IT firm branches out after winning US deals

Beyondsoft (Beijing) Co Ltd, the largest private software outsourcing enterprise in the country, last weekend became the first in the industry to win two national honors for outstanding contributions to customer service.

The company added the China Best Service Outsourcing Provider Award to another honor during the 5th China International Summit for Client Services jointly organized by China Information Industry Association and China Service Trade Association.

The awards will further enhance its capability to better serve clients, said company officials.

Ben Wang, chairman and CEO of Beyondsoft, said that over 80 percent of its clients are US companies, including global giants Microsoft, IBM, Apple, HP, Sun Microsystems, Google and Adobe.

Established in 1995, Beyondsoft soon won a customer that influenced its future growth - Microsoft.

By translating Microsoft's computer applications into Chinese and conducting tests, Beyondsoft earned trust from Microsoft for its services.

"Microsoft's satisfaction with our service gave us a big credit," said Wang, adding that the big client helped the then-small company win more large customers, especially from the US.

To better serve its multinational clients, the company opened branch companies and research & development (R&D) centers in the US, Japan, India and Singapore. Its staff has increased to more than 3,000, about 20 percent of them overseas, Wang said.

To tackle the challenges raised by the appreciating renminbi and rising labor costs, the company is moving further up the value chain and shifting its R&D and delivery centers to second-tier cities like Wuhan of central China's Hubei province.

The company has now entered the finance and pharmaceutical sectors as part of its strategic moves, where companies have big IT budgets to hone their competitiveness in rapidly changing markets.

To enhance its R&D and service capabilities, the company acquired a software service company in India and more acquisitions are in the pipeline, Wang said.

Chinese enterprises in the service outsourcing sector are at the lower end of the value chain.

Each professional in Indian companies on average generates double the revenue of its counterpart in China - while the value created by each employee in US companies is among the highest. That leaves a wide space for Chinese software outsourcing firms to develop further up the value chain, Wang said.

Continuing high growth in the Chinese economy and the need for modernizing traditional sectors are driving new industries.

(China Daily 07/04/2008 page23)