SupportSoft bets big on India

SupportSoft, a provider of real-time service management (RTSM) software for enterprises and digital service providers, sees India as its next big market, apart from China and Latin America.

The US-headquartered company is set to woo Indian digital service providers, broadband subscribers and enterprises with its range of products that include an intelligence assistance suite, automated solutions library and TR-O69.

James Morehead, vice president, product management & marketing who was in Bangalore, told Business Standard that India was a key market for the company since the PC penetration and broadband installation were growing rapidly. SupportSoft's enterprise solutions and solutions for digital service providers helped automate the management of computing endpoints and provided automated end-user support through remote diagnosis, he said.

SupportSoft's service automation suite for video, which also combines software components from Scientific-Atlanta, helps service providers pinpoint various problems associated with a digital TV connection, either within a customer's home or in a provider's network and assists in automatically resolving problems in real time.

Morehead said digital TV installations were complicated as receiving multiple services in the home meant installing and maintaining more products. "The first 30 days of service to a customer after installation is more important as it makes an impact on the customer's dependence on the service provider in the future," he said.

Morehead said the growth in the European market was slowing since very few fresh installations were taking place there. So, the role of the company in Europe was just to support the existing customers. However, in India growth was driven by increasing installations.

The real-time service management market is estimated to be $900 million globally over the next five years. "This is a great opportunity for us and the changes taking place in the field of broadband installations and telecommunication sector in India will provide a huge market for us to cultivate," he added.

SupportSoft's R&D and service centres are located at Redwood City in California, Halifax in Canada and Bangalore in India. He said Bangalore was one of the major R&D centres for the company, currently employing about 80 engineers.