Mokama(Patna)Enterpreuner talk to The Hindu

Software product development moving beyond financial domains

D. Murali

Chennai: Taking time off from the recent PanIIT conference in IIT-Madras are three senior IIT-ians, busy discussing with Business Line issues of great importance such as entrepreneurship and education, brand-IIT and innovation. Joining in last is Anand, Founder & CEO of Kuliza Technologies, Bangalore (www.kuliza.com), as the junior-most IIT-ian in the room, with about a decade behind him after leaving the campus. “I am a firm believer in the India growth story. I believe that the next 10 years will be quite exciting and we will be a part of many life-changing innovations,” he declares, despite the pall of recessionary gloom descending on some of the biggest global players, across industry sectors.

Prior to founding Kuliza (a business solutions provider and product development company), Anand was the co-founder of SQA Technologies (now VMLogix) and Stockfundas. He has close to 7 years of experience in product development at companies like Trilogy and Amazon.

Kuliza has grown from 3 to 60 in headcount, over a period of 25 months, and the team includes a fair sprinkling of IIT-ians. “We have been intensely focused on building a great team and delighting our customers,” informs Anand, when asked about the key drivers to the growth, and also the challenges he had to face.

“As we grow, our challenge will be in creating a scalable organisation that can continue to deliver on our key brand promises: 1) Wow your customer; 2) Innovate; 3) Act with integrity; and 4) Nurture an open culture.”

Excerpts from the interview.

What do you see the major growth areas of product development in the near to mid-term?

There is growing recognition for India as the global hub for product R&D (research and development) activity, especially in the technology industry. According to a NASSCOM report, Indian software product business is expected to see disruptive growth during the next decade from $1.4 billion in FY2008 to $12 billion by FY2015.

Of the existing 371 software product start-ups since 2001, over two-thirds were formed in the last 3 years. Hence, while the top 10 companies still dominate, there are over 200 mid-sized companies and start-ups that have begun generating revenues and are contributing to the growth of Indian software product business.

From a domain perspective, software product development, which was primarily focused on financial and accounting domains, has now moved to offerings in the area of health care, business intelligence (BI), engineering, security content and collaboration tools. We see a lot of excitement in these areas in near future.

Can you tell us about some of the exciting projects you have been working with in recent times, and also the value-add you have been able to provide?

One of our exciting projects was related to creating a powerful search technology for analysing millions of clinical trials and publications records and providing insight into latest research work done in the pharmaceutical industry, within seconds. The technology was deployed at major fortune 500 pharmaceutical companies. Another project required us to build a document and part viewer on the iPhone platform for a manufacturing company.

We have a strong web technology group that specialises in building online social networks, AJAX-based dynamic websites, online search and content management systems. We frequently innovate and leverage our expertise in cutting edge open source technologies like Joomla (content management system), Django, Dojo (AJAX), Solr, Lucence (open source search) to reduce the cost of software for our customers.

Our customers frequently share stories of marketplace wins over their competitors because of the innovative technology built by our team.

As someone who made the transition from employment to entrepreneurship, can you describe in brief your entrepreneurial journey? Also, the difficulties a typical entrepreneur has to face?

I am a believer in this famous quote from ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho: “When you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true.” Ever since leaving my college, IIT Delhi, in the year 2000, I had a burning desire to start my own company. In 2004, I got the opportunity to start a venture for my employer, a US-based enterprise software company. This gave me the experience needed to set up a team from scratch, build a product and deliver it to multiple customers.

However, it wasn’t until September 2006 that I was ready in terms of having both the opportunity and the experience to start a new venture. Kuliza was born to meet specific needs of innovative start-ups and mid-sized companies looking to design and build great technology products.

What considerations do you pay attention to while assembling your team? How do you motivate them?

We have an open and informal work environment that brings out the best in people. We provide ample opportunities for people to learn on-the-job, with mentors/ experts assigned to help them grow in their respective areas. We organise frequent talks from external experts, who bring new ideas and fresh perspectives. Before hiring people, we typically evaluate their skills and ability to learn fast.

On the R&D work you engage in.

We work at the cutting edge of many open source software, which frequently requires us to enhance them or fix issues in them. Our Kuliza Labs program is geared towards incubating and building our own products by partnering with people with deep domain expertise.

As a player in ‘software product development’ what are the major twists and turns that the sector has seen over time? Taking a shot at the future, how do you foresee the sector to be shaping up as? Any estimates of the size of the sector globally, and in India, growth rates?

MNCs which opened R&D shops in India a decade ago are consistently reporting success stories of their teams in India. During the same period, India’s talent pool capable of supporting software product development has widened significantly, leading to a beeline of companies, who do not want to miss the India advantage. The success of this industry is almost a self-fulfilling prophecy now. According to a NASSCOM report, the software product development industry in India reached $1.4 billion in 2008 and is set to grow almost 10-fold in the next seven years, reflecting a CAGR of ~40 per cent.

You visualise India as the technology partner of the global majors. What responsibilities do you think any player in that role will have to deliver? Also, where are the shortcomings?

As a result of deepening talent base and expertise built over the last decade, India will be increasingly looked upon as the hub for high-end research and software product development activity. Any significant player in this field must focus on development of its people as the top priority.

Unlike developed markets, where growth rates are slower and people with R&D experience are readily available, India needs to rely upon right training and management practices to further grow its talent base in this field and meet the demands of a fast-growing industry.

How would you define innovation? Does outsourced innovation rob it of its charm, owing to the lack of IP recognition?

A new way of doing things that brings about positive change is called innovation. It’s the fundamental source of increasing wealth in an economy. So long as we are learning, building capability and innovating to improve our ideas, products, processes or organisation, the charm of innovation does not go away.

Economic theory tells us that high profits cannot be had without assuming a significantly higher risk profile. Hence, those who invest in new products or IP also take significantly higher risk. By engaging in outsourced innovation, we choose to acquire the skills but not the associated risks. We will come up with our own product or IP when the opportunity matches the risk profile acceptable for the size of our company and this will happen in due course, within the ambit of our Kuliza Labs program.

In what ways do you think the work practices in a software product development company differ from those in a software services company?

It is much more challenging to work in a software product development company since teams are typically smaller, more agile and require problem-solving ability, transcending multiple technologies. The emphasis is on working smart and delivering best value within the constraints provided.

Does the current education system help a wannabe product developer? If it falls short, what interventions would he/she have to adopt? Any skills top in demand?

Our current education system churns out engineers with excellent knowledge of engineering fundamentals and logical ability but not necessarily ready for research and product development. I feel that it should be mandatory for students to participate in open source software development at college level to ensure that they are better prepared. Product development is multi-disciplinary by nature and we need people with problem-solving mind-set.