Significant domain expertise, end-to-end service offerings, innovative business models, sheer focus on customers and their needs, and an utter passion to hire the best and retain them, has helped SmartPlay reach this milestone today. It is the combination of all the above that helped SmartPlay to live through the worst recession that the world has seen in several decades, and achieve huge success. With its strategic approach to cater to the needs of both – the customers and its employees, SmartPlay continues to grow rapidly year on year.
SmartPlay Technologies is a leading design services company with expertise in digital, analog, wireless software and system design.
Over the years, SmartPlay has emerged as one of the fastest growing services company in the world with design centers in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Noida, Singapore, San Jose, San Diego and Austin. The company was also ranked as the 2nd largest VLSI design services company in India. SmartPlay has delivered leading edge projects across NA, India, Asia, Japan and Europe regions. It is a preferred design services partner for several Fortune 500 and mid-sized semiconductor and system companies working on Graphics, Mobile, Multimedia and Processor technologies.
SmartPlay was founded in 2008 by Mr. Pradeep Vajram, President & CEO, SmartPlay Technologies with a team size of 60 employees. The firm has come a long way since its inception, standing now at employee strength of 1200+.
SmartPlay has had a dream run that many startup young companies can only dream of. Mr. Pradeep Vajram, CEO, SmartPlay Technologies shares with Electronics Maker what he has envisioned for the company to take it to the next level.
What he said
Growing from 60 to 1200 plus people in a short span in a mature and competitive industry sounds like a dream. Well, it all happened at SmartPlay, a technology services provider based out of U.S. and India. By mid 2008, global economic crisis had started affecting every industry in general and the semiconductor industry in particular. With low profit margins and high cost of operations, even the industry giants were not spared the impact of recession. While most companies struggled to keep themselves afloat, PradeepVajram took a bold step by setting up SmartPlay, an End-to-End design services company. The decision indeed was bold for this was a space with several already well-established players.
What challenges he faced
What stands perhaps unique in SmartPlay’s journey is its successful run despite having begun its operations in the midst of the downturn. Vajram is no stranger to the drills of being an entrepreneur and to the challenges of a startup.
Vajram stepped-in in an extremely challenging and dynamic semiconductor marketplace to fill the void and support the customers with end-to-end design solutions and strong technology expertise. Thus began the journey of SmartPlay, which still stays true to its conceptual vision of providing end-to-end solutions (semiconductor, embedded software and system design) services.
Smart Services
SmartPlay added Embedded Software & System Design services, thus providing a one-stop shop for product engineering outsourcing. SmartPlay’s core strength lies in the deep understanding of the services industry which also defines its vision. From, day one, the leadership team is focused on value creation leading to be more strategic with its investments.
The company makes it a point to understand individual customer’s needs, evaluate options and propose alternate solutions. This is reflected by its Fortune 500 clientele including the top tier fabless semiconductor companies.
It is while talking about the company’s vision of end-to-end services that Vajram touch bases on the service offered for a customer that spans across the divisions that includes silicon design, software and reference design activities. Within each vertical, the team works with a customer at a much deeper level of engagement. One such example is that during the recent downturn and owing to budget constraints, SmartPlay worked closely with the customer to optimize the costs for a test infrastructure engagement.
Success Mantra
There are many ingredients to building a successful company. For SmartPlay, the key ingredient is its senior executive team that is strong in both technology and management. In addition, the most important factor contributing to this success is “transparency & trust”.
The company lets its customers know up front what it can deliver and what its limitations are. Broken promises or false hopes are never part of the equation and facts are always presented the way they are. This acts as the cornerstone for trust. Then comes the high quality service which cements the trust and paves way for the growth of the company and its clients. The company has built its foundation on the pillars of employee satisfaction, value creation and customer relationship.
This, along with the execution excellence, has contributed to the growth of the company.
How he managed
Employing the right people is a critical success factor more so for startups. SmartPlay understands what really matters to people when it comes to a choosing a company. There are three key components that matter to employees. They are career growth, market standard salary with long term benefits and most importantly, for engineers, to work on cutting edge technology. Since SmartPlay works with global clients who deploy state of the art technologies, employees are presented with an opportunity to work on cutting edge technologies at multiple geographic locations.
About Mr. Pradeep Vajram
Mr. Pradeep has over 20 years of Semiconductor industry experience having executed, at all levels of responsibilities in design and development of ASIC products. Prior to SmartPlay, he was the VP of Engineering at Qualcomm, heading the India semiconductor division (Bangalore). Under his leadership, Qualcomm Bangalore Design Center developed as a strong center of excellence and delivered multiple products successfully. Pradeep is also a key member of Spike Acquisition team helped to setup the Bangalore Design Centre (India) for Qualcomm.
Prior to joining QUALCOMM, Pradeep Co-founded Spike Technologies Inc., a leading global chip design services company and was responsible for Worldwide Engineering & Operations – US, India and Canada. He also held managerial and engineering positions with LSI Logic Corporation, Milpitas, CA.
Pradeep holds a Master of Science in Computer Engineering from Wayne State University, Detroit (USA) and a Bachelors’ degree in Engineering from Karnataka University, India.
