India is strategic to Sungards global business

What is Sungards business focus in India?

Sungard started as a disaster recovery and business continuity company and is
the leading player in that space. As we grew, we also got into the enterprise
application software business on the ASP model and that has grown faster. Today
it is more than two thirds of our overall business. Our biggest vertical is
financial services, apart from the focus on the higher education vertical.
Though we intend to grow organically, we are looking at inorganic growth
opportunities in India.

Now you are privately held. How have things changed?

Because we are privately held, we do not have the quarterly pressure and are
able to focus on longer-term investment. We had a very strong top line revenue
growth as per the 2006 results.

How important is India for Sungard?

India is an interesting story for us and it occupies a very strategic
position in the overall Sungard perspective. We work closely with our disaster
recovery and business continuity teams in India. Our operations in Bangalore and
Pune started in 1993 as a result of acquisitions. We look to leverage this
opportunity and are willing to ramp up the software engineering talent.

Do you have any support center in India?

Yes, from India we offer level 1 and level 2 support to our customers across
the world. We are also doing some transaction processing work here. The other
area we support is remote infrastructure management and monitoring of data
centers.

With salaries rising, how are you managing your cost?

We operate in a highly specialized environment and cost continues to be
important to us. The rupee appreciation has been tough, but I think it is
healthy for the industry because it forces everyone to be more productive and
focus on best practices

How challenging is recruiting the right talent in India for your
center?

We operate at a different level compared to the leading software services
companies that are in India. They attract a lot of generalists. We look for
specialists. Ours is a much more focused search. People know who we are in the
industry. In fact, we hire a lot of people from banks.

Sudesh Prasad

sudeshp@cybermedia.co.in