EVOLUTION OF TECHNOLOGIES

As I got ready to watch the India — Australia Test Series on my 74 inch flat screen television with a high-definition cable service, I wondered how technology has evolved in the last decade. Earlier, holidays revolved around a 35mm film camera to capture all the wonderful memories and then rushing to a studio to get the film processed. Now, that negative film has been replaced by a DSLR. As the need to express creative freedom grows there is an emerging shift from compact cameras to DSLRs. From the time Internet happened to the age of cloud computing, technology has exploded massively. Moving on in this digital age from the revolutionary iPad to cloud computing, I feel that technology like cloud, mobility, and social media will no longer be isolated trends, but would be intertwined with one another, which would lead to building lasting digital business strategies. The launch of iPad in 2010 jump started the tablet market in a big way. This led to other tablets flooding the market in a wide range. Recently, the world witnessed its cheapest tablet Aakash being launched by the Government of India, which is aimed at reforming the education system of India by hoping to bring 220 million children online. Smartphones, note-books and tablets have made mobility a buzz word now. Adoption and usage of cloud solutions by enterprises and small and medium businesses in India are fuelling the push for adopting Cloud computing too.

With the enterprise segment and SMBs moving to the cloud, the printing pattern has changed. Being amongst the top vendors, Canon witnessed a similar growth in the segment. We also observed a strong shift from hardware to services and solutions. However, Managed Print Services (MPS) still continues to grow and will be adopted aggressively in the coming years. The tough economic atmosphere will drive the growth of Managed Print Services. There is now a new concept called Managed Document Services (MDS) which includes digitization, archival, retrievals, and workflows. This will bring more efficiently the 5Cs in the workings: Cost, Control, Confidentiality, Convenience and Collaborations. Companies will now implement these cost effective measures and thus increasing their productivity. Virtual servers, consolidating datacenter, implementing cloud-based solutions and outsourcing document services will start gaining grounds. New technology solutions may be necessary for survival and growth and they may not be as expensive as you think when you consider their return on investment (ROI). ROI both in terms of investment as well as on implementing comprehensive solutions in the information technology sphere is of utmost importance. The year 2012 will see India Inc. spend on wisely on Information Technology.