

At present, most enterprise net-works, e-commerce sites and onlinecommunities are vulnerable to iden-tity theft through methods such as

phishing, keyboard login-the-middle attacks.

Strong authenticagies like Gemaltos Prof smart cards, tokenreaders and authentiutilize PKI and OTP limitations in protectincess and end-users digThe Protiva range o

based on Gemaltoscard expertise and suindustry standards andtions that operates in .NET environments. Gemaltos .NET equipped with support or PKI, or both at oncuses.

This extra level of sit extremely difficultrized users to gain acdential information, online accounts givsumers and enterprimind.


Many activities today are com-

pleted digitally whetherits a simple conversation,

online retail or a complex financialtransaction. Information is also ex-changed through digital interactions

between people and devices. Coupledwith the rising penetration of the In-ternet and ubiquity of always-on net-worked digital devices such as mobile

phones and tablets, a fundamentalchange has taken place in how indi-viduals live and corporations functionglobally.

However, the rise in popularity ofdigital devices has also brought aboutan increased risk to security. Mali-cious threats by attackers who lookinto stealing user identities and ob-taining unauthorized access to confi-dential data and resources are on therise.

With advanced persistent threats(APT) becoming more prevalent,companies of all sizes need to take aserious look at the security protecting

access to data resources. Usernameand password are no longer sufficientto protect access to the most importantaspects of ones business the com-

panys internal information. There isa need for stronger access controlmethods to secure all access pointsinto the network to ensure that onlyauthorized users gain network access.

At present, a variety of easy-to-useform factors that meet business re-quirements and ensure quick end-useradoption are available.

Public Key Infrastructure

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is asystem that validates a user's digitalidentity over a public or private net-work by associating a pair of public and

private keys with their individual iden-tity credentials. In PKI systems, the pri-vate key is maintained by the end userand the public key is available as partof a digital certificate in a directory thatcan be freely accessed. The private keyremains secure and is not transmitted

over the network. It is used for certifi-cate-based authentication, encryptionand digital signatures.

PKI technology offers a range ofsecurity features for enterprises includ-ing authenticity, confidentiality andnon-repudiation. PKI applications forend-users include network and work-station logon, secure remote access,single sign-on, email encryption, securedata storage, digital signatures and se-cure online transactions.

One Time Password

Another strong authentication system isOne Time Password (OTP), which pro-vides better protection to online bankaccounts, corporate networks and othersystems containing sensitive data. OTPsystems provide a mechanism for log-ging on to a network or service using aunique password, which can only beused once. This prevents identity theft

by making sure that a captured username/password pair cannot be usedmore than once. Typically the users

TECHNOLOGY By Kenny Ke

Sophistication

Meets Malice

The author is Sales VP, Online Authentication &eBanking Asia, Gemalto

Kenny Ke

TECHNOLOGY


18/33


money. HPs solutions brought edu-cation at the doorstep.

Similarly, companies like HCLInfosystems are providing end-to-end turnkey advanced education so-lutions to schools, institutions anduniversities across the country in thegovernment and private sector. HCLDigiSchools key feature is that, thissolution offers digital multimediaasset library, covering all major as-

pects in K12 category. There aremany other solutions, such as Cam-

pus Infrastructure Solution, Univer-sity Resource Planning, OnlineDistance Learning/e-Learning Pro-gramme and Tele Education. ManyIT behemoths are also developinglow cost laptops and encouraging

broadband connectivity, engineeredto reach masses uninitiated to theramified opportunities that technol-ogy can provide.

Keeping in perspective the fact,that today out of approximately 200million children in the age group of

6-14 years, only 120 million haveever gone to school, these initiativeswill pave a long way in fostering aninclusive atmosphere for socio eco-nomic growth. As part of its Vision2020 plan, the Government is look-ing to increase the number of schoolgoing children, to 30 percent by2020.

Now is the season of Tablets; weoften read in the papers about lowcost tablets for village panchayats,for students and even the Govern-ment. With a medium to access in-formation and the informationcontent itself, technology is actingas a game changer. Both these com-

ponents are existing, in a comple-mentary relationship and technologyis enabling this trend.

Information technology industryhas already ushered in a catalyticchange in the Indian society, by col-laborating with the government toincrease accessibility, affordability,and accountability of essential serv-

ices. Technology has effective alterations tive functions, in terservices and e-governto eliminate avoidabcies, reduce corruptioteeing ease of collabordiverse departments.

point are the much approject, National e-Go(NeGP), or establishinArea Networks (SWA27 states and 6 uni(UTs) on a pan India l

The industry itselated technology-adovarious sectors, inclcare, real-estate, BFSretail; thereby improvlife of the citizens ostraints still exists inand awareness. As twith time, technology

presence felt even moand act as building bloinclusivity.

The author is CEO, Classteacher Learning Systems

TECHNOLOGY By Rohit Pande

T

hese days, we often comeacross jargons such as, knowl-edge economy, information

explosion, and world at your fin-gertips. These are not alien terms, asthey have become an indispensible

part of our regular vocabulary. If yougo back a decade, a totally different

picture would have surfaced. The di-chotomy exists even today, translated

by economists as India andBharat; while urban India has takenIT for granted; there is a mammothdemographic segment, who doesntknow how technology touches theirlives, if at all it does.

In these two words Informationand technology, the aspect to be no-ticed, is the fact that Information al-ways precedes technology.

Information existed and technologymade it accessible; thereby buildinga society-knowledge rich, aware, anddiscerning. With time, the fact got

proven, that IT is an enabler of social

inclusivity, by the sheer truth that itcan bring information to the masses,educate them, and make them live a

life of quality.Technology is an indispensible

aspect in fostering education and oursociety is waking up to this fact. TheOne-Laptop-Per-Child, was the ini-tial fuel for a future, where every cor-

porate would have sharpened theirlens to laser focus on the under-priv-ileged. It's not just the mere distribu-tion of books or schoolbags; as hadthe practice been really fruitful, thenumber of drop-outs definitelywould have been much less than fivemillion. Of the nearly one million

public schools in India, less than 0.2percent have any form of IT infra-structure or computer-based educa-

tion.However, though technology has

made inroads into areas hitherto in-accessible, there is still a majorchunk of the population, who cannot

take the advantage of the possibilitiesbecause of obvious constraints; costbeing one. Several organizations are

undertaking initiatives to negatethose constraints and time testifiesthe fact that we have come a longway in doing so. Numerous grass-root innovations are happening, to

bridge the glaring digital divide. Forexample, HPs Lab-in-box, a uniqueinitiative where a fully equipped mo-

bile class room can provide second-ary education content, designed by

NCERT, to reach students in remoteareas who cannot afford school edu-cation. The biggest challenge in Indiaundoubtedly is that of infrastructure.Setting up a school is a cumbersome

process, necessitating very high costsin terms of building materials, mu-

nicipality permits, electricity, remu-neration for teachers, andmaintenance. As a corollary, this actsas a hurdle to many bright students,who cannot afford that kind of

Information Technology:Charting an InclusiveSocio-Economic Growth Gradient

TECHNOLOGY


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(B2E) scenario and one to addressthe business to consumer (B2C) sce-nario. On the B2E front, IT mustconsider social goals, businessgoals, financial goals, and risk man-agement goals. On the B2C front,which includes business to business(B2B) activities to support con-sumers, IT needs to address a num-

ber of additional issues such assurfacing and managing APIs to ac-cess enterprise information and sys-tems, integration with third-party

applications, integration with vari-ous partners for capabilities such assearch and social networking, anddelivery through app stores.

# 2 Mobile-Centric Applications

and Interfaces: The user interface(IU) paradigm in place for morethan 20 years is changing. UIs withwindows, icons, menus, and point-ers will be replaced by mobile-cen-tric interfaces emphasizing touch,gesture, search, voice and video.Applications themselves are likelyto shift to more focused and simpleapps that can be assembled intomore complex solutions. These

changes will drive the need for newuser interface design skills.

Building application user inter-faces that span a variety of devicetypes, potentially from many ven-dors, requires an understanding offragmented building blocks and anadaptable programming structurethat assembles them into optimizedcontent for each device. Mobile con-sumer application platform toolsand mobile enterprise platform toolsare emerging to make it easier to de-velop in this cross-platform envi-ronment. HTML5 will also providea long term model to address someof the cross-platform issues. By

2015, mobile Web technologies willhave advanced sufficiently, so thathalf the applications that would bewritten as native apps in 2011 willinstead be delivered as Web apps.

# 3 Contextual and Social User

Experience: Context-aware computing uses information about anend-user or objects environment,activities, connections and prefer-ences to improve the quality of in-teraction with that end-user orobject. A contextually aware sys-tem anticipates the users needs and

proactively serves up the most ap-propriate and customized content, product or service. Context can beused to link mobile, social, loca-

tion, payment and commerce. It canhelp build skills in augmented real-ity, model-driven security and en-semble applications. Through 2013,context aware applications will ap-

pear in targeted areas such as loca-tion-based services, augmentedreality on mobile devices, and mo-

bile commerce.On the social front, the interfacesfor applications are taking on thecharacteristics of social networks.Social information is also becom-ing a key source of contextual in-formation to enhance delivery ofsearch results or the operation ofapplications.

# 4 Internet of Things: The Inter-net of Things (IoT) is a concept thatdescribes how the Internet will ex-

pand as sensors and intelligence areadded to physical items such asconsumer devices or physical assetsand these objects are connected tothe Internet. The vision and concepthave existed for years, however,there has been an acceleration inthe number and types of things thatare being connected and in thetechnologies for identifying, sens-ing and communicating. Thesetechnologies are reaching criticalmass and an economic tipping point

over the next few years. Key ele-ments of the IoT include:

Embedded sensors: Sensors thatdetect and communicate changesare being embedded, not just in mo-

bile devices, but in number of places and

Image Recognrecognition technologidentify objects, peop

places logos, and anyhas value to consum

prises. Smartphoneequipped with camerathis technology from trial applications to brand enterprise applica

Near Field C

(NFC) payment: NFCto make payments bymobile phone in front

ble reader. Once NFCin a critical mass of pment, industries sutransportation, airlinhealthcare can explorewhich NFC technologefficiency and custom

# 5 App Stores and M

Application stores by droid provide markehundreds of thousandtions are available toGartner forecasts that

will be more than 70 application downloastores every year. Tfrom a consumer-onlyan enterprise focus. Wapp stores, the role of that of a centralizedmarket manager pronance and brokeragusers and potentially to support entrepre

prises should use a msity approach to focuefforts and segment apvalue.

# 6 Next-Generatio

Analytics is growing

key dimensions:

1. From traditional ics to in-line embedThis has been the focu


With 2011 almost coming toan end, it is time for CIOsto review their plan of ac-

tion based on the strategic technolo-gies available. According toresearch and analyst firm, Gartner, astrategic technology is one with the

potential for significant impact onthe enterprise in the next threeyears. Factors that denote signifi-cant impact include a high potentialfor disruption to IT or the business,the need for a major dollar invest-ment, or the risk of being late toadopt.

A strategic technology may bean existing technology that has ma-tured and/or become suitable for awider range of uses. It may also bean emerging technology that offersan opportunity for strategic businessadvantage for early adopters or with

potential for significant market dis-

ruption in the next five yea rs. Thesetechnologies impact the organiza-tion's long-term plans, programs andinitiatives.

In its recent symposium, Gartnerbrought highlighted ten technolo-gies and trends that will be strategicfor most organizations in 2012.These top 10 technologies will bestrategic for most organizations, andIT leaders should use this list intheir strategic planning process byreviewing the technologies and howthey fit into their expected needs,says David Cearley, Vice Presidentand Gartner fellow.

Organizations should start ex- ploratory projects to look at prom-ised candidate technology and kickoff a search for combinations of in-formation sources, including socialsites and unstructured data that may

be mined for insights, said Carl

Claunch, Vice President and distin-guished analyst at Gartner.

Following are ten strategic tech-nologies that will play key role in2012:

# 1 Media Tablets and Beyond:

Users can choose between variousform factors when it comes to mo-

bile computing. No single platform,form factor or technology will dom-inate and companies should expectto manag

Documents

Smarttechie Nov 11 Issue