Outsourcing: Josh Lieberman, Co-Founder of KMS Technology, Atlanta and Ho Chi Minh City (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: That’s the real winning story.

Josh Lieberman: Absolutely.

SM: In India, no matter where you are … in the big cities, you’re looking at 30% attrition. In the smaller cities, you’re looking at 20% attrition. That’s the real problem. If you’re looking at below 5% attrition, that is the real winning story. >>>

Outsourcing: Josh Lieberman, Co-Founder of KMS Technology, Atlanta and Ho Chi Minh City (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Now we understand the positioning of the company. Tell us, what is the unique selling proposition (USP)? Within outsourced product development, what is your company’s USP? How do you differentiate, and what do you pitch that is compelling to your customers?

Josh Lieberman: Up to now we have had zero sales or marketing. So, in terms of having a USP, we really haven’t had to have one. Most of our customers have called us and said, “Hey, I’ve heard about you. I’ve worked with you in the past. I know you guys are good guys, and I want to work with you again.” In terms of going through that RFP process, putting together our USP, we haven’t had to do that at all thus far. We do plan to get a bit more aggressive from a sales and marketing perspective and are looking forward to getting into more competitive situations. >>>

Outsourcing: Josh Lieberman, Co-Founder of KMS Technology, Atlanta and Ho Chi Minh City (Part 1)

Founded in 2009, KMS Technology partners with clients that range from startups to Fortune 500 companies to provide software development services such as research and development, product innovation and management, application management, testing, support, professional services, and staff augmentation.

Sramana Mitra: Hi, Josh. Let’s start with some background about you and KMS Technology.

Josh Lieberman: I’ll start with the company that we had prior KMS because I think a lot of our history leads into how we formed KMS to be what it is today. Trade relations with Vietnam opened up in 2005. My partner, Vu Lam, is in Vietnam as we speak. He and I are partners in KMS. Vu started a company with a couple of friends called Paragon Solutions. Their mission with Paragon Solutions was to develop the outsourcing model in Vietnam, not just India. So, Vu moved to Vietnam, started an offshore development center in conjunction with the university over there. He and his friends bootstrapped Paragon Solutions. >>>

Outsourcing: Million-Dollar Freelancer: A1 Future CEO Srish Agrawal, Kolkata, India (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Help me tie these two together. The media buying that brought you the right traffic to your website, how does that translate into trust and reliability?

Srish Agrawal: In order to build trust and reliability, you need a client base. Once you have that initial trust, using that initial trust that you’re able to provide the right kind of service to the right people using the right methods. But if you do not get that initial trust, who will trust you? You have to some people who start using your services? >>>

Outsourcing: Million-Dollar Freelancer: A1 Future CEO Srish Agrawal, Kolkata, India (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: That’s wonderful. In fact, I would say that’s easier to do in Calcutta than in other parts of India and easier to do in other, smaller cities in India than a Bangalore or Bombay because the attitudes of people working in Bangalore, Bombay and so on is mercenary. They’re not interested in this kind of loyalty.

Srish Agrawal: Right. Absolutely, I agree with you. >>>

Outsourcing: Million-Dollar Freelancer: A1 Future CEO Srish Agrawal, Kolkata, India (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Where do you hire from now? In the course of the last 10 years, what has been your hiring strategy?

Srish Agrawal: Either we hire from art colleges in Calcutta or we also advertise and invite people to come down to our office. We give them a piece of paper and ask them to draw something. There are several artists who did not get an opportunity to get into college, but they are really good at hand drawing. So, we ask them to do some kind of hand drawing. If they are good at hand drawing and visualizing what we want them to do, we hire them and teach them how to use computers. >>>

Outsourcing: Million-Dollar Freelancer: A1 Future CEO Srish Agrawal, Kolkata, India (Part 2)

SM: What kind of price range did you have for these projects? Let’s say you did a mockup in 2002, 2003 time frame. What size project would you expect to get from that bid?

SA: Normally, the projects were between $200 and $600. That was the range we were working on. $200 to $600 was the median range.

SM: So, you could absorb the cost of the mockup? >>>

Thought Leaders in Mobile and Social: Diarmuid Mallon, Head of Product Marketing for Sybase, an SAP Company, on Mobile Banking (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Can you walk me through the workflow of that?

Diarmuid Mallon: What we have is the person who sends the money has a mobile wallet that has cash loaded into it. Now, I say the person sending the money, but it could be cash loaded by an agent, or the person could have transferred the money to the wallet from a bank account. The customer then uses the mobile phone to send the money to a particular universal ID and then inform the recipient that the money has been sent. It could be that the recipient receives a call from the person sending the money, or the recipient knows that x amount of money will be sent every week. >>>