Blog.. from successful Indian software (Java Infra) products' entrepreneurs!
Finally.. a blog from successful software products' entrepreneurs!
Jay and Vijay Pullur, founders (now CEO and CTO) of Pramati technologies, have started
their blog- "Software (Ad)Venturing- Reflections on software, innovation and entrepreneurship".
Looking at the first few posts, lookslike the theme is going to be the new web and the applications infrastructure trends therefrom. Not surprising given that Pramati is a pioneer in Java based applications infrastructure products. (Not many know that Pramati started off with a Product for "Java enabling HTML". Back in 1997-98. This was very similar to what is now JSPs!)
The Indian software industry is highly regarded world-wide (recently came across first hand situations where the large Indian software companies now help companies evolve their IT strategies and enterprise architectures! Compare thsi with even a few years back, when these same companies couldnt even directly influence an App Server decision!). But, the industry is still predominantly services focussed. Very few companies have ventured into software products. And even fewer have ventured into Infrastructure products space. And even even fewer have ventured from India! There are many comapanies that are started by Indians, but from bay area. Driven from the valley, with just the development happening in India. Not too different from any other company with offshore operations.
There are just a handful that have a product built, marketed, sold and supported from India! Pramati stands out, as the most widely known among such companies! (Need I say that I am very very proud of this, given my long association with Pramati! :-) ).
This blog must be interesting. Hearing from two "(ad)venturous" techies. Hopefully, sharing a glimpse of where some of these technologies (and possibly Pramati products) are heading. Do check it out-
http://pullur.wordpress.com/
BarCamp #3 at Hyderabad- theme 'Web2.0 Communities'
(Reposted from other blog)
We are having the third BarCamp at Hyderabad. On Dec 16th. At Infosys. The theme for this camp is- "Web 2.0 Communities".
Partly inspired by some of the pioneering work put up by the likes of Orkut in the social domain, and the likes of Fon networks in the commercial domain (though this latter is not in an applications context). There seems to be quite some steam and opportunities in the Web2.0 communities. We ourselves (at Pramati) built the Support portal with many Web2.0 concepts in it- mostly relating to Rich UI and RIA, but one key function built on communities concept...
The portal is meant for all our clients. IN each client organization there are many users that would interact with us for Support. IN normal support delivery models a list of authorized users is maintained. This needs painful housekeeping. IN our support model, as we work with ISVs a lot, we do not have a limit on number of users that can call in from our client organizations. So the best mode for us was to let the client organization configure their users. And to minimize housekeeping fiurther, we wanted to allow any user to "invite" others to join th esupport portal. This would send a mail thru our system, an dth einvited user can by just a few clicks register and become a user. No contacting their sysadmin/relationship manager, no filling up long forms, no approavals from us, no administrative tasks from our support admin.
Further, as multiple clients access the portal, we wanted each user to have a complete view of his/her organization's interactions with our Support. The user can see all deployments and projects from just his/her organization. Can see all users from the organization. And see all cases reported by anyone from the organization. All built off the user communities we have. Eachusert essentially belongs to their parent organization (that we identify by the email domains- works for us as corporates are our clients). Further, users can invite other registered users also to get access to specific projects- which is often the case when dealing with vendors. Some company provides a solution to a client, who runs it on our server. Here the solution provider is not our client- but is essential in resolving any issue that may come up at the client.
IN short a nice case of using user communities effectively to adress a biz problem. We hope to see more such cases and scenarios at the BarCamp. And some demos. And prob some general sessions relating to Web2.0 as well. A parallel Entrepreneural track is also planned- this will be driven by the Bootstrappers' Hyderabad chapter.
Happy Camping! (Now, anyone there with a good idea for a session? Do add it. Even better, do register yourself as a speaker, to deliver the session!)
Java Conference in Pune, Dec 1 & 2 (a la JavaOne?)
IndicThreads- Java Conference in Pune (Dec 1,2)
With so much of Java work happening in India, it is about time we had a good conference on Java. The first such conference is being organized by
IndiacThreads (the serverSide of India). On Dec 1 &2, there is a Java Conference at Pune. On the lines of JavaOne (though starting on a much smaller scale, the plan is to have this grow to be a leading event in India. Hopefully, we will have the next year?s event here in Hyderabad.
Per the conference organizers- "2 days of discussions, events and fun. Learn from the experts, discuss with your peers, talk to enthusiasts, feel the buzz and take IT in exciting new directions.With a focus on vendor-neutral content and learning, the IndicThreads conference is the event to be at for all Java software developers." The speakers include well known technologiests in the Java space from around the world including Gavin King, Floyd Marinescu, Debu Panda and others that are reknown authors/speakers. Indeed a privilege for me also to share the forum with such folks. More on my blog-
http://jroller.com/page/rameshl).
Do check it out-
http://conference.indicthreads.com (And those interested, go ahead and register).
Free To Blog...Again
Rediff reports "In a press release on Thursday, the Department of Telecom (DoT) said it has asked Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to explain why action should not be taken against them for unintentionally blocking some Web sites."
This of course refers to the fact that all blogs hosted on sites such as blogger, typepad and geosites had been blocked by many of the Indian ISPs from July 15 onwards. The ban will now be lifted in the next 48 hours.
The unblocking of these sites is largely thanks to the fact that many of the mainstream journalist bloggers got together and saw to it that the government got a lot of negative publicity because of what was done.
Freedom to express is definitely the most important thing that magnetizes each one of us (from such different backgrounds) to this medium, but it is also one of the most accessible ways today to get together and work towards a single cause. Be it for a technical, personal or a social one. Take for example,
Mumbai Help which was set up after the 7/11 Mumbai blasts as a means through which people could reach their loved ones in Mumbai, and find out that whether they were fine. Or for that matter, the
Hyderabad Technology Blog. :)
Thankfully, all this uncertainty about going the
Pakistan way and not being able to blog is all behind us now. We are free to blog. Once more. On whichever site we choose. So just get going, and fire up those blogging spirits once more.
Barcamp Hyderabad 2
Barcamp Hyderabad held in April got an amazing response with close to around 200 people turning up for. So much so that almost everyone was eager to know when the next barcamp is going to be. Energized , encouraged & enthused by this we announce Barcamp Hyderabad 2 and this time around we plan to have it even more bigger. Last barcamp was about the web and this time it is about Mobiles .
Just recently we crossed 100 million mark for the number of mobile in India, thus it is undoubted that mobiles are goint to bring in a lot of changes in terms of creating new business and influence & shape a lot of our culture/lifestyle. We hope to cover these aspects in the barcamp.
If you want to camp here then get yourself added to the wiki & the yahoo group(if you hav'nt done so far 
).
BarCampHyderabad2
Theme: Mobile Applications in the next Gen Internet
Where: Microsoft Campus, Hyderabad
When: July 15, Saturday. 11am to 5pm (tentative)
We got together last friday to discuss things needed to kickoff barcamp hyderabad2, if you'd like to check out then mohit has more details on it.
We are looking for sponsorships, & help in spreading the word around. !
Indian Software companie. Local customers. Global references!
Came across this interesting article in Economic Times today- that Indian software companies are citing large Indian installations as reference when the take their products to world markets. And examples cited were Infosys with its Finacle, Nucleus and few other banking products. Banks like ICICI and SBI have become very credible references in the global sphere- given their scale of operations. IN fact, believe Infy even has ICICI's CEO meet up their analsyst and prospects, to provide reference and make a case.
(This struck very close home for me, as ICICI is still the single largest customer for Pramati. Has been a site licensee for nearly four years now. Any new solution ICICI aquires/builds, if it is J2EE based then it by and large would be running on Pramati Server. )
Three things:
1) The trend is really interesting. That Indian deployments are credible references in the world market. And am sure this will only increase going forward. And soon, we will have global sofwtare product brand(s) from India. :-)
2)And then I saw this other article today that Indian auto and some hitech companies have two way relationship wth some global majors. Locally assemble/manufacter and resell the latter's products, and in return provide a sourcing channel for Indian auto parts. Global R&D & products come into Indian markets, and Indian manufacturers get a solid channel into the global players' spaces.
3) Consider that IBM is investing $6billion in the India operations. I was impressed by the careful choice of worlds. This sees local sales, servics and global offshoring from here, all clubbed into one entity. Apart from perception considerations, guess there is some reality as well here. Even few years back we saw the $750 million deal that IBM stuck with Bharti (Airtel). Since then the local IT market has only grown bigger. Recent Nasscom numbers suggest 10+ billion$ sofwtare market alone, for Indian domestic use. And this also has a steep growth. So guess little wonder that IBM is upbeat about Indian market, as there is a lot of good business possible here. Announcing that it is investing 6 big B is only going to help its case, when being considered for any opportunities!
All these are just some signals of the serious opportunities available in the softeare space. And as we are still not big into software products and packaged solutions, the opportunity is probably even bigger in this space. And I always consider Hyderabad poised just about right for thsi revolution. At a tim ewhen this is getting increased attention, Bangalore infra is splitting and a general tresnd to move out. And next to Bangalore, probably Hyderabad is the best and most vibrant software center today. Lot of companies. Good talent pool (much more than one would realise!). Slow but steadyily building startup movement (Pramati is surely one big daddy of tech startups.. that even today has the agility of a startup!). Cost of living is relatively lower (atleast as of now.. not sure how long it will remain so). Lot of edu institutions. Other than the 2-month summer, a very pleasant weather rest of the year. And a very pro-active pro-industry govt and city administration.
Need to see ho wmuch such environment can foster new enterprise!
Hyderabad metroblog- LIVE now
Finally.. we have our own Metblog. Metroblogging-Hyderabad. Check it out at-
http://hyderabad.metblogs.com/ . The blog is a multi-author blog, as part of the worldwide Metroblogs grouping. Hyderabad now joins other cities with its own metroblog. Where we will share views and news from/of/for Hyderabad.
Interested in contributing? Can apply using:
http://metroblogging.com/apply.phtml
