TRACING INDIA’S TECH REVOLUTION – FROM LABOUR ARBITRAGE TO A TALENT POWERHOUSE

The next 5 years in technology will transform India much more than what cell phones & smartphones did in last 15 years.

The impact of technology on Indian as well as Global economy has been humongous and there is an un-denying fact that this revolution has made us all live in an IT obsessed world. It has enabled people to live a happy life while in turn giving back some of the best minds to the society. Yes, I’m also talking about Elon Musk here.

When it comes to exploring and experimenting with emerging technology, the Indian IT market has a mix of companies that are intrepid while other companies need a motivational push. Companies like PayTM in e-commerce and banking, Nestaway in real estate, Practo in medical services have disrupted because they did not wait for the innovation to happen.

These companies have adapted the following system:

At first, they started with finding digital technologies that disrupt; then they expanded well beyond that. The main focus has been on developing the core functions enabled by technology. All of these and more is to make it a piece of cake for the end-users. The more time & cost efficient the business is, the more will be the adaptation. And India has, without question, made the largest technological breakthrough making it the most attractive destinations for investors throughout the world.

From Aadhar Card Act to UPI to BFSI disruption in last 10-15 years, let us see what future technology holds for India in next 5 years.

The rise and the rise of blockchain – Blockchain has finally paved its way in 2017 as one of the incredibly disruptive entity rather than just being the backbone for Bitcoin since 2008. Blockchain is a decentralised system that can be a faster, cheaper and a safer way for global transactions.

There are few banks like ICICI who have already invested and done a blockchain transaction where as Kotak Mahindra Bank are theoretically convinced of the advantages of this upcoming technology.

India has also seen some early adopter of Bitcoins and while we are only digesting it, you will not be surprised when few sectors like real estate, transportation (where transactions are huge) will agree to Bitcoins as an accepted transaction soon.

IoT coupled with Big Data and Analytics will change the business models of many sectors – These technologies have a staggering impact on various industries that can change the face of any nation. Using sensors and connectivity, IoT will help in building advanced asset utilization system which can easily locate and maintain the machineries, tools and equipments.

What is evident as well as exciting is these IoT-enabled devices have become an integral part of our life. And IoT security, which was earlier ignored has been a major business concern lately.

Many still feel India has been laidback in building the Facebook or WhatsApp of India. I support the statement to an extent. What I think is the breakthroughs will happen only once the mental shift happens. Businesses that still stick to ‘let us do it the way it happens’ will face fierce competition in next few years, and they might as well get thrown out of the market. It is not the fancy leapfrog jump that these businesses will have to take; but just an open mind to be a front runner in creating the trends.

Trescon is exploring ways how businesses can be benefitted by the upcoming technology trends by hosting some of the best Indian and international CIOs on 14-15 June 2017 at JW Marriot in Mumbai. In this Sixth Edition #BigCIOShow, Trescon’s goal is to empower businesses that can discover innovative ways for adapting digital transformation which suits their businesses the best.

Experts of IoT, Big Data and Blockchain will have a lightning talk on the topics mentioned below:

• Exploring where IoT is driving real results, to real people, in real businesses
• How and where is IoT enabling smarter business operations and smart decision making?
• In what ways, can IoT enable innovation and drive real business transformation and remake your industry?
• Developing new business models and propositions to engage with the customer or consumer and collaborate with key verticals,
• Impact of IoT across the value chain.

With this show in Mumbai, Trescon plans to re-envision business models & embrace a way of using technology that bridge people, data, and processes ultimately bring together and empowering businesses with exciting possibilities.

For more information about the show, participating speakers and agenda, visit bigcioshow.com. To book tickets, visit Big CIO Tickets. Explore Sponsorship opportunities at Sponsor Big CIO Show

Exploring Digital Solutions for Traditional Problems

The survival of the fittest – The problem with the customers’ expectations is that they keep rising. People want the business to be delivered exactly as they want. If you can’t give a product exactly at the same price in physical store as your online store, they will move away. Possibilities are they might stop buying from the online store as well. The reason is you have inconvenienced them. Today, it is ‘time’ and ‘service’ that matters over ‘price’.

Giving solutions in real-time on platforms like Twitter/Facebook will help because your customer inquiry number will be the absolute last resort. And this is evidently important in this digital era because anyone or possibly everyone is an influencer. As you read this, your competitor has adapted some new way of using technology, changing their business model in a way. Whether you’ve faced this moment or not, it is high time that you disrupt or you get disrupted.

I would recommend the former one and accept this as the new norm of doing the business because this new generation will always find another way but won’t wait. Brands today have to be available wherever their customers want them to.

There are trends that a company can look up to but the way to get it implemented is solely dependent on the CIOs/CTOs of the company. It is not just implementing differently than your competitors, but making it simple and secure enough that makes people stay longer using your products/services.

Trescon is exploring ways how businesses can be benefitted by the upcoming technology trends by hosting some of the best Indian and international CIOs on 14-15 June 2017 at JW Marriot in Mumbai. In this Sixth Edition Big CIO Show, Trescon’s goal is to empower businesses that can discover innovative ways for adapting digital transformation which suits their businesses the best.

Dr Bill Limond, Business Transformation, Program Leader, CIO, CDO, CTO, Consultant, Mentor, Coach, Advisor is one of the many speakers at the the #BigCIOShow. Bill is delivering a keynote on ‘Translating Digital Transformation into Clear Business Value For Organisation’. Highlights of his keynote address include:

• Articulating the value of digital technologies to your organization’s future
• Engaging senior management with the right story for your business
• The importance of establishing KPIs to measure the impact of digital transformation
• Framing the right narrative for digital transformation

With this show in Mumbai, Trescon plans to re-envision business models & embrace a way of using technology that bridge people, data, and processes ultimately bring together and empowering businesses with exciting possibilities.

For more information about the show, participating speakers and agenda, visit bigcioshow.com. To book tickets, visit Big CIO Tickets. Explore Sponsorship opportunities at Sponsor Big CIO Show

WHY DUBAI WANTS TO ROPE IN BLOCKCHAIN?

This article will give you a head start on the blockchain technology with some latest information on why is Dubai so excited about it.

In the year 1969, we witnessed one of the most disruptive innovations which changed the world for the better; ‘The Internet’. Well now it is not just the only technology that changed our lives upside down, it is followed by ‘blockchain technology’ which, as many believe has the power to change the payments ecosystem globally. Before digging deep into what blockchain is, let us understand its meaning in layman’s language and its connection with Bitcoin.

Is blockchain just a digital ledger system?

Blockchain is a decentralised system that can be a faster, cheaper and a safer way for global transactions. Blockchain is a ledger software code, where ledger simply means keeping a record book of finances. But blockchain is simply not the digitisation of ledger, but promises more to it.

It helps in keeping records of a ledger without the interference of a third party. These parties include businesses that create infrastructure between a payer and banks, businesses that transfer money or submit invoices, etc. Blockchain is also referred to as ‘a way to create trust in the digital age’.

What is the Bitcoin connection?

Blockchain has finally paved its way in 2017 as one of the incredibly disruptive entity rather than just being the backbone for Bitcoin since 2008. For those who know what Bitcoin is or at least have heard of the same, Bitcoin is a new currency that was created in 2009 by an unknown person using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. Transactions are made with no middle-men, meaning, no banks! There is no need of giving your name and the transaction fee is null.

HOW WILL BLOCKCHAIN MAKE DUBAI THE MOST TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED CITY IN THE WORLD?

The Crown Prince of Dubai, Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum cited that the ‘Dubai Future Foundation’ will be tasked with overseeing the strategy to its implementation, while the Smart Dubai executes the directive.

Is blockchain econonomical? Eco-friendly? – When the Crown Prince of Dubai announced implementing blockchain in October 2016 in order to achieve high-degree of efficiency in government departments, he also laid a foundation which is appreciated across the globe. The agenda is to go paperless, cutting almost 100 million paper transactions annually. This will also save millions of hours spent on storing and managing paper. This means the same hours can be re-utilized in something else. Wow!

Shared ledger instead of data, documents and papers. And everything is real-time – What has the financial markets intrigued about blockchain is the potential to offer the same shared ledgers across multiple users to perform financial transactions or back-office functions in a manner that delivers real-time data to all parties involved. The ledger is viewable – and usable – at once by any and all nodes on a distributed network (either private or public).

It brings with it an incredible work-life balance – Implementing blockchain will also give stress-free life to people as it requires a setup to be done only once. After a successful setup, people will never have to worry about transaction receipts and authentication from third party businesses concerned with the transaction.

Mohammad Abdullah Al Gergawi, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Managing Director of Dubai Future Foundation, said, “The strategy will result in substantial economic saving that can be reinvested in value-added sectors and will contribute to saving millions of hours wasted in entering data and ensuring their veracity. It will also create new economic fields and businesses as the volume of Blockchain market is expected to hit $300 million over the course of the next five years.”

World Blockchain Summit: A global platform to exchange ideas and showcase solutions

With the developments in blockchain technology as they come, Trescon, a Bangalore based global business events and consulting firm has grabbed all the attention which is about to host the first ‘World Blockchain Summit’ in Dubai on 24-25 October 2017. The primary focus is to identify and prioritise the various service areas in public and private organisations that can benefit from blockchain technologies and educate the market about the transformational potential of blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies.

Mr. Mohammed Saleem, CEO, Trescon said, “Blockchain technology in different form has been there for over a decade now. This summit is intended to provide a single high-profile platform to all the stakeholders in this game changing technology. Trescon is proud to organise first ever blockchain summit which is hosting global blockchain gurus and technology players in this space including emerging start-ups, with regional businesses and IT leaders from across key industry verticals”

For more information on the announcement, logon to www.worldblockchainsummit.com or contact krunal@tresconglobal.com, +91 80 3911 3942

How can technology truly make content the king?

Do you remember the time when you wanted to watch that movie you dreamed about the whole weekend? You rushed to a DVD rental store early from work on a Friday night, spending your time in the traffic just to get that one DVD of the movie. Imagine the grudge you had for that person who snatched it up just before you reached.

You must also remember the late fees that you had to pay for renting those DVDs. And God forbid you plan a long weekend at home watching films and missed the deadline to return them, it would surely cost you a small fortune.

Only people born before 1990 would have witnessed such hurries. Because what the next generation saw was a completely different side of the table. The idea of Netflix came about when Reed Hastings saw a local gym’s business model, ’pay one monthly fee and have unlimited access to the gym’. And thus began the video streaming revolution.

Content marketing is like a new born baby. You have to take the utmost care while the baby is quite young, with maintenance processes like regular oil massages to help your baby’s growth and development. Similarly, content marketing will probably not show results in the initial stage, but once it starts, you may be shocked by the results.

Content Marketing & Advertising are not growing exponentially, they are exploding – According to a 2013 study by Google & Neilsen, of 85% searches on smartphones, 81% are seen to be taking an action. This huge conversion rate is what drives marketers towards mobile advertising. It has already started justifying all the hype that was created over the years.

With technology you can help create content which resonates with your consumers – But before doing that, how do you find the right consumer? Well, most of the time you don’t find a ‘right’ consumer, you create them. Zomato, an online food search and delivery platform has been setting trends by means of technology with content which brings out the foodie you. Zomato’s major part of content comprises of entertainment and higher degree of creativity.

Appointment based TV viewing is nearly dead – There has been a huge shift in the way that people watch TV. World over, fewer and fewer people are watching TV at the assigned program times. Users like to read or watch whatever they want to and whenever they want to, on whichever device is most handy at the moment. The cue here is to make content available at the time and on the medium that is most convenient to them. And with technology, this is as easy as pie.

While you must not put all eggs in one basket, don’t lose sight of that basket – It’s 2016 already and marketers are already creating more content than ever before even while the term ‘Diversify or Die’ is driving them to madness. For diversification, what can be a better vehicle than digital & social media! The trick to developing better content is to add as many graphical explanations, videos, webinars, testimonials as possible, so that you can increase resonance and better engagement.

You bought that tic-tac because you were dog-tired. – Impulse buying probably started when a person, tired after spending an hour at the grocery store and having expended decision-making skills, is expected to make a bad choice. Never confuse consumers with a barrage of content, because when you have over 150 pension policies or more than 1,110 kinds of toilet brushes to choose from, consumers will either get bored, frustrated or lazy enough not to go ahead. Thus, content should be concise, specific and personalized.

As a brand, do more than what you’re supposed to do – Consumers love it when a brand reaches out from across unexpected platforms shakes things up a bit. And there is a very thin line between content which engages and content which looks sales-y.

Consumers don’t share ads, they share the content – The chances of consumers sharing an advert are much more when it either engages or excites them, or maybe both. In this fast-paced world, it’s not about grabbing the attention of your consumers but holding it too.

Key takeaway: Keep the spirit always high – Technology can be a great way to draw attention towards your marketing or advertising content but at the same time, it is extremely important to quantify you returns. Creating a content which differentiates you from your competitors will help in building brand loyalty. When carried out effectively, content marketing can generate significant results even for business which are undeveloped. While having diversified content techniques will obviously see more results than going with a single approach and not adjusting to the changes, it is must to have a track of your social mentions with tools like TweetDeck, Buzzsumo and Google Analytics, etcetra.