Broadband benefits business

COMMUNICATION

A few weeks ago, I spoke of how real broadband is making its presence felt in many cities across the country - as opposed to the somewhat fantastic claims being made all these years.

I suggested then that the content creation and dissemination opportunities that this threw up were quite immense. Not just in the traditional entertainment context but also for education, particularly quality interactive education, where several schools link up to one teacher, watch, listen and interact.

I now wonder what better connectivity means for the outsourcing industry, particularly smaller firms. While outsourcing opportunities have percolated to smaller businesses and enterprises in India, high quality bandwidth and connectivity have always constrained if not restrained growth and confident expansion. After all, only the big companies could invest in dedicated, high capacity bandwidth which they would obviously use themselves.

This has now changed. A small enterprise doing outsourcing work, lets say in the publishing space, is much better connected and has a better chance of integrating realtime with its principals than ever before. This is not to say the flood gates will open and business will dramatically increase only on this account. Not so. What will happen is that entrepreneurs will find it easier to pitch on the back of a strong backbone.

Robust bandwidth also means greater opportunity for internal outsourcing or distributed locations within the city or across cities. Call centres for the big banks are already spread over many cities. For instance ICICI Bank routes incoming calls from many parts of the country to Hyderabad. ICICI is a big bank.

Imagine smaller or, for that matter, larger entrerprises having the same freedom to host a `back office' on the outskirts of the city or, in another city completely. Backed up with live video conferencing capabilities as and when required. Like the accounts or payroll processing department. For sure, government departments need to do it the most and vacate, for instance, expensive south Mumbai real estate. But then, they would be the last to see costs for what they are.

Opportunities to work from home ought to open up further. Many companies do it already, handing out outsourcing work to housewives and retired folks. My sense is that you could open up a few more business doors here. And attempt new businesses. After all, for many working from home, it has mostly meant offline data entry or research work uploaded once or a few times a day. The prospect of being always on, in text, audio and video changes the landscape somewhat. For good and bad, as some might argue. It also means I can't say the lines were bad the next time I am not to be reached. Unless I am really up in the mountains.

(govindraj@business-standard.com)