Source: www.nbr.co.nz

by Allan Swann - Local IT services company, Fronde Systems Group, has been appointed Google’s first business enterprises partner in New Zealand.

The deal means Fronde – a software as a service sector (SAAS) provider – can now call on the resources of one of the most dynamic and powerful companies in the world.

The Wellington-based company will be Google’s first partner in New Zealand for the Google Security, Compliance and eDiscovery products as well as Google Apps.

“These products and services have not been available in New Zealand for enterprise customers before so this is a significant development for corporate organisations,” Fronde’s general manager Steve Graham said.

Cloud computing ( which allows applictions to be accessed from a brower) has long been mooted for business applications, but concerns over security, outsourcing of information and the desire to keep operations inhouse have held the evolution of the market back.

Mr Graham believes there is a sea change in the way companies think about these technologie, and that they are no longer averse to looking at the business model.

“A lot of large companies are now seriously looking at these systems not just to cut costs, but to raise efficiencies. It makes far more sense than spending billions changing and upgrading your entire software system every few years,” he says.

For example, instead of running their own email services, stored on a central server that needs to be continually maintained, upgraded and requires specialised IT knowledge, customers will now be able to take advantage of Google’s storage, serves and expertise through the web.

Google’s web-based applications offer functionality comparable to most office suites, spam filters and anti-virus programs, saving businesses licensing and compliance costs.

These services are based on a subscription model, so businesses can give the system a try and if it doesn’t work simply drop it.

“With the SaaS business model, there is nothing to install or maintain, and Fronde anticipates significant savings for corporate customers. It will be great to see Google and SaaS products being adopted in the enterprise space by New Zealand businesses alongside our other SaaS solutions,”Mr Graham says.

Source: www.financialexpress.com

The Indian auto component industry has graduated from achieving operational excellence through developing engineering capability to tap the multi-billion dollar global component outsourcing market. This could be categorised as the early stages, post Maruti-Suzuki and global market economy.

There is a huge outsourcing potential for the Indian auto components in the global markets, which is estimated to be around $25 billion. The Indian auto components also hold great opportunities to participate in the new vehicle platform development of the Indian Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), said Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (Acma) of India.

This can only be realised if the component manufacturers imbibe the research and development (R&D) culture as well as acquire the in-house capability of designing and developing new generation auto components in close partnership and collaboration with OEMs and tier-1 companies, Acma said. However, in the current global scenario, the ability to design and develop new products is emerging as a key decisive factor in determining global competitiveness vis-à-vis other low cost countries, it added.

Keeping in mind the roadmap given in the Automotive Mission Plan 2006-2016 and need for auto component industry to develop R&D capacity and new product development capability, Acma will focus on a theme called ‘Becoming an R&D Powerhouse: The Next Frontier’, at its 48th annual session, to be held in New Delhi on September 3, 2008.

To further this effort and have a continuous focus on R&D, Acma has signed up with MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Sloan School of Management, Cambridge of the US for a programme on product design & development, specially tailored for the auto component sector.

This programme is aimed at bringing about the mindset change in CEOs to embrace the R&D culture and lead by example in spreading the R&D movement in the Indian auto component sector.