I had a hectic two week trip to the US to meet our customers. During this trip, I visited New York, San Jose, San Diego, Los Angeles, Seattle, Austin TX, Naples FL and Boston. Overall, the business climate is tough! People are waiting for the bold moves promised by President Obama. Since it is not clear how long the economic crisis will last, the technology companies, under these circumstances, are adopting a conserve cash approach.

Clearly, this can only be a short-term strategy. Technology companies are based on building and selling next generation products and will have to invest in building next generation products to survive. This is certainly true, especially of start-up companies. They will see no cash unless their product starts to ship.

Most of our customers realize this and are very keen to find ways of building next generation products at a lower cost base. This could work well for Indian software companies who can provide a value proposition at a lower cost base. The market, as it emerges over the next two quarters, will be very different and will present new opportunities.

I am very bullish about where we are placed in the current market.

– Anand