While India accounts for 70 per cent of its global research and development headcount, JDA software, a leading global supply chain management company, concedes that its client base in the country leaves much to be desired.
India, which accounts for only 44 of the over 3,000-strong client base, is a laggard when it comes to adoption of best practices in supply chain management, said Hamish Brewer, chief executive officer, JDA Software.
Addressing the media after inaugurating JDA Software’s new centre of excellence, a larger office that marks the company’s steady expansion in India, Mr. Brewer said that India is indeed a potential market with scores of companies that can benefit from supply chain logistics. Typically, JDA’s clients would be any company with sales to the tune of $600-700 million and more. India also lags in supply chain management adoption compared to other emerging markets, he added.
Salil Joshi, MD, JDA Software India, said that the company plans to get aggressive about selling the product in the Indian market. “We are currently primarily a R&D destination. But now we feel that given the size we have become, it behoves us to spread the word,” he said. The existing client base in India include the big names from manufacturing and retail including Future Group, Shoppers Stop, Tata Steel, Essar and Wipro Consumer and Lighting. He added that currently the company’s operating cost in India was around $84 million which is likely to touch $100 million by the end of 2015.
JDA Software, which today has R&D centres in Bangalore and Hyderabad, has a headcount of 2,000 employees here with 850 technologists as part of its research team. Over the next two years, JDA Software plans to increase the employee count to 2,500. Mr. Brewer said that India was a natural choice given it offered “high-quality STEM graduates”. He added that about 18 of the over 300 patents (including those pending) came out of the India centres.
The company made a foray into India in 2006 with the acquisition of Manugistics Group Inc, which had a large R&D footprint in India. It has since acquired i2, whose consultancy solutions centre in Bangalore became its R&D base here.
