India IT looks to SCAM in 2014

The realms of social networking, cloud, analytics, and mobile computing are converging, and will present growth opportunities for market players in India as well as change the way computing is carried out in 2014. 

The four market segments will account for 89 percent of growth in global technology spend next year, predicted research firm IDC, which said IT expenditure will climb 5 percent to US$2.1 trillion in 2014.  

Collectively dubbed SCAM among India's ICT community, social networking, cloud, analytics, and mobile computing will be a big focus area for organizations next year. Consumers are accessing personal and work information via mobile devices, and companies are looking for tools function across the SCAM areas, noted The Economic Times. 

Citing Gartner's India research director, Naveen Mishra, the report said: "Companies will rejig portfolios around SCAM...the business opportunity [in this space] is becoming real and bigger due to adoption of smartphones and mobile Internet usage." The market researcher forecast the SCAM sectors to worth US$104 billion worldwide, accounting for 25 percent of overall business software revenue by 2017. 

Mishra said both large and smaller enterprises would look to outsource IT services providers to help them extract value from the convergence of mobile, cloud, social media, data analytics. 
The anticipated demand will present opportunities for Indian market players such as Wipro, which last year bought a US$30 million stake in U.S. big data company, Opera Solutions. The investment would enable Wipro to create industry-specific big data analytics tools and help its customers better tap data analytics, the Indian outsourcing company then said. 

Mishra noted: "Large companies like Wipro, Tech Mahindra, and TCS are in a better position to seize the opportunity. The small companies are too focused on old models [and] can look at partnerships with analytics or cloud firms to tap into the opportunity."