Tell us about your journey into IT industry?

After completing a two-year course on eCommerce in Japan as a government funded scholar and business management course, I entered Nepal’s IT industry one and half decade ago through the establishment of Radiant Infotech Nepal. I wanted to succeed in the business even though it was very hard to find any businesses that were willing to take their offline business online. My team struggled for couple of years but our continuous efforts in educating entrepreneurs for going online has earned us the status of being one of the pioneering IT companies in Nepal. 

 

Why do you think businesses should go online, if they are doing good enough offline?

We are in the age of globalization. If we want to expand our business globally then there is no option to going online. People are very busy nowadays to visit your business in person. But with increased access to internet, they can easily access your services and place orders at anytime - day or night and from anywhere around the globe. The beauty of online business is that your prospective client(s) can literally be just one click away from your online store. You can accept orders and payments and receive them directly in your inbox. With your brick and mortar company (offline), you are limited to the number of prospective clients who can visit your store during your office time. With a good online presence, we can literally have thousands, even tens of thousands of people visiting our online store at once. Imagine the potential for our company, if we could expose our products and services to a potentially unlimited number of interested people. Adding to this, through online business you can reduce operational cost as well as company in-person dealings.

 

How do you analyze the trend of taking business online among Nepali business?

Nepali online business are facing difficult times due to excessive power cut, lack of clear and precise laws and regulations and relatively poor IT infrastructures. Even businesses having foreign countries as their target market are partially doing their business online. For example, travel agencies, import and export companies, IT companies are doing negligible amount of their business online. But despite hindrances, many Nepali businesses are now willing to go online. 

 

Some business are online for a considerable time, still they are finding their business not growing as expected. What should they do to improve their online business?

Firstly, the government should think seriously on grooming online business culture in Nepal. It should make online business-friendly environment by bringing supportive rules and policies and implement it. Secondly, businesses should upgrade their online business platforms by adapting to latest technological advances. They should understand, discuss and comprehend scopes, procedures, challenges and solutions for grooming their online business with online marketing agencies. 

 

What is the investment and skill requirement for launching an IT company?

In our experience, financial investment along with investment of time counts a lot in launching and grooming an IT company. Investment requirements depend on the size of IT. Managerial skills coupled with technical skills and willingness to adapt and upgrade to technological advances is a must. 

 

What are the prospects in having an IT outsourcing company?

IT outsourcing company has bright prospects. Over the coming years, outsourcers are expected to expand their operations quite substantially. Furthermore, different survey reports have claimed that the growth of outsourcing will remain strong, particularly in India where such service is growing at a rate of 40 percent per year. Besides India, the Philippines and Sri Lanka are also doing well in outsourcing business. So, there is huge potential for Nepal also to grow in IT service outsourcing business.

 

What are the challenges in having an IT outsourcing company?

Major challenges in this sector are global competitive market, Nepal’s political instability, power cut, scarcity of professional skilled manpower, and staff turnover. Besides that laws governing this sector are not investment-friendly.

 

Do you think there are better prospects of growth in this sector? If so what should the government do in this regard?

No doubt, there are better prospect of growth in this sector. Major problem is that there is no exact recorded data of the transaction made so far in the field of IT outsourcing. Because many freelancers are involved in this business without any legal registration. Government shouldseriously implement the plans it has made so far for the development of this sector along with bringing freelancers within the boundary of taxation.