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When hundreds of developers at Computer Generated Solutions (CGS) go home after writing millions of lines of code through their shift, powerful automated testing algorithms come alive, vetting all of the code, line by line, and checking whether they are written the way they should be written.
“By the time they come back to work, the systems would have been ready with the vetted code. Actually, scores of customers wait for the updates generated after the vetting by the automated testing software,” Phil Friedman, Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of CGS, says.
The interesting part in this story is, it’s CGS’ prowess at its captive development in Hyderabad that is doing this amazing background vetting work.
Phil is in the city in connection with the launch of the company’s new facility. The firm, which started off its operations in Hyderabad 17 years ago with a few tens of employees, will move into this new facility.
“We now have 500 people in Hyderabad. We will expect this to go up to about 800 and fill up the capacity,” he says
Besides its core business of software development, the firm has two others, what Phil calls, ‘Towers’ of enterprise-learning solutions and 360-degree solutions for enterprises, particularly fashion, apparel and e-commerce industries.
Asked whether automation would make jobs disappear, he replies in the negative. “No. It is not correct to say that automation will kill jobs. Only those jobs that are repetitive will go. Humans can’t be replaced,” he points out.
Phil, who hails from the former Soviet Union, made the US his home and founded Computer Generated Solutions (CGS) about 36 years ago. Migrated to the US in 1976, he worked for a firm and then founded his own. “With the permission of my former employer, I took five employees from that company to start up CGS,” he says.
With degrees in electrical engineering, economics and finance from the former Soviet Union and information systems from the US, Phil resisted the lures of raising funds and going public.
Being private gives you freedom to take decisions quickly and you don’t have to face the pressure quarter after quarter, he argues when asked why CGS chooses to be private, while the norm in the IT industry is to tap the markets for funds in order to scale up.
With about 8,000 employees now in several countries, CGS, however, sees a scope for going public. He hints at tapping the market after it doubles in size. “It might take five years. We might grow inorganically to get there,” he says.
Asked whether increasing restrictions on movement of human resources could impact companies, he feels that the real issue is availability of suitable human resources.
India plans
The company has big plans for India as its captive development hub. Apart from developing key products for the company, the Hyderabad centre is emerging as a cyber security hub for the New York-based company and its clients.
But, India as a market, has not arrived yet, with price points looking not so enticing. There, however, is an interest in the shop-floor-management product developed by CGS.
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