'Nicher and Nicher'

Small IT firms in India are focusing on 'colonizing' specific niches through organic and inorganic means, resulting in creating an increasing number of domain specialists and obviously envious growth. With the big IT firms showing increased aggression in 'consolidating,'smaller firms are showing their dexterity in mining specific verticals.Let's take for instance IT firms' hot-pursuit at present - healthcare. There seem to be a lot of interest in the healthcare vertical, lifesciences in particular, especially by small IT firms. Two Chennai based companies, TAKE Solutions and Helios and Matheson recently announced their acquisitions to reinforce their initiative in this vertical. It also emerges quite clearly that the skillset required to address niche space so as to colonize is very different from those required to consolidate. The investment, team composition, footprints all differ in 'colonizing' and 'consolidation.' The acquisitions made by TAKE is a clear indication of the focus and commitment of small IT firms increasingly targeting the niche areas for growth. OnSphere Corporation, an emerging leader in regulatory compliant web-based Pharma solutions and Applied Clinical Intelligence LLC, providers of clinical research solutions to pharmaceutical and healthcare companies were acquired by TAKE Solutions.