The entire value chain for consumer products sourced or manufactured in Asia has become increasingly interconnected and mutually reliant—ownership of physical manufacturing assets and intellectual property rights has become more ambiguous and contentious. With ambiguity over ownership and rights to manufacturing assets, customers lose the key leverage of mobility. While brand companies were able to become more price competitive through lower production cost and reduced overheads within their own organizations by outsourcing their design engineering and manufacturing to Asia, their supply chains became longer and, while some new problems are obvious, others remain latent, only to emerge when the relationship breaks down.

Brand Companies

With greater reliance on suppliers in China to design their products and to finance their tooling and inventory, brand companies have found themselves more and more “married” to their suppliers. As a result, Brand companies find themselves directly and indirectly facing the same challenges as their suppliers: currency and commodity volatility, product quality and labor issues.

Brand companies are using the lowest-cost suppliers who themselves often employ unsophisticated purchasing, finance and management practices. As a result, the brand companies are receiving price increase requests from their suppliers on a monthly and sometimes weekly basis as their suppliers struggle to properly manage these issues. Suppliers that are facing these problems have been known to essentially suspend taking orders unless they get the price increases—bringing the supply chain to a grinding halt. Brand companies have an unenviable dilemma: either take the increases and the hit to their margins, or face the daunting prospects of trying to change suppliers during the product life cycle.

Poor product development processes in place between brand companies and their distant suppliers have given rise to three major problems: unclear responsibility for product quality, delayed product realization and ambiguous ownership of protectable intellectual property rights. Supplier financing of tools and lack of clear assignment and licensing of intellectual property can make it cost-prohibitive or impossible to change suppliers when things get tough in the relationship.

Because Chinese suppliers make up such a large portion of most brand companies’ cost of goods, brand companies are pressured to take into account additional concerns such as their suppliers’ environmental and social compliance (ethical) practices.

Finally, corruption continues to be a major issue in China, and brand companies need to be both proactive and vigilant in their management of this issue. Brand companies need to establish clear expectations for their staff and suppliers and adopt policies for doing business with suppliers that engage in corruption, including termination of the business relationship. Brand companies need to structure their affairs with their suppliers so that they can quickly move away from a supplier that engages in untoward business practices.

Manufacturers

As a result of their enhanced roles and capabilities, manufacturers find that they have new leverage in the relationship as well as a heightened awareness of the need to protect their interests and investments. Manufacturers also realize that Chinese non-legal dispute resolution solutions do not adequately meet their needs when dealing with overseas customers. As a result, Chinese suppliers are warming to the idea that manufacturing outsourcing services agreements are not just tools for their customers to control them, but with their new-found leverage, are a means to protect their own interests.

Many Chinese manufacturers today have further taken on advanced marketing services for their customers, including, in some circumstances, to “category management” ranges of products for their customer’s product portfolio. Some suppliers have even greater ambitions—to develop and sell their own brand of products both domestically and abroad.

As a result of increased reliance on manufacturers within the value chain and the investments made by brand companies to improve their manufacturers’ capabilities, brand companies have created a new set of their own competitors that, on their own or in collaboration with retailers, are increasingly well-positioned to chip away at the brand company’s market share and margins.

Retailers

Retailers (those remaining) have strengthened their positions greatly in past 20 years. Retailers now have two sets of suppliers to choose from: brand companies and Chinese manufacturers. A growing share of high-volume, low price-point products are being sourced directly from Chinese manufacturers, further putting pressure on product marketing companies.

Conclusion

Dramatic changes have taken place in the supply chain over the past 20 years, and manufacturing and product development services agreements used in today’s environment all too often do not adequately contemplate or address either the obvious or the latent issues present in this new highly-integrated, mutually-reliant value chain. Manufacturing agreements in use today are often based on the 1990s model of distinct responsibilities of the parties with a relatively simple range deliverables of Chinese manufacturers with a narrow focus on the product, rather than the basket of services now on offer (and often provided).

Supply chain contracts need to address the distinct, discrete services performed by the manufacturer, and adequately protect brand companies’ interests. In the absence of contractual coverage addressing these issues, the current trends tip balance of control in the supplier’s favor and raise an ever-increasing list of issues for brand companies to address without the proper tools.

Low-cost country manufacturing is here to stay. The myriad of issues and challenges that exist will increase, and all players in the supply chain will struggle to adequately control them.

Robust manufacturing and product development outsourcing services agreements should proactively address the new order problems that are emerging in the brand company Chinese manufacturer relationships. A thorough discussion and agreement addressing key issues and providing flexibility for growth and change can keep the relationship balanced and allow the brand company to maintain reasonable options.

Geof Master is a partner in Mayer Brown JSM’s Business & Technology Sourcing practice. He can be reached at geofrey.master@mayerbrownjsm.com

Tom Keenan is a Registered Foreign Lawyer (Victoria, Australia) in Mayer Brown JSM’s Business & Technology Sourcing practice. He can be reached at thomas.keenan@mayerbrownjsm.com

Click here to download the paper.

This deconstruction of the manufacturing and product-development process has opened up new possibilities for product companies. However, unless there is evolution in the contracting model that takes these changes into account, product marketing (Brand) companies will increasingly face threats to their core roles and functions. For some companies, the evolution of their value chain has been subtle, while for others, the changes have been dramatic and obvious and these companies have come to well appreciate the value and the leverage that the multi-functional supplier brings to table.

The product value chain is fundamentally comprised of three players (represented in the graphic below):

• Manufacturers—historically focused on the hard aspects of actual manufacture, taking orders from the product marketing companies and manufacturing the products.
• Product Marketing Companies—historically focused on the more intangible upstream and downstream aspects of production such as conceiving, cultivating and launching product and Brand lines.
• Product Distributors—historically focused on the last step in the product value cycle, retail or wholesale (i.e., pushing product in the last mile to end-consumers).

In fact, rather than clearly delineated players, each of these players really represent a collection of functions—of value-add activities that all combine to form the product supply chain. In one of the most significant recent developments, the roles of Chinese product manufacturers have expanded, as these manufacturers have taken on more important roles in the supply chain, even becoming potential competitors to both product marketing companies and retailers.

It is important now to look at Chinese suppliers as providers of bundles of value-adding services that must be managed through a contractual framework that effectively addresses the unique attributes of product sourcing and the Chinese manufacturing landscape—a challenge well-suited to the outsourcing contractual model. This article will look at the evolution of the Chinese supply base in the provision of Original Engineering Manufacturing (OEM) (suppliers that manufacture to designs given to them), and Original Design Manufacturing (ODM) (suppliers that develop products and designs on their own) and the new world of issues that sourcing customers around the world face with their service contracts.

The Evolving Value Chain

It is helpful to explain the evolution in the value chain through a comparison of the roles of each of the key players in the consumer-product value chain over the last 20 years.

In 1990, brand companies were the key drivers of product innovation as they actively cultivated their connections with retailers and consumers to develop each new generation of product. Key functions, such as marketing, product management, product design, design engineering and manufacturing, were deemed “mission critical” strategic functions that were naturally controlled internally. Manufacturers in China did little more than fabricate toolings, inject plastic parts, source components and assemble products for their customers. The relative added-value of the manufacturer was limited and as a result their margins were thin. Retailers were primarily responsible for end-distribution and interfacing with the consumer.
“House Brands” were few and far between and were limited to opportunistic products at lower price points sourced off-the-shelf from suppliers. In summary, there was relatively little overlap in the roles and responsibilities of the different supply chain players.

The Evolving Value Chain 2010

Today, product marketing companies involve their manufacturers significantly earlier in the new product development process in order to save engineering costs and time and to provide for a more seamless transition to manufacturing. Chinese suppliers have risen to the opportunity, investing in product development engineering resources required to help their customers get products off the ground—motivated by the ability to raise their margins, notably through the avoidance of competitive bidding for new products. By getting involved earlier, Chinese suppliers “lock-in” their customers, avoid the risk of having to compete on mere lowest cost manufacturing and improve their margins by using their new-found leverage to quote on a “value-base” rather than “cost plus” basis. The integration of manufacturing suppliers into the process has helped to shorten development lead times, but early integration has left purchasing professionals without the ability to source the product with the best cost supplier.

Over the last 20 years, the confluence of three important factors has shaped the current value chain and shifted leverage away from the brand company to the supplier: (1) consolidation of the retail sector, (2) the need for brand companies to be more cost-competitive through low-cost country manufacturing, and (3) the push by Chinese suppliers to increase their margins and protect their manufacturing through the creation of more ODM products that cannot be ported to other suppliers.

First, consolidation of the retail sector in both North America and Europe has allowed retailers to increase their own margins through the development of “house brands” to supplement their own supplier’s (brand companies’) offerings. While initially undertaken on an opportunistic basis, the trend has become prevalent in hard lines (hardware, electronics), soft lines (clothing) and fast-moving consumer goods (groceries) product offerings, while squeezing the price points where many brand companies operate. As a result of their increased leverage through consolidation, retailers presented an attractive alternative customer base for Chinese manufacturers, allowing both the retailer and manufacturer to greatly increase their margins through the removal of the brand company intermediary.

Second, retailers have pushed their brand company suppliers to offer productivity savings and to lower their prices to consumers with products that are competitively priced against “house brand” products. Competition has further exerted pressure on the same brand companies to increase margins by lowering their manufacturing costs through shifting more and more of their manufacturing to low-cost countries.

Finally, in order to meet the needs of both retailers and brand companies, manufacturers in China have invested in human capital to increase management skills and English language capabilities, as well as investing in new critical areas such as product marketing, project management, product design and engineering, quality systems and injection-mould manufacturing. To further add value for their customers, these mostly privately held (family-run) companies have the cash to offer other services including injection-mould (production equipment) financing and product inventory and warehousing services. Successful Chinese suppliers have made these investments to stand themselves above their peers and in the process, increased their margins and have made themselves indispensable to their customers.

Look for Part 2 of this series where we’ll discuss what this all means today and the role of brand companies, manufacturers and retailers.

Geof Master is a partner in Mayer Brown JSM’s Business & Technology Sourcing practice. He can be reached at geofrey.master@mayerbrownjsm.com

Tom Keenan is a Registered Foreign Lawyer (Victoria, Australia) of Mayer Brown JSM. He can be reached at thomas.keenan@mayerbrownjsm.com

One solution: harmonize and standardize global processes using one ERP system. How do you do this efficiently and cost effectively?

For Amcor, the answer was outsourcing to a local provider.

The need for one platform for 10 Latin American countries

Amcor Rigid Plastics, a packaging company, is a division of Amcor Ltd., an Australian corporation. Amcor, which has 35,000 employees in 43 countries, divides its workforce into three regions. The Latin America business unit works with 10 Latin American countries from its headquarters in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In 2006 it outsourced SAP implementation and support to Grupo ASSA, which is headquartered in Argentina. Roberto Wagmaister, President and CEO of GrupoASSA, says “our job is to help business process executives shape the way they work with their IT systems.” The company, which is about to celebrate its 20th birthday, was one of Latin America’s first application service providers (ASPs. Remember them?)

Its largest assignment to date was integrating 70 different countries into a single entity. The Amcor assignment was only 10.

Before outsourcing, Amcor used proprietary software, according to Cielo Hernandez, director of operations, finance for Amcor. Each unit behaving independently “jeopardized our financial template,” she explains. “We needed to be on a single platform so we could benchmark across countries. One platform meant we could look across the region in a controlled process,” adds Hernandez, who is also director of IT for the region.

Standardization was also more cost and time effective, she adds, because it meant Amcor had to do only one IT development instead of 10 for each country. Amcor also saved money because it had different providers in each country, many of whom charged higher rates than Grupo ASSA, which now handles the entire region. “Because our IT is less expensive, our prices to our customers are lower. That makes them and us more competitive in our marketplace,” Hernandez continues.

To date, the savings are in the millions, according to Guillermo Perez, regional IT manager, Latin America for Amcor.

Outsourcing’s other benefits

Outsourcing SAP support also sped up IT development, Hernandez reports. Today Amcor receives “better information. That allows our business to make better decisions,” she notes.

Amcor is a company always on the hunt for merger possibilities. (Amcor has completed two in the last first years.) When Amcor buys another company, the consolidation process is faster because Grupo ASSA implements SAP, Hernandez continues.

The service provider has helped Amcor implement best practices, which it shares across all 10 Latin American countries.

One of the trickiest parts of the SAP implementation is business process management. As the head of finance, Hernandez is responsible for financial compliance and Sarbanes-Oxley implementation. “We had to document all these processes,” she explains. Grupo Assa has a tool that is already integrated into SAP to produce the requisite narratives and flow charts for each finance job. An added benefit: the partners used these charts to implement the processes whenever they rolled out SAP in a new country.

Finally, there is just one throat to choke. “We have a direct point of contact when SAP is broken. Now I don’t have everyone calling me to ask, “Who is going to help me? Outsourcing is easier to manage when you have just one provider,” says the Amcor executive.

Why Amcor wanted a Latin American-based provider

The company, which was using multiple service providers, invited three to bid for the entire region. “We wanted someone with Latin American experience, someone who understood Latin American culture,” says Hernandez. Wagmaister says many of its Latin American clients select his company “because we are closer to home.”

Typically the buyer selects one country as a pilot. After the first implementation, Grupo ASSA makes adjustments to the model and then rolls out the new-and-improved version to all the other countries. Grupo ASSA always keeps a small group of people on site.

The importance of merger and acquisition experience

The new provider also had to have merger and acquisition experience, especially in Brazil, where Amcor’s past two acquisitions occurred. “Grupo ASSA is helping us grow our business,” says Perez. He includes Grupo ASSA executives in early discussions every time Amcor is considering an acquisition.

Grupo ASSA did such a good job in Brazil, Amcor decided to use the company to do the SAP implementation when Amcor bought Ball Plastics Packaging Americas in Broomfield, Colorado. “We had a tight integration time: just 90 days,” says Hernandez. “This integration was a huge priority for our company.”

However, there was one hitch: Amcor and Grupo ASSA had already agreed to implement SAP in both Ecuador and Peru during that exact same 90-day period. “This was just as important,” she says. (The partners found that if they do two Latin American countries at the same time, it saves both time and money.)

The three-part assignment in three different countries required great coordination, the Amcor executive recalls. The two partners decided to test all development work before they put it into production. “Everything had to work the way it did before the SAP implementation,” she explains.

IT people at both companies “worked night and day all through the Christmas holidays,” Hernandez recalls. “Grupo ASSA was committed to delivering everything on time and on budget. And they did.”

About Grupo Assa
The service provider specializes in what it calls “mission critical business transformation” using SAP or Oracle to replace legacy applications. “We hold round tables with executives to address the needs of their business processes and then work with their IT departments to support those results,” explains Wagmaister. He says business transformation success only happens when “IT executives understand the soft infrastructure—creating a rewarding user experience—as well as they understand the technological infrastructure. We realize we manage people not just IT systems.”

Systems In Motion’s investment in a truly agile, domestic technology development capability provides high performing US enterprises with the perfect balance between cost, expertise and business alignment needed to drive growth in a dynamic marketplace.

Service Lines

Systems In Motion’s key areas of expertise include the following horizontal services:

• IT Strategy and Consulting
• Application Development and Management
• Integrated Testing
• Business Intelligence and Data warehousing

Primary areas of vertical expertise include:

• Financial Services
• Healthcare
• Retail
• Telecom
• Manufacturing

Distinctive Capabilities

Systems In Motion is changing the status quo in the outsourcing industry. It is no longer true that a US enterprise has to go offshore to create cost efficiency for their technology investments. Though our focus on local workforce development, a strong foundation of operational expertise tightly integrated with deep domain consulting capability, Systems In Motion has developed a service model that is a true competitive differentiator for our customers.

Our Company at a Glance

• Year founded – 2009
• Revenues – Annual Revenue Run-rate is currently $22 million
• Employees – Total staff of 200+
• Service lines – Application Development, Application Management, Testing, BI/EDW
• Headquarters location – Fremont, CA
• Locations of global delivery centers – Ann Arbor, MI

For More Information

• Telephone – (415) 367-4479
• Fax – (510) 795-1421
• E-mail – info@systemsinmotion.com
• Web site URL – www.systemsinmotion.com

Recognitions

“I’m very impressed with Systems In Motion. Your engagement manager is a rock star, and the team outperforms my expectations in terms of their flexibility and commitment to quality. After working with large offshore companies for many years, I firmly believe that Systems In Motion’s Inshore delivery model is the right balance of agility and cost-performance for fast growing companies like Chegg. ”
- Chuck Geiger, CTO, Chegg.com

Case Studies

http://www.systemsinmotion.com/customers.html

Our IT portfolio consists of E-Commerce, Business Intelligence, Content Management, Third Party Testing and Custom Solutions.  In SCM, we specialize in Source-to-Pay (S2P), Procure-to-Pay (P2P), Spend Management and MRO.  Corbus offers a complete set of PMO solutions including Project Management Capability Assessment, Project Recovery, Project Plan Validation and the Project Audit, and Enterprise Project Management Software.  Corbus has been a leading Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) provider offering Procurement, Supply Chain, E-Commerce and Credit Services.

Corbus creates technology-empowered solutions with industry leading processes and technologies that deliver business value to global clients through year-on-year savings. We are known for our ability to work in true partnership with clients to innovate and bring cost reduction along with enhanced product quality.  Corbus’ alliances allow for effective use of resources and modern knowledge and technology.  With competitive positioning and complete transparency, Corbus and clients together achieve success.

Corbus is a global organization, headquartered in North America with presence in Europe and Asia Pacific markets. Corbus is a wholly owned subsidiary of Soin International LLC, a private multi-national holding company that provides strategic management, administrative systems, and financial support to a diverse array of worldwide subsidiaries and affiliates.

Service Lines

• E-Commerce
• Web Application Development
• Business Analytics
• Digital Marketing
• Mobility Solutions
• Cloud Enablement
• Strategic Sourcing
• Supply Chain Platforms & Tools

Corbus at a Glance

• Founded: 1994
• Employees: 700+
• Service lines: Aviation, Consumer Package Goods (CPG), Retail, Oil & Gas, Manufacturing, Media, Healthcare, Publishing
• Headquarters location: Dayton, Ohio
• Locations of global delivery centers: United States, United Kingdom, China, India, Switzerland

For More Information

Telephone: +1 888-608-9975
Fax: (937) 586-3059
E-mail: sales@corbus.com
www.corbus.com

Certifications

• ISO 9001:2008
• Six Sigma
• ISO 27001
• ITIL
• Certified Minority Business Enterprise

Awards and Recognitions

• Innovation Award
• Amity HR Excellence Award for Overall Corporate Culture
• Golden Peacock National Quality Award
• Business Journal “Best Places to Work”
• The Global Outsourcing 100 List
• “India’s Best Companies to work for”
• “Fast 25″ by Business Journal
• “Exciting Emerging Companies to Work for”
• “Amity Corporate Excellence Award for Leveraging Technology in Global Business”

With over 1,500 customers in more than 50 countries across five continents, we are today a leading technology solutions provider. Our customers include banks, insurance and financial services companies, government, manufacturing and retail sectors, and utilities. Eighty of our customers are part of the Fortune 500 list. This is an evidence of the confidence and trust that our customers have placed in us.

Service Lines

A. Software products:

• Banking: 3i Infotech’s secure banking solutions suite comprises an extensive range of enterprise banking offerings like core banking, lending, treasury, asset liability management, anti-money laundering and many more, that cater to the varied operations and departments of banks and other financial services organizations. The width and depth of our solutions offer clients limitless possibilities, giving them options to boost their performance and ROI.
• Mutual Funds: 3i Infotech offers a variety of proven mutual fund solutions for unit trust management companies, asset management companies, pension fund managers, and other financial institutions. Our solutions suite for mutual fund companies encompasses operations such as fund accounting, valuation, investment management, lending, investor services, dealing, pre-dealing, intent generation, and order management. Our mutual fund software solutions are globally acclaimed for meeting strategic as well as day-to-day operational needs.
• Capital Markets: 3i Infotech offers a wide gamut of capital market solutions for stockbrokers, traders, stock exchanges and regulators. Our capital market software solutions cover market surveillance and monitoring, Internet trading, trade order and risk management, and clearing and settlement processes.
• Wealth Management/ Portfolio Management Solutions: 3i Infotech’s multi-currency wealth management solution suite provides a highly reliable business solution for automating the entire investment life cycle across a wide variety of assets like mutual funds, bonds, equities, deposits, real estate, metals, commodities, etc. 3i Infotech also has a comprehensive wealth management life cycle solution, which is tailored for the use of advisors and wealth managers. The solution is proven, scalable, and provides the technology that allows firms to increase their level of customer services, reduce costs and enhance revenue. It captures all pertinent information regarding contacts and clients with a true relationship view and helps define clients’ goals, generate investments proposals, calculate performance and produce elegant customized reports. This solution supports the entire wealth management life cycle commencing from prospecting, risk profiling, suitability assessment, and financial planning to order placement and reporting.
• Asset Management Solution: 3i Infotech’s asset management solution is a multi-currency treasury application for asset managers, insurers and pension fund managers. It offers end-to-end investment management operations from analytics and order management to accounting and NAV generation. Strong user-defined compliance rules and workflow are integral to the product.
• Manufacturing: Manufacturing companies are looking at increasing their business value while focusing their efforts and investments on cost reduction and improved customer service. Our IT solutions for manufacturing companies revolve around one basic principle – maximizing value to customer by superior value-chain management. Our manufacturing life cycle solutions are built around our patented, successful frameworks and help our customers exceed their business objectives by leveraging operational and information technologies. This end-to-end integrated software application is a seamless, open platform that includes full-featured ERP expertise coupled with CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and SCM (Supply Chain Management) features. Our deep domain knowledge and industry-focused approach has helped us become one of the leading providers of manufacturing solutions.
• Telecom: As a leading provider of telecommunications solutions, 3i Infotech thoroughly understands every critical need of the telecommunications business – be it the challenges resulting from the ever-changing regulations, industry consolidation, emerging technologies, changing customer demands, or the ongoing spurt in customer numbers. That’s why our telecom solutions (like ADMS, Testing, IMS, etc), along with a range of BPO services for the Telecommunications sector, are entirely focused on helping our clients retain customers, develop and launch unique products quickly, and achieve faster ROI.
• Government: 3i Infotech has successfully implemented several projects for government departments and organizations across a variety of areas such as transport, urban development, land records, education, healthcare, ports & shipping, dairy, taxation, property registration, etc. With our unique Public Private Partnership (PPP) methodology, we have implemented large, complex projects through a mix of Build-Own-Operate (BOO), Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) and Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) models.

B. IT Services:

• Application Development and Maintenance Services: 3i Infotech offers the entire gamut of a development services, be it custom software development, testing, application integration and migration or consulting. Our software solutions are backed by deep domain expertise, industry experience, world-class technology skills, robust infrastructure and a global delivery model delivered complemented with seamless program management.
• Independent Testing & Compliance Business: 3i Infotech’s software testing and complianceservices have been helping organizations worldwide in developing a highly effective software testing strategy for realizing their most desirable software verification, validation and compliance scenarios. The activities are intended to help organizations to develop testing strategies towards a zero-defect operation. The focus is on preventing defects rather than correcting. Additionally, our services are aimed at achieving predictable time to market arising from rigorous testing standards, quick turnaround times, and low defect output at lower costs.
• Infrastructure Management Services (IMS): 3i Infotech offers end-to-end infrastructure management services customized to meet the unique needs of a wide spectrum of business customers. Our services cover all the aspects of our clients’ IT implementation including data centers, communication networks (LAN/WAN), servers, storages, databases, desktops, messaging infrastructure through a suite of service offerings such as enterprise-wide remote infrastructure management (RIM), end user support (EUS) security, convergence, storage and systems and application management. 3i Infotech also provides advisory services to customers to maximize their infrastructure investments as well as assist in optimization by integrating state-of-the-art technology solutions with best practices such as ITIL.
• Business Intelligence and Enterprise Application Services: 3i Infotech’s business intelligence and data warehousing services offer a broad range of end-to-end solutions in data management and advanced analytics, in addition to a variety of tools for business intelligence and data warehousing. Our solutions combined with the power of business intelligence, data mining, predictive analytics, and data integration provide the information in the desired format so that time is effectively spent on making more accurate, timely business decisions.
• Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Services: 3i Infotech provides complete end-to-end BPO services for various industries. We have rich expertise in non-voice-based BPO services, having been the registrar and share transfer agent for one of the largest private banks for years. We have a team of qualified and experienced professionals, which follows a meticulously laid out workflow-based process to ensure that we do not leave anything to chance. Our customers have a comprehensive overview of operations with regular reporting and analytics to make informed decisions.

Distinctive Capabilities

Solution Accelerators. 3i Infotech with its wide range of IT solutions (software products and IT services) and BPO services transforms clients’ operations by enabling them to maximize the value of their technology investment in an efficient manner through its Solution Accelerators. Our solutions deliver an integrated solution designed to accelerate adoption and ensure our customers go to market faster. With a flexible approach, clients can go for a single solution or a combination of one or more to meet their specific needs.

3i infotech Solution Accelerators improve time to market for custom IT projects by up to 30 percent. These accelerators incorporate pre-built functionality and technology in frameworks that serve as the foundation of IT projects, along with proven best-practice methodologies and processes culled from years of technology implementation and software development experience. Together, these Accelerators provide a head start for IT projects, delivering superior results in dramatically less time.

Your Company at a Glance

Founded 1999
Revenues – $550 million as on FY10
Employees – 14,000+
Service lines:

• IT infrastructure
• IT applications
• Transaction processing/BPO

Headquarters location – Mumbai, India
Locations of global delivery centers:

• AMERICAS: Los Angeles, CA; Phoenix, AZ; Dallas, TX; Atlanta, GA; Louisville, KY; Rochelle Park, NJ; Edison, NJ, Naperville, IL ; Napa, CA; Des Moines, IA; Charlotte, NC
• WESTERN EUROPE: London, Birmingham, Nantwich, Ashby-de-la-Zouch
• MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA: Dubai
• SOUTH ASIA: Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Kochi, New Delhi
• ASIA PACIFIC: Kuala Lumpur, Chengdu, China

For More Information

Telephone: +91 22 39145765
Fax: +91 22 39145703
E-mail: namrata.shah@3i-infotech.com
http://www.3i-infotech.com

Certifications

ISO 9001:2008 for BPO
ISO/IEC 27001:2005 for Data Center Operations
ISO/IEC 20000-1:2005 for Data Center Management Services
SEI CMMI level 5 (embarked on re-appraisal)
BSA SAM Certification

Awards & Recognition

• Ranked 36 (4th among Indian IT companies) in the Fintech 100 list of Financial Services & Technology providers, published by American Banker, October 2010
• Winner of the Technology Vendor of the year Award at the Middle East Insurance Awards, April 2010
• One of the top three companies in the “Service Provider of the Year” and “Technology Initiative of the Year” categories at the 14th Asia Insurance Industry Award, October 2010
• Winner of the Systems in the City Award for Superior Customer Service for the 4th consecutive year, London, May 2010
• Winner of the Best Takaful Technology Company for the 3rd consecutive year at the Takaful Awards, July 2010
• One of the top three Indian software product companies – Dataquest 2009
• One of the top 12 Indian IT companies (excluding foreign and hardware companies) – Dataquest 2010
• Winner of the WorldBlu “List of Most Democratic Workplaces 2010” Award

Analysts’ Comments

Martin Whybrow, Director, IBS Intelligence, UK – “It has been interesting for IBS Intelligence, as the industry’s primary publishing, research and consulting company in the financial services back office and operations space, to watch the evolution of 3i Infotech. We have been following the company since its outset and it has become an important player on the market. It has a broad suite of solutions, with specific strengths in primary lending, wholesale banking, Islamic banking, and wealth management and has a varied, international user base.”

Catherine Stagg-Macey, Senior Analyst, Celent – “3i Infotech has a solid offering for insurers in emerging markets, which is supported by a capable onshore/offshoreservices delivery arm. In mature markets like North America, the established BPO services and growing IT services offerings position them well for the cost-focused coming years in the Insurance sector.”

Nearshore, offshore, onshore, best shore

Although “nearshore” is a favorite model and buzz term bandied about in outsourcing news and advisories today, it will soon fall by the wayside. First of all, it’s a misnomer. “Nearshore” to Japan, for example, is China or Vietnam; but those two service delivery locations to U.S. and European businesses are “offshore.” Brazil is a nearshore provider but also a large onshore provider.

Genpact predicts nearshore service delivery centers will likely continue to grow, but not as significantly in dollars or percentages as the offshore centers. According to Robert Pryor, Executive Vice President of Sales, Business Development and Marketing, we’ll likely see an increase in the use of onshore centers. “Federal, state, and local governments will drive this growth in terms of the attractiveness of incentives they create to stimulate domestic job growth.”

Deepak Patel, CEO, Aditya Birla Minacs, says the decision between nearshore, onshore, or offshore is “not so much about achieving scale but, rather, is about delivering the right value to companies by providing the ideal mix of the right delivery destination and the right knowledge set available. In the coming years, newer geographies will emerge, but smart outsourcers will choose the destination that brings the most value.”

John A. Haslinger, Vice President, Product Marketing at ADP, says, over time, he expects labor arbitrage advantages will remain but increasingly companies will balance them against the need for particular skill sets. In HR, for instance, “companies will balance labor arbitrage with the service provider’s ability to foster long-term relationships.”

Allied Digital Services’ President, Kevin Schatzle, believes nearshoring will increase over the next two years because outsourcing in general will increase. He predicts that in five years, as the industry matures, Canadian pricing will start to approach U.S. costs.

Gordon Coburn, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Cognizant says globalization initiatives are evolving “from a point-to-point delivery model to a many-to-many model where the provider delivers from many locations in the world to a client’s locations in many other parts of the world.”

Rajan Kohli, CMO, Wipro Technologies, adds that “best shore is the way to go. That may mean a combination of nearshore and offshore, or it may mean just offshore. Buyers will need to make decisions based on cost, business value, and business availability.”

Ritesh Idnani, COO, Infosys BPO, says “the trend of nearshoring will continue to gather steam. But the global economic landscape has definitely mooted the call to a more protectionist outlook by countries, and that trend will continue in the short term. They will, however, have to bear the brunt of continuous monitoring to ensure they continue to be cost effective and build in efficiencies. The ‘offshore train’ left the station several years back; hence, offshore will continue to grow in volume and market share.”

Dina Kholkar, Head, BFSI, TCS BPO Services, predicts that the definitions of onshore, nearshore, and offshore will blur over the next couple of years because providers “will increasingly expand their base to build a global network delivery model to address the diverse demands. There will also be an increasing creation of Centers of Excellence by function,” she states.

The future shift from focusing on nearshore / offshore / onshore debates is nowhere more evident than at HP where there is now a “Best Shore Services” division. Even so, Jeff Womack, Vice President Global Enablement, HP Best Shore Services, says HP believes that nearshoring will “continue to have a seat at the global delivery table because companies – especially in the European Union region – will want the cultural affinities and languages as well as aspects of data privacy.”

Womack also points out that some nearshore locations are already maturing to the point that they no longer meet the requirements to qualify as a true nearshore location because costs begin to reach parity with major markets such as the United States, Western Europe, and Japan.

Yugal Joshi, Senior Analyst, Everest Group, says that, “with offshore suppliers seeing their tax exemptions going away, the cost-effectiveness of their large offshore centers will reduce significantly, which will prompt them to go nearshore.”

Don Schulman, General Manager, Global F&A and SCM, IBM, predicts nearshoring will grow in the short term because organizations will continue to perform high-level activities (such as budgeting and corporate tax) discretely and locally – regardless of whether shared services or outsourcers are doing the work.

“This is less about nearshoring and more about growth due to more complex work moving into a shared-services environment,” Schulman explains. “Success in outsourcing has led to this kind of work moving to a centralized environment. Organizations are beginning to look at their shared-services strategy as a hybrid model. It is not an either/or decision but, instead, a multi-dimensional approach that leverages both internal shared services and outsourcing.”

Industries increasing adoption of outsourcing

Nearly all of the service providers whom we tapped for insights anticipate that the U.S. healthcare industry will experience a dramatic increase in outsourcing over the next two to five years.

Pryor at Genpact says the significant cost pressure and large number of additional people that will need coverage will require that the industry adapt rapidly in leveraging technology, outsourcing, and reengineering to change business models and cost structures.

Most of the executives we interviewed also predict a large uptick in government outsourcing in the next few years. Schatzle at Allied Digital Services says government and education will migrate to outsourcing for IT support and “will receive great benefits of modern approaches.” He advises that buyers in these segments especially need to evaluate IT services from security and redundancy perspectives.

Kohli at Wipro predicts the next few years will see “BPO opportunities arising in retail, manufacturing and media, but in forms as not serviced before.” He says the driver for this growth is the convergence of the Software-as-a-Service (Saas), cloud, and ITO/BPO models “plus the ability of Tier-1 providers to do business function outsourcing.”.

Gopal Devanahalli, Vice President, Infosys BPO, believes the banking industry “will undergo big changes post the financial meltdown.” Increased regulation will lead to a focus on more outsourcing of such processes as treasury, cash management, and custody. He also predicts the intersection of mobile and social technologies will disrupt traditional branch banking, which will lead to more outsourcing.

Patel at Aditya Birla Minacs points out there is a huge pent-up demand in the midmarket, and these companies will turn to outsourcing as a strategy for becoming more competitive in the marketplace. (Also see Risks and Complexities in Outsourcing Decisions in the Midmarket.)

“Practically every industry today is grappling with challenges associated with the global financial crisis, increased regulatory compliance requirements, and content digitization / Web 2.0 environment leading to newer paradigms. There is a need to be able to respond agilely to the market through leaner, meaner organizations,” says V. K. Raman, Head, Domain Services, TCS BPO Services. This is especially true in the Banking, Financial Institutions and Insurance (BFSI), life sciences and healthcare, retail, and government sectors. Raman says these industries will drive outsourcing in the next few years.

Miles Lafferty, Vice President, Hinduja Global Solutions, believes currency fluctuation, particularly the U.S. Dollar and the Euro, and related cross-regional economic policy and ideology will create uncertainty in global sourcing decisions. “That said, this uncertainty will reduce the appetite of many organizations to build captive centers, thereby creating opportunity for outsourcing service providers.”

Regional hot spots

There was a definite consensus among the experts we interviewed regarding opinions on which regions will have more companies turning to outsourcing in the next two years to address their business needs (other than the United States or Europe). The top regions they cited are:

1. Asia Pacific
2. Middle East
3. Latin America
4. Japan
5. Australia
6. India

Most believe that the BFSI industry will lead the way in these countries, just as it did in the U.S. and European early adoption of outsourcing.

Japan is at the forefront because it continues to struggle with a difficult economic climate, says Schulman at IBM. He says that the driver for growth in Latin America and parts of Asia is the large numbers of organizations with a disparate spread of employees and business units across multiple locations and borders

Infosys BPO says the drivers in these regions are cost and process efficiencies at the lower end. But there is also some outsourcing of analytics related to understanding market customer behavior, as well as some outsourcing of vertical-specific functions.

Deepak Rastogi, Senior Vice President, Global Strategy at Hinduja Global Solutions, says ultimately much of the growth in these regions will be consumer driven in the telecom, financial services, and healthcare industries.

Business processes

Which business processes/functions will move to the outsourcing model in the next two to five years? Our experts listed the top three:

1. Analytics – The driver is the need to leverage fact-based insights to improve reporting results, recognize and understand potential opportunities, and deliver better business outcomes.
2. Manufacturing supply chain – Factors driving growth in this area are purchasing cost reductions, cash flow advantages, operations cost savings; and increased business effectiveness (such as shortage management and the capacity to implement advanced logistics models).
3. Work that today appears extraordinarily complex (such as industry accounting, external reporting, planning, budgeting, forecasting) will move to outsourcing as these processes become standardized.

Selecting a service provider

Charlie Bess, HP Fellow, HP Enterprise Services, advises that buyers in these hot spots should look at how service providers invest in making their processes more standardized and their capabilities more flexible, as well as what they are doing to prevent unnecessary business interruptions.

“Investing in automation, for example, is important,” says Bess, “but you need to look under the covers and see what the provider’s approach is when the automation doesn’t work. Rowing harder with new tools may not always be the right answer; you might have struck something unexpected and need to change course.” He advises buyers to ask: “What is the escalation process when the unexpected occurs?”

Abid Ali Neemuchwala, Global Head, TCS BPO Services, warns buyers to seek providers that have the ability to scale and grow across new geographies to support green field ventures.

According to Kohli at Wipro, the most important criteria should be whether the provider can show significant value beyond labor arbitrage and can deliver on the commitment. “All other criteria such as a combination of BPO and IT, cultural fit, quality, and scalability are reflected in the above two major criteria.”

Selecting healthcare service providers will be a big risk, according to Kohli at Wipro. “The key selection criterion should be the provider’s commitment towards timely and quality deliverables, as there is no scope for errors in this zero-error industry.”

Kholkar at TCS advises buyers’ provider-selection criteria should include cultural fit, relationship management ability, and certification from compliance authorities.

IBM’s Schulman says buyers should ensure that their service providers are able to view their processes at a granular level on an end-to-end basis including any portion that the buyer retains. “This is critical to truly understanding a client’s business and being able to effectively collaborate with them to optimize business outcomes.”

Xchanging provides procurement, accounting, human resources and technology services across industries. These include Banking, Insurance, Manufacturing, Retail and Real Estate among others. We combine functional expertise with deep industry domain knowledge to provide industry-specific outcomes for our customers to become the global business processor of choice.

Enterprise Partnerships

Xchanging was created on a unique idea called ‘Enterprise Partnerships’ (EP). Instead of just taking outsourcing contracts on a simple fee-for-service basis, we form joint ventures with large organizations to perform their back-office functions. The resources and assets from the customers’ organization are transferred into the EP in order to create a service platform. Xchanging has operational control of the EP and the partner has boardroom representation. As processes are standardized, the EP can add third-party outsourcing contracts, benefit from scale advantages, and begin to generate revenues. In partnering, the profit and capital upsides are split 50:50 with the customer so that our interests are aligned with those of our partners.

Service Lines

Procurement. We source in excess of £1 billion of spend on behalf of our customers. We specialie in the procurement of indirect spend with global infrastructure deals in categories including contract labor for permanent or temporary staff, travel, telecoms, facilities, IT, utilities, fleet and logistics, and office supplies. We act either as an agent between the customer and the supplier, or we deliver a fully managed service where we contract directly with suppliers, on-selling their goods or services to our customers. By leveraging our supplier relationships and applying our trading expertise and buying power, we drive savings to our customers’ bottom lines.

Our procurement outsourcing service is a talent-driven business and that talent is unrivalled; Xchanging has approximately 230 procurement and finance experts globally. These experts have extensive experience within most industry sectors; this includes Retail, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, Defense, Insurance, Telecommunications and Construction. The procurement offering typically delivers savings of 5-25% across all categories with very little structural impact on our customer. We deliver bespoke procurement teams either on site or remotely to deliver strategic sourcing or more a tactical buying unit when applicable, with very little of the heavy lifting associated with standard outsourcing.

Finance & accounting. We provide an F&A service that covers accounts payable, accounts receivable, order management and tracking, treasury functions, financial reporting, tax consulting and internal audit services. This service is split into three areas; Procure-to-pay (P2P), Order-to-cash (O2C) and Record-to-reports (R2R). P2P focuses on invoice processing, supplier management and sourcing. Within P2P we manage around £3 billion of spend, perform over 2.5 billion transactions and process 2 million invoices and procurement card submissions. Leveraging the SAP and Oracle system expertise, our capabilities drive three main benefits for customers; cost reduction, improved controls and process efficiency. O2C includes the management of multiple payment channels and processes, paper orders and credit management. This ensures information and funds flow efficiently from point of order to customer payment, and ensures upstream support for the customer. R2R encompasses the range of routine transactional operations undertaken typically by clerks in finance. These operational functions include fixed asset register maintenance, tax reporting and compliance, and audit management.

Human resources (HR). We provide a complete set of employment services. These services cover the entire employment life cycle from recruitment through to payroll and pensions payments. Our aim is to provide an integrated approach that uses the underlying employment data in the wide variety of HR tasks and activities. Data integrity and responsiveness is crucial to delivering reliable, high-quality HR services. We undertake the administrative processing and manage the supply chain for HR-related categories of spend such as car schemes, medical assurance, travel and training. We provide expert advice on the various facets of HR; be it pensions calculations, learning and development, performance measurement or international recruitment, relocation, immigration and tax compliance.

Xchanging delivers HR and payroll services and support to 1.25 million employees and pensioners and their dependents across multiple locations and countries. We run a number of back-to-work and medical compensation schemes for a wide variety of customers in the USA, the UK, and Australia. For example in Australia, we manage the end-to-end process in placing employees back into the workforce. We manage this for 37,500 employers in a government-managed scheme. In 2009, we successfully returned 7,940 injured workers back to work.

Technology. We have substantial technology capabilities covering a broad range of services and end-to-end solutions, which make us a credible technology partner; but we are still small enough to maintain a personal local approach, aligning with the interests of our customers to add significant value to their businesses. We sell four types of technology offerings including Technology Advisory Services, Technology Implementation, Technology Production and Technology Outsourcing. In addition, we have a number of technology niches where we have unique capabilities that provide a competitive advantage over our competitors. These include Insurance Software, Oracle Transportation Manager, Workflow Practice, Market Settlement Platform, Product Lifecycle Management, SWIFT and Legacy Managed Services.

As a global business processor we design, build, and run a range of business processing solutions. We embed our Intellectual Property (IP) to create a solution faster and more cost-effectively than customers can themselves. We host the software and hardware to run systems and provide the extensive data warehousing facilities needed by our customers. Our services are aimed at companies that wish to use IT services to improve organizational effectiveness and profitability. For instance, we have designed, built, and now operate one of the most comprehensive suites of insurance-related document management services in the world. These are employed by the global participants of the London insurance market.

Industry specific services. We also provide a range of industry specific services which draw on the above functional expertise, combined with deep industry domain knowledge.

• Banking and securities services. In the banking and securities industry, we provide retail investment account management and securities processing services. By the end of 2010, we will be the largest independent investment account processor in Germany, where we will administer approximately 1.5 million accounts on behalf of our customers. In securities processing our services include trades processing, corporate event processing, handling of corporate annual general meetings, regulatory reporting and tax services.
• Insurance services. Xchanging is one of the leading providers of business processing services and software solutions to the insurance industry internationally. This includes processing of insurance policies, premiums and claims, and broking services. In 2008, in partnership with the London insurance market, we embarked on an ambitious project of making this market paperless through the Insurers’ Market Repository (IMR). In 2009, we successfully implemented and upgraded IMR. The development of the IMR is a key part of the London insurance market’s effort to achieve more efficient business processing. In the Americas, we provide claims processing services to companies for their injured workers’ compensation as well as other areas such as professional, auto, product, general and consumer warranty liability claims. Our services include the initial claim intake, adjusting the claim, medical and non-medical bill review and claim payments.

Distinctive Capabilities

Our “go to market strategy” is to provide a range of offerings to meet the varying needs of customers for outsourced services. Our unique offering for dealing with complexity and scale is partnering. On top of this, we provide four offerings: Outsourcing, Products, Straight Through Processing and Business Support, for customer flexibility and repeatability. In short, a distinctive “1+4 Go to Market Strategy.”

Partnering – maximizing value together – Xchanging addresses complex industry specific business processing and cross-industry processing in human resources, finance and accounting, technology infrastructure and large-scale procurement. Our partnering offering is open book with profit sharing so that our interests are aligned with our partners.

Outsourcing – guaranteeing sustainable savings – Xchanging takes on business processes or categories of spend where we already have platforms proving our capability and credibility. Through outsourcing we scale up our platforms and deliver services to an agreed specification and usage charge or cost baseline.

Products – delivering the best solution – Xchanging supports essential parts of the business processing value chain with application software, such as Genius for international insurance carriers. Our products are long-term strategic assets that can be tailored for customers’ specific needs. Products enable us to extend our reach both geographically and across the value chain.

Straight Through Processing – optimizing the value chain – Xchanging extends the scope of the services delivered to customers, reducing the number of interfaces and where possible automating them. These additional services extend the process flow that Xchanging is already operating, to maximize the efficiency of the process as a whole.

Business Support – applying know-how for results – Xchanging offers experts to support specific business activities and customer improvement projects. Through business support, customers have access to Xchanging’s capabilities and re-usable assets. Business Support includes services such as corporate immigration support, resourcing, program management and process improvement, and Six Sigma training and support.

Xchanging at a Glance

• Founded: 1999
• Revenues: £750.4 million
• Employees: Over 8,000
• Service lines: Procurement, Finance & Accounting, Human resources, Technology, Industry-specific services
• Headquarters location: 13 Hanover Square, London, W1S 1HN, UK
• Locations of global delivery centers: Australia, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, UK, and USA

For More Information

Telephone: +44 20 7780 6999
Fax: +44 20 7499 0169
E-mail: info@xchanging.com
www.xchanging.com

Certifications

Non industry-specific certifications and recognitions:

• SAS 70
• India – ISO 9001, ISO 9001: 2008, ISO 27001 and ISO 27001: 2005
• Europe – ISO 9001: 2000, ISO 27001: 2005, ISO 9001: 2008
• CMMi (v1.2) Level 3 and CMMi (v1.1) Level 5 in a number of our Indian operations
• CMMi (v1.2) Level 3 in Singapore

Industry specific certifications and regulations:

• Xchanging is the largest processor of ACORD messages; ACORD certifications include: Technical Accounts and Financial Accounts, Claim Movement messages, and Document Transmission
• Xchanging has two full banking licenses in Germany
• In the USA, Xchanging has 283 adjusters licensed in 39 states, resulting in 2,994 individual adjuster licenses
• Xchanging’s Solon (USA) site obtained a Payment Card Industry (PCI) certification, which includes requirements for security management, policies, and procedures

Awards and Recognitions

• David Andrews named Entrepreneur of the Year’ by the Economic Times, India’s most respected and circulated financial daily
• Xchanging receives a Bronze Chairman’s Award from BAE Systems for its implementation of the Enhanced Resourcing Services (ERS) solution
• Xchanging features in the 2010 Global Services 100 List, recognizing service provider excellence and maturity to serve the global market; it recognized Xchanging in four categories in its 2010 survey – Top BPO, HRO, Procurement Outsourcing and Top Industry-specific BPO vendors
• Xchanging’s Funded Learning Programmes Services receives Grade 1 Outstanding from OFSTED for BAE Systems’ provision of apprenticeships
• Xchanging won the Pegasystems’ Innovator of the Year Award in the European Insurance sector category

Case Studies

1. Human Resources – how Xchanging made it work
   http://www.xchanging.com/CustomerSolutions/Casestudies/Documents/20101029UKEPHRMadeWork.pdf
2. Xchanging delivers a world-class document repository
   http://www.xchanging.com/CustomerSolutions/Casestudies/Documents/20100901CS0028.pdf
3. Xchanging delivers world-class IT services to support global trading
   http://www.xchanging.com/CustomerSolutions/Casestudies/Documents/20100901CS0027.pdf

Syntel, Inc. was established in 1980 as a local company with a single service offering. Since that time, we have grown into a $410 million global corporation with a market cap of more than $1.5 billion, 16,200+ employees, more than two dozen offices and Global Development Centers around the world, and a full range of ITO and KPO solutions and service offerings.

Syntel has achieved 19% compound annual growth over the past five years (2005-2010). Our growth is attributed to our “customer for life” commitment and ability to continually reinvent ourselves and expand our services to adapt to the shifts of the market and needs of our clients.

Service Lines

A. Industry-specific solutions. At Syntel, our prime objective is to provide targeted solutions to solve your business challenges. Our vertical industry practice groups fuse technical knowledge with business expertise to develop solutions targeted to your business and the competitive challenges you face.

• Financial Services/Banking: End-to-end ITO and KPO solutions for banking, capital markets, and cards and payments industry sectors including risk management, asset management, brokerage, core baking, compliance, fraud solutions, reconciliations, and more.
• Healthcare/Life Sciences: Solutions for compliance, analytics, testing, claims management, records management, and more, spanning payers, providers, medical devices, and life sciences needs for both ITO and KPO services.
• Insurance: KPO and ITO solutions for P&C, life, and retirement including agency management, analytics, policy admin, and more.
• Retail: Targeted solutions for green retail, store systems, POS testing, SCM, and an award-winning Store Service Workbench solution.
• Logistics: Solutions focused on warehouse management systems, package shipment, transportation management systems, supply chain and distribution, freight management, and more.
• Telecom: Solutions tailored for global telecom service providers/carriers and telecom software product vendors including BSS and OSS solutions for billing, revenue assurance, order and service management, and analytics.
• Manufacturing: Framework of solutions fine-tuned to address the unique challenges of the motor vehicles and parts, aerospace, industrial and heavy manufacturing, and medical equipment and supplies industry.

B. Technology solutions and COEs. Syntel’s technology solutions and COEs complement and support our vertical industry solutions. These include:

• Application Development services include new development, enhancements and application consolidation and are focused on helping clients meet emerging business and technology challenges.
• Application Management including our AMO 2.0 offering, a suite of value-added end-to-end services including business and technology alignment, monitoring and alerts, green IT, portfolio rationalization and ITIL-based process consulting to provide your company with a service-oriented, metrics and performance-driven application management function.
• Architecture Services encompass architecture consulting, enterprise content management, enterprise data management and architecture support to enable your organization to achieve an efficient and effective means of driving and validating the value of your technology environment.
• Business Analytics/Business Intelligence provides a full suite of data and analytics services to help extract the real value of your technology, making the data inside your systems work to deliver business intelligence and subsequently improve efficiency, reduce costs, and accelerate ROI.
• Cloud Labs from Syntel provides Portfolio Analysis and Cloud Strategy; Cloud Migration, Re-architecture and Testing; Private and Hybrid Cloud Deployment and Management; PaaS Development, and SaaS Integration.
• IT Infrastructure Management services span the entire spectrum, including consulting and system integration, monitoring & event management, end-user and enterprise computing, network management, security management, and IT helpdesk services.
• Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) industry-specific offerings are tailored to your business needs, and eliminate the costly and time-consuming manual processes that can be a drag on your business operations.
• Migration Center of Excellence (COE) with a dedicated team, focused migration solutions that reduce effort, cost and time to market.
• Oracle and SAP services include implementation, customization, upgrade and migration, systems integration, maintenance/support, performance tuning, optimization, feasibility analysis, and business process reengineering.
• Testing services address the operational, tactical, and strategic requirements of organizations by creating customer-specific solutions using a phased approach and innovative frameworks like our innovative iTAP framework built to lower testing TCO.

Distinctive Capabilities

• Custom, flexible solutions. The biggest difference between Syntel and our competitors is that we will never take a “one size fits all” approach to your business and technology challenges. We collaborate with you to adapt our business model to fit your needs, and align ourselves to your corporate culture to deliver the largest impact on your business.
• Small enough to listen, big enough to deliver™. We leverage our midsize status to focus on client service and create maximum value for our clients by delivering innovation, unique engagement models and closely aligning with our clients’ businesses. Together with our robust Global Delivery Model, world-class infrastructure, and highly skilled IT professionals, this flexibility truly makes us “Small enough to listen, big enough to deliver.”™
• US-based, financially sound, growing organization. Syntel is a U.S.-owned and operated company that has been creating innovative, flexible, adaptable technology solutions for the past 30 years. Publicly traded (NASDAQ: SYNT), our balance sheet is solid, we operate with zero debt, and have more than doubled revenues since 2005, despite economic downturns.
• Extended value – our partnership network. Another way we deliver value is by partnering with the most innovative, value-driven technology and software companies in the world. Whether technology, domain, or solution specific, we integrate our partners’ solutions with our services and frameworks to deliver game-changing technology solutions.

Syntel at a Glance

• Founded: 1980
• 2009 Revenues: $419 million
• 16,200+ employees
• Headquarters: Troy, Michigan
• Global Delivery Centers in Chennai, Mumbai and Pune, India; Memphis, Nashville and Phoenix, USA
• Service Lines/COEs: Application Development & Management, Architecture, Cloud, Business Analytics/DW/BI, IT Infrastructure Management, KPO, Migration, Oracle, SAP, Testing
• Industry Practices: Banking & Financial Services, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Insurance, Logistics, Manufacturing, Retail, Telecom and Tours & Travel

For More Information

Phone: (972) 653-0559
kishore_ramnani@syntelinc.com
www.syntelinc.com

Certifications

• SEI CMMi Level 5
• ISO 9001:2000
• ISO 27001
• ISO 20000
• SAS Type II

Awards and Recognition

• Microsoft India “Partner of the Year” award for Store Services Workbench Retail Solution – 2010
• FinTech 100 – 2010
• Healthcare Informatics 100 – 2010
• International Association of Outsourcing Professionals “The Global Outsourcing 100″ and sub-lists (Banking, Markets, Insurance, Healthcare) – 2010
• Global Services Media and NeoAdvisory “Global Services 100″ and sub-lists (TOP ITO Vendors, Top ADM Vendors, Top Industry-specific BPO Vendors) – 2010
• VAR 500 – 2010
• Software Magazine’s “Software 500″ – 2010
• Dataquest India – Top 50 IT Companies – 2010
• World HRD Congress: “Best Overall Recruiting & Staffing Organization,” “Most Innovative Recruiting & Staffing Program” and “Excellence in HR through Technology” awards – February 2010

What the Analysts are Saying about Syntel

• “Providers like Syntel . . . blend benefits of domain knowledge and experience with strong account management. Apart from deploying senior subject matter experts and IP on the project, these firms also leverage business analysts and senior account management teams to serve the clients effectively.” – Forrester, Right And Wrong Reasons To Work With Tier Two Offshore Providers, August 2010
• “Consultancies such as Syntel are highly verticalized in order to exploit [long-term cost-reduction activities]. Syntel in particular has established labs, automation tools, centers of excellence, and offshore facilities for the redesign of both business and IT processes.” – Forrester, Reducing The Costs Of IT — Views From Consultancies, October 2009
• “Syntel, by emphasizing strong client-centricity, further reinforces its value to its clients beyond the simple relevance of its solutions.” – Forrester, Why Do you Need Tier Two Providers? (And you Do Need Them!), September 2009

Case Studies

Read about the successful relationships Syntel has built with our clients, and how we are creating new opportunities for their businesses: http://www.syntelinc.com/Internal.aspx?id=133