eInfochips: Setting the Benchmark in Innovation Date:   Monday , July 01, 2013 “As an Entrepreneur, I know what it takes to reach such a stage; it is a lot of work, blood, sweat and tears. Individuals will not understand the difficulties faced in 1995, to start a company in Embedded Products and Semiconductors. This is not (IT) software development, contract software or body shopping. The basic understanding of products and customer requirements takes a lot of effort. Operating from Ahmedabad and creating products for clients in Japan, US and Europe takes special talent. India requires more Individuals like Pratul (Pratul Shroff, CEO of eInfochips) to bring special design talent to the country. India needs to learn from him as an example,” said Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister of India on public information infrastructure & Innovations and Chairman of National Innovation Council. Most entrepreneurs dream of moving to the U.S and starting their own venture in the comforts of the country’s advanced technological environments. But Pratul Shroff, Founder and CEO of eInfochips, challenged the odds and moved to India after working in the U.S. for 12 years. Starting off with just one engineer in his hometown Ahmedabad, eInfochips has come a long way since 1994 to now provide product engineering services and semiconductor design services to seven ’Fortune -75’ companies and over 30 billion-dollar enterprises spanning Aerospace, Surveillance, Retail & eCommerce, Biometric Security, Semiconductor, Medical devices, Consumer devices, Communications & Software Technology. Moving to India for the love of the homeland The organization was started when Shroff realized a growing need for development of EDA tools in the industry. Over time, Shroff assembled a team of 30 engineers in Ahmedabad and trained them extensively in Verilog, a hardware description language (HDL) used to model electronic systems. This was particularly hard considering the availability of quality technology talent in Ahmedabad in the 90s. Pretty soon, eInfochips engineers were much sought after in the Silicon Valley for their programming skills and unique innovative practices. Recognizing the immense potential on offer, Shroff continued to provide chip design and product design services and expanded the company strategically. Today, eInfochips has a 1000-strong workforce across eight design centers in India, operating sales offices in seven countries with 90+ customers. eInfochips has garnered a special reputation in the industry circles for bringing innovation into each stage of the product development cycle. All throughout eInfochips journey, Shroff has ensured that the primary focus is on generating value beyond cost reduction to customers. “Simple philosophy is to build people and people will build the company in turn.” says Shroff. As the saying goes, simple strategies are often the best ones; eInfochips is simply a birth child of this omnipotent philosophical approach. “Today I can confidently say that we can achieve 50 percent growth year on year,” adds a proud Shroff. From Innovation to Industry Prominence The growth can be attributed to the company’s policy of ‘Customer First’. While generating value far beyond labor cost arbitrage, eInfochips has invested into internal R&D to build a strong portfolio of 50+ in-house IPs that customers can leverage for lower effort, greater predictability and faster time-to market capabilities. After 15 years of designing and engaging customers across two downturns, eInfochips is going strong today. With product innovation as the bedrock of eInfochips engagements, it is no surprise that clients see immense value in associating with eInfochips. Working on the latest technologies also brings in enormous value for the employees. Having exposure to the technologies and innovations that would shape the future is extremely satisfying for eInfochips employees. As a result, the company is able to attract diverse and skilled talent from across India. A majority of eInfochips business comes from critical industries like Aerospace, Semiconductors and Medical Devices. 80 percent business from existing clients implies a cynosure on quality of products and client value delivered. The fact that these highly critical and complex products are developed with over 95 percent offshore presence is a testimony of the innovation, process and engineering skills borne by the eInfochips team. They create value with offshore product design and development, rather than augmenting onsite client teams (body-shopping) with value limited to cost arbitrage. Apart from the aforesaid expertise, another major characteristic of the solutions provided by eInfochips is to take complete ownership of products from the concept to volume production. This is made possible due to the strong ecosystem of manufacturing partners based in India, China, US and Taiwan. While the customers of other companies spend a lot of time, money and effort in R&D, production, procurement, yield and logistics, eInfochips has ensured a single point ownership archetype. It also reduces pressure on the working capital for clients while ensuring complete design and IP confidentiality, a very appreciable trend moving away from typical working scenarios seen with other ODM’s. With ‘Customer First’, ‘Embracing Impossible Challenges’ and ‘Disciplined Execution’ imbibed into the culture and work-ethic of the company, it is no surprise that eInfochips has a habit with winning accolades. They were awarded the No.1 chip design service provider worldwide by Gartner, one of the top-20 Global Design Partners for TI and GESIA 2011 for the best Software Product Company, to name a few. Moving forward, after 15 years of struggle and successes, Shroff and his team look set to take giant strides and might just be the next big thing to emerge out of India. eInfochips in percentages: While other design firms employ a product sustenance model for revenue, eInfochips are an innovation driven company - a relatively challenging task as it involves nascent technologies and ever-changing skill requirements. Over 95 percent of employees in India is a stark contrast to other companies that have about 30 percent of their workforce at client locations across the world. “We participate in architecture, user interface and user experience of the product and from there we do the complete hardware implementation, software implementation, enclosure designs and put the product out in the client’s hands. There is no other company that will do this as a regular routine operation in India.” says Shroff. eInfochips has set aggressive targets for itself, as it plans to employ 700 people in this financial year and grow to a company of `600 Crores by 2016. Being a pure-play product and semiconductor design company, eInfochips quality standards are tuned to requirements of products. Achieving an average revenue growth rate of 35 percent with 80 percent business from existing clients summarizes the quality, innovation and value eInfochips brings to its clients.