Tata Communications and Google have teamed up to combine their global resources and offer a portfolio of Web-based, collaborative business connectivity tools.
These tools will provide e-mail, instant messaging, calendar functionality, video and office presentation tools for businesses across India, according to Tata.
“The portfolio of business tools, powered by Google Apps, is a significant move by both parties to bring value-added applications to Indian enterprises, while offering localised pricing, billing and support.
“The launch of this service marks the coming together of two global entities to change the way enterprises communicate and collaborate, both within their own organisations, as well as with their partner and customer ecosystems,” says David Wirt, senior VP and global head of managed services at Tata Communications.
Clouding costs
Tata explains that the service streamlines the complexities of IT, while allowing businesses to pay for only what they need.
It adds that Indian organisations, particularly the emerging enterprises, will now have expanded access to Tata's cloud-based software services, helping them migrate their IT requirements to a pay-as-you-use business model.
“The portfolio will help organisations reduce IT cost and complexity and be more productive. It will be particularly beneficial to companies with fast growing teams, offices spread across the country, or staff who travel frequently,” says the company.
Dave Girouard, president of enterprise at Google, says the companies are confident this offering will help reduce IT costs and complexity for Indian businesses. “Not only will organisations avoid the traditional challenges of managing on-premise technologies, but they can give their workers anytime, anywhere access to the communication tools and information they need to get their jobs done.”
The service will minimise maintenance without the need for additional hardware or software. It will be accessed via the Tata Communications Web site over a Web browser or smartphone and will provide secure, real-time collaboration among workgroups of all sizes, according to Tata.
SaaS leader
Tata Communications says this move underscores the company's focus on extending services to emerging markets by leveraging its tier one network across Asia, SA and the Middle East.
“For emerging markets, where enterprises are more cost-sensitive, the subscription-based pricing, rapid deployment, and lower “exit costs” offered by the SaaS [software as a service] model sometimes make SaaS the only viable option.”
It adds that Springboard Research has shown India to be the fastest growing SaaS market in Asia Pacific. It estimated to register a growth of 60% compound annual growth rate from 2008 to 2012.
“A December 2009 Springboard Research study revealed 95% of Asian organisations are familiar with SaaS and that SaaS-based applications, including CRM [customer relationship management], ERP [enterprise resource planning], storage, Web conferencing and e-mail, are the most popular applications among cloud users and constitute the bulk of cloud-related spending.”
Tata moves in
Tata adds that analysts are saying 2010 is the year that organisations will take on cloud computing, following a dormant year of IT spending.
“Adoption of cloud computing across the Asia Pacific region, excluding Japan, will spike in 2010, according to IDC, with spending on IT cloud services growing almost threefold and reaching $42 billion by 2012 in Asia Pacific.”
The company says India will play a significant role in this rapid cloud growth. “Gartner expects that by 2012, 20% of businesses worldwide will own no IT assets and India-centric companies will represent 20% of the leading cloud aggregators globally.”
In light of this, Tata made advances into the SaaS market. In 2009, the company partnered with SugarCRM, a producer of open source CRM software, to offer on-demand CRM services to SMEs in India.
“Earlier this year, Tata Communications acquired Mosaic from BT for its SaaS-based digital media management platform that now comes under Tata Communications' global media and entertainment solutions,” says the company.
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