#3 Key Tips For Techpreneurs Aiming to Go Global "Do a survey or an assessment to understand the consumer demographics and accessibility for the products"
By Vanita D'souza •
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India is one of the world's largest outsourcing countries in terms of skilled manpower for technology companies around the globe. Initially, tech firms used to build solutions as per clienteles' instruction. But the winds are changing its course.
According to Rajiv Sundar, Partner at Deloitte, companies are scouting for problems and building solution as against addressing an existing issue. Furthermore, tech businesses have moved out of their comfort of business process management (BPM) platforms and to venture out in the product-based software.
"We don't really see people who come up with products like Apple or the Google's Wifis. But we do see a lot of product-based software companies emerging, where people are developing tools or products to address a certain situation or a requirement," he said adding, "It may not have a hardware quotient, in comparison with the software element, but we see a lot of the product-based software that is emerging from India."
In the recent past, Deloitte has seen a number of hardware-enabled software companies coming up, which are offering tangible products to consumers. But the most interesting part is that in most cases the trends are set by startups that are lot more proactive in coming up with solutions as against large-scale businesses, he pointed out.
But how can startups increase their offerings from the local market to the international market? Sundar, in a conversation with Entrepreneur India, shared three tips for companies who are looking to play in the global market:
#Research
Going global means a lot of money, especially when you are trying to establish the product, establish credibility for your company in the ecosystem and convince consumers to bet on you.
"Do a survey or an assessment to understand the consumer demographics and accessibility for the products. Do not venture into the international market without your homework", he suggested.
#Create A Brand
As per Sundar, creating brand value for the product or for that matter any deliverable is by far the most important work.
"The tech entrepreneurs are really not well-versed in the concept of branding. It is still the forte of FMCG and consumer-led businesses. So, that is something one needs to work on," he shared.
#Diverse Model
Most tech-driven companies, including some of the startups, focus only on the business-to-business model. However, for instant recognition, this traditional approach needs to change.
"If you are doing work for IBM, the consumer will not care about your development because he is buying the end-product from you. To earn a name on a global platform, you need to have some involvement with the consumer and hence, entrepreneurs should evaluate whether their products can be aligned with the business-to-consumer model," he advised.
