A recent survey conducted by IBM with clients across multiple industries in the Rajasthan region of India, indicates that more than 90% of businesses are looking to increase their IT investments by up to 30% over the next five years. Cloud and Software as a Service (SaaS) based technologies emerged as the areas they planned on investing in. More than 80% of the respondents felt that these technologies would optimize costs and increase the productivity of their businesses.
Technological advances and market dynamics continue to put immense pressure on how businesses engage with customers, drive innovation and deliver exceptional services. Almost all respondents agreed that today technology is the backbone of any organization and plays a very vital role in improving business efficiency, reducing the overall costs and providing a competitive edge in today’s dynamic marketplace.
“Midsize businesses specially are the thinkers and doers that are driving economic growth in Rajastan. They are truly the engines of development for any growing economy. These companies are embracing technology in completely new ways to capture business opportunities, drive growth and innovation while at the same time protecting their organizations against possible security threats,” said Vivek Malhotra, Vice President and Territory Executive – North & East, IBM India/ South Asia.
Currently, 65% of the companies surveyed are heavily investing in consolidation, virtualization and ERP to streamline their operations. Organizations are under intense pressure to respond to customers who have higher expectations about how products and services delivered and demand a multi-channel consumer experience incorporating web and mobile techologies. Rising complexity and escalating competition have also made technology a core part of business strategy for most of the organizations surveyed.
“The recent study conducted by IBM clearly depicts the current IT scenario in the state. Businesses are keen on adopting technology for growth and consider IT as an integral part of their strategy. There is a lot of willingness in the mid size companies to adopt cloud, SAAS and storage technologies while small companies aim to consolidate their existing IT infrastructure for better performance,” said Rajeev Mathur, Managing Partner, Icon Integrated Services.
Rajasthan is an important region for IBM. Jaipur, being the capital city, has experienced rapid economic growth in recent years due to the development of the local textile, education and tourism industry. IBM has been working with clients in the region to provide advanced software solutions, technologies and services, to aid their business growth.
IBM is working with local technology providers known as Managed Service Providers (MSP) to enable their infrastructure on IBM technology that will help clients with a scalable and secure hosting environment. This will enable them to serve specific industry needs for their clients and deliver cloud based solutions more effectively. Managed service providers deliver a defined set of technology solutions or services to clients with a pay-as-you-go model.
Clients in the region, across industries like banking, textiles manufacturing, government and education are benefitting from IBM technology and solutions, helping them optimize their IT infrastructure while bracing them for future challenges and opportunities.
For example, IBM is working with Shree Cements Ltd – a global producer of cement based in Rajasthan – to support the company’s drive for higher efficiencies, strong operational performance and business innovation.
“As we are growing our capacity year on year, it is essential to ensure that our technology supports the growth and addresses our issues. IBM understood our business needs and supported us with Power 7 technology that helps us utilize our existing infrastructure with better price performance and also provides scalability and flexibility for the future,” said S.K Soni, CIO, Shree Cements Ltd.
