Confidential © 2004 Sierra Atlantic, Inc.
Early stage offshore R&D
BITSAA-CEL
Raju Reddy
March 24, 2007
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Sierra Atlantic At a Glance
• 1200 employees worldwide and growing• Best in Class Global IT services• Rich history of R&D partnerships with Enterprise
Software companies• Deep Integration & Product development expertise• Process and Methodologies
– CMM Level 5– SAS70 & BS7799 Certified– NShore™ Methodology
• “Top 20 IT companies” to work for in India
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Leadership Team
Sarath SuraGlobal Services
Brian RoganSVP Marketing
Bob HershCFO
Raju ReddyFounder & CEO
GK MurthySVP Enterprise
Solutions
Sanjay JesraniVP Operations,
Hyderabad Center
Feroze MohammadSVP Integration
Solutions & Products
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Offshore R&D: Market Trends
• It is for real and a high growth segment– “Offshore product development has arrived”:
Forrester Research
• VC’s increasingly expect offshore R&D for portfolio companies
• Specialized service vendors emerging– Captive center is not a universal answer
• India is not the only option– China & Eastern Europe growing rapidly
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FY 2001
FY 2005 Source: Nasscom
US$3.1B
Offshore R&D spending in India
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Benefits
• Get more done with less– 50% cost savings
• Scalability• Access to potential new markets
– India and China becoming attractive even for startups
• Growing ecosystem of partner companies are now offshore
• Process maturity– Especially when you outsource to reputed vendors
• Helps build a “global mindset” in company from day one
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Challenges
• Communication– Some prefer doing offshore R&D after Release 1.0– Product Marketing needs to be in close contact
with engineering in early stages
• Management Overhead– Most underestimate the effort
• Attrition & cost escalation– Especially in India
• IP protection– Perhaps more perceived than real
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In Closing ….
• Offshore R&D is here to stay
• Your company/product success ultimately depends on factors other than Offshore R&D