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SlashSupport to hire 1,200 in Chennai
 In
the crowded IT Services space, San Jose, California- headquartered
SlashSupport, a pure play advanced tech support company founded by Cybernet
Software Systems and Baring India Investment Limited, has established the
distinct benefits of working upstream and in a niche area such as ‘advanced
tech support’. Having built a strong 100 per cent referenceable client base
of 15 global clients (top 5 clients have a combined revenue in excess of US $
85 billion per year), the company is now looking at ramping up India
operations over the next one year. SlashSupport is possibly India’s only
pure play advanced tech support company.
VC-funded SlashSupport
operates in the advanced technology support space, specializing in both,
Enterprise and SOHO/End user (Consumer) Technical support. The company has a
strong board, which includes Mark Parker, Senior Vice President, Fossil
Corporation, a NASDAQ listed fashion accessories firm whose brand portfolio
includes Fossil, Burberry & Armani and Phaneesh Murthy, CEO, iGATE Global
Solutions.
SlashSupport Service
Offerings include:
Enterprise Technology
Application & Product Support
Consumer Technology Application & Product Support
System Management Services
Explaining the role and
potential of advanced tech support offshoring, Shiva Ramani, Founder-CEO
SlashSupport said, “Advanced tech support plays a pivotal role in enhancing
the technology adoption lifecycle. The level of value-added service we
provide, end-customers find it easier to adopt the product and move from pilot
to enterprise. We understand the needs and demands of both, the technology
creator and the technology consumer. ”
He added, “We have a highly
skilled team that is uniquely wedded to our 100 per cent- referenceable-clients
culture due to strong HR practices. With a ballpark 5-7 per cent of IT
infrastructure spend going towards advanced tech support and maintenance, this
is estimated to be a USD 6 billion industry. We believe that close to 70 per
cent of this can be offshored.Our dream is to make SlashSupport as one of the
pre-eminent advanced tech support providers in the world.”
As part of the expansion
plans, SlashSupport plans to hire over 1200 people for its global delivery
centre in Chennai over the next 6-12 months. The company currently employs 750
people at its facility in Chennai.
The company has a
state-of-the-art, scalable, global infrastructure. SlashSupport, which
currently has a 550 seat delivery centre in Chennai, has ramped up its
infrastructure facility in Chennai with the setting up of a new centre, in
January 2004, for a 2nd advanced tech support delivery facility. The
infrastructure expansion has been fully funded from internal accruals. The new
offshore delivery centre in Chennai will cater to the offshore requirements of
both Slash’s existing clients as well as new clients that are in the
pipeline.
In addition to its advanced
tech support facility in India, SlashSupport has established a Business
Continuity Center in Singapore. The Singapore facility will function as a
country redundancy center and is connected to SlashSupport’s telecom gateway
via different links and carriers. SlashSupport can also utilize this centre
should any client requirement dictate a partial transfer of operations.
On the differentiating
factors, Shiva Ramani said, “In today’s environment, Infrastructure,
Technology and Cost are things that any vendor can provide. But what makes the
difference is the quality of processes, services and people. It is the time
and effort invested by every individual, to ensure that all processes from
transition to the first support call are executed correctly and on time that
makes the difference. Our unique six step Implementation Methodology is
designed to ensure that all processes that are transitioned are complete and
efficient to the highest level possible.”
Commenting on client
benefits, Shiva Ramani said “SlashSupport’s broad, in-depth technical
foundation provides deeper technical coverage than typical product support
teams. This has helped solving more complex problems. This has also helped
answer queries faster and fewer issues are escalated back to the client’s
engineering team. This has enabled significant savings for our clients,
further saving resources.”
Commenting on the occasion,
Phaneesh Murthy said, “I’ve always been interested in this space. When I
set up PM Ventures, we looked at companies that were doing interesting work.
SlashSupport has a sound business model and a passionate management team.
Based on the business model they’ve adopted, they are pretty unique in their
space.”
On
their decision to invest in SlashSupport, Rahul Bhasin, Managing Partner,
Baring Private Equity Partners(India) Limited said “SlashSupport’s strong
management team and its decision to focus on the niche advanced tech support
segment were reasons for us to conceptualize, invest and nurture the company.
They are the only players in
India who operate as a pure play company in the advance tech support space. We
strongly believe that as a focused player in a niche and growing segment,
SlashSupport is ideally positioned to leverage the booming advanced tech
support opportunity. The company is defining the market segment Technology
Application Support (TAS) and we are proud to partner with Slash.”
SlashSupport ended FY2003
with revenues of $8million.
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