Mr. Hari Haran, President – Global Sales, Marketing and Business Lines, Sasken
Sasken is a leader in providing Product Engineering and Digital Transformation services to global tier-1 customers. Sasken’s deep domain knowledge and comprehensive suite of services have helped global leaders maintain market leadership in industries such as Semiconductors, Automotive, Enterprise grade Devices, Smart Devices and Wearables, Industrial Automation, Public Safety, Satellite Communication, Retail, and MVNO.
In the interview with Mr. Hari Haran, President – Global Sales, Marketing and Business Lines, Sasken shares his inputs on Sasken markets, focus and growth.
Could you please brief us on Sasken? What are your focus areas and the primary markets which you serve?
Sasken is a leader in providing Product Engineering and Digital Transformation services to global tier-1 customers. Sasken’s deep domain knowledge and comprehensive suite of services have helped global leaders maintain market leadership in industries such as Semiconductors, Automotive, Enterprise grade Devices, Smart Devices and Wearables, Industrial, Telecom, Public Safety, Satellite Communication, and Retail.
Sasken has deep expertise in Semiconductor, Devices, and Telecom. Over the years, we have diversified and made major capability and business gains in areas such as Automotive, Smart Devices and Wearables, Enterprise Grade Devices, Industrial, Public Safety, Mobility, and Data Analytics.
Markets that we serve are USA, Europe, China, Japan & India
What is Sasken’s vision for the people/clients it serves?
With Product Engineering at its core, Sasken has helped global leaders with product development, commercialization, customization and sustenance. We partner with our customers to provide full lifecycle product engineering capability including sustenance of existing product lines. Sasken enables its customers to build innovative products and solutions.
Could you give us an industry overview of the latest technology trends which are impacting the human life today and the anticipated trends of the future?
Autonomous Vehicles – Analysts have predicted that by 2022 there will be around 1.8 billion automotive Machine-to-Machine (M2M) connections. This will also result in the generation of huge quantities of data from vehicles. The autonomous car of the future will have better fuel efficiency, enhanced safety, less polluting, and have a low risk of accidents.
Smart home technologies – Smart Homes will provide increased flexibility of energy consumption with smart energy management. The user will be able to control HVAC and lighting remotely from his smartphone. This will result in reducing the load on electrical grids thus bringing down the need to use expensive generators.
Wearable technologies – Pairing wearables that serve as wellness monitors with apparel and footwear can open a new world of possibilities that range from providing a more insightful analysis of the efficacy of the fitness programs to better brand engagement. A gamification platform and appropriate service bundle can provide new opportunities that will increase tracking of progress against set goals. In the industrial context, wearables are being deployed for locating people and monitoring their vitals in hazardous areas such as mining areas, oil-rigs etc. In the
3D printing – A macro-level impact of 3D printing could be the way in which it shifts our consumer-based economy and the societal behaviors associated with this. Consumers will be more willing to pay for the design of the product. Thus, there is a possibility of the emergence of a design-led 3D printing industry. The medical industry is also warming up to the concept of bio-printing which can be used, for example, in treating burns in future.
Drones – Drones are effective in reducing the numbers and efforts of deployed personnel. The recent future could see drones assisting in fighting forest fires. There have been predictions that 12% of a $98 billion cumulative global spend on aerial drones over the next decade will be for commercial purposes alone.
In today’s world, how important is Internet of Things? How is Sasken playing a role in this trend?
The Internet of Things (IoT) is improving lives today. Multiple machines, devices and appliances connected to the Internet are providing innovative new services to consumers across the world. The applications of IoT include connected home security systems, energy meters, game consoles, etc. Wireless connectivity is seeing a wide acceptance in industry machines, vehicles, household appliances, monitors and sensors. Connectivity has enabled various features such as home remote control as well as communication between home and automobile, which in turn is providing enhanced experiences and higher cost savings to the consumer.
With a rich legacy in providing value engineering and solution development capabilities centered on sensing, computing, connectivity, cloud and applications, Sasken is uniquely placed to help enhance customer’s competitive advantage in the Internet of Things (IoT). Sasken’s range of innovative IoT solutions for various industries are developed with deep customer insights and offer customers quick development and deployment of their solutions with lower costs and optimized asset utilization.
Can you throw some light on your plans for Sasken’s business growth in India?
Our primary growth and investment areas currently are Product Engineering and Digital Transformation. We have identified key sectors that offer growth opportunities for us in Product Engineering services and have sharpened our focus on them. In similar vein, we believe that there is a significant upside for Digital Transformation services in several sectors. We have designed a five year opportunity roadmap after evaluating the market attractiveness and our own capability to achieve the desired velocity and growth.
Do you have a R&D centre in India? If yes, could you throw some light on the type of R&D which you are investing in?
Sasken operates from development centres in Bangalore, Pune, Chennai & Hyderabad (India), Kaustinen & Tampere (Finland), and Beijing (China). India and China are our software development centres while Finland is our hardware development centre.
Type of R&D we invest in: Our expanded portfolio of offerings will address the growing market for applications such as low power chips, automotive electronics, and wireless connectivity. We will continue to focus on 4G technologies and have commenced pilot projects to build our knowledge base and solution portfolio in 5G that will give us an early mover advantage.
In the automotive electronics area, we have expanded beyond In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) and Connectivity. We are making a concerted push and making inroads in newer areas including telematics and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). Our longstanding relationships with OEMs, Tier-1 suppliers, and leading Semiconductor platform providers makes us an attractive go-to partner for creating new products on both traditional and open source platforms.
In the devices space, we are working on enterprise grade devices, satellite terminals and public safety devices. In these areas, there is a concerted effort to move from legacy platforms to those used by smart devices manufacturers. In the preceding two years, we have made considerable inroads and are engaged with the world leaders in this segment. We provide them an array of product engineering services spanning development, enhancements, derivative creation and testing.
Another area that we have forayed into is Industrial Automation. We are making a concerted effort to cement our position through our core embedded, physical to digital automation offerings.
Can you tell us a little about your reach in the global markets? The partners that you work with and your primary overseas markets?
Our work is primarily focused in US, UK, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Japan, and China. Of course, we also do a lot of work in India, often with the India centers of our global clients.
Our partners are mainly semiconductor companies, device manufacturers, operators, satellite companies, enterprises, and retail
Can you please comment on Sasken’s future roadmap and expected growth in these markets?
Sasken will leverage its traditional capabilities in product engineering combined with data, analytics, and applications knowhow to address emerging domains such as connected cars, IoT, smart living, etc.
What challenges has Sasken faced in its journey so far? What are some challenges that you expect in the near future?
In the last 27 years, Sasken has been a leader in the embedded space later diversifying into telecommunications. During the 2008 recession, Sasken also was impacted in terms of slowing revenues and margin pressures. However, Sasken has proved to be extremely resilient to market conditions and adaptive to opportunities that have been presented to us. We continue to build on our core competencies to access adjacent spaces for revenue growth. Our commitment in ensuring that our engineering core remains intact, by nurturing it through our training engines, has been instrumental in our growth story.
Do you have any expansion plan for Sasken? Could you throw some light on the same?
We plan to accelerate our expansion into the automotive segment and enter into industrial segments.
