(An article by N Kumar, Vice Chairman, the Sanmar Group, reproduced with permission from The Hindu Business Line)
The Internet centre at Changi Airport attracts more customers than the duty free shops… and is cheaper too!
I remember in 1966, when my brother was studying in the US, my mother booked a call and waited for hours to be connected. She even taped the call to play it back, uncertain about the next time she could speak to him. If she wrote letters, she had to wait for about seven days for them to reach and an equal period for a reply.
Compare this to a mother of today who e-mails, chats sends SMS messages or sees her children on the PC and even conservative mothers are comfortable about sending their daughters abroad because they can keep an eye on them using a Web-cam. Today, as in business, in personal life too, we have now got over managing the environment to managing people. Thanks to technology.
Dramatic changes have taken place in lifestyles and the communication revolution has definitely been at the bottom of it. Let me share views and happenings on this subject, which we take for granted in our daily life. A dozen things which come to mind that we would not have thought of 10 years ago are:
Mobile phones, Lap-tops, Palm-tops, SMS, Video Conferencing, Google, Voice Recognition, Amazon.com, Wi-Fi, Online education, Handwriting recognition (Tablet PC), Online Auction, Convergence, Connectivity, and Anytime-Anywhere—are not just slogans but are becoming a way of life. Improvement in technology has accelerated over the last few years, ensuring that our life today is very different and more comfortable than what it was a few years ago.
The Internet and GSM (Wireless—sorry Reliance) have changed our ways of thinking—whether you SMS your office, get cricket scores or stock quotes on your mobile or call your driver to the terminal when you arrive at the airport, life has definitely changed. The Internet and wireless have shrunk time and distance.
Another new phenomenon is that you don’t have to be in office to be at work. A male or female executive, whether at home, holiday, on tour, or whatever, is always connected either through the voice or through Internet. The busiest place at an airport these days is the Internet centre. One only has to go the Changi Airport in Singapore to see how effectively the wireless Web operates. Take a PC—and pooooof, you are connected. It attracts more people than the duty-free shops (and is cheaper too)! However, it has one downside too… a lot of people are no longer on a real holiday because they are connected all the time!
Another new phenomenon is that you don’t have to be in office to be at work. A male or female executive, whether at home, holiday, on tour, or whatever, is always connected either through the voice or through Internet. The busiest place at an airport these days is the Internet centre. One only has to go the Changi Airport in Singapore to see how effectively the wireless Web operates. Take a PC—and pooooof, you are connected. It attracts more people than the duty-free shops (and is cheaper too)! However, it has one downside too… a lot of people are no longer on a real holiday because they are connected all the time!
More changes, more technologies are on their way. One need not bother to carry one’s laptop on short journeys: all you need is a USB memory disc (smaller than your key chain). This particular technology not only saves space, but, more importantly, facilitates presentation without the trouble for CII to worry about compatibility.
New ways of doing business on the Net have come up and not only for the Infosyses and the Wipros, but also for regular companies involved in manufacturing and similar businesses. Nowadays a good percentage of the business, especially exports, and information and customer satisfaction is generated through the web. The old ways have changed and a new word, “disintermediation” is gaining ground resulting in redefining the work of agents in industries such as Travel, Insurance and Banks. ATM usage, online ticket booking and hotel booking are popular and becoming a way of life.
Recently, when one of our companies wanted to find the best deal for a health insurance package they used Baazee.com (an auction site) and reduced more than 50 per cent of its premium fee in addition to getting better coverage. This is real and the savings add to the bottom-line. This way of business was never even thought of 10 years ago.
Coming back to letters, we have forgotten the days of Registered Post, Telex, Faxes and we take instant messaging and e-mail for granted. When I need a speech or an article written, it is delivered to me by e-mail, which I can print at home and then send it at the place where it is required. Weddings are now broadcast and CDs sent across the world, as one does not have to worry about PAL or NTSC. The conducting of marriages in traditional Indian style is also helped by the Internet. Many parents can tell us how horoscopes are exchanged and how the boy and girl meet virtually on the Web—“Marriages are now fixed in Cyber space”. Similarly more people are now writing books (and articles), as it is easier to compose, edit and archive.
It is therefore a new world in which we live in brought about by the Internet and communication changes, not to forget the cable and satellite. China and India, two large countries, which used to be many, many years behind advanced western countries, are now keeping pace and in fact proving a point—most of the wireless gizmos originate from China and the software for it from India!
Another interesting area in which life has been transformed is the way we read newspapers and magazines. While it may still be better to read the print, for quick and immediate reading, you can log on to the website to read the articles and if need be, take a print out!—Welcome Samachar.com. Also, news on your palm can be downloaded from Avantgo and even online cricket scores!
Buying books has also become simpler. While we may still like to go to Landmark in Chennai or other bookstores to spend time, we can resort to conveniently buying books on the Web after reading a brief write-up about the books that interest us. Changes in the foreign exchange rules and regulations have also helped Indians to use the “Amazon” advantage to buy difficult and rare books.
Education is yet another field truly transformed by technology. Computer education itself has become a reality and we find students at a very young age learning computers and becoming better at programming than many of the elders. But, more significantly, you can register for courses on the Web, even Post Graduate for example, in Wireless networking with a recognized US university. While the fee is quite high, you can take advantage of all the lectures, notes on the Web and even complete the exams on the Net. Video streaming is now a reality and with improving bandwidth we are able to hear the lecturer or the guest speaker at home as they deliver the lecture in the university. This brings to my mind what Bill Gates said; in the new Internet world you only need one excellent teacher in mathematics, who could be paid millions of dollars to write the program on the Web and a number of teachers to use that and teach students across the world. Another amazing feature that will happen in the future is that education will become standardized across the globe.
I recall a time when we spent a lot of time and money in printing brochures, product literatures and booklets. Now companies have very informative websites providing updated information about their products or services. In fact, they use their websites to publicise their quarterly results and policies, and because of this printing of brochures is reduced to the barest minimum. Further, many approvals are taken over the e-mail and the paperless office is starting to become a reality. I understand that Infosys does all its travel arrangement around the globe through PAYANA, an end-to-end travel intranet system.
Net hiring is yet another phenomenon that is becoming very prevalent—sites such as Jobsdb.com, Naukri.com are making a living out of this and today, most job seekers can now apply on the Web.
The Net does not belong to the young alone. My father who is 84 years old now uses the Web to do pooja in the morning. When he gets into the office he logs in to Saranam.com and listens to slokas and does pooja. He is also a very keen user of the Mayo Clinic site and more importantly shares the information with all of his friends and his children too.
We must realise that all these technology advances are but catalysts meant to improve the way we do business or run our lives but cannot replace business or life by itself. Just like a mother of yesterday or today, who still wants to talk to her children—technology is only helping her to do this in a faster and easier way.
The more life changes, the more it remains the same!
Issue dated February 15, 2003.