From a ‘cool’ software tool for commodity trading to an online wireless security solution ; from a “Flash” based voice response tool to a ‘rural shoring’ solution for business offshoring…. Indian companies continue to innovate in the infotech arena. And the best and brightest of them are being saluted this week at NASSCOM’s annual summit in Mumbai.
Says Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM: “The Indian IT-BPO industry has been a source of innovation, not only in terms of new solutions but also new processes and business models. This is the seventh year of these awards, and we are excited with the ever increasing number of nominations from companies hungry to make a mark on the global stage.”
From the 24 companies shortlisted, 9 winners have been selected and will be felicitated at the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum 2010, in Mumbai from 11-13 February 2009.
NASSCOM launched its innovation initiative in 2003 and since then this has become an annual showcase of Indian innovation in the IT fuelled industries. The NASSCOM-McKinsey Perspective 2020 report estimates that the Indian IT-BPO industry can tap additional revenue streams worth US$ 75 billion by the year 2020 through innovation.
Interestingly the Nasscom Innovation Award is the second announced within a week for Tejas Networks. On Feb 2 it bagged the Indian Semiconductor Associations Technovation award in the Best Electronic ( Telecom product) category for its ELAN triple play service platform.

Here is the full list of the NASSCOM Innovation Award finalists:
(Company /Company Category / Innovative Product ; winner follwed by runner up:)
Market Facing – Business Process and Business Model 
1. Eka Software Solutions;  Emerging;  “Eka”, an integrated product suite for commodity trading and risk management.

2. ComViva; Large Medium; Mobiquity mMoney exploits the universal outreach of the mobile medium to deepen access to financial services

Process (Internal Innovation)
1.Wipro Technologies; Large Medium; Cigma (Center for Integrated Global Management of Applications) application management platform which goes beyond a reactive approach to management to focus on improving business outcomes.
2. (joint runner up)Zoho Corporation (formerly AdventNet Inc); Emerging; The innovation of sourcing talent, recruitment and training methodologies.
3. (joint runner up)Tejas Networks; Large Medium; Carrier Ethernet functionality on native packet transport products (TJ2000 family) and in existing SONET/SDH platforms. The first product in the  Carrier Ethernet family, TJ2030

New Technology Advancement
1. IBM Daksh Business Process Services Pvt Ltd; Large Medium; Voice of the Customer Analytics (VOCA), advanced analytics solution that bridges the gap between structured and unstructured data across the enterprise to improve the retention of customers and optimize customer service operations
2. AirTight Networks; Emerging; SpectraGuard Online is a wireless security solution that is delivered online, on-demand SaaS model

Start up 1. Tringme; Start Up; Flash Telephony - Flash based Voicexml which brought interactive voice(IVR)
2. RuralShores Business Services Pvt. Ltd;  Start Up;  Product Rural Shoring is an innovative extension to the offshore business processing model 

Feb 8 2010