(Photo: The "new" modern and spacious Bengaluru (BLR) airport.  Copyright © 2008 R Wang. All rights reserved.)

New airport symbolic of Bengaluru's on-going transformation.

Arrival into Bangalore was quite a treat with mild 75 degree (25C) weather, less humidity, and a spanking new airport built by Zurich Airport, Siemens and India's renown Larsen & Toubro for a price tag of $625 million.  The old airport was closer to downtown, but frankly not worthy of Bangalore's world class info tech reputation.  The trade off - the Bengaluru International Airport is located in Devanahalli, 35km North of Bangalore city center It's further away, and takes about an hour to get there.  Infrastructure is spotty from the newly built National Highway 7 (Bangalore-Hyderabad Highway) to MG road, there are some segments that seem like they are in perpetual construction.  On the way back, you feel the effects of the new Indian airport - great check-in flows, auto bag screening, real jetways to the planes (no more transfer buses), high end boutiques, western style food courts, and real air conditioning!
Leading services providers move to deliver differentiated IP.
Conversations with the leading firms highlighted continued advancement in the value chain.  These service providers have managed to rapidly transform themselves over the past 2 years.   The goal of achieving a trusted advisor status among clients remains in sight.  There were 4 key themes from my meetings with our vendor clients as well as customers visiting these Indian service providers:

• New vendor focused centers of excellence show increased competency
• Continued micro verticalization adds to industry credibility
• Deeper specialization in industries, roles, geos, and market segments opens up new markets
• Transition from selling to an IT user to earning a business leader's trust reflects new buying patterns

As with conversations in Mumbai, there is a sense of slow-down, but this is relative to the growth rates of 50% Y-O-Y growth that some firms have enjoyed during the past 5 years.  Hiring continues and ranges from replacement only to "moderate" growth of 20%
The bottom line -service providers making the transition to solution providers


System integrators now have the power to deliver their IP via the Cloud, PaaS, SaaS, and other mechanisms.  The result - IP can be owned and distributed directly to customers.  The more this happens, the more customers will have choice beyond the large vendors.  If successful, innovation will thrive and customers will win as these solution centric ecosystems get built out.
Your POV.
What are you seeing in the India market? Is your services provider becoming more strategic?  Feel free to share with me your thoughts.  You can post here or send me a private email to [email protected].
Copyright © 2008 R Wang. All rights reserved.