2014 overview and Trends for 2015 by Mr. Ramesh Loganathan – Managing Director Progress Software and President HYSEA (IT-ITES)
An overview of 2014
2014 was a year where stability continued from the previous year. All the uncertainty had settled down by the beginning of 2014 hence the year was in many ways the foundation to a new growth phase. Growth has surely tapered off from the heady days of 40% growth before the recession. But, even as growth is lower at about 15%, the slowdown fears are now gone. The efficiency tightening continues all around the industry. Services industry now has low single digit benches (compared to 20+% 5 years ago). Innovation and value growth is on all the service company agenda for future growth & revenue preservation. The new wave of tech startups saw a lot of action this year. The amount of coverage in news papers is a clear reflection of the growing importance and relevance of the startups sector in the country. Hyderabad also saw a significant uptake in number of people quitting cushy jobs and starting up, startups growing and raising angel rounds, funded startups going on to raise subsequent VC rounds.
2014 was a great year for the state as well. With the statehood agitation ending and election of a stable government both at the state and at center, has enabled a stable business environment.
Expectations from 2015
The stability of 2015 will continue as there seem to be no red flags in the horizons. The breather that industry got through the weakening of the currency will be used to further get efficiency and value-enhancing measures. Over the next few years, the industry has to significantly up the value curve to be able to sustain profitability with the cost structures going up every year and the inevitable rupee-appreciation that is likely in next few years, as our economy continues to improve. The tech startup segment will continue to grow. Mobile and Cloud technologies will continue to be center stage in 2015. The application models are now rapidly emerging, and most enterprises move from evaluating and exploring to serious production adoption. Mobile is now leading to a new class of solutions that are mobile first. As enterprises get more comfortable on cloud, they are looking at newer cloud based and cloud-centered application models like aPaaS, where they build and deploy on the cloud. Cloud analytics is another area that will continue to evolve in 2015. Tech startups will grow in strength in 2015.
The new policy has interesting stipulations to nurture and grow the R&D and product startup ecosystem in the Telangana state. We expect more incubators to come up. THub – The Telangana state supported incubator, will be functional providing a state wide impetus to the startup ecosystem. With this in the background, we will also be able to offer a compelling value proposition to all R&D companies to either grow or start their R&D operations in Hyderabad. The state government has been extremely engaged and supportive of the industry. Easy accessibility and with continuous interactions, the government has been very responsive to industry concerns/needs.
