The Hindu Business Line : ‘Walk into my… lab’

The name of the game is competition. No doubt, Indian software service providers enjoy an edge over global rivals in providing quality manpower at low cost. But since one needs to always stay a step ahead, besides routine project work or annual maintenance contracts, they are now looking to leverage ‘innovation labs’ to showcase their technological strengths and maturity.

These labs help clients run proof-of-concept exercises and pilot projects and identify the best solutions to compete in a rapid time-to-market race.

“Gone are the days of giving power point presentations at clients’ boardrooms. Clients now come to innovation labs to see for themselves what we can offer them,” says G. Raghavan, Global Head, Travel and Hospitality, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

Crucible for IP creation

With rupee appreciation, increase in wages, and a possible slowdown in the US markets, Indian IT companies are under pressure to manage their bottom line.

The innovation labs provide companies an opportunity to create intellectual property (IP) and solutions along with clients, says Subu D. Subramanian, Director and Senior Vice-President, Satyam Computer Services.

TCS set up its first research and development centre, Tata Research Design and Development Centre, 25 years ago. Today, there are 19 TCS Innovation Labs for various verticals spread across the globe, and of this four are in Chennai.

The labs are staffed with senior scientists and Ph.D.s from renowned universities and industry experts.

However, the biggest advantage is that these labs are well networked with external academia and industry experts and provide an environment conducive for nurturing sophisticated research, says a TCS official.

Satyam has six innovation labs. It has an automotive lab (this is operational but formal launch is yet to happen); HeraFxV project — Digital car project and the Futurus Lab at Tidel Park, Chennai. .

Chennai – hub for manufacturing

And a feel of the action at Satyam, where visitors are guided by a robot.

Chennai being a manufacturing hub, the automotive industry needs to move into high-end research and designing to maintain its place in the global IT map. Satyam partners with industry bodies and collaborates with institutes in doing research to address customer pain-points and industry problems, says Subramanian.

The lab provides research support services (all in digital form) in the areas of alternate fuels, hybrid engines, virtual test drive solutions and emerging areas such as infotainment. Every component of a car can be digitally tested and validated, says Subramanian.

The collaboration design enables Satyam to work simultaneously with multiple research and development institutions across the world.

The company plans tie-ups with 25 institutions worldwide, such as the Indian Institute of Science and Vellore Institute of Technology in India, and Purdue and Carnegie Mellon in the US, he says.

The Rs 6-crore centre on the Rajiv Gandhi Road (Old Mahabalipuram Road), the IT corridor, has capacity to house 1,000 engineers in three years. To begin with, there will be around 50 engineers, he says.

TCS-British Airways link

Paul Coby, Chief Information Officer, British Airways, was a happy man during his recent visit to the TCS Travel and Hospitality Innovation Lab.

“Whatever we wanted to do in an aircraft or with an IT system, we can do inside the lab here. Also, it is easy to see the demo in the lab than looking at power point presentations.

We are in a competitive world, and need solutions quickly, and, that’s what the labs do.”

Incidentally, TCS is building a cabin crew software management solution for British Airways at the lab to help the airline monitor its 15,000 plus cabin crew located at Heathrow and Gatwick in the UK, and at international locations such as Buenos Aires, New Delhi and Bahrain.

TCS and British Airways will jointly work on the solution to be developed at the TCS Lab in Chennai. The solution could become an ‘industry standard’ and commercially made available for other airlines too, according to Coby.

At present, cabin crew at British Airways are monitored manually. The new solution will fully automate cabin crew management, says Raghavan of TCS.

Labs — part of an eco-system

Anchored at TCS Innovation Labs, the Co Innovation Network (COIN) provides an opportunity for entities such as academic institutions, start-up companies, venture funds, strategic alliance partners, multi-lateral organisations, and key clients to bring forth true synergies and an ecosystem perspective to innovation.

At the sophisticated automotive lab of Satyam, a fully automated robot, with vision and speech capability, accompanies visitors. No human presence is required to guide visitors within the centre.

It was a different experience for eWorld at the TCS travel and hospitality lab that has a replica of an aircraft and a cockpit. Demonstrations and presentations to visitors are given in this ‘aircraft’ lab.

In real-world context

According to G.V.N. Apparao, Vice-President, Technology, Cognizant, the main objective of creating technology labs such as Services-Oriented Architecture (SoA) lab, RFID lab, Mobility lab and Retail POS labs (located in Chennai) is to evaluate technologies in real-world situations and build prototype applications to solve real-world business and solution-specific problems.

These labs are used to evaluate emerging technologies (hardware, software and processes), testing the integration of various technologies, building sample applications to mimic real world situations and building prototypes to demonstrate the capabilities of the technology.

“These prototypes help to demonstrate Cognizant solutions and technical capabilities and also the technology maturity to visiting customers,” he says.

Otherwise these technologies would have to be validated in real projects, which is not the way to go about marketing them.

Concept store

When contacted, Wipro cited its concept store, set up in its Electronic City Campus in Bangalore to promote innovation in retailing on national and international levels.

According to the company, the initiative is a platform for technical and process-related developments and innovation in retailing.

In the Concept Store, the use and combination of different technical applications is tested in an integrated system and implemented.

In the long run the initiative is aimed at setting standards for retailing that can be implemented on an international scale and solutions for tomorrow’s retailing.

There are currently four technologies running in the concept store. They are electronic shelf labels; guided selling solution; digital signage and RFID, according to information available at the Wipro Web site.

raja@thehindu.co.in

More Stories on : Software | Insight | Tata Consultancy Services Ltd | Wipro Ltd

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
‘Walk into my… lab’