Nasscom, former executives take Indian IT to China
Former heads of the Chinese units of Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys, along with the leading software services industry body, are helping Indian technology firms find a foothold in the Chinese market.
The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) and the Chinese government have given the task of creating a matchmaking platform to Zeta-V, set up in June 2017 in Shanghai by Sujit Chatterjee, former CEO of TCS China, and Rangarajan Vellamore, former CEO of Infosys China.
The Sino-Indian Digital Collaboration Opportunity Plaza (SIDCOP) is a joint venture between Nasscom and Chinese municipal governments, aimed at bringing Indian IT firms and Chinese enterprises closer.
“Indian IT has traditionally focused on English-speaking markets. The ploy of labour arbitrage does not work anymore ... In 10 years, we will see non-English markets in the same place as English-speaking ones. We have been in China since 2003, and have been thinking if we can find a new horizon for Indian IT,” Chatterjee said.
Estimates say China's IT services spend is more than $35 billion, of which India's share is $500 million. “To build anchor points and assets that would serve the industry for years, we came up with SIDCOP and partnered two Chinese cities — Dalian and Guiyang — to create this platform. With our efforts we now have a team (through Zeta V) that is helping us push cooperation with Chinese firms in accordance with local norms and culture, and in the local language,” said Gagan Sabharwal, senior director, Global Trade Development, Nasscom.
The project is part of Nasscom’s larger move to reduce dependence on the US and UK, which together account for more than 70 per cent of Indian IT exports. Asia constitutes 8 per cent.
The SIDCOP model is an online and offline platform and focused on a theme for each IT corridor. The one in Dalian will focus on artificial intelligence and Internet of Things projects, while the Guiyang corridor will work on big data.
"Multinational companies are less than 10 per cent of the Chinese information and communication technologies (ICT) market, while 60-70 per cent
are tier-2 and tier-3," said Chatterjee. This is the market the project is looking to tap. On the Indian side as well, tier-2, tier-3 and tier-4 vendors and freelancers will be encouraged to execute projects.
The online platform for SIDCOP, built by Zeta-V, allows Chinese firms to create a request for proposal from scratch in local language, and converts it in real time into English for the Indian IT vendor. In the backend, Zeta-V has an offline team that checks the translation for correctness. Freelancers or firms can bid for requirements put up by Chinese firms. To ensure larger Indian players like TCS, Infosys, Wipro or HCL Tech do not approach a Chinese client directly, the customer’s name will be hidden.
Nasscom has worked out a deal with Chinese municipal governments to allow Indian firms that start operations to stay rent-free for three years. There is a pact with a university for children's education. As many as 12 other Chinese cities have shown an interest. “But we are evaluating each candidate,” said Sabharwal. The collaboration plans to take the same model to other nonEnglish geographies like Japan, Germany and France.