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Nasscom: Going for an upgrade

Bipin Chandran

It is a change of style that has been in the works ever since Dewang Mehta, the flag-carrier of the Indian software industry, died. On April 14, 2001, one day after Mehta's death, the top office-bearers of Nasscom met in Delhi for an emergency meeting to decide about the future.

There were no disagreements about the way forward: Nasscom, they decided, had to be given a stronger framework and institutionalised.

That wasn't a criticism of Mehta who was omnipresent and had functioned as a one-man band. But it was a recognition that the Indian software industry had travelled a long way and come of age ever since the turn of the century.

One year later the fruits of that meeting are on show. The basic structure of the new Nasscom is slowly moving into place.

Says Nasscom's former chairman, Phiroz Vandrewala: "The reason for bringing in Kiran Karnik as the president of Nasscom was not to replace Dewang. But to steer the next round of growth and transformation of Nasscom, which coincided with Dewang's death."

Vandrewala, who is also the executive vice president TCS, was one of the key players who decided that Nasscom needed to change its style of functioning. But the other members of Nasscom's executive committee - Arun Kumar of Hughes, Harish Mehta of Onward Novell, Saurabh Srivastava of Infinity Ventures - have also been playing important roles behind the scenes.

Like the Indian software industry Nasscom travelled a considerable distance during the '90s. But now it is moving forward in different ways. It now has a vice-president to head research and another whose job is to look after relationships and events.

Besides that it is in the process of opening offices in all cities that are important infotech centres. What's more, an overseas office will be opened in the near future.

"Nasscom is evolving as a more member-centric organisation offering member services. We have established a brand in the global market in the last 12 years. Now we need to find ways to capitalise on it and help guide the sector to the next stage of growth," says Karnik.

To start with Nasscom is opening regional offices. The first one has already started functioning in Mumbai. Four more offices will open in the very near future in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata.

"These regional offices would work with local governments and the companies to ensure that there are conducive working conditions for the software sector in these regions," says Karnik.

Inevitably, Nasscom's head office in Delhi will also re-orient itself to fit into the new scheme of things. Delhi will focus on a mix of tasks including research and member services, international lobbying and event organising.

"We will also be working with the central government on specific issues as and when they crop up," Karnik points out.

Why is Nasscom going international? The answer is fairly obvious. In its early days Nasscom spent time smoothening out the path for the software industry in India. Today, the industry has climbed to an entirely new plane and the industry's voice needs to be heard abroad.

For a start it will hire a public relations firm - probably in the US - to smarten up the Indian software industry's image.

"We have so far been working on easing the domestic conditions conducive for the software companies so that they have a better working environment here. But as the companies are becoming global players we need to ensure that the global market place is conducive for them," Karnik says.

The near war-like situation between India and Pakistan has also hastened the need to give the industry's image a slight sprucing up internationally.

Building up Nasscom's services for members is another key area that had to be strengthened in recent months. Most importantly, Karnik and his team had to deliver better research to its members.

"Market research is important now as we need to guide the industry. It also becomes more important as we have competition from new players," said Sunil Mehta, vice-president, Nasscom. Mehta heads Nasscom's research team.

Nasscom's approach to research has also changed. "We do not now want to just predict that India's software services sector would be so many billions by 2008, but also to give the members guidance to achieve the target. This change can been seen in the latest Nasscom-McKinsey report," says Mehta.

To ensure that Nasscom can deliver more accurate predictions Nasscom is also asking its members to ensure better numbers and records.

For instance, it may ask members to start presenting their accounts according to US-GAAP standards.

The efforts to push for transparency won't stop with US-GAAP. "Indian companies need to become global players in the true sense to compete globally. The companies should adopt global accounting, HR and other practices. We will be helping the companies to do so as part of our member services," says Mehta.

"Nasscom's aim is work out achievable targets and action plans for the members. Besides, it should help them to meet these targets and find ways to sail through troubled times," says Arun Kumar, chairman, Nasscom. According to Kumar, the relationship with the government is also changing with most of the broad policy requirements of the sector being met.

"We will work on specific issues with the government and will also take its help in solving issues with other governments like visa regulations and totalisation agreements," he says.

What message will Nasscom send out internationally? One important point that it wants to get across is that India isn't a bodyshop destination. "We want to tell the world that the Indian software industry is not taking away jobs from other countries. But it will set up software development centres by hiring local people. This will lead to the development of a local software industry in those countries," says Sangeeta Gupta, a Nasscom veteran of 12 years and one of its vice presidents.

Nasscom may have to ensure that its new act is in place very quickly. It is suddenly facing competition from other industry associations like the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry that are moving aggressively on the IT front.

CII recently set up an IT committee to mobilise international opinion in favour of the Indian software sector.

Nasscom insists that it isn't feeling the heat. "We are ready to work with associations like CII and Ficci as they are good at presenting the views of the economy as a whole. But when it comes to presenting the views of the software sector it should be Nasscom," Karnik argues.

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