Outsourcing: Alexei Miller, Executive Vice President Of DataArt (Part 1)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Sudhindra Chada

Our outsourcing series, begun last year by Tony Scott, continues this year with Sudhindra Chada. Tony’s objective was to examine, through interviews with executives of outsourcing companies in all industries, determine how the very idea of outsourcing has changed, understand the major trends in outsourcing and how they will shape business, and find out what people think about the idea of truly international companies and international workforces and how they help their workforces to develop the mindset and skills to compete on a global scale. Sudhi takes on Tony’s mission to bring to our readers useful insights from thought leaders.

About DataArt
DataArt is a custom software development firm that builds advanced solutions for the financial services, healthcare, hospitality, and other industries. Combining domain knowledge with offshore cost advantages and resource flexibility, DataArt develops applications that help clients optimize time-to-market and minimize software development risks in mission-critical systems. It has software engineers in New York, London, Russia, and Ukraine.

About Alexei Miller
Alexei Miller is a veteran of the IT industry and a recognized expert on IT outsourcing. Alexei joined DataArt as a project manager at the company’s inception in 1997, was elected to the board of directors in 2002 and relocated to New York headquarters the same year.

In 2004, he and Alexander Makeyenkov launched DataArt’s financial technology practice. In his current role as executive vice president, Alexei oversees company-wide customer relations and project management activities.

Prior to joining DataArt, Alexei was a project manager at Tercom, a software development company in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he led several development projects for the Italian telecommunications giant Italtel. He graduated cum laude from St. Petersburg State University with a master’s in mathematics. He is a frequent speaker at international industry events.

Sramana Mitra: Hi, Alexei. Welcome to our Outsourcing series. Would  you give us a little background on what you do and what was the genesis DataArt? >>>

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Sramana: Eric, tell me a bit about yourself. What is your background?

Eric Rongley: I was born in Pennsylvania. I graduated from Skidmore College in 1989 with a degree in economics. After graduating I went overseas and worked as a broker in London for a year. >>>

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Tony Scott: Shami, thanks for taking the time to talk to me about the future of outsourcing. Before we go into it, would you give me an overview of your past and how you became involved in outsourcing services? >>>

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By guest author Tony Scott

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Tony: Hello, Hiro and Naresh. Let me give you some context for this interview. A couple of years ago Sramana Mitra wrote an article called “The Death of Indian Outsourcing.”

Naresh: I read it, yes.

Tony: It got a lot of knee-jerk reactions, but I think the point was well made that if you look at pure labor arbitrage . . .

Naresh: It doesn’t work.

Tony: Yes, exactly. The question is, how can the outsourcing industry continue if that is the only model? At a certain point you just run out of lower-cost labor. I wanted to find out how leaders in the industry have seen it change over the last few years, and how they see it evolving over the next few years. I pointed out to Sramana that for a number of companies I’ve worked with, they evolved into a solution-based approach, and those that did were able to continue to grow dramatically. >>>

1Mby1M Deal Radar 2010: GlobeTask

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By guest author Tony Scott

Introduction and Background to GlobalLogic

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In Its Haste to Gouge India, Congress Neglects To Consider The TN Visa

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Raju Reddy: Sure. I spent about ten years at Intel in a variety of engineering and marketing management roles before I started Sierra Atlantic.  My background is engineering, and I later moved into marketing. I helped to start marketing programs for the first generation of Pentium processors. >>>

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Outsourcing: Tata Communications Interview (Part 1)

By guest author Tony Scott

Introduction and History

So, after reading a few of my previous interviews, do you still think that “outsourcing” is just about labor arbitrage of low-level tasks?

I recently interviewed David Wert, global head of managed services at Tata Communications, and Niraj Sridhar, who leads Tata Communications Transformation Services (TCTS). They provide outsourced network and communications infrastructure services to global telecommunications companies and global enterprises such as Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo! – definitely not “low-level” activities to “basic industries.” The question is: Why do sophisticated, well-established companies at the cutting edge of technology choose to use companies like Tata Communications to handle very complex technological tasks? >>>