Building A Nearshore Outsourcing Company In Ann Arbor, Michigan: Systems In Motion CEO Neeraj Gupta (Part 4)

Sramana: Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the nearshore U.S. are all options that are coming up a lot now. What is the risk to India?

Neeraj Gupta: India is the only place where software development works at scale. There has been a lot of investment in India, and I think it is here to stay. The biggest challenge companies face today is determining how much more money to put in India. >>>

Building A Nearshore Outsourcing Company In Ann Arbor, Michigan: Systems In Motion CEO Neeraj Gupta (Part 3)

Sramana: When the three of you came together to found Systems In Motion, you had a set of analysis about the dysfunctions and gaps in the outsourcing industry. I have a piece that addresses this titled The Coming Death Of Indian Outsourcing.

Neeraj Gupta: That was a great piece that you wrote, and we echo the same sentiment. I had been on the sales side of selling offshoring for the previous four years. >>>

Building A Nearshore Outsourcing Company In Ann Arbor, Michigan: Systems In Motion CEO Neeraj Gupta (Part 2)

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 creation. We talked with folks in Austin, Texas, and in Columbus, Ohio before we ended up in Michigan. >>>

Building A Nearshore Outsourcing Company In Ann Arbor, Michigan: Systems In Motion CEO Neeraj Gupta (Part 1)

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 board member of various technology startups.

Sramana: What is the background story of the three founders of Systems In Motion? How did you meet?

Neeraj Gupta: The genesis of the organization came from all three founders, each of whom had experience working in global services. >>>

Outsourcing: Joe Lawler, Chairman, President And CEO Of ModusLink (Part 6)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Aditya Modi

Sramana Mitra: But Apple is an extreme case, right? They are very much about vertical integration and very much about an internally controlled kind of philosophy.

Joe Lawler: They are an extreme case, but they are certainly not alone; SanDisk has done the same thing over the past couple of years. This is a business that was outsourcing chip production for a long time and has now built their own facility, and they are operating their own facility because they saw what was happening to the cost curve, and they needed to come up with a different kind of answer. I think the point is that, I don’t see anybody reassembling and becoming a totally vertically integrated business. That is not happening and I don’t see that trend, but I do see that there is a selective in-sourcing and outsourcing that is going on. I think you will continue to see this. >>>

Outsourcing: Joe Lawler, Chairman, President And CEO Of ModusLink (Part 5)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Aditya Modi

Sramana Mitra: The optimization you are talking about, the technology behind that kind of optimization, is that off-the-shelf technology or is it something you have custom built for your business? >>>

Outsourcing: Amit Shankardass And Andrew Kokes Of Sitel (Part 10)

By guest author Tony Scott

Tony: I think you have to start with [an open] mindset as the prerequisite; it is pretty hard to train someone to be open minded if they are not open minded already.

Amit: If you look at Andrew’s background, Andrew was born and brought up in the United States, but you’ve traveled in how many countries? >>>

Outsourcing: Amit Shankardass And Andrew Kokes Of Sitel (Part 9)

By guest author Tony Scott

Tony: So, looking at the next level – beyond middle management, or lower middle management, looking at the senior leadership – what do you think are the key strengths that are going to be necessary for your executive leadership team and their direct subordinates to develop so that you can continue to grow your company globally? Beyond that, do you think you have those skills on board today? If not, what are you doing to do to get them? >>>