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Spotlight
Optimising software development
Software houses need help too. That’s where a pure-play
company like Borland comes into the picture with development suites that help
developers get to grips with code without breaking a sweat. By Rishiraj Verma
In its twenty-third year, Borland ensures that no software development project
goes wrong. To this end, it transforms software delivery processes, with minimum
risk and maximum ROI.
The overall picture
"As we move ahead, software optimisation
is going to be our focus area. We want to offer
a comprehensive suite of solutions to the market"
- Satyen Parikh
Managing Director
SAARC
Borland |
The company entered the Indian market during the late 1980s
with the help of Infosys. However, it established a direct presence only in
early 2001. Borland was earlier considered the leader in application tools.
Says, Satyen Parikh, Managing Director, SAARC, Borland, “Today we focus
on enhancing software usage.”
It is a known fact that most companies today, are putting their best foot forward
to ensure that IT is aligned with business. This has resulted in an increase
in annual IT spends. According to Parikh, “IT spend has been increasing
by five to seven percent annually. Organisations do not focus as much on cost
cutting as they do on eliminating inefficient usage of software.”
Parikh quotes a survey conducted by Standish Group International, “Software
failures alone result in $65 billion losses in the USA. The reasons for this
are late delivery, over budgeted processes, and a company not meeting the needs
of its customers. This is where Borland comes into the picture.”
The company recognises these issues and continuously makes sure that software
delivery is transformed into a organised business process.
Borland’s product kit
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Earlier India was known purely
as a developer country. After our tie-up with Hexaware, a new wave of
software optimisation may soon start
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Borland offers a complete suite of solutions under its Software Delivery Optimisation
banner. These include solutions such as lifecycle quality management, IT management
and governance, and change management that allow business and IT to collaboratively
define and manage software requirements throughout the software delivery process.
All these solutions are independent of platforms and processes. This helps
organisations take full advantage of the solutions without having to worry about
changing their existing platforms.
Parikh says that these solutions are provided on a point basis, for instance,
checking for any new requirements in the quality checks process in the testing
mode of particular software.
What’s in a name?
When the company started doing business in India in 2001,
it did not face much difficulty. The only problem that still exists is that
people associate the company’s name with development tools. Says Parikh,
“The name clicks, but it does so with the developer community. The only
way to overcome this obstacle is to educate the market about the newer solutions
and offerings that we have come up with.”
System integrators
- Infosys (CaliberRM, Together & OptimizeIT)
- Hexaware Technologies (CaliberRM, Together, StarTeam, Training &
Consulting Services)
- Tech Mahindra (CaliberRM, Together, StarTeam, Training Services)
- Wipro Technologies (CaliberRM, Together, StarTeam, Training &
Consulting Services)
- HP GDIC (CaliberRM, Together, StarTeam, Training & Consulting
Services)
- Cognizant Technology Solutions (SilkTest, SilkPerformer, Silk Central
Test Manager, Training Services)
- Siemens (VisiBroker)
- Polaris (CaliberRM, Together, VisiBroker)
Academic institutions
- Aligarh Muslim University (ALM Academic Suite)
- Sardar Patel College of Engineering (ALM Academic Suite)
- Tamilnadu College of Engineering (ALM Academic Suite)
- Hindustan College of Engineering (ALM Academic Suite)
- REC, Suratkal (ALM Academic Suite)
- Indian School for Mines, Dhanbad (ALM Academic Suite)
- University of Delhi (ALM Academic Suite)
End users/organisations
- National Stock Exchange (Borland App Server)
- Financial Software and Systems (StarTeam, Training & Consulting
Sevices)
- ICICI Bank (SilkTest)
- Hutch (VisiBroker)
- Citibank (VisiBroker)
- Bharti (VisiBroker)
- Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd (Caliber, Training & Consulting
Services)
- Financial Technologies (CaliberRM)
- Sun TV (VisiBroker)
- Lehman Brothers (Together)
Technology companies
- Cisco (SilkTest)
- BEA (Together, OPtimizeIT, Silk)
- Lucent Technologies (OptimizeIT, VisiBroker)
- iFlex (StarTeam)
- Symantec (Together)
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A strategic partnership
The company tied up with Hexaware in September 2006. Parikh believes that earlier
India was known purely as a developer country. With this tie-up with Hexaware,
a new wave of software optimisation may soon start.
Through this partnership, Borland India will provide requirement definition
and management, visual modelling and design, change management solutions, training
and consulting services to Hexaware. The two companies have also jointly launched
a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in India at Hexaware, Chennai. This is the first
Centre of Excellence set up by Borland with a partner as part of the company’s
new partner engagement model.
Commenting on the company’s profit-based milestones,
Parikh says, “We have been growing at 30 percent annually. The biggest
milestone is Borland becoming a $310 million company, which is sizeable for
the league that it operates in.”
- Requirements Definition and Management
Borland Caliber is a solution allowing business and IT to collaboratively
discover, define, and manage software requirements through the software
delivery process. It is designed to ensure complete and accurate software
requirements.
The Caliber family enables stakeholders across an
organisation to collaborate effectively so that project
is delivered on time, within budget, and to the
specification.
Visual scenarios can be captured and specified giving business and
IT a common language.
Lifecycle Quality Management
Borland’s suite of software quality management
products include:
- SilkCentral Test
Manager
Delivers team efficiency and visibility with a single, open Web-based
test management system to support every stage of the software quality
lifecycle from planning, test management, execution and reporting of
automated and manual testing activities.
- Gauntlet
Continuous build and test automation system`that improves software quality
and developer productivity
by proactively building and testing code as it enters
version control, isolating defects, and reporting on key development
metrics.
- SilkTest
Automates functional GUI tests for cross-platform,
localisation and regression testing across a broad set of
application environments.
- SilkPerformer
Automates load, stress and performance tests for optimising responsiveness,
scalability and reliability of mission-critical enterprise applications.
- SilkPerformer
SOA Edition
Test and optimise performance of SOA application components and distributed
software units early in the development cycle and resolve issues before
they become costly realities.
- IT Management and Governance
Borland Tempo is a complete, collaborative IT Management and Governance
system that delivers measurable business benefit by supporting a tailored
people, process and technology approach that can be incrementally adopted.
- Change Management
Borland StarTeam 2005 provides a complete range
of software change management and configuration
management solutions designed to meet the needs of
all development teams according to size, geographical
distribution, and work style.
StarTeam promotes team communication and
collaboration through centralised control of all project assets. Protected
yet flexible access ensures that team members can work whenever and
wherever they like through an extensive choice of Web, desktop, IDE,
and command-line clients.
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Software optimisation
Software optimisation is the key focus area in company’s
future roadmap. Parikh says that software optimisation is the main vision for
the company. “As we move ahead, we want to offer a comprehensive suite
of solutions to the market.”
With this, Borland’s road map seems set. It plans to expand its clientele
on the global front. For the company, it’s all about making sure that everything
is aligned just right. Parikh is optimistic about the company’s future
in India. He says, “All the pain areas are well addressed now and there
shouldn’t be major concerns coming up.”
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