Ideas whose Time has Come
In the beginning, there was nothing. And then came an idea. An idea so simple that it was
nothing short of brilliant. That in essence is the story behind many of the winners of the Best IT implementation awards year after year.
It has been three years now that we have been tracking Enterprise IT
implementations. And we have had all types of implementations. We have seen implementations that are some of the most technically challenging in the world and we have seen implementations that rival the best in the world in terms of sheer scope. We have audited implementations that are as complex as it can get. But the common thread across most, if not all of the eventual winners is the simple idea that has delivered immediate business benefits once technology enabled.
The idea part, I am also seeing some other broad trends from the nominations we receive every year for these awards.
Last year for example saw the emergence of consolidation as a trend, with many large
enterprises going in for consolidation of their IT resources. This year, we are seeing ERP and portals emerging as strong trends, including in small and medium enterprises. In fact, small and medium is coming out of the shadows with a strong play in IT implementation.
Another key trend is that the Government and the public sector are implementing IT solutions in a scale that can only be called unprecedented. These projects have now gone beyond the realm of simple e-governance and bill payment solutions and are now addressing other key areas of functioning and management. The public sector is implementing solutions that can put even the best of private scetor ones in the shade. And I am talking of innovation and business benefits and not just scale.
Another interesting trend I am seeing is the emergence on the vendor side, of smaller players who are being given key projects even by the majors in the user industry. Consider this: In most of the projects where the simple idea is the key, the implementer is almost always an in-house team or a smaller player in the market. Is there something that the bigger players are missing out on the innovation front?
Another significant pointer is the high level of involvement of in-house IT teams in almost all the projects that have come up this year. In this age of outsourcing, it is heartening to see this level of involvement and ownership from the IT teams.
In the previous years, a few projects used to stand out as outstanding, compared to the rest. This year, the quality of most of the projects we got is so good that it is difficult to point out a few as outstanding. We are witnessing a sea change in the quality of IT implementation is Indian enterprises.
India is known for its ability to implement IT solutions in other geographies, while the country itself was supposed to be IT starved. I think that that phase is now over. We are witnessing an explosion of IT implementations by Indian businesses and government, and that can only augur well for our future.
The cover story this month is long by any standards. But may I suggest that you have the patience to read it through. You might just get an idea that could work wonders for your business too. After all, is it not said that well begun is half done? And the idea is it at the very beginning.