Millennium Opportunity

Can India afford to miss the e-biz opportunity, especially when e-commerce

transaction volume is projected to grow to Rs 1,95,000 crore by 2005? The answer

is clearly no if you go by the recently released report--Imperatives for India

Inc to harness the e-commerce opportunity--prepared jointly by NASSCOM and

Boston Consulting Group.

The study estimates that B2B transactions are likely to dominate with Rs

1,92,000 crore. At the same time, B2C transactions are estimated to grow to just

about Rs 3,000 crore in the same period.

No doubt, e-commerce is certainly the buzzword of the future and an

imperative for Indian companies to become globally competitive. The report has

highlighted the need for state governments to accelerate the e-governance

mechanism.

E-commerce is not dead; it is alive, well and spreading its realms very

quickly. The current pessimism is just a natural stage of evolution. The power

of Internet is unchanged and is already being harnessed by several companies

abroad and in India.

To maximize the opportunity, the software industry will need to leverage its

existing strengths which means acceptance of offshore/onsite service delivery

model, migration from one off projects to deep client relationships and superior

value-price ratio. They will also need to change their marketing and

implementation approach to suit e-solution sales and build domain expertise in

select industry verticals.

There is a growing realization that pure-play dotcoms in many industries are

unlikely to be successful. Full benefits of e-commerce cannot be realized in

isolation of the overall business goals and absence of an offline presence. To

be successful in the e-commerce arena, enterprises need to invest as much in non

IT-related spending as in IT-related spending. In the final analysis, CEOs who

embrace e-commerce opportunities will have the potential to alter the balance of

power in many fields of competition in their industry and gain a significant

advantage over those that delay.

However, the Government also needs to get its act together. It needs to clear

loopholes in the IT Act pertaining to contract laws; clarify tax regime for

e-commerce transactions, encourage more players to establish communications

infrastructure, especially to promote last mile access; establish guidelines for

protection of IPRs online; initiate measures to control cyber crime and ensure

privacy of data collected online; and train law enforcement agencies to tackle

cyber crimes.