Usha Prasad

BANGALORE, INDIA: Indian enterprises are no more complacent with just the desi tag. They are spreading their wings with aggressive overseas plans. With supply chain going global, Indian companies are bound to adhere to certain norms. Hence compliance has become a key issue for these enterprises to compete in the global market and scale their businesses without any risks.

MetricStream, the market leader in enterprise-wide Governance, Risk, Compliance (GRC) and Quality Management solutions for global corporations, is embarking upon a major expansion in India due to a huge upsurge in the "Regulatory Compliance" market.

MetricStream was initially set up with a focus on the U.S. market when compliance was a unique vision. "We came in with a performance-based approach to India. Companies need to have visibility across sectors to address risks," says Shellye Archambeau, CEO of MetricStream.

The company has made its presence felt in the country in the last one year where it has helped pharmaceutical and listed companies implement its solutions. "Companies using our solutions are sure to improve their competitive edge, manage and run their businesses with transparency," says Shellye.

"Global compliance has become imperative for Indian companies especially in the Pharma, Biotech, IT and Financial Services sectors, which are expanding globally. Complying with regulations becomes very important for these companies. We believe that the market for Quality, Regulation and Compliance (QRC) business in India would see huge growth over the next couple of years," she adds.

Among the various verticals, from the mandatory space, it is the pharmaceutical and public-listed companies that are very active in compliance and regulation in India. The other important sectors that follow are BFSI and oil & gas, she adds.

Compliance, especially with SEBI introducing Clause 49, becoming a hot market in India, we estimate that the QRC related spend by India's top 2000 firms to be around $1 billion today, a figure which has ballooned from the spend of about $100 million in 2002-03, says Shellye.

On an aggregate basis, the QRC spend in India including spends by regulators like SEBI, is estimated to be around $8 billion to $10 billion, though in percentage terms, this is about 10 percent of what is incurred as QRC spending in the US, she informs.

Further, Shellye adds that with the increased Regulatory oversight in India and investors' expectations for good Governance, companies are gearing up to incorporate best practices in their business conduct and Compliance programs. "Compliance implementations have seen a significant increase in the last few years and this trend is expected to continue."

On Indian market

During 2004-05, Indian companies were looking out for clear information on GRC and started looking for a solution catering to the same. For companies with supply chains going global, adhering to industry regulations was a must. They were looking at solutions that helped them do business without exposure to high risk. This is when we thought of stepping into the Indian market, says Shellye.

To a question on how Indian companies were reacting to Regulations and Compliance issues vis-à-vis global companies, Shellye says, "Indian enterprises, which are planning overseas expansion, are getting very serious about Quality, Regulation and Compliance (QRC), and are addressing the issue with a top-down approach. There's a lot of inbound activity happening in the Indian market. We expect to grow in the compliance market in the range of 300 to 400 percent."

Today, the top management of every large enterprise understands the risks of adhering to regulations and compliance. Every major company in the U.S. has a Chief Compliance Officer or a Chief Risk Officer. Even Indian companies are looking at hiring Compliance Officers, says Shellye.

MetricStream continues to grow substantially in India. "Presently, we have a couple of hundred employees in our Bangalore office and would continue to hire more. We have sizeable customers ranging from Hexaware, Sasken, and Philips to Aurobindo Pharma. "We expect to triple our sales in India this year," says Shankar Bhaskaran, Head of Asia Pacific, MetricStream.

Other initiatives

MetricStream has also launched a number of online educational programmes on compliance and best practices. This year, the company will start offline services as well.

Close to 200 companies across India from different verticals have been attending the online training on compliance. "This year, a global consultant will come to India to offer a two-day training in compliance," says Shellye.

MetricStream solutions are used by leading corporations such as Pfizer, Philips, American Airlines, NASDAQ, SanDisk, BP, Entergy, Subway, Fairchild Semiconductor, Hitachi and TaylorMade-Adidas Golf in diverse industries such as pharmaceuticals, medical devices, manufacturing, food & beverage, energy and financial services to manage their quality processes, regulatory and industry-mandated compliance and corporate governance initiatives, as well as by over a million compliance professionals worldwide via the ComplianceOnline.com portal.

MetricStream-NASDAQ partnership

After evaluating solutions from multiple vendors, NASDAQ decided to implement MetricStream for SOX compliance. Our solutions are offered to all NASDAQ-listed companies through an exclusive partnership so they can better manage their own GRC and Quality initiatives.

"A key partner for us in addition to NASDAQ is TCS. We are working together to grow this market by providing solutions across the Governance, Risk and Compliance arena that includes Quality. We will continue to look for complimentary partners to aid us in our growth," adds Bhaskaran.

TCS is building a practice on MetricStream's solutions. So far, 40 people have been trained and both are jointly working with the customers.

Version 5.5

Version 5.5 of MetricStream Enterprise Compliance Platform (ECP) is designed to facilitate end-to-end development, deployment and management of a wide range of enterprise applications and solutions for the increasingly complex GRC and quality management requirements.

The ECP is optimized for all the requirements. It works on multiple modules, and we offer more than 20 modules, says Bhaskaran. MetricStreams' solutions can be procured by enterprises of all sizes.