'As for ecommerce, I would say that it would take it at least two years to become popularly adopted in India' -Radha Basu, GM, Electronic Business Software Organization, Hewlett-Packard

Radha Basu, GM, Electronic

Business Software Organization (EBSO), who joined as an engineer in HP's Laboratories

working in the field of ultrasound imaging, recently completed two decades in HP this

year. Early this year, she was awarded the Excelsior Leadership Award for her outstanding

achievement in the corporate world. There is none of the aggression that normally

accompanies an IT professional, whose professional life thrives as much on hype as on his

professional accomplishment. Instead, Radha Basu is softspoken and one has to literally

strain his ears to hear her speak. Like her voice, her frail appearance too is deceptive.

For behind the fa‡ade is a person who is fiercely competitive and blessed with an

indefatigable spirit. She is responsible for the development of HP software products and

frameworks that enable customers to accelerate their e-business processes and ensure a

robust IT infrastructure. In order to make this possible, she travels across the globe.

During one of her visits to India, she spent time with DATAQUEST to talk about what

ecommerce means to HP's future and its strategy in India.

What is e-business according to

HP and what is the company's role in this new business opportunity?



E-business is a big opportunity for HP and we are thankful to IBM for educating the masses
about it. For HP e-business is extremely strategic. What is e-business? It is about three

things. It is about the way companies deal with their suppliers and distributors on

extranets. It is about how companies deal with their various divisions with intranet. It

is about business processes and distributing through channels. And ecommerce is just a

subset of e-business, which is very, very big. It is all about how businesses behave and

how your business runs on the internet. It is the biggest effect of internet. It is

strategic and that's why HP acquired Verifone.

How big is this business in the

US?



There are different figures floating around but the market is growing. E-business is all
about the changes we are going through, in how we respond to competition, how we respond

to customers-in terms of personalized services and just-in-time products. You already have

companies like Boeing and Cisco placing orders over the net. You have Dell which is

conducting a fair amount of business over the net. One is already witnessing

telecommunication companies and banks seriously considering going this route. For

instance, look at retail banks in the US. A study revealed that almost 85% of their

profits are generated from just 15% of their customers. And that 45% of customers took

away nearly 40% of profits. Given this data, they can now, automate this 45% of customers

and for the 15%, create customer built services to give that personal touch.

Fundamentally, companies have begun to realize the importance of customer care and the

need to not only customize services for their needs but also reach it to them quickly and

in a convenient manner. Likewise, manufacturing companies too know that just like

just-in-time inventory, they have to get into just-in-time building. Just producing more

is not enough but more of different things for different people. Companies like Ford and

GM are linking distributors and suppliers on extranets for supply chain integration. You

see retailers like Walmart and Texaco going the same route.

What is the nature of HP's

involvement in e-business?



We are in the business of building infrastructure from the e-business point of view. We
are also into making transactions happen. Our strategy centers on making buying and

selling over the internet commonplace and secure, and making it easy to link business

processes to the world at large and to change those processes on the fly.

Is this where your product

ChangeEngine comes in? What exactly is ChangeEngine?



Yes. And ChangeEngine is a process engine that allows you to change business processes
dynamically. Especially, for e-business. For business and e-business, change is becoming

constant. See, companies have been through at least one round of restructuring their

business processes, and with change happening at the dramatic pace, changes to processes

have to take place almost simultaneously without disturbing the current applications. For

instance, many companies have applications built on mainframes. Now, HP's technology

enables you to restructure your company's processes without having to change the

applications. Now, changing applications each time there is a change in technology can be

exhausting and time consuming. In the end, it may not result in the desired results

because the very purpose-changing quickly-is lost.

ChangeEngine, like databases, will

form a new category all together. We have a family of products built with the ChangeEngine

technology as the core. These suite of products are for implementing rapid business

change, for reducing costs, reducing risks etc. If you look at companies today, what are

their two biggest worries-being competitive and making money? And ChangeEngine technology

provides ways for corporations to be both. Companies today build their businesses

processes with middleware and custom code, and mixing business logic with the code.

ChyangeEngine on the other hand allows you to separate the business process aspect from

the integration aspect.

Are there any instances of

corporations benefiting from ChangeEngine?



We have introduced it and are in the implementing stage. Incidentally, ChangeEngine's
features and core engine were developed here in Bangalore.

To what extent is this a

competitive edge for HP?



Currently we have the edge, but not for long, for sure. I am sure competitors will launch
similar products in the market soon.

How big is this business for HP?





HP's independent software business (that is, non-OS) comprising internet and IT services
is expected to contribute 10% of HP's total revenue by year 2000, that is $5 billion. The

ChangeEngine family of products is expected to contribute nearly $1 billion by the same

timeframe. There are challenges everywhere-in distribution, resellers-so we are getting

new products every three-to-four months.

Any estimation on the volume of

business likely to be done electronically?



Cisco did nearly 25% of its business over the internet 14 months back. There are numbers,
they vary from a low of $12 billion to as high as $62 billion by end of year 2000.

From what you have witnessed,

who are quick to adopt to this new way of doing business-the big corporates or the

small-to medium sized companies?



Indeed, it is the small and medium sized businesses which have adopted the net quickly.
Internet creates a level playing field. The book store Amazon.com is a typical example. It

started out with just 12 people. It has forced large companies like Barnes & Noble to

introduce internet ordering. A vast majority of the larger companies are laggards when it

comes to adopting the internet.

What is your experience in

India? Are Indian companies ready for doing business on the internet?



It is difficult to say. They are only now beginning to be aware of the potential and the
possibilities of the internet. It will at least take another 12 months for Indian

companies to adopt to doing business electronically. As for ecommerce, I would say that it

would take at least two years to become popularly adopted in India.