By Aritra Bhattacharya

Rajiv C Mody, the Chairman and CEO of telecom services firm Sasken Communication Technologies, along with his team of engineers had anticipated as many as 5,000 tests for the digital video application they had developed for a Japanese mobile phone company. The Japanese, they knew, were strict about quality. But when the actual testing process began, it sent their minds in a tizzy. “The number of tests probably went well beyond 50,000,” recalls Mody. They (the clients) would test the resolution of each pixel on the mobile screen, over and over innumerous times. The grind came to a sudden unexpected halt two days prior to the product release: the display characteristics for a particular pixel were not up to the required specifications. The anomaly stretched Sasken’s faculties to the core, and as the harrowed minds worked round the clock, ‘literally 24 hours’ to fix the error, the powers that be in the company realized all over again the worth of quality, and what it meant to respond to a client’s quality specifications.

The experience has held them in good stead; recently the new phone launched in the Motorola stable became the 50th phone to be shipped with Sasken IP. In all, more than 50 million phones have shipped with Sasken’s IP.

Financially too (see graphic on pg-24), the organization has marched from one distinction to another. After having gone public on the BSE in 2005, its revenues touched Rs. 477.1 crore for the fiscal 2006-07, up 55 percent from the previous year. While its services wing grew at 62 percent to contribute 95 percent to the revenue, the products segment contributed 5 percent.

To fuel its growth inorganically, in April last year, Sasken acquired Chennai-based Data Networks and Wireless LAN company iSoftTech for US $1.45 million. This was followed by an all-cash Euro 35 million acquisition of Finnish Hardware and Mechanical Design firm Botnia Hightech.

The acquisitions were a measure to further the philosophy of a global company; an aspiration communicated by the phrase ‘at home around the world’ in its annual report. The theme is brought to life by the clay character Kenny, who is shown embracing varied cultures that Sasken is a part of around the world, thus signifying the mission of global diversity.

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