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firstRain gears up to tap Indian talent

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CIOL Bureau
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Pragati Simlote






NEW DELHI: Having increased its India headcount to 90, an 80 per cent increase
in the last seven months, firstRain is further doubling its current headcount by

April 2007.






firstRain provides custom-configured, on-demand intelligence services to
professionals in the financial-services, pharmaceutical, and high-tech

industries. It recently completed a $20 million funding from Oak Partners.






The company has an R&D center in Delhi and Mumbai, while the service
delivery is done through its Delhi center. It plans to invest in human resource

to further expand its India operations.






firstRain has sales offices in the US and is currently concentrating on the $1.5
billion opportunity in US market intelligence market in the financial-services

and pharmaceutical industries.






According to Penny Herscher, firstRain president and CEO, the company has no
immediate plans to venture into other geographies until it has fully tapped the

US market.






“The growth in market intelligence area is immense with information being
freely available rather than being proprietary. We have no immediate plans to

venture in other markets other than the US, but we may venture into Europe

sometime in 2007. Our current revenues are less than $10 million but we plan to

double this figure every year,” she said.






Going forward, the company plans to launch solutions targeted at specific areas
in the financial services and pharma vertical. The company recently introduced

firstRain Portfolio Manager Edition, a new, on-demand intelligence service

specifically designed to meet the intelligence and workflow needs of financial

services professionals, such as portfolio managers and equity analysts.






It is in the process of launching various versions of its solution for the
pharma industry, which would concentrate on some specific areas like

therapeutic, etc.






Herscher said, “We plan to focus on financial services and pharma verticals as
of now. Though we have some clients in the hi-tech area, it is not a major focus

area for us. Energy is another sector, which we may look at in future.”






Stressing on the importance of Indian operations of the company, Herscher
stated, “firstRain's India operations are central to the company's

business, rather than just an outsourcing model. One of our biggest

differentiator is that we don't look at the India office as our outsourcing

arm, but rather an extension of our US office.”



















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