Digitization is very important in today’s world and plays a big role in the growth of any country. It happens only when best IT professionals are in the field. CompTIA is a name in the industry that provides IT certification courses and prepares skilled IT professionals.DT spoke to Mr. Pradipto Chakrabarty, Regional Director, CompTIA India, about the industry and their business. Below are some excerpts:
DT: What are the key agenda for CompTIA for Indian IT fraternity in the current year?
Mr. Chakrabarty:CompTIA is one of world’s largest developer of vendor agnostic skill certifications for the IT workforce. We strongly believe that the key to industry growth, especially in IT is how quickly can organizations upskill their employees to meet the industry requirements. Some of the critical and clear areas of skill development among the Indian IT workforce today are emerging technologies such as Cloud, big data, mobility, IoT and automation. Surrounding these domains is the ever-growing challenge of information Security threats. Our agenda for the Indian IT fraternity will be to promote information security as a priority area as well as urge stakeholders to seriously think towards developing skills of workforce in Information Security along with other skill areas.
DT: What are the biggest challenges for technology vendors and partners in India?
Mr. Chakrabarty:I think the biggest challenge that the industry face today is technology obsolescence. The time gap between the emergence of a new technology trend and the time it takes to upskill the workforce is dramatically reduced. This leads to a delay in providing value added services to customers. Also, we have observed that the Indian IT vendors are pushed to the wall due to rapid rise in automation leading to reduced dependence of manpower heavy services which was the mainstay of our IT business. The critical success factor in this challenging ecosystem is how well the vendors and partners are able to create a differentiation in value added and innovative solutions for customers.
DT: How do you help IT industry by providing skilled professional required for better growth of this Industry?
Mr. Chakrabarty:CompTIA invests heavily in developing certifications that are suitable for IT professionals. We work with a group of Subject Matter Experts from organizations across various sub-segments of the IT industry to identify relevant job roles and skills required for that particular job role. We then work towards creating vendor neutral certifications and training programs. For more than two decades, CompTIA certifications have been respected across multiple enterprises for hiring the right talent as well as close the skill gaps prevalent in the industry. We also update the content of the certification assessments to keep the relevancy alive. This helps professionals keep their skill up to date and thereby lead the industry to a better growth trajectory.
DT:What are your key strategies to help tech vendors to contribute for ‘Make In India’ program?
Mr. Chakrabarty:While speaking on “Make in India”, the two most critical factors that crop up are firstly, a political environment that is conducive to set up manufacturing ecosystem and secondly a skilled workforce. While, we observe that the first point is quite positive and the Government is definitely moving towards the correct directions to ensure a manufacturer friendly environment, a lot has to be done on the skills side. For vendors, a manufacturing setup can be only successful they are able to justify the cost of infrastructure including human resources. My recommendation to tech vendors would be to lobby with the stakeholders regarding the second factor – that is create a framework of steady supply of skilled manpower with capability to deliver high quality output with minimal post hire training.
DT: What is concern for traditional channel partners in India as they are losing their business due to rise of e-commerce partners?
Mr. Chakrabarty:This is an inevitable trend. E-Commerce portals have been a major source of purchasing over the past few years, especially for fast moving IT goods such as mobile phones and hand held devices. The benefit that consumers enjoy is on price and brand availability on a single source. However, some recent trends prompt us to predict the time line through which E-Commerce portals can sustain in offering these attractions. However, in the current situation the traditional channel partners are experiencing lower sales on the above mentioned goods in which the decision cycle is reduced dramatically and the concept of “touch-and-feel” purchasing is vanishing. Traditional channel partners, therefore should focus on their strengths. Over the years these partners have developed unmatched sales and service capability which they should use to migrate towards selling higher valued products and target mostly enterprise markets where the ticket value is larger and a certain level of consultative selling is involved. Also, channel partners are recommended to make services as their main focus of revenue.
DT: How do you see Data Security is as Crucial as National Security?
Mr. Chakrabarty:Through repeated messages, the Government is expressing their worry on the threat to cyber security in all walks of life. Our Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar recently warned that wars in the future will be fought in cyberspace. In this context, it is important to realize the importance of cyber security and what it means for the country’s defense, fabric and progress. As they say, every regiment needs a strong defense to be invincible. Today, digital India can't do without the protective wall of cyber security. In a growing economy like ours, personal and financial data are more like assets and any breach on this will hit global investor confidence that the world is reposing on India. Data security should be a top priority and responsibility for the Government, enterprises as well as common people just the same way as we have towards national security.
