Mukul Mathur
Vice-President – Global Business Partners and CSI,
IBM India/ South Asia
In the last 21 years of your stint, what kind of changes have you seen taking place in the industry?
When I joined the company way back in 1993, which was just about the time when IBM has come back to India, internet revolution has not even taken place. We used to talk about client server computing and the PC era at that time was still at its nascent stage. However, now things have changed to a great extent. While today we are in a completely interconnected world, where we are talking not only about computing devices but every device or every object that we use are connected with a huge amount of data and analysis. There has been a significant change in the way people interact, businesses operate or take decisions and deliver services to customers. So we are seeing these massive changes around us.
How has the channel evolution been like?
Change has become inevitable now. Given that I have associated myself with the Channel and business partners, I find the channel has evolved and changed with every change that has come in, right from the point when partners started to move from client server computing to embracing the internet. The world has become interconnected and the web technologies available today to build and connect new technologies have further helped partners to introduce new service models as per their business and customer requirements. I feel glad to see such a positive change in the channel.
What kind of an industry do you foresee in the coming years?
While there have been some changes in the last 21 years, we are at a point now where change is far more rapid and far more disruptive. We are seeing a change in the products and technologies and the way these products and technologies are delivered through cloud and other pay-per-use services; we are seeing a change to whom they are getting delivered; we are seeing a change in how they are getting consumed; instead of just an information customers are seeking for more predictive analysis of the information and this is another change we are seeing. So, I personally think the industry and partners are going to see a huge change at a very rapid pace as we go forward.
