ICICI Bank Launches Mobile Banking Application - ContentSutra

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ICICI Bank has introduced iMobile, a mobile application that allows customers to use it in a manner similar to the Internet banking transactions, including transferring funds to ICICI and non ICICI Bank accounts, pay utility bills and apply for insurance premiums. The facility is being offered free of charge, and covers Savings accounts, Demat, Credit Card and Loan accounts. This is a significant move, coming from India’s largest private sector bank (and second largest, overall, after State Bank of India). ET adds that 22 percent of the bank’s transactions last year were via the Internet, up from 2 percent five years ago. The application can be downloaded by SMSing iMobile to 56767661,or via their website. There’s a flash based demo that you can try.

I just installed the application: it required GPRS for downloading, or will need transferred via the PC - that might limit usage, and ICICI would do well to tie up with a handset manufacturer. The application can use both SMS and GPRS. I received a security code for activation of the service. The activation process took around 5 minutes, over GPRS. The service identified my bank account based on my mobile number on its own. Some features - like checking for the last 5 transactions, did not work. I wasn’t able to figure out how to activate the bill payment, though. The application has been developed by c-sam, promoted by telecom veteran Sam Pitroda. For starters, it’s likely that the bank will try to get its Internet banking customers to use mobile application (their website now has a prominent iMobile banner and link). The bank to bank funds transfer can be used as a payment system. If banks start launching their own mobile payment services, I wonder what will become of independent third party application services?

Recession Proof Software? Try SaaS, Managed Services and Open Source

Nice article on ContentSutra:

Conventional wisdom says Software as a Service [SaaS] companies like Salesforce.com (CRM) and NetSuite (N) will perform well during a recession. Some pundits even think SaaS providers are immune to a recession.

I wouldn't go quite that far. But I do believe technology investors should focus on three markets in 2008. They are SaaS, managed services and open source. Here's why.

If the economy slows, chief information officers [CIOs] will surely take steps to delay or even cancel big internal IT projects — particularly complex application development efforts. In stark contrast, SaaS offerings from Salesforce.com and its rivals provide CIOs with predictable monthly costs and on-time deployments, and the risk of hidden costs is very low.

With these benefits in mind, SaaS remains a hot topic on Wall Street. Big software companies will surely follow Salesforce.com into the SaaS market. I continue to hear, for instance, that Symantec will launch the Symantec Protection Network in a matter of weeks.

Meanwhile, SaaS will continue to converge with managed services, as technology consultants meld their network management capabilities with application deployment expertise.

Peter Sandiford, CEO of Level Platforms, describes this convergence of SaaS and managed services in a recent blog entry for MSPmentor. The managed service industry is filled with small software companies that are hiring talent and mulling initial public offerings in late 2008 or 2009. Keep a particularly close eye on Autotask in Albany; Level Platforms; Kaseya; ConnectWise and N-able, just to name a few.

We're also seeing the convergence of open source with SaaS and managed services. SugarCRM, for instance, is a fast-growing application provider that ranks among the top 10 open source firms you should be watching. In fact, SugarCRM offers its software as either an on-premises or on-demand solution. Watch for an IPO in late 2008 or 2009.

On the managed services front, companies like Untangle are promoting open source security solutions as robust, community-enhanced alternatives to closed-source technology. Untangle has lined up about 50 new managed services partners since September 2007, lifting its partner ranks to about 60 companies — about half of which have already generated sales for Untangle.

Untangle, still privately held, isn't alone. Watch for Red Hat (RHT) and Novell (NOVL) to start talking more aggressively about SaaS and managed services in the months ahead.

So, are managed services and SaaS the perfect antidote to a sick economy? I think not. But if I had a few extra bucks for tech investments, the most compelling bets remain SaaS, managed services and open source.

Followup posts related to SaaS:

Tech Data, Ingram, Avnet Moving Into SaaS

Salesforce.com To Offer DaaS Service, New Pricing Model, Competition

LogMeIn Files for $86M IPO; Gets Money from Intel

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Remote computer access service provider LogMeIn has filed to raise up to $86.3 million through an initial public offering, according to a filing late last week with the SEC. The Woburn, Mass.-based company reported a loss of $6.5 million on sales of a mere $18.1 million for the nine months ending Sept. 2007, but its growth is strong, with sales increasing 151 percent in the same time period.

As it uses a peer-to-peer data transfer model after it makes the connection between the home computer and the remote user, LogMeIn faces less of an infrastructure burden as it grows. It has filed to trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol LOGM.

The company sells primarily to enterprises, so the IPO may also be an effort to gain some credibility with corporate buyers. Some of that credibility may also come from a deal LogMeIn signed with Intel in December. The previously undisclosed deal involves Intel investing $10 million in LogMeIn and an agreement to tightly integrate LogMeIn’s services with Intel hardware. The chipmaker will also market and sell LogMeIn’s service to its customers and share that revenue with LogMeIn. Polaris Venture Partners, Prism Venture Partners, Integral Capital Partners and Intel Capital are backing the five-year-old company.

A $25M Innovation Fund Takes Flight in India

India's National Association of Software and Services Companies on Friday launched a $25 million innovation fund in collaboration with ICICI Knowledge Park.


Investors include India’s largest software services company, Tata Consultancy Services, the country’s leading private telecom operator, Bharti Airtel, and ICICI Knowledge Park.


On the drawing board for over a couple of years, the Knowledge Park Innovation Fund (NIIF) is finally expected to be operational within the next three months and to attract a first round of investments from 8-10 institutional investors. Follow-on rounds are expected to attract $40 million to $50 million.


NIIF will provide seed stage investments to encourage intellectual property-driven innovations in emerging technologies.


“While the larger firms can invest in innovation, startups and young firms in India often fail to scale up due to the lack of timely availability of seed capital," Kiran Karnik, president of the National Association of Software and Services Companies, said in a statement.

Click here to read the full article at Red Herring

IBM Joins Sony, Nokia in Sharing Ecological Patents

International Business Machines Corp., the leading recipient of U.S. patents, is joining Sony Corp., Nokia Oyj and Pitney Bowes Inc. in offering the rights to environmentally friendly technologies for free.

The effort, called the Eco-Patent Commons, is designed to help companies save energy and water and curb pollution, Armonk, New York-based IBM said today in a joint statement with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in Geneva.

Companies are taking steps to show they're fighting global warming and promoting sustainable development. The Eco-Patent Commons is the first forum for sharing intellectual property with environmental uses. Click to read the full article at Bloomberg

Intel@CES 2008

Intel CEO, Paul, describes how the Internet will continue to transform the CE and entertainment industries, and how it’s evolution will create business opportunities for those who embrace it. here's the link. Do watch Paul's keynote video..awesome new tchnologies to come!!!

Other Stories:

The Relative Importance of PC and Mobile-Based Internet Access

Intel sets sight on consumer electronics with foray into mobile space

Here's an article from USA Today Q&A: Intel CEO sets sights on consumer electronics

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Chip giant Intel has a new industry to conquer: consumer electronics. CEO Paul Otellini is expected to lay out the No. 1 chipmaker's plans to push further into everything from cellphones to digital video recorders during a speech Monday at the giant Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Intel (INTC) dominates the computer industry, with about 80% of the market for PC processing chips, but is a relative underdog in electronics. Otellini spoke with USA TODAY (GCI) reporter Michelle Kessler about why his company is bothering to start at the bottom of a new industry — and what impact Intel might have on that market.


CES SHOW PREVIEW: Electronics industry gets less traditional
Q: Intel has begun aggressively selling chips for consumer electronics. What makes you think you know anything about that market?

A: Everything in this space will be connected to the Internet. And the Internet is built around (Intel-style) chips. A lot of the early (digital video recorder) work was done by Intel — a lot of the (underlying software). It's not as far afield as you think. We're not trying to rerun the PC movie, (but electronics are becoming more like computers).

Q: Computerlike electronic devices sound frightening. Will future cellphones crash or get viruses?

A: You have to (design products) with protection. We have to produce something that doesn't crash, that's always on.

(Some of the first will be) mobile Internet devices. Think of the iPhone (AAPL) on steroids — thin and in your pocket. Some will work on voice. They'll have the full Internet at reasonable speed with no compromises.

Q: One of Intel's biggest pushes is in cellphone chips, an area where the company has struggled before. Why return to that ultracompetitive market?

A: Voice is free. If it's not free today, it will be. Everybody in the business is looking for a (data) services-based revenue stream. You make up the (lost voice revenue) through a zillion data service transmissions, (which plays to Intel's strengths as a computer-chip maker).

It's a lot easier to bring voice to a small computer than it is to bring the whole Internet to a phone. We're going to advocate for standards, like we did in the early days of the PC. We joined Android (Google's cellphone software coalition).

Q: Intel is pushing a new type of wireless data service for cellphones and other devices called WiMax. Sprint is embracing WiMax, but most other cellphone carriers are advocating different technologies. Wi-Fi, another wireless technology pushed by Intel, was a much bigger and quicker success. What's wrong?

A: People have been talking about 3G (cellphone networks based on different technologies) for 15 years. We've been talking about WiMax for five. With Wi-Fi, you have 50 million individual hot spots.

(With WiMax, which is operated by cellphone carriers), you have to deal with telephone companies and governments (that regulate the airwaves). It's more expensive, and it has to be ultrareliable. … We still think that by the end of 2010, 250 million people will be covered.

Q: After struggling in the past few years, Intel's fortunes have suddenly surged. Earnings and market share are up. What happened?

A: Tech goes in cycles. We have been lucky enough, for the bulk of the cycles, to come out OK. We've buckled down, refocused and done significant downsizing. We focused a large portion of (research and development) on where we wanted to go.

We have the financial resources. Even in bad times, we make a few billion a year.