India has finally reached a state where Domestic IT consumption has almost equaled to exports. In fact, the software market grew a few notches less at (17% growth) as compared to the hardware market (24% growth), and for the first time in 10 years, the domestic slice of the Indian IT pie has not shrunk! Ever since the PC market took off in a big way in the 1980s, the growth figures in the industry have been steady, with around 70 lakh PC’s sold in 15 years.
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BPO has been a huge boon to the industry. With the total number of people working in IT and ITES going up by 17%, it was the biggest employment generator last year. Further, with BPO encouraging the IT industry to geographically spread beyond the established metros, cities like Kolkata, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Bhubaneswar have emerged as new IT destination. However, it is not silver linings everywhere. The manpower problems that IT, ITES and BPO are facing need creative solution.
However, in the last year alone, the figure was 27 lakh-more than 40% growth in individual year. In the next year this figure is predicted to grow to 40 lakh. This proliferation of computers in every area will lead to a huge demand for hardware/networking engineers. It truly was a fell-good year for the hardware industry, and more importantly also REALITY based. Policy makers agonies over the fact that Indian hardware is way behind software but that is not so in the case of training.
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Jetking has been in the business of producing hardware engineers for over a decade and finds no dearth of takers for its products. When Aptech and NIIT started training in software in the early 1980s, there also arose a need for hardware engineers. Thus germinated the idea of training institute for hardware professionals and Jetking was started in 1992.
“I believed there would be a growing demand for hardware professionals in the coming years. With one engineer required for every 50 machines, the opportunity was immense,” Suresh G. Bharwani, CMD and Mentor, Jetking.
According to MAIT data, over the last 15 years, 7 million computer were sold. Of these 3 million computers were sold in the last one year alone. This year may see sales of 4 million computers. This exponential growth in computer sales also demands a similar growth in the personnel with know-how to keep them running.
“All these hardware require people to maintain them. that is where producing quality hardware engineers becomes imperative and Jetking can in a small way help bridge the demand-supply gap,” believes Bharwani. Jetking the biggest trainer of hardware engineers in Idnia, is on a song today. The institute chain with its 75 branches has till today “trained over 1.2lakh hardware engineers”. The institute has 25,000 students on its roles today.
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“It is, in fact, a mini university,” adds Bharwani. Most of Jetkin’s branches, 70 out of 75, have been developed through the franchisee route. It takes Rs. 15-30 lakh to start a franchise, depending on the location of the institute. To keep himself abreast of the latest developments in the field of hardware and HR and to update Jetking’s offering, Bharwani visits the US and an annual ‘pilgrimage’ to undergo training under Bob Pike, who is known as the trainer’s trainer.
A market leader in the hardware training and education segment, Jetking has trained over 1,50,000 students as hardware network engineers. Jetking, which has tie-ups with global companies like Microsoft and Novel on date, employs 1,400 people of which 40 are in marketing. Jetking exclusively designs courses as per the market requirement, also practical experience is provided. Trained engineers from Jetking are picked by lot of BPO companies.
Indian ITES-BPO organizations have now started looking beyond job fulfillment to identify opportunities for delivering high quality service to end-customers. They are aligning internal systems to ensure high customer satisfaction. These steps will serve as the building block for future success.
Currently, the range of end user satisfaction ratings for Indian BPO organizations in 82%-100%. According to findings of a NASSCOM and QAI survey the range of end user satisfaction ratings for Indian BPO organizations if from 82%100%.
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“I come from a family of refugees,” he says, immediately setting the tone for this rags-to-riches story that spans three generations no less. “My father started Nava Bhrat radio in 1947, just after the partition.” Well, that was five decades ago, and it’s been one long journey to the top since then. Starting out as a writer of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) annuals for various electronic products, Suresh Bhrwani today heads Jetking Infortain services, one of the larger hardware and networking training companies in this country with an annual turnover of Rs. 45 crore and boasting over 1,500 employees on its payroll.
The-trainer-cum-motivator swears by power of Yoga to help guide one’s ‘aachar’ (behavior), ‘vichar’ (thoughts), vihar’ (relaxation techniques) and ‘aahar’ (food habits), thus leading to overall personality development. “Yoga and meditation have had proven benefits”, he says”, that is why it is mandatory for all Jetking trainers to go through seven days of the ‘Smartrain’ technique that incorporates Yoga as an essential part of the curriculum.”
Bharwani also conducts motivational training workshops for corporate. He has so far held 45 such workshops, training about 2,500 trainers. “Today, there is tremendous pressure on leaders and managers to perform,’ asserts Bharwani, “the IT industry is booming, what with projections of 100 percent growth over the next four years. The quantum of knowledge itself is doubling every two years! Can you imagine the implications on managers who have to balance both-the industry’s demands as well as the employees’ welfare, with equal diligence? That’s why we need strong leaders to take the industry forward.
Apart from leadership issues, Mr. Bharwani has a bone to pick with the government as well as the IT industry. “Why have a policy of service tax on IT education and exports?” he wonders, “education is more accessible to the youth, thus leading to greater employment opportunities and greater productivity, this in turn, leading to more revenue through IT exports” The IT industry, he believes, could chip in by taking one more fresh interns, thus increasing the interaction between industry and academia. All this will only contribute towards putting Indian on IT map of the world, is his assertion.