Silicon India Nov 09 Issue

siliconindia si100 SPOTLIGHT: KESDEE

PUBLISHED SINCE 1997

BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY

IN THE U.S. & INDIA

NOVEMBER - 2009

SILICONINDIA.COM

Sandeep Sahai President & CEO Designate

Contents NOVEMBER 2009

COVER STORY By Zoya Anna Thomas

6

Headstrong

BEST

AIMING FOR THE

12 14

20

Top 10 Software Companies

[Profile]

Eka Software Encora Kazeon Nephos Winshuttle

14-19

eG Innovations Field Glass Keynote Vivu Zyrion

Top 15 IT Services Companies

[Profile]

20-26

Estuate Metabyte Mobera Systems iTKO SRA Systems Optimal Solutions Photon Symbion Technologies TekLink Vernalis Systems Vedicsoft Wellcore

27

Top 5 Financial IT Services Companies

27

Top 10 Wireless Companies

29

Top 5 Outsourced Product Development Companies

30

Top 10 Mobile Companies

33

Top 10 Semiconductor Companies

[Profile] Wavesat

Mavenir TeleDna

[Profile] Auto ESL Sankalp

35

27-28

[Profile] V2 Solutions

[Profile]

Sandeep Sahai President & CEO designate

29

30 - 32

Openstream

33 - 34 Berkeley

39

Top 10 Internet Companies

[Profile]

36-39

Kaboodle Saavn

Lumos Labs WiZiQ

si100 Spotlight

KESDEE :Opportunities Off the Shelf

40

Top 10 Security Companies

43

Top 10 Networking Companies

46

Top 5 BPO Companies

[Profile]

40-43

AgeTak Arcot Quantum Secure

[Profile] Alphion Niksun

Approva KRAA Security

43-45 FatPipe Networks

[Profile]

Sutherland Global Services

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November 2009

siliconindia NOVEMBER - 2009 Publisher

Harvi Sachar

Editor-in-Chief

Pradeep Shankar

Managing Editor

Christo Jacob

Deputy Editors

Jayakishore Bayadi Jaya Smitha Menon Editorial Staff

Benny Thomas Eureka Bharali Sikta Samantaray Vimali Swamy Sr.Visualizer Online Manager Subscription Manager

Devarchit Verma Ojas Sharma Sudarshan Kumar Zoya Anna Thomas Raghu Koppal Suresh Kumar P Magendran

Mailing Address

SiliconIndia Inc 44790 S. Grimmer Blvd Suite 202, Fremont, CA 94538

T:510.440.8249, F:510.440.8276 Business Development Manager

Mona Sharma T:510.344.0450

siliconindia

November 2009, volume 12-11 (ISSN 1091-9503) Published monthly by siliconindia, Inc.

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Copyright © 2009 siliconindia, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part of any text, photography or illustrations without written permission from the publisher is prohibited.The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or illustrations. Views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the magazine and accordingly, no liability is assumed by the publisher thereof.

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mainstream retail outlets such as Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Tower Records. It is also available at ethnic Asian Indian stores in major Indian hot spots across the U.S.The magazine is also distributed at major trade shows and conferences, including Comdex, Internet World and PC Expo.

Yes We Can

L

ast year, around this time we were talking to you about Obama’s campaign ‘yes we can’, which oozes with enthusiasm and optimism. This year, as we sat down to drill down si100 companies, from the over 3,000 Indian founded companies nominated, we had a glimpse of many Indian entrepreneurs who have put this ‘yes we can’ campaign into action. They had passion, enthusiasm, optimism and the sheer will to succeed in an economy, which was going through one of its worst phase. This year we present the 12th edition of si100, an annual listing of the top 100 technology companies founded and managed by Indians in the U.S. The listing not only represents the continuing rise and glory of the Indian entrepreneur in high-tech but also identifies companies impacting the marketplace. The companies in this year’s list display the characteristics of long-term visibility, sustained growth, business focus, profitability and customer and employee value-creation. We salute each and every one of these entrepreneurs for their leadership, and particularly for their unrelenting dedication in building their companies. Each and every entrepreneur on this list demonstrate the utmost passion for building lasting enterprises and exudes confidence that they will succeed in tackling the current economic conditions. We congratulate the 100 finalists for achieving this vote of respect from industry leaders and wish each and every one of them a great future. In this issue, we have chosen Headstrong to be on the cover of this issue, since we found its journey unique and impressive. In the last one year when many IT companies serving the financial services vertical shut shop, Headstrong showed strong results. The leaders of Headstrong work with one single motto: To make Headstrong the best. This unwavered and single-minded ambition made them innovate not only in terms of technology, but also in terms of customer and employee satisfaction. Inside the issue you can read more about how they are still making their mission and vision a reality. I hope you enjoy the issue as much as we have enjoyed putting it together. As always, let’s keep in touch. Harvi Sachar Publisher [email protected]

Headstrong

Founded: Founder: CEO designate: HeadQuarters: Other offices: Headcount: Vertical:

BEST

AIMING

Quick Facts

1981 Dr. James Martin Sandeep Sahai Washington DC Across Europe & Asia Pacific 3000 Financial Services

COVER STORY

FOR THE

T

Sandeep Sahai President & CEO Designate

By Zoya Anna Thomas

he office of Sandeep Sahai, President and COO of Headstrong, is bustling with activity. The 46 year old entrepreneur turned leader is embarking on his new gig as the CEO of the company. So what’s next? There could be no better time to ask him than now. His unwavering focus is clear and evident in his spontaneous reply - making Headstrong an undisputed leader in the world, by concentrating on one thing: Financial Services Technology. But why the financial services area? Isn’t the space already crowded with IT services players? Sahai is quick to read your mind. “For any business to be the cynosure of its customers, focusing on a niche segment is critical to attaining domain leadership,” he says. The BFSI sector continues to lead other industries in its ability and desire to implement complex technology solutions. The IT industry cannot ignore the simple fact that financial services companies were the earliest adopters of outsourcing and remain the largest spenders on technology. With so many regulatory changes continually happening, financial instruments and processes keep changing – hence the technology needs of the BFSI never stabilize. According to Gartner, the BFSI sector’s global spend was $176.8 billion for external IT services in 2007. The BFSI sector in the U.S. alone, the No. 1 market for Indian IT companies, spent $84.4 billion for external IT services. The market is still huge and growing, and so are the players. Sahai is clearly quite confident of tapping into this growing pool of opportunities and making his firm the market leader. He is a believer of ‘absolute standards’ when it comes to leadership and excellence. Originally founded in 1981 as James Martin & Company, Headstrong is a global consultancy firm focused on domain-led solutions in vertical niches. Its philosophy is to achieve a level of thought leadership and business knowledge in each chosen domain that makes the IT solution look almost incidental. Once the domain becomes the center of focus, the span of services necessarily needs to be ‘total’ - from business strategy to functional consulting to application development to maintenance to business process outsourcing. This approach has enabled Headstrong to help its clients achieve measurable results and integrate their businesses with their customers, suppliers, and employees to improve enterprise value.

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Today, the IT services market is like Headstrong has grown rapidly over Gartner, companies in the BFSI sector the years. From its early days of pure are expected to cut their IT spends by up going to a restaurant and having Indian business consultancy to its present focus to 20 percent. Instead of viewing these Chinese. When you ask what they do, on end to end solutions, the firm has cuts and squeezes in IT budgets as a lia- 90 percent of mid-tier companies rattle come a long way. With a 25-year track bility, Headstrong’s current offerings are off that they specialize in manufacturrecord of proven results, the company’s targeted to align with customer needs and ing, healthcare, finance, and so on. client base includes many of the world’s reduce costs by increasing operational ef- When growth slows down in one segmost respected companies (Head- ficiency. The company achieves this by ment, they add more verticals to their strong’s tagline that 9 of the top 10 in- offering flexible, repeatable, and plat- growing list of domains; the same way vestment banks in the U.S. are its clients form-based solutions (as opposed to cus- restaurants add more cuisines to their is no exaggeration, we checked). Headquartered in North America, with deliv- A domain specialist needs to know the business of the technology as ery centers in India and the much as the technology itself as he needs to sell to the business leader Philippines and offices across Europe and Asia-Pa- more than to the CIO cific, Headstrong’s offerings are currently centered on the financial tom-built manpower-based solutions menu when they don’t have enough domains of 1) Derivatives, 2) Reference alone). To this end, it recently acquired customers. The only way for small and Data, 3) Asset and Wealth Management, the mortgage processing leader, Lydian mid-tier companies to survive with le4) Prime Brokerage and Securities Fi- Data Services and asset management gitimacy is to specialize, to become the nancing, 5) Mortgages, and 6) Compli- outsourcing firm iXPartners. Headstrong best in something. In other words, as ance and Risk Management. is now mentioned as one of the top serv- Sahai says, you need to build a niche and protect it through continual innovation. It should be analogous to a Chinese restaurant that specializes in Cantonese cuisine – not just a forte, but a superspecialty. Specialization, however, is not the only unique quality that sets Headstrong apart from the rest. To be the best, you need to hire the best. At Headstrong, 30 percent of its 1,450 member India team are IITians, IIM graduates, or are from similar tierI institutions. In order to keep up with customer demands Headstrong, like every other company, needs to expand Headstrong Key Differentiators rapidly and move higher up the value chain. But in Headstrong’s case, it beMuch has been said and discussed ice leaders in the ‘2008 Global Out- comes equally important to keep its staff about the current economic gloom and sourcing 100 List’, and also ranks in the intellectually challenged, given the top its repercussions on the global IT indus- exclusive FinTech list of 100 top finan- grade hiring profile. “I really want try. Longer sales cycles, delayed pur- cial services companies in the world. everyone in the company to perform at chases, and more scrutiny from IT a level that makes them proud of what spending decision makers is just a small How Headstrong stands out they have created or achieved, and secpart of the problem. And yet, troubled Now that Headstrong has gained global ondarily makes them proud of the comcustomers are viewing IT as a way to recognition and respectability under the pany they help create,” says Sahai. transform their businesses by adopting reign of its current CEO, Arjun MalhoSahai brought out another interestleaner operating models. According to tra, Sahai aims to scale this status by ing point. It’s not just hiring from the Peter Redshaw, Research Vice President, making Headstrong an ‘absolute leader’ best institutions that matters. Hiring IAS banking and investment services, in financial consulting. local talent is equally fundamental. For siliconindia

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instance, imagine you need to construct a modern expressway in Delhi. You can easily give the contract to a top-notch foreign company and get it built. But when it comes to defining the route itself, can you entrust the job to the same top-notch overseas talent? Probably not. You would more likely need to hire a team with 30-50 percent Delhiites. Why? Because top talent is no substitute for local knowledge. The Delhi team would understand local traffic patterns, business needs, and site issues like no foreign company could. The same philosophy works for IT. You have to be local in your local office. You need to have a decent percentage of local people in the delivery organization, not just in sales or the front offices. So, Headstrong’s philosophy is: hire not just the best people from the best schools but local people from the local industry who have ‘been-there-done-that’. If you’re focusing on derivatives, for instance, hire the best derivative traders, not just Java programmers from India who’ve ‘also worked in derivatives projects’. Earlier, in order to get an order from a client like Goldman Sachs, one would have to contact the CIO of the firm. To talk to the CIO, you needed to talk the techie’s language. But Headstrong’s strategy involves a paradigm shift. As a domain specialist, you need to know the business of the technology as much as the technology itself. You need to sell to the business leader more than to the CIO. Therefore, you hire local domain expertise and train them in technology rather than the other way round. That is what differentiates Headstrong from the rest. Solutions for the Best In the financial services market, products change every day. Companies are challenged with developing and implementing growth strategies, identifying innovative ways to attract and retain customers, effectively transforming their business, and managing

the impact of these changes on the organization. In this fast-moving environment, achieving domain leadership is not easy. How do you constantly stay ahead of the market? Headstrong achieves this by continually re-inventing itself. The company’s domain specialists are gurus in their trades. They are regular speakers and participants at trade conferences and industry forums, and stay abreast with the latest trends in their respective verticals. They are constantly analyzing how upcoming regulations and changes will impact business flows for their customers. This gives Headstrong a level of thought leadership that is almost unparalleled and enables it to provide advisory services to improve and transform business operations and technology strategies far beyond mere IT implementations. Examples abound. Take for instance, the case of message connectivity. Different segments of the banking and electronic marketplace industry use different communication protocols and

solutions that offer a pre-build connectivity layer across market segments. Headstrong cracked this problem by coming up with a single framework to manage the entire connectivity process across platforms and across asset classes. The framework,

messages or file formats while exchanging information. These formats and protocols are continually being updated to account for changes in the business process or technology upgrades. This presents companies with the task of constantly devoting time and resources to upgrade their connectivity infrastructure. While generic technical approaches do exist for connectivity and message and data transformation, there are almost no solutions that combine generic methodologies with domain-specific connectivity for different industry segments like equities, prime services, and derivatives. Most connectivity solutions are either pure technical answers or are specific to very narrow markets. There are no

christened iceFish, supports most financial formats – like FIX, SWIFT, FIXML, and FpML – as well as the standard formats like Excel, CSV, Fixed Length, and XML. It supports multiple communication methods – messaging, FTP, sockets, TCP and IP, email, and databases as well as proprietary connectivity formats – ensuring that one can connect with most financial entities across asset classes. A solution like this demonstrates deep industry expertise. Headstrong drew upon its competence in different asset classes across verticals to engineer a proprietary solution that helps its customers get away from the cycle of custom-developed connectors every time an upgrade was required. Initial market feedback on iceFish has in fact been so

Arjun Malhotra, Chairman

Hire local domain expertise and train them in technology rather than doing it the other way round

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positive that Headstrong has ‘productized’ the solution. As I write this article, two top-tier investment banks are deploying iceFish to connect their derivatives post-trade processing platforms to different industry utilities.

Challenges: The Tough get Going When the Going gets Tough A $75 million company in 2003, Headstrong’s model of specialization in the financial industry has yielded sustained year-on-year growth in earnings, profitability, and market recognition. The company recorded revenue of $180 million in 2008. But high growth brings its own set of challenges. On the one hand, the transition from a small company to a large one brings changes to the business model. More importantly, it presents challenges to the operating model. You need to centralize processes, knowledge management, and business operations among other things. You need to maintain a culture of performance and entrepreneurship. On the other hand, high growth sets expectations for even higher growth. The overall market for IT and KPO is still expanding. Headstrong’s challenge is to outpace industry growth and become a $500 million company in the next three years. Clients always want to consolidate vendors and work with the biggest companies. So Headstrong needs to balance its specialization focus by quickly getting into the ‘big company’

Expertise Across Business Domains

club. Global recognition and respectability is already there, but what the firm wants now is sustainability and a workforce that is always ready to think out of the box and innovate. Employee Programs: Keeping them Motivated Hiring the best and hiring locally may take you in the right direction, but that alone won’t take you to the pinnacle you are aiming at. Retaining employees and keeping them motivated is equally vital to building a successful organization.

Headstron employees at the SIFMA Technology Management Conference 2009 siliconindia

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A stand-out aspect of Headstrong’s culture is its strong focus on meritocracy and performance orientation. Every Thursday, Headstrong publishes a performance report of all its teams. It is no secret within the organization as to how the Bangalore or Chicago office is doing. There is no debate on whether a particular office, leader, or employee is doing well or not – everybody knows how well everybody is doing. Transparency is the key. In a way, this breaks down ‘power centers’ – it is hard to play favorites or have godfathers in the company with so much transparency. Sahai says, “We don’t want to build the best offshore company. We don’t want to build the best onshore company. We just want to build the best consulting company globally when it comes to consulting for financial services.” Striving to create a work environment that is challenging but satisfying, and which provides ample opportunities and rewards to strengthen and expand employees’ careers is another unique aspect of the company. The company has various institutionalized programs and activities to ensure retention of its em-

ployees. Whether it is a company-sponsored adventure trip to the Corbett National Park, or a gym and crèche at its India development center, there is enough to keep employees stress-free, comfortable, and having fun at work. HeadsUP, the company’s Indian center’s newsletter, focuses on keeping employees informed of various business related news, major events, as well as travel experiences shared by colleagues when onsite. Headstrong employees are not to be left behind when it comes to community service and joining relief and rehabilitation efforts during times of grave challenges. During the wrath of typhoons, Ondoy and Pepeng in the Philippines, the management and employees put up a disaster relief fund for people whose homes and properties were damaged by the floods. This was just one element of the company’s ‘2.Outreach program’, developed at its Manila center, to engage its 650-strong workforce in community-conscious programs. Or take for instance, the ‘tree planting activity’ where Headstrong adopted 14 trees for a year and a half, providing not just fertilizers and protection, but tender care and continual attention. ‘Fun@Work’ apart, the company invests in serious efforts when it comes to competence-building for its employees. This is only to be expected, given that the company’s USP lies in its domain capabilities. The company sponsors educational degrees and certifications like CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) and FRM (Financial Risk Manager) for employees, and has tie-ups with a number of educational institutions in India and overseas, including IIM Bangalore, the New York Institute of Finance and the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP). Competence building is both at the functional as well as technical level and is driven by each competence vertical separately. For example, the quality assurance group at Headstrong recently nominated a number of employees to programs like ISTQB

Foundation and Advanced course, NCFM, and CSTE among others.

Aiming for the Best With a deep commitment to its focus on financial services, Headstrong is investing aggressively to extend its footprint in its chosen verticals. Constant innovation, building a strong and expert team, and having the most ambitious and forward looking leadership have all made the firm a natural choice for its customers. As one of its clients, the Managing Director at a specialized insurance company in Hong Kong sums it up, “The company’s CRM project was more than just a technology implementation. It was a business transformation. Like any transformation, change was constant. What differentiated this project from most was that our implementation partner Headstrong understood and managed that change successfully. It was Headstrong’s management, insights, and assistance that proved instrumental in delivering our integrated CRM solution successfully.” And, nothing carries more value than a happy and satisfied customer’s praise for the vendor.

Quality Leadership When things were not looking so bright for the company in 2003, after the merger with TechSpan, an IT consultancy services firm, it was leaders like Sahai and Malhotra who took over the affairs of the firm, steering it out of troubled waters, and finally bringing it to its current state of success. Sahai says modestly, “It is the trust that employees and customers alike have in the leadership that has gotten the company so far. But it’s not leaders alone who shape the path of success. The sales, delivery, recruiting, and support teams are equally responsible for playing a key role in shaping the company’s strategy and taking it to its current position in the market.”

Employees day out

Transparency in organizations breaks down ‘power centers’ – it is hard to play favorites or have godfathers in the company with so much transparency

With the same leadership zest, Sahai, a Dosco, and an alumnus of, BHU, and IIM Calcutta, is all set to lead Headstrong to greater heights. Sahai has 19 years of distributed consulting experience. Having started and grown companies in the U.S., Europe, and India, he is also a frequent speaker at industry conferences on offshore outsourcing as a strategic tool for IT managers. “The older generation did a dramatic thing for us. They brought India respectability across the world. They built big companies, professionally-run companies. My generation now wants Indian companies to be world leaders - we can drive the world, and that keeps us excited. All we need is an unwavering belief in each of us that we can be the best. As CEO, that would be my biggest driver - to be the best, by being different. I will try to bring that zeal to all our staff. I am looking to prove that the next generation can provide that shift,” says Sahai. With a strong leadership, niche focus, and a mindset to continuously innovate, Headstrong will undoubtedly become what Sahai has dreamt of: best in the world. si siliconindia

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his is the 12th year that si100 companies are being selected and honoured! In the last eleven years many things have changed and we have seen the tech industry growing exponentially and weathering the slumps. Even today the situation is no different. In the last one year all we have heard of are bankruptcy, layoffs and though we are seeing signs of recovery, its too early to predict the hay days.

T

Hence, we know, it’s brutal to be an entrepreneur at this point of time However, we are going against the current climate of bad news and lack of confidence in the technology industry to come up with 100 companies that show the characteristics of long-term viability, sustained growth, business focus, profitability, and customer, shareholder and employee value, while at the same time display the glamour and the innovation that have always accompanied the high-tech sector. It is a magical 100 that have traversed the hype, are riding through the present tough environment with integrity, hard work, vision and control. The result is 100 companies that have a real chance to: survive and succeed even in the tough market, set new trends in the marketplace and make a difference in the business and technology landscape. A distinguished panel comprising of accomplished Indian CEO’s & CIO’s of public companies, VC’s, analysts, founders of other VC funded companies including siliconindia editorial board decided on the top 100 companies. Here you can also feel the present and future pulse of the Indian community and its leaders who have in a very small time made a significant presence in the business and social roles to form a rich tapestry in the American technology landscape. Kudos to those who made it to the si100!

SOFTWARE COMPANIES

Eka Software: Boosting Profit for Commodity Market

Top 10 SOFTWARE COMPANIES NAME

FOUNDER(S)

eG Innovations Iselin, NJ eginnovations.com

Sr i n i v a s R a m a n a t h a n President, Founder & CEO

2001

A global provider of performance monitoring and triage solutions for both virtual and physical IT infrastructures. Its product, the eG Enterprise Suit helps the IT operators to track the quality of the business services end-to-end and relate this to critical network, system, and application performance.

Eka Software Norwalk,CD ekaplus.com

Ma n av G a rg CEO & Founder

2005

A provider of commodity trade and risk management software for managing physical trading, position, P&L, risk, logistics and finance operation for agriculture and metal markets. The firm has over 200 employees. Backed by Nexus Venture Partners.

Encora Mountain View, CA encorainc.com

Ven u R ag h a v an President & CEO

2005

A provider of software product life cycle solutions. Its IGO ModelT creates seamless extended development centers, integrated into the parent organization, which provide virtual ownership to its clients and enabling high quality product and services deliveries from the offshore center. Employs: About 1000

Fieldglass Chicago, IL fieldgalss.com

J ai S he k h a w a t CEO & Co-Founder

1999

Provider of a unified technology platform that allows hiring managers, human resources personnel, staffing companies or others to utilize one integrated resource for the entire acquisition process of all human capital. Customers include GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Monsanto, Salesforce.com and Wyeth. The company has a headcount of 150 people.

Su d h a k a r M u d d u CEO & Founder

2003

It has revolutionized the way companies perform information management by using the information server software to intelligently discover, search and index, classify and perform workflow action on all electronically stored information. A few of the Kazeon’s customers include - Atheros Communications, Victrex PLC, WMS Gaming, BTMU Capital, Subaru of America and many more. Number of employees 80.

U m a ng G up t a Chairman & CEO

1995

A provider of on-demand mobile and internet test and measurement solutions. The company has has four test and measurement businesses: Web performance, mobile quality, streaming and VoIP, and customer experience/UX. Customers include American Express, BP, Caterpillar, Disney, eBay, E*TRADE, Expedia, Microsoft, SonyEricsson, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, Vodafone and YouTube. The company has 240 employees.

Nephos Systems San Francisco, CA nephosystems.com

Ra n g a R a n g a c h a r i CEO & Founder

2009

An accelerator to cloud computing. Its first solution Nephos Augmenta enable organizations to seamlessly augment and securely extend their internal datacenter into a public cloud and to seamlessly migrate applications from their data center to the cloud. Currently, it has six employees.

ViVu Sunnyvale, CA vivu.tv

Su d h a Val lu r u Founder, Chairman & CEO

2008

Provider of an online video conferencing platform. It provides a suite of publishing tools, providing users the option of embedding video events on web sites or in emails. Venture backed by Inventus Capital Partners with Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Quest Venture Partners. The number of employee at ViVu is around 10

Winshuttle Bothell, WA winshuttle.com

Vi k r am C ha l an a Co-Founder & CTO

2003

A provider of data entry and data download tools for SAP users. Winshuttle's products replace manual data input and complex technical tools by easily and securely shuttling data between Microsoft Excel and SAP without programming. The company headcount is 80.

Zyrion Sunnyvale, CA zyrion.com

Vi k a s A g g ar w a l Founder & CEO

2007

Provider of Business Service Monitoring (BSM) software. Customers of the company include several leading US universities, a number of large manufacturers, and major governmental departments and federal accounts. Zyrion's flagship Traverse solution provides correlated, end-to-end network and server monitoring capabilities that link underlying applications and the IT infrastructure to business services. The company has 25 employees.

Kazeon Mountain View, CA kazeon.com

Keynote Systems San Mateo, CA keynote.com

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FOUNDED

DESCRIPTION

C

ommodity markets are known for their complexity and a high degree of risk and uncertainty. Buyers, traders, and producers have to deal with complicated supply chains that involve complex contracts, pricing structures and financial derivative instruments. The right IT system to handle all these can provide substantial differentiation and competitive advantage to firms that deploy it. This is where Eka Software Solutions comes in as a specialist solution provider that not only addresses supply chain and contract administration needs, but also provides comprehensive functionality to handle derivatives and the resultant complexities. “Traditional software and ERPs don’t have the capability to properly deal with these re-

quirements,” says Manav Garg, CEO and Founder, Eka Software Solutions. Founded in 2004, the Bangalore based company is one of the leading providers of commodity trade and risk management software for managing physical trading, position, P&L, risk, logistics and finance operation for agriculture and metal markets. “I strongly believe that IT is an enabler in every field. The market needed a combination of physical and financial software that could handle these more effectively. I wanted to harness the power of technology to ease these pain points and solve the problems of those engaged in the trading of commodities,” says Garg. For instance, Eka’s Commodity Trade and Risk Management (CTRM) solution integrates the entire lifecycle

Making Monitoring of Physical and Virtual IT Infrastructures Easy, Effective and Efficient

eG

Innovations is a global supplier of business service management software for virtual and physical IT infrastructures. It offers a new generation of solutions that makes IT infrastructure monitoring and management simple, flexible and effective. By ensuring high availability and optimum performance of mission-critical business services, eG Innovations’ solutions help enhance customers’ competitive positioning, lower operational costs and optimize the performance of their infrastructures. The company’s patented technologies provide proactive monitoring of every layer of every tier in the infrastructure, thereby enabling rapid diagnosis and recovery in enterprise

and service provider netSrinivas Ramanathan works. Its flagship product, the eG Enterprise Suite, tracks the performance of business services and applications end-to-end, IT organizations can pinpoint the true root cause of IT problems often before end users are affected. With specialized capabilities for monitoring more than 85 applications, 10 operating systems and five virtualization platforms – all using a single agent architecture – eG offers the widest infrastructure coverage, monitoring both virtual and physical environments as a single pane of glass. It monitors the inter-dependencies among network, system, database and

Manav Garg

of both physical and financial contracts, providing instant and realtime visibility across operations. Now Eka boasts of some of the largest names in the commodities business, including AWB, CHS, Louis Dreyfus, and Noble Group as its customers. With a growing employee base of over 200, there has been no looking back for Eka. Besides recently opening its offices in Europe and North America, it also received $10 million funding from Nexus Venture Partners. Given the 100 percent year-on-year growth rate that it has been achieving, it is putting its strategies in place to become the leading software vendor from India catering to the global 500 commodity trading organizations. application resources that support business services, eG Enterprise is a comprehensive, next-generation enterprise management solution. The company’s eG VM Monitor was judged “Best of VMworld 2008” in the Application and Infrastructure Management category, beating out approximately 30 other products. eG Innovations was founded in 2001 by Srinivas Ramanathan, CEO and President. Prior to eG, he was a Senior Research Scientist at HewlettPackard Laboratories in Palo Alto, California. He holds PhD in Computer Science and Engineering degree from the University of California, San Diego; and a Masters in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, India. He has co-authored more than 40 technical papers and is a Co-Inventor of 14 U.S. patents. eG’s technology partners include VMware, Sun, Citrix, Red Hat, IBM, HP, Microsoft, Oracle and ThinIdentity. si siliconindia

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E

SOFTWARE COMPANIES ncora, headquartered in Scottsdale, AZ is a leader in the Collaborative Product Development (CPD) space. Collaborative Product Development (CPD) is the next stage in the evolution of the well-known OPD (Outsourced Product De- Venu Raghavan velopment) space where, as against outsourcing core product development to supplier, the customer and the supplier collaborate together to design and develop new products. A collaborative development model improves quality of the product, reduces the timeto-market, increases employee retention and IP protection and reduces the overall cost of product delivery. A CPD model, as Encora realizes through its own experience, requires a unique set of tools, methodologies and frameworks to support a real-time collaboration between multiple parties. Venu Raghavan, the CEO of Encora

FIELDGLASS:

S

Encora: Leading Collaborative Product Development Firm

and a recipient of E&Y Entrepreneur of Year award for 2008, started the company in 2005 and led the company through this fundamental evolution over the past four years. Today, with over 1000 employees, spread over nine Rakesh Verma global offices in five countries and with over 50 product company clients, Encora’s CPD services include – new product co-development, product re-engineering, support/maintenance, product QA, product support, amongst others. Encora offers these services by establishing a CDL (Collaborative Delivery Lab) for its clients, which includes leading firms such as Google, Microsoft, Symyx, Handango, SPX, Churchill Downs, Bausch and others. A CDL is created through a very well-defined and

Delivering Sustained Value

ervice procurement solutions help businesses understand and take advantage of the pricing components and fluctuations involved in purchasing services to achieve harddollar cost savings and to improve procurement process efficiency, compliance and quality. Founded in 1999, Fieldglass is a leading vendor of such solutions. Global 2000 companies including GlaxoSmithKline and Monsanto use its technology platform, delivered exclusively via the Software-as-a-Service model, to manage the acquisition of its workforce, including contingent workers and service providers, such as offshore or projectbased labor. Headquartered in Chicago with more than 150 employees, Fieldglass is siliconindia

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currently on track to be cash flow Jai Shekhawat and net income positive for the fourth consecutive year. With its solution deployed in 63 countries and available in eight languages, Fieldglass’ growth has been driven by three factors that set the firm apart from the rest. Most importantly, Fieldglass helps customers build long-term competitive differentiation in their businesses through a highly optimized services supply chain. “The company is passionately dedicated to client service and support. The years of sustained R&D investments has enabled the company to build a scalable and innovative solution,” says Jai Shekhawat, CEO,

repeatable process that involves stakeholders from both the client and the Encora sides. Encora’s clients come from a range of solution clusters that includes – media/entertainment, health-care, medical technology, financial services, CRM, retail/distribution/logistics, mortgage and e-business. “Our customers tell us how impressed they have been by our thought leadership on the collaborative product development process and the benefits they have gained from this approach.” said Venu Raghavan. Encora is a wholly owned subsidiary of Indecomm Corporation and has investment from leading venture capital firms such as Sequoia Capital, IFC (a division of World Bank) and Tiger Capital Management. Fieldglass. In August 2009, Fieldglass successfully completed 16 new launches and expansions. One of its new customers included a Fortune 500 healthcare company with approximately 190,000 hiring managers that replaced its existing Vendor Management System (VMS) platform with Fieldglass to acquire both its contingent workforce and projectbased services. In addition, an existing Fortune 500 customer for its contingent spend since late 2008 expanded its use of the solution to include its Statements of Work (SOWs) in the U.S., Brazil, Canada, India and the Philippines through its offshore suppliers. In the future, Fieldglass plans to continue its focus on delivering sustained value to stakeholders in procurement, HR, IT and finance by helping them manage contingent labor and outsourced services. The company also intends to expand its footprint overseas in Europe and in parts of Asia. si

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SOFTWARE COMPANIES

udhakar Muddu, a seasoned and successful entrepreneur founded Kazeon Systems in 2003 with a vision to have information management to be the fundamental and enterprisewide as databases or network switches in the IT infrastructure of corporations. Since then, Kazeon has revolutionized the way companies perform information management by using the information server software to intelligently discover, search and index, classify and perform workflow action on all electronically stored information. The information service provider offers a wide range of applications within an enterprise using a single, underlying information management technology. The company’s patented software solution, the Information Server, has been built ground-up for providing robust, high performing and infinitely scaling information management capabilities

Kazeon: Moving Up in Business

across an enterprise no matter what Sudhakar Muddu types of data exist. Key applications that are serviced by Kazeon’s technology are eDiscovery, compliance, Information Governance and overall data management. Being a leading provider of in-house eDiscovery technology, Kazeon has successfully been deployed in numerous enterprise environments worldwide. A few of the Kazeon’s customers include - Atheros Communications, Victrex PLC, WMS Gaming, BTMU Capital, Subaru of America and many more. Further extending its leadership position and its

strong technology, Kazeon is extending into cloud computing offerings and SaaS. Similar to corporations, cloud computing vendors will face similar problems – eDiscovery, compliance and data management, and the Information Server is poised to help them solve these problems in very cost-effective, high-performing and scalable ways. “Kazeon’s growth and success is due to its excellent engineering, marketing and sales teams which have delivered unparalleled capabilities to enable powerful eDiscovery while reducing its cost up to 90 percent for over three hundred customers,” says Karthik Kannan, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development.

Keynote: Monitoring the Connected and Mobile Web Site

C

Experience from the End User Perspective

aliforniab a s e d Keynote Systems is the leadUmang Gupta ing stand-alone independent provider of on-demand mobile and internet test and measurement solutions. The company enables its 2,800 corporate customers to improve online business performance and mobile communications from the end user perspective. The company has four test and measurement businesses: Web performance, mobile quality, VoIP/ streaming and customer experience/UX. The mobile quality products help Web site operators, carriers, device manufacturers, content portals and developers test, measure and monitor mobile content, applications and services on over 1,600 mobile devices across multiple mobile operator networks from points all over the globe.

The company’s Web performance test, measurement and monitoring products include Transaction Perspective, Application Perspective and LoadPro and help companies to understand the speed and reliability and load capacity of their Web site from the end user perspective. The company’s VoIP and streaming products like Voice Perspective and Streaming Perspective help companies to understand how end users are experiencing these services and then improve the quality of voice, audio and video services. The customer experience/UX test and measurement products such as WebEffective and Mobile Web UX Testing enable companies to conduct their own online customer experience studies and research regarding navigability, layout and design to ensure online business effectiveness. Overall, Keynote’s cutting edge Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions provide tremendous value by helping leading companies around the world test, measure and

monitor the performance of their online applications, services, traditionally connected and mobile Web sites from the end user perspective. Keynote’s products serve mid to large size companies from multiple sectors including retail, financial services, travel and hospitality, technology, networking, publishing and manufacturing. And the company’s on demand services are all driven by the world’s leading global test and measurement network comprised of over 3,000 measurement computers and mobile devices in over 240 locations across the globe. The customer base of the company includes household names such as American Express, BP, Caterpillar, Disney, eBay, E-TRADE, Expedia, Microsoft, SonyEricsson, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, Vodafone and YouTube. Umang Gupta is Chairman and CEO of Keynote Systems since May 2000. si siliconindia

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SOFTWARE COMPANIES

loud computing has emerged as the latest buzzword in the technology space, especially after the advent of recession, though it has its own share of setbacks. With a vision to enable enterprise data- Ranga Rangachari centers to embrace cloud computing without compromising on performance, security or control, Nephos Systems was founded in January 2009 to be an accelerator to cloud computing. According to the analyst firm Gartner, cloud computing will be the number one strategic initiative for IT in 2010 and Nephos develops its solutions focused on this multi-billion dollar market opportunity. “However, unless the infrastructure roadblocks are removed, use of public clouds will continue to languish in the backwaters of an enterprise IT,”

F

ounded in 2008 by Sudha Valluru and Siva Kiran, ViVu developed a ground-breaking interactive communications technology that provides a solution for meeting organizers to create, publish and manage high-quality video events. It provides interactive communications technology that enables live video participation from a PC, Mac or Linux without any proprietary downloads and seamlessly integrates with most of the popular streaming video and conference solutions. The team developed the first enterprise quality video over IP a decade ago and is now building a participative platform that scales and provides the easeof-use, quality and availability expected in an enterprise. ViVu’s Participative Event Platform is actually a software service that can be accessed over the web. The backend infrastructure is enterprise-grade and leverages Java EE extensively for all of the modules and web services. ViVu’s interface on the siliconindia

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Nephos: Shifting to the ‘Cloud’ made easy

says Ranga Rangachari, CEO and Founder of Nephos. Nephos mainly focuses on mid market enterprises, who are looking at public clouds for the elastic and ‘pay as you go’ computing model. “These customers need better control and transparency from their cloud infrastructure. Our strategy is to introduce a low cost, high value appliance and cloud services (below $15,000) and enable customers to scale to support multiple clouds and applications,” states Rangachari. Nephos Augmenta, the first solution developed by this financially self-funded firm can enable organizations to seamlessly augment and securely extend their internal datacenter into a public cloud and to seamlessly migrate applications

from their data center to the cloud. The company says that Augmenta was developed to ensure that the ‘right user runs the right applications on the right cloud infrastructure.’The solution is currently being piloted by IT organizations and has enabled IT to leverage the true power of cloud computing. . Going ahead, the company aims to support even private clouds and extend its appeal to large enterprises, apart from expanding its presence around the globe. Currently, the company has a team of six people and plans to grow the number to 12 by the end of 2009. With demand for shifting to the ‘Cloud’ on a rise in organizations around the world, Nephos hopes to make the transition easier and safer for them through its solutions.

client-side comes as a very intuitive browser-based application and requires no client installation as it leverages both

stallations in order to connect face-toface over video. ViVu solution is targeted at enterprises and is being used in a variety of ways: remote training courses, sales training on new products, and remote live video caller participation during Webcasts. To bring its video conferencing and online event software to market,

ViVu: Pacing Up in its Business Sudha Valluru

Flash and Java extensively. The company charges subscription fees for its various services. A single user would pay $49 a month for unlimited use, though a 30-day trial is available. According to ViVu, it distinguishes itself by syncing with a full range of video recording and streaming products, even smartphones. Claiming that it is easily scaled, ViVu says that the users do not have to worry about messy downloads or in-

the Sunnyvale, California-based ViVu has recently raised $3 million in series A funding from Inventus Capital Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Quest Venture Partners with entrepreneur Bill Carrico participating. Growing ahead with its business model, the CoFounder and CEO of ViVu, Valluru affirms, “Our vision is to interactively connect many people over video and make the experience even better than being there.” si

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inshuttle developed their first software to solve specific SAP data challenges that one SAP customer was experiencing. However, today the company’s solutions have evolved into a major tool in enterprises for SAP data loading and extraction. Founded in 2003 by Vikram Chalana and Rajat Oberoi, Winshuttle today has software, which is used by over 500 large companies around the world. “We wanted to make SAP more useful for the organizations, by simplifying the process of using it,” says Chalana.

SOFTWARE COMPANIES creating a a transaction template. A runonly version of the transactionSHUTTLE software, runSHUTTLE allows a SAP user to securely move data between Excel and SAP using predefined transaction templates. In 2008, Bothell, Washington based company expanded its product line by releasing querySHUTTLE and eSHUTTLE. querySHUTTLE was designed to allow business users to securely extract SAP transactional data into familiar Microsoft Excel and Access formats for analysis. eSHUTTLE

WINSHUTTLE

Using Enterprise Software Simplified

The company’s flagship product transactionSHUTTLE records the steps that a user takes to complete any SAP transaction and maps the relevant SAP fields to an Excel spreadsheet, easily

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ith over 100 live deployments, Zyrion, a firm providing Business Service Monitoring (BSM) software, is generating strong revenue and profits. Customers of the company include several leading US universities, a number of large manufacturers, and major governmental departments and federal accounts. “BSM is a small but rapidly growing segment of the network man- Vikas Aggarwal agement area,” says Zyrion’s Founder and CEO Vikas Aggarwal. Even though, BSM is an emerging solution space, Zyrion’s tremendous growth has enabled it to make its way into the Si100 list. Simply speaking, Zyrion builds the solution, which helps enterprises prioritize the specific parts of the IT infrastructure that need to be addressed or improved to ensure continuous business operations. The company’s key target

provides centralized visibility and governance for enterprise deployments of Winshuttle solutions. This not only enables firms to

Vikram Chalana

customers include mid-to-large enterprises. Zyrion’s target market consists of organizations that span sectors like communications, hospitality, gaming, manufacturing and education. “Basically, any company with a relatively complex IT infra-

share files and best practices across the organization, but also addresses the organization’s requirements for specific controls and audit trails to meet SOX and corporate governance policies. The customers of Winshuttle come from all major market segments, with a marquee customer list consisting of companies like Lockheed Martin, Nike, Mercedes Benz, Coca-Cola, AMD, SAP America, Epson, ABB and others. The company has 80 people based in Seattle, London, Paris and Chandigarh. Going forward, the company plans to introduce more products. “We will be offering more products to bridge the gap between Microsoft SharePoint and their ERP systems,” says Chalana. Winshuttle attributes its success to the “Many happy customers who continue shuttling billions of records every year.”

However, Sunnyvale, California based Zyrion’s business service container technology allows enterprises to more easily and effectively manage IT-enabled business processes and services. Zyrion’s flagship Traverse solution provides correlated, end-to-end network and server

zyrion: Growth Unabated

structure would need our services,” says Aggarwal. While the big four — IBM, HP, BMC, CA — cater to the Fortune 1000 customers, Zyrion’s target market begins just below that. Such companies, says Aggarwal, cannot use solutions from the big four, as they are too cumbersome and too expensive to deploy and operate. Moreover, the architecture and technology of the dominant players are over 20 years old; they are only adapting these legacy products and attempting to reposition them in the present market, Aggarwal claims.

monitoring capabilities that link underlying applications and the IT infrastructure to business services. Traverse is based on technology being used by hundreds of large enterprises and datacenters across the world, within environments as large as 20,000 routers and servers. Ask Aggarwal about the impact of the global recession on his company, and he says that Zyrion is too nimble and young to feel any major impact. Zyrion is happy that IT networks in many developing countries are exploding, and it will be interesting to look at how Zyrion can play a role in those regions, says Aggarwal si siliconindia

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Top 15 IT SERVICES NAME

Metabyte Fremont, CA metabyte.com

FOUNDER(S)

FOUNDED

DESCRIPTION

Serves large and mid-market enterprises worldwide. Its customers include Greentech, Edward Life sciences and DaVita. The company headcount is around 200.

Ma n u M e h t a President & CEO

1990

Applabs Philadelphia, PA applabs.com

Sa s h i Re dd i Chairman

2001

Estuate Sunnyvale, CA estuate.com

P r a k as h B a l e b a i l Founder & CEO Na g a r a j a K i n i Founder & CFO

2005

Infogain Los Gatos, CA infogain.com

K a pi l Na n d a Pr e s id e n t & C E O

1990

iTKO Dallas, TX

Sh r id h a r M i t t a l CEO

1999

Mobera Systems Milpitas, CA moberasystems.com

A n u pa m a A r y a Co-Founder

2003

Optimal Solutions Irving, TX optimalsol.com

Gu r u v e n dr a Su r i CEO

1995

Photon Santa Clara, CA photoninfotech.com

Sr in i v a s B a l a su br a m a n i a n Chairman & CEO

1995

SRA Systems Hoffman Estates, IL srasys.com

A next generation Internet consulting firm which specializes in cutting edge business solutions utilizing Web 2.0, SOA, Open Source and Mobile application development. Its clients includes leading financial services provider on the Fortune 500 list. The company headcount is 1200.

S. S r i n i v a sa n Chairman & MD

1986

Has a wide range of solutions in the Manufacturing, Healthcare and Financial Services domains. It has 300 employees.

Ve n k a t G an u pu r u Chairman

1993

Delivers cost eff¬ective and innovative solutions. Few of its clients include BestWork DATA, WebGen Corporation, TIBCO, Cognizant, BB&T . The company headcount is 120.

Teklink Naperville, IL tli-usa.com

Pa n k a j G u p t a CEO & Director Business Intelligence

1998

UST Global Aliso Viejo, CA ust-global.com

Sa j a n Pi ll a i CEO

1999

Varnalis Systems New York, NY vernalissystems.com

Ba l a Ch a n d r a CEO

1999

VedicSoft Iselin NJ vedicsoft.com

B h a t D i t t a k a v i , Ve n k a t Ye r u b a n di Founders & Co-CEOs

1999

A provider of IT professional services in Data Management, Business Intelligence and Business Integration. Some of its clients includes MAERSK, Capgemini, Cisco, Wipro and Pepsico. The company headcount is 50

Wellcore San Jose, CA wellcore.com

Vi j a y N a d k a r n i Founder, President & CEO

-

It creates technology to help seniors live better. It built a lifestyle companion that integrates an entirely new dimension of wellness assessment, personal safety and connectedness in seniors' daily living.

itko.com

Symbioun Technologies Atlanta, GA symbiountech.com

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Specializes in quality management, testing and certification solutions. Applabs has partnership with more than 600 companies, providing both quality assurance and third party validation. It has 2000 employees.

Focuses on three different types of services—Oracle and IBM application implementation & management, custom application development, and application integration and modernization. The company's clients includes Amway, Arena Solutions, Bechtel, Citrix Systems , IBM, Salesforce.com, Stanford University, Tmax Gear , Travelport, Webex /Cisco, Wells Fargo Bank and Visa.

Specializes in the services for the retail. High-tech manufacturing and software verticals. Apart from U.S, the company has presence in UK, Europe and India. It has 90 employees.

Helps customers to optimize their software test and delivery lifecycle for greater quality and agility in an environment of constant change. Its customers include industry eBay, American Airlines, Time Warner, Level3, Bank of America and government agencies including the FAA and U.S. Department of Defense. The company headcount is 90. It is a high-end software development and outsourced product engineering and contract R$D services company. Its technical expertise is in the fields of communication, wireless and embedded technologies. Also, provides services to industry segments like Bio- Informatics, Embedded Systems, Networking and Wireless,Logistics and Transportation. The firm has about 50 employees. A staffing and consulting firm that is into implementation of SAP solutions. Clients include Texas Instruments, Pepsi, Nokia, Dupont, IDT, Sony, Dell, Motorola, Caterpillar and many more. The company headcount is 400.

An implementer of SAP Solutions for many Fortune 500 Companies. Its expertise crosses many industries, including Consumer Products, IM&C, Healthcare, Automotive and Oil and Gas. Its client includes Kellogg, Wrigley, John Deere, Molex, Ball Horticultural, W.W. Grainger and Littelfuse. Provider of end-to-end IT services and solutions for Global 1000 companies. Its Global Engagement Model provides the optimal mix of senior local resources with the cost, scale and quality advantages of offshore operations. The company has about 6300 employees.

A global IT Services company with a proven track record in developing and implementing custom software. Its expertise span in all major technologies including: .NET, J2EE and openSource and all major mediums: web, mobile and desktop. The headcount of company is 125

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IT SERVICES

Metabyte: Winning by Hiring the Best

etabyte is in the Si100 Manu Mehta list for the fourth consecutive year, which indicates company’s strength to address market needs. An IT services provider for the Fortune 500 companies and mid-market enterprises around the globe, the privately held company provides a seamless blend of product development, consulting, outsourcing and staffing services. “We have always been defined by our ability to attract top talent by providing unmatched career options,” says proud Manu Mehta, CEO, Metabyte. In a down market, Metabyte grew and expanded operations this year to include United Kingdom and Taiwan. The company has over 17 million users daily relying on its software and services for work or entertainment. The company’s liking for top talent came into being when they helped client AMD to beat Intel in performance and have a successful entry into the microprocessor

business in the mid 1990’s. That Metabyte division was later branded as Wicked3D – a PC gaming business. Here, an employee can build a new focus area for IT services and run his/her own Micro Business Unit. A recent example – Oracle Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) solutions. Employees can also ask for funding for a new product or service idea. The company has created an internal private equity fund called Metabyte Ventures to finance the inventions of its employees. An employee invention turned into Metabyte’s MbTV subsidiary in 2000, which received $20 million in investments from corporate partners and provided digital video recorder (DVR) technology to the US cable TV industry. Metabyte is credited for inventing the DVR before TiVo and is recognized as the “unbranded” leader. A recent employee invention was

stuate is appearing for the first time in the si100 list. This hot, fast-growing IT services company, founded in 2005 by Prakash Balebail and Nagaraja Kini, drives an agile, responsive U.S.-based culture with a strong technical offshore team to deliver high-value solutions to software companies and large IT organizations. Headquartered in Silicon Valley with an offshore center in Bangalore, Estuate lives by the rule that clients’ success is their success, through technical proficiency and an extreme service ethics. Estuate mainly focuses on three different types of services— Oracle and IBM application implementation & management, custom application development, and application integration and modernization. The company leverages software company ecosystems: “We offer offshore product development to software companies, and then specialize in the implementation of those products for their large IT customers,” says Prakash Balebail, Estuate’s CEO. Once introduced into a large IT shop,

Estuate also adds value in custom application development projects using leading platforms—Java, Microsoft .NET, Oracle Application Framework, Force.com, WebEx Connect and open source tools. Estuate’s core team has an Oracle product pedigree, with more than 100 man-years of experience with its ERP/CRM solutions, software engineering, project management, sales business development and management for some of the largest software companies. This makes Estuate an ideal vendor for software companies looking for efficient execution of small-to-large projects. Its software product company portfolio includes Amway, Arena Solutions, Bechtel, Citrix Systems , IBM, Salesforce.com, Stanford University, Tmax Gear , Travelport, Webex /Cisco, Wells Fargo Bank and Visa. Estuate’s IBM relationship is illustrative. Marc Hebert, Chief Operating Officer, says, “Our relation with IBM focuses on the Optim family of data management solutions; we are very proud of our deep product engineering relationship with those products,

Estuate: Extreme Service

E

launched as a web service called HotDoodle.com which enables small businesses to get powerful websites easily – the 21st century way. One can build their website themselves or get help from HotDoodle’s marketplace of web savvy people, whom HotDoodle calls PenPals, or do a bit of both. Loaded with powerful features and with a rapidly growing list of users around the world, HotDoodle is enabling a grass root level work force to meet the massive demand for building, maintaining and enhancing websites. “The immense job satisfaction and career opportunities within Metabyte or at Metabyte clients are what, keep bringing top talent to us. Our philosophy of investing in the ideas of our employees and seeking to turn their innovations into game changing products or services have paid huge dividends,” says Mehta. Congratulations! Metabyte.

Prakash Balebail

Nagaraja Niki

which IBM customers highly value in their IBM Optim implementation efforts. Our strong Oracle roots enable us to play a unique “Switzerland” role between two software giants—IBM and Oracle—to the benefit of our joint customers. But in the end, it’s all about Estuate’s extreme service ethics. Balebail, the architect of this innovative culture, describes it this way: “Our imperative is to respond to every client request immediately—to make sure that we listen to them, understand their issues and their directions. Simply put, clients love it!” Today, Estuate is a global IT services company, with a team of experts having decades of software product development and IT services management experience. It expects the company to generate revenues of $20-25 million in the next five years. si siliconindia

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IT SERVICES

TKO helps customers optimize their software test and delivery lifecycle for greater quality and agility in an environment of constant change. iTKO’s award winning LISA product suite helps customers dramatically lower their quality assurance costs, shorten release cycles, reduce risks, and eliminate critical development and testing constraints by virtualizing dependent IT resources to provide on-demand accessibility and capacity for teams across the software lifecycle. LISA Test, Validate, and Virtualize solutions are optimized for complex, modern applications that leverage SOA, BPM, cloud computing, integration suites, and ESBs. “LISA addresses a critical need in the marketplace to dramatically lower the cost and risk of delivering highly complex, rapidly changing enterprise software,” said Shridhar Mittal, iTKO’s CEO. “By successfully addressing this need, LISA delivers significant competitive advantages to our customers and helps

M

enable their modern applications to deliver on their promise of agility and cost savings.” As CEO, Shridhar Mittal has lead iTKO’s impressive growth and assembled a seasoned management team with deep expertise in enterprise software quality and the unique needs of today’s complex, modern applications. This leadership has also helped provide the inspiration for several innovative product breakthroughs, including the company’s unique virtual test environment capabilities and end-to-end test automation transparency and traceability features. iTKO has developed an extensive

iTKO

partners ecosystem including global system integrators such as Accenture, IBM Global Services, Infosys, Cognizant, CSC, Perficient and others. iTKO has also established LISA reseller agreements with technology partners such Shridhar Mittal as HP, and its products are available in cloudbased testing service offerings from IBM. iTKO customers include industry leaders such as eBay, American Airlines, Time Warner, Level3, Bank of America and government agencies including the FAA and U.S. Department of Defense. Established in 1999, privately held iTKO has its corporate headquarters in Dallas, Texas with additional offices located in the U.K., Netherlands, Australia and India. si

Innovator and Leader in Modern Application Quality

obera Systems is a core counter the challenges faced by them with them, under the leadership of product development com- in this technology driven world, the Anupama Arya, the Co-Founder, pany providing services to company provides “beyond the stan- Mobera Systems. She brings in her expertise of her past experiences as a seindustry segments including Bio-In- dard answer” services. The firm has corroborated client rial entrepreneur, business executive, formatics, Embedded systems, Networking and Wireless, Logistics and servicing at its true sense whereby technologist and angel investor. “Begin small. Deliver Big,” Anuthey collaborate with the client Transportation. throughout the product de- pama asserts. She maintains that busiHeadquartered velopment cycle in design- ness ideas are encouraged, both from in India and with ing and developing the within the team members and even strong presence in the U.S, the company is strategically poised at Inking New Value to Product Development Service delivering superior product. Customers can col- from the client side. Challenges are quality solutions laborate with Mobera using identified. Goals are set and time lines worldwide. Their Anupama Arya ClientConnect tools, which are respected. And to fulfill the goals, Engineering Comcan facilitate task tracking, the company relies on a methodology, petency Center (ECC) is located in India. As an ex- technical discussions, conferencing, which is in tune with the Six-Sigma pansion plan Mobera is planning a bug reporting and quality reviewing protocol for error mitigation. It has new ECC for the France market. functionality. The company has managed to reduce the cost of operaCommitted to partnering with their achieved to understand customers’ cul- tion of its clients bringing in the best clients in developing newer ways to ture, systems, and processes and align return-on-investment. si

MOBERA SYSTEMS:

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IT SERVICES

Optimal Solutions: Delivering SAP-based Business Transformation

ptimal Solutions was an si100 company in 2008. InterGurvendra Suri estingly, Optimal predicted sustained growth back then. An award-winning leader in SAP-based business transformation, Optimal specializes in helping companies and public sector organizations of all sizes leverage SAP solutions to achieve operational excellence, sustainable growth, and a clearcut competitive advantage. The company’s deep industry experience and exclusive SAP focus makes Optimal the partner of choice for a growing number of Fortune 1000 companies and businesses worldwide. Optimal’s rock-solid reputation for ontime, on-budget SAP delivery is earned from successfully planning, deploying, maintaining and supporting SAP solutions. With unmatched SAP expertise and deep,

industry-specific business process knowledge, Optimal makes it fast, easy and affordable for its customers to evaluate, purchase, implement and maintain the SAP solution best suited for their specific business goals and challenges. Optimal’s seasoned SAP consulting staff and world-class business process experts are dedicated to helping clients realize the greatest possible near- and long-term value from their SAP investment. Optimal specializes in helping companies maximize ROI on their SAP applications by planning, deploying and maintaining world-class solutions in a timeframe they require, and at a cost they demand. Fueling it growth, Optimal has recently brought to market a comprehensive portfolio of industry-specific SAP solutions for midsize companies. In connection with this, Optimal has announced a new, highly flexible subscription-based pricing

next generation Internet Consulting firm accelerating innovation , Photon helps clients innovate through the New Age Internet - a confluence of
Social Media /Web 2.0
New Age Mobile Technologies.

Chasms” from 3 tier architectures to SOA to Social Media and Mobile. By working with hundreds of customers on the cusp of innovation, small businesses that are angel/ venture funded that are often resource strapped, Photon has the ability to spot technology trends early by drawing on hundreds of data points to draw very effective technology and business model trend lines that quickly produce ROI. Photon is able to take these new and innovative technologies and business models that work back to its customers - a knowledge base that feeds on itself. As a thought leader, Photon brings a set best practices, blueprints and frameworks that help customer’s jumpstart their Social Media and Mobile initiatives.

A

Photon : Accelerating Innovation

Photon combines an intimate knowledge of enabling technologies such as
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)/ Web services,
Open Source with business savvy to help customers formulate and implement Internet strategies that are revenue-generating. With over 650 customers and thousands of projects under its belt, Photon enables large Fortune 500’s and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) alike to leverage these new age internet technologies. Since its inception in 1999, Photon has focused on the internet domain and has helped customers cross the “Technology

Social Media Framework Photon’s Social Media Framework (www.socialmediaframework.com) incor-

and delivery model that makes it easy and affordable for midsize companies to implement and quickly realize the benefits of running their business on SAP solutions. “Optimal’s FlexChoice Advantage makes it quick, easy and affordable for midsize companies to benefit from industry best practices based on SAP’s more than 35 years of experience. It’s the perfect low-risk, high-reward scenario,” said Gurvendra Suri, CEO of Optimal Solutions. “We’re confident our subscription-based, on-demand deliver model exemplifies the future of how midsize companies will purchase and implement SAP.” With over 15 years of experience and a 100 percent satisfied base of clients, Optimal has the proven SAP experience, talent and resources to help companies transform any SAP challenge into a sustainable, competitive edge. porates best practices honed through successful execution of social media and mobile projects in over 150 customers and inSrinivas Balasubramanian tegrates with and leverages a company’s existing infrastructure enabling active collaboration.

Photon Mobile Lab Photon’s Mobile Lab is designed to serve a diversified market with complex network/device conditions simulating a variety of user experiences in over 300 phones across dozens of networks globally, the lab facilitates application porting (across mobile Operating Systems like iphone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Symbian and Android) and testing. Photon’s growth is based on customer relationships with flexible engagement models. With over 1000 consultants Photon is headquartered in Chennai and has two development facilities at Chennai and Bangalore and several sales offices in U.S. si siliconindia

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IT SERVICES

IT SERVICES

SRA SYSTEMS: Agile and Reliable Software

A

and Engineering Services

n optimum sized organization assessed at SEI CMM Level 4, SRA Systems (www.srasys. com) offers the agility of a small organization with the reliability and capability of a large organization. SRA has been serving customers in the U.S. since 1996 offering custom software development, migration and re-engineering, maintenance, and quality assurance services. The company employs around 300 professionals.

The company’s portfolio of products and services include the following: 1. Application Development and Maintenance a. Re-engineering & Migration, New development, and Maintenance for enterprises. b. Product Co-development and

I

support for independent software vendors 2. Business Intelligence & ERP This is founded during their S. Srinivasan partnership deal with SAP (Business Objects Solution Provider and SAP Extended Business Partner) and Microsoft. 3. Business Process Management PROOF – our BPM framework – has been used successfully at organizations like FORD, Siemens, BMW, and Compucredit to automate processes, manage documents, and interface with enterprise applications including SAP, MFG Pro, and Peoplesoft. In addition to using the BPM framework, company is adept at designing and implementing solutions around Microsoft technologies (Biztalk, MOSS) and IBM Filenet.

4. Engineering Services CAD, CAE, Rapid prototyping, and Non-destructive testing services for the manufacturing industry

There are several engagement options, that the company provides A. Team XTend: Provide resources that function as an extended arm of the customer. B. Turnkey Projects: Assume complete responsibility for delivery of a solution as conceived by the customer C. Software Solutions: Provide the entire solution in Business Process Management, and Business Intelligence technology areas where SRA has significant expertise and customizable frameworks. The company has a significant presence in the U.S. and offer an appropriate blend of onsite, offsite, and offshore team members.

n this era of competition, Symbi- businesses. The company’s growth can exchange. It also entered into engageoun’s objective is to deliver cost be attributed to its unique business ment to provide its asset tracking solueffective and innovative solutions model, which is a ‘train and transfer’ tion ‘LOCATE’ to RRB Energy, which structure, making it feasible engages in the field of wind power gento its customers and partto provide an around-the- eration in India. This GPS solution will ners, with a passion for help RRB Energy monitor the moveclock service to its clients. excellence. Symbioun Technologies is a softSymbioun: Moving Ahead with Passion ware development and services company According to the com- ment of its freight across the country. founded in 1993 and Symbioun’s prestigious clientele inpany, it provides outstanding headquartered in Atlanta, experience in custom data- cludes BB&T, Amherst Security, BestGeorgia with a global debase development, desktop Work DATA, WebGen Corporation, velopment center in India. Victor Kannan and distributed application TIBCO, Cognizant, and many more in Symbioun’s IT outsourcing services include application devel- design as well as various custom soft- the U.S., India and other countries. opment – designing, developing, ware components and web-project pro- Symbioun currently has 120 employees testing and implementing new appli- gramming. Symbioun has skilled in the company and expects to grow. Surging ahead in the market with cations, software testing, onsite con- resources both in J2EE and Misulting, mobile applications, product crosoft.NET including the Web serv- passion, Symbioun envisages to be recognized as a premier technology enabler development by leveraging on the off- ices, Spring framework and EJB. shore engagement model. Revv Mobile, the latest offering that provides cost effective, innovative Emulating the effective processes of from the Symbioun stable, is an m-com- solutions to its clients. As a mid-sized larger software services companies merce product from Symbioun Mobile IT consulting firm, the company affirms without their huge IT budgets, Symbi- designed to help retailers stay on top of that it knows the challenges of competoun uses Agile Methodology to deliver consumers mind via mobile brochures, ing with bigger organizations to win in high performance solutions for smaller mobile coupons and mobile promotion the market and establish its presence. si siliconindia

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TekLink

Success through a Recession Proof Consulting Model

T

ekLink International may not be as big as IT Professional Services behemoths IBM, Accenture, Tata Consulting Services, Fujitsu or SAP, but they have been beating them in the marketplace for years. “We have more SAP experience and better resources than our competition,” explains TekLink International CEO, Pankaj Gupta. In addition to TekLink’s experience, their flexibility in servicing clients without a sacrifice in quality has helped ensure a 100 percent client retention rate since the company’s foundation in 2003.

Founded by it’s CEO, Pankaj Gupta, TekLink has grown to 60 consultants by targeting a handful of key SAP Pankaj Gupta a p p l i c a t i o n s . SAP Business Intelligence including SAP’s Business Warehouse, BusinessObjects and Outlooksoft are the company’s calling card. Beyond SAP Business Intelligence, TekLink has expanded into CRM, Basis and offshore services, while planning to foray into mobile applications through its Blackberry and iPhone SAP BI applications. With offices in Chicago, India and Melbourne, Australia, TekLink has grown at over 60 percent rate since 2003. TekLink generates its revenue by providing direct SAP consulting services to clients and not as a staff augmentation firm to the Big 4. “I am not

Vernalis Systems

V

interested in training consultants on my dime, and at the end of the day wondering where is my value? In contrast, TekLink has SAP experts at a value that others can‘t match,” said Shouvik Dutta, CIO at one of TekLink’s clients. TekLink’s leadership is composed of former SAP Platinum consultants and Business Leaders. This leadership allows TekLink, even in this current economic recession, to add a new client every month. While most consulting firms are struggling to lessen losses and stem the tide of layoffs, TekLink instead expects to increase it’s revenue this year and has in fact hired into the recession with their long term approach and philosophy. TekLink International expects to buck the current recessionary trends by exceeding last years revenue targets and exceeding the $10 million revenue mark in 2009.

Software Customized with Implementation at its Best ernalis Systems is a global IT Services company with a proven track record in developing and implementing custom software for global Fortune 500 companies. Vernalis Systems was founded in 1999 and has grown tremendously over the past ten years. They are conveniently located in the major global commerce centers of North America, Europe and Asia. Vernalis Systems’s vast business exposure, proven development process and technology acumen allows them to develop software that fit the expanse of their client’s imagination. Their expertise span all major technologies and all major mediums: web, mobile and desktop. Vernalis Systems also offers a line of products focused on increasing efficiencies for global enterprises.

As Bala Chandra, CEO, indicates, “We firmly believe software, designed intelligently, is a powerful force in positively impacting a company’s bottom line. This is a philosophy we employ with our execution Bala Chandra processes as well as the guiding principle used in developing a suite of products that improve our client’s business processes.” The product offering include Collabria, Aebria and Executive Binder. Collabria ensures that the business applications are articulated, designed, viewed and tested, securely by the entire project team. With Aebria, customers have a web-

based product that positions them to easily manage projects, schedules, resources, billing and deliverables. Executive Binder is a product that resides on mobile devices that connects company executives with key reports and metrics in real time – the information is easily viewable from the convenience of their mobile device. With Vernalis Systems, clients gain a strategic technology partner committed to helping them meet their unique business and technology objectives, on time and on budget. Their solutions are designed to help a company empower employees and to improve operations, sales, service and customer loyalty. si siliconindia

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IT SERVICES

VEDICSOFT: Etching its Footprint in

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Business Intelligence

ounded in 1999 by Bhat Dittakavi and Venkat Yerubandi, Vedicsoft is a provider of IT services and business solutions in business intelligence (BI). Having built a ten year niche in BI domain, today Vedicsoft is a leading choice for large clients with diversified data analytics needs. While its business intelligence solutions address complex issues by providing knowledge users with easy access to the right information through business analytics, at any time, from any place within the organization, its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions attempts to integrate all departments and functions across a company into a single computer system that can serve all their needs.

Listen to what its clients have to say, and it becomes clear why its services are the preferred choice among clients. One of the most-admired fortune Pharma clients said of its experience with Vedicsoft, “Their experience in Business Intelligence has enabled our projects team to successfully deliver the results in time. Vedicsoft is very good at delivering their direct employees for our sourcing opportunities in a very short notice.” Headquartered in New Jersey, the company’s biggest differentiating point, according to Dittakavi and Yerubandi, is its employees. “We have over 300 clients in the form of our talent workers. They are our clients, our products and our brand ambassadors.” Vedicsoft provides in-

Top 5 FINANCIAL SERVICES Venkat Yerubandi

Bhat Dittakavi

dustry-specific custom BI solutions to its customers in life sciences, healthcare, Insurance, Telecom, Government, Retail, Energy & Utilities and Travel industries. Some of their customers include Abbot Laboratories, J.Crew, Pepsi, Corning and Wyndham just to name a few. Over the years, the company has experienced substantial growth and improvement in the areas of product and service offerings, employee recruitment, retention, and client satisfaction scores. Today, despite all the success that has come its way; it continues to strive to identify ways to improve its services.

WELLCORE:

Old Age Revitalized with Technology

I

Vijay Nadkarni

n 2007, while researching on solutions that could help him take care of his aging relatives in India, Vijay Nadkarni, Founder, President and CEO of Wellcore Corporation was amazed at the lack of suitable products in the market for remote monitoring. He founded Wellcore Corporation (formerly Laburnum Networks) with the objective of not only meeting a critical market need, but also making the world a better place for advancing baby boomers and seniors. Nadkarni got Jeetendra Jangle, a brilliant engineering head from his past company siliconindia

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to join him as Co-Founder, and subsequently they built team at Wellcore. Wellcore builds a revolutionary product line for the remote monitoring of individuals, with an unparalleled ability to detect, interpret and even predict their safety, wellness and lifestyle metrics accurately. A wirelessly enabled system based on sensitive miniature sensors, Wellcore applies novel signal processing technology they have invented to assess human wellness characteristics – round the clock (indoor and outdoor) reliably. Filling a critical need that exists in the industry, the system has received rave reviews from third parties. Wellcore’s business plan and product were so compelling, they re-

ceived multiple term sheets from VCs in May/June 2009 for their Series A funding, during the most difficult period to raise money. They closed their Series A round with Menlo Ventures, among the industry’s most elite VC firms, with DuBose Montgomery, the founder and head of Menlo, and an icon of the VC industry on Wellcore’s Board of Directors. A graduate of IIT Bombay, with an MBA from Northwestern (Kellogg), Nadkarni earlier co-founded ipVerse (later Veraz) which went public in early 2007. He hopes that Wellcore will play a small but meaningful role in the revamping of the healthcare system, providing independence and security to the aging population. si

NAME

FOUNDER(S)

FOUNDED

DESCRIPTION

Headstrong Washington DC headstrong.com

S an d e e p S a h a i CEO

1981

A global consulting and It services company that applies its expertise in business processes and technology for the financial sector, Headstrong has over 2000 employees.

Collabera Morristown, NJ collabera.com

H i t e n Pa t e l Chairman

1991

Helps clients in sectors like Financial services, manufacturing & retail, technology and communications. The company headcount is 4000.

Lance Soft Herndon, VA lancesoft.com

R am K a r u p p u s a m y CEO

2000

Its rich banking experience helps tackle the challenge of executing and monitoring thousands of transactions that require real time updating. The firm has over 500 employees.

Real Soft Inc Cranbury, NJ realsoftinc.com

R aj a n D e s a i Founder & CEO

1991

Proven track record in the financial sector has motivated it to specialize in all aspects of Brokerage, Investment Management, Insurance & Banking activities. It has over 800 employees globally.

US Tech Solutions Jersey City, NJ ustechsolutions.com

Ma n o j A g a r wa l President

2000

A global consulting and IT services firm, whose team of experts has successfully executed customized solutions in some of the most complex production environments for the world's best known security companies. It has over 700 employees worldwide.

Wavesat: A Pioneer to be on 4G

A

t the forefront of leading edge 4G technology, Canadian chip firm Wavesat is a company that has for the past nine years focused solely on OFDM and OFDMA technology giving it a very strong foundation in 4G. A provider of advanced semiconductor solutions to some of the world’s leading carrier and mobile device manufacturers to deploy future-proof broadband services and products, Wavesat is well ahead in terms of technology. Founded in 1993, the company developed amplifiers for satellite communication. “Five years later, when WiMAX buzz was all around and the confusions about deployment of Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) protocols was looming large, Wavesat had already been producing

OFDMA solutions for several years unlike its competitors,” says Raj Singh, CEO, Wavesat. OFDMA standards were adopted in the military point-to-point deployments and Wavesat developed chips for the same and already had the first OFDM chip in the market. “And it was easy for us to go for WiMAX deployments,” says Raj Singh, CEO, Wavesat. Today, Wavesat makes multi-protocol chip sets that can process signals from a variety of 4G cellular networks compatible with wireless radio protocols such as LTE, WiMax Wave2, XGP. It’s relevant and sophisticated algorithmic experience met the needs of the 4G technology market, and Raj Singh enabled its mathematicians

WIRELESS and physicists to adapt easily to a standards-based 4G world. When Raj joined the company, he repositioned the company to focus on 4G, and tweaked its products to run on multiple protocols. Now, Wavesat’s products enable system makers to cut down the R&D costs. If a system vendor adopts multiple protocols, it would help him in going to multiple markets and not having to rethink about customizing it for each market. One of its latest offering is the LTE chipset (Odyssey 9000 family of 4G Broadband Wireless chipsets) featuring 100 Mb/s downlink capability, which it showcased at the 4G World in Chicago last month. Having reached a mature stage with 85 employees, Wavesat looks forward to go public within the next three years. si siliconindia

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Top 5

Top 10 WIRELESS

OUTSOURCED PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

NAME

FOUNDER(S)

FOUNDED

DESCRIPTION

Ambient Cambridge, MA ambientdevices.com

Pr i t e s h G a n dh i Founder & COO

2001

Provider of solutions to offer wireless products. The company headcount is around 50.

Alyus Networks Westford, MA alyus.com

Sh a m i m N a qv i Founder & CEO

2005

Provides multimedia sharing solutions for mobile networks. Matrix Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners are its investors. It has around 200 employees.

Altierre San Jose, CA altierre,com

Su n i t S a x e n a President & CEO

2002

Provider of digital signage and pricing solutions for retailers, provides singleplatform hardware, software and other IT solutions that enable RF-based applications. Its investors include ATA Ventures, The D.E.Shaw Group and DuPont Capital Management. The company headcount is around 50.

Brovis Sunnyvale, CA brovis.com

M u t h u Lo g a n President & CEO

2003

The equipment developer and manufacturer of radio based hardware and software for providing integrated and standards based broadband wireless access systems. The company headcount is around 50.

Jasper Wireless Sunnyvale, CA

J a h a n g i r M o h am m e d Founder & CEO

Stoke Santa Clara, CA stoke.com

Vi k a s Va r ma CEO

Tenxc Ottawa, Canada tenxc.com

2004

It enables mobile network operators with platform, applications, and design services to serve the emerging machine-to-machine and embedded devices markets.Benchmark Capital , Sequoia Capital and Bridgescale Partners are among its investors. The company headcount is 100.

2004

Develops mobile broadband gateways specifically engineered to enable mobile and converged network operators to maximize the economic returns of their 3G mobile networks and migrate to 4G technologies. Its investors include Sequoia Capital, Integral Capital Partners, Pilot House Ventures and many more. It has around 200 employees.

Ra j iv Pa n c h o l i Chairman & CEO

2002

Delivers radio frequency solutions for wireless mobility networks and evolution to broadband. It offers wideband Bi sector array solution for band networks; PCS Bi sector array solution for PCS networks; and DCS Bi sector array solution for DCS networks. Employs: About 50.

Varaha Dallas, TX varaha.com

J o g e n Pa t h a k Founder & CEO

2003

Provider of fixed-mobile convergence solutions for enterprises and small and medium-sized businesses through channels and service providers. The company headcount is 42.

Wavesat San Mateo, CA wavesat.com

Ra j Si n g h President & CEO

1993

A provider of semiconductor solutions that delivers silicon that enables its customers to deploy multiple broadband wireless technologies such as wiMAX, Wave 2, WiFi, and XG-PHS. It has over 70 employees.

Savari Networks Sanata Clara, CA savarinetworks.com

Ra v i Pu v v a l a CEO

2008

A solution provider for mobilizing the intelligent transportation systems that help improve mobility, safety and e-payment applications like open road tolling. The company headcount is 20.

jasperwireless.com

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NAME

Corbus Dayton, OH corbus.com Global Logic Vienna, VA globallogic.com Impetus San Jose, CA impetus.com

FOUNDER(S)

FOUNDED

DESCRIPTION

R aj e s h K S o i n President & CEO

1994

Specializes in optimizing client's supply chain management through best in class SCM and IT outsourcing services.

S h a s h a n k Sa m a n t President

2000

Provides full product development lifecycle services to start-ups, emerging and established technology companies. Employs: About 3000

1991

A product engineering services company, that provides outsourced software product design, R&D, and related services to leading global software product companies. The company has about 1100 employees.

Pr a v e e n K a n k a r i y a

Rave Technologies New York, NY rave-tech.com

A n a d J h a v er i Founder, Cairman & CEO

1987

Provides product engineering service to ISV/software companies. The company employs over 300 people.

V2Solutions Santa Clara, CA v2solutions.com

V ij a y S ha h Founder & CEO

2003

Headquartered in California, V2Solutions is a company specializes in providing custom-built software solutions.

F

V2 Solutions: Delivering Optimum Satisfaction through Product Development or the third year running, Silicon Valley-based V2Solutions has made it to our Si100 list. We take a closer look at how V2Solutions has established its name by bringing innovative software products to market in less time and cost by its Founder CEO Vijay Shah. On one hand, we have the highly research intensive achievements undertaken by corporate biggies and on the other, we have the innovation and distinctive approach of a young firm bringing real difference in software development arena. The impact created by either cannot be ignored. This is not necessarily about creating globally renowned products but about amalgamating innovative ideas into simple and effective software products. Not surprisingly, there was the draught of these young players. Players whose product development methodology coupled with their state of innovating would bring in a sense of ease for the buyers, who look out

for a vendor that value their needs not as a hard core seller rather as a partner. Shah realized the gap and with his prior entrepreneurial expertise delved into the Outsourced product development sphere with his V2Solutions team. Maintaining versions, supporting feature requests, keeping up with technology and upfront investments as a bet of strength of idea and implementation, always makes software product development exciting but a challenging line of business. “We understood the importance of time-to-market, a need to introduce new products in untapped markets and innovate to improve. This helped us to be amongst the first to move to identify and leverage the market need for Product Engineering Services oppor-

tunity,” Shah said. Founded in 2003, V2Solutions’ strength lies in customer satisfaction as its entire line of businesses have moved forward through customer references. The expertise of a 450 member team has enabled the company to offer services Vijay Shah across Application development, Cloud offerings, Mobile Application development and Digital Content. Organizations across the globe are still struggling to decide and inculcate the habit of developing innovative ideas into products / solutions. V2Solutions unleashes this hidden potential of technology modernization and leverages the customer needs to consider outsourcing more critical and complex business processes to its benefit. si siliconindia

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F

Top 10 MOBILE NAME

FOUNDER(S)

Cellspin San Jose, CA cellspin.net

B o b b y Gu r v in d e r S i n gh CEO

2006

Develops mobile applications that enables users to share photos, videos, audio and text using internet. Privately held, it has received a private funding of $1 million

DeviceAnywhere San Mateo, CA deviceanywhere.com

Fa r a z A . S y e d CEO & Co-Founder

2003

Privately-held, remote mobile application testing company. Primary investors include Motorola Ventures and France Telecom’s venture subsidy Innovacom.

Mavenir Systems Richardson, TX mavenir.com

P a rd e e p K o h l i President & CEO

2005

Provides mobile convergence applications and solutions to mobile operators. The company is funded by Alloy Ventures, Austin Ventures and North Bridge Venture Partners.

Mformation Technologies Edison, NJ mformation.com

Ra k e sh K u s h w a h a CTO & Co-founder

1999

Provides mobile device management solutions to mobile operators around the globe. Its customers list includes Telefonica, Sprint, T Mobile and Vodafone

Moremagic Newton, MA moremagic.com

Pa n k a j G u l a t i CEO & Chairman

2001

Offers electronic payments platforms for mobile operators, content providers, distributors, and banks.Privately held and funded by Battery Ventures, Vision Capital, and Liberty Mutual.

Mywaves Sunnyvale, CA mywaves.com

R a j e e v R am a n CEO & Founder

2005

Provides online mobile video services to mobile phone users. The company is funded by Menlo Ventures. The firm has about 40 employees.

Nexage Waltham, MA nexage.com

De v ku m a r G a n dh i CEO & Founder

2005

Developer of mobile advertising solutions that enable companies to maximize ad revenue from their mobile properties. Some of the company's customers are CBS, Divx and Versaly Entertainment

Openstream Somerset, NJ openstream.com

Ra j Tu mu l u r i President & CEO

1997

A mobile solutions and multi-modal software platform provider for enterprises. Some of the customers are Verizon, Alcatel USA, IBM, UBS, Broadsoft and Interwave.

Skava San Francisco, CA skava.net

A r i sh A li CEO

2002

Privately held and provides strategy and execution to brands, retailers and content owners to reach out to consumers across social sites, widgets and mobile devices.

TeleDNA Bellevue, WA teledna.com

Pr a v e e n N a l la p o t h u la MD & CEO

2001

A mobile VAS focused company developing and marketing VAS infrastructure products like SMSC, MMSC, CBC and SDP along with a bundled VAS application platform called mZone. Some of its customers are BSNL, MTNL, and Emtel.

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FOUNDED

DESCRIPTION

MOBILE

TAS) delivers converged ounded in 2005 by voice services over an all IP entrepreneurs having core network to both IMS several years of exand non-IMS mobiles, perience in the telecommubroadband devices and nications field, today Femtocells. Mavenir Systems provides The company that commobile operators the power petes with players like Ericto deliver better communisson and Alcatel feels that cation experience to their the approach it takes to deusers. velop new products is its The company, which differentiating factor. “Most was co-founded by Pardeep Pardeep Kohli of these companies develop Kohli, Pulin Patel, Achal new products, which are Patel and Rashad Ali offers evolution of their existing mobile convergence solu- Driving the products, but we do it from tions. These solutions can enable mobile operators to Growth of Mobile scratch and offer greater flexibility,” says Pardeep offer subscribers new and Operators Kohli, the CEO. According enhanced voice and messaging services on mobile devices. The to him, the solutions by the competitors converged voice solutions can enable de- don’t offer enough flexibility to the operalivery of Mobile VoIP services, over any tors to change as per the trends. Mavenir mobile access, without having to imple- has four customers globally including Viment an overlay IP Core. The company’s ettel in Vietnam and Cellcom in the USA. Mobile Telephony Application Server (M- The other two are unannounced Tier 1 mo-

bile operators in USA and Europe. The company also provides converged messaging solutions that can deliver cost savings to operators, by increasing capacity of SMS networks and can also increase usage by adding new services to monetize the explosive growth in the messaging market.The combined solution accelerates the transition from legacy messaging silos to a converged, all IP messaging core. The company, which is funded by Alloy Ventures, Austin Ventures and North Bridge Venture Partners has a total employee count of 150. Apart from the mobile solutions, the Richardson, Texas-based company also offers a hardware platform called Mavenir mOne Convergence Platform. The platform can enable operators to accelerate the launch of IMS services including Instant Messaging and Presence based on OMA SIMPLE standards. With the mobile market booming around the globe, Mavenir intends to grab this growing market opportunity in the future by offering the best solutions to the operators.

O

Wide Web consortium’s Multimodal Interaction Framework (W3C MMI) architecture, a standard that Openstream co-authored, that provides portability, inter-operability across many devices, interaction-modes, languages and systems. Cue-me applications developed once can run on many popular mobile devices without re-authoring for those platforms. While continuing its focused research on improving accuracy and usability of mobile applications using multimodality, Openstream also offers and hosts its open authoring platform and tools for Enterprises and Independent Software Vendors ( ISVs) to develop the multimodal enterprise solutions. Openstream’s clients include leading Energy and Utilities, Telecom and Media Services, Financial, Healthcare and Pharmaceutical companies as well a partner eco-system of third-party application developers and device manufacturers. si

Mavenir:

Openstream: Effective Enterprise Mobility through Multimodality

penstream was an si100 company in 2008. Back then, Openstream was sufficiently confident to predict its growth as well as the trends in the mobile technology evolution. While enterprises across the industries are quick to realize the need to go beyond email access on mobile devices to drive productivity gains in the field, the challenges of viewing on a smallscreen and cumbersome keypad input have limited the scale and success of mobile solutions. Founded in 1997 by Raj Tumuluri, Openstream has been a pioneer in multimodal mobile platform and solutions for enterprises, that help connect people, systems and information to improve productivity, provide better intelligence and control, for the employees and customers who are on the move.

Openstream’s cue-me™ multimodal client together Raj Tumuluri with Smart Messaging Platform (SMP) server provide a compelling solution that overcomes the challenges of on-the-move input/output using mobile devices, thus improving userexperience for any application. The ‘multi-modal’ approach allows users to combine spoken commands with touch-interaction to fill forms, capture images and annotations, as well as access information/web on demand. For example, user can simply speak their queries and hear the responses read out by the system, thus overcoming the challenges of reading from a small screen device while on the move. The cue-me platform has an extensible, event driven architecture with its design principles and markup based on the World

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MOBILE

Praveen Nallapothula

TeleDNA: Platform

Play for the Mobile Messaging and Content Services Tsunami

W

hen TeleDNA’s CEO Praveen Nallapothula says “We are the DNA for next generation mobile networks,” he means it. Founded in 2001, TeleDNA is getting into the league of providing mobile VAS platforms to tier 1 customers like T-Mobile, AT&T after successfully providing high performance platforms in India for tier 1 complex

F

or more than 10 years, companieslarge and small, have been betting that chip design must move from RTL to a higher level of abstraction (software). However, the real opportunity is to allow software designers – with little or no knowledge of hardware — to easily implement their algorithms into hardware. Recently companies like Xilinx have seized on this opportunity. And AutoESL Design Technologies’foray into the market, as a key enabler, was apt at this point. Being in the market, when the need was felt for the electronic system level design, helped AutoESL to rope in smart investors like Adams Capital and Xilinx. The former saw the opportunity in the realm and the latter was ensured that through AutoESL, its customers will have their hands on the best solution. AutoESL, founded in 2006, strengthsiliconindia

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network operators like BSNL, Aircel, Uninor and Vodafone. With lower tariffs and increasing adoption of mobile messaging and content, there has been an increasing burden on mobile networks from the explosion in data usage. “Today’s mobile operators need better platforms to manage their growing messaging and content traffic,” says Nallapothula. TeleDNA’s platforms are built to exactly do that. A supplier of technology enabling messaging and content services, TeleDNA has over 45 installations globally, including highly complex Tier 1 network environments. Its VAS infrastructure products like SMSC, MMSC, CBC and SDP along with a bundled Innovative VAS Application Platform (mZone) ensure substantial savings on the operational cost for the operators. TeleDNA also provides Managed Services to enhance VAS revenues for operators at no CAPEX

and OPEX thereby increasing the bottom line revenue for operators. To be successful in the VAS space, Nallapothula believes that keeping an eye on the trends in the marketplace is a must. Take for instance, the U.S. Federal Government’s regulation making it mandatory for network operators in the U.S. to deploy cell broadcast-based services (CBS) as it is convenient to broadcast public messages at times of calamity or emergency. Business managers at wireless operators did not think they could generate a profit with a onedirectional, subscription-less broadcast service. Nallapothula is now actively engaged in dialogue with several operators in the U.S. for deployment of TeleDNA’s CBS platform. Having worked in Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group for more than a decade before founding TeleDNA, Nallapothula can definitely understand his customers’ environment, which makes it easy for him to beat the competition.

AutoESL:

SEMICONDUCTOR

Redefining Concurrent Design of Hardware and Software

ened its position adopting technology from UCLA where exciting research Atul Sharan under Professor Jason Cong (Chairman, UCLA CS Dept.) led to a commercially viable solution. “We have some advantages that all the earlier companies failed to recognize,” says Atul Sharan, President and CEO of AutoESL. The unique architecture of AutoESL’s solutions can take any software language as input. It’s the only solution that combines native area, performance and power optimization for the best results in hand-coded RTL implementations. This helps customers grab the best quality of results and reduced time to market. “Start-ups have become a tough

business where you build the company by solving real customer problems, with differentiated technology, on a shoestring and count your pennies at the end of each day,” Sharan says. AutoESL is focused on being cash flow positive with the least amount of money in the shortest amount of time. Their strong R&D team in China has helped to keep the cash flow under control and still create the best products. With customers like Microsoft, Broadcom, Raytheon and Xilinx. AutoESL is posied to break out into the mainstream. Sharan’s past experience as an entrepreneur, venture-capitalist, whereby he had to deal with a wide variety of people and technologies aided him in making the right decisions, in a tough economic environment. si

Top 10 SEMICONDUCTOR NAME

FOUNDER(S)

Arasan Chip Systems San Jose, CA arasan.com

A r as an G a n e sa n CEO

1995

Provider of reusable Intellectual Property (IP) cores for the electronic design community including BUS interfaces. Some of its licensees include Intel, TI, Freescale and Broadcom.

Atrenta San Jose, CA atrenta.com

A j o y Bo s e Chairman, President & CEO

2001

Provider of Early Design Closure solutions to improve design efficiency throughout the IC design flow. Some of its customers are LG Electronics, Mentor Graphics and STMicroelectronics

AutoESL Cupertino, CA autoesl.com

At u l S h a ra n President & CEO

2006

A privately held company providing platform-based communication-centric Electronic System Level (ESL) synthesis tools for integrated circuits and systems. Funded by Adams Capital and Xilinx.

Berkeley Design Automation Santa Clara, CA berkeley-da.com

R av i S u b r a m an i an President & CEO

2003

Venture backed semiconductor company that designs technology for analog, RF, and mixed-signal integrated circuit verification. The company is funded by Bessemer Venture Partners, Woodside Fund, Panasonic and NTT.

e-Infochips Sunnyvale, CA einfochips.com

Pr a t u l S h r o f f CEO

1995

Offers IPs and services in software products and applications, embedded system and ASIC/FPGA. Some of its partners are Cadence, Mentor Graphics and Synopsys.

Vi j a y Pa rm ar President & CEO

2006

Provides an ultra low power Wi-Fi single chip solution for battery-powered or energy-harvesting-based sensor applications. Funded by Intel Capital, New Venture Partners, Opus Capital, OVP, Sigma Partners and CampVentures.

nSys Newark, CA nsysinc.com

At u l B h at i a CEO

2001

Provides verification IPs and also leverages them to offer verification services that accelerate designs of customers developing ASIC,SoC or FPGA. It has tie-ups with Mentor Graphics, Cadence and Synopsys.

Nusym Los Gatos, CA nusym.com

Ve nk a t e sh S hu k l a President & CEO

2004

Provides rapid verification closure solutions that leverage design insight to reduce time and effort needed to develop confidence in the design. The company is backed by investors that include Voyager Capital, Woodside Fund, Draper Richards and Simmons Goodspeed Investment Management. The company headcount is 30.

Sankalp Semiconductor Fremont, CA sankalpsemi.com

Vi v e k Pa w a r CEO

2006

An Analog, Mixed Signal and RF semiconductor service provider with the mission to serve worldwide customers with benchmark quality and time to market by means of innovative methodology and automation.

SiliconBlue Santa Clara, CA siliconbluetech.com

K ap il S ha n k a r CEO & Founder

2005

Offers low power FPGA devices for designing handheld applications and mobile applications. Funded by Bluerun Ventures, Crosslink Capital, NEA and TSMC.

GainSpan San Jose, CA gainspan.com

FOUNDED

DESCRIPTION

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SEMICONDUCTOR

Berkeley: Driving Attention

he different analogies on the advantage of digital over analog are marred by the fact that without analog the digital world would not exist. This has spelled sucthe life of today’s designers of cess for California-based complex analog and RF mixed Berkeley Design AutomationRavi Subbramanium signal integrated circuits. The a leader in design technology best example would be Berkefor advanced analog, RF and ley’s Analog FastSPICE (AFS), a unified mixed signal integrated circuits. “As the circuit verification platform. The platform world gets digital the paradox is that there enables analog, mixed-signal, and RF deis more of analog,” says Ravi Subbramasign teams to verify within a single exenium, CEO, Berkeley. For instance, be it cutable implementation, which would the audio or the display or the memory peotherwise require numerous simulators. ripherals of an iPhone, analog is an essenThe company has contributed signifitial component. cantly to advancing the digital consumer Circuit analysis technology developed electronics and wireless industries through by Berkeley provides fast and accurate its FastSPICE versions like the Analog noise analysis for current and future anaFastSPICE Nano. The company is recoglog/RF circuits. The accurate analysis eases nized as one of the top 200 influencers in

to Analog in a Digital World

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the wireless industry. Majority of the company’s revenues are generated from the wireless and digital consumer markets. Some of its customers include Qualcomm, Fujitsu, Texas Instruments, Broadcom, Samsung, Penasonic and NXP Semiconductors. Founded by Amit Mehrotra and Amit Narayan in 2003, Berkeley is funded by Bessemer Venture Partners, Woodside Fund, Panasonic, and NTT. Within the six years of establishment, the EDA firm has tapped over 50 customers and partners, including twelve of world’s top 20 semiconductor companies and eight of Japan’s top 10 consumer-electronic companies.

point, and makes it uniquely placed for future scalability. for Analog & Mixed Signal Services & Solutions Today, Sankalp is engaged with some challenging chip design projankalp Semiconductor is an ana- Sankalpites at multiple ects in analog and mixed signal log/mixed signal/RF semiconductor sites. space that include areas like ADC, Sankalp Semiconducservice provider that provides servDAC, Filter, DC-DC converter, ices to some of the largest semiconductor tor holds a unique ability to Vivek Pawar LDO, IO cells, PLL and DLL. Encompanies in the world. Sankalp was tackle complex design/laygineers at Sankalp are focused on founded in 2005 by Vivek Pawar, who is out challenges by means of providing analog and mixed signal design also the CEO of the company, along with a state-of-the-art methodology. “With the service and solutions to IC manufacturers team of industry experts. Sankalp’s mis- evolution of the System-on-Chip (SoC), by using their expertise, innovative sion is to create a world-class technology new doors have opened for chip designers methodology and automation. Sankalp has hub of mixed-signal semiconductor serv- and we plan to tap this opportunity,” exexecuted projects in 180 nm to 45 nm ices and solutions . There are three key as- plains Pawar. Working on a complex area process nodes and recently started workpects by which the mission is being such as analog and mixed signal design ing on 32 nm chips as well. Sankalp is in accomplished. First, work from second means there should be checklists at each the process of adding Board design, Test tier cities of India, which provides a bal- stage to ensure quality and avoid iterations and Characterization to its list of services. anced life-work environment allowing en- due to errors. Methodologies are develSankalp is steadily growing with ergy to be spent on deep technical issues. oped for the various stages of design/layout three of its customers being world’s top Second, attract proven technical leaders and reviews are conducted to ensure con10 semiconductor companies and with with entrepreneurial zeal to join Sankalp as sistency of the output quality irrespective addition of many more blue chip compapartners, giving them complete freedom of the person doing the work. One of the nies to its clientele. Last year it won the to define their own destiny. Third, work key challenges for the Semiconductor Inaward for being one of the highest exclosely with some of the topmost colleges dustry in India is to enable career growth in the country by being physically close to for employees . While the top priority for porters from Karnataka. “With our trainthe college campus – this takes care of every Sankalpite is to achieve highest level ing programs and strategies, we hope to scalability and forward looking ecosystem of customer satisfaction , company fo- distinguish ourselves as a scalable worldcreation across diverse job domains. In re- cuses a lot on internal structure to ensure class technology provider with a proven cent years Sankalp has strengthened its po- employee satisfaction . A five percent at- edge in technical competency,” says Mrisi sition in the industry and employs 93 trition rate over four years highlights the nal Das, VP of Engineering.

Sankalp Semiconductor : Creating an Ecosystem

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Top 10 INTERNET NAME

FOUNDER(S)

FOUNDED DESCRIPTION

Chitika Marlborough, MA chitika.com

Ve n k a t Ko ll u r i CEO & Co-Founder

2003

A full-service on-line advertising network. The company is self funded and has about 25 employees.

Dynno Palo Alto, CA dynno.com

Ra j J a s w a CEO, President & Chairman

2007

A provider of software-as-a-service (SaaS) video distribution platform that allows anyone to instantly share live video and rich media with an audience of 1,10 or 10,000 viewers. It is backed by backed by Artiman Ventures and Startup Capital Ventures.

Jivox San Mateo, CA jivox.com

D i a z Ne s a m o n e y Founder, President & CEO

2007

An easy and affordable online video marketing service, funded by Opus Capital and Helion Venture Partners. The company has about 40 employees.

Kaboodle Sunnyvale, CA kaboodle.com

Ma n i s h Ch a n d ra Co-founder & CEO

2005

A social shopping community where people discover, recommend and share products, Kaboodle has been funded by Garage Technology Ventures, Shea ventures amongst others.

KESDEE San Diego, CA kesdee.com

Sw a r n a J e ss i ca S r i n i v a s President

2000

Self funded financial e-learning company, whose customers include the U.S. Federal Reserve System. The firm has over 200 employees.

Lumos Labs San Francisco, CA lumosity.com

Ku n a l S a r k a r Co-founder & Head of Operations

2005

A cognitive neuroscience R&D company that builds software tools for improving brain health and performance, and funded by Norwest Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital & Harrison Metal Capital.

Regalix Palo Alto, CA regalix.com

Vi k a s S h a r a n CEO

2005

Provider of integrated Marketing and Technology solutions providing firm. Its services include search-engine and data-mining, emerging new media such as blogs and podcasts.

Retrevo Sunnyvale, CA retrevo.com

Vi p i n J a i n Co-founder, President & CEO

2005

A shopping site for consumer electronics, funded by Alloy Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners.

Saavn New York, NY saavn.com

Vi n B h a t Co-founder & CEO

2007

Founded with the goal of making bollywood entertainment accessible to people around the world across digital channels, Saavan today has over 25 employees.

Wiziq Concord, NC wiziq.com

H a r ma n S i n g h CEO

2002

An online platform where users can discover, transact and consume educational services. Employs: Around 50.

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INTERNET

Kaboodle: Makes Online Shopping

W

Simple and Fun

ay back in 2004, Manish Chandra and his wife, Asha, got frustrated during the remodeling of their home. They found the process of sharing and discovering new products and retailers that matched their personal taste and style difficult. As it stood, the online shopping platforms were great for price comparisons. But, when it came to shopping for key categories, such as fashion, home and beauty, most sites just compiled product catalogs, leaving people to fend for themselves in a sea of information. Finding and keeping track of one’s favorite products online and deciding what to buy was a painful and inefficient experience. So, in 2005, Manish and CoFounders Keiron McCammon and Chetan Pungaliya, who shared his vision of a new approach to online shopping, got together to transform the process into

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he brain is healthiest when it is active and regularly challenged. Since its formation in the spring of 2005, California based Lumos Labs has consistently focused on researching and developing the most effective cognitive training applications. Kunal Sarkar, Michael Scanlon and David Drescher founded Lumos with a view to promote better brain health, and their first product, Lumosity.com has become the Kunal Sarkar number one online destination for cognitive training and learning games. Lumosity.com is a general brain fitness program consisting of a series of engaging online games and exercises to puzzle the brain. The program has been developed in collaboration with leading scientists in neuroscience, cognitive psychosiliconindia

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November 2009

a more social and much simpler experience. Today, Kaboodle (www. kaboodle.com) is a vibrant social shopping community where people discover, recommend, and share products. Kaboodle’s shopping tools allow users to add products from anywhere online to their Kaboodle lists. As a result, it is home to the world’s most extensive catalog of user-curated products, making it the trusted source for discovering, sharing, and buying products from retailers large and small. With more than 15 million unique monthly visitors and a devoted community perpetually adding more finds, Kaboodle provides the ultimate platform for connecting people with products. In August 2007, Kaboodle was acquired by Hearst Corporation (www.hearst.com), and is part of the

logy, and bioinformatics from Stanford, UCSF and other leading research institutions. Independent research labs at universities and hospitals nationwide continue to collaborate with Lumos Labs to test and hone the effectiveness of the program.

Lumos Labs:

Hearst Magazines Digital Media site network. Speaking about the market opportunity, Manish Chandra says that Kaboodle remains focused on its singular mission to be the key destination for Manish Chandra women to find the best user-curated products in key areas such as fashion, beauty, and home. These are the fastest-growing categories in e-commerce and advertising, with online apparel sales alone crossing $20 billion in revenue. Kaboodle competes with online shopping companies, women-focused sites and other social shopping companies. The company’s unique advantage is based on two pillars – its patented core information extraction technology and its fast-growing community of passionate shoppers. Based in Sunnyvale, CA, the company was rated by comScore in 2009 as one of the top 150 domains in the world.

increased alertness and energy, improved ability to remember names and numbers, better concentration, and elevated mood. The course consists of exercises that are designed to improve a particular area of cognition. Users can follow a guided 40 session complete

Striving to Make a Difference

Speak to any of the users and the success of Lumosity.com is clear. For instance, Alison Badrous, a user of the program says, “Lumosity’s daily training doesn’t take much time. It’s fun, and I can really see an improvement in my ability to think through and quickly understand new processes in my job.” In addition to improvements in working memory and attention, Lumosity.com’s users have also reported

brain fitness course, or they can take charge of the training and directly train in the areas that need the most work. Developed on the basis of existing cognitive training research that emerges from the fields of cognitive psychology and neuroscience, Lumosity.com is a success story, which has clearly achieved what it set out for: Making a difference in the lives of people. si

F

Saavn: Quenching the Global Bollywood Thirst

INTERNET

ounded in 2007 with the goal of making Bollywood entertainment accessible to people around the world across digital channels, Saavn has grown to become one of the largest digital distributors in Bollywood. The New York headquartered firm has a catalog of 300 Bollywood films, 300,000 music tracks, 20,000 music videos and around 80 percent of all new releases. Users can access the content in three ways, viz., a third-party distribution network comprising 75 Vin Bhat global media companies like iTunes, Amazon, AT&T, and Verizon Wireless, subscription to content packages, or free viewing of

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content licensed by Saavn. The services are also provided to 19 million cable homes, 250 million mobile subscribers and more than 30 internet services. Co-founded by Vin Bhat and Paramdeep Singh, the company develops products and platforms such as saavn.com, Saavn iPhone applications, the Saavn media player and Saavn Web services for the distribution. And in the last method, the company also works with websites that are interested in having Saavn’s team represent their

WiZiQ: Easy Education Online

iZiQ is an online platform, where users can discover, transact and consume edHarman Singh ucational services. Students can find educational services such as online classes, courses, tests, content, as well as locate educational service providers offering their services both online and offline. Its solutions help the users to convert the files they want to share in an easily shareable format and in minimal required steps. Harman Singh, CEO, WiZiQ.com started the firm in 2002 as a small elearning services company and served clients who needed e-learning projects. Later, he transformed it to an Internet based education company that provides a platform for educa-

tion service providers to build their online learning businesses. The solution provides synchronous and asynchronous teaching through virtual classroom, online tests, content sharing and messaging system. It also allows the administration activities like online classes, tests, educational content, and contact and payment management. The marketing tool integrates teacher profile, public classes, public tests, public content, sharing or inviting contacts and social bookmarking websites posts. The solution enables the students to view and download educational content, bookmark content one wants to study and contact the authors for learning. For the teachers, it enables them to upload, share and embed the content. It also helps the teachers to increase the visibility of their study materials on Google.

advertising inventory to major brands or deploying content transaction services. A joint venture of [212]MEDIA and Hungama Mobile, the company has offices in Mumbai, London, New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto. It also has content partners from whom music and movies and licensing are done including T-Series, Yash Raj, Saregama, Studio 18, Reliance, BIG Pictures, and Venus. In the future, Saavn plans to charge for its content, as well as foray into local and cricket content. Already one of the largest digital distributors of Bollywood content, Saavn is all set to grow bigger with its strategies in place.

The website is free to join, and once joined, one can build educational network by entering subject interests and discover who else on the network shares similar interests. The content which is put on the web can be made semi-permanent and embeddable as objects and links. The biggest of all challenges that WiZiQ faced during the early period and still facing is the adoption of online learning among the consumers. Companies are trying to overcome these challenges by targeting the right markets. Currently, the company is focusing mainly on the U.S. market where broadband penetration is high, but Singh believes that even though the e-learning industry in India is in its infant stage, the segment will have a promising future and 25-30 percent of consumer learning would eventually take place over the Internet. WiZiQ currently has 35 employees and plans to increase the headcount in the areas of development as well as marketing as per need. si siliconindia

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November 2009

si100 SPOTLIGHT: By Zoya Anna Thomas

KESDEE

I

A GLOBAL E-LEARNING PORTAL FOR THE FINANCIAL SECTOR

Swarna Srinivas *

'' & $ $$ ' " #'$ ## #$ $ ' $" !" %"# ' $) # ( ) " ' " " & # $ " # $ #$ $ # ' " $" !" %"# "& " " % $ # # $$ " ' & # #$" & "$ #$ #" & # & " ' " # % $ * % $" !" %" ' " + & )$ & " $ " & "# $ ! )+# " " $ %"$ " (! +# !" # ' " # $ $ "' " # % +$ & # " $$ " "+

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November 2009

n 2006, Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) signed a multiyear contract with KESDEE for licensing KESDEE’s elearning solutions for the training of it’s globally spread staff. The reason for making this choice was clear – KESDEE is the largest financial e-learning company in the world that provides courses customized to customer needs. Today, the SCB employees access its elearning courses through a private label e-learning portal developed by KESDEE, which incorporates the Standard Chartered logo, look, and feel on every screen. All 700 elearning courses of KESDEE are mapped to the competencies that are needed for different employee groups within SCB and have been repackaged accordingly. The San Diego, CA based KESDEE’s off-the-shelf e-learning catalog consists of a comprehensive portfolio of e-learning courses on finance, accounting, insurance, and risk management. Moreover, the company also provides Web based tutorials for certification exams in risk management and financial analysis (ePRM, eFRM, eAPRM, and eCFA among others). What makes this firm a frontrunner is its customized course offerings. For instance, in a case when the client is an India-based company, KESDEE includes case studies from the region and tunes the course material keeping in mind the

regulations prevalent in India and localizes the content to make it relevant to the country. The very fact that the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System uses KESDEE’s elearning portal speaks volumes for the firm. Also, among its clients are prestigious organizations like, J.P. Morgan Chase, the Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, Deloitte, and Citigroup. Leading its highly innovative and specialized team is Swarna Srinivas, a graduate from Harvard University, whose vision is to further expand KESDEE’s global presence. Originally the firm focused only on the B2B market that comprises of enterprise clients. But Swarna led the company’s entry into the B2C markets and has since started a new division that focuses on eCoaches (Web based certification tutorials) and retail sales. A regular face at international business forums, Swarna has had the distinction of being invited to address global conferences. In fact, early this year Swarna was invited to speak at ICELW (International Conference on E-learning in the Workplace) held at Columbia University in New York, where she elaborated on e-learning as a source of value. She has been invited to present a paper titled ‘E-learning: Moving up the Corporate value chain’ at the prestigious Online Educa Berlin 2009.

Value Proposition “I want KESDEE to provide e-learning, not e-reading,” states Swarna. The firm’s state-of-the-art development center in Bangalore has a talented 75member team that consists of instructional design experts, graphic designers, and technical professionals. This team has put together a variety of courses with engaging graphics and interactive simulations. Interactive exercises, quizzes, simulations, graphics, and practical exercises are all key features of the courses, and enhance learning and retention. After all, if the first experience is not positive, the delegate is unlikely to willingly return to e-learning again. According to Swarna, a positive experience will make the learner want more e-learning for future skill development. The quality of KESDEE courses always makes it stand out from the rest. In order to maintain high quality in all its products, Swarna created KESDEE’s Global Network of Experts - a group of leading experts from a broad range of backgrounds and experiences that includes professors, practitioners, consultants, bankers, regulators, writers, and researchers. When developing a new course, the company uses the network to ensure the material is conceptually sound and yet practical. In the fast paced work environment, employees are hard pressed for time and are constantly multi-tasking. That is why the courses are designed to be modular in structure. Swarna says, “These courses are developed to be embedded into work flow to give learning at the point of need.” Delegates may complete a small nugget that takes only 15 minutes. The bottom line is: it can be done as and when needed. Power of Partnerships Another unique thing about KESDEE is that it also develops customized and branded e-learning portals for profes-

sional associations. Institutes of banking, finance, and accountancy and treasury management associations are among its strategic partners. Click on a site that offers KESDEE’s online course material (for example, www.prmia.org), and you’ll see that the look and feel of the site is not that of KESDEE but that of the partner. It constitutes an important marketing strategy for the e-learning solutions company. Swarna calls this the ‘power of partnerships’. She has been championing the idea of partnerships since seeing the incredible reach they provide, and leads the company’s partnerships with the New York Institute of Finance, Professional Risk Managers’ International Association, and many others.Also recognizing the

Branded portals, customized content, and personalized learning provide together an engaging learning experience

need for delivering e-learning solutions that require regional orientation, the firm has formed important alliances with value-added resellers for financial e-learning solutions.

Differentiating Factor Its sharp focus on financial competency enables KESDEE serve not only the financial service verticals, but also ‘finance horizontals’. A dominant niche player in this space, this vendor is exceptional not just due to its large catalog of comprehensive curriculum and blue chip clients, but also because it ensures through its services that each

KESDEE's ecosystem

Accreditations from CFA Institute, CFP, ICB, ACAMS, ICPAS & others

Marquee Client base Federal Reserve Board, Citi, JP Morgan Chase, Deloitte etc.

Global Network of Subject Matter Experts (SME)

B2B: Value Added Resellers including Technology Integrators, LMS Providers, Training Companies & Consultancy Firms

KESDEE's Financial e-Learning solutions 1,000 e-learning courses eCoaches exam preps Different languages

Industry Awards including “Red Herring 100” “SI 100” “Young Entrepreneurs”

B2C: Strategic Partners e-shopping carts e.g. NYIF, PRMIA etc. Brand Building: Speaking at global conferences / media interviews.

of its clients becomes the mouthpiece of the company and brings in the next prospect.

Social Initiatives But, KESDEE is not just about business. Apart from providing monetary support to many philanthropic initiatives, Swarna has also initiated many promotional programs to assist and empower people in transition. For three years in a row, KESDEE is a proud sponsor of the annual entrepreneurship conference organized by the Harvard Business School Association of Orange County.

Future Roadmap To expand KESDEE’s global presence, the company already has a Spanish translation center in Mexico, and many of its e-learning solutions have already been made available in Spanish. Understanding the need for a clear vision for the future, Swarna has prepared a strategy document titled ‘Scaling Up KESDEE’. The aim is to have more financial e-learning content, both in terms of topics and levels, increase technology platforms (including mobile delivery), and more strategic business alliances for greater global reach as well as translation into more languages. In other words, Swarna is all set to make KESDEE the market leader. si siliconindia

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E

AgeTak: Ensuring Utmost Data Security

Top 10 SECURITY NAME

FOUNDER(S)

FOUNDED DESCRIPTION

Agetak Hopkins, MN agetak.com

R a k e sh Ve r m a Founder & CEO

2004

Alert Enterprise Fremont, CA alertenterprise.com

J a s vi r G i l l CEO

2000

Arcot Sunnyvale, CA arcot.com

R a m Va r a d a r a j a n President & CEO

1997

2007

Offers Managed Security services and Compliance Consulting services. Currently, there are 3 offices in the US, Aventura, FL, Sarasota, FL and Los Angeles, CA. KRAA Security has partnerships with a number of Technology companies to white label KRAA services.

KRAA Security Aventura, FL kraasecurity.com

G a r y Ba h a d u r Founder & CEO

Mentis Software New York, NY mentissoftware.com

R a j e sh K . Pa r t h a sa r a t h y President & CEO

2004

Nevis Networks San Jose, CA nevisnetworks.com

A ji t S hel a t President & CEO

2002

Prism Microsystems Columbia, MD prismmicrosys.com

A . N. A n a n t h CEO

Quantamsecure San Jose, CA quantumsecure.com

A ja y Ja i n President & CEO

Zscaler Sunnyvale, CA zscalar.com

J a y C h au d h r y Founder & CEO

November 2009

Offers online fraud prevention, strong authentication and e-document security solutions that provide the right balance of cost, convenience and strength. Sunnyvale, California headquartered Arcot has an impressive list of investors in the company which include Adobe Ventures, Accel Partners,Goldman Sachs, Invesco Private Capital, ONSET Ventures, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB), Vedanta Capital, Visa International, and Wachovia Strategic Ventures.

2002

P r a s h a n t h V B o c ca s a m Founder & Chairman

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Addresses the single most overlooked gap in enterprise security – the prevention, detection and fast resolution of linked IT and physical access violations across diverse enterprise systems, applications, databases and geographically distributed assets.

Provider of continuous controls monitoring (CCM) software, was founded in the wake of the collapse of Enron and Worldcom.Approva has partnerships and packaged integration to other governance, risk & compliance applications offered by OpenPages, Thompson Reuters, Sun Microsystems, IBM, Microsoft and CA. The company recently secured $14 million in new investment from Columbia Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Novak Biddle, Sierra Ventures and Gold Hill Capital.

Approva Reston, VA approva.net

siliconindia

This Minneapolis based company’s response is based on the Access Right Control (ARC) technology that provides a mechanism for accessing data present in multiple places as if they were at one place and for implementing who-gets-what-data-for-what-purpose level of security and privacy at one place. Notably, the privately held company's growth in 2008 has been 45 percent despite the challenging conditions in the market.

1999

2004

2008

Provider of information security solutions for databases and applications. The company, which is now 18 plus people strong, thrives even in tough times.MENTIS has announced several new products over the last few months, and is expanding support for all its products across the major enterprise platforms.

Delivers a powerful breakthrough solution for LAN security. Using its own ASIC-based technology, Nevis builds LAN security systems from the ground up that forge a Personal DMZ, which adds a new layer of security policies for each individual user. Nevis has 200 employees

Delivers business-critical solutions that impact the security of IT infrastructures. Its Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution EventTracker combines real-time Log Management with Change Monitoring and USB tracking to defend IT assets fromcyber attacks and ensure compliance with regulatory standards. The company has around 75 employees. Provider of enterprise software that is designed to manage and streamline security identities, compliance, events and operations across disparate physical security systems. The comapny which registered 100 percent growth this year, has received venture financing from Dunrath Capital, Crestline Investments and Nexgen Capital Ventures.

Provider of industry-first multi-tenant SaaS security. The company today offers cloud security for enterprises, ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies. Due to its disruptive "SaaS" approach, Zscaler's service provides more powerful security and comprehensive reporting at a lower total cost of ownership for its consumers.

fficient and secure handling of the process of sharing data with customers, business partners and among employees is key challenge for an enterprise in today’s highly competitive market and legislative environment. The most illustrative example of this is found in the healthcare sector where a patient’s confidential medical information is created in many different places and has to be shared among many different healthcare professionals under the scrutiny of strict health information privacy regulations such as HIPAA. The traditional approach has been able to solve the problem of ensuring data security by limiting access either at the database end or at the application level. This approach is becoming more and more impractical as data scattered across diverse systems has to be shared among different stakeholders – say a patient’s medical records, prescriptions

and billing information that have to be shared among different clinics, pharmacies, and insurance companies. “We intercept the data request just before it enters the database and provide for real-time privacy enforcement logic on-the-fly. We don’t have to modify thousands of applications and hundreds of databases of diverse technologies under the control of various agencies,” says Rakesh Verma, CEO, AgeTak. Founded in 2004, this Minneapolis based company’s response is based on the Access Right Control (ARC) technology that provides a mechanism for accessing data present in multiple places as if they were at one place and for implementing who-gets-what-data-forwhat-purpose level of security and privacy at one place. That’s why AgeTak rightly deserves a space in Si100 list. Interestingly, largest American healthcare company

has licensed AgeTak technology to meet Rakesh Verma the above need. “They evaluated the technology through four proofs of concepts in one year and concluded that our technology is superior to Microsoft, Oracle, Guardiam and IBM DATABASE for this purpose. They retained the thirdparty Price Waterhouse Cooper for the purpose of evaluation of our technology,”says proud CEO. A five years old start up with an offshore research and development unit in India. It is indeed the most uniquely positioned company in security and privacy market today. This year the company’s growth in 2008 has been 45 percent. Certainly AgeTak story would be one of the inspiring for aspiring entrepreneurs. The company is attracting investors even in this time.

Approva: Continuous Controls Monitoring

A John Becker

Prashanth PV Boccasam

pprova a provider of continuous controls monitoring (CCM) software, was founded in 2002 in the wake of the collapse of Enron and Worldcom. Approva’s Founder, Prashanth PV Boccasam recognized that the security controls built into ERP and financial systems were inadequate to address new and forthcoming regulatory requirements and he figured out how to develop and implement automated business controls that could prevent future scandals. Today Approva’s products are used by hundreds of the world’s largest corporations and government agencies to identify, monitor and prevent business exceptions that result in inappropriate payments, fraud and compliance risk. By automatically flagging risks and accounting errors as they occur, companies can reduce cash leaks, lower compliance

costs and reduce the cost of tracking down and resolving errors that impact financial statements. Approva’s marketing slogan, “I Love a Good Audit,” captures one of the company’s key customer benefits; since exceptions are addressed as they occur, those quarterly visits from the auditor go a lot more smoothly. “We have seen tremendous growth in the continuous controls monitoring (CCM) market,” said Approva Chief Executive Officer, John Becker. “With organizations looking to squeeze every penny in unnecessary cost and inefficiency out of their operations, CCM applications offer an attractive return on investment since they can fund themselves based on the inefficiency and waste they uncover.” By building their applications on a single CCM platform, the Approva BizRights Platform, the company can analyze and correlates control information not only across the spaghetti soup of financial systems that comprise most companies’ IT environments but also across different processes. So, for example, a

company can use Approva’s solution to monitor travel and entertainment expenses, purchase orders and entries to the general ledger. This platform-based approach also enables Approva to quickly respond to customer requirements and competitive threats. It is one of the major reasons why many of the largest audit and advisory firms – including the “Big 4” – have licensed Approva to perform client audits. The company recently secured $14 million in new investment from Columbia Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Novak Biddle, Sierra Ventures and Gold Hill Capital. It plans to use the new investment to accelerate product development and expand sales and marketing. The company’s long-term vision is to enable organizations worldwide to make audit and compliance of business controls a non-issue to the point where compliance is taken for granted and companies can have confidence in the integrity of their business systems, processes and transactions and focus 100 percent of their effort on their customers. si siliconindia

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SECURITY which stops fraud faster by allowing members of the Arcot A-OK fraud detection and authentication service to share fraud data among themselves automatically. “We were a pioneer in the authentication segment where we co-invented one of the earliest and most successful federated identity systems – 3-D Secure for ePayment authentication. Today, Arcot has established its uniqueness and leadership in the market place with multifactor authentication offerings for web-based applications of all kinds,” says proud Varadarajan. Arcot has an impressive list of investors in the company which include Adobe Ventures, Accel Partners,Goldman Sachs, Invesco Private Capital, ONSET Ventures, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB), Vedanta Capital, Visa International, and Wachovia Strategic Ventures. Founded in 1997, the Sunnyvale, California headquartered Arcot is privately held and employs more than 130 people worldwide. It also has a technology center in Bangalore, India.

rcot has been the Si100 Company for the past three years. Their consistent growth, progressive approach and uniqueness in technology have made Ram Varadarajan them a leader in the authentication market. Tapping over $3 billion market worldwide for authentication products, Arcot offers online fraud prevention, strong authentication and e-document security solutions that provide the right balance of cost, convenience and strength. “What differentiates us from others is that we provide strong authentication and digital signing solutions that are convenient for consumers, employees and business partners to use,” says Ram Varadarajan, CoFounder, President and CEO of Arcot. Consistent with the theme of convenience and security, Arcot has recently launched their ArcotOTP passcode generator for mobile phones. By taking advan-

tage of mobile phones, consumers can safely shop online, authenticate to Web Portals or access online banking using their mobile phone to generate the passcode rather than having to carry a second hardware device. Arcot authentication technology is also embedded in Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader to enable consumer authentication, digital signing and secure e-document notification and delivery. Arcot technology is based on its one-of-its-kind patented ‘cryptographic camouflage’. Several companies are already providing strong authentication methods in hardware through one-time-password (OTP) tokens, biometric solutions and smart cards. But, Arcot has been challenging all these hardware-based online authentication technologies with its Web fraud detection and strong, two-factor authentication products that do not require a separate hardware device. Earlier this year, Arcot added the Arcot Fraud Prevention Network (AFPNet) to its lineup,

ounded in the year 2007, KRAA Security offers Managed Security services and Compliance Consulting services. It protects organizations from threats through a combination of preventative services in Application Security, Network Security, Operating System Security and Compliance measures. KRAA is now offering a free security assessment test to all the sites of their clients, which is necessary to protect the sites and portals from the risk of losing data and losing their reputation. As a website is the first interaction with users, this will help build trust by protecting the user’s data. According to Gary Bahadur, CEO of KRAA Security, previous Co-Founder of Foundstone Inc and author of “Windows XP Processional Security” and

“Privacy Defended”. The next steps ing, encryption, email management, after an application security assess- antivirus management, host intrusion ment would include strategic security detection and malware defense. The Florida-based KRAA Security’s roadmap, vulnerability assessments and ongoing maintenance of the secu- network security audit team has the necessary expertise to handle all the security infrastructure. KRAA Security delivers Compli- rity related problems and they are ance assessments including HIPAA, available 24x7 to provide its consumers Red Flag, SOX, PCI and Physical Se- with a variety of solutions. Currently, there are three offices in the curity. Many compaU.S. at Aventura, FL, Sarasota, nies need help in FL and Los Angeles, CA. achieving compliance certification. KRAA KRAA Security has partneralso provides the Manships with a number of Techaged Security services nology companies to white that maintain the certifilabel KRAA services. Growth cation over time, which is expected with a comprehenincludes services such sive suite of Consulting and as firewall manageManaged Security services that ment, intrusion defense, are practical, efficient and cost Gary Bahadur effective. si website content filter-

Arcot:

Leading the Way

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KRAA Security: Providing Managed Security and Compliance Services

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ilicon Valley, California-based Quantum Secure provides enterprise software and has created its own niche space: its software is designed to manage and streamline security identities, compliance, events and operations across disparate physical security systems. “Our recent launch of SAFE 3.5 and our SAFE Analytics module reflects the company’s expanding market reach in several key vertical markets and provides specific best practices for the unique security requirements of these highly regulated and highly complex industries,” explains Ajay Jain, CEO, Quantum Secure. What is interesting is that despite the gloomy environment everywhere, Quantum Secure has been successful in doubling its revenue compared to last fiscal. The company is all set to declare 2009 a cash -positive year. The company increased the headcount by 20 percent and today has close to 75 employees worldwide. “This year, we signed on several federal and governmental agencies as customers. This year has been indeed fruitful for us,” says the CEO. The success of these focused strategies has contributed to Quantum Secure’s strong customer roster, featuring a few marquee names such as well-known enterprise or-

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ounded in 2000 by Dr. Bharat P. Dave, Alphion Corporation, headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey has R&D centers U.S., India. They also have the customer support, service, marketing in Bangalore and Delhi. Structured in two business units, Access Systems and Photonic Devices, the company offers a full range of communications systems, subsystems, integrated and discrete photonic components based on its proprietary QLight technology platform. Alphion products are sold world-wide to service providers and OEMs in the Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP), telecommunications, CATV and defense system markets. Alphion offers a full spectrum of broadband access solutions that are sold worldwide to service providers and OEMs in the FTTP markets. It supports complete end-toend access networks, enabling multipleplay IP based broadband services such as VoIP, high-speed Internet, IPTV and Video-

Quantum Secure: Leveraging the Business

ganizations as the San Francisco International Airport, Adobe SysAjay Jain tems, Baxter Health Care, Juniper Networks, the Empire State Building, Port of Virginia, The Irvine Company, Symantec Corporation and the Toronto Pearson International Airport. Other customer wins include major international airports, large healthcare organizations and highly regulated government agencies. Additionally, Quantum Secure’s growing roster of high-visibility systems integrators (SIs), value-added resellers (VARs) and channel partners as a major asset in the company’s expanded commitment to deliver its physical identity and access management solutions. Quantum Secure forged several new channel partnerships in 2009, including Andrews International, Henry Bros. Electronics and Reece Complete Security Solutions. Along with these new additions, Quantum Secure’s current partner also includes Johnson Controls, Active Identity, CoreStreet, Deloitte, General Electric, HID, IBM, Lenel, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun Microsys-

tems, Tyco/Software House and the Open Security Exchange. Founded in 2004, the privately held Quantum Secure has received venture financing from Dunrath Capital, Crestline Investments and Nexgen Capital Ventures. “Now the company is growing over 100 percent year-on-year and we are well equipped to face the challenges of emerging completion,” says Jain. Quantum Secure aims to converge the world of physical and logical security via software that provides a single, fully interoperable and integrated physical security policy platform whereas data from various physical security systems are aggregated and normalized in real time. This results in a unified security operation using a common platform to measure key security metrics and management objectives, including those surrounding cost, compliance and risk. “As the world of physical and logical security continue to converge and our customers are exhibiting tremendous cost savings and operational efficiencies, the Quantum Secure ecosystem of partners, technologies and customers will only grow at an exponential rate,” concluded Jain.

Alphion: Enabling the Photonic Future

NETWORKING

On-Demand. The GPON product family consists of Optical Line Terminal (OLT), Optical Network Terminals and passive optical splitters. The Alphion OLT offers 40 protectable GPON ports per shelf, an ultrafast redundant 200 gigabit per second backplane and 56 gigabit per second uplink capacity. Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) is becoming the dominant technology for service providers deploying across the Americas, Europe, and Asia, with revenues projected to exceed $2 billion by 2010. Broadband access networks using PON technology are seen as key drivers for economic growth. GPON based networks increase service providers’ ARPU by bundling video, voice and high speed Internet services. Earlier this year, telecom giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), selected Alphion’s GPON technology for

the deployment of next generation multiple play Fiber-to-thePremise (FTTP) Bharat P. Dave services in the western and southern zones of India. The initial BSNL contract for Alphion GPON equipment, the first phase in a multi-year program, will provide services to 259,000 FTTP subscribers. “The selection of Alphion technology for a major share of GPON network equipment being procured by BSNL is a significant achievement and establishes Alphion as a leading supplier of GPON based Access Solutions in the Indian Telecom Network,” commented Dr. Dave, Alphion Chairman, President and CEO. “Alphion is fully committed to supporting the roll-out of GPON equipment in India.” si siliconindia

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NETWORKING

Top 10 NETWORKING NAME

FOUNDER(S)

Alphion Princeton Junction, NJ alphion.com

B h a r a t P. D a v e Chairman, President & CEO

2000

Develops, manufactures and markets FTTx access systems, subsystems and integrated photonic devices. It has received funding from Tallywood Venture Capital, Axiom Venture Partner, Goldman Sachs, ICCP Venture partner, Narra Venture Capital. The company headcount is 140.

FatPipe Salt Lake City, UT fatpipeinc.com

R a g u l a B h a s k ar President & CEO

1989

It is the inventor and multiple patents holders of technology that provides the highest levels of optimization, reliability, security and acceleration of Wide Area Networks (WANs). The company headcount is 140.

Pa n k a j Sh a h Founder & CEO

1995

A provider of network simulation tools that enhance the productivity of enterprises, device vendors, management software developers and outsourcers while lowering their costs. The company headcount is 50.

Intellinet Technologies Melbourne, FL intellinet-tech.com

A n j an G h o s a l President & CEO

1992

A provide of network convergence solutions that accelerate the deployment of next generation applications and services. It has 85 employees.

Mattise Networks Mountain View, CA matissenetworks.com

S am M athan Chairman & CEO

2002

Develops an Optical Carrier Ethernet Switch which is based upon ring optical burst switching (Ring OBS). Its innovative research and development has resulted in numerous patents covering break throughs in packet optical networking. It has around 68 employees.

1997

Provider of solutions that comprehensively monitor the network for performance, security and policy compliance initiatives. The privately held Niksun, with customers including most Fortune 500 companies from every major vertical and industry, NIKSUN is well on its way to revolutionize the network monitoring, security surveillance and forensic analysis markets.

Ocarina Networks M u r l i T h i r u m a le San Jose, CA CEO ocarinanetworks.com

2007

Helps organizations to cope with Storage infrastructure and data loads. It has received funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), Highland Capital Partners and JAFCO Ventures. The company headcount is 50.

Omnitrol Networks Santa Clara, CA omnitrol.com

R a j S a ks ena President & CEO

2004

Founded with a mission to introduce the industry's first open programmable peer-to-peer application services network that securely integrates business intelligence with real-time sense and respond devices at the edge. The company headcount is 50.

Pronto Networks Pleasanton, CA prontonetworks.com

J as b i r S i n g h President & CEO

2001

Provides carrier-class Operations Support Systems (OSS) that enables network operators to deploy and manage large public WLAN networks. It has received funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, BV Capital, Intel Capital. The company headcount is 200.

Virtela Greenwood Village, CO virtela.com

Va b G o e l CEO

2000

Enhances the way our customers do business by customizing a solution which fully integrates into existing network architecture. It has 150 employees.

Gambit Communications Nashua, NH gambitcomm.com

Niksun Monmouth Junction, NJ niksun.om

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D r. Pa r a g Pr u t h i Founder, Chairman & CEO

November 2009

FOUNDED

DESCRIPTION Ragula Bhaskar

FATPIPE NETWORKS

Revolutionizing Data Transfer

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t merits admiration for being the very creator of router clustering technology. The Utah-based FatPipe Networks provides router clustering devices for reliable, redundant and fast Internet

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and WAN connections. A multiple patent holder (seven) in its innovative router clustering technology, FatPipe has over 6,000 units installed worldwide. In other words, the company has created its own market. FatPipe’s line of products cover an array of features and benefits for companies that run mission critical applications over any type of WAN infrastructure. Its over 1,300 customers include the FBI and the U.S. Supreme Court. So, what attracted these biggies to use FatPipe products? Saving time and increasing productivity is the key, says Dr. Ragula Bhaskar, President and CEO of FatPipe Networks. “The technology enables companies to achieve higher bandwidth and higher levels of redundancy, regardless of the type of router or modem technology in use,” says Bhaskar. As its products enable companies to obtain low cost, redundant, and fast Internet access, the

company allows them to implement Intranets, e-commerce strategies, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), while utilizing application specific servers over the Internet or WAN connections. Although there are competitors, the company is confident that it will continue to remain at the top with its constant innovation by anticipating the need of its customers before it arises. The main technology features include aggregating two or more communication lines of any type, using the same or different ISPs, WAN redundancy and high availability; additional security and speed of data transmissions; and route control features for inbound and outbound IP traffic. Today, expanding rapidly in Europe, and with a main facility in Chennai, India, this venture funded company has over 140 employees. Having been honored with awards by several industry leading organizations, FatPipe has carved out its own path of success.

NIKSUN: Moving up in the Security Space ince 1997, NIKSUN has only a single vision: to create the equivalent of the Tivo and Google for the network. Such a solution would provide complete and total visibility into the network. NIKSUN’s vision unveiled into a metadata warehouse, called the NIKSUN Knowledge Warehouse (NKW), for any and all data traversing the network. With a Tivo, a specific program on TV is recorded. For NIKSUN the challenge was greater: develop the ability to record everything or any specific portion of the data traversing the network at current production rates! With Google, metadata is created off-line and real-time updates are not a priority. For NIKSUN, again, the challenge was more significant: create metadata in real-time, while data is moving at rates as high as 10Gbps! Think about the challenge for a minute, the NIKSUN solution has to scale up from

bits to applications, undo the whole protocol stack and create metadata on all protocol layers including the application layer in real-time. Today, NIKSUN’s solutions are deployed in thousands of networks around the world. At any given instance, for a single customer, petabytes (1000’s of terabytes) of information are constantly being processed, analyzed, stored, aggregated, correlated and alarmed upon. From a security perspective this is the equivalent of a camera on the network with heat / motion sensing, face-detection and other high-end monitoring concepts occurring all the time in realtime. “When data is in motion, NIKSUN is in action - the company’s NetDetector analyzes every piece of communication that a customer wants to look at. It not only archives the data for future evidentiary needs, but also alarms when various criteria are

Dr. Parag Pruthi

matched such as the leakage of critical assets, presence of trojans, viruses and worms, backdoors, and so forth. Many government and corporate clients depend on this amplified level of security to protect their critical infrastructures,” said Dr. Parag Pruthi, CEO and Founder of NIKSUN. With customers from every major vertical and industry, NIKSUN is well on its way to revolutionize the network monitoring, security surveillance and forensic analysis markets. Forethought coupled with robust architecture and design is what makes NIKSUN’s solution truly groundbreaking. si siliconindia

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Top 5 BPO NAME

24/7 Campbell, CA 247customer.com

FOUNDER(S)

FOUNDED DESCRIPTION

PV Kannan Founder & CEO

2000

Provides integrated customer lifecycle management services through a 'multi shore global delivery' model. The company has over 8000 employees across global locations.

First Source Amherst, NY firstsource.com

A n a n da M u ke r ji MD & CEO

2002

Global provider of business process management services, that leverages its righshoring approach. The firm has over 21,000 employees across the globe.

Intelenet Global Fargo, ND intelenetglobal.com

Su s i r K u ma r CEO

2000

Global supplier of BPO services with more than 28,000 employees and a global operational footprint.

OPI Global New York, NY opiglobal.com

K i s h o r e M i rc h a n d a n i President

2002

A professional services firm that is dedicated to finance and accounting outsourcing. The firm has around 3000 employees.

Sutherland Global Rochester, NY sutherlandglobal.com

D i l ip R . Ve l l o d i Chairman & CEO

1986

It collabrates with clients to help them excel in their industry while maximizing their customer’s life-time value. They provide measurable results, delivered globally.

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Sutherland Global: Maximize Customer Lifetime Value global Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Technology Enabled Services Company founded in 1986, Sutherland Global Services offers an integrated set of front and back office services that support the entire customer lifecycle. By combining highly trained people with state-of-the-art technology, deep domain knowledge, and proven business methodologies, Sutherland collaborates with clients to help them excel and gain a competitive edge in their industry while maximizing their customers’ lifetime value. Since its inception, Sutherland has remained focused on a single mission, to “help improve their clients’ efficiency and productivity while delivering measurable results.” As the largest organically grown BPO in the industry, siliconindia

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Sutherland offers a balanced portfolio of services comprised of Business Transformation Services, Business Process Outsourcing, and Technology Enabled Services. These services operate across the entire lifecycle of Sutherland’s clients’ customers and touch the revenue side and the cost/expense side of the client’s P&L. In order to flawlessly execute this strategy of delivering measurable results across the entire lifecycle of clients’ customers, Sutherland seamlessly combines these offerings in a manner which is referred to as integrated BPO. The focus here is not just on reducing cost, but on driving clients’ business performance im-

provement across processes that cover increasing revenues, reducing costs, improving cash flow and capital utilization, maximizing customer satisfaction, and enhancing the clients’ overall competitive position. Sutherland’s servDilip R. Vellodi ices are provided to leading global corporations across technology, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, government, travel, retail, and healthcare verticals. Headquartered in Rochester, New York, the company operates 24 delivery centers in the U.S., Canada, India, Philippines, Mexico, Bulgaria, and Nicaragua, employing over 24,000 professionals and growing. These professionals excel in delivering Business Performance Improvement, not just Business Process Improvement. si

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