Straddling the gap

Empower Works, a Polaris group company, has bagged 72 Indian clients in the span of one year with its client list including the likes of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Euro RSCG, Hero Honda Motors, and Kuoni Travel group. The software product that it sells has the rather exciting name of Adrenalin, but what it does is something very basic—it addresses the HR needs of medium enterprises with appropriate HR functions in an affordable solution that straddles the gap between HR heavyweights such as PeopleSoft and home-grown solutions.

Polaris hit upon the idea of tapping this opportunity based upon its own experience in handling employees across 22 global locations. As its HR demands grew, Polaris realised that other Indian companies were facing similar problems and that there was an opportunity for a huge volume play if a product was conceived that could successfully address the needs of HR departments. From there to creating a subsidiary named Empower Works was a logical step. Srikanth RP tells the story of this successful product play in the domestic IT market.

India Inc. is employing PDAs for everything from data collection and report generation to diagnosing vehicle problems. When the likes of HLL and Mahindra & Mahindra are enthusiastic about a technology, there can be no denying that it has arrived. Vinutha V chronicles the niches that handheld computers have squirrelled into. Across sectors—FMCG, pharmaceuticals, automobiles and mining (iron ore tracking)—PDAs are being used where no computing device has gone before.

The lack of a Single Sign-On (SSO) to the many IT systems that exist in any organisation is often a weak link in the security chain. The Meta group estimates that on an average, only 62 percent of a user’s access is removed when said employee leaves the building. For organisations having multiple IT systems, an SSO solution is necessary as managing a login for each and every application and computing system is a daunting proposition. Implementing features of a solution gives an enterprise the ability to manage user rights more effectively as it is easier for users to log into all applications using a single login. It is expected that most organisations will have an identity-based IT infrastructure where all applications are aware of identity in the near term, says Sushma Naik.

Companies are increasingly finding that the best way to find the right candidate is to look online. Online recruitment facilitates just-in-time hiring. When an organisation needs a candidate it can access the database of job portals, screen resumes and send a mass mail. It can also shortlist people based on skills, location, salary and availability and move on to the interview stage. Despite the challenges of lower Internet penetration in India, online recruitment is likely to pick up momentum thanks to the twin benefits of speed and cost effectiveness, says Vinutha V.

sandeepa@expresscomputeronline.com