'ASPs will find it cost-effective to operate from India'

With IT research firms predicting a consolidation in the ASP market in the

US, do you believe that Indian ASPs are headed towards a phase of consolidation?

The Indian ASP market is still at a nascent stage. While IT outsourcing has

prevailed for some time now (earlier known as offsite development), the actual

ASP work (application delivery and servicing) also termed as ‘back-office

management’, is yet to make a breakthrough in the Indian market. However,

given the low barriers, the high level of interest and entry of large

organizations, added with low management and maintenance costs, ASPs will find

it lucrative to operate from India. Mergers and acquisitions will also play a

part in growth.

Between SMEs and large businesses, which holds greater potential in India?

While the SME segment will benefit most from ASPs, international trends show

even larger organizations moving to outsource resources to ensure a focus on the

primary area of competence. Similarly, as India moves towards globalization of

its economy, it is critical that SMEs upgrade and integrate systems to

international partners to allow easy access, accountability of operations with

suppliers, vendors and sales-force.

To what extent is customization done in India, when offering services to

clients?

The primary responsibility of an ASP is to ensure reliability, availability

and security of access to application and data across a large customer base

operating from a central server. Therefore, customization limitations prevail.

However, it is important to note that most applications are standardized to

specifics, taking into account statutory and legal issues, which is acceptable

to a large proportion of customers.

Besides, it is this level of standardization that allows tremendous benefits

to customers in terms of speed of deployment, auto-updates and upgrades, systems

maintenance, quality of service and security, among other aspects.