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In My Opinion: Naveen Jain, Intelius 10 MOST PROMISING TECH COMPANIES: Leadforce1, Serus TRIBUTE: CK Prahalad

PUBLISHED SINCE 1997

BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY IN THE U.S. & INDIA MAY - 2010 SILICONINDIA.COM
 siliconindia MAY - 2010
Contents May2010
Editorial
16
Publisher
Harvi Sachar

TAVANT
Editor-in-Chief
Pradeep Shankar Cover Story

W
Managing Editor
Christo Jacob Innovation: Only Game Changer

Teamwork
Redefining
Deputy Editors
Jayakishore Bayadi Jaya Smitha Menon inston Churchill once said “Without tradition, art is a
flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation
Editorial Staff it is a corpse.” This is the same in the case of technol-
Benny Thomas Eureka Bharali ogy companies. Without innovation happening in their backyards,
Ojas Sharma Roshna Sankar it will be a corpse, or rather it will become a follower and not be
Sikta Samantaray Sudarshan Kumar a leader. It is easy to blame the chief executives and senior man-
Vimali Swamy agement for not devoting enough attention to introducing new
products, but that is too simplistic an explanation for why radi- Sarvesh Mahesh
By Christo Jacob
Sr.Visualizer Raghu Koppal cally new products are so rare. To achieve this, today most exec-
Online Manager Suresh Kumar utives are constrained not by resources but by their imagination.
Subscription Manager P Magendran Successful strategic innovations need more than a great idea. A
great idea should not be just a cash cow, but an idea that can ad-
dress the needs of the poor, as well as the potential that lower in- 06 [In My Opinion] 34 [Technology] 23 - 27
Top 10 Lessons for an Entrepreneur What is Social Media

10
come markets hold for firms. As CK Prahlad said, “The
Mailing Address
entrepreneurs should be aiming at the bottom of Pyramid that can By Naveen Jain, Intelius Insecurity?
transform the lives of People.” By Gary Bahadur, KRAA Security
SiliconIndia Inc
44790 S. Grimmer Blvd
It is a known fact that 70 percent of the world’s growth over the 08 [Infocus]
next few years will come from emerging markets, 40 percent of 36 Software for Software
Suite 202,
Fremont, CA 94538
which will be from India and China. And the mother and midwife 12 [VC Chakra] Development Life Cycle MOST PROMISING
of these innovations will be the pressing problems of the devel- Tessolve Services Secures $5 By Mahesh S. Prabhu,
oping world - healthcare, education, water, energy, food, commu-
TECH COMPANIES
Million in Series C Funding ITC Infotech LeadForce1 The Next Google of
T:510.440.8249, F:510.440.8276 nications, housing and corruption. To address these, I feel Indians
can play a great lead in making this grant vision come true.We In- PubMatic Raises $7.5 Million the B2B sector?
dians already add to our credit of having founded close to 10,000 in Series C Funding 38 Games for Good are Good By Vimali Swamy
startups in the valley which accounts to 40 percent of high-tech- Business Too
nology start-ups in US. And now we look forward to see more and 22 [VC Talk] By Kunal Sarkar, LumosLabs Serus Managing Outsourced
siliconindia more innovations from Indians. Mobile Computing A New Operations Intelligently
May 2010, volume 13-05 (ISSN 1091-9503) In this issue, we present ten most promising tech companies Turn-on for VC Eyes 40 Agile Offshore Oxymoron? By Vimali Swamy
Published monthly by siliconindia, Inc. who have created a dent in different sphere. It was not a popular- By V. Kannan, SRA Systems
By Amit Sudarshan, Illinois Ventures
ity contest, so no voting was allowed; it was an effort by our edi-
torial staff with the help of several VCs, corporate executives, and
30 [Technology] 42 [CIO Profile]
experienced entrepreneurs to showcase 10 private technology Cloud & Mobile Computing 28
Enterprise Information Systems
companies in the U.S., which we think are most likely to be the The NEXT FRONTIER
To subscribe to siliconindia
Visit www.siliconindia.com or send email to By Dr Subodh Kesharwani, IGNOU
subscription@siliconindia.com game changers. By Vimali Swamy

32 [Business] 46 [SI 20 Profile]

Copyright © 2009 siliconindia, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
in whole or part of any text, photography or illustrations without writ-
ten permission from the publisher is prohibited.The publisher assumes Planning is the Best Way to
Getting Ahead
no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or illustra-
tions. Views and opinions expressed in this publication are not neces-
sarily those of the magazine and accordingly, no liability is assumed by Please do share your thoughts with us. By Karthik Padmanabhan, IBM
Christo Jacob
the publisher thereof. A Tribute to
Lotus Software
siliconindia’s circulation is audited and certified Managing Editor C K Prahalad
by BPA International. siliconindia is available through
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siliconindia May 2010
 Top 10
GURU TALK By Naveen Jain
The author is Founder and CEO, Intelius
Lessons for an
Entrepreneur
I
’ve been an entrepreneur most of my
adult life. Recently, on a long business
flight, I began thinking about what it
takes to become successful as an en-
trepreneur and how I would even de-
fine the meaning of ‘success’ itself. The two
ideas became more intertwined in my think-
ing: success as an entrepreneur and entrepre-
neurial success. I’ve given a lot of talks over
the years on the subject of entrepreneurship.
The first thing I find I have to do is to dispel
the persistent myth that entrepreneurial suc-
cess is all about innovative thinking and
breakthrough ideas. I’ve found that entrepre-
neurial success usually comes through great
execution, simply by doing a superior job of
doing the blocking and tackling.
But what else does it take to succeed as
an entrepreneur and how should an entrepre-
neur define success?
Bored with the long flight, sinking
deeper into my own thoughts, I wrote down
my own answers to send to my kids. Here’s
what I came up with:
The ‘Top Ten List’ for a budding entre-
Naveen Jain preneur
10. You must be ‘passionate’ about what
you are trying to achieve. That means you’re
willing to sacrifice a large part of your wak-
ing hours for the idea you’ve come up with.
This passion will ignite the same intensity in
the others who join you as you build a team
to succeed in this endeavor. And with pas-
siliconindia
|6|
May 2010
sion, both your team and your customers are
more likely to truly believe in what you are
trying to do.
9. Great entrepreneurs ‘focus’ intensely on
an opportunity where others see nothing.
This focus and intensity helps eliminate
wasted effort and distractions. Most compa-
nies die from indigestion rather than starva-
tion, i.e. companies suffer from doing too
many things at the same time rather than
doing a few things very well. Stay focused
on the mission.
8. Success only comes from ‘hard work’.
We all know that there is no such thing as
overnight success. Behind every overnight
success lies years of hard work and sweat.
People with luck will tell you that there’s no
easy way to achieve success - and that luck
comes to those who work hard. Successful
entrepreneurs always give 100 percent of
their efforts to everything they do. If you
know you are giving your best effort, you’ll
never have any reason for regrets. Focus on
things you can control; stay focused on your
efforts and let the results be what they will
be.
7. The road to success is going to be long, so
remember to ‘enjoy the journey’. Everyone
will teach you to focus on goals, but suc-
cessful people focus on the journey and cel-
ebrate the milestones along the way. Is it
worth spending a large part of your life
trying to reach the destination if you did-
n’t enjoy the journey along the way?
Won’t the team you attract to join you on
your mission also enjoy the journey more
as well? Wouldn’t it be better for all of
you to enjoy the time of your life during
the journey, even if the destination is
never reached?
6. Trust your ‘gut instinct’ more than
any spreadsheet. There are too many
variables in the real world that you sim-
ply can’t put into a spreadsheet. Spread-
sheets spit out results from your inexact
assumptions and give you a false sense
of security. In most cases, your heart and
gut are still your best guide. The human
brain works as a binary computer and
can only analyze the exact information-
based zeros and ones (or black and
white). Our heart is more like a chemical
computer that uses fuzzy logic to analyze
information that can’t be easily defined
in zeros and ones. We’ve all had experi-
ences in business where our heart told us
something was wrong while our brain
was still trying to use logic to figure it all
out. Sometimes a faint voice of instinct
resonates far more strongly than over-
powering logic.
5. Be flexible but persistent – Every en-
trepreneur has to be agile in order to per-
form. You have to continually learn and
adapt as new information becomes avail-
able. At the same time you have to re-
main persistent to the cause and mission
of your enterprise. That’s where that faint
voice becomes so important, especially
when it is giving you early warning sig-
nals that things are going off-track. Suc-
cessful entrepreneurs find the balance
between listening to that voice and stay-
ing persistent in driving for success - be-
cause sometimes success is waiting right
across from the transitional bump that’s
disguised as failure.
4. Rely on your team – It’s a simple fact
that no individual can be good at every-
thing. Everyone needs people around
<<
Focus on things you can control;
stay focused on your efforts and let
the results be what they will be >>
them who have complimentary sets of
skills. Entrepreneurs are an optimistic
bunch of people and it’s very hard for
them to believe that they are not good at
certain things. It takes a lot of soul-
searching to find your own core skills
and strengths. After that, find the smartest
people you can, who compliment your
strengths. It’s easy to get attracted to peo-
ple who are like you; the trick is to find
people who are not like you but who are
good at what they do and what you can’t
do.
3. Execution, execution, execution –
Unless you are the smartest person on
earth (and who is) it’s likely that many
others have thought about doing the
same thing you’re trying to do. Success
doesn’t necessarily come from break-
through innovation but from flawless
‘execution’. A great strategy alone won’t
win a game or a battle; the win comes
from basic blocking and tackling. All of
us have seen entrepreneurs who waste
too much time writing business plans and
preparing power points. I believe that a
business plan is too long if it’s more than
one page. Besides, things never turn out
exactly the way you envisioned them. No
matter how much time you spend per-
fecting the plan, you still have to adapt
according to the ground realities. You’re
going to learn a lot more useful informa-
tion from taking action rather than hy-
pothesizing. Remember this - stay
flexible and adapt as new information
becomes available.
2. I can’t imagine anyone ever achieving
long term success without having ‘hon-
esty and integrity’. These two qualities
need to be at the core of everything we
do. Everybody has a conscience - but too
many people stop listening to it. There is
always that faint voice that warns you
when you are not being completely hon-
est or even slightly off track from the
path of integrity. Be sure to listen to that
voice.
1. Success is a long journey and much
more rewarding if you ‘give back’. By
the time you get to success, lots of peo-
ple will have helped you along the way.
You’ll learn, as I have, that you rarely get
a chance to help the people who helped
you because in most cases, you don’t
even know who they were. The only way
to pay back the debts we owe is to help
people we can help - and hope they will
go on to help more people. We draw so
much from the community and society
that we live in that when we are success-
ful we should think in terms of how we
can help others in return. Sometimes it’s
just a matter of being kind to people. At
other times, offering a sympathetic ear or
a kind word is all that’s needed. It’s our
responsibility to do ‘good’ with the re-
sources we have at our disposal.
Measuring Success
Hopefully, you have internalized the se-
crets of becoming a successful entrepre-
neur. The next question you are likely to
ask yourself is: How do we measure suc-
cess? Success, of course, is very per-
sonal; there is no universal way of
measuring success. What do successful
people like Bill Gates and Mother Teresa
have in common? On the surface it’s
hard to find anything they share - and yet
both are successful. I personally believe
the real metric of success isn’t the size of
your bank account. It’s the number of
lives where you might be able to make a
positive difference. This is the measure
of success we need to apply while we are
on our journey to success. si
siliconindia
|7|
May 2010
in in
Indian Techie Builds Low Cost India Requires an Indigenous Model for

I
Robot for Household Chores Development: Sam Pitroda
Ramaprasad. They wake him up with ognizing software, and hardware
an alarm. If he does not wake up, they bought from SP Road near Town ndia should develop an indige- concentrate local language. The country’s admin-

W
Ramaprasad
hat thrills a Bangalore-
based Microsoft techie
Ramaprasad is letting
smart robots do all the humdrum
work at home. He has built robots
that can cook, keep the house safe
when he is away, and help him spend
his leisure the way he likes the best.
Also, these robots pitch him the news
of his interests and show him the ads
of products he would like to buy.
Ramaprasad calls these robots as
Buddyhomes. The software, hard-
ware, design, and implementation are
all his, reports a daily. For the past 15
days, Buddyhomes do every work for
pour water over his head. He goes for
his breakfast, puts the noodles into a
pan on the stove, then leaves because
he wants to read the newspaper. In the
meanwhile, the Buddyhome stirs the
noodles and in two minutes Ram-
prasad gets a message that noodles is
ready. He scans the newspapers. He
admires Lalu Prasad Yadav and reads
whatever news is there about him; he
smiles, and immediately, the screen
on the wall before him shows the lat-
est available news about Lalu.
Building these robots with soft-
ware including cloud computing, Mi-
crosoft.Net, Visual Studio 2010, and
Open Computer Vision, Ramaprasad
says that the technology to build the
robots is ‘very simple’. It has three
webcams and a screen, gesture-rec-
Hall. “It costs me just Rs. 16,000. It is
so inexpensive because most parts are
from SP Road. The motors, chips, at-
mega, and H bridges are all from SP
Road.”
Now Ramaprasad is trying to
fine-tune the robots to do wet mops
of the floor, and do more sophisti-
cated cooking. In particular, he wants
to pursue developing gesture-reading
robots because he sees great potential
in it for the hearing and speech-im-
paired. “I think it is possible to inter-
pret gestures and turn them into
voice. Just think how it can help those
who cannot speak,” says Ramaprasad
who studied in College of Engineer-
ing, Guindy, Chennai, and holds a BE
degree in computer science and engi-
neering from Anna University.
nous model for development that
focuses on low-cost solutions, in-
stead of copying the consumption-
based American economic model,
which is unsuitable for the country.
While delivering a lecture on ‘Impact
of Information Technology on Indian
society’ at Tech ED 2010, the advisor
to Prime Minister, Sam Pitroda,
called for innovative ideas for devel-
opment from the country’s IT profes-
sionals with emphasis on affordable
technologies rather than blindly fol-
lowing the consumption-based US
development model that is incompat-
ible with our country.
“It is high time for the country to
on develop- istration has immensely benefited
ing an indige- from the developments in the IT in-
nous model dustry. Now, the task is to make it ac-
for develop- cessible to gram panchayats (village
ment by giv- administrations).
ing ample This technology has to be taken to
importance to the village-level by connecting 2.5
low-cost so- lakh (0.25 million) village adminis-
lutions that trations, which form the core of the
are locally local government and vital in the
Sam Pitroda
relevant,” present setup through broadband. The
Pitroda says. technologists can use eight lakh km
Information and Communication (0.8 million km) of fiber optic lines
Technology (ICT) has already per- that are already in existence. India
vaded everywhere in India. But what needs to formulate groundbreaking
we need is technologies that are cost development models in sectors such
effective, have local content, and use as education and health. si

B
Two Indians in Barron’s ‘Top 100 Financial Advisors’ list
arron's, a U.S. financial maga-
zine, has come up with its sev-
enth annual list of America's
top 100 financial advisors. Brian Pfei-
fler of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney
topped the list, whereas Indian origin
advisors Sanjan Dhody, Managing Di-
rector and Client Advisor of Alex
Brown and Raj Sharma Senior Vice
President, Private Banking and Invest-
ments Group, Merrill Lynch secured
the 24th and 62nd positions respec-
tively.
The magazine has given the rank-
ing based on assets under manage-
ment, quality of the advisors' practices,
and revenue the advisors generate for
their firm. Investment performance is
not an explicit criterion, because many
advisors don't have audited results,
and their clients have a wide variety of
investment goals, from conservative to
aggressive. But to build billion-dollar-
plus businesses, as each of the 100 ad-
visors has done, generally requires a
strong long-term track record.
Dhody joined Deutsche Bank Alex
Brown from Lehman Brothers, where,
since 2000, he has built a significant
High Net Worth advisory practice
complemented by a focus on equity,
fixed income and structured solutions
for sophisticated investors. Prior to
joining Lehman Brothers in 1996 in its
Fixed Income Division, Dhody was a
Research Analyst for Citicorp Interna-
tional Securities and was based in
London.
On the other side, Sharma has done
his schooling from St.Pauls High school,
Hyderabad and then earned his com-
merce degree from Nizam college and
an MBA from Osmania University has
been with Merrill Lynch for 17 years,
serving individual investors, corpora-
tions and foundations with comprehen-
sive financial planning advice, estate,
philanthropic and legacy planning con-
sultation, retirement, education planning
and asset management services. As
founder of the Sharma Group within
Merrill Lynch, he runs a team providing
private wealth management and strate-
gic financial planning services for high
net worth individuals and families, as
well as business financial services for
emerging companies. si

siliconindia
|8|
May 2010
in
26 Million Indians use 3G Handsets to get 2G Service
A
s per the figure of the Indian
Cellular Association, 26 mil-
lion out of India’s 563 million
mobile phone subscribers have hand-
sets that are 3G enabled. Indians who
use 3G handsets outnumber the entire
population of Australia by about five
million, Belgium by 16 million, Den-
mark by 21 million, the Netherlands
by 10 million, and Switzerland by 19
million.
The government believes that 3G
services will be up and running in six
months. Currently the country is going
through the motions of selecting tele-
A
Indian CEOs Enjoy Highest Credibility
survey conducted on 13 key
nations found that the exec-
utives in India have the
maximum faith in their CEOs and
general corporate leadership. Com-
pared to the U.S., Canada, and
Britain their counterparts in China,
Brazil, and Russia also have much
more faith. Interestingly, Indian ex-
ecutives ranked the credibility of
their CEOs at 81 and the credibility
of their corporate leadership in gen-
eral at 78, the highest among 13
countries. The global mean for CEO
credibility was 69 and for corporate
leadership in general was 70.
There is a wide distinction in how
siliconindia
|10| May 2010
com companies that will eventually
run the 3G services. 26 million mobile
users already have 3G handsets while
only 2G services are available in the
country.
In a report titled ‘Uptake of 3G
Services in India’, Evalueserve states
that the number of Indians with 3G
handsets will increase to 395 million
by 2013, growing by 82 percent
CAGR (compounded annual growth
rate). In three years from now, urban
mobile users will account for 80 per-
cent of 3G subscribers and use serv-
ices such as video downloads, music
executives feel about the course
under CEOs. On a scale from -100 to
+100, executives in India, China,
Brazil, and Russia expressed
strongest support for their corporate
bosses, posting scores of 52, 53, 44,
and 26 respectively against a global
mean of 22.On the other hand, with
their mean scores of -1, -4, and -5, ex-
ecutives in Canada, the U.S., and
Britain showed their lack of confi-
dence in their corporate bosses.
The confidence in CEOs and cor-
porate leadership globally increased
during the past year, hinting that eco-
nomic recovery is under way after the
global meltdown. The Direction of
downloads, Internet applications, and
search.
“3G is expected to initially create
‘voice’ capacity in the existing spec-
trum; it will eventually deliver a bou-
quet of services from vanilla voice and
basic data to rich entertainment and
more. We believe that 3G in India will
be driven by content rather than
voice,” says V Ramnath, Director of
Operator Accounts, Nokia. Even with
the current technologies, there is big
demand for content in India. Nokia has
over 20 3G handset models. It has
launched Ovi, an Internet services
brand, specifically with 3G in mind.
Deepesh Gupta, Managing Direc-
tor, Zen Mobiles, opines that the
launch of 3G will open the doors to in-
novative value-added services, which
will bring everything on just one con-
vergent device, bringing a paradigm
shift in cellular communications. “We
plan to come up with 3G handsets in
three months. We see a huge growth
and our R&D team is already working
on product development,” he says.
Leadership Index rose 3.7 points to
26.3 in the first quarter of 2010, indi-
cating that confidence in CEOs glob-
ally is back after the economic
meltdown.
The survey, ‘Confidence in Lead-
ership Index’, was done by the Los
Angeles-based Korn/Ferry Interna-
tional, a global provider of talent
management solutions. Ana Dutra,
CEO, Korn/Ferry Leadership and Tal-
ent Consulting, says ,”Leaders at the
top of the house set the tone for their
organizations, and steadily increasing
support indicates that CEOs’ actions
are instilling confidence in their em-
ployees, peers, and directors. si
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Tessolve Services
T
Secures $5 Million in
Series C Funding
Raja Manickam
essolve Services, an independ-
ent full-service semiconductor
test and product engineering
company, has raised $5 million in the
series C round, bringing the total fund-
ing to $15 million. The round led by
Reliance Venture Asset Management
along with the participation of JAFCO
Asia, Qualcomm Ventures, and Applied
Ventures, would help the company in
accelerating organic and strategic inor-
ganic growth to boost operations and
expand capabilities in India.
P. Raja Manickam, Founder, Tes-
solve Services says, “In the Indian mar-
ket, where semiconductor is still in a
nascent phase with an annual growth of
15-20 percent, Tessolve helps semi-
P
conductor product companies to in-
crease the number of new products to
ubMatic, a Palo Alto based online
ad optimization service company,
has bagged $7.5 million in series C
funding, which was led by Helion Venture
Partners. The company also gets the sup-
port of the existing ventures  Draper Fisher
Jurvetson and Nexus Venture Partners.
This round of investment brings Pub-
Matic’s total funding to $18 million.
With this new round of funding, the com-
pany plans to accelerate the adoption of its
recently announced set of new offerings,
which includes an impression-level ad
auction with realtime bidding, global de-
mand representation, audience analytics
and monetization, enhanced brand control
and data safety, guaranteed inventory yield
management, and enterprise ad operations
support. With the help of these new appli-
cations, sales and ad operations teams can
manage all ad revenue from a single dash-
board and gain new insights into inventory
and pricing across non-guaranteed and
siliconindia
|12| May 2010
maintain or grow with the support of its
scalability, cost, and engineering ex-
pertise.
Founded in 2004 with a focus on
developing software applications that
analyze chip designs and drive the mis-
sion critical equipment use to test semi-
conductor products, the company
assists product firms to develop test so-
lutions for RF, advanced mixed-signal,
memory, and digital devices. Having a
team of professionals with experience
in the test, test hardware development,
package assembly, DFT & FA, Tes-
solve offers professional, state-of-the-
art, and efficient solutions.
Based out of Bangalore and having
offices in the U.S. and Singapore, the
semiconductor test engineering firm
provides customers access to industry
PubMatic Raises
$7.5 Million in Series
C Funding
guaranteed inventory channels. Also, this
will help publishers to find new ways of
selling existing inventory and improve the
value of the inventory sold by their direct
sales force. Currently the company has
around 6,000 publishers in its network.
Rajeev Goel, Co-founder and CEO of
PubMatic says, “Till now, no other com-
pany has come to market with so many
tools to make certain premium publishers
earn the most revenue while ensuring con-
trol over their brand, and this has allowed
us to grow revenue by over 700 percent
since a year ago. This new injection of
capital will accelerate the pace of adoption
and development of revenue maximizing
leading high end, mixed-signal testing
systems and related services. Also, it
provides experienced engineering ca-
pability to support and manage all
functions from DFT through assembly
and test in the semicon life cycle.
Recently, the company signed an
agreement with Dynamic Test Solu-
tions to create one of the industry’s
largest and most integrated test services
suppliers. The combined infrastructure
and resources will allow the company
to provide a comprehensive and inte-
grated approach to outsourced test so-
lutions for semiconductor companies
for the entire life cycle of their products
 from the first silicon functional test, to
optimized production release, and into
post-production services.
Having an employee strength of
around 400, the company plans to
dominate post-silicon activities and
be listed on the Indian stock ex-
changes (BSE and NSE) in three
years down the line.
Rajeev Goel
and brand control tools for publishers.”
Co-founded in 2006 by Amar Goel
with Rajeev Goel and Mukul Kumar,
PubMatic’s management technology
combines an impression-level ad auc-
tion to give the Web’s top publishers the
best possible control over their revenue
and brand. Some of the online publish-
ers that work with PubMatic are IAC,
The Huffington Post, eBay, United On-
line, and TV Guide. This privately held
company, which is recognized as the
‘sell side platform’ for premium pub-
lishers, has seven offices around the
world spread across the U.S, Europe,
and Asia and has about 50 employees.
CEO
SPOTLIGHT

T T G
EDA Needs More Inclusive Chip Packed with More Features Cloud Computing – The
Analysis @ Lower Cost at Low Cost Marks the New Trend Medium for IT Momentum
oday’s ICs include one or gineer will shape the EDA industry. he system design indus- are into a complete artner predicts cloud management, are fit candidates for
more processors, memory, The EDA industry must develop tools try is witnessing turn- system level design- computing and active cloud based services, as in a region
and various digital silicon that enable engineers to design more arounds at different ing, or the ones who monitoring of security the regulatory requirements are com-
intellectual property (IP) advanced and complex ICs in less levels. At the process build smaller solu- to be among the top mon and with little customization the
blocks, plus time, with smaller teams, manufacturing level is tions to fit into the ten trends. These tech- application can cater to a wide range
analog IP such as sensors, and fewer computing re- the concept of ‘through silicon via’ larger landscape, can nology trends will drive the growth of industries. Based on per-em-
interfaces, and antennas. sources. The introduction (TSV), a process which implies a now use licenses on- of IT services, and the IT services ployee charges, the model will be at-
To implement these of new design method- vertical electrical connection that demand according to trend in turn will shift from the tra- tractive to a large number of
mixed-signal systems on ologies, innovative tools, completely passes through silicon their needs, while en- ditional IT enabled customer support industries. Initially a lot of such sup-
chip (SoCs), designers re- and the growing demand wafer. The TSV technology gains suring a secured services to services that port function applica-
quire fast, accurate, and for ICs for the markets in ground with the growing impor- cloud computing would include technol- tions will quickly
high capacity analog and India and China will help tance of creating 3D packages and usage. The new trend ogy services to the emerge as services, be-
digital design tools that drive the growth of the 3D integrated circuits. In fact, in at different levels will clients. fore others such as
Bala Vishwanath is

can be tightly integrated EDA industry. the next two years 20 percent of the help in reducing veri- Cloud based serv- manufacturing-specific
the President & CEO

into a single design envi- Inventing a great designs will incorporate TSV. The fication time, which ices help in optimizing applications go on the
of Physware. He along

ronment. This need has product is probably the trend will help pack more features will allow parameter- the resources required cloud.
with Vikram Jand-

led EDA providers to cre- least of the EDA entre- into the chip at a lower cost, which izing designs and as a and to scale up easily. It The current eco-
hyala and Dipanjan

ate solutions with the em- preneur’s challenges. will demand electro-magnetic ef- knowledge to provide result it will check the offers a low manage- nomic climate is not
Rajeev Madhavan is Gope brings the

bedded digital design Right now, there’s very lit- fects, and in turn boost the magni- high-speed innovative tendency to over-de- ment overhead, low very encouraging for
the Chairman and
system. tle venture capital funding tude of 3D deliberately outwitting 3D fullwave solutions sign based on intuitive barrier to entry, and im- entrepreneurs as both
CEO of Magma
The designs also re- available in the EDA seg- 2D effects. that enable broadband verification. Thus, the mediate access to a business ideas and
Design Automation.
quire better static timing ment, or even the semi- The increasing utility of 3D and verification and design same results in a bet- broad range of applica- funding are hard to
Founded in 1997,
analysis because the num- conductor space as a wireless enabled devices is impact- across the chip - pack- ter product with re- tions. The key feature come by. It is important
Chandra Sekhar
Magma is an EDA
ber of process, voltage, whole. To get funding for ing the application level and corpo- age - board ecosystems. duced time-to-market. of cloud computing is to secure the necessary
Bilugu is the CEO of
software provider built
and temperature (PVT) a startup, entrepreneurs rates are turning around for higher The entrepreneurs service. Cloud comput- funding before embark-
eGestalt. eGestalt pro-
on the concept of
corners has increased dra- need a great product, a bandwidth. The bandwidth power is must note the oppor- ing emerged during the ing on a venture and si-
vides automation and
combining logic and
matically and there are solid business plan, and a recognized across the sectors and tunities that lie in the system design economic downturn by multaneously plan on
on demand delivery of
physical designs into a
many more scenarios that strong, high-demand mar- not necessarily limited to the wire- space; they should also, however, be reducing the need to in- reaching sustainability
integrated IT Security
single system.
must be analyzed. To address this with ket. less and the video applications; it is on their toes to provide a convinc- vest in digital infra- early on. The ongoing
and compliance man-

conventional tools, the designers re- The good news is that the EDA in- witnessed in the diverse fields in- ing business proposal. This would structure, as it allows cureGRC products and recession can lead to
agement, through Se-

quire more static timing analysis li- dustry provides critical technology that cluding air force. For instance, in help the enterprises to try out new an entrepreneur to some fundamental
censes, more expensive machines, and the over $200 billion semiconductor terms of the broadcasts within an solutions, overcoming the qualms avoid capital expendi- changes in the environ-
services.

more time. The new design platforms industry relies on. There’s always a airplane, where signal clarity is of associated with signing a deal with ture on hardware, software, and serv- ment and the legacy concepts may
allow designers to fully analyze any new problem that EDA can solve for utmost importance, higher band- a new company that is yet to prove ices, while allowing paying the not work in the future. It is important
design in about an hour, which saves the design engineers. Now could be width becomes a necessity. its viability. In fact, with the com- provider only for the use. to identify the potential new trends
time and makes it possible to analyze the perfect time to start a company. With the new technological ad- petition getting tough, it’s advisable Although cloud computing has and focus on them. One should be
at a limited cost. Hence, designers do Don’t get dazzled by your technology vancements in the different system for the budding entrepreneurs to not fully penetrated all segments of prepared to take advantage of that
not have to cut corners by choosing to and make sure that you and your team design process companies are on focus on an existing solution and in- enterprises, this seems to be the fu- when the economy picks up. This is
analyze only a limited number of PVT have solid business sense. And, work the lookout for better computing novate on it to bring value, though ture around which a lot more inno- the time to work on that new idea as
corners. closely with customers to understand platforms. Computing that now this doesn’t imply a mere low cost vative solutions will emerge, given talent is easily available and the en-
As always, the changing require- their requirements and how you can drives sale and demand or comput- solution, rather a solution with its the obvious benefits. Functional ap- trepreneur may be just in time for the
ments of the semiconductor design en- meet them. ing in the cloud. Large players who unique IP. plications, such as human resource market on its upswing. si

siliconindia
|14| May 2010 siliconindia
|15|
May 2010
 TAVANT
Teamwork
Redefining
W
hen the top notch
Customers are financial services
companies includ-
ing MB Trading,
not just our optionMONSTER,
Fifth Third Bank and others open
clients, they are their wallets in search of best-of-
breed technology solutions, they
knock the doors of Tavant Technolo-
like partners gies. The Santa Clara, CA, based Ta-
vant helps the biggies to decrease
and they need latency and increase speed, upgrade
technology platforms, build manage-
ment solutions, and to set themselves
to know as up at co-location facilities. As we
know, the race to have the best tech-
nology that will slice latency down to
much as we do microseconds - and eventually to
nanoseconds - is far from over. So in
the big IT services market where
even the biggies are now focused on
the BFSI sector, what gives Tavant
the edge and advantage?
“Customers are not just our
clients, they are like partners and
they need to know as much as we do
,” says Sarvesh Mahesh, CEO, Ta-
vant Technologies. Mahesh was
quick to carve a niche and break the
Sarvesh Mahesh
COVER STORY
By Christo Jacob
conventional mode. He follows the
simple mantra of ‘transparency’, and
‘access to realtime status of each
project’ and beleives that it has re-
ally worked among the customers.
Now, the company is in a mo-
mentum of growth as the mantra that
worked well to woo the top notch on-
line financial clients has in turn
helped them get more players. Ta-
vant’s legacy of having transparency
among the employees and its unique
global client engagement helped Ta-
vant to make sure that the customers
get focused attention on minimizing
issues and maximizing customer sat-
isfaction. Unlike its competitors, the
company believes in building and
strengthening relationships with its
customers and delivering the deep
understanding of domain expertise.
As the financial services market con-
tinues to evolve every day, the cus-
tomers in this space are constantly
demanding improved services and
better experiences on their web-based
applications. So at the same time re-
ducing overhead remains a critical
challenge to stay competitive.
 Currently, the financial services in- project manager, engagement manager In fact Tavant’s outsourced Web TheSimsCarnival.com is an online
dustry is undergoing a significant Global Engagement Model to engagement manager, and finally application and technology expertise community and gaming experience
transformation in how applications are executive sponsor to customer’s exec- has helped its customers accelerate from The Sims that makes game cre-
designed and delivered. A key driving utive sponsor. features and functionality to the mar- ation and sharing more accessible. The
force behind this shift is the growing So Tavant has created a project ket and lower the IT cost. Its products Sims’ design is intended to convert
Tavant Customer

imperative to be global both in terms management portal - an online dash- and services are routinely rated high millions of players into game design-
of providing customer-facing services board wherein the customer can get re- by the industry and media and de- ers, with no programming skills re-
Strategic Management Strategic Management
(Executives, Practice Head, Global Delivery Manager) (CIO, CEO, CFO…)

and in taking advantage of a distrib- altime status of each project. ployed by leading business names, like quired. “TheSimsCarnival.com project
uted global workforce. Applications Moreover, the company has leveraged Electronic Arts, TiVo, Major League allowed Tavant to showcase two of its
Offshore Onshore

that were previously deployed locally the best shore model in which its Baseball Advanced Media, New York core differentiating capabilities: use of
Account Level Delivery Account Management Organizational Management
(Global Delivery Manager) (Client Partner & PGM)

on well-provisioned workstations or workforce, especially senior leads and Times, Ingersoll Rand, Bobcat, Fed- Web technology in complex applica-
(Directors, VPs…)

kiosks need to be redesigned to serve experts close to the customer side, eral Signal, Wolters Kluwer Financial tion environments and rapid and agile
an increasingly distributed global come in. Moreover, based on the client Services, and many more. solution development with an on-
Delivery Delivery Delivery Management

client base running ‘thinner clients’ and project requirements the company
(PM & APM) (PGM & Onsite Coordinator) (Project/Product Manager)

such as consumer PCs, laptops, note- has its workforce based in Noida and
power the next generation and scala- In the U.S. alone, the warranty business accounts
books, and mobile phones. Mahesh Bangalore. “Over the years we have
The Edge ble operations that allow online bro-
was quick enough to grab the opportu- realized that this model really works
Online brokers have a huge demand kers to offer new levels of customer
for about $2 billion each month, or just under $24
nity. well,” says Vibhor Mishra, Head of
for online tools that streamline the experience, while minimizing the
“For Tavant, e-business is our Marketing Department at Tavant.
billion annually
selling process in a personalized Web costs. It has a legacy of transforming
blood, and that’s where we started,” There are weekly calls with the engi-
2.0 environment. Those solutions banks, brokerages, and financial firms
says Mahesh. Having had stints at Jun- neering teams, monthly calls with ac- For instance, one of its customers, shore-offshore approach,” says Ma-
combine simplicity of data access with to become Web 2.0-enabled, develop
glee and Amazon.com, Mahesh’s ex- count managers, and quarterly Electronic Arts (EA), a leading inde- hesh. For most of the players
customizable user interfaces, provid- advanced equity options, futures,
pertise in Web technologies has helped meetings with the executive sponsors pendent developer and publisher of in- time-to-market is a key factor and in
ing on-demand views and multi-ac- bonds, and mutual fund trading sys-
Tavant have an advantage in develop- that help them optimize the findings in teractive entertainment software for fact delivering Electronic Arts a new
count snapshots with dynamic tems; deploy real-time, interactive,
ment of Web technology based e-busi- the meetings and share them with the advanced entertainment systems, online gaming experience to market in
information aggregation and analysis. trader friendly rich Internet applica-
ness applications. This includes user stakeholders. Access to realtime status wanted a revolutionary way for a short time frame has leveraged Ta-
With such solutions, agents and chan- tions, implement algorithmic trading
experience design, leveraging the lat- is well appreciated by Tavant’s cus- gamers where they could extend vant’s offshore development expertise.
nel partners have the tools to quickly strategies and portfolio decisioning
est Web 2.0 technologies and the use tomers. Moreover, the participation of games online and share and interact “Our team developed the Web por-
and easily analyze account positions systems using complex event process-
of emerging open source Web tech- executive management in every level with other gamers. They needed game tal and helped Electronic Arts design
and focus on growing revenues. This ing engines, and provide value added
nologies. Over the last year, Tavant of the project helps customers gain creation tools and a Web portal to the overall solution,” says Manish
drives productivity and improves the services on top of direct marketing ac-
has also developed expertise in build- confidence in Tavant. make game creation simple and shar- Arya, CTO at Tavant Technologies.
retention of valuable independent cess channels. This was possible only
ing applications for mobile devices. ing easier and accessible. One of the “Our expertise in system integration
agents. Tavant has created an edge in with Tavant’s advantage in develop-
“Some of our biggest projects in the Making a Difference biggest challenges was to create an on- and open source Web technologies al-
this arena. Tavant brings in game- ment of Rich Internet Applications for
securities and trading domain, are The famous Harvard business profes- line portal platform for creating, dis- lowed us to rapidly develop and de-
changing services, solutions, and com- zero footprints and zero maintenance
done on open source components, and sor Nicholas G Carr once said, “IT is covering, playing, and sharing ‘user ploy a robust and scalable solution for
ponents to the trading industry using trading applications using Flex, Sil-
are the first of their kind in the world. not going to be a differentiator.” created’ casual games and micro and the highly demanding and complex
the latest in SOA, Web 2.0, Rich In- verlight, and AJAX with expertise in
Such high availability, concurrency While IT services market being a mini games for one of the divisions of online gaming environment.”
ternet Applications (RIAs), and real- key enabling technologies for trading:
and transaction rate Web-based appli- crowded one with over 1,000 compa- EA, rapidly develop a robust and scal-
time streaming technologies. complex event processing systems and
cations based on open source had nies delivering array of services fo- able solution in the set time frame and Warranty Management
Most online brokers’ key objective reverse server push technologies.
never been done before,” he says. To cusing on BFSI, manufacturing, and help reduce the time-to-market. Tavant Another area which Tavant adds up to
is to continue to be a low-cost provider Even though Tavant is well
create such a history of first-of-its- more, it’s hard to make a difference provided core functionality of the new its portfolio is warranty management.
in all major asset classes and offer equipped with domain expertise, Ma-
kind was possible only due to its and pool in the customers. But Mahesh gaming portal using latest AJAX and When a company is leaking money at
solid customer support and software hesh does not want to miss any flaws
strength in e-business. The combina- knows how to play the cards right. He Flex technologies. the rate of about $1 million a day, it’s
solutions for everyone from beginners that make the customer feel unsatis-
tion of domain expertise, technology breaks the conventional mode of what Having used this expertise across surprising that the reason behind it
to advanced traders. In fact the Cali- fied. The company does not believe in
excellence, executive commitment, most big players think. Mahesh has many industries and e-business con- does not receive more attention. For
fornia-based provider was able to un- the heritage of not doing for each
and transparency also gives added carved a niche for Tavant Technolo- texts, Electronic Arts has now ex- about a dozen major US manufactur-
derstand the pain points of the other, but doing together and giving
mileage. “Tavant’s expertise and plat- gies wherein they focus on providing tended these core capabilities ers that’s the amount they are spend-
business. Having domain expertise of importance to have complete open
form allows us to better compete in the solutions for micro verticals – trading successfully to the gaming industry ing just honoring their product and
over three years in the trading and se- communication. To ensure such an
online channel and offer our customers and securities, e-business, consumer using Tavant. They retained Tavant service warranties. For the industry as
curities value chain, Tavant offers so- ecosystem, the company has created a
a positive application experience,“ lending, and service operations. Since Technologies to provide offshore en- a whole, the numbers are staggering.
lutions that combine leading edge multi-level engagement model - engi-
says Marilyn Mocilnikar, SVP at Fifth its inception e-business has been Ta- abled services in an agile, onshore-off- In the U.S. alone, the warranty busi-
technology with business insights to neer to engineer, project manager to
Third Bank. vant’s strongest revenue source. shore development approach. ness accounts for about $2 billion each

siliconindia
|18| May 2010 siliconindia
|19|
May 2010
month, or just under $24 billion channel partners to greatly en-
annually. About two percent of hance their marketing pro-
TAVANT VALUE PROPOSITION
every sale goes to warranty grams and resources. Our
spending. It all adds up to a lot dealers provided valuable input
Leading Edge Front-end Capabilities

of money. as we adapted Tavant’s tech-

AJAX, Flex, Silverlight User Experience Design

Still, more effective war- nologies for IR’s channels. The

ranty management processes resulting solution enables our
are just not on the radar of most customers to benefit from
Specific functionality Specialization

executives today. The area of greater access to IR equipment

Rules Workflow Imaging Optimization

service management is often an and parts, as well as expanded

afterthought, and warranty man- dealer service,” says Herbert L
agement as a subset is even Henkel, Chairman and CEO,
Core Technologies

lower: the afterthought of the Ingersoll Rand.

Pre-Approved Technology/ Middleware Open Source

afterthought. In practice, com-

panies often pay attention to Great Place to Work
their warranty management The company is just not only
High Reliability Architecture Expertise

processes only when high levels SOA/REST High Performance Multi-Site

well known for its unique
of liability are involved with a model and services, but it has
claim or recall. As a conse- got lot of acclaims as one of the
quence, they are missing oppor- best employers. “We are not a
Certified Global Process
Team during party
tunities for significant bottom sausage factory, instead we are
Waterfall Agile Interactive

line cost savings, as well as in- an open kitchen,” says Ma- as a team. We take fun seriously and concept and even wanted their engi- has become the cynosure among the
creased business value through hesh. Tavant believes in the believe in working hard and partying neers to go through the training,” says customers especially in new verticals
better quality products and philosophy of transforming the harder,” says Tina Vas, Head of HR, Rashid. outside e-business. “We are actively
Core Technologies

higher levels of customer satis- lives, especially of the employ- Tavant. Tavant also offers a training pro- engaged in a number of new markets.
End-to-End IT Services

Vas finds that people at Tavant gram called Tavant Rookie Induction With North America and India as pri-
> Custom Application Development Services

faction and loyalty. ees. They are keen on groom-

> Application Management Services (AMS, M&E)

Businesses in search of high ing the employees and creating learn much faster. “When we started Program (TRIP) for freshers, which is mary markets, we started growing in
> QA, Testing & Performance Optimization Services
> System/ Data Integration Services

performance today need to be a place where they can learn doing the trading and securities busi- an intensive three month training pro- Asia pacific,” says Mahesh. Though
> Architecture & Design Services

treating warranty management
not as a cost center, but as an asset that
can create tangible shareholder value.
Tavant was quick enough to identify
this for its customers.
As a leading diversified industrial
organization, Ingersoll-Rand (IR) spe-
cializes in providing products, serv-
ices, and integrated solutions to
industries ranging across various sec-
tors. IR had multiple business units
under its belt, each of which had di-
verse requirements and multiple
legacy systems. They needed a com-
prehensive, one stop solution to
streamline the warranty process, initi-
ate early detection and correction of
failures and provide IR with a wider
global reach. But IR’s challenge was
to retrieve information from its inde-
pendent business units. Tavant identi-
fied lack of inventory management
and visibility because of the presence
of disparate, independent systems.
The solutions combine
leading edge
technologies with
business insights to
power the next
generation and scalable
operations
Tavant Warranty Management Solu-
tion – a one stop solution which inte-
grated all the business units provided
early detection and resolution of flaws
and reduced warranty costs. The sys-
tem automated the claims processing
cycle of Ingersoll-Rand by about 40
percent and also facilitated a wider
global reach by supporting global lan-
guages and various currencies.
“Through Tavant we can provide pow-
erful technologies that will enable our
and grow. “The employees are
not just considered as employees but
as stakeholders of the organization,”
says Hassan Rashid, SVP, Head of
Sales and Marketing, Tavant. The key
to Tavant’s success was the close co-
ordination of the hierarchies within the
organization and bringing to desk in-
novative suggestions given by em-
ployees. In fact this has helped Tavant
to score high in the work culture. Reg-
ular open house discussions, open
door policy, employee empowerment,
innovation at work, trust in manage-
ment, and openness to ideas and sug-
gestions are the key highlights that
Tavant hugely focuses on. There are
groups within the organization that
promote partying; and every quarter
the company recognizes high achiev-
ers, which encourages employees to be
more competitive. “In keeping with
the Tavant culture, we celebrate all
achievements - big or small, together
ness, the key was to train our work-
force to meet the client requirements,”
she says. Tavant created a center of ex-
cellence and has identified the areas
where improvement is needed in its
service line. They made sure that
workforce at Tavant gets mentoring
from the best of the specialists in the
industry and train their architects and
senior experts. Also, to be in pace with
its competitors they make sure that
their employees are kept updated by
attending industry trade shows. Along
with the center of excellence, the com-
pany also has set up internal training
and certification. For example, for
consumer lending there are computer
based trainings available for the em-
ployees wherein they have exams and
get certified. Almost all those working
on consumer lending - including the
QA engineers, development engineers,
and architects - have to go through the
test. “One of the customers liked this
gram. The training is carried out by
high performing internal employees.
The company has also initiated train-
ing and mentoring for first time man-
agers. All the programs are hands-on
and tailor-made for specific applica-
tions. The company has an initiative
called ‘innovate’ where people come
up with innovative plans and anyone
can approach top executives in the or-
ganization to make their presentations.
Tavant has made it mandatory to run
the appraisal process through the HR
portal and makes it a process of con-
tinuous feedback (rather than once in
six months) to improve transparency.
At Tavant Technologies, it’s all about
people, passion and excellence.
Growth Wave
With 750 employees, Tavant Tech-
nologies is on the cusp of a growth
wave. With its unique multi- level en-
gagement model and transparency, it
the company has set up a team that
focuses on new verticals, its main
area of focus will continue to be e-
business where it has established sig-
nificant credibility. But getting the
right talent has increasingly become
tough and will continue to be so in the
coming years, as it is tough to get
people with the right attitude that jell
with Tavant’s culture.
Last year had been great for the
company, for it won bigger companies
to their client portfolio. “I am confi-
dent that Tavant will become an expert
in each market we enter, offering un-
questioned value, extraordinary serv-
ice, and mutual success and growth for
our customers, shareholders, and em-
ployees. Tavant is well placed to take
the e-business and trading and securi-
ties market by storm,” says Mahesh.
But for him what is more important is
to see a billion dollar smile on the face
of every customer. si

siliconindia
|20|
May 2010 siliconindia
|21|
May 2010

VC Talk: By Amit Sudarshan
The author is Senior Analyst, Illinois Ventures
Mobile Computing
L
A New Turn-on for VC Eyes
It is a seed and early-stage technolog y investment f irm focused on research-de-
rived companies in information technologies, physical sciences, life sciences, and
clean technolog y.
Amit Sudarshan arge demographic, economic,
and technology shifts are migrat-
ing computing usage to mobile
devices with data and software
hosted within a computation
cloud. While the success of mobile applica-
tions has been a sudden surprise for many U.S.
based firms, it was predicted by the success of
mobile and SMS based applications in India
and in South East Asia. Successful Indian
companies such as JustDial are leveraging
their learnings in the Indian mobile space, as
they start their U.S. operations. Much of this
progress has been good for the consumer;
however, the unfortunate trend towards pro-
prietary app stores with stringent review pro-
cedures has decreased consumer choice and
increased development risk.
Amazon Kindle was the first device of its
kind to bundle wireless service with the price
of purchase. The ability of a consumer to have
immediate connectivity without invoking a
third party carrier became one of the main sell-
ing points for the device, and it significantly
improved the user experience. The bundling
of connectivity with purchase is going to be
the next ‘killer app’ for embedded devices. We
expect to see innovative
new devices that take ad-
vantage of ubiquitous
connectivity, as well as an
ecosystem of software ven-
dors that support the
myriad regulatory and
technical challenges as-
sociated with managing
the network.
Taking a longer-
term view, technol-
ogy in the
|22|
siliconindia May 2010
semiconductor industry is ripe for transforma-
tion. The progression of Moore’s Law will
soon require transistors beyond the physical
limitations of silicon-based transistors. New
materials, techniques, and equipment will
need to be devised to achieve this, and we are
keenly following the developments in
graphene as a material capable of solving
these and many other problems. Additionally,
solid-state storage devices, the wide deploy-
ment of the GPGPU, and innovation in adver-
tising formats, have always remained an
exciting sphere to follow.
Soon transistors beyond the
physical limitations of
silicon-based ones will be
required. New materials,
techniques, and equipment
will need to be devised to
achieve this
And with these abundant opportunities
available, there is no better time than now to
be an entrepreneur. Times of uncertainty cre-
ate opportunity, and are generally the times
when great companies are founded. Half of the
Fortune 500 companies were founded in a re-
cession or bear market. That said, it does not
mean that building a successful startup in a re-
cession is easy. I advise you to have patience
and persistence, success is unlikely to be im-
mediate or explosive, and will seem at times to
be out of reach. However by continuing the
daily process of building your business step
by step, you will eventually have built some-
thing you can be proud to say is yours. si
10
MOST PROMISING
TECH COMPANIES
E
ven in difficult economic times, In the last year, it was never as true as nesses that held their nerve and shined
technology develops rapidly and IT ever, everything revolved around customer through. There were several new companies
businesses cannot just sit back and focus; what people you bring into the com- that boomed last year and several startups
ride out the recession. Those wanting to pany and when, what technology you build saw successful exits like Mint, Jajah, Mi-
grow, need both innovative products and an and what features you add to the specifica- mosa, Kazeon and more.
exceptional business plan. tion; everything. All these had to be con- This is why we decided to bring out our
Today, it is more important than ever stantly monitored, strategically planned and special issue on Top 10 promising compa-
for technology companies to have a strat- agressively put forth. Those who could do nies. To compile the list, we had deep dis-
egy that focuses on clearly communicat- this survived. cussions with as many as 50 U.S. based
ing the business benefits. IT companies It is an interesting time to look or rather Indian entrepreneurs, whose hallmark is
can be very technically oriented and ef- relook at the technology landscape. The their passion for their startups and long-term
forts to deliver outstanding products are clouds of recession is slowly receding and commitment. But in the end we narrowed
often at the expense of developing a clear businesses are getting back to normalcy. down the list to 10 promising companies that
business strategy. The result is that the At a time when several conglomerates despite tough times continue to shine with
best products aren't always the ones that closed down and many suffered a fatal their edgier ideas, smarter operations and
are most successful. blow, it was the startups and young busi- sheer guts to do something different.
NAME CEO FOUNDED DESCRIPTION
Serus
Sunnyvale,CA I n d u Na v a r 2001
An enterprise software solution provider, that provides customizable software
system. It has 100 employees. Its clientele includes AMD, Cisco, Flextronics. It
www.serus.com has been funded by OBC ventures, Samsung Ventures and Diamond Head.
Leadforce1
Santa Clara,CA S r i h a r i Ku m a r 2008 A marketing automation solution provider for enterprises. It has 150 employees.
www.leadforce1.com
Altierre Provider of wireless pricing solutions for large retail chains. Its number of em-
San Jose,CA S uni t S a xena 2003 ployees are close to 50. Its funded by DuPont Capital Management, ATA Ven-
www.altierre.com tures, Kinetic Ventures and Labrador Ventures.
Dyyno
Palo Alto,CA R a j J a sw a 2007
Provider of live streaming High Definition broadcasting. Its number of employ-
ees are close to 20. It is funded by Artiman Ventures, Startup Ventures.
www.dyyno.com
Fiorano
Los Gatos, CA A t u l S a in i 1995 A Service Oriented Architecture solution provider. It has 100 employees.
www.fiorano.com
Openstream
A provider of secure mobile Internet infrastructure platform and applications. It
Somerset,NJ R a j Tu m u l u r i 1997
has 500 employees.
www.openstream.com
Aerva
Cambridge, MA S a n ja y M a n a n dh a r 2003
Provides digital signage technology, enabling real-time interactivity between
mobile applications and digital display networks. It has around 50 employees.
www.aerva.com
Vuclip
A mobile video search site. It has 25 employees. It has raised funding from
Milpitas, CA N i ck h i l J a k a t d a r 2007
New Enterprise Associates and Jafco Ventures.
www.vuclip.com
Jiffle
It provides solutions for calendar sharing over the web. It has around 30 em-
Sunnyvale, CA R a jes h S etty 2006
ployees.
www.jifflenow.com
Moremagic It allows operators, content providers, and banks to offer consumers the ability
Newton, MA Pa n k a j G u la t i 2001 to purchase goods and services on demand using a mobile phone or the web.
www.moremagic.com Its investors include Battery Ventures, Vision Capital, and Liberty Mutual.
10 MOST PROMISING TECH COMPANIES

that we started leadForce1,” says Srihari

Kumar, CEO, LeadForce1.
With its next generation SaaS-based
marketing automation solution for online
marketers, the company delivers a game-
changing real-time marketing automa-
tion solution for enterprises that converts
LeadForce1 enterprise visits to the corporate websites
into qualified sales leads, determines
website visitor interest and intent, and en-

A
The Next Google of the ables sales teams to reach decision-mak-
ers more effectively and close deals
faster using patented business intelli-
B2B sector? By Vimali Swamy
gence and data mining technology. “We
provide significantly richer lead data than
From L-R: John Armstrong-, CMO, Sushil Jha, Chief Revenue Officer, Kumar Malavalli - Chief Strategy
Officer, Shreesha Ramdas, COO, Srihari Kumar, CEO, Brian Warren - VP Customer Success

uct, the pattern or regular- enter the market at a prime time when the
large B2B enter- time pipeline intelligence and 50 percent of sales did not ity of prospect visits, the need for marketing automation was
prise in the IT made marketing automation meet its quota last year and the identification of the per- being felt by the industry.
sector had intelligent. primary reason for this was that son in the prospect com- Despite a good run over the last year,
great suc- LeadForce1 trans- pany with the purchasing there is an immense challenge that lies
cess in formed the way the
the sales team did not know
power, and other buying ahead of the company. “Though the mar-
driving enterprise visitors company’s sales and their customers well enough indicators. ket is transitioning, there are many cor-
to its website through mul- marketing team ap- With the help of all porates who are yet to open up to next
tiple marketing campaigns. proached and re- the collective information generation solution like ours. Educating
However, out of 15,515 sponded to lead most solutions in the market today, en-
abling enterprise sales and marketing the internal sales team is able to easily the industry about new developments is
visits from US companies, generation, lead manage- identify and qualify web leads with the going to be the primary task for us in next
there were just 19 form fills ment, and sales follow- teams to uncover hidden opportunities,
accurately identify decision-makers, and help of daily website reports; the direct few years,” explains Kumar Malavalli,
which translates to a meager through. Using sales team is able to generate specific of- the company’s Chief Strategy Officer.
0.1 percent. Thus, it was un- LeadForce1’s exhaustive deliver powerful, targeted, real-time re-
sponses and offers to potential customer. fers and packages to meet prospect re- Then there is also the advent of compe-
able to effectively translate the analytics reporting, the mar- quirements; and the marketing team is tition from other players like the CRM
opportunities provided by the keting team was able to deliver In simple terms, we help convert corpo-
rate websites from online brochures into able to focus their marketing campaigns solution providers, web analytics com-
website visitor traffic, into sales. key leads to their sales teams on specific industry sectors that show the panies, and marketing automation play-
The net result, it lost out in iden- across geographies. lead generation machines,” says Shree-
sha Ramdas, COO, LeadForce1. greatest interest in the company’s prod- ers who are looking at expanding to this
tifying and converting a lot of prospects A recent survey by IDC states that uct and technology. new market. But Malavalli is confident
who visited its website. Also the com- 50 percent of sales did not meet its quota In most cases, websites have a land-
ing page where in the visitors are asked Within a span of two years, the com- that the company has the IP advantage
pany had no visitor tracking mechanism last year and the primary reason for this pany has made long strides in the indus- and the first mover advantage to keep it
and was unable to assess and analyze vis- was that the sales team did not know to fill up a registration form stating their
in 2008, the Santa Clara headquartered try and won over a large number of ahead in the league.
itor behavior on its site. This lack of in- their customers well enough. “Online interest in the company. But in most
company is a provider of next generation customers. “LeadForce1 gives us action- Since its founding, LeadForce1 has
formation and insight into the browsing marketing is rapidly displacing tradi- cases, online visitors suffer from form fa-
marketing automation solutions. able data for building our sales pipeline been rapidly riding the growth trajectory
behavior of the visitor, limited the sales tional forms of marketing such as direct tigue, resulting in them failing to fill out
After deploying LeadForce1, the that other services lack. Combined with and becoming a critical contributor to
team in developing a targeted pitch when mail, display advertising in print and the registration forms, hence causing the
company got 4,298 leads out of the its ease of use, the actionability makes it the industry in terms of intellectual
approaching these visitors who regis- electronic media such as radio and TV. marketing team to lose out on valuable
15,515 visits, thus taking the conversion the most effective lead generation solu- property. With the B2B lead generation
tered. The company also failed to deci- Despite a myriad of marketing activities, leads. What LeadForce1 does is analyze
from 0.1 percent to 28 percent, a whop- tion we’ve used for our website.” says a market estimated to be a $75 billion
pher the stage of decision making the prospective customers visit the corporate the visitors in multiple ways. It delivers
ping 22,621 percent ROI! According to happy customer, Bert Armijo, VP Sales market, the future looks extremely
visitor was in. Such information would websites as their first step. But most daily email alerts containing detailed in-
the customer’s VP of Marketing, once at 3Tera, a division of the $12 Billion IT promising for LeadForce1. “With the
have enabled them to develop a more companies are not equipped enough to formation on website visits to the mar-
LeadForce1 was deployed, they started giant, CA Inc. (NASDAQ:CA) market as big as this, there is another
customized lead nurturing plan, resulting filter prospective clients from casual vis- keting, sales and executive teams. It also
phasing out forms from their corporate Kumar attributes the success of the opportunity to create a GOOGLE in the
in shorter sales cycles. itors and report on them in real time. It is analyses and sends valuable information
website and felt that forms were a thing company to two factors — striking a bal- B2B segment,” says Kumar. If he plays
But things changed once the com- to revolutionize the way B2B sales op- such as name of the company, possible
of the past with LeadForce1 in the pic- ance between innovation and operational his cards well, LeadForce1 may just be-
pany approached LeadForce1. Founded portunities are discovered and nurtured reason for visit, the intent or interest of
ture. LeadForce1 also gave rich and real- excellence and the fact that they chose to come the one! si
the visitor in a particular topic or prod-

siliconindia
|24|
May 2010 siliconindia
|25|
May 2010
 10 MOST PROMISING TECH COMPANIES
Serus
Managing Outsourced
A
Operations Intelligently
By Vimali Swamy
leading graphic card
designer, Nvidia has
partnered with sev-
eral manufacturers to
which it outsourced
the manufacturing of its graphic
card. Although the company had an
efficient ERP system, it was not able
to keep up the information from
flowing to and from outside the 4
walls with the suppliers and hence
unable to track early problems. Due
to the disconnect between all its
partners and suppliers, the company
suffered in providing manufacturing
specifications at real time thereby
increasing the error and supply
cycle.
In order to solve the crisis,
Nvidia approached Serus, an up-
coming company that provides in-
Indu Navar telligent management solutions.
Serus, deployed its solution on top
of Nvidia’s existing ERP system and
connected it to all its outsourced
manufacturing partners and suppli-
ers, effectively allowing it to share
the manufacturing specs and collab-
orate on other occasions. With in a
few months of deploying the new
solution Nvidia saw the margin of
siliconindia
|26|
May 2010
error reduce from 70 errors a week
to zero errors now. Serus also helped
it decrease the supply cycle time
from 2 days a week to 2 hours.
Headquartered in Sunnyvale,
Serus provides enterprises with In-
telligent Operations Management
solutions. “What we do is provide a
cloud based B2B solutions for en-
terprises to manage everyday opera-
tions for outsourced manufacturing
companies helping them align with
their numerous partners and suppli-
ers,” explains Indu Navar, CEO,
Serus.
Serus’ configurable software
helps global organizations integrate
business processes and rule drivers
among trading partners to achieve
common production goals. Its real
time technology provides instanta-
neous automated transactions, co-
managed inventory, and
performance measurements across a
company’s worldwide value chain.
The company’s technology, domain,
and operations experience has led to
the development of a solution that is
helping operations managers and ex-
ecutives at semiconductor compa-
nies, contract manufacturing
organizations and high-tech OEMs
within Fortune 500 and mid-market
companies meet the demands of their
market more efficiently. In short, it
helps one with unprecedented insight
into one’s business and aid in making
better financial and operational deci-
sions
Indu founded the company in 2001
and bootstrapped it with some of the
early clients that includes Cisco, Span-
sion and a few others, who adopted the
company’s services. Company got
venture backed financing in late 2005
and today has global clientele that in-
cludes AMD, Nvidia, Entropic, Ath-
eros, Cisco, Flextronics, Thermo
Fisher, Boston Scientific to name a
few. Serus has firmed its foothold in
three major business verticals —
Semiconductors, Hi-tech system man-
ufacturers and medical devices, espe-
cially the first two.
“What we do is help companies
manage their operations by running
our solution on the existing ERP sys-
tems, be it Oracle or SAP, to work out
side the four walls and collaborate
with their extended outsourced part-
ners,” explains Indu. When a company
deploys Serus’s solution, it addresses
an organization’s three main pain
points, operations, finance and IT. In
operations management and IT, Serus
helps in executing everyday tasks like
tracking and tracing day to day infor-
mation, product specifications, testing
scripts and sending other project in-
formation to the partners, managing all
the inventory information that goes
back and forth, over its product plat-
form. Further, it manages all the fi-
nancial information like the actual cost
or the invoice that is paid to the out-
sourced manufacturers and collabo-
rates it with the systems at the partner
and supplier site.
The company’s flagship solution
is Intelligent Operations Management
(IOM) that includes data aggregation
and content management, including
facilities for data cleaning and error
Analysts have
recognized
Manufacturing
Operations
Management as a
$4 billion market
and this is just the
semiconductor,
hi-tech electrical
manufacturer and
medical devices
sector alone.
resolution, combined with collabora-
tion across the extended enterprise.
Our customers recognize that IOM
removes the need for large, complex
spreadsheets that are difficult to
maintain and audit, and that it in-
cludes a set of modules for business
functions on a platform that supports
advanced reporting, decision-making,
and action-taking.
The entire product of the company
deploys cloud computing there by
making it private and public as per
client requirement. Having a cloud
based solution also adds and edge to
the product as Serus is able to manage
everything from deployment to up-
grading from a remote site. “It allows
us to take way is the way to take re-
sponsibility for everything that is hap-
pening in the customer site. This is
unlike the old school software mode
where there is no feedback loop and
the ownership and partnership is miss-
ing,” says India.
Though the company is almost a
decade old, the company has not
found any serious competition as
Indu believes that Serus is the only
company to provide subscription so-
lution with end to end footprint for its
customers to manage their out-
sourced requirements. The only com-
pany that she experiences time to
time is when companies try replicat-
ing the solution in-house. “A major-
ity of the competition comes from the
clients trying to create an IP or up-
grade system internally but I find it a
no brainer. While with Serus one not
only gets a solution that is cheaper
and cost effective but also produc-
tized with in 4-6 weeks as opposed to
an internal project that takes 6-9
months to start on,” India explains.
Since the company delivers its so-
lution on cloud, it has found that the
pay per use option as most attracting
to its clients, small, medium and
large organizations, likewise. But the
most challenging aspect of being in
the business Indu feels is making or-
ganizations realize the importance of
operations management solution. But
the recent recession has brought a sil-
ver lining for Serus. Since the down-
turn, most organizations are striving
to be lean while increasing their
profit margin.
Analysts too have recognized
Manufacturing Operations Manage-
ment as a $4 billion market and this is
just in the semiconductor, hi-tech elec-
trical manufacturer and medical de-
vices sector alone. This opens up a
vast opportunity for Serus. This is why
the company plans to hire 20-25 more
people by year end. At present it has
50 employees in the U.S. and 10 in
India.
Since, incorporation, Serus has
been on a momentum of high growth.
The company has already raised $19
million in two rounds of venture fund-
ing from OVP ventures, Samsung
Ventures and Diamond Head.
Indu is very optimistic about the future
for, Serus is in a unique position be-
cause the market it is in is only going
to grow in near future. With most com-
panies giving up their manufacturing
facilities and opting for outsourced
manufacturers, Serus is confident on
riding the growth wave. si
siliconindia
|27|
May 2010
 I
A Tribute to
S. Somasegar, Som Mittal, Ashok Soota,
Senior Vice President, Chairman, Executive Chairman,
Developer Division, NASSCOM MindTree
Microso

C K Prahalad
(August 8, 1941 - April 17, 2010)
Whenever I had the op-
portunity to chat with
Professor CK Prahalad, I
was amazed by his innovative ideas and deep
Prof CK Prahalad was
a visionary much
ahead of his time and I
have always admired
his phenomenal thoughts, foresight and
He has been recog-
nized for his thinking
and contribution in
areas such as core
competence and for-

t is nothing less than losing a fortune for the makers of the new India
insight about using capitalism to raise the ability to explain the most complex issue tune at the bottom of

as well as the change agents of a new world order. The sudden death of
standard of living for the four billion people with simple examples. My last meeting the pyramid. Not enough people have

CK Prahalad has created a void among the business and technology

at the bottom of the economic pyramid. with him was in February 2009, wherein written on his consulting capabilities.

leaders of India. A man of ideas and a social thinker, his ideas and
I first met CK at the CEO Summit at despite a grueling schedule, he agreed to He was a wonderful facilitator and had

thoughts laid the foundation of new India with his significant impact on
Cochin back in 2003 under the auspices of
Mata Amritanandamayi (Amma) and the
management literature and the practice of business globally for a long time.. then President of India, Dr. Abdul Kalam. I
From company chairmen to entrepreneurs to students of management, Pra-
got a chance to ride the bus with him for an
halad’s popularity has transcended beyond other thinkers of his times. The
hour and half from the hotel to the Ashram.
drive for 3 hours from Lonavala to Mum-
bai to deliver the valedictory address at the
NASSCOM India Leadership Forum 2009.
He spoke about how the economic crisis is
an opportunity for organizations to re-en-
a way of helping leaders to think differ-
ently and see a broader road ahead
through a process of logical thinking.

man who saw fortune at the bottom of the pyramid, was intensely passionate
Seated next to each other, we had a great con- gineer their businesses and create new K B Chandrasekhar,

about his country, India, and dedicated to being a catalyst for bringing lasting
versation about the potential of India. I was models of delivering products and services. founder-CEO,

change to the land. He tirelessly flew back and forth from the US to India
intrigued and energized by his strategic think- In fact, while presenting the Global India Jamcracker

many times a year with a quest to help spur minds and hearts to create new
ing about the role of government versus en- Award to him at this event, I was touched

wealth and opportunity there. His ideas will endure and will help many oth-
trepreneurial spirit as a self-sustaining by his humility and kind words about He was one man who

ers seek new hope and wealth.

phenomenon to really help the poor. He had NASSCOM and the industry. was able to translate
great insight into what drives government Prof Prahalad has had a very long as- academic ideas into
Prahalad was recognized as one of the top 10 management thinkers and leaders and entrepreneurs, and used that in- sociation with NASSCOM and first spoke practically imple-
was well known for his book The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. It
sight to develop his thoughts on the appro- at the NASSCOM annual event in 1996, mentable ones. He
is this theory that many corporations are following in global emerging mar-
priate role for each. I had the good fortune of when Narayana Murthy invited him to do worked in the field in

kets. He indulged in consulting engagements for Indian corporates such as

meeting CK again when he visited Microso a day-long workshop for the industry his dream to transform the bottom of

the Tatas and HLL and even emerging companies like inverter maker Su-
in Seattle a few years later to talk to senior CEOs. At that time the industry and its the pyramid. He would visit Dharavi

Kam. His research specializes in corporate strategy and the role and value
leaders at the company. Again, we had a very leadership was evolving and that day-long and remote villages along with his wife

added of top management in large, diversified, multinational corporations.

insightful conversation - this time how tech- workshop helped the CEOs truly under- Gayatri to meet with people there and

Born into a big family - he was one of the nine children of his par-
nology, with its ability to provide access to in- stand the need to create a competitive ad- saw how economic uplifting of those is a

ents - Prahalad joined Union Carbide after obtaining a degree in physics

formation and ability to scale easily, can
enable new business models that can serve the
from the University of Madras. Later did a post graduation course at the bottom of the pyramid.
Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) and went to
I remember that in the beginning CK's
Havard Business School for Doctor of Business Administration degree
ideas seemed very radical to the world. Ad-
vantage and value differentiator.
His work on India@75; Fortune at the
bottom of the Pyramid; Innovation, Entre-
preneurship have le a deep impact and
the country will truly miss its finest man-
viable business opportunity and evan-
gelized it.
He had sent some of his research in
the past to get my feedback and was ex-
cited by new groundbreaking thoughts

in 1975. After teaching in IIM-A he went back to the U.S. and joined
vocates for the bottom four billion people agement thinker and guru. While he may in areas of collaboration, frictionless in-

University of Michigan.
complained that the sheer idea of making be no more, his ideas and work have cre- formation systems to mention a few. he

Prahalad was the first recipient of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Award for
profits from poor is evil. Capitalists com- ated a roadmap for India and all of us profiled jamcracker in his book as well

contributions to management and public administration in 2000. He was

plained that there is no market at the bottom should strive to take this to conclusion and as he saw some of what we were doing

also awarded the country's third highest civilian honor, the Padma Bhushan,
of the pyramid. Over time, CK made these create the impact that he had envisaged. were pushing the envelope of how future

in 2009.
two extremist groups come closer together to
see things more comprehensively. e former
Prahalad did try his hand in business and founded Praja Inc. However, he group began realizing that instead of giving a
sold the company off soon after.
man a fish today, it is a better longer term so-
Prahalad called himself as a serial entrepreneur with his reputation as his
lution to teach a village how to fish so that the
at would be truly be the best way to ho-
nour Prof Prahalad and his contribution to
India.
ondemand systems would evolve.
He straddled different worlds at ease
and commanded tremendous respect for
his intellectual capability and able to
speak the language of the target seg-

risk capital. "I generate ideas and sell them as books. If the ideas are of value
villagers can be self-sufficient. e latter Phaneesh Murthy, ment—academia, G-50 boards, social

to the customer, the book sells well or else it bombs. I risk my reputation,"
group is realizing that once a village learns President & CEO, transformation to name a few.

he said. Prahalad authored several books like "The Fortune at the Bottom of
how to fish, it will be an even bigger consumer iGATE My wife Sukanya and I had met with

the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profit", "Competing for the Fu-
market in the future. I'm looking forward to I admired his passion him and his wife Gayatri several times

ture" with Gary Hamel, "The Future of Competition" with Venkat Ra-
a bright future for the entire world where CK's for India and for be- and it was always a blast and they made

maswamy, "The New Age of Innovation" with M.S.Krishnan.

ideas are implemented even more pervasively.
CK’s passing is a huge loss, but I am
C K Prahalad The world has definitely lost a great mind and thought leader. But his confident that his ideas and strategic think-
ideas will continue to live and find fortunes at the bottom of the pyramid.
ing will have a long-lasting broad impact
on this world.
lieving that the locus excellent partners. He loved my chil-
of innovation would dren. We will miss him dearly. It is a
over time move loss that is irreplaceable. My prayers are
there. A dream that we must all strive to with Gayatri and his family and may his
make a reality. soul rest in peace. si

siliconindia
|28|
May 2010 siliconindia
|29|
May 2010
Technology: By Dr Subodh Kesharwani
The author is an Assistant Professor at IGNOU
Enterprise
Information Systems
J
A Great Paradigm Shift in e-Enterprise Perspectives
ust pull out of your intelligence
in relation to 2009 and authenti-
cally talk about the foremost en-
terprise software which, by and
large, was recognized for its
acronym EIS. The formulations have
been battened and the write downs have
been in black and white. They continued
to exist in 2009 and the economy and
corporate IT spending rebounded in
2010. I am used to memorize the saying
‘When the things get tough the tough get
going’. Information Systems have been
documented as the ‘enabler’ of business
in the 21st century. The speedy augmen-
tation of IT within America, India, and
other parts of the world forebode an ac-
complishment for companies that ex-
pand operations worldwide. This might
not have been the case a few years back
but is unquestionably true of the present.
As a teacher of information systems I al-
ways hear students inquire, “Why the
course materials are so quickly out-
dated?” We tell them that teaching en-
terprise information systems is like
teaching the big bang theory in 60 sec-
onds, or rather a one minute after the
event. The future is still being formed.
Technology is always on the increase
and change is endemic in enterprise sys-
tem managements. One can do well only
by being on top of the ongoing changes.
One of the foremost FAQ is that
there is no clear-cut reply, but to crack
this predicament, split a big dilemma
siliconindia
|30| May 2010
into many smaller ones. Before talking
in depth about EIS, let us begin with in-
formation and systems. Information
touches all human activity – it is repeat-
edly said that we live in the ‘information
age’. Information is an imperative foun-
dation to an organization. It represents
the organization’s tangible and intangi-
ble resources and all transactions relat-
ing to those resources. Information
influences the approach an organization
takes to. The right information, if it is de-
livered to the right person, in the right
fashion, and at the right time, can
demonstrate the technique to progress
and make organizational efficacy and ca-
pability more assured. Software has al-
ways been beneficial to a single purpose,
delivering leading-edge job scheduling
and application automation solutions to
optimize the efficiency of growing IT
operations. The blending of Internet
technologies in the management of long-
established business concerns is impact-
ing all industries and is understandably
the latest chapter in the ongoing evolu-
tion of business. Take the automotive in-
dustry which entirely follows the
zero-inventory concept. for instance
Kanban and Kaizen approach. Since the
pioneering of division-of-labor approach
to manufacturing, the industry has
moved to embracing innovative ap-
proaches by reengineering business
processes; implementing materials re-
quirement planning (MRP), manufactur-
ing resource planning (MRP II), and
just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing; and in-
stalling enterprise resource plans (ERP)
software. Today, the Internet is driving
the contemporary industry goals of
achieving a five-day order-to-delivery
cycle, global reach, and personalization.
It is behind decisions to outsource man-
ufacturing; it is redefining the responsi-
bility of dealers and their affiliation with
the consumers, and renewing the role of
the brand owner.
is change in the pedagogy, as we had
Divergence between ERP Systems and Ecommerce shifted from the ‘brick and mortar’ sys-
Applications tem to the ‘click and mortar’ system.
When we view the things in an in-
The users of ERP software are workers of an organization,
formation system perspective we can un-
while ecommerce applications are unwrapped to the public. E-
derstand that it is the software and
commerce applications have built-in new generation web-
hardware systems that shore up data-in-
based ERP systems, which may lead to straightforward
tensive applications. A majority of work-
integration.
ers today are knowledge workers who
User Interface Design: ERP software automates multifaceted busi- create, distribute, and or use information.
ness processes and transforms the way workers interact. ERP This includes bankers, coordinators,
users over and over again go from the beginning to the end of caseworkers, counselors, community or-
lengthy training sessions to gain knowledge of how to use ERP sys- ganizers, programmers, insurance advi-
tems. It is logical to design sophisticated workflow processes to fit sors, consultants, and so on. A critically
organizations' business processes. important question is ‘Whether there is
a need in our organization for an EIS?’.
Complexity of System: A complex system is a system self-pos-
This is a very difficult question, meriting
sessed of unified parts that demonstrate one or more properties to-
a great deal of study. The following
gether (performance among the possible properties) that are not
points bear on this matter:
recognizable from the properties of the individual parts.
 About 80 percent of an executive’s
time is devoted to receiving, com-
Today, a large portion of technology municating, and using information.
resources is being dedicated to comply-
ERP provides
 Information is the starting point for
ing with the ever-changing regulatory re- companies with the virtually all activities performed in
quirements from a myriad of sources. At an organization.
the threshold of the new millennium,
ability to homogenize
 Key organizational ingredients in or-
there is a marked shift in the business and automate business ganizations include people and in-
paradigm. An enterprise information sys- formation, and using these
tem is a breed of computing system char- processes throughout ingredients efficiently is critical to
acteristically offering a high level of success.
service, dealing with massive volumes
the organization, thus
 Effective utilization of information
of data, and capable of supporting com- increasing productivity systems in management is impera-
plex organizations (an enterprise). ERP tive.
presents companies with the ability to
and reducing cycle
 Productive use of information is also
homogenize and automate business time important.
processes throughout the organization,  Information is a resource to augment
thus increasing productivity and reduc- competence, effectiveness, and com-
ing cycle time. Even though ERP sys- ing into description the enlightening petitiveness of an enterprise.
tems have delivered value, it is becoming changes that concern the state of affairs,
understandable that the ERP model, as well as the communications essential In short, the Internet will accomplish for
which wraps organizational processes to persist with the original scheme. today’s business what the assembly line
into one end-to-end application, may no Nowadays, most companies are high- did for the manufacturing industry about
longer be sufficient for today’s fast-mov- lighting their e-business efforts on trou- a century ago. On the other hand, with-
ing, extended enterprises. The business ble-free e-buy and e-sell applications. out connecting order delivery, manufac-
environment has changed spectacularly The foremost philosophy is ‘fabricate it turing, financial, human resources, and
with the rapid growth of the Internet. and they will come’. Two of the early other back-office systems to the Internet,
niche players in this area, Siebel in cus- even companies with long track records
New Technologies, New Options tomer relationship management (CRM) of innovation cannot succeed. All com-
Over the most recent years, e-commerce software and i2 in supply-chain man- panies, however, will need updating their
has turned out to be a widespread move- agement (SCM) software, are quite large business infrastructures and changing the
ment for numerous enterprises. Some of and are squeezing ERP vendors from mode of their response to instanta-
them dived into this face up to avoid tak- outside the enterprise. The best example neously respond to customer needs. si
siliconindia
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May 2010
Business: By Karthik Padmanabhan
The author is Country Manager, IBM Lotus Software
The world is becoming more con-
nected economically, socially, and
technically. In this process, humans are
key to systems becoming instru-
Planning is the mented, interconnected, and intelli-
gent. People are the ultimate sensors
where latency in business processes
Best Way to Getting Ahead
T
still exist, and where data is used to
make decisions. As a result, we also
have to focus on enabling people to
of Today’s Dynamic Business Climate work more naturally and efficiently, es-
sentially without obstacles. Business
leaders can solve challenges and ad-
dress opportunities by better enabling
he planet may be getting smarter, but it is also getting more dynamic and harder to people important to them, both inside
predict; particularly the business world. Everything from swings in markets to in- and outside their organizations, around
creasing global competition to new consumer expectations is changing at a furious established business processes, and by
pace. How do businesses evolve to adapt and respond dynamically? industry-specific roles and patterns.
First, it’s critical to define challenges,
We also live in a time when people want to communicate in realtime, anytime, anywhere. In- issues, and risks across the roles and
formation and expertise abound, but gaining required insight from them is harder than ever. patterns within a particular business
Workers want to use new tools and personal technology to accomplish their goals. How do peo- area. Then, it can be determined how
ple collaborate to maximize effectiveness? collaboration can solve those chal-
Businesses must embrace change by creating a more agile, collaborative, and connected lenges and improve real business re-
business environment. Setting a collaboration agenda can make a company more profitable and sults such as increased revenue,
productive, while giving people a better quality of work and life. decreased cost, reduced risk, and raised
Asian Paints is a great example of a major company that embraced a collaboration agenda. customer satisfaction among other ben-
The company deployed IBM Lotus Notes Enterprise Messaging, IBM Lotus Quickr, and IBM efits.
Lotus Sametime software for realtime team collaboration, IBM Domino Messaging for Black- Begin looking at business areas and
berry Enterprise Service, and Lotus Traveler. Today, this platform connects and helps approxi- strategic priorities that can be best ad-
mately 4,000 users collaborate from 130 locations across India. dressed with investments in collabora-
A collaboration agenda differentiates your business by redefining the way your peo- tion. Where can you make the greatest
ple work. It’s about cost effectively building and deepening connections among people, impact if you could unleash the poten-
systems, and processes in and beyond the boundaries of an organization. Collabora- tial of your workforce by freeing peo-
tion helps the organization by discovering and combining expertise and informa- ple from the hard-wired organizational
tion in time and in context, and tapping in to world-class expertise from anywhere. barriers that slow them down?
It can be structured without delays and distractions or high costs. Collabora- Many other organizations agree
tion can also contribute to better product development by connecting peo- that adapting and responding dynami-
ple to drive insight and deepen relationships to collaborate on new cally is the key. According to IBM’s
products and approaches. Global CEO Study, 98 percent of
CEOs say that they will restructure the
way their organizations work. The gap
between CEOs who expect change and
those who have the ability to handle
change has widened sharply. And a
Harris Interactive Poll shows that two-
thirds of people can’t find the help they
know is available.
Setting an agenda for collaboration
is a systematic approach to realizing
measurable business value from im-
proving the way people interact spe-
We live in a time
when people want to
communicate in
realtime, anytime,
anywhere.
Information and
expertise abound,
but gaining required
insight from them is
harder than ever
cific to their job roles, functional area,
and industry. This enables an organiza-
tion become expertise-based and col-
laborate across their entire internal and
external population - including em-
ployees, partners, suppliers, customers,
and even investors - in the context of
how they work.
Two key characteristics shared by
the top quartile of companies most
adaptable to change are: being effec-
tive at collaborating and connecting
experts, IBM studies show.
In addition, a study by McKinsey
& Company in January 2009 shows
In this fiscal majority of large
firms are giving top priority
to innovation, says a latest
report by The Boston Con-
sulting Group. The
companies are increasing
their innovation spending
and their satisfaction with the
return on innovation
spending has climbed. But
companies remain somewhat
cautious, keeping a close eye
on the cost of their
innovation activities and
raising their emphasis on
conservative bets.
that those who collaborate and connect
experts well reap measurable business
benefits - a median reduction in oper-
ating costs for core business processes
of 15 percent, 25 percent improvement
in customer marketing conversions, 17
percent rise in customer loyalty, and a
20 percent reduction in time-to-
market for new products and services.
To set a collaboration agenda, busi-
nesses should
Establish a clear strategy that

makes fluid connections and in-
teractions across customers, part-
ners, and employees,
 Design a roadmap that balances
business impact, adoption, and in-
vestment,
 Optimize their organization - spe-
cific role interaction patterns
showing how people really, work
together, and
 Define tangible metrics to meas-
ure return-on-investment.
How Do You Get Started?
Start by asking yourself tough business
questions such as
1. Does your organization change ef-
fectively when it needs to?
2. Do you empower people to work
wherever and whenever they need
to?
3. Can you quickly and easily find the
right information and expertise?
4. Are you spending time searching
for information and not getting any-
where?
5. Are you making optimal use of peo-
ple and resources inside and outside
the organization?
6. Do your systems take so long to
change that they slow business re-
sponse?
7. Are your major business processes
stuck in silos?
Answering these questions honestly may
lead to the blueprint for a collaboration
agenda - a view of the ultimate organiza-
tion of the future that is yours. si
siliconindia
|33|
May 2010
Technology: By Gary Bahadur
The author is CEO and Founder, KRAA Security.
What is
He can be reached at baha@kraasecurity.com.
Social Media
Insecurity?
O
ne of the greatest chal- are, or who is a potential quality rela-
lenges to privacy and tionship. Someone you do not want
security in the next sev- contacting you in that bar can easily
eral years is Social Net- find you if they want to, because you
works and Social have put yourself out there.
Media. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, How many random friend requests
LinkedIn, MySpace, and others can do you get now from Facebook,
spell the downfall of valuing informa- Friendster, MySpace, LinkedIn, and so
tion. The ability to share and provide on? Too many is the case with most
information is completely opposite to people. Twitter is a bit different obvi-
network security requirements. This is ously, but that is a whole other secu-
really encouraging people to do things rity nightmare waiting to happen.
that are not security conscious activi- People are also getting bombarded
ties. with corporate Fanpages, Groups, and
Millions of peo- other means of luring you to their sites,
ple have multiple ac- brands, and social following. This is
counts in Facebook, the erosion of your true social circle.
Twitter, Myspace, and You have basically joined a public
Linkedin, just to forum rather than a social network.
name a few. But Social Media Security is really
sharing of infor- more about ’insecurity’. The distribu-
mation has moved tion of your information across multi-
beyond your personal cir- ple platforms used to be in a restricted
cle of friends circle. Now it’s pretty much every-
where. You can find a person’s
LinkedIn profile with a generic
and Google search. This should be re-
family. stricted to the LinkedIn environment,
Social media is but it’s not. You can then find their
becoming less social Facebook page, get to know all their
and more… well, more family, and compile a pretty extensive
corporate. You can equate it list about that person. A new site
to many people www.gist.com does basically that. It
shouting in a bar, can be a great sales tool to find out
you are all in close everything about a prospect, or it can
proximity, but you be a great tool to stalk someone.
can’t distinguish With the advent of location based
the individual conversations, you services, we will see physical insecu-
can’t make out who the people really rity based on social media usage on the
siliconindia
|34|
May 2010
rise rather quickly. A recently popular
site Please Rob Me (http://pleaser-
obme.com) has already begun taking
advantage of the Twitter location fea-
ture. Imagine what can be done by a
stalker following someone on Twitter
or a deranged ex-boyfriend following
the girl based on the events she is at-
tending on Facebook and LinkedIn?
It’s easy to see how you can give
away all your personal information
without even thinking of it.
Trends towards making informa-
tion available will lead to insecurity.
Insecurity will lead to data breaches
and compromise. Compromise will
lead to lots of crying, money lost, and
probably lawsuits and other painful
results. How do we get past this So-
cial Media Insecurity?
What Can You Do to Protect Your-
self in Social Media?
So what are the challenges of social
media? Social media encourages:
 Lack of privacy and delineation
between personal and business
 Encouraging information sharing
beyond what is necessary
 Giving away answers to security
questions that help identify you in
the financial world
 Social engineering by using your
personal information for nefarious
purposes
With these sites, people install appli-
cations without knowing what goes on
in the background, and it’s easy to
download malicious code to your
computer. There are no external third
party audits of these applications be-
fore they make it to your Facebook
application. Your computer can be
easily infected by a virus or spyware.
What Should the Social Media
Users Do to Protect Their Informa-
tion?
1. No Personal information: This is
anti-social networking, but there are
things you can limit about what you
post. Don’t post your Birthday, or
The social networks
can be a great sales
tool to find out
everything about a
prospect, or they can
be a great tool at the
hands of someone to
stalk a person as a
helpless prey
your address, your mother’s middle
name, or any really personal data.
Think before you post that profile.
2. Limit who can view and contact
you: Don’t let your profile be truly
public, restrict to people you know for
requested users. Remember that you
can’t retract information you put out
there; so be careful who can see that
personal data.
3. Don’t trust strangers: Your mother
was right, don’t open the door to
strangers. Limit who you accept to
chat or friend requests as well as even
those you communicate with. This is
obviously even more important for
children.
A recent study done by
Eric Williams of the Arizona
State University has revealed
that developing countries will
trash double the e-waste of
developed countries by 2016.
It foresees in 2030
developing countries discard-
ing 400 million to 700
million obsolete personal
computers (PCs) per year as
compared to 200 million-300
million in developed
countries.
4. Trust no profile: People lie, it’s sad
but true. So profiles lie, they might
say they went to your college or high
school. They might be interested in
your group, so don’t take anyone at
their word. Vet anyone who contacts
you with others in your social net-
work.
5. Restrict your privacy: There are
some configuration settings in all the
social media applications that allow
you to turn on some restrictions on
your privacy. Take a minute to actu-
ally look at them. One easy example
is in
6. Facebook where you can create
groups that you can place friends in;
you don’t have to let your business
contacts see what your friends are
posting.
7. Password management: An oldie
but a goodie; always use a strong
password and don’t share it. And
change it periodically. And do not
make it anything related to your per-
sonal information such as your wife’s
name or child’s name.
8. Layers of protection: You should be
running a personal firewall and an-
tivirus software on the machine you
are viewing social networks in. This
will help if a malicious piece of soft-
ware tries to download something to
your machine. Keep your protection
software up-to-date as well and run
the patch management software on
your machine, this is especially im-
portant for Windows users.
9. Child protection software: You
should have some kind of child pro-
tection software running on machines,
which children under 13 are using.
This will help with all that shady soft-
ware that are out there. More impor-
tantly, educate your children about the
dangers of social networking and who
could be stalking them on the Internet.
Restrict your email: Avoid posting
your email in your profiles for every-
one to see. It’s a very easy way to get
on a spam list and once that happens
you will never get off the list. si
siliconindia
|35|
May 2010

Technology: By Mahesh S. Prabhu
The author is Microsoft Technology Practice Head, ITC Infotech
Software for
Software Development
W
Life Cycle
ith software going
big and complex
and customers be-
coming more de-
manding than ever
before, there is a need to ensure speed,
consistency, accuracy, security, quality,
and reliability. How long will the soft-
ware companies keep developing soft-
ware for only manufacturing, finance,
sales, HR, and other functions of organ-
izations? Is it not high time we started
looking at automating the software de-
velopment assembly line? I know that
we don’t use the term ‘assembly line’ to
describe the software development
process - SDLC (Software Develop-
ment Life Cycle) is a generally accepted
term in the industry. Perhaps this is the
reason why not much importance is
given to automating the SDLC
processes by the IT process owners or
the Software Engineering Process
Groups (popularly known as SEPG) in
IT services companies. Perhaps we now
have to start referring to SDLC as Soft-
ware Assembly Line and treat it as such.
Over the years, many models of
SDLC have been evolved, starting with
the linear or waterfall model to more re-
cent agile models. Agile development
also has many flavors like SCRUM, Ex-
treme Programming, TDD (Test Driven
Development), and so on. Iterative, Spi-
siliconindia
|36| May 2010
ral, Incremental, Prototype, Joint Appli-
cation Development (JAD), and Foun-
tain Model are some of the other
commonly used SDLC models. Not to
mention the other ‘technology specific’
models introduced by Technology ven-
dors like RUP, MSF, and ASAP, which
I will not get into. If we consider the
Waterfall and Agile models as the ex-
tremes – the former being extremely
rigid and the latter being extremely flex-
ible – all other models fall somewhere
in between.
While each model has its own
strengths and weaknesses and benefits
and pitfalls, a closer examination indi-
cates a few essentials in the SDLC and
its many variations. The essentials are
Planning, Analysis, Design, Develop-
ment, Testing, and Deployment. The
variations depend on the weightage or
importance given to the essentials,
whether they are done in a sequence or
in parallel or iterations, the processes -
the ways the essentials are carried out
and the role of various participants and
stakeholders.
So, what does it take to create a soft-
ware assembly line from the existing
SDLC? No, I am not suggesting another
new model. Follow the model(s) you
are most comfortable with and apply
these 3 key mantras – reuse, automate,
and integrate.
<<
Notice the use of ‘and so on’ in each of
the samples above. It is important to Code auditing tool is especially useful
identify the ‘and so ons’ in detail for
your organization for each activity.
when managing code standards
Reuse by chance or convenience becomes impossible. It helps eradicate bugs, ensure
can be dangerous. You don’t want to
reuse something that failed earlier like
a bad design or buggy component li-
consistency, and maintain clean, large, and complex
source codes
brary. It is therefore important to plan
the reuse. To do that, separate the ‘best’
from the ‘rest’ and the ‘showcases’ platform to develop, build, debug, and Integrate
from the ‘no-cases’. Knowledge repos- compile code. Sophisticated IDEs also It is very important to integrate the
itory or a knowledge management sys- have ‘intellisense’ or keyword lookups ‘reuse’ and ‘automation’ tools wher-
tem therefore becomes a necessity.
To facilitate a wider acceptance of
as you type to assist the developer in
writing code faster. They also generate
ever possible. Higher levels of inte-
gration ensure higher productivity.
reuse and to get the highest productiv- sections of code as needed. The SDLC tools should facilitate the
ity through assembly line specializa- What were until recently consid- developer to use the right reusable
tion, it is also very important to ered to be manual tasks – like code re- artifact. Software engineers should
segregate the generics from the view and testing – can also be get a seamless view between the
Reuse automated. As a project or company plan, analysis, design, development,
specifics. The generics can be reused
What can we reuse in software devel- grows, managing code standards testing, and deployment.
while the specifics cannot. Any new
opment? Many of you will immediately throughout the team becomes virtually Integrate the project manage-
project will have three kinds of tasks – 
think of ‘code libraries that we devel- impossible. A code auditing tool be- ment and project documentation
the complex, common, and the repeti-
oped in earlier projects’. You are ab- comes especially useful in such a situ- tool with the IDE
tive ones. Plan the project in such a way
solutely right; but not completely right. ation. It helps eradicate bugs, ensure Integrate the design processes
that the complex tasks are done by the 
Reuse does not pertain only to coding. consistency, and maintain clean, large, and reusable artifacts as tem-
experts, common tasks are picked up
Remember, regardless of the SDLC and complex source code. What’s more plates inside IDE
from the reusable library (or created for
model you choose, coding is only one – the process of identifying warnings Have code snippets embedded
the first time and added to the reusable 
of the essentials in the SDLC. Okay, so and errors hardly takes few minutes. into the IDE
library), and the repetitive tasks are
what else can we reuse? Everything; let There are tools to compute the code Create project templates, form
done by the assembly line software de- 
me go ahead and list some of them: metrics like coupling, depth of inheri- templates, class templates, and
veloper.
tance, and overall maintainability. so on
Planning – estimation techniques, ‘Refactoring’ tools help in cleaning up Embed your coding standards
Automate
 
project plans, schedules, work the code and making it more efficient. into the code review tool
Perhaps the major contributor to speed-
breakdown, and so on. Compilation and build processes Compilation of a unit should
ing up the SDLC is automation. As with 
Analysis – Use cases, diagrams should be tightly integrated with the also run the code review tool
‘reuse’, ‘automation’ can also be done

and pictorial representations, ques- version control systems. In addition to and give recommendations
in each of the essentials in the SDLC.
tionnaire templates, data collection facilitating the check-in and check-out Build should succeed only if the
Project planning tools have been in ex- 
sheets, and so on. processes, the version control and con- code review and automated unit
istence for a long time and are widely
Design – Architectures, design figuration tools can also be tuned to be testing pass
used in software projects too.

standards, DB designs, DB struc- the gatekeepers of clean code. A check- There are many more areas of inte-
There are many design tools that
tures and objects, UI designs and in can be blocked if it breaks the build. gration of ‘reuse’, ‘automation’, and
not only create good looking designs,
templates, business classes, and so Continuous integration and automated the SDLC processes. Looking for
but also generate code stubs to kick
on. builds save the headaches of integration more areas of ‘reuse’, ‘automation’,
start the development. A design tool
Development – Reusable compo- issues and build version issues. and ‘integration’ is a continuous and
that seamlessly works with the devel-

nent libraries, ‘how to’ code snip- Deployment automation is pro- never ending process. It is high time
opment tool would be ideal for speed-
pets, validation classes, generic vided as a feature in some of the so- we start building and using software
ing up the SDLC.
application blocks, and so on. phisticated IDEs. ‘One click’ for software development life cycle.
Gone are the days where a text edi-
Testing – Test cases and scenarios, deployment ensures that the developers I conclude with this simple for-
tor was used for programming; IDE

Test plans, and so on. don’t have to worry about spending mula: Rapid Application Develop-
(Integrated Development Environment)
Deployment – installation proce- many days and nights creating deploy- ment (RAD) = Reuse + Automate +
is now a bare minimum to start with.

dures, deployment kits, deploy- ment packs and procedures. Integrate (R+A+I). si
IDE gives the developers a common
ment guidelines, and so on.
siliconindia
|37|
May 2010
Technology: By Kunal Sarkar
The author is CEO, LumosLabs
GAFM E S
O R G O OD
A R E GO O D
C
B U S I N E S S T OO
omputer games now rival
films as the greatest
revenue generator in the
entertainment industry,
but games are being used
for many more things than
entertainment. ‘Serious games’ are being
used for everything from corporate
training to cancer recovery. Not only are
these games and the companies behind
them working to change the world for
the better, but they’re becoming big
business too.
What comes to mind when you think
of video games? The high powered
consoles like the Nintendo Wii or Sony
Playstation, big budget games like Call
of Duty, and the relatively young fans
that buy them. It’s clear that video games
are a serious business, and have been so
for some time: in the UK alone, £1.73
billion was spent on video games during
a 12 month period ending in September
2009 - £500 million more than on
movies and purchase of DVDs during
the same period. But the video game
industry is much, much more than
Grand Theft Auto and World of
Warcraft. As the industry has grown,
‘serious games’ or games developed for
a purpose beyond pure entertainment
have proliferated as well.
siliconindia
|38| May 2010
Serious games, which have been
developed for uses ranging from
corporate training to cancer recovery,
can take advantage of the same
properties that make entertainment
games so addictive: strong engagement
during interactive play, motivation to
improve and win, and the ability to
simulate compelling situations. But
instead of using these elements to simply
drive game sales, serious games use
them to teach, persuade, or facilitate
personal improvement. For
example, Food Force, a game published
by the United Nations World Food
Program, was developed to educate
individuals about the mission and work
of the WFP. Even Wii Fit, a hugely
successful exercise game, fits squarely
in this category: the primary motivation
for people purchasing the game is to
improve their physical fitness.
Wii Fit also serves as proof that
games for personal improvement can be
hugely profitable; it’s a significant
contributor to a serious game market that
is estimated to generate more than $1.5
billion in revenues worldwide each year.
Games like Wii Fit, Food
Force, and Celebrity Calamity, a
financial literacy game developed by a
professor and dean at Harvard Business
School, are also examples of what many
in the serious games industry refer to as
‘games for good’. Whether it’s
improving fitness, cultural
understanding, or budgeting skills, these
games help people the world over to live
healthier, safer, and happier lives.
And governments and institutions
around the world are starting to take
note. The same leaders who once
condemned video games for keeping
kids indoors and being too violent are
now promoting  and funding  games for
good as incredibly powerful tools for
large-scale social change and personal
improvement. In the United States,
President Barack Obama announced a
major initiative in November 2009 to
use gaming technology to improve math
and science education for students. More
recently, the Educational Secretary of
Scotland, citing new research findings
supporting learning games in education,
encouraged the use of brain training
games in Scottish schools. Other
research, such as the 2006 ACTIVE
study published in the Journal of the
American Medical Association, show
that this sort of healthy games can help
a much larger population, including
seniors and middle aged individuals,
improve their cognitive fitness as well.
Games are even helping cancer patients
speed their recovery. A study in the
journal Pediatrics found that cancer
patients who played Re-Mission, a game
developed by the California based non-
profit HopeLab, maintained higher
levels of chemotherapy in their blood
and took their antibiotics more
consistently.
It’s exactly this sort of landmark
research, which supports the use of
games for good in a wide variety of
contexts that has motivated a new
generation of entrepreneurs to begin
companies in the serious games space.
Virtual Heroes, a serious game
development company in North
Carolina, has teamed up with HopeLab
to build the next version of Re-
Mission and has created a variety of
other healthy and educational games.
Other companies, such as Filament
Games in Wisconsin and Red Hill
Serious games, which have been developed for
uses ranging from corporate training to cancer
recovery, take advantage of the same properties
that make entertainment games so addictive
Studios in California, are developing
educational and healthy games in
conjunction with US Supreme Court
judgments, PBS, and universities around
the world.
Not only are the companies crafting
these games helping people in diverse
contexts, but they’re discovering that
building games for good can be lucrative
business as well. Our company,
lumosity.com, has been fortunate to be
at the center of the explosion of demand
for games that promote better brain
health. SharpBrains, which conducts
market research within the brain fitness
industry, reports that brain training
games generated $265 million in
revenues in 2008, and may reach as
much as $5 billion by 2015. Just as
many healthy game developers, like the
creators of Re-Mission, have had
personal experiences with their loved
ones being affected by the conditions
they’ve created in the games, my
founders and myself all have family
members affected by the devastating
impact of cognitive decline. Like other
major players in the healthy games space
we’ve grounded our work in existing
research, as well as in our ongoing
collaborations with Stanford, UCSF, and
the University of Michigan. We feel
truly lucky to be able to use this research
to help the over 3 million monthly
unique visitors to lumosity.com, the
largest online destination for healthy
games, work towards better cognitive
fitness.
Key indicators point to the continued
growth of the games for good sector in
the immediate future and in the long
term as well. In India, venture capital
firms have made significant investments
in learning game companies such as
Hurix Systems. The popularity of
exercise games such as Wii Fit and EA
Sports Active, which sold over 600,000
units in its first two weeks of availability,
mean that continued development in this
space is all but assured. In fact, EA
announced an expansion to its exercise
game almost immediately after its
release. As long as new applications for
games are explored, we can expect the
market for games for good to continue
to expand. As it does, smart players in
the space will continue to realize
revenues that will make up an
increasingly significant portion of the
game market - all while helping people
around the world live smarter, healthier,
happier lives. si
siliconindia
|39|
May 2010
Technology: By V. Kannan
The author is Joint Managing Director & CEO, SRA Systems
Agile Offshore
Oxymoron?
S
everal domestic (US
based) groups have started
differentiating themselves
and are competing suc-
cessfully with offshore
outfits on the strength of agile devel-
opment. You keep hearing ‘faster
time-to–market’, ‘balance between
no process and too much process’,
and ‘quick ROI’. Granted that Agile
and SCRUM are not new – unlike
cloud computing, not even like virtu-
alization. But agile offshore develop-
ment is yet to become mainstream.
As a person who knows just
enough about software development
to be dangerous, I have found the idea
of short sprints and frequent deliver-
ies appealing. The idea of tackling
features that deliver most business
value early in the project sounds
great. This seems to be the perfect
recipe for improving customer satis-
faction and retention.
My company has been doing off-
shore development for close to 25
siliconindia
|40|
May 2010
years. We pride ourselves as being
ISO 9000 and CMM compliant. Our
quality system includes several life-
cycle models starting from the
dreaded Waterfall to Modular Water-
fall to Spiral. Surely, adding SCRUM
to this must be a breeze. I have reli-
giously chanted Agile and SCRUM in
many of my meetings with project
managers. But I have found several
challenges:
 I have already been doing it for
years
We often confuse intermediate
deliverables with agile develop-
ment. Intermediate deliveries are
often sequenced based on ease of
construction and not on business
value. The sole purpose is to
demonstrate progress and, more
often than not, to get paid.
 If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
Requirements documents, use
cases, and low level design docu-
ments are ingrained in the sys-
tem; these are the elements
around which companies such as
ours have gained a reputation of
consistency and high quality.
They have served us well. Project
teams are horrified at any sug-
gestion to dispense with some of
them in the name of ‘just enough
documentation’.
 It does not make economic
sense
Frequent releases that are fit for
deployment require expensive
test automation tools. Effective
collaboration with distributed
teams (onsite, offshore, and
product owner) requires tools
as well. Tools that are afford-
able for people who cost $100
per hour are not affordable for
those who cost $25 per hour.
Offshore is designed for scale,

not autonomy
Relatively inexperienced (but
smart, hard working, and eager
to learn) engineers form the
backbone of offshore organiza-
tions. Scalability centers
around the ability to assemble
hundreds of such people with a
command-and-control super-
structure made up of experi-
enced project leaders and
managers.
Thankfully, the industry has
taken some (baby) steps towards
adopting agile methodology for off-
shore development. Lessons have
been learnt and best practices are
emerging. Here are some examples:
 Part of the analysis and design
must be done by offshore
teams. Do not perform all up-
stream tasks onsite and just do
the heavy-lifting offshore.
 Consciously work towards em-
powering developers and
testers. Move away from sen-
iors making all the decisions.
This is a major cultural change
that requires training and set-
ting expectations.
 Choose tools and interaction
mechanisms that are suited for
distributed teams working in
different time zones. Interest-
ingly, this might mean more
documents. But adaptation is
necessary to make meetings
short and effective.
In short, agile offshore might not
be mainstream yet, but we are mov-
ing in the right direction from a
process perspective.
I also find the agile methodology
fascinating in the context of a seem-
ing paradox: Customer satisfaction
is higher in time and material en-
gagements than in fixed price en-
gagements. This situation makes
sense from a vendor perspective, but
why would it apply to customers? I
have been a vendor all my life and
putting me in a customer’s shoes is
outside the sphere of my compe-
tence. The only explanation I can
come up with is that customers pay
Reconciling the
conflict between
agility and the
desire for fixed
scope and price
contracts is critical
to adopt agile
model for offshore
engagements
a lot more attention to time and ma-
terial projects - a critical success
factor in most software development
projects. Agile methodology implies
higher level of customer involve-
ment. It is exactly what a good doc-
tor will prescribe. However, my
project managers will consider me
brain-dead if I even used agile and
fixed bid in the same section, leave
alone right next to each other as in
‘agile fixed bid project’. Bear in
mind that fixed bids are more com-
mon in the offshore context. In my
The latest study report
“Indian Managed IT Services
Market" by Springboard
Research forecasts that the IT
managed services market in
India will grow from $1.6
billion in 2009 to $3.8 billion
in 2013. About 66 percent
CIOs surveyed are planning
to adopt and engage with a
managed services model
rather than strategic
outsourcing due to
perceptions of "convenience"
with managed services.
world, onsite fixed bid is as much as
an oxymoron as agile offshore is.
Therefore, reconciling the conflict
between agility and the desire for
fixed scope and price contracts is
critical to adopt agile model for off-
shore engagements.
In most enterprises (as opposed
to software development organiza-
tions) the need for, and appreciation
of agile software development does
not percolate beyond IT.
 Business sponsors want to know
what they are paying for.
 Users do not want frequent re-
leases.
 Most of the projects involve mi-
gration from an existing appli-
cation. It is a crime to leave out
features, however unimportant
they might be. You will never
know if someone in a remote
corner is dependent on that fea-
ture and the work will come to a
grinding halt without it.
As a result, agile methodology
does not seem to be applicable to
most enterprise engagements. But I
foresee this changing. Any reason-
able size project is too complex for
BRUF (big requirements up front)
or BDUF (big design up front). It is
time to find a middle ground be-
tween the ‘take all risks away from
me’ fixed price model and ‘give me
a team and I will manage them’ time
and material model. How about a
fixed price, fixed schedule, ‘fitted’
scope engagement?
I believe agile model has the po-
tential to dramatically improve cus-
tomer satisfaction levels in offshore
engagements. Here is a call for:
 Project teams to leave their
comfort zone founded on elabo-
rate processes and documenta-
tion, and
 Customers to inject a little more
trust and flexibility into their
contracts. si
siliconindia
|41|
May 2010
CIO Profile: By Vimali Swamy
Cloud & Mobile Computing
THE NEXT FRONTIER
B
ask Iyer is excited for
times ahead. As the CIO
of the $35 billion corpo-
ration, Honeywell, he is
looking at making the
maximum of what is in store — mo-
bile computing and cloud computing.
He bets that these are the next big
thing to revolutionize the industry a
few years down the road. “As a CIO,
my primary task is to keep the tech-
nology trends in line with the com-
pany’s business and I see a lot of
potential in the convergence of mobile
and cloud computing for both internal
practices of the company as well as for
clients by opening avenues for new
products,” he says.
From scaling up infrastructure to
providing services on-the-go there is a
lot one can offer with these new tech-
nology advancements. As for Honey-
well, Iyer is looking forward to being
able to service business which were
not in their client radar earlier. “Due to
cost constraints, specifically capital in-
vestments, some of our potential cus-
tomers may not have been able to use
our products and services but with
cloud computing the scenario is bound
to change. They can now deploy our
software over Cloud and SaaS making
it is cost effective,” he says.
Another trend that he sees catching
on like wildfire is the adoption of
Open Source technology. He believes
there are many interesting products
from Operating Systems to databases
siliconindia
|42|
May 2010
and apps in open source platform. He
finds them very good cost and quality
wise for both small and large products.
Iyer has also been observing many fel-
low CIOs who have seen the need to
breakaway from legacy software and
applications.
In his current role, Iyer is respon-
sible for increasing productivity and
improving the effectiveness of Honey-
well’s IT, while safeguarding Honey-
well’s critical information, intellectual
property, and physical resources. He
also implements an effective global
operating service model by deploying
new technology platforms and the core
tools necessary to drive Honeywell’s
businesses and strengthen IT’s role as
a critical business partner throughout
the company. In addition, he also leads
the Honeywell IT Council, which sets
the direction and focus for the func-
tion.
Despite all the change happening
around, Iyer is focused enough not to
ignore the fundamental building
blocks of the company’s business.
Honeywell has been doing cutting
edge technology work in multiple
fields and Iyer plans to align the new
developments to enable company’s ex-
isting business processes. “What we
want to do in terms of convergence of
technologies is give our scientists and
engineers the tools that will help get
their job done efficiently,” he explains.
Exemplifying his statement Iyer talks
about new tools such as high perform-
ance computing clusters, super com-
puters, virtualization of labs by remote
technology access and more.
While Iyer finds these changing
times exciting he also feels that these
in turn have also become the major
challenge for most CIOs. The rate of
technology change has been dramatic
and while a few like Iyer are excited,
most executives find this roller coaster
ride ‘scary’, wondering about what is
in store tomorrow. The challenge is to
keep one’s business up to date with the
changes and in some cases try and be
pioneers in bringing about the wave of
change. But Iyer believes that for
those who have a passion for it there
is nothing that will stop them in suc-
ceeding in these times. “One just has
to have the discipline to go through
process and change management to
take a large company forward and
keep in line with the advancements.
This means you have to take a few
swings and risks. As a CIO if I want to
stay afloat then I have to think like an
entrepreneur and take a few risks here
and there,” says Iyer.
The kind of process Iyer has set
about in the past few years at Honey-
well is a testament of his modern day
approach and support of new tech-
nologies to improve the company’s
business while keeping intact the com-
pany’s core processes. From a time
when ROI only meant cost contain-
ment or cost avoidance, Iyer feels
CIOs have matured to look at it in a
business goals is probably where we
need to do our investing. When we in-
stalled a high performance computing
cluster costing several millions for one
of our business units we were able to
reduce the production time by 30 per-
cent. To me such an investment is jus-
tified,” tells Iyer. It is this kind of
specification CIOs are looking today
to make their business decisions.
At present his prime focus has
been bringing all the processes on a
single ERP platform across all busi-
ness verticals so as to increase the or-
ganization’s efficiency. “We are
continuing the journey in what we call
Functional Transformation that is
helping the company save tremen-
dously. If one looks at all the support
functions in Honeywell, we have cut
down our costs by half but at the same
time improved efficiencies,” says Iyer.
Also being a multi-billion dollar com-
pany that services several industries, it
Bask Iyer
is important that it work on a common
platform and hence it has set up the
initiatives like HOS and the ERP sys-
ere is a lot of
tems it deployed have been huge en-
potential in the ablers.
What excites Iyer when he looks at
convergence of product development is the whole ap-
proach of how to invent, innovate cre-
mobile and cloud
ate products, develop a flawless
product launch and then manufacture
computing for both
and bring in productivity, that is an
internal practices of area ripe for IT and automation oppor-
tunities. “We have done a lot of work
the company as well in that segment and we dabble in there.
Once we start tapping opportunities to
as for clients by
improve Product Lifecycle we will
opening avenues for have a goldmine of opportunities to
make the most of. In the area of cus-
new products tomer relationship management, we
are dabbling few other businesses, we
different light. “I call IT an enabler for are looking at launching an initiative
enablers. Every company has certain to bring CRM globally just like our
enablers and at Honeywell we have ERP system,” he explains. These are
three enablers — Functional Transfor- two areas Iyer feels the need to ex-
mation, Velocity Product Develop- plore.
ment (VPD™) and Honeywell A believer in teamwork, Iyer fol-
Operations Systems (HOS). So posi- lows an easy to approach relationship
tioning projects which achieve these with his team. His mantra to keep his
team and himself motivated was
something that he learned from his
chairman — “Yesterday’s news
wraps today’s fish”. Iyer constantly
tells his team that what they did yes-
terday was good but today is a new
day so it is important to get a jump-
start. Fad-free management with
sense of humor and direct approach
is hisstyle of leadership.
He attributes his successful man-
agement skills to playing Cricket in
school days. “This taught me the im-
portance of strategy and teamwork.”
Also he believes that his days in col-
lege have had a large impact in shap-
ing his career. “For my graduation, I
could not get into any of the top col-
leges and the one which I attended was
a public college and very rough. But it
taught me a lot of street smarts. I be-
lieve that if one wants to survive in
this competitive world he would need
many other skills than just good edu-
cation and intellectual superiority. You
need to know to tackle people of all
kinds and this requires street smarts
else you will get hurt,” he says.
From his wide cross industry ex-
perience, that includes leadership po-
sitions in GlaxoSmithKline Beecham,
Johnson & Johnson, CTS, Honeywell
in Asia Pacific and more, he has many
thoughts that he wants to share with
entrepreneurs. According to him, start-
ups need to look at Cloud Computing
very seriously as he thinks it will en-
able software developers very well.
Also another area to focus is continu-
ing globalization with help of cloud
computing. One need not have data
centers in specific regions rather all
the outsourcing and monitoring can be
done from remote locations via Cloud.
He also advises them to jumpstart at
mobile technology especially in
emerging region India and China
where this is more pervasive. They
ought to target the enterprises and con-
sumers with mobile apps and other re-
lated technologies. For Iyer these are
what will form the next frontier. si
siliconindia
|43|
May 2010
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