I am often asked about my company (Netcore Solutions) does. So, here is a brief:
VISION
Netcore Solutions is focused on creating disruptive innovations to bridge the digital divide in technology’s next markets: small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and the rural populace in the developing countries of the world.
Netcore believes that the next set of opportunities will be driven by the twin themes of Utility and Affordability.
IT has become a utility, but at the same time it needs to be affordable for people and organisations to use. This requires thinking and solutions that are very different from the ones which the current set of users in the developed markets have been using. Today’s non-consumers of IT have limited legacy and limited money. If the right technology at the right price comes along, adoption will take place rapidly. The next IT revolution will, therefore, start from technologys new markets todays have-nots and then make its way up the pyramid.
The opportunity ahead lies in using new and emerging innovations to build Affordable Tech Utilities.
The key building blocks are technology solutions like server-centric computing (thin clients-thick servers) with remote server management, open-source software, mobile data, WiFi and Ultrawideband, voice-over-IP, web services, weblogs, RSS-enabled information aggregators and marketplaces. Taken together, they create a new, pervasive technology infrastructure that can facilitate the mass adoption of technology across emerging markets.
The two large, untapped, and presently invisible markets in the emerging markets are the SMEs and the rural markets.
Both these markets are very similar in the sense that they suffer from large-scale inefficiencies because a co-ordination failure among the solution providers has ensured that they have been largely ignored. Their numbers are large. In India, there are over 30 million employees working in 3 million SMEs, and nearly 700 million people living in 600,000 villages. They are waiting for affordable tech utilities to transform their futures. This is the technological digital divide that needs to be bridged. These are the markets Netcore is interested in.
SOLUTIONS
For the SME segment, Netcore offers Emergic, a software stack with a mix of open-source and internally developed software covering Messaging and Security (Emergic MailServ), Desktop Computing (Emergic Freedom), Information Management (Emergic Topsight) and Business Applications (Emergic Enterprise). For growing businesses, Netcore has developed Pragatee, an integrated, entry-level server software.
For the Rural segment, Netcore’s Deeshaa venture is implementing RISC (Rural Infrastructure and Services Commons), a model for the economic development of rural areas. A RISC centre provides rural populations the full set of appropriate services and amenities that are normally available only in urban locations.
In addition, Netcore has established a leadership position in the emerging world of weblogs, RSS and the Publish-Subscribe Web through its BlogStreet portal and Info Aggregator service. Netcore is creating an Information Marketplace platform to facilitate exchange of information that is incremental, updated regularly, distributed repeatedly and requires near real-time delivery.
