vMoksha: Promising international quality at local prices

In only two years vMoksha has grown into a large IT services company with a strong focus on ERP and an ambitious roadmap, says Abhinav Singh

vMoksha came into existence just after the toughest period of the global IT slowdown. But this did not deter the Bangalore-based company from having ambitious plans. The company is headed by Pawan Kumar, chairman and CEO, who has over three decades of experience in the IT industry. Kumar has served in different capacities, including a tenure as the president of IBM Global Services India. And in a short span of time vMoksha has managed to become a global organisation with offices in the US, UK, Singapore and Hong Kong. The company also has two development centres in Bangalore and one in Pune. vMoksha has an annual turnover of $10.6 million. The company, which believes that size is an important factor when it comes to dealing with customers, has set its sights on targeting annual revenues of $25 million by 2004 and $100 million by 2006. It is also aiming for a headcount of 1,000 by 2004.

Pawan Kumar believes that a software company should maintain price level despite pressures

Milestones

The company’s first major achievement came within six months of its inception, when it won its first contract worth $1 million from PeopleSoft. Under the contract, vMoksha was authorised by PeopleSoft to work on localising its products and tailoring them to the needs of the Indian market. During this period, in order to expand in size, the company added 200 employees to its fold. In 2001, the company also made a foray into animation design and started a company called Jadoo Works. In January 2002 it expanded inorganically by acquiring two US-based companies, Xmedia and Challenger Systems. The idea behind the acquisitions was to leverage on the customer-base and specialisation of the acquired companies. In the same year, the company won a $10 million contract with S1 Corporation to develop their core products in the BFSI space. In 2002, the company set up its Pune development centre, which currently employs 140 people. The company has invested around Rs 10 crore on developing its overall infrastructure at all its locations.

Organisation structure

vMoksha has its worldwide headquarters in Bangalore. The company is divided into strategic business units (SBUs) that are further divided into practices, headed by practice leaders. These practices are subdivided into projects looked after by project managers.

Specialisation

The company specialises in offshore outsourcing services and e-business services. Offshore outsourcing services include product engineering, migration, package implementation, remote support and staff augmentation projects. Under e-business services, the company specialises in e-commerce, enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM), business intelligence (BI) and enterprise portals. The company has a development relationship with PeopleSoft, SAP and Oracle.

The ERP practice is the largest contributor to revenues. vMoksha has also incubated an application security product called vFortress, which secures an application without modifying a single line of code. The product provides a security envelope around an existing application. It can be used within an organisation for security purposes and has all the features of a security product, like authenticity and authorisation.

Customers and targeted verticals

The company has 15 customers worldwide and is very strong in the BFSI, retail, distribution and healthcare sectors. It also has a presence in the entertainment sector through Jadoo Works.

Geographies

The company primarily operates in the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific market. The company has four sales offices abroad, one each in the US, UK, Singapore and Hong Kong. 90 percent of the company’s revenues come from the US market, 5 percent from Europe and 5 percent from the Asia-Pacific region, including domestic revenues from the Indian market.

Challenges & strategies

Since inception, vMoksha has been facing stiff challenges and has been adopting different strategies to overcome them. Pawan Kumar, chairman and CEO of vMoksha Technologies says, "When we started, the greatest challenge for us was to reach a headcount of 200, from the 40 people we had at that point of time. The other objective was to expand our business manifold, as a customer is attracted by the size of the company. A large company gets more business than a small one." The company went on a recruitment spree and grew rapidly.

Though pricing pressures are tremendous, the company is not willing to lower its prices. "A company should maintain its level despite external pressure. We work very closely with our 15 customers and have a strong relationship with them, we are sure to maintain our standards and earn profits in the years to come. Our team has always delivered qualitatively," remarks Kumar.

The company also faces the challenge of getting new customers and new businesses in untapped geographies and to maintain its rapid level of growth. As part of its expansion strategy, the company recently announced that it has reached an agreement with CDC, the outsourcing unit of the Hong Kong-based Chinadotcom Corporation, for setting up a joint venture. The JV aims to provide a broad range of outsourcing-related services to major software vendors and enterprises in the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific. It will have sales and marketing offices in the US, the UK and Australia, while its centres in India and China will primarily focus on offshore development. The JV would also give vMoksha access to Chinadotcom’s customers. vMoksha and its partners in the US would also be able to leverage this relationship to make an entry into China with their products and services.

Future focus

vMoksha wants to adopt the acquisitions and joint venture route to further its business interest. It will continue to invest in increasing its existing infrastructure, manpower and size. Pawan Kumar remarks that it would be the continuous endeavour of vMoksha to motivate and retain its employees. The company is working towards attaining the CMMI Level-5 certification by June 2003, and has fine-tuned all its processes to meet the requirements of the model. The company is also looking to establish a strong presence in markets like Japan, so as to decrease its dependence on the US market. It will look to developing local relationships with companies in the region. vMoksha’s recent JV with Hong Kong-based Chinadotcom is a step in that direction.

However, it does not plan to go on a frantic customer-hunting spree. Kumar says, "We want to continue our healthy relationship with our existing customers and provide quality service." This young company is aiming to be one of the most admired Indian companies by the year 2006.