New Delhi

NASSCOM, the premier trade body and “voice” of the IT software and services industry has announced the eight winners of the ‘India IT User Awards 2006’ and released key findings of the ‘Tracking of the IT adoption study 2006’. The eight winners for the effective use of information technology across verticals will be felicitated by the Chief Guest, Hon’ble Union Railway Minister, Shri Lalu Prasad Yadav, at an award ceremony this evening in New Delhi.  

Shri Lalu Prasad Yadav will also accept a special award by NASSCOM, 'IT Transformation Award’, on behalf of Indian Railways for pioneering use of technology by the Indian Railways.  

Mr. Kiran Karnik, President, NASSCOM, said “NASSCOM and the industry congratulate the winners of this prestigious award which recognises and catalyses increased IT usage in the domestic/ national market. We are also extremely pleased to have with us Shri Lalu Prasad Yadav presenting the awards and accepting the IT Transformation Award on behalf of the Indian Railways. The Indian Railways is an extraordinary example of a turnaround story, and their plans of public private partnerships for IT (which include ERP, MIS, and optimisation and consolidation of multiple applications and Mission 2015 plan), makes this a challenging and exciting opportunity for IT companies.”  

Talking about the findings of the survey, Mr. Karnik said “The year 2006 was a great year for the domestic IT market which saw balanced growth across hardware, software and services segment. The findings of the IT User survey interestingly indicate that the average spending is on the rise and the sectors leading this are BFSI, Energy & Utility and Tourism & Hospitality sector. What we also see is that from the supply side, more and more Indian IT companies have now realised the growth potential in the domestic market and are targeting this space with customised products and solutions”.   

India IT User Awards 2006

Vertical	Winners
Engineering	Suprajit Engineering Ltd
Banking, Financial Services and Insurance	Union Bank of India
Energy & Utility	The Tata Power Company
FMCG	ITC Limited
Government	IT Dept., Govt. of AP
Media & Entertainment	Crest Animation Studios Limited
Pharmaceutical	Biocon Ltd.
Tourism & Hospitality	Indian Airlines

As part of its Domestic Market initiative, NASSCOM instituted the awards four years back to acknowledge organizations in India that have implemented projects that demonstrate benefits of IT to the enterprise.  

Built on the theme of ‘Enterprise Value’, the India IT User Awards 2006 felicitates eight organizations that are using information technology to deliver business value, whether by creating competitive advantage, optimizing business processes, enabling revenue growth or improving relationships with customers.  

This year NASSCOM has partnered with ACNielsen, world’s leading marketing information company, for the award methodology, criteria, and award process.    

KEY FINDINGS OF THE NASSCOM ‘TRACKING OF THE IT ADOPTION STUDY 2006’
The 2006 Study, conducted among IT heads and senior IT managers from about 292 companies in India, across multiple verticals, showed that the growth of IT adoption was on an incline, with both large and SME companies buying more IT. The Study also indicated the following:

• The highest average IT spending for 2006 was for the BFSI vertical followed by for the Energy and Utility segment.
• The rate of increase in the average spending in each of these verticals was expected to be in the range of 12-27 percent, making them the most likely highest spending sectors in 2007 as well.
• The third sector which was projected to witness a considerable hike in its IT spend was the Tourism and Hospitality industry. The sector’s Rs. 18 crore of IT spend was projected to grow by 13 percent, placing it among the highest tech-spenders in India in 2007. 
• Interestingly, one out of four companies in both large scale and medium scale organizations indicated that their IT budgets would increase by around 10-19 percent during the current year.

NASSCOM’s “Tracking of IT adoption study 2006” also revealed the following:

• Business Continuity and Risk Mitigation were the key priority areas for CIOs
• Increasing efficiency and process productivity was the business goal achieved through IT adoption in 2006
• The match between Business Goals and IT spends was not evident
• The CIO’s role as the “business leader” and then as a “technologist” was not the current Prototype
• IT spends were driven by Hardware followed by application and network software

The NASSCOM Study made it clear that CIOs would need to ensure that the business value of IT was proven and delivered. According to the Study, the business benefit would have to be proved up-front and the means of measuring benefits of IT arrived at by perhaps using an overlay IT-business balanced scorecard approach or by mapping the benefits perceived and by pre-empting outcome scenarios.

This in fact, was stated to be a major CIO challenge, which required them to be more business oriented. The effort of mapping business benefits was immense, even though some CIOs had already started measuring IT advantages, juxtapositioning them as trusted business advisors.

 

 

Updated on: 25 Jun, 2007