Mailer No. 030, Market Intelligence Issue No. 34, Role of Emd Sw in Elctronics OEM Business - India

8/6/2019 Mailer No. 030, Market Intelligence Issue No. 34, Role of Emd Sw in Elctronics OEM Business - India

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NASSCOM’s Market Intelligence Servicewww.nasscom.org

Issue No. 34

Market Intelligence ServiceMarket Intelligence ServiceMarket Intelligence ServiceMarket Intelligence ServiceMarket Intelligence ServiceNASSCOM/ MEM - 030 / 2003 - 04

19 May 2003

For more informa tion, plea se c onta c t

NASSCOMNASSCOMNASSCOMNASSCOMNASSCOMTMTMTMTMTM

Nationa l Assoc iation of Softw are a nd Services Comp anies

resea rch@nassc om .org

Introduction

Geography : Ind ia

Vertic a l : The Role of EmbeddedSoftware in Electronics

OEM business

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Increasing OEM Productivity – The Role of Embedded Software in Electronics OEMbusiness

India is on the fast track to emerge as oneof the world’s leading centers for IT servicesand IT enabled services – both sizeable andglobal opportunities.

However, a significant opportunity area stilleludes India Inc. – products. India has onlybeen able to capture a meager 0.2% of this$180 billion market.

This is primarily because the core skills in aproduct play are fundamentally different fromthe IT and ITES sectors, and Indian companieshave not paid focused attention to the uniqueaspects of the product market.

India’s core strengths lie in lower costs of development, a large pool of entry ad midlevel talent and mature quality managementprocesses. However success in the productsbusiness requires sizable investment in sales,

marketing and branding; a sizable pool of highend architectural, design and testing skillsand flexible and dynamic developmentenvironments. Additionally and mostimportantly, product plays require companiesto be in customers’ markets.

This however, does not mean that India shouldforget the product opportunity. An exploration

We are pleased to release the 34th issueof NASSCOM Market Intelligence Service.

This week, we focus Increasing OEMProductivity in India.

We sincerely hope that the service is ableto meet its objectives. In order to doso, we need your feedback. Do tell uswhether it is useful, ways to improverelevance and other topics to cover inorder to enable us to tailor-make this for

your needs. To subscribe to this service,please send an email [email protected]

Thanks and looking forward to serving you better.

With warm regards

Sunil MehtaVice President - Research



NASSCOM’s Market Intelligence Service www.nasscom.org

Issue No. 34

of the pain points of global software players,an understanding of the emergingtechnological trends and a review of some of the creative plays adopted by the moresuccessful Indian players throws light on what

is actually a spectrum of opportunities forIndia Inc. to participate in the productsspace.

One such opportunity is that of embeddedsoftware in the OEM space. This reportprovides an overview of the cost-based,time-based and technology risks that faceelectronic OEMs and how this business islooking to embedded software solutions toprovide solutions to over come this. It is infilling this chasm, that there may exist anopportunity for Indian Embedded Software

and Product companies.

Introduction

Spanning a wide number of industries,electronic OEMs provide significant diversityand functionality for electronic devices andequipment. The range of these industrial andcommercial electronic products includeseveryday consumer and automotiveelectronics, medical testing and diagnosticsproducts, and industrial automation andtelecommunications equipment etc.

All along this product spectrum, embeddedsoftware combines with semiconductormicroprocessors and microcomputers tocreate the intelligence to make these productsfunctional and differentiated.

Typically, a microprocessors’ capabilities areenhanced by additional semiconductor partsfor memory, graphics, communications, andother special-purpose functions, which in turncreate the hardware platform for theproducts.

The embedded software platform consists of three layers that imbue the OEM product withits intelligent capabilities:

• Underlying operating system to managethe hardware and software operations

• Middleware layer to provide special-purpose libraries and communicationsfacilities

• Application layer to implement unique andspecific capabilities of the device

The OEM products that incorporate theseembedded platforms are event-driven

systems. These systems are usually not opento direct user contact and typically managestreams of input and output data and signals.

This view of the electronics OEM businessexcludes the large segment of general-purpose desktop PCs and servers. Importantas the latter are, they focus on enterpriseand individual administrative computingneeds; and are usually driven by time andthe calendar, not events; and aremultipurpose and not designed, developed,or optimized as specific equipment and devices

to focus on delivering particular industry andapplication solutions.

The electronics OEM market characterizedthis way is a large sector of the worldeconomy made up of many industries. Themanufacturing shipment revenue forsubassemblies, products, and equipment thatare constructed using embedded hardwareand software platforms has become a majorcontributor to worldwide GDP.

Based on research data and observations of

industry trends and directions, it is believedthat factory shipments for the embeddedelectronics OEM industry exceeded the $1trillion mark in the benchmark year 2000(excluding PC and server shipments), whilethe total worldwide GDP exceeded $40 trillion.

RISKS CONFRONTING ELECTRONICS OEMS

The turbulent marketplaces that electronicsOEMs encounter require careful identificationand management of critical factors forsuccess. Cost-based problems, time-basedproblems, and technology-based risks are themost common obstacles.

Cost-Based Risks and Outsourcing

OEMs encounter cost-based concerns ateach point of their product life cycle — atthe project and at the enterprise level. Theneed to provide customer value, satisfaction,




Issue No. 34

and competitive advantage has engineeringand business management continuallyassessing core product values.

The product costs and headcount for the

full product life cycle from engineering designand development through manufacturing andthen service and product maintenance andrelated areas are all critical to overall project-level expenses and represent areas for savingsrelief.

OEM enterprise-level costs include the trainingand learning curve time of deployingengineering staffs to projects that utilizemultiple hardware and software platforms andof maintaining these platforms. Also, in theOEM customer enterprise there are further

usage costs and related management of thecapital expenditure budget.

There is the potential to lower the cost factorby improving quality and reliability. In attainingthese goals, there are associated costsavings, including fewer returns and lowerwarranty expenses and reduced service andmaintenance requirements for individualproducts. Savings are more practicable toachieve within engineering if productivity toolsand productivity methods are used toaccelerate performance and attain quality.

The partitioning of OEM products intohardware and software architectures enablesthe incremental management and control of costs. The hardware platform and its coststructures are better understood than theembedded software cost structure.

The capabilit ies in hardware costmanagement have permitted the engineeringand manufacturing costs for hardwaresolution platforms to be analyzed morecarefully and earlier and then appropriatelyreduced. The nature of hardware solutionsallows OEMs to pose fundamental questionssurrounding buy versus build and the natureof what manufacturers need to own and whatcan be outsourced.

Hardware cost may also be impacted bytrade-offs made on the software platformside, forcing the use of higher-performance

or higher-capability hardware to achieve thedesired product specifications.

Even while electronics OEMs have made acommitment to hardware outsourcing, the

nature of the business has been changing.Once driven by hardware platform, it is nowbeing driven by a mix of hardware andsoftware, with the emphasis on applicationsoftware.

The change that clearly demonstrates thisshift is in the basic mix of project skills.Software engineers have rapidly replacedhardware engineers to form the largest skillbase for project teams. It has been estimatedthat the percentage of software engineerson a typical project team has increased from

55% in the early to mid-1990s to 75% in2002.

This growth has created a softwareengineering focus on product architectureand product development. This focus reflectsthe increasing software content forprogrammable semiconductor-based products.

Software outsourcing has been following adifferent path than hardware outsourcing. Forthe product platform, software outsourcinghas focused more on the individual embedded

software component, which involves areassuch as operating systems, protocol stacks,and other middleware, and externallyacquiring multiple software tools such ascompilers and debuggers used in building theproduct’s embedded software.

The supermarket style of purchasing has hightransaction costs for acquiring and managingindividual software and suppliers to ensureconformance with the project plan andproduct development requirements.

According to OEMs, this approach to softwareoutsourcing has inherent technical problemsand costs surrounding the integration of multiple supplier products across theembedded platform and development tools.The OEM community estimates thatintegration costs have recently been risingmost significantly.




Issue No. 34

The time delays surrounding tool chainintegration lead to another area of OEMconcern: time-based issues.

Time-Based Risks

The criticality of time-based risks includesboth meeting project schedules and not losingthe business opportunity that oftenaccompanies being early to market.

Many problems surround product design anddevelopment times. Figure 1 presents typicaltime and schedule pressures facing theengineering development organization for thebenchmark year 2000 based on researchdata.

Figure 1 demonstrates that 85% of OEMproducts have engineering developmentschedules of less than two years. Within thismix, 50% are less than one year. Only 15%have schedules greater than two years.

There is enormous pressure to minimizerework and create the best-fit product designas early as possible. Exacerbating the productdevelopment schedule is the need for OEMsto be responsive to the time-to-marketimpact of their products in what are oftenvery competitive markets.

Time to market consolidates internal andexternal time-based requirements. Internaltime-based concerns include developmenttime for prototypes and the specificationsand designs to release to manufacturing.

Hardware platform development has usuallybeen able to stay closer to schedule.

The software platform has proven to be moredifficult to control, debug, and fix. The resulthas been significantly more time spent ontesting and integration for the softwareportion of the product to meet marketrequirements.

There are also external time issues affectingthe enterprise once the product ships and

reaches its market. Foremost among theseis the time-to-revenue generation for theOEM product line. Successful product familiesare not often successful revenue producerswith the first product release; rather, theyrequire further product enhancements andmodifications.

It is often the early-to-market products thatcapture market share and establish theirpositioning for market growth. Then thefollow-on models of these products need tobe architected to accommodate rapid

i t e r a t i o n s ,modifications, andchanges.

Much of thisproduct evolutionis determined bythe softwarereleases andinvolves thesoftware platformand developmenttools. As a resultthe productarchitecture andvalue have becomemore softwareoriented.

T e c h n o l o g y -Based Risks

Figure 1 : OEM P roduct Development Schedule

6-12 months

(37%)

< 6 months

(14%)

> 2 years (15%)

1-2 years (34%)

> 2 years (15%) < 6 months (14%)

6-12 months (37%) 1-2 years (34%)

So u r ce : I D C a n d F i r s t T e ch n o l o g y , 2 0 0 2




Issue No. 34

OEM technology choices determine theproduct form and function for currentversions and future models of the productfamily. Not only are there costs for selectionand evaluation, but the largest costs and

risks are to establish the technology as abusiness unit standard and to train engineersin its usage.

The choice of software and hardwaretechnology by OEMs is always associatedwith the following questions:

! Will the technology be available for thelife of the product?

! Is the technology robust enough to meetevolving industry, market, and applicationneeds?

! Can the technology be extended so thatit scales for future products?

! Are there enough adopters, partners, andspecial interest groups (SIGs) so that thetechnology will have a longer life andremain superior to competitive choices?

As leading OEM technical directors for businessunits review their choices and the importanceof hardware and software platformtechnologies, they are drawing someinteresting conclusions.

Figure 2 compares their views of theimportance of fundamental classes of hardware and software platform technologiescurrently and in the middle of this decade.

Currently, the most important platformtechnologies for OEMs are operating systemsoftware and hardware bus and processortechnologies. While hardware retains a highrating in the future, it is being surpassed inimportance by the software platform. Theoperating system has emerged as the

foundation for the OEM product platform.

During the next two years, there will be anincreasing interest and growing importancein both the operating system and middlewaresoftware.

Figure 2 : Technology Rating

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

BusArchitecture

MicroprocessorArchitecture

DSPArchitecture

OperatingSystem

Software

MiddlewareSoftware

%

Current Rating Rating in two years

Sour ce : IDC and F ir s t t echno logy , 20 02




Issue No. 34

Rapid Response to Competitive Decisions

Individual OEMs understand they must bewithin the top 3 positions in their industrymarket segment. Staying in one of these

primary competitive slots allows a companyto harvest more price margin points andextend its product and service life cycles tobetter manage company resources. There isthe need to adjust product and business unitresources to remain competitive for price,performance, and service because these arethe areas OEM customers use as criticalpurchasing factors.

The most difficult of the mix is to respond tocompetitive product performance decisions.To do this, OEMs require flexible architectures

and tools. This is often a software decision.With much of the current softwaretechnology, this is challenging to perform.

Rapid response requires tuning of softwaretools, operating systems, and middleware tothe personality for each industry segment.But the response may also require a quickchange to newly available, higher-performance hardware being exploited by thecompetition. Thus, the software platform mustprovide a level of hardware independence.

EVOLUTION OF PRODUCT CAPABILITIES

As the capabilities of products have evolved,the underlying software platforms have alsoevolved to provide products with greatercapabilities. The following sections providean overview of some significant directions.

Distributed and Networked Solutions

There are multiple views of networked anddistributed solutions. LANs and WANs arecritical organizing elements, as are virtualprivate networks (VPNs) and even dial-upnetworks, although the latter is on a severedecline for embedded solutions. Wireless andInternet solutions have seen the most rapidgrowth of networked devices. Internet-drivensolutions have quickly become fundamentalfor managing distributed and remote devices.

Connectivity, managing network elements,and managing the network overall continuethe advance of the OEM into thecommunications side of the embeddedsoftware business.

Many OEMs have neither the organizationalsetup nor the technical core competency tomanage distributed and networked solutions.This situation leads to unexpected problems.

Robust and Easier-to-Administer Security

Many embedded solutions are takingadvantage of Internet connectivity, whichincreases the potential for transactions andsoftware platforms to be vulnerable tosecurity breaches. The security capabilities

need to provide data access, dataauthentication, and data integrity to maintaina confidential solution environment.

In Internet security and embedded softwarethese capabilities mean supporting InternetProtocol security (IPsec) and also managingand distributing the cryptographic algorithmsand keys, often by enabling distributedsoftware with Internet Key Exchange (IKE).Further support is required for encryptionalgorithms and suppliers. Security isincreasingly important over time, and

managing it is primarily a software issue.High Levels of Reliability and Quality

Product quality and product reliability areamong the most important characteristics forboth OEMs and their end customers. A usefuloperational metric for these qualities is thetargeted maximum system uptime per year.The percentage of uptime is expressed as astring of 9s representing uptimes of 99%,99.9%, 99.99%, and higher. Often producttargets are to achieve four 9s and five 9s,which correspond to annual downtime of 54minutes and 5 minutes, respectively.

Traditionally, OEMs and their end customershave taken a hardware approach to achievehigher-availability 9s conformance. Thehardware approach has been based onredundant chassis hardware such as CPUboards, I/O boards, power supplies, and diskdrives. At the same time, the problems




Issue No. 34

surrounding reliability have become moresoftware oriented as the level of systemcomplexity increases.

In -Serv i ce Upgradeab i l i t y and

Maintainability

There has been a traditional hierarchy forproduct service, maintenance, andupgradeability that, at its most basic level,deploys local and onsite field serviceengineers. The engineers at this level typicallyuse dial-up lines and portable PC capabilitiesto maintain and upgrade products.

The next level of sophistication is the OEMtechnical analysis center or, if a managedtelecom network is involved, the network

operations center. Both are fully staffed,global response centers that manage productsin the field and operate on a 24 x 7 basis.

These solutions are evolving into anothermode to manage products remotely: remotedevice management (RDM). In this mode,products remain in service or, at worst, areupgraded or have preventative maintenanceon a scheduled basis. RDM solutions aredesigned to manage product health and well-being from initial configuration and setupthrough status, diagnosis, and repair of faults

through ongoing monitoring. It is a more cost-effective alternative to the physicalupgrading and replacing of products. The RDMapproach is also consistent with enterprisesoftware trends for upgrading desktops andservers.

There are also choices for in-serviceupgradeability and maintainability targetinglevels at less than full RDM deployment. Thesesolutions combine the Internet with Webservices and deployment through Java and.NET to establish connected embeddedsoftware platforms. These communicationsand software management facilities requirea significant amount of expertise.

Even something as straightforward as theTCP/IP protocol stack has many layers andmany choices for tuning and effectiveness.

IMPACT OF STANDARDS AND OPENSOURCE

Individual industry standards and cross-industry standards affect OEM technology

risks. Special interest groups (SIGs) andstandards organizations have becomeworldwide in scope and participation toinnovate and educate. OEM membership iscritical for an enterprise to evolve successfulproducts. Standards organizations have thecharter to bring a wider industry communitytogether with more participation to improvethe success of products.

Standards

There is always a mix of de facto and de jure

standards. The former are established byindividual company strategies and the latterby chartered standards bodies. Sincecompetition is a significant variable forsuccess, many companies would rather meeton more neutral grounds of standards bodiesand SIGs to advance their particular industryagendas.

Many of the linchpin standards directly impactthe embedded software platform and the toolsrequired to create the platform.Open Source

Open source is a special category of standards-based software that impacts theembedded software platform. Historically,open source GNU software tools fordeveloping embedded application code andthe open source Unix operating systems haveplayed a critical role in developing andevolving embedded software solutions.

These are called open source because theyare managed and enhanced by volunteerprofessional software engineers and have arange of licensing programs that maintain freesoftware availability.

Linux is rapidly emerging from its GNUbackground through Linus Torvalds’ stewardship to also impact embeddedsolutions. The embedded software communityis interested in and planning for the use of Linux in certain types of applications.




Issue No. 34

Because embedded software adoption isgenerally a function of product cycles anddesign wins, adoptions and changes inpractices and products occur carefully andtake longer to implement for these product

life cycles.

There are pros and cons surrounding opensource software. The benefits of open sourceLinux address important areas for embeddedsoftware developers. There is the acquisitionand manufacturing cost benefit and availabilityissue based on no runtime license fees andsource code available at no charge. Also thereis a wide range of operating system servicesthat includes effective support fornetworking. There are associated GNU toolsthat are available for a wide variety of

semiconductor cores.

There are also drawbacks. A potential risk isthe use of open source intellectual property.It is sometimes difficult to verify that availableopen source intellectual property code is freefrom patent infringement. Also the businessterms and conditions for some open sourcelack clarity. In particular, the GNU PublicLicense (GPL) usage sometimes leads tocontradictory conclusions.In addition, the actual total cost of ownershipneeds to be considered in determining

whether the acquisition and manufacturingcost benefits of open source outweigh thecosts associated with new levels of integration and testing required in utilizingopen source IP.

OEMs need to ask if open source is the primarycharacteristic most likely to deliver successfor OEM products and whether it is the mostappropriate technology foundation.

Analysts believe that the success of embedded solutions is definitely assisted bythe open source characteristics but, moreimportant, needs different types of solutionsthat more directly impact the critical successvariables discussed earlier for cost-based,time-based, and technology-based specialindustry needs.

Successful OEM products require a deepunderstanding of industry requirements anda specific industry focus for the platform and

associated tools. Traditionally, open sourcesoftware developers are motivated to solvemore broad-based problems that areindependent of specific industries. It is notclear that the community for open source

solutions will be able to provide the specificrequirements of individual industry segments.

Specifically, a richer and more robust softwarebasis needs to be provided for the OEMproduct. The software requires its ownspecific industry focus and industryframework. This better developed approachrecognizes that development toolrequirements may be different by industry andbetter matched with an industry-targetedembedded software platform.

AN EVOLVING SOFTWARE PARADIGM FOROEM SUCCESS

The OEM communities in each industry marketsegment are under constant pressure toexploit business opportunities, enhance theirproduct lines, and release more competitiveproducts sooner. Yet these same OEMs arefinding that as embedded software increasesin complexity and code base size, theirbusiness successes are held hostage by theirinability to manage, develop, deploy, andmaintain embedded software solutions.

In its earlier years the software supplierindustry was not concentrated enough tosupply sufficiently robust solutions for its OEMpartners. Lately, these software suppliershave targeted their business and technologyto architect more highly focused solutions toremedy the OEM embedded softwarequagmire.

According to analysts, the model that mayprovide the greatest chance for successneeds to provide OEMs with tools, platforms,and services that address specific industryapplication needs. This type of solutionrequires more than just arming OEMs withworkbench tools; more than being an opensource solution; and more than being asupplier to OEMs of specializedsemiconductors that have been preloadedwith critical industry embedded softwaresolutions.




Issue No. 34

The potential of the model is in themanagement and control that it providesindividual industries, companies, and OEMsfor specialized tool chains and for developingrobust software solutions.

The model has the potential to contributeimmediately to improve the value that OEMsdeliver to their customer base.

Embedded software solution providers haveevolved through a variety of stages to getto this point.

Stage 1: Ear ly Va lue C reat ion fo rEmbedded Software

The early stage for creating software value

by embedded software suppliers extendedfrom the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s.Software products matured separately alongindividual product lines that included thefollowing:

! Tools companies focused more oncompilers and debuggers sometimesworking with open source products andsometimes having their own proprietaryproducts.

! Operating systems companies generallymoved from a kernel with fewer services

to a more broadly defined operatingsystem with more facilities and services.

! Hardware semiconductor and boardscompanies that may have been supplyingtheir own tools and operating systemsrecognized the value of softwarecompanies and decided to exit from themainstream of the software business.

! Software companies started partnershipswith semiconductor companies.

Toward the end of this period, tools and

operating systems companies increased theircompatibility through acquisitions and closerpartnerships.

There were business couplings and initialconnections to form tighter relationships withthe OEM supplier community betweenhardware and software companies.

Stage 2: Connected Tools and OperatingSystems in a Flourishing PartneringMarket

The time frame for stage 2 is from the mid-1990s to the end of the 1990s. The beginningsof stage 2 started with the release of integrated development environments (IDEs)by multiple suppliers. The IDE established amajor milestone for tool connectivity and atighter connection to operating systems.

During this period, there was a more rapidconsolidation of companies that previouslysupplied individual embedded pieces of software, and the larger embedded softwarecompanies were able to become the primary

supplier to their OEM accounts for IDEs andrelated critical software value.

There was also an expansion of processmanagement tools within individual accountsin areas such as requirements specification,testing, and full application cyclemanagement. Embedded software attractedmore unified modeling tools and there wasthe beginning of increased interest for theUnified Modeling Language (UML).Also at this time, middleware started to beidentif ied and noticed. Libraries,

communication protocol stacks, graphicspackages, and related special-purposeembedded software began to fill out themiddleware area.

Finally, RDM began to take root. OEMsreached the milestone of recognizing thattheir products require more significant life-cycle management. The technical analysiscenter, although not yet automated fornetworked support and still relying on localfield service engineering support, became theprevalent location for centrally organizing themanagement of remote devices.

This precursor to the beginning of InternetRDM was a milestone within stage 2.




Issue No. 34

Stage 3: Creating a Robust Framework forEmbedded Software Solutions

This stage brings software evolution into thepresent. Multiple strands of events have

come together to establish a business andtechnology framework for a more direct OEMfocus for embedded software solutions.

The solution incorporates embedded softwaretools, the embedded software platform forthe products, and services.

The especially difficult current economy isforcing OEMs to continue their ongoingstruggle to assess the value they contributeto their product technology and determinewhich portions of bill of materials and

processes they are willing to outsource.

There is a greater recognition by OEMs tocontinue to own the specific applicationsolution and the customer and be creative inusing suppliers for the structure andframework of underlying infrastructure.

The economy continues to highlight theimportance of business expense reduction andcost containment, which are drivers of costand schedules at the engineering level andwhich roll up to operating expenditure (OpEx)

and capital expenditure (CapEx) at thebusiness unit level. The focus on OpEx andCapEx is an important consolidation point forthe concerns of cost, time, and technologyrisks. CapEx has even more significance forOEM customers’ cost-containment efforts.

Standards-setting bodies have establishedvarieties of necessary standards over theyears. They have gained sufficient credibilityand trust in articulating workable solutionswith which OEMs can actively participate.The emerging presence of lower-cost Internetservices and solutions for RDM has increasedthe impetus for broader business solutionsto also address CapEx.

This continues to enable the OEMs and theirsuppliers to come together around a sharedview for the desired elements of the preferredembedded software platform and developmenttools. This common view has expanded over

time to combine tools, operating systems,middleware, communications, applications,and services.

The importance and credibility of these shared

views across multiple industries arestimulating the growth for an emergingengineering environment. These environmentsare focusing on more integrated developmentand product deployment systems and servicesfor the application software thatcharacterizes the uniqueness of eachindustry.

The structure has already started to evolvein particular industries that include telecom/datacom switches, smart cellular handhelds,printers, and automotive driver information

systems. These application areas involveOEMs, semiconductor companies, andembedded software companies.

CONCLUSION

OEM producers of electronic products usingprogrammable semiconductors are innovatingto build and deploy new products that meetmore user needs and to differentiatethemselves from and their competitors.The character of the products beingdeveloped demonstrates increasing

complexity, connectivity, and reliability. Withincreased remote management, theseproducts can be maintained and upgradedwhile still in use and service.

This increased value for OEM products andtheir users is being constructed primarily fromimproved embedded software. The results arethat the OEMs are becoming more reliant onsoftware with the need to become moreeffective at the tasks of softwaremanagement.

The software is necessary. But, it is only theapplication portion of the software thatreflects the value of the OEM product. Theembedded software platform and the softwaresupport tools that OEMs often manage havethe potential to distract OEMs from theirprimary value of delivering embeddedapplication software in a differentiatedmanner.




Issue No. 34

Outsourcing the hardware platform has beena very effective way to manage thehardware-based variables. Softwareoutsourcing has been more fragmented andhas required OEMs to allocate more time for

integration and testing; it has yet to beeffective.

Embedded software management requires adifferent approach that integrates OEM-specific industry and standards knowledge

with software expertise surroundingembedded platforms, support tools, andservices. However, this type of outsourcinghas begun to emerge with solutions indifferent industry applications.

Thus, as software is becoming pervasive inall devices and OEMs and suppliers arestruggling to build software competencies,there is a very real opportunity for Indiancompanies to step in and fill the void.

Disc la imer : This report is published by NASSCOM for the exclusive use of its members. This

report has been prepared using sources believed to be reliable and accurate. NASSCOM does not

accept any liability for any direct or consequential use of this report or its contents. The information

and opinions contained in this report are subject to change without notice. The contents of this

report may be reproduced only after prior permission from NASSCOM.

Mailer No. 030, Market Intelligence Issue No. 34, Role of Emd Sw in Elctronics OEM Business - India

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