GOWATDHAN GHEE GOT NEW FACE LIFT BY TATA ELXSI…this is latest addition in packaging product designs…
How To Ensure RoI With IoT-Enabled Solution.
R R Bipin…VP …TATA ELXSI…
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the buzzword, with every business exploring what’s in it for them. The enhanced capabilities to analyze data and the ability to derive value to make insighful decisions has given IoT a new significance, says R R Bipin, VP-Digital Services-IoT, Product Engineering Business, Tata Elxsi.
In an interaction with CXOTODAY…, Bipin elaborates on the changing business paradigms with companies realizing the need to adopt IoT enabled solutions.
Excerpts
What is the essence of IoT in a changing business scenario?
In current business scenario, customers are asking what is in IoT for them in particular. IoT as such is not so much about technology alone, but how that technology is transforming businesses. It is critical to understand how every product is becoming a platform for service delivery. It is about how it enables the provider of the product to deliver services and also manage utility of the product. There is a corresponding change. When products become services, the real connect that people have with the product and the product experience will change. We start interacting with products in a cohesive way. With rising expectations, there is a lot of design-led innovation happening. Convergence of that and IoT is very interesting.
What are key challenges in IoT adoption?
Challenges are pervasive across verticals. On top of all is ensuring connectivity as none is ready for downtime or outages. The machines need to have redundancies built into the system. Robustness of systems is fundamental. Secondly, data security and data privacy. It is important to ensure that while the solution exists, its implementation with a proper security cover is important. It is essential to consider how the data can be used and how we can have the right framework.
What are fundamental criteria for a company to adopt IoT?
ROI is the prime concern because it is a measurable outcome. Before adopting a new solution one needs to answer many questions: How do you increase efficiency of your business, how to maximise usage, how do you increase your customer base and how do we make better use of resources.
IoT doesn’t have a standard, but what is needed is to see that the platform has the ability to aggregate multiple protocols. The platforms need to mature where they can handle multiple protocols without compromising on robustness of the framework. That is the key.
Businesses must ask what is the measurable business outcome that an IoT enablement can provide. An IoT solution comprises a broad range of technologies across devices, cloud and connectivity from delivery engine. Possibilities are huge. Today, platform or domain specific modules are not the fundamental differentiators, but how do you use this data and what kind of interventions that data enables. All these needs to be packaged into a product. An IoT solution is linked to a product and it is the heart of the product, but it is not the product in itself.
How can the CIO know the right time to go for IoT?
Every CIO faces a constraint in bottomline and topline as there is constant pressure to maximize productivity, increase usage of resources and ensure satisfaction to customers. In IoT, one needs to looks at what are the business use cases where there is scope to increase productivity or improve efficiency, or where there is highest pressure. That area could have the potential to implement an IoT enabled solution. The CIO could bring in a sensor, data aggregator or gateway which helps monitor that system on a continuous basis to ensure a result that is devoid of human errors. More importantly, the ability to do analytics on this data in a comprehensive manner will change the outlook. Look at the corrective action that you can drive. The ability to drive right analytical engine and refine them continuously to get to the business goals will directly drive opportunity to improve ROI.
What are the prospects of IoT adoption in healthcare?
Unlike traditional consumer markets like electronic products, telehealth has market specificities related to geographies or the kind of health issues it addresses.
The whole concept of telemedicine, telecare and telehealth goes beyond monitoring and bedside care to real critical care to prevent life changing situations or ensure interventions at the right time because in the medical world, time is the essence.
Look at conditions like brain related issues, there is something called deep brain stimulator with a battery feed. No matter how much sensitisation is done, there is a risk of life. Life changing situations can happen if the battery fails. In such situations, we need an alert system, we need someone to know that a situation has arisen so that help can be rushed. So, IoT is more about getting the right care at the right time. Relevant information is important to ensure care reaches on time
SORRY FOR ELABORATE INTERVIEW. I AM LEARNING HOW TO CONDENSE SUCH ARTICLES
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INVITATION BY TATA ELXSI TO ATTEND THE CONFERENCE.
Events
Meet us at CommunicAsia/ BroadcastAsia 2016, Stand no. 1 H3-07.
My 20 cents on this.
There is too much discussion on IoT but we need to understand that this is still very nascent. The protocols and standards for IoT are being discussed and formalised as we write. This is going to be a big thing but at the moment this is in seeding stage.
The devices to be connected thru IoT will be in billions and with everyone tom, dick, harry and his uncle getting into this business it becomes more difficult to understand the serious ones. The IoT story may well turn out to be like that of APPs story in mobiles which promised a lot and now, though flourishing, has no business model. Everything is offered free. IoT needs a lot of domain expertise and will work only with sensors. Is anyone knowing any companies making these sensors or of any applications of IoT. The closest we have heard is in the smart city ppt’s, which is also in nascent stages. In India I can remember only one case of IoT type application i.e. Videocon A/C’s being started from a car.
IoT by itself is also not capable of generating any revenues. For it to be successful it needs to be seen along with Data Analytics.
Also, the success this is dependent on how the standards are framed since we are talking about connecting fans, A/C, fridges, mobiles, TV, sensors on pipelines, electric meters etc. The connected devices are very simplistic and dont have common interfaces or ways of talking to each other. A humble request, please dont invest in any company on the basis of claims that it is in IoT.
The IT companies are making this look very simple and most hype up to show that their companies are in the right markets.
Feel free to comment / correct this.
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Some of the IOT TNITIATIVES LIKELY TO BE IMPLEMENTED IN THE NEAR FUTURE…
*ONIDA HAS ATREADY LAUNCHED SMART AC WITH IOT…
*WATER SUPPLY MANAGEMENT DURING SUMMER BY CIVIC BODIES…WHERE ALL OVER HEAD TANKS ARE CONNECTED…AND DEPENDING UPON TNE DATA COLLECTED REGARDING NEED AND SUPPLY OF WATER TO DIFFERENT SOCIETIES OF THE AREA…WATER IS SUPPLIED…
IN SHORT …IOT NEVER EVER WORKS IN ISOLATION.THE COMPANY MUST BE HAVING CAPACITY FOR DATA COLLECTION COMPILATION INTERPRETATION ANALYTICS.STORAGE…DECISION MAKING SOFTWARE…
SO MANY SUPERSPECIALITY EXPERTISE IS NEEDED TO BE implemented. ONE SIMPLE LOOKING PROJECT…you are very right…
So here we are assuming that the company has data analytics capability. That beside the applications mentioned are too simplistic in nature. If Videocon and Onida can do it, surely it does not require an IT company to do it. The point is that only when they starting doing big projects which need domain expertise they will make money. Case in point is applications like water management , gas leakages from pipelines, traffic management, smart cities etc they will be a truly IoT company.
For any IoT ecosystem to be successful they need to be created on a standard protocol since they will interact with devices across the world. In short the consumer oriented applications mentioned above wont make them money, in a short while kids will coding expertise will start making such applications which will be sold free and there will be no revenue models.
For instance, sensors in devices will enable medical and consumer companies to study / monitor patterns and make offers for FMCG, Medical Devices, Services ( for geriatric care ), medical monitoring by doctors and of parents and children). These are the systems and products which will be big money.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2015/04/22/117-billion-market-for-internet-of-things-in-healthcare-by-2020/#2d9b90572471…
Nice article by market publisher a…
Big companies not having invested in ISMAC are going for managed process by small companies like start ups having knowledge process expertise…
Q1 FY17 results are out
http://www.tataelxsi.com/investors/financials/1Qr_Results_2016-2017.pdf
17% increase in top line and bottomline as compared to the same quarter last year, and marginal increase in sales and profits as compared to last quarter.
Notes from Q2 Call
- They are expecting topline growth of min 20% and aiming for > 20%
2.Margin - they intend to maintain current margin - This Qtr loss of 13 cr in total, 10 cr on topline and 3 cr on bottomline because of GBP issue
- They started a very small engagement with a Global Major in Medical Device segment
- Their current HC is 5300. Utilization is 75%. They intend to take 400-500 people more this year. ( Earlier in Q1 call, they mentioned 2016-17 HC target is 5300)
- They are planning for acquisition provided they get a cos with a suitable valuation and capability since they know 2020 target of 3000 crs will not be able to met otherwise
- JLR portion of revenue now came down from 25% to 20%, It is because they find other customers more profitable than JLR.
( Overall - my take very confident sounding management that is not afraid of competition either from biggies or other TATA grp orgs ( TATA Technologies or TCS etc) )
Disclosure Invested.
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Tata Elxsi to test driverless cars on Bengaluru roads.
Q3 Conf call Notes
Qtr full of challenges.13% because of Q3, otherwise it would have been 18%
No Pricing pressure
Fresh hiring happened this EPD. No more significant increase in hiring like this year
No negotiation in contracts space they are in. Customer focus more on quality rather than on price
Biggest challenge is exchange rate
This year little Revenue slow down. 20% expected next year
Significant potential for revenue from Panasonic ODC in India. This division of Panasonic revenue is 75 BIllion USD. AI will be used in Appliance in this ODC. So it is for Elxsi to scale and mine
Driverless Car Own R&D Program being tested in Bangalore road
No Significant threat from Border tax or local hiring as coming from Trump election as business is different.
Moving from small components IP to Solution Based IP
M&A on the radar. It may happen in coming months. Things much clearer.It will be to augment skill rather than scale.
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Interesting development using augmented reality
http://www.bseindia.com/corporates/anndet_new.aspx?newsid=e42dcfb7-d2b4-4d55-b58b-b3ebbefabb7d
Tata Elxsi Limited Partners with DiSTI to produce e-cockpit demonstrator
http://www.bseindia.com/corporates/anndet_new.aspx?newsid=2e8d96e5-c098-446a-b9ed-6beabca7cd02
Results seem to be affected by currency losses
http://www.bseindia.com/corporates/anndet_new.aspx?newsid=a005cfae-96ae-4028-a29a-99ddca738552
The sector has no tailwind. Rupee is on a stronger trend. Paying 25+ pe for a low 2 digit growth stock seems expensive. View are welcome.
Disc - reduced holding.
Had profits not been dampened by extra currency loss on a YoY basis, it would have been 22% profit growth. Point 2, when one says IT industry has tail winds, it is generic . Technology is disrupting technology. So, it is up to us to decipher which side of technology is disrupting and which side of technology is getting disrupted. Valuations wise agree, much caution is required.
Disc : Holding and no plans to add till find valuations in comfort zone again
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The Company has been testing driverless cars. However, the monetisation aspect of the same has not been clear.
The Company has started work with panasonic for its consumer division. This if scaled up can be a great annuity kind of business for sometime.
The Pound Sterling fell sharply after the Brexit vote from end-June last year till mid-October. It has been range bound since then. So the currency pain may continue for two more quarters after which it should be back to normal. The company is in a niche space with strong market growth (but also strong competition globally). It has no domestic competitor.
For a portfolio, export stocks are a good hedge as any disruption in domestic macro will first be reflected in your local exchange rate.
(Disc.: Invested)
On autonomous cars, the management has previously stated that the project is more of a technology showcase rather than something that they expect to generate revenue out of - “Yes, this is our own R&D program under which we are building autonomous driving capability on existing cars. What we are trying to do is, we have been testing these vehicles in controlled environment. We started out with a pre-programmed trajectory. Then we started reading road signs, identifying obstructions and things like that in a controlled environment. Now what we want to do is actually try it on the roads to see the real environment and to what extent the algorithms that we have built into our solution are able to handle the reality as it exists on Indian roads. So it is an ongoing effort and this is more to build skill and demonstrate our capability to build a solution, rather than to license any element of this technology at this stage”
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Tata Elxsi has a long standing relationship with auto majors. This is a very relevant R&D effort from that perspective.