e-Government solutions provider CrimsonLogic ( http://www.crimsonlogic.com/ ) ventured into the Indian market in 2002 to tap on the large pool of quality IT professionals and to leverage on the cost advantages that India provided with regard to developing solutions. CrimsonLogic's solutions span the domains of trade facilitation, customs, judiciary, tax, healthcare, and IT security. In 2007, the company opened its local sales office in New Delhi. It also has an overseas development centre in Bangalore, which supports the company's global operations. Mr Himmat Singh, CrimsonLogic's Alliance Director, talks about the learning experience.

Mr Singh: Tap on the IDA's resources and share your experiences with other Singapore companies.

What are the key characteristics of the Indian market?
The Indian market is very different from the Singaporean market. It has a very large market base, offering large-scale opportunities to many businesses. English is the main language used for conducting business and governance, which makes it easier to communicate with potential customers. It has a large pool of highly talented and skilled workforce. However, the business environment is disorganised and highly unpredictable. The Indian community is a complex diaspora of cultures, people and practices and businesses may face difficulties in navigating through all these without any local experience and help.

What are some of the major achievements of your India office to date?
We currently run an Overseas Development Centre that employs over 200 staff. This set-up allows us to offer quality solutions at competitive prices to our customers. We have three flagship project wins to date: PCS, a port community system for the Ports Authority of India; the Citizen Data Hub, a central repository of citizen information for the state of Uttaranchal; and eStamping, a document security solution that is being used by our local partner - Stock Holding Corporation of India - in various Indian states.

What are some of the key learning points that you can share?

1. The Indian market offers significant opportunities with investment in technology growing at an annualised rate in the mid teens.
2. It is always useful to find qualified local partners and employees to operate and grow the business.
3. It is necessary to understand that the Indian business environment may not function at the same pace of the Singapore business environment, thus patience with achieving results is recommended.
4. Tap on the resources of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and share experiences with other Singapore companies to obtain essential local information.
5. Investing in India may require deep pockets as local costs are
   increasing rapidly.

What are some of the factors behind CrimsonLogic's success in the market?
Our persistence in pursuing and investing in this market is the main contributing factor. Our ability to recruit a quality team of people to lead the operations and our strategy of focusing on our key strengths, i.e. eGovernment solutions, also played a part in our success. Additionally, we have been able to deliver quality services, cost-effective and value-for-money products and solutions to all our customers.

Kudos also goes to IDA, which has played an important role in providing us with the necessary support in India, through its Overseas Development Programme (ODP). In order to grow the Indian market, CrimsonLogic and a group of four Singapore companies have formed the Singapore eGovernment Consortium that is supported under this programme.