Today in Tech: Genpact & Bain; Tablet wars; Eric Schmidt in India & More

NS Ramnath
Updated: Mar 26, 2013 02:33:51 PM UTC

Genpact after Bain Capital investments

In an interview to Business Standard today, Genpact CEO NV Tiger Tyagarajan suggests that its strengths as a BPO company - understanding the domain, knowing the processes etc - will help it get more IT services business. "People think it's all about jumping onto platforms, that it's all about technology, but actually it's all about people, process, behavior - and technology is an afterthought. We at Genpact are very biased about thinking that this is the way the world works," he said.

It has been clear for some years now, that unless you are a niche player, it can't be just IT Services or just BPO, you have to be in both. (It has been years since Progeon and Spectramind, BPO arms of Infosys and Wipro respectively, changed their names and integrated with their parents) Genpact is moving in this direction from the other side, from being a pureplay BPO.

For help, it can always turn to a source that's not available for many of its rivals. Bain Capital, which bought 30% in the company for $ 1 billion last August. Bain Capital has a history of throwing more than its financial heft behind its portfolio companies to acheive higher returns faster.

(In that, Bain Capital is not alone. Most PE firms do it. In a 2009 story, my colleagues summarized Blackstone's approach thus: One, Blackstone will leverage its professional management expertise to improve operations. Two, they will help the companies scale up globally. The third approach is the key. Blackstone will get the companies it has invested in globally to outsource their needs to Gokaldas and Intelenet, keeping the business with the family as it were. When stock market conditions improve, Blackstone will get its chance to exit.)

ET in a full page story on Genpact yesterday says this approach is on full gear at Genpact too. "Increasingly, Bain is going along for Genpact meetings, setting up introductions with other companies in its portfolio for possible client wins, sitting down with the Indian company's managers, and more."

 

Google to overtake Apple in tablets this year

It has been a while since Apple relinquished its dominant position in smartphones to Android-based devices. This year might see that happening in tablets too.  IDC in a report says:

Android-based tablets expanded their share of the market notably in 2012, and IDC expects that trend to continue in 2013. Android's share of the market is forecast to reach a peak of 48.8% in 2013 compared to 41.5% in IDC's previous forecast. Android's gains come at the expense of Apple's iOS, which is expected to slip from 51% of the market in 2012 to 46% in 2013.

 

Apple-Android1

There's some good news for Microsoft. By 2017, IDC expects Windows-based tablets to increase their share to 7.4%. There's the table.

Apple-Android1

More investments to flow into Big Data this year: Gartner
Its no news that Big Data is getting big. Gartner says 42 percent of IT leaders it surveyed say they had invested in big data technology, or are planning to do so within a year. Here's an interesting paragraph from its press statement.

"In anticipation of big data opportunities, organizations across industries are provisionally collecting and storing a burgeoning amount of operational, public, commercial and social data. Yet in most industries — especially government, manufacturing and education — combining these sources with existing underutilized "dark data" such as emails, multimedia and other enterprise content often represents the most immediate opportunity to transform businesses."

 

Eric Schmidt in India
Google chairman Schmidt will be in India next week to take part in an event organised by Guardian. "Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt and Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger, who spoke together on stage at Activate 2010 in London, will reprise their keynote roles at the invite only event in New Delhi in front of an international and domestic audience of around 300 delegates," Guardian says. Schmidt might also pay a visit Burma.

 

Also of interest

  • The Evolution of Facebook News Feed | Mashable
  • 4 Paths To Doing Great Work At A Terrible Company | Fast Company
  • More Privacy Perils: Facebook Data Is Greater Than The Sum Of Your Likes | Forbes
  • A new report warns Chinese officials that they may not be able to sustain their sprawling system of online control, which relies on multi-level keyword filtering, self-censorship requirements for operators, surveillance of users and threats of punishment. | Economist
  • Would buying BlackBerry be a smart move for Lenovo? | Businessweek

 

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.

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