UST Global: Emerging Kingpin of Semiconductor Services & Digital Transformation Domains Date:   Friday , January 13, 2017 Silicon touches every aspect of our life. As a result, humanity has embraced technology to evolve in multiple industries from communication and transportation, to healthcare, banking, and aerospace. The latest entrant to be digitally transformed is agriculture. Through the adoption and use of technological innovation such as IoT, accessible weather reports, and the application of cognitive capabilities, today\'s agricultural sector is growing to another level. The real time visibility into soil conditions, crop health, and weather has already improved predictability of yields. And as new applications are created, the need for affordable enhanced sensor technology is on the rise. But in order to fuse precision with silicon, semiconductor companies need partners who can help them in pre- and post-silicon processes, starting with design, development, and bug detection to proven go-to-market strategies. Driven by the need for socially-interconnected human-machine interactions, semiconductor companies now seek to solve new problems with solutions that evoke sensations of happiness and delight. By recognizing such trends in digital transformation, IoT, social, mobile, and other disruptive technologies, UST Global is helping semiconductor companies develop new products, and generate new revenue streams while driving competitive advantage and customer loyalty. UST Global is providing end-to-end engineering and technology services that support the entire silicon lifecycle for original device manufacturer (ODM), original equipment manufacturer (OEM), and integrated hardware vendor (IHV) organizations. Every service offered by UST Global in this space is defined by an integrated and innovative process with strong domain expertize. The company engages at all levels of the product life cycle to ensure successful enterprise-class digital transformation for the clients and end consumers. According to Gilroy Mathew, Global Head of semiconductor vertical, \"We don\'t look at the services as a single unit; instead we go for the 360 degree approach to each of our offerings. We want to be an end-to-end shop for any service that our customers ask for\". With such diverse offerings and expertise, UST Global’s semiconductor group has emerged as the third largest semiconductor service company serving customers across 15 countries and over 3000 dedicated employees working specifically in this domain. Today, UST Global serves eight of the top 20 Fortune 500 / Global 1000 semiconductor companies. This has been achieved by referrals and word of mouth augmented with their excellent domain and innovative delivery models. \"With each customer\'s growth, we grow along with them in multiple geographies,\" explains Mathew. Innovation Designed Excellence Chip design is getting more complex these days and testing cycles are getting longer and challenging. Gaps are evident in test flows as chipmakers add additional analog content and push into more safety-critical applications, exposing more points at which designs need to be tested. In order to fix the bugs in ICs and systems after manufacturing, post-silicon validation is required. Viewed as an art with very few systematic solutions, post-silicon validation is an emerging subject area with huge opportunities for major innovation. UST Global has made significant investments in this space to be a market leader. Whether it is Circuit Design, RTL Design & Verification, Mixed Signal Verification, Physical Design, Custom & Analog Layout, DFT or FPGA prototyping for the design phase, UST Global has strong capabilities to support any semiconductor product development, both in pre- and post-silicon phases. Offering ATE, Electrical Validation, Bench Characterization, System Validation & Product Engineering teams for post-silicon, UST Global supports clients with complete ownership of IP development and SoC integration with readiness to tape out. Innovation and continuous improvement of design flow and methodology have been its core strengths to bring value add to its customers; for instance, IP Block-as-a-Service, which is one of the company\'s innovations in the design service space, and automation plays a major role in achieving this. The Digital Side & The Emotional Touch UST Global is a visionary company that provides next generation digital solutions with an emotional edge. Their mission to \'Transform Lives\' using the power of digital technologies is evident in their partnerships. A leader in Digital Transformation, the company consistently surpasses its peers in profitability. Best-in-class enterprises are accelerating their digital transformation to be agile, customer-centric, and data driven, and being their innovation and solutions partner, UST Global is able to support both ideation and execution with human-centric compassion and grace. Moving beyond simply recommending, it delivers its innovation recommendations, and constantly re-measures success. Because of the strong faith in its offerings, the company accepts payment on outcome models. UST Global empowers its employees by encouraging creativity, aligning talent, resources, and solutions required to solve complex digital innovation challenges. With the development of Innovation Pods, UST Global brings a dedicated team that can create viable concepts and products in just six to 16 weeks. The Pods engage with customers as early as problem definition, and help manage innovation with structure, governance, and metrics. It goes beyond \'Metaphor Elicitation Techniques\' to surface emotional dilemmas and the deeper \'why\' through semiotics, anthropological insights, and other tools powered by partnership with path-breaking organizations. Technology has replaced smartphones with smart devices with independent intelligence and the ability to create value through a holistic design approach that emphasizes immersion in the context of the customer\'s natural environment. UST Global understands that today\'s complex business challenges need to be solved from an emotional, human-centered point of view; it approaches design with a proprietary set of tools and techniques that provide empathy with human experience. By systematically mapping micro-moments, UST Global reveals gaps in the customer journey that points the way to an optimal user experience. For example, UST Global has created several valuable applications that have the power to bring change in human life. In partnership with Kerala government, the company created an app called URSAFE (a safety app). With just a press of a button in a panic situation, the app immediately sends the information to the police control room directly, ensuring instant help to the user. This project done in partnership with Police Commissionaire of Trivandrum is currently ready to be deployed in various enterprises. UST Global has been a trusted partner to premier healthcare, retail, BFSI and Telco organizations for over 15 years. Today it offers a broad range of solutions, each with end-to-end design execution and production services, with expertise in digital health, operational transformation, consumer-centric innovation and assisting providers with the transition from volume-based to value-based health solutions through its Consulting & Advisory Services, Business Process-as-a-Service and Domain-focused Digital Solutions. By applying Design for Happiness (D4H), UST Global can design a Human-centered Healthcare at every touch point. Addressing the entire healthcare ecosystem in a holistic way, the company focuses between the goals of the healthcare entities and the users to develop solutions that tackle this duality. The company recently developed a telemedicine app that enables a patient to conduct video conferencing with the doctor using his smartphone. Aligning with the vision of Digital India, UST Global has developed practices to be able to easily automate the data collected on the piece of paper in the medical field. For instance, information of patients from rural sectors can directly be fed into the telemedicine app that works on any mobile and can run on 2G network on a low bandwidth, thus simplifying a lot of process and eliminating a huge amount of manual work. The Journey & The Way Forward UST Global is an organization that \'does things differently\'. Rather than a normal conventional model of starting a company in the US or India, the company began its journey in 1999 with just 14 people in California and Trivandrum concurrently. \"When we started in Kerala, there were hardly any IT companies. Today we are the largest employer in the state, and have successfully created a distinguished space for us,\" says Mathew. Intent upon giving back to the society, UST Global initiated building the local ecosystem of bringing MNCs into the state. Today, UST Global is engaged in creating a silicon ecosystem to enable the country to be self-sustaining to run a design house without external support. Being a part of the larger conglomerate Comcraft Group, a Geneva-based company, UST Global is the IT and Engineering Services Company for them that provides next-gen solutions. Working on the business model of \'fewer CLIENTS, more ATTENTION\', the company strives for excellence to provide best services and commitment to long-term client success, hence has not lost a single client since inception. \"Our biggest differentiator is the flexibility that we bring to the engagement and our commitment to our customers is beyond contract. We want to be long-term strategic partner of our clients rather than having a vendor relationship\", states Mathew. The strongly built DNA of the organization (humility, humanity, and integrity) identifies UST Global as a flat organization resulting in a single digit attrition, with enhanced passion and enthusiasm, ultimately fueled by innovation. In addition, UST Global has also created a finishing school in Kerala for the semiconductor domain to counter the challenge of getting skilled employees which will give fire to its vision of being the world\'s best Digital /Semiconductor Company. \"Our ultimate goal is to transform life and touch three billion lives through our CSR activities, and innovative apps. Additionally, we want to be the numero uno in the semiconductor service space too in the next three years,\" concludes Mathew. Key Management closely driving the Semiconductor business: Sajan Pillai, CEO & Member of its Board of Directors As a CEO, Sajan is responsible for the company\'s growth and acquisitions. He leads the company\'s global business operations through its state-of-the-art centers across four continents in 25 countries. Sajan\'s leadership of UST Global includes fostering the core value of innovation in the company. He ensures an ongoing environment that attracts dedicated and talented people, whom he then empowers to uncover new, measurable and sustainable ways of providing value to UST Global clients. Sajan is currently leading UST Global to digitally disrupt and transform global businesses to make them commercially viable and profitable. He is as enthusiastic about non-profit work as he is about business, and serves on the boards of multiple non-profit organizations: the California Science Center, the Global Virus Network and Centro Fox in Mexico. Sajan strongly believes that enterprises have an obligation to help those who are less fortunate and under-privileged in our society. As such, he stands as the company\'s champion of integrity and corporate social responsibility. Sajan was recently chosen as one of the elite 100 CEO Leaders in STEM by STEMConnector. He has also been featured in LEADERS magazine, for his focus on emerging markets, entrepreneurship and innovation, technology and diversity. Arun Narayanan, Chief Operating Officer As the Chief Operating Officer of UST Global, Arun Narayanan is responsible for operations, revenue growth, customer satisfaction, and associate development initiatives. Arun has been instrumental in setting up our offshore delivery centers and the CMMI Level 5 compliant processes. He is extremely passionate about people and dedicates a substantial share of his time to mentor staff and help them hone their professional skills. An innovative strategist, he has pioneered a unique corporate concept called Colors of UST Global that enables associates to work on organizational goals that are aligned with their personal goals. Alexander Varghese, Chief Administrative Officer As the Chief Administrative Officer and Country Head of UST Global, Alexander Varghese is responsible for Global Corporate Functions, Emerging markets and global public sector business of the corporation. He is also member of the board. Prior to joining UST Global, he held leadership roles and served many large corporations across the globe. Alex holds several important positions in Government agencies, academic institutions and trade bodies in India. Vice-Chairman for Gtech, a group of Technology companies. Member of the IT Services panel of NASSCOM. Member of the Regional Council of NASSCOM for the State of Kerala. Member of the State council of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Kerala State. Board member of the ICT Academy, a company set up by the Government of Kerala to bridge the gap between academia and industry. Governing board member of various academic councils and education institutions. Gilroy Mathew, Global Head of Semiconductor Vertical A strong believer of creating a local ecosystem for the completeness of solutions, Gilroy puts his over 22 years of industry experience in use to pave better inroads for the company\'s semiconductor segment. Gilroy has been with UST Global from its inception and is currently managing the semiconductor vertical globally and has an additional responsibility of running the Asia Pacific region. In the past he had been managing some of the Fortune 50 customers globally and was instrumental in growing them in new geographies. He had been in the East Coast and North-West region of US for more than 8 years before returning to India. He has great relationship with the CIO’s of some of the Fortune 50 customers globally. He had been very successful in managing the client and providing new service offerings to Retail, Healthcare and Semiconductor domains. While returning from US, he also got a hand written “thank you” note from the then CEO of a Fortune 50 retailer. Offerings from UST Global for the Semiconductor and other industries: Silicon Design Services, Silicon Validation Services, Firmware, IoT, Operations and CoE, D4H suite (Designing for Happiness) including D4H Express, D4H Express+Agile Development & D4H Turbo, Innovation Pods, and Digital Transformation Consulting Industries: BFSI, Energy & Utility, Healthcare, High Tech, Manufacturing, Media & Entertainment, Public Sector, Retail, Semiconductor, & Telecommunications Awards: Asia IT Excellence Awards, Singapore (August 2016) - Best use of CSR practices and Best use of IT for a social cause TISS Leapvault CLO Awards 2016 Brandon Hall Awards 2016 Stevie American Business Awards Best Project of the Year award in Small Category by Project Management Institute amongst several others