While innovative software builder Decos is hardly getting a foothold in our neighbouring countries, the company from Noordwijk is succeeding in winning over Indian customers. CEO Paul Veger: "Patience in Germany is more expensive than in India.
Decos office in India (photo Decos)
Clever step
Paul Veger is a much sought-after speaker on innovation, self-managing teams and paperless work, but the CEO of Decos rarely speaks about India. "It's a shame," he thinks, "because India is perhaps the smartest step the company has ever taken." At the end of the 1990s, Veger came across a problem that many companies are still facing today: a chronic shortage of staff. "India," he thinks when he wakes up one morning. "Maybe I should look into that."
Thanks to our Indian branch, we now have no problem finding good staff.
Office in India
The entrepreneur decides to take a look in India. He has a pilot project carried out to his satisfaction and gets colleague Roel Noort enthusiastic about the Indian adventure. Noort moves to the Indian city of Pune where he sets up the office for Decos and runs it for three years. "We would rather not work with an Indian middleman," says Veger. "Most Indian companies are quite hierarchical, while we in Noordwijk work without managers. We want to set up our own company so that we can also create our own business culture. We also want our people in India to have decent workplaces and good equipment - just like we have in Noordwijk."
Paul Veger, CEO Decos (Photo: Decos)
Complete technical teams in India
After three years, the office in India is running smoothly, Noort returns home and an Indian director takes over the daily management. In 2018, Decos employs over a hundred people in India. And they are not just simple code breakers. "In many projects, the technical architect and technical lead are also in India. The product owners, employees who maintain contact with the customer, are often in the Netherlands. But not for Indian customers, of course. Then we just have Indian product owners. Then they have a cultural advantage."
India as second home market
The number of Indian customers has been increasing for two years. "Earlier, we tried to sell our software solutions to municipalities in Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom, but that proved extremely difficult and time-consuming. The competition is fierce and a good technical sales team in those countries costs a lot of money. We are in India anyway, so we don't need to invest extra to do sales there. We have quietly explored the market, established relationships and now sales are starting to pick up."
Through India, we are now also getting orders from the US.
Helping Indian municipalities to digitise
The growth of Decos in India is partly due to Prime Minister Modi's digitisation policy, says Veger. "India is known for its enormous bureaucracy, but Modi wants the country to move with the times. He is very active in encouraging the digitisation of the Indian government. In the Netherlands, we are market leader in that field, so with our software solutions we can really help Indian municipalities to make a giant leap forward. Did you know that there are three thousand large municipalities in India? For us, India is the largest growth market in the world. And, the best part is, we hardly have any serious competitors in India."
Decos office in India (photo: Decos)
Winning tenders
So how does Decos do it, sell to Indian municipalities? "That is all done through tenders," says Veger. "That is an advantage, because it makes the process transparent. Incidentally, we can't respond to these tenders ourselves, because they are subject to strict criteria, such as a minimum company size and a high minimum annual turnover. That is why we work with partners such as the Japanese multinational NEC and the ERP system IPS. They include our products in their offer to municipalities."
Springboard
These tender procedures can be quite lengthy, Veger acknowledges. "Nowhere in the world is selling to the government fast. I stick to the maxim that if customers take a long time to do business with you, they stay with us. Being early in India allows us to become a market leader. Moreover, the country is a springboard to the rest of the world. We now receive orders from the United States via India. We never managed that from the Netherlands."