TechNavio

BRIC countries especially India, is becoming a major opportunity area for IT technology providers. Technologies like Wi-Fi are poised to grow in the Indian market. A survey conducted by Tonse Telecom in 2008, for the Wi-Fi alliance says, “Wi-Fi in India: A key economic, social and community development.” The study by Tonse Telecom also forecasts that by 2011-12 the market for Wi-Fi equipments and services in India will reach $890 million, a CAGR of 36% from 2008. These Wi-Fi equipments and services do not include Wi-Fi enabled handsets, laptops and chipsets.

The Indian market is experiencing huge growth in terms of PC/Laptop sales, broadband/wireless broadband penetration and the mobile subscriber base.Of the total PCs shipped in India, Notebooks accounted for 21%. Almost 95% of the laptops shipped in India and Wi-Fi enabled. These are some of the key factors that are driving the growth of Wi-Fi in India. These drivers coupled with the huge user base of India would certainly create opportunities for the Wi-Fi equipments and service providers.

Real estate in India is growing at a rate of 30% per annum and the real estate boom, especially in the retail, corporate and the residential sectors will create opportunities for Wi-Fi deployments. Real estate giants like DLF, Unitech have started deploying Wi-Fi in their new projects. Indian metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore will see major growth in Wi-Fi deployments in retail, residential and corporate sector. All these factors are making the Indian Real estate sector an opportunity area for Wi-Fi equipments and service providers.

The Indian Government is also taking up initiatives that would fuel the adoption and growth of Wi-Fi in India. At the start of 2008, Indian Railways announced that important rail-routes between metros together with 50 stations would be Wi-Fi enabled. This will certainly take time, but the dice has started rolling.

TechNavio has covered the deployments of Wi-Fi enabled services and products in detail and has given special focus on the Wi-Fi opportunities in India and the APAC region. According to TechNavio the Enterprise Networking Equipments market, which includes Wi-Fi and WLAN, is growing and will create opportunities for vendors offering WLAN equipments, Networking Gear, Professional Services, and Wi-Fi Applications.

Chinese SMBs set to spend $42 billion on IT in 2008…Indian SMB market is a goldmine for IT vendors…More than 60% of IT spending in India for 2008…IT spending by Russian SMB segment is expected to cross $20 billion by 2011…Brazil SMB market has started adopting IT, which opens up huge potential…

If you have stumbled upon such lines, you are not alone. Today, everyone is talking about the immense potential of small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) as a market for IT products and services.

However, is it really true? Is the SMB market is these countries really that big? What about the lack of even basic IT infrastructure in these businessess? What about the lack of technical understanding and skilled manpower? These are some of the questions an IT vendor is bound to ask, before it actually targets the market.

Historically, we have seen that the economic growth of these regions and the increase in purchasing power of the population, a large numbers of Multinational Companies (MNCs) entered the market. On the other hand to effectively compete with MNCs, large local players have adopted global standards, processes and systems. This offered a very attractive opportunity for IT vendors since, both MNCs and large local companies invested in IT.

With time, the traditional markets for IT, the US and Europe, have reached to a maturity stage.There are large number of players and most of them are selling homogeneous products and services. Hence, competition is stiff. On the other hand, the SMB market in emerging countries has just started to adopt IT.

These SMBs are investing in IT to improve efficiency, be more profitable, improve competitive position, increase share of wallet etc. This provides ample opportunities in areas such as CRM, SCM, ERP, hardware and software deployment, IT consulting, network consulting & integration etc. Also, the SMBs are adopting the SaaS (software as a service) in a big route. This is because, SaaS helps them to avoid investments in IT infrastructure and manpower.

IT vendors are aware that selling in the emerging countries is not easy. There are a number of differences, including preference for local languages, cultural differences, cumbersome procedures and regulations etc. Further, the SMB market in these countries is a much tougher nut to crack. Many SMBs operate in an orthodox manner and are very price conscious.

The SaaS route can definitely help IT vendors face the market challenges. Many IT vendors are very optimistic about the SaaS opportunities in these markets. Vendors like IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP etc. have already adopted this route to tap the SMB segment in emerging countries.

To help vendors understand the IT scenario in emerging markets, TechNavio has published the “IT Spending in Emerging Markets” report, which provides IT market size, growth forecasts, sales opportunities etc. for BRIC nations, major Central and Eastern European countries and South-East Asian countries. TechNavio also publishes a quarterly newsletter for emerging countries, which provides news and analysis related to deployments, new product introductions, partnerships and other market related news. For more information, please visit TechNavio Insights.

TechNavio unveiled a new release in the recently concluded CEBIT 2008. The new release had exciting features:

Dashboards:The easiest way to view all the relevant information on a single page

Enhanced ‘Print‘ functionality

Expanded Customer Profiler with

• All Forbes 100 companies covered
• Business Drivers matched to Industry HotSpots
• Over 7,500 companies tracked for deployments

Enhanced Global IT Map with

• Growth Forecasts added
• Refined Technology Categories

Enhanced Vendor Intelligence: Now TechNavio is tracking vendor’s financial news as well

Launch of TechNavio Insights

A customized set of reports based on TechNavio Platform. The TechNavio Insights series of reports cover:

Regional Sector Profiles - E.g. Report on IT spend by the manufacturing sector in the APAC region

IT Spend Impacts/Trends Report - E.g. Compliances impacting IT spend in the BFSI industry

Emerging Market Profiles - E.g. IT spending trends in the BRIC countries

Quarterly Market Intelligence Newsletters (Customizable to user’s needs) - E.g. Infrastructure Outsourcing Newsletter

Though Information overload affects the growth of all industries; it is highly relevant for the IT industry due to:

• Fast changing nature of the industry with new technologies replacing old technologies at a very rapid rate
• Need to sell solution to a diverse set of clients and industries
• Competitive landscapes are unclear and change rapidly

TechNavio: A comprehensive solution that reduces information overload and addresses end-to-end intelligence needs of IT industry Sales and Strategic planning teams.

What is TechNavio?

TechNavio is a powerful Market Intelligence Platform developed specifically for the IT industry and provides sales and marketing people with accurate source of market size, competitor, vendor and customer data globally, across all technologies and major industries. TechNavio was officially launched on 20th August 2007.