Brief

Giving Impetus to Indian operations

With the Indian Outsourced Product Development (OPD) industry seeing huge growth, Impetus Technology, a player in the field, has decided to put extra thrust on its Indian operations. According to Nasscom, the Indian product development market is estimated to grow to $8 to 11 billion by 2008 as global sourcing will no longer be an optional strategy for product companies. The organisation has decided to increase its headcount from 600 to 1,000 by the end of 2006. Impetus has its own development centres in Noida, Hyderabad and Indore. Apart from these centres, the company is planning to expand its base in other development hubs in India. Impetus has recently acquired six clients in the first quarter of 2006.

Elaborating on the plans for this year, Praveen Kankariya, CEO, Impetus Technology says, “2006 will be a good year and we hope to continue with the momentum we have gained over the last two years. We are targeting to garner a top line growth of over 50 percent. With regard to investments, we will be looking at expanding our current infrastructure and facilities available at Noida, Hyderabad and Indore.” The Software Product Development Maturity Model (SPDMM) has helped Impetus to develop better products. It caters to all significant dimensions of software product development. Kankariya adds that this model helps ensure that clients achieve faster time to market and enables us to provide enhanced end-customer usability, coupled with an optimal technology interface.

Kankariya elicits on the strategies Impetus is working upon, “We work on a multi-pronged approach for our top-line growth. Our focussed approach to product development and the vast bank of knowledge that we have created and applied to various client’s projects work for us.” He elaborates on what US clients feel with regard to India as a source of OPD, “The US-based companies have a positive outlook for the Indian OPD industry. They recognise our strength and expertise in this area and see us as partners in innovation.”

The company has entered the Indian business intelligence market with Intellicus. Though the solution is available in the US market for the last two years, the company is bringing it to the Indian BI space now. It is aiming at the FMCG, manufacturing and retail sectors. Impetus’ Knowledge-Innovation-Technology (K-I-T) philosophy provides a base for the implementation of its work activities and underpins the development processes. It has applied this philosophy to new technologies and emerging vertical domains such as mobiles, wireless and digital media. Kankariya explains the relationship with clients, “Our first client is still with us, that says it all. We believe that we are ‘Partners in Innovation’ for our clients, not just an extended opaque team sitting at a distance.” The company has a marketing and sales team in the US, which does the business development there, whereas the product development is driven out of India.