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The furore over FDI in retail notwithstanding, the IT industry, for one, may have a reason to smile if foreign players are allowed into multi-brand retail.
Global retailers depend heavily on technology and software for their operations and supply chain, and their entry into India could spur demand for technology and outsourcing services.
The Dell India Chairman, Mr Suresh Vaswani, said the company is clearly “excited” about this new tech opportunity in the country.
“Retail will be a big area for IT (players), without question. In the US, the retail sector uses a lot of IT… computer systems…it is one of the largest segment in terms of market potential. Suddenly, all that is going to happen here and it will need a lot of IT. That is the exciting part,” Mr Vaswani said on Wednesday.
He pointed out that Dell has ongoing business relationships with many global retail majors but did not disclose the names of these customers. “We deal with them globally…now if they are coming to India, it is a great opportunity for us,” he added.
Software apps
Mr Vaswani further said that global retailers who come into India would focus on innovating in software applications space. “Indian retail is competitive, so you will have to get overall costs down and also lower the technology costs. Retail would require software, terminals, points of sales, handhelds, and the entire supply chain…It plays into our game completely,” he said.
In 2011, the total IT and BPO spending in the Indian retail vertical grew at an estimated 17.5 per cent to reach Rs 500 crore, according to Nasscom. Further, the Nasscom `Perspective 2020' report forecasts that the total addressable market for domestic technology and business outsourcing services in India will grow five-fold over the next decade to $90-100 billion driven mainly by India's economic growth. However, the 2020 report does not break up the contribution of the retail vertical in the outsourcing market.
Mr Vaswani had left Wipro earlier this year after India's third largest IT services company dismantled its joint CEO structure. He joined Dell in April this year. Besides leading Dell India, he is also the Executive VP and Global Head (Applications and BPO) for Dell Services.
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