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The 'Symphony' of product development

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

Amitava RoyProduct development outsourcing can help enterprises – big and mid-size – to breeze through recession and see better business sense, says Amitava Roy, president of Symphony Services, to Vishnu Anand of CyberMedia News. Excerpts:

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What has changed over the last few weeks with regard to product development?

The biggest change that has occurred during the last few weeks of economic uncertainties is an increase in decision-taking times. Product development outsourcing has not slowed down, but companies are ensuring better quality, and accurate time-to-markets.

Simply put, it translates to more bang for the buck. What it means for us at Symphony Services is, more engagement with our customers in ensuring that we take on the role of a consultant in helping the companies find innovative and cost-effective ways to help them in their product development endeavors.

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For example, Symphony Services could suggest a new architecture, or a new UI, to ensure extended life cycles and greater product adoption.

What strategies has Symphony Services adopted to counter the recession?

With the aim of greater penetration, Symphony Services is focusing on customer retention. It is essential for us to continue our relation with existing customers, participate closely with them in understanding their business needs, and increasing our engagement with them by involving in the product architecture, choice of underlying technology and consulting.

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This may not be the right time to look around for new customers, but if we can retain our loyal customers and engage better, we can achieve our goals.

Among your repertoire of customers, do you see a markable difference between the large enterprises and mid-sized companies?

It would be true to say that mid-sized companies are more flexible and are open to ideas right from the basics all the up to the more complex aspects of product development. But start-up product companies tend to be concerned about their IP a tad more than bigger enterprises. Also, the risk appetite is directly proportional to size of the enterprise.

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Mid-size companies are flexible and Symphony Services does have a reasonable number of clients who have engaged with us for end-to-end product development – right from white-board concepts to technology options to architecture to the final product. It is an exciting journey right through the evolution of the product to the final result.

What would your advice be to companies that need a constant stream of product releases?

We at Symphony Services believe that, during these days, even to stand still, one needs to keep moving. The formula to be able to breeze through the next few months is not to stop developing products. Enterprises should focus on innovation, and cost-effective technologies that can be used to achieve longevity and sustained adoption.

In turn, this also means greater understanding of the audience which the company caters to, and tailoring products that appeal to the audience at attractive price-points and ultimately gaining loyalty.

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