Dr. Anand Deshpande, Persistent Systems 1

Managing Director and CEO
Pune - Maharashtra India

The big idea: In 25 words or less, please tell us how this Fast 50 Nominee is helping to address the planet's problems.

Persistent developed and deployed an Internet-based mobile strategy enabling Bridgestone to effectively deploy innovative pricing mechanisms, allowing Bridgestone to manage profitability, customer responsiveness and importantly have the information to factor in emerging topics such as energy and environmental considerations in this day and age of high oil prices

Please describe how this nominee is using business as a force of positive change. What technology, idea, or strategy is the nominee using -- and what problem, such as global warming, poverty, or pollution, does it address? (suggested length: 100 words)

Persistent has been Bridgestone Europe’s software engineering partner for five years now and has been instrumental in developing and driving their mobile strategy. Through the use of Internet-based hand-held devices and server-side integration, Persistent has helped Bridgestone develop and implement innovative pay-per-use pricing strategies rather than up-front fees. The application helps gather real-time information concerning tire health and distance travelled in a centralized manner, effectively and efficiently, providing more than 800% improvement in productivity for Bridgestone’s service engineers and dealers. The data gathered is ultimately shared with fleet owners as well to improve their operations. The information also supports energy and environmental considerations that are becoming increasingly important in logistics. The Bridgestone's case study has been referenced under C.K. Prahalad’s new book to support how Innovation today is being done through global partnering. C.K. Prahalad and M.S. Krishnan portray a future where businesses will innovate by "co-creating" value with their customers and by tapping resources from specialized third parties worldwide.

What are the results, both financial and social? How has the nominee's business performed, and what impact has it had on the problem it addresses? (suggested length: 100 words)

Established in 1990, Persistent Systems is an outsourcing innovator and leader, focused exclusively on Software Product Development. Over the last 18 years, Persistent has led the revolution on how innovation through a partner sitting tens of thousands of miles away. With 4,000 employees, and delivering over 500 software product releases a year, Persistent has used both technology accelerators and innovative business-models to partner with its customers to get more and stronger products out to market. Persistent has developed revolutionary processes for the entire product lifecycle which reduce time to market while delivering consistent quality and customer satisfaction – as evidenced by customer partnerships that span many years. Fundamentally Persistent’s work has changed the relationship of a software development vendor to being an extension of VP Engineering’s development team. This innovation is supported by investments in R&D as well as a network of relationships with academia.

Persistent crossed $100M in Revenues mark during FY 08 (ending in March 2008) and has kept pace with its year over year revenue growth of over 50% for the last 3 years with its active customer count increased to 151 (31% growth). Persistent was also the winner of Frost & Sullivan Growth Strategy Leadership Award and Red Herring Global 100 Award for innovation in Outsourced Software development in ‘07. It has focused on using innovation in software development as a way to impact its customers Revenue, Brand and Margins as done with Bridgestone.

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