Chennai:
"Since the majority of independent software vendors (ISV) use Microsoft''s
product platform, it will be exciting and challenging to propagate the new Microsoft
stack (Microsoft Vista and Microsoft Office 12)," avers 36-year old Pradeep
Rathinam, president, Aditi Technologies. According
to him, the whole software eco system is dependent on Microsoft. Any fundamental
change could transform the business dynamics. "A new software vendor may
come with a new cost model. The future of the software vendor will depend on how
he caters to the user experience and not the user interface." The
Bangalore-headquartered Aditi Technologies offers software product development
or outsourced product development services. Apart from developing new products,
Aditi is also involved in enhancing the features of an existing product or extending
the life of an old product. According
to him, an ISV spends most of its research and development (R&D) budget on
the existing product line while a small percentage is put on developing new software
and maintenance of legacy one. "Our
approach is to show a prospect the benefits of developing a new software product
at the shortest possible time that would change the cost, revenue and even the
market dynamics," he adds. The
$40-million revenue Aditi has 600 employees of which 400 are in Bangalore and
200 are in the US. "We plan to add another 200 smart engineers. The head
count increase will happen mostly in India." Here too there are challenges
Rathinam says. "The shortage of skilled hands in the value chain has gone
up. It is really a challenge to find suitable people to develop next generation
software." The company has around 50 projects on hand. With
a target turnover of $100 million Aditi is expanding its US presence. "We
will enter the North American market through new marketing offices in Texas and
California," he says. Married
to Sharmila a business and financial analyst, Rathinam has two sons Sumer and
Rish. He talks to domain-b on future strategies. Excerpts:
How
is Aditi different from other product developers? We target ISVs who are
in the turnover bracket of $50 million - $500 million. There are several players
in this band. They will not set up captives even in India as these have its own
risks and challenges. That is the sweet spot for us. It should be said that we
are not mere vendors. Our approach is different as we also consult our customers
about sales and marketing apart from product development. Our proposition to our
clients is not cost oriented but business generation. We discuss with them the
possibilities of revenue growth, cost management and transformational revenue.
The focus is on time to market giving the first mover advantage to our clients.
A good chunk of our revenues come from new product development. How
many new clients have you added in the recent times? We have had rapid
customer acquisition in the recent times. In the last five months we have added
17 new clients. Are your contracts mainly fixed price ones? Most
of our contracts are on retainers. We do have contracts on fixed cost basis. For
ISVs it is better to have people like us on retainer basis or else they will be
losing a whole set of people who have the end-to-end product knowledge. Are
the billing rates for companies like yours going down? It is not so. On
the other hand it is going up. Low-end services like software testing may feel
some pricing pressure. But in our activity, which is high end, the billing rates
are up. In some cases it is even similar to that of US rates. With the exchange
rate fluctuating the rates are bound to go up further. On
the market for software as a service
. Software as a service is not
just running the software on a pipe. It is has different set of business model
propositions. The mindset of the software vendors decides whether to go for a
hosted service. And they are now open to this. What
will be the spin off effects of companies like you being present in India? It
will surely have a positive spin- off effect for the domestic market.
The experience of developing products for advanced market will surely grow the
domestic software product market.
|