Indian firms soar in embedded software

“Embedded software, which is already the largest component of India’s design market, is poised to soar,” said a report by the India Semiconductor Association (ISA) and Frost & Sullivan. The study also forecasts the local semiconductor industry to achieve revenues of $36 billion by 2015, which represents a growth of 14 times over 2005 revenues of $2.5 billion. “Driving this trend is the increasing presence of large multinational companies in the Indian embedded design marketplace and the burgeoning international demand for embedded software from the consumer electronics, communication, and automotive markets,” explained Niju V., industry manager, Automation & Electronics Practice, Frost & Sullivan.

EMBEDDED IS HOT
“Indian companies are known to be important players in providing embedded software to markets such as mobile phones, automotive electronics, and networking,” confirmed analyst Christian Heidarson of the Gartner Group. This view is strengthened by the fact that many of the world’s leading product and technology companies have their embedded system development centers in the country. Take the telecom powerhouse Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd as an example. “Huawei India R&D has successfully handled a number of challenges in telecom and datacom products. Today, these high-performance products are deployed, with key customers such as British Telecom, Telefonica, Telstra, Vodafone, etc.,” said Virendra Gupta, AVP and head of the Embedded Software Business Unit, Huawei Technologies India. Other well-known international companies in the telecom and networking space that operate significant embedded design operations in India include Cisco, Toshiba, Freescale, LSI Logic, D-Link, STMicroelectronics, NXP and Broadcom.
Despite the presence of numerous MNCs in India, the embedded system design services industry is still largely dominated by local companies, including globally recognized firms like TCS, Wipro, Ittiam, and Satyam. Many of these companies work on leading edge designs, and are process- and quality-certified to high standards. For instance, KPIT Cummins Infosystems recently became a member of JasPar (Japan Automotive Software Platform Architecture) and has achieved Automotive SPICE Level 5 certification, making it one of the only two companies in the world to achieve such qualification. “Indian design companies can compete with the US, European, Korean, and Japanese companies in cost-sensitive areas,” said Heidarson.

According to Frost & Sullivan, the main factors that are driving companies to set up embedded development centers in India or outsource their product development to Indian service companies include:
• Declining revenue margins and reduced R&D budgets that are compelling companies to look for cost-effective solutions without compromising the quality of work.
• Highly dynamic international marketplace that necessitates frequent new product variants/models, compelling OEMs and product companies to shorten product development cycle time through outsourcing.
• Availability of a large pool of engineering talents has made countries like India an attractive destination for design and development.
• Companies making investments in captive design operations also view them as strategic investments in potentially large domestic markets.
• Companies can often save 25 to 50 percent of their aggregate cost by off-shoring design activities.

INNOVATIONS BLOOM
Embedded system developers are also increasingly going beyond standardized project assignments and turning to IP, product, and solution development that deliver greater value to customers. The CardioAlert from TCS is an example. “The CardioAlert is a small waist-worn device that collects ECG data from a patient and instantaneously sends cardiac alarms over a GSM-GPRS framework to the doctor or a hospital. The device has an in-built embedded decision support system to detect cardiac ailments and various arrhythmias,” explained Madhuraj Jadhav, global head of Embedded Systems Unit, Tata Consultancy Services.

Ahmedabad-based eInfochips, which designs intelligent cameras and video servers, has developed an intelligent multi-channel surveillance system. “Dubbed eIntelliServe, this video server supports four channels of video streaming and built-in analytics for video surveillance applications,” said Upendra Patel, CTO, eInfochips.

Meanwhile, Innoviti of Bangalore has developed TrueID, a product that facilitates biometric identification of individuals and provides user authentication for health insurance services in rural areas. According to Vedavalli Krishnan, VP of engineering at Innoviti embedded systems, “The high security and portability needs in the solution are addressed by integrating a tamper-proof handheld point-of-sale (PoS) terminal with a standardized fingerprint ID system.”

When machine manufacturer ETA Technology Pvt Ltd wanted to develop an embedded deterministic controller for its friction welding machines, it worked with embedded system designers from Bangalore-based National Instruments to create a software-based, flexible architecture that could be retrofitted to all its equipment. “By standardizing on a single platform, ETA was able to increase manufacturing volumes and cut prices,” said Jayaram Pillai, managing director, National Instruments India.

FUTURE IS IN PARTNERSHIPS
Today, a robust demand is prompting companies to step up their focus in the embedded space. Product engineering company Symphony Services employs in excess of 600 embedded designers working on a wide variety of technologies. “Our future plans are to focus on communications, semiconductors, control systems, automotive, consumer electronics, and storage verticals — and leverage our embedded Center of Excellence to explore new and emerging technologies in partnership with silicon vendors,” said Mohan Hebbar, VP, Embedded Systems and Software Business Unit, Symphony Services India.

Customers using services from Indian companies can also look forward to greater commitment and involvement from their service providers. For instance, Tata Elxsi has built an in-house self-funded WiMAX IP and software program. This enables OEMs/ODMs to start off with a ready reference base station solution for less than a fifth of what they would have spent building the station internally from scratch, yielding time savings of over 12 months,” according to Nitin Pai, Joint General Manager, Marketing at Tata Elxsi.

On the other hand, TCS has recently announced that it will be investing $10 million to set up a dedicated Innovation Lab for embedded systems research in key verticals like automotive, consumer electronics, telecom, and office automation. The Pune-based lab will develop solutions focused on the needs of the Japanese market and will be initially staffed with 100 engineers. TCS employs more than 6,500 embedded systems engineers. “We have identified embedded systems as one of the key focus areas for our growth strategy in Japan,” said Girija Pande, EVP and head of TCS-APAC. “TCS is also setting up a second Japan-focused Offshore Delivery Center (J-ODC) in Pune specializing in embedded systems to service the needs of Japanese customers.”

Author information
You can reach Chitra Giridhar at chitra.giridhar@rbi-asia.com