If you happened to visit popular Web2.0 watering holes like TechCrunch, Gigaom etc in the past few days, chances are that you would have noticed ad banners from Infosys on those sites. I don’t recall seeing these ads earlier. This looks like a concerted effort by India’s top IT services company to get noticed in the Web2.0 world. And the appearance of these ads seems to be timed with the launch of its corporate blog called Infosysblogs.

The banner ads are (infact) hyperlinked to the Infosysblog. The blog is titled ‘ThinkFlat’ (an obvious reference to Thomas Friedman’s bestseller The World is Flat) and seems to have been launched recently. I read through the blog’s content ; it seems less like a regular blog and more like a compulsive eulogy of Friedman’s theory (Thomas Friedman incidentally, has quoted extensively about Infosys in his book). Sree (who apparently works for Infosys) suggests in this incisive blog post that the general tone of ThinkFlat seems quite negative with its over-emphasis on the word ‘flat’ which is usually used in a negative sense. I would tend to agree with him. In fact, I find the entire communication in the campaign quite unimaginative and ill-conceived. For the (ad+blog) seem to celebrate Friedman’s Theory of the Flat World, with the tacit message that if that theory is true, then Infosys is a default choice. This argument adds credence to the stereotype of Indian software services companies as being nothing more than smart (or shameless?) opportunists. I would have liked to see the (ad+blog) give me solid reasons as to why should the world go to Infosys, instead of taking refuge under Friedman’s theory.

This may also be a sign of India’s big IT services companies waking up to the influence of Web2.0 in shaping global software trends. I think Indian software companies are gradually trying to enhance their salience levels. Take a look at the list of sponsors at this year’s World Wide Web conference held in Edinburgh in May earlier this year, where Infosys was a platinum sponsor along with Microsoft & Yahoo. This is an indicator that the Indian services companies harbor global ambitions and now want to be counted amongst the Who’s-Who of the global IT industry.

Update (17thSep): I have been tipped off by Mohan about the existence of another blog from Infosys. This is about offshore project management and talks about Infosys’s competencies and their inherent strengths, in sharp contrast to the ThinkFlat blog.

Zoho has launched its project management baby called ZohoProject. I got a couple of emails yesterday (from Arvind & Sriram at their Chennai office) breaking the news to me. And their emails conveyed a sense of excitement and anticipation. The tone of their emails tell me, that this is by far the most ambitious of Zoho’s products. And something that Zoho’s top management is pinning a lot of hope on. Why so?

Here’s what I think– Zoho (till now) has got wide acclaim for its weboffice products. But all its other products are free for use (as far as I can remember) and hence, more of technology demonstrators than commercial offerings. With ZohoProject, this is set to change. For, apart from a basic free version, ZohoProject is charged for commercial usage. This is a market where customers are paying real money to use competing products (like BaseCamp), unlike online word processors, spreadsheets etc, which are all free to use. In that sense, this is also a moment of reckoning for Zoho’s team. It is one thing to wow people with ‘proof of concept’ free products; it is a totally different ballgame to get people to actually pay for those products and make a commercial success out of it.

So how does ZohoProject look like. I am a very active user of BaseCamp, and hence comparisons are inevitable. My first impression is that ZohoProject looks different from BaseCamp. It has the easy simplicity that you would expect of world class Web2.0 products but it looks more feature heavy than BaseCamp. BaseCamp was built around the philosophy of ‘building less and less’ but ZohoProject seems to be oriented differently. Proof of this lies in features like meeting schedulers and Gantt charts. This factor by itself could be crucial, for BaseCamp’s ‘project mgmt process design’ is considered by many, to be the REAL reason behind its staggering success. Zoho’s usage plans ($5 p.m. for 3 projects) are priced lower than BaseCamp ($12 p.m. for 3 projects) and could actually get some cost conscious customers to switch besides netting some first timers. Like CampFire (the chat in BaseCamp), Zoho has ZohoChat which can be integrated into ZohoProjects (coming soon).

In my opinion, ZohoProject initially will not find it easy. For it is up against a competitor that not only has the first mover advantage; you must remember that 37Signals is undoubtedly a poster child of the Web2.0 era, and hence a ‘sentimental favourite‘.

On the other hand, there is a ‘Bazooka’ that Zoho has up its sleeves. Guess what? It’s the vast array of solid weboffice products like ZohoWriter, ZohoSheet etc. that have already proven their worth. Once Zoho is able to provide a single sign on to its entire product range (planned pretty soon) and integrate Writer, Sheet etc into ZohoProjects, that will add decisive firepower to its arsenal. And that is when the real battle will begin. Watch this space for more action in future!