VOICES across the packaged software industry spell reassurance and quiet confidence in the future. And why not? Despite the slowdown in Q4, the industry has seen a healthy growth of 37%. Between April 2001 and March 2001, Indian companies launched over 92 new software products and upgrades in the domestic market, while MNCs launched another 152.

E-biz solutions emerge winners

Given the slowdown in the economy, even traditional non-IT companies are bound to cut back on IT spending. However, the gloom has not been infectious. Plans to overhaul the entire digital structure or commence selling online may have been axed, but essential upgrades, streamlining internal processes and ramping up customer-facing operations remain top priority. Not surprisingly, e-business applications are expected to grow 15% this year.

According to DATAQUEST estimates, in 2000-01, e-commerce software solutions worth $1.2 billion were exported. This number is expected to increase to $1.8 billion in 2001-02. From a back-end database that cannot talk to the company’s interactive Website to users who swear by the company’s legacy system—"the new SCM is too complex". Technology has often wreaked havoc on unsuspecting clients. Given the high investment in e-business packages, users find it extremely frustrating to deal with complexity and non-compatibility among different platforms. The year 2000-2001 has seen some of these key issues being addressed.

Simplicity: The buzzword

"Oracle is waging a war on complexity," declares Somesh Bhagat, head of marketing, Oracle Software India. "We want to help organizations concentrate on doing business instead of spending 50% of their time and effort in integrating technologies, platforms and versions," Bhagat adds. Oracle’s 11i, mySAP, iBaanERP, QAD’s eQ—all launched this year—are collaborative e-business solutions addressing the issue of complexity with varying degrees of success. These indicate a clear move away from ‘point solutions’ that tackle just one aspect of e-business. The thrust is towards more comprehensive and integrated solutions that are Web-enabled and support hardware from almost every major vendor.

While it is simpler to integrate versions from the same vendor, the challenge lies in cross upgradation. The year 2000-2001 was projected to usher in the application service providers’ boom. Client server applications were to swiftly give way to application servers and thin clients. Typically, ASPs deploy, host, manage and rent access to the software from a centrally managed location. They provide substantial benefits to companies—reducing software maintenance costs, minimizing installation time, providing full product lines to customers… However, the ASP revolution failed to take off due to bandwidth and infrastructure issues.