India's software industry matures

PUNE: In a sign of the maturing of the Indian off shore software development industry, Veritas Software India Pvt Ltd, the wholly owned subsidiary of the US $ 2.04 billion network and storage management company, has for the first time been allowed to decide its product development route map.
"For the first time, the India development centre has been given a separate advanced technologies budget.This will allow us to decide locally which forward looking projects to take up," Sharad Sharma, vice president (operations) and GM, India, said. While he declined to comment on the size of the budget for the forward looking projects, the total budget for 05 is $ 83 million, significantly up from last year''s $ 49 million.
This is a change from the process followed till now, where the India, and other off shore development centres, submitted project proposals to the Mountain View headquarters. It is also a reflection that size matters since the Pune R&D centre is now the largest within the company, globally. This, too, is a change from the earlier position of being the largest R&D centre outside the US.
"Being the largest R&D centre within the company means that Pune is the natural place for product bundles and solution engineering," Mr Sharma said. This will translate into more growth, the Indian operations projected to grow 30-40 per cent while the global will grow at 14-15 per cent this year. Recruitment, at the global level, has already begun, especially for senior positions.
"Most of Veritas'' products are represented in the India development centre, in Pune, so it is the natural site to do solution engineering work. The centre here houses 22 per cent of Veritas'' global engineering strength and accounts for 32 per cent of all patents filed," Mr Sharma added.
Among the advanced and forward looking projects Veritas India will take up is for the SME market in the Asia-Pacific market. Since the SME segment is not as significant a sector in the US as it is in the Asia Pacific, Veritas India will now have the autonomy to address this market.
"The SME segment is the first focus. We are also looking at leveraging the eco system. We will partner with some of India''s `Big Four'' software systems integrators and address their global customers. This partnership will allow them early access to global solutions while we will get access to global customers," Mr Sharma said. Veritas India has already begun working with one such.
On the announced merger of Veritas and Symantec, Mr Sharma said the impact on India would not be significant since even globally, there is very little overlap. Symantec has no India development centre hence the existing Veritas'' centre will remain that of the merged entity.
"India is recognised as a major asset even in the combined entity so there are specific integration efforts on," Mr Sharma said.