Dell India R&D to focus on software

In a bid to focus on testing, software and documentation, Dell India is integrating its hardware research and development (R&D) activities with its R&D units in Austin and Taiwan.

Consequently, the 100-150 people associated with this practice at the Bangalore R&D unit will either be redeployed, transitioned into other roles, or paid severance packages.

The hardware team makes up 15-20 per cent of its current R&D workforce in India, but just around 1 per cent of its entire workforce in the country.

Brad Anderson, senior vice-president in-charge of Dell's business product group, had circulated an internal email to the Bangalore R&D unit employees, according to company sources.

The email stated, "...the Bangalore design centre will now increase its focus on the specialisations of test, software/ solutions and documentation....Dell will continue to invest in the BDC (Bangalore Development Centre) teams, taking advantage of the world-class software talent available and the local market strength."

A Dell spokesperson, when contacted, confirmed, "Building on learnings from our presence here, testing and complex software and solutions will be the primary focus of our R&D efforts in India henceforth."

Dell has four development centres across the world - Taiwan, China, Singapore and India (Bangalore). All these centres are interlinked with its main development centre in Austin.

Founded in 2001, the Bangalore R&D Centre has over 500 information disclosures (steps leading to the filing of patents) to its credit. It focuses on software development, enterprise solutions, international product support, test engineering and documentation.

Test engineering successfully piloted lab-to-lab connectivity between this centre and the Austin Design Centre (ADC) in the second quarter of FY06. Since then, the R&D Centre had begun to include hardware from ADC using lab-to-lab connectivity as part of the test block efforts.

India, meanwhile, has become the fastest growing market for the nearly $57 billion IT firm.

For the third quarter of FY08, the company posted a 47 per cent growth in revenues for India compared with China's 22 per cent. The company did not disclose the revenue figures for India. Analysts, however, peg the figure at over Rs 2,000 crore.

A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

Dell India is integrating its hardware research and development activities with its units in Austin (Texas) and Taiwan.

The hardware team makes up 15-20 per cent of its current R&D workforce in India

Dell has four development centres across the world - Taiwan, China, Singapore and India (Bangalore)