DELL unveils nickelodeon PC for kids

San Francisco
The Economic Times
Dell Inc on Tuesday unveiled a line of Nickelodeon co-branded personal computer for children, the first in a series of branding deals intended to galvanize its consumer business.

Dell's move is the latest example of PC makers using design and targeting particular demographies to stand apart from rivals such as Hewlett-Packard Co and Acer Inc in an increasingly commoditized industry. The Dell Inspiron Mini Nickelodeon Edition will come clad in the Viacom Inc channel's trademark "green slime" design, with additional designs based on programs such as "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "iCarly."

The 10-inch netbook has wireless Internet access, weighs less than 3 pounds and comes loaded with entertainment and educational content. It will also feature a personalized user interface with Nickelodeon-branded desktop wallpaper and icons, and easy access to the channel's online content.

Michael Tatelman, vice president of global consumer sales and marketing for Dell, said the Nickelodeon netbook is just the start of its co-branding effort as it pushes into areas such as college students and pro sports. "The PC, like the smartphone, has become a 21st century symbol of self-expression. People are identified by what they carry, and people identify with what they carry," he said.

Leigh Anne Brodsky, president of Nickelodeon and Viacom consumer products, said the "sweet spot" for the PC was the so-called "tween" market. "This really is not a toy. This is the real deal," she said. The world's No. 2 PC maker did not announce pricing for the netbook, which will be available in October in the United States through Dell's online store, and at Wal-Mart Stores Inc outlets and Walmart.com. The Nickelodeon PC is based on Dell's Inspiron Mini 10v, which starts at $300.

Google working on new version

London
The Hindu Business Line
Google Inc is working on a new test version of its search engine, which the company claims will be faster and more relevant than before. The company has dubbed the new search engine Caffeine. The new search engine doesn't appear different, but its developers hope that the technology will noticeably index new content faster. Google engineers are said to have invited Web developers to test the new search engine and give feedback.

Matt Cutts, a principal engineer at Google, and Sitaram Iyer, a staff software engineer, have posted an entry on the company's webmaster central blog, appealing to developers to try the newly improved service and send them some feedback. ''The new infrastructure sits 'under the hood' of Google's search engine, which means that most users won't notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences, so we're opening up a web developer preview to collect feedback,'' they said.

Nokia's kallasvuo heads panel for ET awards for corporate excellence 2009

Mumbai
The Economic Times
Nokia folklore has it that in the early 1990s, when the Finnish mobile phone giant’s board was deliberating whether to set up operations in India or China, the then CFO of Nokia Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo insisted that it was not an either-or decision—Nokia needed both markets.

So the company set up operations in India in 1995. And the rest, as they say, is history. Today, Nokia boasts of a Rs 24,200-crore business in India with 70 percent-plus marketshare in mobile handsets. And on August 20, the 56-year-old Finn will have to take similar decisive calls.

As the chairman of the jury for the ET Awards for Corporate Excellence, he will head an eight-member grand jury that will change the lives of a chosen few in India Inc—doing no less than inducting them into India Inc’s Hall of Fame.

Kallasvuo, now president and CEO of the E51.05-billion Nokia is looking forward to the challenge. “It’s an honour. It’s also a great opportunity to meet some of the architects of the new Indian business powerhouses,” he says. “It’s a big event for me personally. India is not an emerging economy now but it’s in full bloom—taking into account the significance, the size, the importance of the nation.”

Over the years, the jury has been chaired by a range of diverse personalities - from Infosys’ NR Narayana Murthy, to HDFC’s Deepak Parekh, to Pepsico’s Indra Nooyi and ArcelorMittal’s LN Mittal. They brought their individual styles to the collective decision-making process: some were consensus builders, some wanted time-bound quick decisions, some allowed long debates and even agreed to disagree with the members. Kallasvuo sees himself as a consensus builder. “Nokia’s culture is very collaborative and equitable. But I guess, it’s also about finding the right balance,” he says.

Tata’s Corus acquisition, HCL’s Axon buy, the acquisition of LandRover and Jaguar, all of these reflect India’s growing role in the comity of nations,” he expands. The winners of The Economic Times Awards, like Infosys, Tata Steel, Bharti, HDFC Bank, Ranbaxy Laboratories and TCS have helped the India story go further and also done their bit in nation-building. Kallasvuo’s jury will take it a step further.

The ET Awards are presented by Raymond in association with Trident, Nariman Point, Mumbai and the television partners are ET NOW and Times NOW.

IT companies may take time for non-linear growth

Shivani Shinde, Mumbai
Business Standard
Indian information technology services providers may have seen a dip in net hiring this financial year. However, the drop is more due to the slowdown in the business environment rather than a shift towards non-linear growth. Experts believe it will take another three to five years for Indian IT firms to move to a non-linear business model.

Non-linear growth does not measure improvement on the basis of headcount growth, which most stock market analysts do. Instead, organisations measure growth by the number of value-added services they offer to customers, by introducing non-linear or non-headcount related services like platform-based solutions or invest in creating intellectual property (IP) rather than focus on just pure application development and maintenance (ADM) work.

Sudin Apte, senior analyst, Forrester, believes the move towards non-linear business growth was initiated by top IT firms even before the slowdown began. “Currently, just about 3 to 4 percent of business that Indian IT firms get are on non-linear pricing. It will take at least three to five years for Indian IT firms to get on to the non-linear business model,” added Apte. He said a change in client mindset is also important.

Agrees Sidharth Pai of TPI: “Achieving non-linear growth is a long process. This reduction in headcount is a direct impact of the softness in the market. on subdued price realisationOf course, outcome-based pricing and platform-based service offerings are some of the components of non-linear growth. But these are still a small part of the revenue.”

A recent Edelweiss Securities’ report says the correlation between headcount growth and revenue is beginning to break, as firms deploy a shared services model. “Shared services means using fungible resources across multiple projects simultaneously. This requires non-intrusive, yet collaborative, infrastructure to be put in place along with client approvals. As companies use more shared services in their delivery, we could see realisations hold up despite pressures on rack/coupon rates with customers,” said Viju George in his report.

Global players like IBM or Accenture are much ahead of Indian IT players on offering non-linear services. However, analysts feel a comparison is not fair. “The IBM and Accentures of the world also have other business, a different asset that allows them to bundle their services offering,” opined Pai. Besides, says Apte, a large chunk of the work the MNCs do is onsite. “The consulting business of all these firms are big,” he said.

Swine flu fear spreads across the Indian IT Industry

Pradeesh Chandran & N V Vijayakumar, Bangalore
Deccan Herald
If it be the global recession that impacted IT sector for the last two years, it is all going to be gripped by an impending outbreak of swine flu.

While many IT companies in the country have imposed travel restriction on their employees, few others are circulating information on swine flu internally to sensitise employees. Few companies also embarked upon cooling off period for those who returned from overseas stint. According to TCS sources, the company started mailing employees to take precautionary measures in the event of singe or large outbreak of the disease. Even though the outbreak of the disease hasn’t affected its overseas operation, TCS Mexican centre had to be closed for five days because of local government directive.

Few TCS employees said the circular cautions them to restrict hugging and even unwanted spitting. TCS also tied up with few hospitals for getting them checked. Infosys has already started educating employees by sending health bulletins for taking necessary precautions. Medical teams at the company’s various development centres are on high alert and in constant touch with public authorities to ensure safety of employees and continuity of operations. Infosys also reduced all inbound and outbound travel to Pune Development Centre and limited it to essential business travel. It has 20,000 strong workforce at the Pune centre.

Wipro Chief Information Officer Laxman Badiga said “in addition to existing pandemic response plan, we have intensified our efforts at employee health and safety measures.

We are communicating with our employees to exercise extreme caution and avoid unnecessary travel.”

Symphony Services Corporation has told its employees who have travelled to the UK, Mexico, the US and parts of Europe recently, to go through a cooling off period. Executive Vice-President & Chief People Officer C Mahalingam said the cooling off period entails working from home for four-five days and getting back to office after employees show no signs of having contracted the disease. “Our wellness partners are doing all necessary checks and issuing communication on the disease to all staff,” he added.

Mask purchasing spree
Cognizant, which has over 7,500 employees in Pune, has issued an advisory to their associates asking them to undertake only essential travel and defer all other types of travel to locations worldwide affected by swine flu.

Few of MNC companies working in the sector have also started purchasing spree of masks and other gadgets to counter the spread of swine flu at their centres in the country. In another development, Nasscom has also postponed its engineering services outsourcing summit scheduled to be held in Pune on August 19 to November 18.