Need for efficient product development ecosystem: CDNLive 2014

According to Vasudevan Aghoramoorthy, VP at Wipro Technologies, a product-centric approach targets multiple customers as well as diverse needs.An example is the desktop server. He was delivering the guest keynote on day two at the CDNLive 2014 in Bangalore, India.

For an app-centric approach, it addresses one specific market and has multiple end customers.Examples are set-top boxes and mobile phones. A services-centric approach addresses the service providers' needs. Examples would be PoS machines, base stations, ATMs, patient monitors, etc.

A customer-centric approach has diverse needs. These are faster time-to-market, diversification into complementary markets, reduction in product costs, completion of product portfolio, market development, expansion and customization, as well as leveraging analytics.

As a case study, he referred to Wipro engineering a low-cost, low-power ATM with battery back-up. It has been implemented with multi-language display and voice instruction, with spoil-proof keyboard. It also has a fingerprint biometric reader, and serves as a tamper-proof machine for secured transactions.

What did the product development process achieve? Product cost was reduced by 60 percent, and power consumption was reduced by 50 percent. The concept to deployment time was 10 months. An innovative design was used to address the strict power requirements. Wipro used an agile approach to develop the product.

Another case was of a patient-monitoring machine at a fraction of the cost. There was cost reduction by 5X at the physician's end and 50 percent at the patient's end. There was ease of use for physicians as connectivity options were enabled for smartphones and tablets.

All of these cases tell us that the product development ecosystem must be efficient. Product management and understanding use cases are key. In Wipro's  case, the development methodology was adapted to market needs. Product differentiation can be done by software. There is a need for cross-disciplinary engineering skills. It will lead to newer methodologies, enabling joint reviews in collaboration for cross-disciplinary projects.

Market opportunities are available for product development and retaining value. Market-driven needs drive innovation, and possibly, lead to the growth of the ESDM sector in India.