The Hindu Business Line : Wanted, retail-specific curriculum with IT edge

Read this from a recent report from the US-based Retail Forward (www.retailforward.com) : "In January 2005, Tesco opened a software development and financial services office in Bangalore. With a staff of nearly 800, the Hindustan Service Centre performs retail back-office operations, such as payroll, billing and answering technology-related queries." What about Wal-Mart that has recently partnered with Bharti? The US retail giant had applied to the Reserve Bank of India in early 2006 "to set up an office for market research and business development related to its Indian retailing aspirations."

Of interest in the report titled `Strategic Focus: Retailing in India' is a section on `supply chain constraints'. In this, Retail Forward speaks about the ongoing streamlining efforts. One such is the announcement by the Government of `plans to modernise the country's regulated wholesale markets, mandis, to which small farmers historically have had limited access.'

The Government is seeking private sector partners to develop the eight proposed mandis with cold storage, sorting and grading facilities as well as an electronic auction system, notes the report. Another effort, which has also been the subject of B-school case studies, is ITC's Internet-based trading platform, e-Choupal, launched in 2000 to enable farmers to sell their produce without middlemen or having to go to the mandis.

"A local farmer is in charge of an Internet kiosk through which he corresponds with ITC representatives and relays information to farmers, including information about prevailing market prices, local and global weather conditions and the best farming practices," narrates the report. "Currently, ITC has about 5,000 e-Choupals serving 31,000 villages and 3.5 million farmers. ITC will spend about $1 billion to extend the network to 1,00,000 villages and 10 million farmers during the next decade."

Yet another IT (information technology) initiative that finds mention in Retail Forward's report is investment by companies - such as Trent Ltd, Shoppers' Stop and Madura Garments - in enterprise resource planning (ERP) packages to improve inventory management. "Pantaloon will invest about $25 million during the next three years to revamp its IT infrastructure."

Chinar Deshpande, CIO, Pantaloon Retail (India) is cited on www.networkmagazineindia.com, in a November article thus: "I would perform a high-level gap analysis of our functional needs and the vanilla features of the ERP system as published in high-level brochures. It is important to understand the financial health of the vendor, its future technology roadmap, presence in India, implementation partners and list of global clients."

With major players making the retail pitch, hopes are that the modern retail sector will add `from 1 million to 2.5 million new jobs by 2010'. But human resources for retail would face two problems, anticipates Retail Forward. First, "the demands from other industries are growing even faster."

For, that means `competition for workers', resulting in bidding up salaries and `significant poaching among companies for the best-qualified candidates'.

And second, the booming IT industry can be an obstacle to sustaining a supply of retail workers. How so? IT's applicant pool is filled with graduates of state-run vocational schools and universities focused on providing the right skill set, reasons the report.

"As retail gains status, look for the country's schools to develop retail-specific curriculum.

In the meantime, though, retailers often find it necessary to take matters into their own hands." We may need, perhaps, a retail-specific curriculum with IT edge.

DaVinci, DSP, SoC

First in the list of `Technology for Innovators' on Texas Instruments' site (www.ti.com) is `DaVinci{trade} Technology'. What's it for? To make `the next generation of digital video and audio end-equipment applications possible'. The technology, one learns, is "the first integrated portfolio of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) SoCs (systems-on-chip), software, tools and support for developing a broad spectrum of optimised digital video end equipment." To many, that may seem tougher than Da Vinci Code!

For some clarity, you can check what is `new for DaVinci'. The latest press release is about `processors ideal for cost-sensitive digital media applications'. These can give `leading-edge video performance for automotive video applications such as lane departure and collision avoidance as well as machine-vision systems, robotics and video security'. Because of its DSP-based programmability, "you can create unique, feature-rich devices optimised with specific applications in mind and get them to market quickly," assures TI.

And a press release just in from Ahmedabad informs that eInfochips has introduced `Rapid Prototyping Board' DaVinci technology. "The board is targeted for streaming media applications like smart IP camera, network video server, video conferencing systems and more," says eInfochips, `a leading chip and product design services firm with `spec-to-silicon-to-system' capabilities'.

Interestingly, eInfochips Inc, based in Sunnyvale, is `a leading provider of silicon design and verification services, embedded systems solutions and IP cores.' And the company's India and US design centres have delivered `SoC and embedded solutions' to customers for `increasing their cost-effectiveness, reducing their time-to-market and growing their market strength'.

Let e-filing be correct filing

Fortune Informatics Ltd, Hyderabad, has brought out a product called eTaxFile, for e-TDS, that is, electronic tax deduction at source. Tax is rarely interesting, so it should help to lighten the load using the many tools that the product offers - for tasks such as, tax planning for salaried employees, calculation of FBT (fringe benefit tax), and automatic tax-rates calculation for the non-salaried.

Also, there is `a tool to seamlessly migrate' not to a different place, but `data from other applications', as for example, your payroll package or ERP (enterprise resource planning) system.

"Around three years ago, the Government decided to introduce tax reforms, which would help avoid redundant paperwork and eliminate graft in the entire process of TDS deductions and collections," narrates C.K. Shastri, Managing Director of Fortune Informatics.

The Government had mandated that corporate deductors have to furnish their TDS returns in a prescribed electronic format. "This process is now known by the acronym e-TDS and the filing of e-TDS returns has now been made mandatory and a quarterly activity. Sadly, however, even three years after e-filing was made mandatory by the Government, the situation is far from perfect or even close to being called promising," he rues.

What is the problem? "The current system of quarterly e-filing of taxes is certainly not something every corporate is ready for or understands," explains Shastri. "As with most Government mandated reforms, e-filing is misunderstood as just filing tax returns according to a prescribed format, while the Government's objective is to achieve correct filing in a prescribed format!"

http://IT-in-the-works.blogspot.com

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