The 2017 Fastest Growing Firms: Persistent Systems

Sarangan: Our growth is the result of the vibrant technology advancement and how that is continuously transforming all companies, their business models, and even how we have viewed industries. Today, data, digital, or IoT represent a significant opportunity as much as they are disruptive threats as we become more software-driven. This is driving our business growth, where customers value our expertise in building software and in new technologies as their own journeys become more and more software driven.

Consulting:  How is this year shaping up for your firm? 

Sarangan:  With the emergence of new technologies, the effort required for doing the same work is going down—traditional effort-based billing models in the Consulting or Services industry have limitations. On the other hand, we see that the market for new technologies continues to be robust with digital transformation being the essence of this shift. We as a company had anticipated this shift and have organized ourselves to transition from an effort-centric business and focus on these opportunities.

Consulting: Where do you see the most opportunities? 

Sarangan:  We believe that data, digital and IoT, together define the building blocks for a software driven business. We see this as an important nexus of technologies for the future. We have been making significant investments to form partnerships, build solutions and accelerators, as well as frameworks for enterprises to become software-driven. At the same time, digital transformation remains a continuous journey. One time fixes will not suffice. We foresee  many waves of digital or technology-led transformation to be creating growth opportunities. In terms of industries, we are seeing most growth today in U.S. Healthcare and in financial services globally.

Consulting: What would you say are your firm's biggest challenges in 2018? 

Sarangan:  There is a significant change in the way people are using and building technology. Due to new technologies in the market, it takes less effort and less time to get the same things done. Thus, most consulting or technology services, are going to be consumed differently. This is a business model challenge for all consulting and services companies on how to sell and how to deliver profitably in this environment. That said, the work to be done or the opportunity for us only continues to grow and the pace of innovation in the technology landscape makes it very exciting.

Consulting:  What does being named one of Consulting's Fastest Growing Firms mean to your firm, your employees and your clients? 

Sarangan: This recognition is a strong validation of how software is truly eating the world, and how the world of consulting is also seeing the growth of software-driven companies like us.