Have Bat, Will Hit

Adobe’s Indian R&D center has been playing a crucial role in the
company’s global development activities. The company now wants to further
strengthen its development focus in the country. Adobe has already invested $10
million in its new R&D campus in Noida for over 400 engineers. It also
announced an investment of $50 million to be made over the next five years.
"India has some key competitive advantages — talented professionals in
the technical and management field, size, cost and knowledge of English.Â
It is up to the industry to constantly provide new services and reinvent itself
to add value," says Shantanu Narayen, executive vice president of worldwide
products for Adobe.

Although the company is closely monitoring the slack market situation, it
seems firm on its expansion plans. "There is no doubt that the IT industry
has gone through turbulent times in the recent past owing to general recession
in the US economy. Unfortunate events like 9/11 or the Indo-Pak tension have
only further added to the woes. But we have not altered our business or
investment plans in India," says Narayen.

Exploring Opportunities

With the growing proliferation of handheld devices and broadband access, the
publishing industry has also moved on from the era of desktop publishing to the
next generation of publishing–network publishing, which means making reliable,
visually rich information available to anyone, anywhere, on any device.Â
Adobe wants to tap these emerging growth areas by meeting the increasing need of
both enterprise and creative professional customers. The acquisition of Accelio,
was part of the company’s strategy to enhance its product portfolio in the
area of digital workflows for enterprise customers. The company also wants to
tap the growth in the digital camera/imaging and digital video market segments.

Apart from strengthening its hold on publishing software products, the
company has identified new growth areas in ITeS and IT services sectors. The
focus on services is a part of Adobe’s move to transition from a software
products company to an enterprise company with end-to-end solutions. According
to Narayen, "Call centers and BPO are two examples of how the Indian
industry has added to its advantage in offshore software development.  As
long as Indian companies continue to focus on such areas by adding value, I am
confident that they will stay competitive."

India focus

Adobe’s recently formulated expansion plans are a result of a strategic
initiative taken by the company. A few months ago, the company had formed a
group of senior professionals from the India team to look into new product and
business opportunities. The group worked closely with product managers and
customers across the world to identify growth areas. "The move reaffirms
the faith of Adobe in the capabilities of Indian engineers and in the India
development centre," says Adobe India MD Naresh Gupta.

The company has come a long way since it established its first India R&D
center in Noida in 1998. Today the India Campus constitutes 10% of Adobe’s
engineering team and plays a critical role in virtually every Adobe product. The
India team is responsible for the development of Adobe products like PageMaker
and the Acrobat Readers for mobile devices. In addition it is driving key core
technologies in the areas of image and video compression, and file format
translation software. Products that the team in India has been responsible for
include PageMaker 7.0, PhotoDeluxe 4.1, and the Acrobat readers, which are used
to spread information to the next generation of devices including Palm, PocketPC,
and Symbian. 

Shweta Verma in New Delhi