India Inc. takes to low-cost computing

At a time when keeping a lid on costs is vital for improving bottom lines, Indian enterprises are substituting devices and technologies that cost less but deliver the same end result, says Abhinav Singh

Gopal Shukla says that Dabur's sales personnel enquire about stock status, credit limit of stockists and outstanding sales-related data through SMS on their cellphones

Getting up-to-date data out to field staff can be done in many ways. One way is to equip field agents with notebooks. A cheaper and more efficient method is to use SMS for query and retrieval. Enterprises like Dabur and BPCL (Bharat Petroleum Corporation) are widely using cellular phones for disseminating information. PDAs are being used for Sales Force Automation, substituting notebooks in the process. Similarly, thin-clients are finding their way into blue chips such as the ITC Group, displacing PCs in part. India Inc. has been looking to get the most for its IT investments and this is the latest salvo in the battle to reduce cost without affecting efficiency.

SMS for mobile information

With cellular phone penetration witnessing huge growth in India, Gartner’s provisional forecasts suggest that cellular connections will reach 56 million by the end of 2004. In fact, many organisations have started reaping the benefits that cell phones have to offer. SMS is a popular tool with India Inc. for field staff to get latest sales data and respond quickly to customers.

Staying connected

SMS is proving to be a boon for organisations that have a large number of sales personnel and would have to otherwise spend a substantial amount of money on handing out notebooks to them. For instance, Dabur has over 20 factories, six primary warehouses 52 stocking points and 1,000 stockists spread across the country. There are a few hundred sales personnel in Dabur who are always on the move. Gopal Shukla, chief information officer, Dabur explains, “Sales personnel enquire about stock status, credit limit of stockists and outstanding sales-related data through SMS on their cellphones. Notebooks are not as mobile as a cellphone and SMS on the mobile is linked to the MFG-Pro ERP system running across the organisation.” All sales personnel in Dabur have been given cellphones and can access the ERP system using them. Although the company has also provided 50 notebooks to senior members of its sales team, cellphones have helped push the benefits of a comprehensive IT system to its entire field staff.

In a similar context, SMS is being widely used by BPCL to stay connected with its customers and employees. A K Kaushik, deputy general manager, Information Systems, BPCL says, “We share a lot of information with our customers through SMS. We send salary details to our employees and keep in touch with our network-related staff with this technology.” The service has proved beneficial for BPCL’s networking staff as they don’t have to continuously remain in the network or server room. In case of any network- or server-related problem, even if the network and the server room staff is at some other location, they can reach the server or the network room at short notice or remotely log on to rectify the error. This has proved to be of immense help to the organisation and has made life smooth for network administrators.

Reliable and cheap

SMS service is reliable and cheap for organisations that have a large number of people on the move. It is impractical for companies to equip each and every member of their sales force or support team with a notebook for communicating with their peers from remote locations. In case of a notebook, which is costly, they need to login and then connect to their office or other team members. WiFi hotspots are few and far between in India whereas cellular coverage is widespread. SMS is a very economical technology, as cellphones become ubiquitous; it is the simplest and most effective method to disseminate the benefits of IT to the mobile workforce.

Even a handheld device will do

Handheld devices are also gradually substituting notebooks in many organisations across the country. Be it the Simputer or Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) from Palm and Casio, they are substituting notebooks in many areas. For instance, the ITC Group is conducting a pilot wherein its sales force uses PDA-based applications. The aim of the project is to gauge the technical feasibility and business advantage of using PDAs. V V R Babu, chief information officer, ITC Group says, “We are running pilots to capture information for our sales force team on aspects like sales stock, retail outlet management, shelf management, CRM activity with out trade partner and warehouse management at the procurement-end.”

PDAs stand in for notebooks

While handheld vendors echo that their products are not designed as a replacement for a PC or notebook and have a market of their own, enterprises are looking at PDAs in the context of providing much of the same functionality of a notebook at a relatively affordable price. For instance, the Simputer from Bangalore-based Encore software can do many of the same things that a notebook can, and the starting price for Simputer is Rs 9,800, going up to Rs 23,000 for high-end models. Vinay L Deshpande, chairman and CEO, Encore Software says, “One can surf the Net, access e-mail, use Excel spreadsheets, take notes and collect data.” As the Simputer stores data in flash memory as opposed to using a hard disk it is very rugged. It can also be WiFi-enabled by attaching a wireless card to it. The Simputer has been very successfully used for e-governance projects, in sales force automation, and the education sector. In addition to this, Simputers are also being used for electric meter reading and logistics applications.

According to Kulbhushan Seth, PDAs are widely used in the e-governance sector and by sales personnel for collecting information on the field

Similarly PDAs from Casio and Palm have been successfully deployed in the field. For instance, Casio PDAs can be used to update Excel spreadsheets and interface with Microsoft Outlook. Their battery life is long at 150 hours; a notebook would give up the ghost after a mere four. Kulbhushan Seth, chief manager-market planning at Casio India says, “Casio PDAs are being widely used by data collection agencies of state governments for rural education programmes, collecting electricity bills in UP and Delhi and by sales personnel for collecting information on the field. We have sold 5,000 PDAs to the Andhra Pradesh government as well.” Currently, Casio has two models on the market, PV-S 6oo (6 MB) priced at Rs 6,500 and the PV-S 1600 (16 MB) priced at Rs 9,000.

Palm is selling nine PDAs in India with prices ranging from Rs 7,000 to Rs 37,000. Many of the models have wireless capabilities, including built-in WiFi, GSM and GPRS. Higher end Palms can be used to access e-mail, browse the Net and can also be used as mobile phones. Some models have a digital camera and a dictaphone. Palm PDAs are being used by organisations like ING Vysya Life Insurance, Hindustan Lever, Glaxo SmithKline and also by the defence research department in India.

Suitable for the rugged Indian environment

According to Sanjeev Keskar, every organisation is under budget constraints and low cost-branded PCs can be a suitable choice for organisations

Most handheld devices available in the Indian market are suitable for the rugged Indian environment. They are lightweight and easy to handle. Better yet, common people can use them with minimal exposure to IT. Their weather-resistance enables them to be used successfully in e-governance projects, which involve government representatives traversing remote and rugged terrain. Umesh Tiwari, product champion for Karnataka, Tech Pacific India, the distributors of Palm PDAs in India says, “Owing to their lower prices and features matching those of a notebook, the market for PDAs is poised to pick up in a big way in India. The banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector, the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector, and the government sector are going to drive PDA adoption in India in the near future.”

Thin-clients versus branded PCs

Thin-clients are proving to be formidable alternatives to branded PCs. The ITC Group has already taken the initiative of using thin-clients as part of its ongoing PC replacement strategy. ITC has a four- to five-year cycle in which all its PCs are replaced. Today, 50 percent of these new replacements are thin-clients instead of PCs. Babu of ITC Group says, “The low cost of thin-clients is not the main reason for their installation. Thin-clients bring with them ease of manageability. We have nearly 200 locations having around 8,000 desktops across the country and it is easy to manage thin-clients from a central server, thus requiring minimal support staff. The security aspects are also very well addressed by these thin-clients.”

So, price isn’t the compelling factor when a large enterprise picks a thin-client over a PC. That said, it is likely that when enterprises are successful in getting the same PC functionality with better manageability and security they will go for thin-clients in the future. Thin-clients can be a competitive alternative to branded PCs, particularly if you take the total cost of ownership into account. For instance, a WYSE thin-client ranges in price from Rs 12,000 to 23,000 without a monitor. If one compares the cost of managing thin-clients it is a direct saving for a large enterprise. Thin-clients also consume less power; this can prove to be a big saving for an enterprise. A thin-client consumes 10 watts, whereas a PC consumes at least 150 Watts. For large enterprises with hundreds or thousands of machines, this can result in huge savings.

Easier to manage

Kishore Badami, director of marketing, Citrix Systems India, providers of the MetaFrame solution suite that enables thin-client operations says, “ In today’s complex business and IT environment, organisations are looking for proven solutions that can deliver secure, consistent information access to users in different locations and work scenarios. They also seek to simplify the administration of these resources, including applications, internal and external content and Web services to reduce costs and improve services.”

Vinay L Deshpande says that the Simputer can do many things a notebook can—an user can surf the Net, access e-mail, use Excel spreadsheets, take notes and collect data

Large enterprises having multiple offices around the country with desktops running into thousands will find it easy to manage and use thin-clients. This is going to be a big driver for this market. As thin-clients have no hard disk and floppy drives and can be managed from a central server, maintenance is simpler and requires fewer support staff. Large organisations, which are always concerned with the issue of security, can look to these machines as an easy and low-cost alternative to PCs. Barring cases where performance is critical, as in engineering workstations, thin-clients can easily stand in for PCs.

Sowinder Singh, director, Parrus IT Solutions, the Indian distributors of thin-clients from WYSE says, “BFSI, education, government and call centres are going to adopt thin-clients in large numbers. We are already in talk with the State Bank of India, the Indian Railways and a lot of defence establishments in the country to install thin-clients in their set-ups. Since the total cost of ownership (TCO) can be 30-60 percent lower in the case of thin-clients vs. PCs, Indian organisations facing tighter IT budgets will adopt them.”

Low-cost computing is here to stay

With so many low cost-computing devices in the market a beginning has been made. For many large organisations it isn’t the per-unit cost of a device which matters but the TCO, which goes along with it. Factors such as manageability and maintenance costs form part of the TCO. But it also needs to be noted that organisations are not willing to compromise on the quality of devices even if they have to shell out more money for procuring them. In this context, vendors of alternative and low-cost computing devices will have to chalk out a strategy where they are able to offer comparable functionality at a lower price. The phenomenon of low-cost devices has taken off and will gain strength in the future.

abhinav@expresscomputeronline.com