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Hyderabad March 28 India is likely to witness more consolidation within some 800 software sector players, according to Forrester Research.

This could be by way of more mergers and acquisitions both cross border and within the country. However, the domestic companies, in some ways, have been relatively slow in terms of harnessing the power of consolidation, according to Mr Sudin Apte, Senior Analyst and Country Head, Forrester Research, Inc.

Mr Apte said that the software services have passed through three distinct waves in India beginning with labour arbitrage, followed by the process and quality wave and now are through intellectual property-driven services.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Mr Apte said "clearly large services companies are well positioned to take on the global competition. As the outsourcing market expands, domestic companies could potentially garner a larger pie and play a significant role."

Next growth wave

"The business will get a lot more complex as we see the next wave of growth with large corporations such as IBM and Accenture expanding their presence in India. While domestic majors would be able to keep pace, it is the small and medium-sized enterprises who would find the going tough," he said.

Mr Apte suggested that representative bodies like the Hyderabad Software Exporters Association (Hysea) could play a catalytic role by encouraging companies, providing them with crucial information and analytic data and also facilitate in reaching out to the markets.

Seeking innovation

The President of Hysea, Mr Anil Kumar Jampala, said that the Technology Days hosted by them have assumed importance for small and medium-sized enterprises who look forward to some valuable industry insights.

Referring to innovation-led growth, Mr Jampala said that they have received 14 applications and have short-listed some seven companies based on innovative product development.

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