Today in Tech: Google Glass, Uniphore & Voice Biometrics, Sanjay Purohit on the new metrics

Google Glass I couldn't help but contrast the excitement that big technology firms in US seem to generate with the tepid scene in India, till I reminded myself that I am comparing apples and oranges. In the recent past, we got all excited about the Apple event, which was not surprising, and then about Microsoft, which was a bit surprising, and today it's Google that's everywhere. There's one thing common to these three: bundling hardware and software. Apple has always argued for making both hardware and software to give the users a better experience. Part of excitement around Microsoft was because of its entry into hardware with Surface tablets. And, today, Google simply took this idea further. "It's clear Google understands that the algorithmic approach to their business is not good enough for the next stage. They have to make people feel like it is a company that's warm and inviting and lets you curl up with a book or watch TV," Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey told LA Times. The most exciting product that Google revealed yesterday is of course the futuristic computer-in-an-eyeglass-frame. I will do no more than to point to this amazing video, a part of Sergey Brin's presentation

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noMrmnmvyoU[/youtube]

More links on Google I/O:

• Project Glass Is The Future Of Google: Tech Crunch
• Jelly Bean, Nexus Q, Nexus 7 and Project Glass: Engadget
• Google Nexus 7, Nexus Q First Impressions: AllThingsD
• The Best Of Google I/O: Project Glass, Nexus 7 Tablet, Nexus Q Home Entertainment System, And More : Fast Company

Uniphore ties up with Nuance 
Business Line reports  that Uniphore  has tied up with Nuance to offer voice biometrics for banks. Its voice-biometric and speech recognition software will authenticate a customer and he will be able to do the transactions over phone without having to remember passwords etc. I have no idea how voice biometrics measures up against fingerprints or iris being used by UID project. However, I have been following Uniphore on the newspapers ever since I heard an IIT professor praising the founders sometime in 2008. The founders Umesh Sachdev and Ravi Saraogi were running a start up in Delhi when they chanced to meet Ashok Jhunjhunwala, an IIT Madras professor passionate about technology and rural India. Jhunjhunwala is the man behind  TeNeT group of IIT Madras (which includes companies like Vortex, Novatium, Midas) and IITM's Rural Technology and Business Incubator. He persuaded Umesh and Ravi to move to Chennai. With the guidance from the professor, and under the safe arms of RTBI, Ravi and Umesh spent a lot of time in rural Tamil Nadu to get a sense of what will work, and came up with speech based mobile solutions. The logic is simple. Mobile phones have spread everywhere, and a majority of users in the rural India are more comfortable talking over it, rather than read or type. One the other hand, increasingly, businesses were looking at rural areas. And they have been showing interest in Uniphore's offering. It now has over a dozen customers now, and with this partnership it's likely to go up.

The new metrics
In the past several years, since the offshoring industry took off, everyone who tracked the sector had a definite idea of the metrics that were to be tracked. They were simple. Revenue and profits. And whenever this data was not available, they looked at headcount, not only because a supply crunch could limit the growth of a company, but also because it was a good proxy for revenue growth. In the coming years, things are likely to change, as companies look at new technologies. TCS, Infosys, Cognizant are all betting big on areas like cloud, big data, mobility, products and platforms. Infosys has said a third of its revenues will come from products and platforms. While revenues and margins will remain good metrics - they are not substantial enough today to give us a sense of progress these companies are making. So what should we track? JP Morgan asked that question to Sanjay Purohit, who heads the platform and products division of Infosys, and here's his answer.

We think total contract value is a good metrics to watch. Then investors should focus on how many clients are active and on how many platforms. It provides insights into adoption. If we are able to drive client adoption, then the other things fall in place. In some ways, total contract value is also an indirect indicator of adoption and number of clients on various platforms is the other direct parameter. We do share with investors that what is the speed of adoption and what is the overall contract value coming from products and platforms. These two will be the most important metrics to analyze the success of PPS practice.

Also of interest:

• ACi launches laptop for Rs.4,999: The Hindu
• Rajat Taneja about Electronic Arts digital gaming platform: Mint

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.