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ITeS firms eye new markets to beat slowdown

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CIOL Bureau
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BANGALORE, INDIA: The economic slowdown in the US is having a trickling effect on the Indian ITeS sector. Most small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in this domain are looking at targeting unexplored markets outside India.

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Many companies are not only looking at offshore business opportunities but also started setting up operating bases by entering into strategic partnership with companies outside India. Most of them are even looking towards adopting unconventional business models to gain market share and establish a global footprint and a global brand presence.

To beat the economic slowdown in the UK and US markets, Maveric Systems, one of India's top three independent software testing companies with a strong focus in BFSI vertical, is one such company which is strongly focusing on the potential Middle East, Asia Pacific and Far East regions. Maveric presently has a global presence with operating bases across US, UK, India and the Middle East markets.

In a chat with CIOL, N.N. Subramanian, Director and Co-founder of Maveric Systems talks on the the impact of slowdown, the software testing industry, IT spends and more on Maveric's business goals and expansion.

“When we look at our game plan for the next 18 months, we are projecting a reasonably good growth. We are foreseeing more than 30 percent growth happening for us even this year. Definitely, the slowdown has had some impact on the industry but we also see a lot of opportunities coming our way. Hence, we are re-focusing and looking at various other geographies like the APAC and Middle East.”

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“Since Maveric is small and specializes in one area, we definitely have an edge and a differentiating factor,” Subramanian says.

“Maveric's major focus in the Middle East region will be in the BFSI segment. This is a rapidly growing financial services market, especially around the Islamic financial instruments. In the APAC market, we will be looking at financial services plus other services like telecom, which is growing reasonably well in these areas,” Subramanian adds.

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As regards the software testing industry, he says: “The software testing industry has been growing in the last 10 years. A number of independent testing companies have come up in India and across the world. Essentially, before this, most of the IT companies doing development were also doing testing. Testing was one of the offerings of composite IT companies.”

“In the past decade, clients have also started un-bundling the testing service offerings - the traditional IT bundle,” he explains. The composite IT services firms, the top 20 companies, have aggressively grown and positioned themselves as independent testing service providers with separate research unit doing testing, he adds.

Talking of IT spends in these difficult times, he says: “There will definitely be some dip in IT spends among our clients, but it is not that as though they are going to completely stop spending. When you watch the industry closely, a majority of the CIOs are still spending, and talking to the vendors. They are upbeat.”

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“IT drives business in the verticals we are focused upon. IT takes the burden on its head. If they don't spend on IT today, they will find it difficult to catch up 12 to 18 months down the line. I feel companies can't cut back on their IT spends by more than 15-20 percent at best,” he adds.

Adding further, Subramanian says: “These are times when some reasonable correction will also happen. We are witnessing this in the Middle East market. The cost of operations in doing business in these markets are becoming realistic,” he reasons.

Market for Maveric

“If you look at it in terms of fresh business getting contracted in the last quarter, things have not been too different for us since we are in a very niche area. With a clear value proposition to our clients, we are trying to become more business-driven in the present scenario. You can sustain well, if you have a reasonable control over the market,” Subramanian feels.

“Maveric is putting more feet on street and we have also strengthened our sales teams. The initiatives are more on the market facing side during these times. We are looking at becoming more visible and aggressive in the market,” he adds.

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