The India Business And Information Technologies (Bit) Survey

The UCLA Business and Information Technologies (BIT) Survey is a baseline study aimed at understanding and tracking the impacts of technologies on business practices. This report presents the results of the first survey conducted in India in 2002–2003. The subject group of the survey consisted of organizations and suborganizations that make independent decisions with respect to the acquisition, implementation and use of new technologies. The survey was undertaken by information system managers or chief information officers of the various organizations or subdivisions. The survey comprises of a varied set of questions covering diverse business practices, technology adoption, transfer, outsourcing and its impact on the organizational structure.The survey indicates that the Indian businesses are changing, requiring more effective solutions to deliver better value to the customers and maintain their position in a fiercely competitive scenario. Indian businesses during 2002–2003 were definitely at an inflection point in terms of deployment of information and communication technologies, ready for a quantum leap in few years to come.A few of the key results of the survey were as follows:• The number of employees facing the screen is increasing across all sectors and the need for retraining to keep abreast with the latest technologies is being felt increasingly.• The span of control is increasing with the organizations becoming flatter. The demand for executive decision-making tools is increasing across all the sectors.• ERP, website, e-commerce, groupware and security tools form the most commonly deployed technologies by the Indian businesses. Also, third party authentication and verification, wireless networks, content management and collaboration tools have been identified for near-term purchase.• Security is becoming a major concern with all the organizations and the importance of disaster recovery and business continuity is being realized. Even with this trend, advanced techniques like biometry still have to gain a strong hold in the Indian business sector.• Radio frequency identification is also not widely adopted yet there is no significant inclination to purchase it in the near future also.• Outsourcing is limited to market research in nonIT and programming, network management, etc. within IT. Functions like payroll and finance and accounting are largely being performed in-house.• Organization websites are largely being used as platforms to provide information, except for in the financial sector, where transaction processing services are also made available through the website.