EPAM Systems Continues Strong Growth
Currently, the majority of EPAM System's customers are in the USA, but the company predicts the proportion is likely to shift towards Western Europe.
Sep 05, 2002
EPAM Systems, one of the largest offshore software development companies in the former Soviet Union, was formed a few months ago, when Moscow-based developer of e-commerce software, Exteria, merged with EPAM, a software company with development facilities in Minsk, the capital of neighboring republic of Belarus, and a sales structure in the United States.
The merged, Moscow-registered company has offices in Moscow, Minsk, Princeton, and Minneapolis. According to Vladislav Shershulsky, business development director of EPAM, the merger was not painful, as the two firms had been working together on several projects for about two years. "We decided to merge in order to formally consolidate our business, rather than re-organize our business processes in any way," he said, adding that the merger has helped to better plan and manage resources.
"True, the decision-making process has become easier in the merged company, as we have a single resource-planning structure, and project teams have access to all previous expertise of the two companies. Our development teams also use a joint project management center."
According to Shershulsky, offices located in different countries seem to complement each other quite well. "The Minsk development center has experience programmers, including Java2EE developers and those specializing in large scale multinational multisite implementations," he said. "In the United States we have a sales team of people who understand local business practices and the peculiarities of work for large customers from such sectors as software, insurance, retail, manufacturing, and transportation, and our Moscow team includes project managers, business analysts, creative interface designers and architects."
Currently, EPAM employs about 400 people, about two third of which are located in Minsk and the remainder is almost equally divided between Moscow and the US. Division of responsibilities between the company's offices depends on the project, Shershulsky said. "A situation when a project is implemented by people working simultaneously in Minsk, Moscow, Princeton and onsite in Europe or Latin America is not uncommon for us," he added.
Having the development team in Belarus helps EPAM to save on production costs, as while labor in Minsk is only slightly cheaper than in Moscow, office rent in Minsk is several times lower than that in Moscow. "It's the cost of the infrastructure rather than labor costs that has an impact on production costs in Belarus," Shershulsky said. "At the same time, many customers prefer to come to Moscow rather than to Minsk."
EPAM's main focus in offshore software development outsourcing is on e-business solutions, customer relationship management, data warehousing and business intelligence, content services, knowledge management solutions, while the main customers are in the insurance industry, retail and consumer goods, manufacturing and transportation.
EPAM System's customers for software development services include SAP, ServiceWare, Firepond Inc., NumeriX, TeaLeaf Technology, Parametric Technology Corporation, and Intellicorp.
"Our competitive advantage is that we've had positive experience with Fortune 50/500 companies," Shershulsky said, adding that several new deals are about to be closed, but he could not yet name the new customers.
With three overseas sales offices, EPAM Systems is among the industry leaders in terms of sales, Shershulsky said, adding that the company's turnover last year, before the merger deal with Exteria, was just under $10 million. "That's not that much compared with the turnovers of the leading Indian firms, but we've had good growth in recent years, which gives us optimism."
Speaking about promising areas for software development, in which EPAM is looking, Shershulsky mentioned corporate information portals and application integration services.
Currently, the majority of EPAM System's customers are in the USA, but the company predicts the proportion is likely to shift towards Western Europe.
The merged, Moscow-registered company has offices in Moscow, Minsk, Princeton, and Minneapolis. According to Vladislav Shershulsky, business development director of EPAM, the merger was not painful, as the two firms had been working together on several projects for about two years. "We decided to merge in order to formally consolidate our business, rather than re-organize our business processes in any way," he said, adding that the merger has helped to better plan and manage resources.
"True, the decision-making process has become easier in the merged company, as we have a single resource-planning structure, and project teams have access to all previous expertise of the two companies. Our development teams also use a joint project management center."
According to Shershulsky, offices located in different countries seem to complement each other quite well. "The Minsk development center has experience programmers, including Java2EE developers and those specializing in large scale multinational multisite implementations," he said. "In the United States we have a sales team of people who understand local business practices and the peculiarities of work for large customers from such sectors as software, insurance, retail, manufacturing, and transportation, and our Moscow team includes project managers, business analysts, creative interface designers and architects."
Currently, EPAM employs about 400 people, about two third of which are located in Minsk and the remainder is almost equally divided between Moscow and the US. Division of responsibilities between the company's offices depends on the project, Shershulsky said. "A situation when a project is implemented by people working simultaneously in Minsk, Moscow, Princeton and onsite in Europe or Latin America is not uncommon for us," he added.
Having the development team in Belarus helps EPAM to save on production costs, as while labor in Minsk is only slightly cheaper than in Moscow, office rent in Minsk is several times lower than that in Moscow. "It's the cost of the infrastructure rather than labor costs that has an impact on production costs in Belarus," Shershulsky said. "At the same time, many customers prefer to come to Moscow rather than to Minsk."
EPAM's main focus in offshore software development outsourcing is on e-business solutions, customer relationship management, data warehousing and business intelligence, content services, knowledge management solutions, while the main customers are in the insurance industry, retail and consumer goods, manufacturing and transportation.
EPAM System's customers for software development services include SAP, ServiceWare, Firepond Inc., NumeriX, TeaLeaf Technology, Parametric Technology Corporation, and Intellicorp.
"Our competitive advantage is that we've had positive experience with Fortune 50/500 companies," Shershulsky said, adding that several new deals are about to be closed, but he could not yet name the new customers.
With three overseas sales offices, EPAM Systems is among the industry leaders in terms of sales, Shershulsky said, adding that the company's turnover last year, before the merger deal with Exteria, was just under $10 million. "That's not that much compared with the turnovers of the leading Indian firms, but we've had good growth in recent years, which gives us optimism."
Speaking about promising areas for software development, in which EPAM is looking, Shershulsky mentioned corporate information portals and application integration services.
Currently, the majority of EPAM System's customers are in the USA, but the company predicts the proportion is likely to shift towards Western Europe.