www.synerzip.com

Leveraging Offshore Software Services

September 5, 2007

A Guide For Smaller Companies

Confidential

About Us (Synerzip in a Nut-shell)1. Offshore software development partner for

small/mid-sized technology companies• Focus: A/B round funded technology start-ups• Deep experience in product development and testing• Full software development life cycle• Flexible engagement models: Fixed-Price OR Dedicated-

Team

2. Actually reduces risk of development/delivery• Experienced management team• Light-weight but robust Agile process

3. Reduces cost – dual shore team providing 50% cost advantage

4. Offers long term flexibility – allows (facilitates) taking offshore team captive

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Experienced Team

• Hemant Elhence, Chief Executive Officer– Co-founder & COO of ECMi, venture funded software product company

– Product-line VP at i2 – managed product portfolio with multiple offshore teams

– Manager at McKinsey & Co, Consultant at TRG

– Software engineer at Digital Equipment Corporation

– BSEE IIT Delhi, MSEE Univ. of Massachusetts, MBA Univ. of Chicago

• Vinayak Joglekar, EVP & Chief Technology Officer– Co-founder & CTO of ECMi, lead offshore (India) development center

– 22+ years experience in software architecture design & product development, has built and mentored 100+ teams, hired 1000+ software professionals

– Successfully delivered off-shore software projects for 20+ companies incl. Alfa-Laval, First Guarantty, Cyberdrawer, etc.

– BSME IIT Bombay, MBA IIM Calcutta

Team of seasoned professionals with extensive experience in offshore software Product Development

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Our Clients

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Common Myths1. Only large companies/teams can leverage the offshore

advantage

2. Engaging with an offshore team means a significant IP risk

3. To be considered for offshoring, a project needs to have completely detailed software requirements and design

4. You can easily engage an offshore development team at 1/10th the cost

5. To get the work started and offshore team productive need significant commitment and involvement from local team

6. It is complex to make the distributed/offshore team processes – source code control, issue tracking, etc - to work via VPN etc.

7. Agile development model doesn’t work with offshore teams

8. Agile model cannot be used with a “fixed-price” project

FALSE

FALSE

FALSE

FALSE

TRUE

FALSE

FALSE

FALSE

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Is Offshore For You?

1. Scale: size of software team, incl dev, maint, QA

2. Talent Availability: how easy is it to find good software talent locally?

3. Engineering Discipline: how disciplined is you in-house dev and delivery process?

4. Engineering Leadership: do you have a seasoned “VP of Engineering”?

5. Company Culture: healthy attitude and willingness to accept “global” talent

< 3 FTEs > 20 FTEs

Easily available

Tough – need to interview 20 to find one good

Ad-hoc – no written req doc, fluid release mgmt, no QA

Disciplined – well defined, waterfall or Agile

Missing engg leadership, only business savy mgmt

Seasoned VP of Engg with next level team

Insular and insecure

Open minded, healthy “global” view

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Mindset: The World is Flat• An offshore operation will provide you a long-term

structural competitive advantage• But, it is a bumpy road initially, in spite of best efforts,

plan to hit a few bumps along the way• The important thing is to…

– Embrace offshore with a healthy attitude and spirit– Do it with required long-term commitment and planning– Follow good management hygiene of learning from mistakes &

good communications

• Remember, it is very easy to make the offshore effort fail!!

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Basic Principles1. Start small – say 4 to 12 man-month well defined “project”2. Match offshore team composition with needed work content – hire

heavy hitters for challenging work and vice-versa3. Ensure proper infrastructure set-up for distributed development –

source code control, VPN, wiki, etc.4. Follow management hygiene

• Over communicate (docs, email, wiki, video-conf, skype, etc.)• Over compensate for project mgmt• Define success criteria & track (results oriented metrics, avoid counting

hours!)• Clear management ownership with aligned incentives on your team• Learning cycles

5. Treat offshore team as “your” team6. Maintain continuity of work & team7. Get started with a partner, but preserve the right for own captive

operation later

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We spend time upfront to understand the work content

We assign a dedicated team, with direct involvement from client

Client responsible for work content planning and delivery

For the first 3-4 months we actively manage to ensure smooth start-up

Client retains option to “buy their dedicated team” anytime they want

Client project is reasonably well defined and “independent”

We spend time upfront to understand the work content

We scope the work – resources, time, $$, and assign team

We deliver using “Incrementally Priced Agile”

All scope changes negotiated along the way in good faith

Pick the Right Model“Fixed Price Project” “Dedicated Team”

• Projects need to be well defined and independent• Will still require client team’s ongoing involvement

• Client needs to have engineering leadership• Client needs to have long-term interest

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Fixed Price ProjectPhase-0 Phase-1 Phase-2Discovery Scoping & Planning Development & Delivery

Iteration #1 Iteration #2 Iteration #3Client Inputs

Project Description Req document - draft On-going respones to requirements related questionsMgmt Considerations Existing design docs Design doc reviewsTechology Reqs Dev guidelines Functional test case reviews

Responses to Synerzip queries Software demo feedbackSynerzip Deliverables

Open Questions Req doc - completed Acceptance test casesAssumptions/Risks Priortized use cases Working software (demos)Rough draft docs UI wireframes Well documented working codeEngagement Proposal Data model design

Selected design detailsPOC, if neededProject plan for Phase-2

Team ProcessLight interaction level Fairly copius interaction level Periodic conf-call/meetings for req, UI, tech design reviewMeetings In person meetings Working demo review and feedback at the end of each iterationConf-calls Bi-weekly conf-callsDemos Document exchanges

Web-ex working sessionsVideo conf-calls, if needed

Duration2 to 8 weeks 2 to 6 weeks 4 to 16 weeks (1 to 3 week per iteration, typically 3-4 iterations in all)

Cost to Client$0 $5K to $20K Fixed $3K to $15K per iteration, charged incrementally per iteration

Formal Project Kick-off

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Build Dedicated Team

Engagement Time (months)6 12 18 24

5

10

15

20

Off

shor

e T

eam

Siz

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1Start of Offshore Engagement with Synerzip (3-5 FTEs)

BUILD 4

~15 FTE Client Team Hosted @Synerzip

TRANSFER

Gradual, 2-Step Transfer

5

20+ FTE Client’s India Operation

TRANSFER

2 5 to 8 FTEs

38-12 FTEs

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Contact Information

• Hemant Elhence (Dallas based)

– hemant@synerzip.com– Office Phone: 469.322.0349– Cell Phone: 214.762.4873

• www.synerzip.com