MUMBAI, INDIA: Distinguished Indian writer and diplomat Shashi Tharoor congratulated India’s response to the recent two attacks on India’s image globally.

While speaking at the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum here today, he said that both the industry and the government of India have ensured an effective response to the Satyam episode as well as the Mumbai terror attack.

“NASSCOM, and industry leaders like Som Mittal, and the successful rehabilitation post Satyam has proved that India can demonstrate active regulations and also that it was a case of just one rotten apple,” said Tharoor.

“Contrary to what the current perception suggested, criminality has nothing to do with the flaws of any company or the IT model of Indian tech industry. It was proved that it is just an aberration and not what India is all about,” he added.

Shashi Tharoor also touched upon the Mumbai terror attack and the efforts to dent India’s global image and portray it as an insecure and vulnerable state.

“It might have undermined the confidence for a short term but it was good that the govt took a measured response and denied the suggestions of resorting to military action. Govt did absolutely the right thing to preserve diplomatic pressure over war, because in that case our economics would have suffered and we would have only played in the hands of the terrorists,” he said.

Voices against liberalization are dangerous

Shashi Tharoor also warned against the country succumbing to demands of voices against liberalization and globalization.

Speaking at the NASSCOM Leadership Forum today, Tharoor said last years’ developments  that resulted in global economic meltdown is being used by many quarters as a pretext to stop the process of liberalization in the country.

“These voices are getting mainstream and are asking us to go back to license Raj days. They are clamoring for nationalization of all private banks.  We cannot afford to go back in time,” said Tharoor.

Socialism is a failure

He added that Socialism in the country had failed to achieve in last 40 years what the process of liberalization has achieved in the last fifteen years.

“For 40 years, we had a setup which promoted mediocrity, distributed poverty and was happy with unproductivity… Entrepreneurs in the country rather than getting involved in setting up their institutions were wasting too much of their energies in running around power structures and paying bribes,” he commented.

He also said the notion was protectionary measures would help more people getting out of below poverty line was a flawed one as the statistics have shown otherwise. “In the last 15 years more people have come out of poverty than they had come in last 40 years,” according to Tharoor.

Tharoor added that the country had to pledge its gold reserves in 1990, and it was only after the process of liberalization that India was counted amongst emerging powers in the world.

The great mobile story

Terming the mobile story as a boon of liberalization, Tharoor said cell phones have privileged the under class in the country, a job that socialism failed to do miserably. The diplomat also opined that balance of power between politics and economics was shifting and politics was finally ceding some space to economics in the country.

Tharoor also congratulated the Indian IT industry for changing the face of India in the outside world.

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So who will be the lucky ones, who can attract money and buyers even in these uncertain times?

Sanjeev Aggrawal, managing director, Helion Partners, today said at the NILF here that four sectors are perched high atop the acquisition and investment agenda for companies and venture capitalists for 2009.

“The conditions are difficult, but not too bad to stop interested parties to look for new companies. The key is companies who have great technology, strong focus and have full team in place will find strong traction among interested parties,” says Sanjeev.

He adds that companies operating in four verticals in current times look very attractive to potential buyers and venture capitalists.

Outsourcing Sector

Sanjeev feels that due to recession, the outsourcing sector will be very attractive to potential buyers and investors, provided they have a strategic focus, strong domain expertise and ability to scale as well as complete leadership team.

“Most of the times, outsourcing service providers have leadership team that is India heavy, and not many people from the US. This makes it an unattractive option. Companies should look building dual gravity teams, which mean leaders at the helm, who have knowledge of both continents,” he adds.

Consumer Internet

In Sanjay’s opinion, Internet companies on their own don’t make a good buy, but when married to other processes it can be an attractive option.

For example, Makemytrip is not only an Internet company. You can interact with the company at various levels  – be it through mobile, through its retail centre and also through its call centre.

He adds that most of the times Internet companies don’t have a complete team. “Either the technology team is too strong, which overcompensates for marketing and leadership. The basic thing is all the elements need be brought together.

Because Internet is not ubiquitous, the sector will attract niche buyers for the time being.

Mobile VAS

According to Sanjay, with telecom operators faced with lower Average Revenue per User (APRUs), Mobile Vale Added Service providers are a good bet for potential buys.

However, he adds the current lopsided revenue sharing agreement between telecom operators ad service providers means MVAS players have to churn out more volumes to show profits.

Product Companies

The Helion Partners MD says the product companies that have a great technology will always remain great buy with potential investor. However, he added that technology companies don’t have great leaders who know how to carry the technology to next level.

“They need to hire CEOs who can help them to reach the next frontier,” adds Sanjay.

Recession in US and downturn in India is exerting lot of pressure on Indian IT/BPO industry, to devise a calibrated strategy to come out of the uncertain times unscathed.

Add to it the situation of mistrust emanating from unfortunate Satyam scandal, which has cast serious aspersions on the structure of corporate governance for Indian IT/BPO industry, a industry which hitherto were seen among the most trusted and transparent industries.

These uninvited incidents has put an added onus on the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum that apart from helping Indian IT software and services industry stay on track to touch $60 billion in exports during FY 2009-10, the forum has to imprint the thought that partnering with Indian IT/BPO industry is the best bet for countries to get out of recession.

NILF 2009 also finds itself bagged with additional responsibility of assuaging the fears of world community regarding security, not only of data but also people, property and IT investments in India following the recent Mumbai terror attacks.

This year Leadership Forum will mark NASSCOM’s 20th year and will be bringing under one roof industry leaders, thought gurus, analysts, Government decision makers, academia and IT users from across the world.

Sangeeta Gupta, vice president, NASSCOM in an interaction with Idhries Ahmad of CIOL is confident that NASSCOM India Leadership Forum 2009 will be successful in assuaging the concerns of both Indian and international community both in terms of recession and security.

“NASSCOM will put strongly put forward its point that Indian IT/BPO industry has very strong fundamentals and industry views downturn as an opportunity to emerge as leaders going forward”, says Sangeeta..

Sangeeta who is responsible for organizing and facilitating NASSCOM events in India and overseas, gives a detailed preview to the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum 2009 and shares key highlights, spotlight speakers and key attendees expected at the forum.

Excerpts from the interview

CIOL: Recession in US and Europe and slow down in India is posing huge challenge for Indian IT companies. Do we have special sessions and discussion at NLF 2009 to provide a guide lines to companies to help them pass through these uncertain times. How is NASSCOM using this platform to assuage the feelings of Indian IT industry.

Sangeeta Gupta: NASSCOM India Leadership Forum (NILF) 2009 is important event as it not only coincides with 20 years of completion of NASSCOM (NASSCOM was founded in 1988), but also, it is being held at very interesting and challenging times in midst of global recession that has swept different sectors, different economies and job market and is having large impact on who will grow and who will not.

This forum will provide opportunity for participants to hear from customers, analysts, leading consultants, CEOs in the industry and overseas who will talk about and how they are gearing up for economic crisis and what opportunities that will define the path ahead are. In February, most of the technology budgets are available and people and companies will get an idea as where they need to spend and what needs to be  avoided.

The forum will showcase how global organisations are reorganising and realigning themselves in response to current times and these learnings can provide participants platform to understand and move forward from there.

We have lot of sessions being planned around the reality of downturn and what it means for different stakeholders. We have all spoken about globalisation and flat world but the current crisis has changed lot of that scenario, so how will different economies play a role and what will be the growth path ahead will be talked about in detail.

CEO, Cisco, John Chambers who is the spotlight keynote speaker will set the ball rolling by talking about how the current scenario is going to reshape the global economy. Then, we will have  debate between top industry CEO’s  like Nandan Nilkini,  Ramadurai,Vineet Nayar, who would be deliberating the really of recession and the way ahead

We have got lot of analysts, customers and others who will talk about where is off shoring moving,  and with that what is going to happen to BPO, ,what will happen to outsourcing and also what about happening to engineering services.

This year we have specialised track around different vertical segments and two focussed sessions on Banking and Financial Services with one interesting session on will BFCI continue to bank on IT.We also will have related sessions around how leaders need to realign their strategies internally to tackle the external market condition and also internal issues of how you would manage talent and employee engagement.

CIOL:In view of unfortunate Satyam story what sort of message will go out from NASSCOM to the international community that Satyam saga is one of kind and doesn’t reflect Indian IT industry as such? Are there any special sessions being planned on this issue and also on the need for having stringent corporate governance in place to prevent such episodes in future?.

SG: The issue will come up in most of the discussions. We have created a specific session Managing Risk, which will talk about risk. It will be risk related to governance and compliance that have come up with Satyam issue.

Actually, we are addressing whole issue of risk together and not look only at Satyam issue only, because if you look at Satyam it is an isolated incident. An incident of deliberate fraud and not to do anything with the weak laws in this country.

CIOL: NASSCOM has again selected Mumbai as the venue for the 2009 event. Do you feel this will act as a deterrent to a more healthy participation? How are you assuaging the misgivings of the international community who are wishing to come to this forum?

SG: Most of people recognise that Mumbai was a victim of terror attack as much as London or New York  or  other world cities. However at NASSCOM, we have been strongly communicating with the State and Central Governments, with the hotel and other bodies to ensure that security is definitely enhanced multi-fold.

Initially, we had seen lots of questions on why Mumbai and not any other city but last couple of weeks, people have understood this better. People understand that Government of India is more proactive and steps are being taken to ensure that their visit to India is safe.

CIOL: Last year we had IT delegations from Egypt, Pakistan among other countries. Which countries are expected to represent themselves at this years forum ?

SG: We have almost sixteen countries that are bringing in delegation which include 8 African countries, all the BRIC countries. We have lots of people coming from eastern-European countries from Poland and places like that; we have got also people from development market from Australia, UK, Belgium, and Germany.

We have got a good representation of developed as well as developing countries. Many of the emerging countries who will be working or partnering with India in the whole IT and BPO sector.

CIOL: Who will be the major speakers that are expected this time round? What sort of participation is expected from the government? How many delegates are expected this year at the Leadership Forum?

SG: We are expecting 1100 people which will include people from India, overseas, government and other stakeholders.

We will have a galaxy of speakers gracing the event.We have C.K Prahalad, Professor of Strategy from University of Michigan,  John Chambers, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer from Cisco Systems, Nandan M. Nilekani, CEO and Managing Director , Infosys Technologies, Ltd,

We also have Shashi Tharoor , Former UN Under Secretary General, fellow USC Center on Public Diplomacy, Vineet Nayar, CEO, HCL Technologies, Rosabeth Moss Kanter , Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor from Harvard Business School, Pankaj Ghemawat, Professor Global Strategy ,IESE and Harvard Business, who has written book on world is not flat among others.

From government side we have Minister for Commerce and Industry, KamalNath. In addition we have got analysts from Gartner, Froster, IMR, CEO of Everest and customers like JP Morgan, UBAF, HDFC, Standard Charter.

CIOL: What is the message that NASSCOM as a parent body of Indian IT/BPO industry will give out to the outside world and even to the audiences within the country.

SG: Our message is that we are in a a challenging environment as an industry. NASSCOM will be putting forcefully its point that Indian IT/BPO industry has  strong fundamentals and Indian IT/BPO  industry views downturn as an opportunity to emerge as leaders going forward.

©CIOL Bureau

The company has operations in the Americas, Japan, AsiaPacific, and Europe and is present in India in Hyderabad and Bangalore and has plans to setup a new centre in Pune.

Idhries Ahmad of CIOL caught up with Vikram Gulati, President and CEO of Intelligroup to know about company’s India operations and go to market strategy.

Gulati, previously, head of Wipro’s global Enterprise Application Solutions Group, also talks in detail about trends around Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and how companies are taking to SOA globally and specifically in India.

He also shares how his company has fared last year in terms of revenues and new customer acquisitions.

CIOL: We have been seeing lots of noise surrounding SOA in the recent years. Is it still hype or have we passed the stage and seeing SOA getting adopted mainstream?

Vikram Gulati: Definitely, I would say that SOA has become mainstream and no longer only a hype. People have to understand that SOA is not a concept that suddenly came out of nowhere. Though the term, SOA is new, the concept is not new at all.

We have Object Oriented Technology but different ways of calling it. However, the difference this time has been large companies like Microsoft, SAP and Oracle are adopting this and hence the term SOA is getting more traction. Today we see a change that is more radical and permanent than what it has been in the past

It is at least in a place in global market where people want to start implementing and doing critical projects around them. If you actually trace the history, you will find that even ERP, the building basis of SOA came about from Business Process Reengineering concepts which started in early 90′s.However, these processes were not able to address all the integration problems.  This got to the idea of Web Services and ultimately the idea of Service Oriented Architecture.

The underlying theme of SOA is the effort to bring open standards to the corporate world and that thought is increasingly getting more traction across the industry.

CIOL: What are the major trends that you have been witnessing in SOA adoption across continents?

Vikram Gulati: SOA is picking mainly in US followed by UK. The adoption is comparably much lesser in India but is definitely picking up.

Howver, I do not see any differentiation of adoption region wise. The difference is more from vertical perspective rather than a region perspective.

Like for instance, BFSI vertical is facing huge problems from the data perspective both in India or US or even Europe. For instance, customer has multiple relationships with a bank, be it a saving account, a credit card or a loan account. The banks, however both in US and as well as India, knows this customer not as a single entity but a customer with five different accounts.

The banks are finding it difficult to standardize business processes, and getting applications to talk to each other. This has been the major pain point and they have not been able to address all the integration problems.  Enterprises across are board are now looking at SOA as a standard way of connecting between systems and hence we are witnessing the need for SOA among these verticals.

CIOL: How are Indian enterprises waking to SOA? Do you see pricing as a deterrent for the lack of traction for SOA in the country?

VG: Indian enterprises are waking up slowly. However I don’t think pricing is an issue. Indian customers are willing to pay for ERP solutions. SOA is rolling out and we have got lots of licenses in the country. The growth rate that we have achieved clearly highlights that.

CIOL: But when compared to SOA adoption to western countries, the progress has been relatively slow?

VG: I don’t see it as a function of pricing alone. It is function of people finding out business processes that take to the Enterprise SOA model. For example we are finding adoption of SOA higher in the high end of the spectrumIndian top 100 or 200 companies. Enterprise SOA is not adopted when it comes to the lowest end of the market

CIOL: And what could be the reason?

VG: See, large companies have more distributed operations and they need distributed IT operations, so for them ESOA helps. Being large global companies and no longer Indian companies, the needs of flexibility are much higher and the need for ESAO is more than that of smaller companies.

CIOL: Coming to the competition, Wipro, TCS and Infosys also offer SOA to enterprises across the vertical. What is Intelligroup got to market strategy and how does it manage to put its solutions to its target audience?

VG: The landscape we are operating in calls for a clear segmentation and differentiation. While Wipro, Infosys and TCS target the above two billion dollar categories, Intelligroup is clear in its strategy that where it wants to operate.

If you look at the sub 500 million dollar categories, research firms point out that this segment of market cannot be everything for everyone. The key thing around this market is clear differentiation and segmentation that is something that Intelligroup clearly targets at

We have set target for us in the One to Five billion dollar market. It is the market that is under served by the big guys, a market that is highly ERP oriented. Intelligroup itself is a 170 million dollar company a mid size company, clearly differentiated, clearly articulated as an ERP company dedicated and focussed on one space only.

We are sixty to seventy percent SAPOracle Company and you find high degree relevance to what our customer needs in this space and what we offer to customers. That is what is helping us in the market space whether it is in web services or SOA.

Again all our growth and all new things are cantered on ERP or ERP surround space. So from market point of view this is the most articulated points in the market. Customers want to do business with us because they see clear differentiation and also we live with our customers through out our entire life cycle.

CIOL: How has been the growth of SOA for Intelligroup in India? Has it been in any way affected by downturn?

VG: Indian is an important market for us. We are growing at twenty to thirty percent year on year and we are seeing lot of demand for our services. That is why we are opening offices in Pune.

I don’t think slow down has had an affect on our business here. We see the same level of demand for our services as before.
.
CIOL: But globally recession has squeezed budgets for many CIOs who wished to invest in new technologies. Do you see slow down getting reflected in your results?

VG: See, the two sectors that have really slowed on are the banking and financial services and retail services. We do not have a presence in these sectors.

To that extent, we have not seen any direct effect. Clearly recession is on us and now the question is how to cope with it. We have not seen huge drop in our demand for our services. The sectors which are doing really well for us are in the manufacturing sector and pharmaceutical sectors in US.

We have been heavily focussing on these sectors and for time being we are not seeing any direct impact.

CIOL: Coming to Intelligroup, India operations. What are your plans of ramping up your delivery centres and increasing the head count?

VG: 75 percent of our work force is in India and large part of it is directed to overseas customers in US, Middle East and Japan.

For India, we have offices in Hyderabad and now we are going to open one in Pune soon. We have 1800 people working in India and 2500 globally. Pune centre is not meant to service the global accounts. It will not be a large centre, but will only service western region of our country.

CIOL: To conclude, it would be great if you could quantify the savings that Intelligroup has been able to accrue to the customer following his engagement with Intelligroup?

VG: If a company is spending a half a million dollars on a project, he will get that saving typically in six to twelve months.

Today, you will not get new funding for new project if you are not able to deliver six to twelve month ROI after the completion of implementation i.e. when the system is up.
©CIOL Bureau

Idhries Ahmad

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Global financial services consulting firm, Headstrong has acquired the Lydian Data services, a privately owned diversified financial services firm.

Lydian Data Services provides Business Process Outsourcing, business connectivity and transaction management solutions to mortgage originators, secondary market conduits and investors. The company specialises in mortgage data connectivity solutions, mortgage data management, core banking data integration and loan transfer systems.

The company has processed mortgage volumes of over $150 billion over the last four years.

Following the acquisition, whose financial terms were not disclosed, Lydian Data Services is now Headstrong Business Services. The company will be overseen by Rakesh Mittal, Senior Vice President, Headstrong. However, the present CEO of Lydian, William Decker, will remain in chair.

Speaking to CIOL, Harsh Singh Lohit, Managing Director, Headstrong India, said the strategic acquisition of Lydian Data services, is part of Head Strong multi pronged strategy to achieve $500 million in revenues by 2011.

“This acquisition is value based acquisition. We are not buying a company. We are buying competence. With acquisition of LDS and its platforms, Headstrong is now positioned as the premier financial services consulting firm to offer a full suite of services from consulting and implementation to mortgage, processing to its global clientele”, said Lohit.

Lohit added with this acquisition, Headstrong becomes the number one processor for correspondent fulfilment services.

“Lydian award winning processing platform is used by some of the largest investment banks, financial institutions and government sponsored enterprises” said Lohit.

On the timing of the acquisition, Lohit added that though the financial industry was witnessing a slow down, the current uncertain times also presented a unique opportunity for Headstrong to be a leader in the field

“Even though cost cutting can help company in some way to see through the tough phase, but it is only through strategic acquisitions that would help companies in the long run.

“You need to take a long term view. Recession will not be here for ever. May be twelve months or twenty four months. Once that is over, you need have even assets that will help you to become leaders in the market,” added Lohit.

Lohit added that even in depressed market, at least eleven million mortgages will be processed in 2009 making it an estimated $9 billion USD processing market.

“With the platform and expertise we have acquired, this is a significant opportunity for Headstrong,” said Lohit adding that company was also on look out for a Remote Infrastructure Management company to augment its service portfolio.

Headstrong had merged with an Indian firm Techspan in 2003 for deal worth over $20 million. The combined entity at that time had revenues of over $100 million, employing over 1,100 people. Today Headstrong is $200 million company with 3000 employees. 1600 of those are based out of India. The company has seventy customers, which includes twenty of the top investment banks worldwide. The company doesn’t serve the Indian market as present, though has plans to enter the market in future

Headstrong had in the recent past been actively talking to several players in country for a potential buy-out. The company had a chest of $100 million ready for pursuing its acquisition strategy in India

Lohit added following the acquisition, both LDS and Headstrong have a unique opportunity to leverage each other markets, which hitherto were unavailable to both of them.

” While this strengthen Headstrong’s US operations through the addition of processing centres in Atlanta, Georgia and Boca Raton, Florida, LDS can leverages Headstrong’s strong presence in UK and Asia allows both of us to expand our platform and services reach thereby bringing to both market unified and systemic mortgage processes,” he added.
©CIOL Bureau

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Europe based IT services company, Steria will be aggressively targeting the opportunity thrown by domestic Indian market in 2009. The formerly Xansa, is also giving final touches to its center of excellence in retail in India, which will start soon. The company will also be doubling its head count in India by 2011.

Speaking to CIOL, Mukesh Aghi, chairman and chief executive officer, Steria, said going forward, Indian domestic market will throw up huge opportunities and as company, Steria cannot afford to ignore those opportunities.

“We cannot ignore India. We will be in the country in 2009,” said Aghi.

Aghi, however added the company, will do its home work before it makes its maiden venture in the country.

” We have to come with right solutions that make sense for Indian customers We have huge expertise in traffic management systems in Singapore, Paris and London and we can offer these solution for Indian cities.

Aghi added that Steria’s solutions for credit card fraud management, Airport management system and command and control solutions for police makes sense for Indian customers.

“We have big issue for security in the country and these solution can equip the security forces to be more responsive in times of crisis,” said Aghi.

The Paris headquartered, Steria offers customers integrated services including consulting in core business processes and development and operation of their information systems. The group employs around 18,000 staff in 16 countries.

However in India, though the company has three delivery centers, it had been hesistant to tap Indian domestic market. The company had in October 2007, Steria acquired the British firm Xansa. . On December 31, 2007, Steria revenue amounted to €1.4 billion.

Sterai Excellence Center

Commenting on the excellence center, Aghi added that, Steria is targeting to offer retail solutions for the Indian market.

” The company would invest £100,000) to set up the CoE. We see major growth from retail sector here and Sterai wants to be the first to offer these solutions,” he said.

Aghi added that, for Sterai, India was a key market when it came to contribution from delivery centres in India and company will be doubling its head count in next three years. Sterai currently employs around 5,600 people in three locations in India.

Steria Indian Delivery Centres

Agahi also added that company was a following calibrated strategy when it came to its delivery centers in India.

” We have specific roles for each centers, Chennai handles our French centre while Pune handles German centre. In Noida centre, the company supports different customers from Norway Spain, Sweden and Denmark.

“Language is a a critical issue for Europe and you got have a focused strategy and so it is not only language but nuances of culture that you are dealing with, adds Agahi.

Agahi added that Steria centers in India were involved in entire spectrum of extensive work both in IT and BPO sectors. ” We work from telemetry analysis of engine performance for FI racing down to pure BPO support ”
No impact of recession on Steria world wide business

Pressure on bringing costs

Commenting on whether recession had any impact on Steria world wide business, Aghi contended that the company was meeting it targets and did see any slow done in their worldwide business.

“We are making all the numbers. We are seeing growth in public sector, telecom, though slower in financial market”.

On a question whether, because of down turn Steria like other IT companies was seeing pressure from client to revisit and negotiate existing contracts, Aghi said the company, though wasn’t getting pressured on existing contracts, however when it came to renewal, the company was under pressure on bringing the costs down. This trend, Aghi, said, was being witnessed across all verticals..

” I am under pressure to provide save nil services. It is challenging but we have no choice. You have to be innovative and provide same level of services at the same costs”

Going forward, Aghi added that company part from its focus on public sector, will keep driving on finance and banking sectors, though not western banking.

“We will keep keep on extending utilities segment and work in our strategy to globalise our accounts. We have accounts like Duetshe bank or French telecom, where we do lot of work in Germany and Farance, but not much outside Germany or France. We will be trying to grow with all of our customers outside irrespective of their parent headuarters,” added Aghi

Integration almost complete

Commenting on the state of process of integration between Mukesh Aghi, chairman and chief executive officer, Steria, and Steria, Aghi added that the acquisition internally had been completed and combined force of Steria and Xansa is driving with growth in business.

” Optimization is done. You don’t hear about Xansa now. That is gone. In India majority of the people from Xansa have stayed on and it is done”

Idhries Ahmad

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The uncertainties in US market coupled with the not so comfortable noises from new US president about off shoring, means Europe for time being finds itself finally perched atop the agenda for many Indian service providers, who hitherto hadn’t worried to fish in troubled waters.

However, outsourcing market in Europe, is not going to be low hanging fruit like it was in US and Indian service providers have to work hard to capture market.

Apart from UK, which is predominantly English speaking, continental Europe calls for a calibrated strategy for business environment presents extremely complex and difficult set of challenges.

Europe as a continent, though bound a common currency, isn’t a monolith like US with each country within the continent having different culture, language and business environments.

Not to forget, every country has their own stringent regulations, labour laws and trade unions, who have been touchy about the word outsourcing and harbour deep fears about security of their data handled by Indian companies some hundred thousand kilometers away.

Add to that the fierce fight, that traditional European local or multinational providers who have been enjoying greater mind share among European buyers, would put up for market share, these Indian IT vendors have tough jobs on their hands.

Tough market, very difficult to penetrate

Says Market Research firm, Gartner, “Unlike enterprises in the U.S or U.K, continental European countries have been historically more reluctant to engage with offshore providers to support their business needs because of political sensitivity, labor laws, language requirements and cultural compatibility,”

Adds Gartner, European service providers long-term presence and investments have demonstrated a commitment to each of the European countries and have underlined a European strategy. Until recently, with the exception of the U.K., many European companies believed the Indian providers had an opportunistic approach to Europe,”

Says Mukesh Aghi, chairman and chief executive officer, Steria, formerly, Xansa, ” You have to understand that while US makes no issues with having to let go people off in order to bring more efficiency, but in Europe, because of labour, union issues it is challenging.

” In continent Europe, there is lack in trust in offshoring. Germany and France are apprehensive bout off shoring either due to lack of understanding of offshoring or because of union, labour or government issues.

“The European market is very different, very complex, very territorial, very suspicious about my data is going to far away in some Indian company and we don’t know what happens. US has gone through the process and is fine. Europe hasn’t gone through that process,” adds Aghi.

Europe based IT services company, Steria offers customers integrated services including consulting in core business processes and development and operation of their information systems to clients globally, though it major focus is Europe. The group employs around 18,000 staff in 16 countries.

In India the company has three delivery centers and has unveiled its plans to set up Center of Excellence and tap the Indian domestic market. The company had in October 2007, acquired the British firm Xansa. On December 31, 2007, Steria revenue amounted to €1.4 billion.

Too little, may be too late

Analysts believe that apart from major Indian companies, like TCS, Wipro, Infosys or a Mindtree, Indian IT companies for long have depended too much on US and hadn’t focused much on the European countries to assuage their feelings on outsourcing.

According to a recent study published by IDC, the top 50 services players accounted for 53.4% of the IT and business services market in Europe in 2007. Most of largest vendors are still U.S.-based companies, though number of Europe- and India-based companies have shown an increase in ranking.

However the higher ranking can only be attributed to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, and Wipro continued their aggressive double-digit revenue growth, with 37.4%, 42.1%, and 48.5%, respectively. TCS won a billion-dollar outsourcing deal with the Nielsen media group in the Netherlands. These three offshore companies continue to win in the application development and maintenance areas primarily, but are also beginning to be seen in the infrastructure area.

The report also pointed out that European service players Logica and Orange Business Services (OBS) grew at 38.6% and 48.5%, respectively, due to acquisitions. In the past two years, Logica acquired Unilog and WM-data, both of which are Europe-based companies, while OBS purchased the enterprise and managed services divisions of the Indian group GTL Limited, which specializes in IT and telecoms integration services.

However beyond these three players players, there is not much to talk and report about.

Never planned for rainy days

Nasscom president, Som Mittal contends, “You have to understand that Indian IT companies had a low fruit hanging around in US, so naturally companies were going for that.

Mittal adds, Nasscom as parent body for Indian software vendors was encouraging companies to push for Europe. “But over the last few years, we are seeing effort from Indian service providers to tap that area as well,” adds Mittal.

Adds Aghi, Indian companies were growing 30-40 percent purely on US environment only so why bother focusing on someone else. “That growth is so fast and they were not able to handle the that and why would they need to open another front,” he contends.

However, with recession in US which hit hard among others the Banking and Financial sectors, which analysts calculate form 25 percent of revenues of Indian IT companies, looking for other pastures is but natural.

Sliver lining in dark clouds

Ironically for Indian IT companies , these tough times that forced them to look beyond US is also actually welcoming them to Europe.

” Recession is blessing in disguise for both Indian service providers as Europe itself in recession needs cost effective ways to get out of that,”

” Now with economic crisis in Europe we are seeing a renewed interest in offshoring to India. Continent European countries are on project basis offshoring to India as a BPO or IT services.”

Gartner adds, globalization, is spawning new competition that European companies can not ignore.

Europe with over 22% of its total spending on outsourcing is beginning to catching up . By 2008, its outsourcing spend was expected to reach Euro 129 billion.

Currently, Europe accounts for nearly $3 billion of India’s IT/BPO exports. UK and Ireland alone ac­count for about 45% of the market, while Germany, Switzerland and Austria account for a 20% share.

Twenty six percent of our business is in public sector and suddenly the order has gone up substantially. This is because governments are spending money either to revive the economy or make sure there are better services for the citizens and better security for the citizens. We are seeing that happening,” adds Aghi.

Needed: A calibrated Strategy

However, Aghi adds the Indian companies interested in Europe have to be really serious and calibrated in their approach in tapping this market so as to assuage the feelings of the countries that they are not here for stop gap arrangement,

“If you want to work in France, you cant have an India country manager working there trying to sell solutions to a French company. You need to have French face to make a customer feel comfortable,”

“This is where Sterai has an advantage. We have been there for last 40 years and have 14000 people and we very strong long terms of customer relationships

CEO, Mind Tree, Ltd , Krishnakumar Natarajan, is ready for the challenge as the company has a long devised strategy that, Natarajan feels, gives Mindtree a distinct advantage over rivals and build company strength in European market in long run.

“See the our approach has been pretty straight forward. You need a horses for courses approach and adopt a different approach for the each of the markets based on what is relevant for that industry and individual country. Go local, build your own team, and ensure you can provide end to end services to the client”, says Natarajan

“For example, UK is highly penetrative market. There are close to 200 IT services company present in UK and most of them target financial market as that market is quite a huge market.

Do in Rome what Romans Do

So MindTree approach for UK has been pretty clear. One we will grow our team in UK as understand the language, we understand the culture and will operate directly with our own team”

Second we look at the segments which are under penetrative in UK. Like the travel segment. We have done leading edge work for travel aggregators in UK. So clearly for a market like UK the differentiated strategy was focus and build scale through under penetrated industry groups.

Go local and sort of build your own team because language and culture is something that you understand and look at you can ensure you can provide end to end services to that stockiness with the client,” says Natarajan.

Natarajan adds, however for Netherland, Mindtree too a different route all together.

“If you go to market like Netherlands, we don’t understand the land, neither the culture. So went in with a premise that we need to have a local company which knows and understands the local culture and customers and partner with them together.

We tied up with local company Jetronix and that model has survived for last six years,” says Natarajan,.

He adds that while Jetronix has has been at the front end, both companies go to the customer.
“We both work together as one seamless team and together we deliver the value of understanding both the customer business and its language coupled with cost effectiveness of doing work in India”, Mind Tree CEO adds.

Be best from rest

Explaining further his strategy, Natarajan says that the third element, Mindtree applied applied as a differentiation in Europe was the value proposition and focus we offer to our clients.

“Companies which are embarking first time to off shoring outsourcing see MindTree as a lot more value add partner that being one of the hundredth customer of a big large entity

If you see north America as a market and Europe as a market, the first starting difference that comes to mind is that while 90% of the fortune 500 companies in US have adopted off shoring as a key activity, the same cant be said about Europe. Many of the key companies have not adopted approaches like outsourcing and off shoring as key part of their strategy which is happening now”.

“Our value preposition to these clients is that they are while they are embarking upon a very unique as well as important programme for your company strategy. We are a mid size company which is very hungry for your business which has the ability to give you the attention and which has the flexibility to work with you to make your initiatives success

“Target large enterprise who haven’t gone for off shoring and outsourcing and be valued partner by which you build scale,” he adds.

Idhries Ahmad

NEW DELHI, INDIA: In the first part of our speaker series for CIOL C Change 2009, Idhries Ahmad of CIOL catches up with Prasanto Kumar Roy, President & Chief Editor, ICT Publications, CyberMedia.

Roy, a veteran in enterprise technology trends, and with more than twenty years experience in writing for CIO community, feels the current uncertain times will be putting enormous pressure on CIO across the board to deliver faster with whatever resources they have been already allocated.

“If certain level of service was acceptable in better times, the tolerance to service level violations now will be extremely low ,”says Roy

Roy also points that, going forward this year, CIO will be expected to make significant contributions in helping companies achieve higher growth and market share and also reduce cost in certain areas,

However he adds, without necessarily, looking at strategic investments where the ROI is more than three years.

“CIOs need not to ask for more funds than allocated and if he invests in any of new technologies, make sure that payback is near to horizon”, adds Roy.

Roy also discuses some of the top enterprise technology trends for 2009 and also explains why the need to go Green for enterprises is more pressing than ever.

Excerpts:

On your toes: Deliver much much faster than you used to do

Clearly CIO are facing challenges from budgets. However, they will be facing challenges to deliver lot more stringently with respect to what they were delivering and that too with whatever resources they have at present.

The expectation from CIOs and IT establishments will be very high and they need to deliver much faster than they used to do earlier.

Let me put that this way. If certain level of service was acceptable in better times, the tolerance to service level violations will be down even more. If the IT infrastructure of a company goes down for a few minutes, it may have been tolerated in past, but this if it affects key processes, then the tolerance levels will be very very low.

It is also an opportunity for CIO to help companies realizes achieve their objectives in a downturn which is enhancing growth and market share and perhaps reduce cost in certain areas

Be short sighted: Invest in technologies where short term ROI is guaranteed

In these times, investment will be evaluated on very short term basis.

So instance, when you talk about investing in new technologies like Virtualisation . Virtualisation may be great in cost saving, but the cost savings clearly wont quantifiable over the immediate horizon of few months. If a CIO goes to a CFO and tell him that he needs to invest half a million in a technology that gives him one million investment in three years, it clearly will not work in current environment.

There will be lot of pressure on a CIO, where he will be required to create a better role for company without necessarily looking at strategic investments where the ROI is more than three years.

However, if a CIO says that he has got an application that can significantly reduce operating costs or improve the process in a such a way that it can improve the market share in next few months, it will be acceptable.

Go for new processes, which are are revenue neutral, which essentially means CIO need not to ask for more funds than allocated and if he invests, make sure payback is near to horizon.

Going Green is not longer only a CSR activity

Green will become even more important in a year, where we will have serious challenges of expenditure . We saw in the past that going green in the cause of concern, not because of environmental concerns, but because of economic reasons especially, the capital expenditure incurred because of tremendous shortage of power.

For certain sectors , power energy and efficiency has become critical. Telecom is one of the them and they have to cut power consumption. BFSI in the past has also worried about power consumption, but not terribly worried, but with dwindling cash reserves , the scenario may be changing. A lot of power is wasted by ATM networks and those sectors will be seriously looking at these issues.

We will be seeing CIO making serious efforts to go green going this year

And Security will be every CIOs headache this this year

Security is and will be number one area of interest today even beyond green. Security both in the terms of information security and physical security and the integration of the two.

The role IT can play in physical security, be it applications like video surveillance, access control, monitoring, recording and of course IT information security will be keenly studied by CIO and many of those application will be implemented.

Probably security will be highest growth area of interest going around.

Going mobile will be in vogue in 2009

Mobility will be strong trend in this year We are entering this year at 300 million mobile connections and exit the year with 400 million connections . Therefore the need to have mobile application support .

This has been an interesting need in the past, but going forward it will be a critical need. Now all the enterprise B2B or B2C applications must look at mobile as a key platform

Also in terms of PC usage, twenty five percent of PCs sold last year were laptops and the number will be more this year. Therefore the need to support mobility both in terms of supporting handhelds will be huge.

Again, previously mobile devices formed small part of total base and didn’t matter, but today everyone is it is carrying critical data on their handhelds and for CIO, security will become critical area to address.

CIOL CChange is best platform for top notch Indian CIOs

C Change is a pretty unique concept as it gets together top level CIOs at a place which is little out of the way. . It provides huge networking opportunity for top notch CIO in India to get in touch with each other and get exposed to diverse range of topics which help them to gain insights into latest enterprise technology trends and challenges.

Last year CChange was brilliant

CIOL Change 2008 was even more interesting considering some interesting touches it was given. The idea of setting up groups which debated for months for their vision for ‘Agile Enterprise’ was extremely novel.

There was lot lot of excitement among the participants and lot of new ideas were tossed up.

Pertinent to mention , last year, CIOs were extremely excited about new investment coming into the markets as industry was witnessing continuous growth. However, I feel the mood will be little subdued and, I feel this year getting investment will be a huge challenge.

The company has also ruled out any lay offs in India in response to the global slow down and expects to continue its positive momentum in the country. British Telecom had recently announced that it would cut 10,000 jobs by March 2009, following an 11 per cent dip in its profit after tax for the first half of the current financial year.

The company had laid off 4000 employees directly recruited by BT and remaining 6000 which were on the job rolls of contractors, consultants and agency staff working for BT.

Speaking to CIOL, Allen Ma, President, BT Asia Pacific, said British Telecom is excited about Indian market opportunity and  expects to continue its positive momentum in the country.

“India’s networked IT market is expected to be 24 billion Euro in 2010-11, of which addressable market opportunity for BT is 4.4 billion Euro, which is about 18-20 per cent share. India is a huge market for BT and there is a challenge of scale.  We have been able to archieve 40 percent growth for India. We expect to continue our momentum in 2009 also,” said Allen.

Global Layoffs

Allen added that BT Indian doesn’t have any plans to lay off people in India in response to the global slow down and also as part of recent job cut at BT worldwide.

“This is not even in my mind. India is a high growth country and customers here need ICT solutions to help them grow. We as company see lot of opportunity in the country,” said Allen.

Explaining the process of layoff of 10,000 employees by 2009 by BT world wide, Allen said, the process should not be a response to global recession but actually part of consolidation within BT.

“If you put the numbers you are talking about in context, BT isn’t laying off employees from company rolls, we are just not hiring for these vacancies.”

“BT globally every year sees a natural attrition of close to seven thousand employees. What our CEO has decided that we are going to fill only three thousand of those seven thousand people which gives us reduction of four thousand,”says Allen.

“Again remaining, 6000,  are on the job rolls of contractors, consultants and agency staff who work with BT on special contracts which could be two months, six months or a year.  For these agencies, BT is one of many customers they are serving and they could shift their employees to any other customers,” says Allen.

On global recession impacting business

Allen feels, recession rather than a threat should be seen as a blessing in disguise for CIO’s as this is forcing them to have a re-look at  their existing IT infrastructure and how they can fine tune the same to streamline processes, improve productivity and help their enterprises reduce costs.

“Lot of MNCs today are facing challenges in terms of cost cutting which is forcing these companies to go to basics and relook at the the call structure, the cost base etc and ask themselves where they can reduce the cost. This is a financial storm and enterprise are making it sure that as to why and how they are growing the business.

We believe that based on what we have picked up from our customers in last two months is that we are even in a better position to help them grow,” says Allen.

“I see this as an opportunity rather than doom. Of course there are lots of new challenges but it us about how to help customers go through the current challenges and become even more stronger when the storm is behind us,” adds Allen.
.
Shift in Strategy

On BT global strategy to shift from being a a ‘pure connecting player’ to one with massive focus on what BT terms as a networked, converged world, Allen responded saying that, going ahead, connectivity was not the only thing that BT was interested in.

“, If you look at whole point of connecting, the price point has dropped and increasingly it is very difficult to differentiate you connectivity from you competitor. The whole thing of connecting has got commodotised. If you want to can grow our business, you have to create a differentiation and look at the whole ecosystem through which our customer operates.”

“If you look at various industry players, we found out that the ecosystem is actuality very big comprising of various players that come together to help customer deliver their services,” added Allen.

On BT Frontline acquisition

Commenting on whether the acquisition of Frontline by BT, puts BT in direct conflict with Infosys or Wipro, Allen replied that though there may be small overlap but there were lot of complementary strategy between. Wipros and Infosys .

“Actually with the acquisition of Frontline, we have brought new portfolios to our  business like we were not in past in outsourcing business in Asia and now because of acquisition we can do outsourcing for our customers in Asia. If they want to outsource entire services to us, Front Line helps to deliver in system integration,” concluded Allen.

However, Ramanna, strongly feels that software testers are no less cerebral to software developers when it comes to their contribution to the software development life-cycle activity. The notion  “Testing is inferior to development, says Ramana,  is pure myth and needs to be corrected.

“Software testing is as important as any other software development lifecycle activity. As a test engineer, you play an important role in ensuring that the final software application or product meets the desired quality standards, and the success or failure of the application or product largely depends on its quality”, says Ramana

Ramanna, with over 13 years of work experience that includes 11 plus years in software testing is part of Virtusa’s software testing practice and heads the Solution Accelerators group. He is CSQA certified and specializes in test management, test strategy, test automation frameworks & test process improvement & solution accelerators.

“Overcome the myth that testing is inferior to development. Software testing offers  a test engineer opportunity for creativity and excellence. One needs to be confident and passionate about his or her role as a software test engineer for success and recognition,” says Ramana.

Adopting the Agile principle of early involvement, our test teams are involved right from project inception. This serves two purposes: namely, it encourages defect prevention and also ensures adequate understanding of requirements and creation of appropriate tests to improve test coverage.

Our other processes include usage of custom-built tools to measure code quality during development, highly effective review processes, usage of proprietary test frameworks and solution accelerators. Our overall test approach is built around defect prevention and reusability of test assets, in order to help clients achieve goals
like “Right first time” & “Cycle time reduction”.

CIOL: And we are seeing lot of action in your development center in India. Please brief about us that?

LRV: Using our enhanced global delivery model, innovative platforming approach and industry expertise, Virtusa provides high-value technology services to clients through Advanced Technology Centers (ATCs) located across India and Sri Lanka. In India, the ATCs are located in Chennai and Hyderabad.

Recently we opened a new facility in Chennai which is our fifth facility in India, with 60,000 square feet, accommodating 650 employees. Further, Virtusa is building a new eco-friendly campus spread across 6.3 acres in Hyderabad. Our ATCs reinforce Virtusa’s commitment to provide sustainable value to our clients.

CIOL: Coming to Software industry itself, how do you see the global market for software testing and correlate some of these trends with respect to Indian software testing market

LRV: The global software testing market is estimated to be about $13 billion, which includes the outsourced testing market of $6 billion. It is believed that the Indian software testing industry holds close to 50% of the global outsourced testing market.

By any measure, this is a significant achievement. From having a small team of less than 3-5 test engineers for a project, trends have now shifted to having large teams working as part of COEs (Centers of Excellence), supporting complex testing. While traditional service offerings like manual regression testing continue to be available,

Indian vendors are offering high-end and specialized testing services, such as performance testing and fine tuning, application security testing and vulnerability analysis, I18N testing, customer experience testing, test process consultancy, test automation services and usability testing. By adopting the principles of platforming, vendors are able to create repeatable tests that are cost effective and require minimum maintenance.

CIOL: And where does Indian testing industry stand and how do you see the future of software testing industry in India?

LRV: India has established itself as a de facto destination for software testing. India’s ability to offer high quality software testing services across verticals and its ability to conceive high quality testing solutions has resulted in many mission-critical applications being tested in India. While cost effectiveness is definitely a plus point,

India’s strength lies in its ability to produce high quality test engineers possessing all-round experience in different domains and technologies. With focused development of testing frameworks and solution accelerators, the Indian software industry is all set to consolidate its position as a leading high-end provider of testing services.

CIOL: What kind of tips would you offer to fresh engineering graduates who plan to opt for software testing? What are the benefits for a software tester if he/she opts for software testing industry?

LRV: Overcome the myth that testing is inferior to development: Software testing is as important as any other software development lifecycle activity. As a test engineer, you play an important role in ensuring that the final software application or product meets the desired quality standards, and the success or failure of the application or product largely depends on its quality. Software testing offers  a test engineer opportunity for creativity and excellence. One needs to be confident and passionate about his or her role as a software test engineer for success and recognition.

Enhance your armoury: With the lines between development and testing blurring, a test engineer is no longer considered as “someone good at clicking a button on the application’s user interface.” There are many more activities and skills expected from a test engineer. They include the ability to write code (essential to creating automated tests), good understanding of systems and application architecture (essential for planning, designing, executing and analyzing performance tests), and knowledge of databases (essential for data validation services). In short, strive to enhance your skills in programming, databases and basic configuration of web / application servers.

Sharpen your skills in Open Source software: There are many open source testing tools (for test automation, performance testing, data validation, etc.). Explore these tools and get familiar with their basics. Sooner or later, you will need to use them.

Be aware of emerging trends: Many things are changing in the software landscape. Understand terms like TDD, Agile testing, Risk & Model based testing, Customer experience testing, Security testing, Performance testing and Performance fine tuning, etc.

Understand domain and get certified: Develop a basic understanding of the key activities in domains like Banking, Financial Services, Insurance and Telecom, among others. This knowledge allows you to enhance test effectiveness. Take exams and get certified in these domains.

Benefits: Apart from a great career that includes growth and compensation at par with others in the industry, as a skilled test engineer, you will get multiple opportunities to work on a wide spectrum of domains and technologies. In addition, if you specialize in a particular kind of testing, you can grow towards a role as a test architect focusing on technical testing. Alternatively, you can specialize on a domain and become a functional expert.

CIOL: How often do you come across Indian software developers with domain expertise in open source development and how do you rate them with global software community

LRV: The Indian software industry is probably one of the world’s largest consumers of open source software. This indicates the acceptance of open source code as a normal way of life. However, the irony is that India’s contribution to the development of open source software is very limited. This is not due to lack of knowledge or capability, but is mostly due to the limited value attributed to contributing to open source.

The problem starts with our education system that focuses on creating employable graduates without encouraging creativity among the students. Another reason is that majority of the developers consider programming as a job to be done for earning money rather than taking up programming as their passion. However, the good news is that this is changing, and the Indian developer is starting to realize the importance of contributing back to the community.

Luckily, this trend is here to stay and we will definitely see some great contributions from India towards Open Source software development.

CIOL: Coming to testing domain itself, can you brief us about the latest methodologies and frameworks, that you  are seeing in the software testing practice domain?

LRV: Changes in technology and lifecycle methodologies have contributed to testing evolving from tactical, pure manual testing to an activity that is much more strategic and critical for project success.

With new technologies, like Web 2.0, SOA and SaaS, and methodologies like Agile and Test Driven Development (TDD), it is essential that software testing evolve to keep up. Further, consolidation of IT services and competitive forces have resulted in testing organizations relying on building frameworks and solution accelerators. These frameworks and accelerators help improve productivity, enhance quality and improve overall test effectiveness.

CIOL: And how important role does software testing lifecycle play in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)?

LRV: Software testing is an integral part of SDLC and occupies a similar position as any other component of the SDLC. Software testing aims at detecting defects that can result in failures; the consequences of such failures can include loss of customers, increased cost of maintenance, financial losses, or in some extreme cases, loss of human life.

History is replete with multiple examples (e.g.: the Terminal 5 fiasco in Heathrow’s airport that resulted in losses of £16m for British Airways in the first five days of operation, or the Ariane 5 Flight 501 failure) that demonstrate the consequences if software testing is compromised.

CIOL: Coming back to Virtusa, can you brief about Virtusa’s expertise in Software testing domain?

LRV: Virtusa is a leading provider of software testing services, with significant industry and domain expertise across Banking, Financial Services, Insurance, Telecommunications, Media & Information and Health care. Our rich heritage of more than 11 years of delivering software solutions also includes providing testing services to fortune 500 clients, large enterprises and ISVs.

Our global testing pool of more than 1100 testing resources consists of high-end resources that are certified (testing specific, domain specific and tool specific certifications). Consolidating our experience, we have developed proprietary testing solutions and frameworks that provide significant benefits to our clients.

Backed by our unique frameworks and testing solutions, we offer expertise in the areas of Internationalization testing, Data warehouse testing, Certification testing, Security testing, Core performance testing and performance engineering, test automation, usability testing, data migration testing, functional testing services and test consultancy services that includes test process improvement services.

In addition, Virtusa offers unique solutions for testing Content Management (Vignette) and Business Process Management (Pegasystems) implementations. Our integrated test facility, or ITF, is a focal point for conducting performance testing, security testing and SOA based testing. Additionally, for some of our enterprise clients, we have set up unique testing CoEs that provides a self-sustaining ecosystem.

CIOL: What is Virtusa’s dedicated software testing practice all about and please detail us about the latest developments in functional Testing, test automation, performance testing, specialized testing and test consultancy

LRV: Following a natural evolution, Virtusa has set up a dedicated software testing practice, called “STeP”. The practice has a keen focus on delivery assurance (DA) and delivery support (DS). As part of the DA and DS functions, the practice supports delivery teams in test planning, creating the test strategy and performing reviews.

Practice team members who are specialists in different areas like test automation, performance testing, and security testing, work closely with the delivery teams to ensure that tests are of top quality. Our testing practice also owns the responsibility to identify and develop test frameworks, solution accelerators, enhance people competency by conducting need-based training and helping resources get certified.

Today, functional testing, unlike in the earlier years, is more than just testing the application functionality for stated requirements. As part of functional test strategy, Virtusa adopts a systematic approach of creating and executing tests that are based on end-to-end (E2E) user scenarios, and on testing to validate customer experience (including usability and user experience). Our test automation services provide automated testing using different tools, including the use of open source tools like Selenium. Leveraging our depth and breadth of experience across domains, we have created test automation frameworks which have helped our customers reduce their test automation costs and efforts.