Aricent co-creates the world's most innovative communication products and services.

COVER FEATURE

Aricent co-creates the world's most innovative communication products and services.

Aricent is a global innovation, technology and outsourcing company focused exclusively on communications. It combines the leading inno- vation capabilities of Frog Design with unparalleled domain expertise in communications gained as a strategic supplier to the world's foremost infrastructure, application and service providers. Aricent investors include Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Sequoia Capital, The Family Office and Flextronics International. Aricent has more than 550 clients worldwide.

Please tell us about the background of your company, say, about its evolution, promoters, organizational structure and business objectives.

Aricent was spun out of Flextronics about two-and-a-half years ago, primarily to capitalize on the surging need for communications expertise across all industries. Customers in this fast growing market require assistance in multiple areas, including innovation in developing things like new user interfaces for mobile devices, to deep domain expertise in things like wireless communications including 3G and 4G, to engineering services so as to reduce development time and risk, to commercializing services like network integration and OSS/BSS evolution.

Aricent was the first company to recognize the convergence of technology and innovation in the communications sector _ even before the iPhone was launched. Aricent is made up of two divisions today, Frog Design, a well-known global innovation form, and communications technologies with a 15+ year lineage in communications including Hughes Software. This unique combination positions Aricent well to pursue a large percent of the traditional $1 tn outsourcing market focused on communications.

Our customer base historically has been primarily service providers and equipment manufacturers, but is widening as communications became a competitive focus for other industries like automotive for example.

We have over 8,000 people and offices worldwide, and deliver products and services to over 550 customers. Our revenue last fiscal year was approximately $400 mn, and our investors include KKR, Sequoia Capital, Flextronics and The Family Office.

What is your business model? How many revenue streams are being targeted and how?

Aricent derives revenue across the full ecosystem of leading communications suppliers; communications silicon providers, software vendors, communications device manufacturers, equipment OEMs and major communications service providers. Ever increasingly, we are engaging outside of the typical communications segment customer base into a variety of vertical areas such as healthcare, automotive and `infotainment', where communications capabilities are becoming more commonplace.

The vastness and variety of our levels of engagement position Aricent as a new breed of services provider with unmatched expertise in the communications industry. Aricent delivers solutions which simplify complexity, unify all the moving parts, reduce costs and facilitate market for our customer's innovative new products and services.

Please tell us about the geographies served by you and whether this poses any special problems for your company?

In terms of mobile communication device manufacturers, equipment OEMs and communication service providers, Aricent provides technologies on a global basis; however, the majority of these suppliers operate in the Americas and Europe. This business is however expanding to other growth areas such as Asia and Latin America. Our services and technology offerings for independent software applications developers are provided on a global basis and represent significant revenue opportunity for the company.

Your company is owned by KKR & Co., Sequoia Capital and Flextronics International Ltd. Please tell us about the shareholding/capital contribution pattern. Beyond money, what do these sponsors contribute to make your company a great success?

As a lead investor, KKR's strong relationships with executives at leading corporations around the world provide key access for Aricent. KKR is supportive of Aricent in establishing the appropriate connections and conversations where our products and services might be a strategic fit.

Sequoia Capital provides funding for many highly innovative early stage communications technology companies. Sequoia's communications expertise in the area offers an invaluable perspective in guiding Aricent's strategic thinking in terms of the future of the communications industry.

Aricent recently closed an up round of funding including KKR, Sequoia Capital and the Family office.

What are the products and services being offered by your company? How do you differentiate them from those offered by your competitors? Please comment on Converged Access Solution (CAS) and how it gives your company an edge over others.

Aricent uniquely combines deep communications domain expertise and an innovation practice with complete products and frameworks _ all delivered via a highly sophisticated global delivery model. This combination of capabilities is unmatched today in the communications industry.

Aricent's innovation arm Frog Design, Inc. is a global innovation firm. Frog Design works with the world's leading companies, helping them create and bring to market meaningful products, services, and experiences. The multidisciplinary process reveals valuable consumer and market insights and inspires lasting humanizing solutions. With a team of more than 400 designers, technologists, strategists, and analysts, we deliver fully convergent experiences that span multiple technologies, platforms, and media. We work across a broad spectrum of industries, including consumer electronics, telecommunications, healthcare, media, education, finance, retail, and fashion. Our clients include Disney, GE, HP, Logitech, Microsoft, MTV, Seagate, Yahoo! and others.

The company's communications engineering division is composed of three elements: consulting, engineering services and software products. The communications engineering business is the company's single largest business providing complete development lifecycle services for its clients. Many of the company's communications engineering engagements extend across the complete product lifecycle, from conceptual design to architecture, to software development and integration, to testing and quality assurance, to maintenance and life extension. Its software products' business gives it a significant differentiation in the marketplace. In its software products' business, the company develops complex products for fixed networks, mobile networks, IP networks, convergent networks as well as embedded software products installed on handsets and other devices. The company also develops software products for the billing and operational support systems of service providers.

The Converged Access Solution (CAS) is a middleware gateway solution for providing voice and data converged access to a Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) customer. This software solution runs on industry leading silicon platforms from LSI, Broadcom, Marvell and delivers a voice/data gateway (PTO) functionality to SME customers. In the communication space it is all about convergence of information on any device anywhere. CAS is one of our family of products that enables our customers to deliver the promise of Convergence.

What are the customized business solutions provided to your clients to improve their performance?

One great example of customized services is our work with leading mobile operators to create unique and miniaturized multimedia experiences on new age handset devices. Our Celltop navigation interface solution for handsets was developed in conjunction with leading mobile operators in order to provide the best possible, multimedia-rich user experience for today's high bandwidth wireless networks.

Our unique engagement with Sprint in co-developing One-Click, a simple yet innovative user interface designed to offer Sprint customers instant access to information and entertainment was also highly customized. The engagement between Aricent and Sprint encompassed Aricent's Frog Design customer research and innovative design as well as the full engineering development process, which fully exploited Aricent's highly expert engineering capabilities.

Aricent's various engagement models offer design, R&D and product realization services including customized technology and tailored delivery models including on-site, near shore and offshore options.

Please tell our readers about the `Frog Design' as well as your significant achievements in providing advisory/consulting services to your prospective customers using this methodology.

Aricent's innovation arm Frog Design, Inc. is a global innovation firm. Frog works with the world's leading companies helping them create and bring to market meaningful products, services, and experiences. The multidisciplinary process reveals valuable consumer and market insights and inspires lasting humanizing solutions. With a team of more than 400 designers, technologists, strategists, and analysts, we deliver fully convergent experiences that span multiple technologies, platforms, and media. We work across a broad spectrum of industries, including consumer electronics, telecommunications, healthcare, media, education, finance, retail, and fashion. Our clients include Disney, GE, HP, Logitech, Microsoft, MTV, Seagate, Yahoo! and others.

In the communications space today, the front-end of the life cycle including innovation and design are becoming increasingly important as differentiation shifts from hardware to software and the user experience. Engaging with our clients at a much earlier stage in the development cycle helps our customers understand technical feasibility as well as ensure a truly unique user experience, yielding faster market adoption, high customer satisfaction and increased value.

Please tell our readers about your company's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has revolutionized lives and turned the world into a `global village'. While most of us are reaping the benefits in this new world of technology-induced development, there are sections of our society that are yet to see the benefits of this development. We firmly believe that `education' is the only means of filling this gap.

Going beyond business to make a meaningful difference to the communities in which we operate, through the education of underprivileged children and youth is the guiding philosophy of the CSR initiatives by Aricent. Our CSR program ceaselessly works towards empowering individuals through education and training with an emphasis on ICT.

For example, we have built two infotech laboratories at the Carterpuri Government School in Haryana (India) and donated other critical resources to make these labs functional. Every year, about 500 students receive basic and advanced training in computers in these labs. Aricent also regularly contributes a significant amount towards infrastructure development at the school.

Another example of our community initiatives is our financial support towards Dipalo School of Information and Communication Technology to buy equipment for a training course in network installation. Dipalo is a non-profit organization in Soweto, South Africa, providing free ICT training for school children, unemployed matriculates and postgraduates.

Profile of the CEO

Sudip Nandy has a long history of building internationally successful, high growth businesses. He joined Aricent as CEO in October 2008, with a rich track record and deep domain expertise in the communications and outsourcing industry. Previously, he was the president of the technology media and telecom business unit at Wipro. He held a number of positions including chief strategy officer, globally responsible for the successful completion of nine mergers and acquisitions, and joint venture transactions over a two-year period. In addition, he headed the Wipro European Sales and Operations' growing development centers in the UK and Sweden. Sudip has been an active member of the Institute of Directors, and is an active participant in the Global Executive Forum of the Economist Intelligence Unit. -- Sudip Nandy Chief Executive Officer, Aricent