Maveric Systems begins to find its feet

Maveric Systems, a stand-alone software testing company, today announced that it had added Indian Bank, State Bank of India (SBI) and G E Capital International Services (GECIS) to its client list.

The three contracts are expected to generate a revenue of about Rs 1.85 crore this year, around 25 per cent of the company's turnover last financial year.

Maveric, which was set up in Chennai in 2000, uses its centres in Hyderabad and Mumbai to service GECIS and SBI respectively. The company also has centres in Bangalore and London. Maveric's total employee strength is 230.

Software testing involves checking the quality of the software that has been developed for a specific purpose.

Stand-alone testing companies are limited as the big software service companies such as Wipro and Infosys have their own testing teams. The big software services companies' testing teams also sell their testing services independently of the traditional software service.

At a press conference today, Maveric officials explained that independent testing companies occupied a niche role because some clients of software service companies preferred to get the work tested by an independent company.

Maveric's CEO, I Ranga Reddy, presented an overview on the market, wherein he explained the business potential of the testing sector. Global information technology (IT) spending in 2005 is expected to be around $ 952 billion. About half the software development cost is related to finding and fixing defects.

In India, the IT industry revenue is around $ 20 billion, and testing market is around $ 200 million (Rs 870 crore). Reddy said that if software services were to grow at 10-12 per cent, the testing services would grow around 50 per cent, making it the most attractive segment within the IT industry.

Maveric aims to double its revenue to Rs 14 core. Reddy said an investment of $ 1 million had been planned to support the plans. Arun Jain, promoter of Polaris, holds 33 per cent in the company. Maveric is yet to decide on the source of its next round of funding.