Sramana: Where in the Midwest did you establish operations, and how did you know Colin Chapman? Neeraj Gupta: When we decided to explore the low-cost domestic sourcing model, we spent three months looking at different locations in the U.S. We talked with various state governments. In 2009 there was a lot of debate about job
Neeraj Gupta is the CEO and co-founder of Systems In Motion, a nearshore outsourcing company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Previously, Neeraj was a member of the executive team at Patni, a $700 million Indian IT services company, and founder/CEO of Cymbal, a services company focused on the telecom sector. He is an investor in and
Sramana: In the manufacturing supply chain, you have the tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 suppliers. In many cases, the tier 1 suppliers are system integrators and they source from the tier 2 and tier 3 suppliers. Do you foresee that type of model developing in the software and IT outsourcing industry? In that
Sramana: Essentially your company has gained traction by focusing on mission-critical application development for top global corporations, is that correct? Eric Rongley: Exactly. We would argue that a customer should focus on the total cost of the outsourcing versus price per hour. The reason is that we bring a lot of value to the table.
Sramana: How significant is the language issue? Eric Rongley: Somebody with good English in China is someone who is higher up in the talent pool than someone who speaks good English in India. It is an issue that is definitely there. Indian companies have to institutionalize, in a manner, to deal with high attrition rates.
Sramana: What was the situation in China in 2001–2002, and how has it evolved? Eric Rongley: When I resigned from Capital One, I had to decide if I wanted to do the business in India or China. I knew that if I did the business in India, it would be accepted by the market easier.
Sramana: When you started the operation, what were your first steps? What was the startup process? Eric Rongley: As an expat in Shanghai, I had a lot of other friends in Shanghai who were doing well and feeling entrepreneurial in the heyday of the dot-com era.
Sramana: When you decided to start Bleum in 2001, what area of outsourcing did you intend to focus on? Eric Rongley: I was doing product development when I was in India and had teams as large as 100 people. I saw companies like Infosys that were very small, and I realized that companies that understood