ADC Inc., a supplier of fiber optics, network equipment, software and
integration services for broadband, has set up its India subsidiary at Bangalore.
Raj Rajkumar, who served as co-founder and senior executive for Kshema, is
heading the center and coordinating with ADC’s worldwide business units for
their software needs. ADC Inc plans to pump in $25 million into the subsidiary
and recruit about 150 people over a three-year period. Rajkumar spoke to
VOICE&DATA about the future plans. Excerpts:
Will Kshema continue to do development for ADC in the long run, or are you
looking at cultivating capabilities in house?
Kshema will supplement ADC’s resource needs. A possible scenario may
be that an ADC product unit will have a software product core team from ADC
(India) while Kshema (or another partner) may offer additional resources to
meet the needs of a particular project or project phase. We intend to
create dedicated software engineering teams for several of ADC’s business
units. We feel that these dedicated teams will be better at absorbing, retaining
and building upon the business-critical knowledge.
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Why did you feel the need to set up a subsidiary office at Bangalore? What
has encouraged you to do the investment now?
We need people with specialized skills and a ‘product orientation’ to
join us, and we believe that India has such talent. Given the lay-offs, it
is possible to get the right kind of people at affordable rates. ADC is
also looking at India as a long-term location to build the software for its
products and hence is willing to invest for the same at this point of time.
Which unit/group will you be working for initially? How do you plan to go
about the development process?
We have started working with the Element Management Platform (EMP) group for
the next generation of StarGazer. The exact components or areas on which the ADC
India team will work will soon be decided. The new StarGazer will be an element
management system that will enable users to centrally manage all ‘elements’
in a broadband network.
Initially, the specific ADC business/product unit will transfer the
technology and product knowledge to ADCÂ (India)’s core product
team. The India-based group can then start contributing towards the next
version or generation of the product.Â
Which other groups are you likely to work with?
Other ADC groups like xDSL have shown interest. We expect
core teams to be formed for some of these groups soon.