Yantra

July 12, 2007

Yantra (Sterling Commerce)

Company Synopsis

Yantra Corporation now part of Sterling Commerce makes supply chain applications called Yantra 7x. Sterling Commerce, owned by AT&T bought Yantra from Infosys in 2004. The founder of Yantra, Mr.Devdutt Yellurkar, was Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing in Infy. The company is headquartered in Tewksbury, Massachusetts.
Yantra is a product in Distributed Order Management space, which is a strategic component of the supply chain and one of that market’s fastest growing segments.
Number of Employees: Number of employees is in few 100s

Company Structure: As with any product development company Yantra too has product development, product maintenance, customer services and professional services team.

Major source of revenue: Yantra had revenues of more than $26.4 million dollars in 2004 from selling and implementing its product.

Nature of work: For Professional Services people work involves direct client interfacing at onsite, gathering requirements, and analyzing requirements. It may require customization of code after requirement analysis is over.
For development/maintenance teams understanding the product code and domain is major work.

Skills required: Java and J2EE.

Hiring Strategy: It picks guys from top colleges mainly, preferably IIT/NIT. For freshers it mainly checks logical analysis puzzles and computer programming skills in java.

Positive highlights of the company: There are very Indian companies, which do product development, which is a good experience, plus a good chance to learn about the supply chain domain. Salary for freshers is good (4 plus).

Location: Banglore

Company Website: http://www.sterlingcommerce.com/yantra


HCL Technologies

June 28, 2007

Company Synopsis

HCL acted as a pioneer for Indian Software Industry in 1980s, it indigenously developed micro-computer, RDBMS and a multi processor Unix systems. HCL may not look as big as Infy or TCS in terms of revenue because in the initial years it did not focus on application development and maintenance projects. Major revenue for firms like Infy, TCS comes from maintenance and implementation of applications. Simply put the market size/ revenue in billion dollar can come only when you are in a big market like application maintenance/outsourcing. For HCL the contribution of application engineering service has been steadily going up in the past few years and its emphasis on technology development services has steadily gone down.

Company Structure

The HCL Enterprise comprises two companies listed in India, HCL Technologies and HCL Infosystems. HCL Technologies is the IT and BPO services arm serving global markets, while HCL Infosystems is the IT, Communication, Office Automation Products & System Integration arm focused on the Indian market. HCL-Tech BPO lists in the top ten list of Indian BPOs. HCL Infosystem is the hardware arm selling PCs.

For Freshers

Training period is of one year in which initially after induction training you would get the technology and domain training and the training on live project in all this is a one-year training.

Nature of work is pretty similar to services company like Infy/TCS and onsite opportunities depend on the projects. The company does not fire anyone. There is a bond period for 18 months.

Location: Major location for HCL Technologies are Noida, Chennai, Hyderabad, Banglore, Mumbai, Kolkata. Company Website: http://www.hcl.in/

Written Test Pattern:

The written test consists of 60 questions which are divided into 4 sections .The total duration of the test is 90 minutes. There is negative marking .

The sectionwise distribution of the questions is as follows:

Section#1
This section consisting of 15 questions is based on general computer awareness.
In this section:
A correct answer carries 1 mark
1/4 marks will be deducted for a wrong answer.

Section#2
This section also consists of 15 questions. Questions based on C language are asked.
In this section:
A correct answer carries 1 mark
1/4 marks will be deducted for a wrong answer.

Section#3
A total of 10 questions based on pointers and structures in C are asked in this section. You can also be asked one or two questions on JAVA.
In this section:
A correct answer carries 2 marks
1 mark will be deducted for a wrong answer.

Section#4
This is the aptitude section consisting of 20 questions. Simple maths questions are asked which are very easy. The logical questions asked are similar to the ones given in the Barron’s GRE book.
In this section:
A correct answer carries 2 marks
1/4 mark will be deducted for a wrong answer.


Pramati Technologies

June 27, 2007

Company Synopsis

Pramati Technologies makes a J2EE application server called Pramati Server. You can say it is in direct competition with IBM Websphere and similar products like Weblogic(BEA). Pramati’s strategy is to compete with these well-known products on the price front. Pramati Technologies is an inspiring story for Indian entrepreneurs, as it is the first Indian Software Product which is a core technical product as well as the company is fighting it out in the US market against all biggies. Yasu Technologies was the first company to ship its product to clients using Pramati’s server.

Major source of revenue: Its flagship product the ‘Pramati Server’ is used by several banking, financial services, retail and Telecom companies.

Nature of work: Product engineering, product development services and Middleware are the major teams here. The product is basically a compiler/web-container; those interested in computer algorithms and compiler design might be happy working here. There are Support teams also which may travel in US at client sites.

Skills required: Java and J2EE professionals.

Positive highlights of the company: As always in a small company you can learn a lot here.

Location: Hyderabad (Product Development). Other locations where it has offices are San Jose, New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, London, Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, New Delhi

Company Blog: http://dragon-slayers.blogspot.com/

Company Website: http://www.pramati.com/index.jsp?id=corporate

Read our article on startups to know about the pros and cons of working in a small company.


Wipro Technologies

June 25, 2007

Company Synopsis

Wipro Technologies – It is the third largest IT services company in India. It has 68,000 employees as of Apr 2007, inclusive of its BPO arm, which it acquired in 2002.

Wipro Spectramind – It is the BPO arm of Wipro, earlier known as Spectramind (Ramon Roy).

Wipro Infotech – It is a division of Wipro which handles Asian Operations as well PC division of Wipro. It has a solution division as well.

There are other subsidiaries like Wipro Health Care, Wipro Fluid Power.

Bond for freshers

Wipro has a 75k, 15-month bond. A fresher joining Wipro has to sign a bond stating that he/she would stay in Wipro for at least a period of 15 months or pay 75k as penalty.

Facilities for freshers

Wipro does not provide any accommodation during training. If your training and posting are same then Wipro will provide you 2AC Fare from your home to your destination (if home and Office are at different places). It will also provide you @ INR 200 for 8 days from your date of joining.

If your joining and posting are different, it will provide you
1) 2 AC Fare from your home to the place of joining
2) @ INR 200/ day for the entire period you stay in the place you are having your training.
3) 2 AC fare from your training location to posting location.
4) On subsequent joining in your posting location it will provide another INR 200 for 8 days.

If your joining/posting location is same/different, in both cases, you have to arrange your own accommodation in a PG or flat as per your choice.

How is Wipro different from Infosys and TCS?

Like most of the companies in outsourcing arena Wipro too focuses on hiring fresh engineers to reduce cost, if the project has a healthy mix of 30 percent experienced people and 70 % freshers, it turns out to be a win-win situation for the company. Hiring fresh employees reduces the cost of the company as wages increase by 15 % every year but it does lead to lower utilization rate or more people on bench.

“ Wipro plans to add about 14,000 freshers in 2007-08 and has already issued some 10,000 campus offers. In the current financial year, a total of 6,600 campus recruits have joined Wipro till date. Wipro is also planning to enhance the intake at Wipro Academy of Software Excellence (WASE) — where it converts science graduates into software professionals through in-depth technology training — to around 4,000 in the coming year from the present 1,700.In the recent years, Wipro has absorbed about 7,000 science graduates. In fact, the company’s utilization rate during Q3 declined by 2 per cent to 62.2 per cent because of the high number of rookies. “

Major source of revenue: Like most of Indian Services Companies US is the major source of revenue accounting for 61 percent, and another major chunk of revenue came from Europe accounting for 34 per cent of Wipro Technologies’ revenues

Skills required: For experienced persons it recruits from multiple domains and skillsets.

Hiring Strategy for Science grads:

Wipro hires B.Sc/ BCA graduate and offers them MS(Systems Engineering) Degree from BITS, Pilani at no expense and signs them for 4 years of Employment Bond.

Positive highlights of the company:

Wipro has functions coming up every fortnight; there are DJ nights and rock bands, fashion shows, all these are nice experiences.

Location: Banglore, Hyderabad (Secunderabad/Begumpet + Manikonda, HiTech City), Kolkata, Pune, Chennai, Delhi (BPO), Mumbai (Spectramind) & Mysore (Global Service Management Center (GSMC) for serving the eastern markets).

Company Website: http://www.wipro.com/

Sample Placement Paper for Engineering Graduates:

1. A topic on Gandhiji’s Salt Satyagraha Movement. Four sentences were given and you have to arrange them to make a paragraph. Ans. CABD (Check it out).

2. What can’t be changed by the user program (Four choices were there).Ans. Memory Map (Check it out).3. In which layer ROUTING is performed?
Ans. Network Layer
4. What is the output of the following code snippet
main()
{
printf(5+”Fascimile”);}Ans. mile

5. What is the output?
Int count=10,sum=0,*temp;
Temp=&count;
Sum=? &count;( It was actually given temp=? &count; which is probably wrong)Printf(“sum=%d count= %d temp=%d “,sum,count,*temp);Ans. C (most expected answer ,check it)6.Which one has no L-Value
a
[ii] i
[iii] 2
[iv] *(a+i)
Ans . [iii]

6. In threaded binary for which traversal orders unused left and right links are used?
Ans.

7. Which is false for binary tree?
Any node should have two children.
[ii]
[iii] At fourth level the number of node should be less than 16.
Ans.

8. Which is true for binary search ?
Traversal scheme
[ii]
[iii]Greedy algorithm
[iv] Divide and conquer algorithm
Ans. [iv]

9. What is the protocol used for getting the physical address by supplying IP address of a node ?
ARP
[ii] RARP
[iii] BOOTP
[iv] DHCP
Ans.

10. If DELHI is coded as CCIDD then how BOMBAY will be coded?

11. Opposite meaning of SPUR.

12. Opposite of HARBINGER .
Ans. Follower

13. Opposite meaning of PROTRUSION.
Ans.

14. Opposite meaning of RESTIVENESS.
Ans. Docility.

15.Find the odd one in a given analogy
Ans. Mundane.

16 . Find the analogy : SURPRISE : EXCLAMATION
Ans. Dismay: groan.

17) Find the analogy: Plateau: Taxonomy.

18) Question from congestion control topic:
Ans: source quench.

19) Question from kernel mode:
Ans: Disable Interrupts.

20) Which one is a page replacement algorithm.
fifo
[ii]
[iii]Least recently used.
[iv] All of above.

21) Using two numbers And interchanging + and * there was a question.
Ans:(iii)(some expression=22).

22) For each hour an watch is going slow by 30 seconds. Now time is
8a.m.What will be the actual time at 8p.m.
Ans:ii)7:54.

23) Question regarding while loop.
Ans:(iii).

24) Alphabetical order L,M,…(cant remember) Ans:F.

25) One puzzle:(I cant exactly remember this question giving brief idea of this question) there were four guys A,B,C,D. the older and younger relation is given . You have to find the age of the A.
Ans: 7 years(check it out).

26) Fallacy question: six sentences are given.
…[ii]…[iii]…[iv]… Ans: .

28) Nine people six floor. Conditions are given.(This was a very long paragraph).Peoples named like I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q.Ans:i)J.

29) A question regarding node.
Ans:iii)

30) A problem regarding age of father and son(very easy problem u can solve it).

31) Point out error in the following sentence: I got the book in the office and slipped it out.
I got the book.
[ii] in the.
[iii] office and .
[iv] slipped it out.
Ans: [iv].

32) Point out error:(about a flowers garden)
Ans: (I can’t remember the options). Answer will be among on another.
TIPS: There was no negative marking .Try to solve all the departmental question.


Techspan

June 21, 2007

Company Synopsis

Techspan, now part of Headstrong was founded by Arjun Malhotra in 1998. Arjun Malhotra co-founded HCL Technologies in 1975 and is an entrepreneur to the core.

Company Structure: It has operations in US, Europe, Japan and India. Five of these centers are on-shore in the U.S, and others are offshore in India (at Noida and Bangalore) and Philippines (Manila), Tokyo and Hong Kong. The outsourcing model is pretty similar to that of Infosys or Accenture but seems to focus more on domain expertise more like consulting companies. In the beginning it focussed on Internet companies with newer technolgies to leverage on the growth of the clients.

Major source of revenue: It outsources projects from finance companies like Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, CSFB, Barclays Bank. They work mainly for financial domain but there are projects related to web business for other domains.

Nature of work: Work at Techspan revolves mostly around development of web-based applications for Investment banks. Most of these applications are developed on j2ee platform, though a few use .NET technologies as well. The job involves an excellent mix of technical and finance domain knowledge. Typical projects at Techspan: — Order Management systems for securities- Foreign Exchange transaction systems- Sec-Lending systems – Securities trading systems

Skills required: .NET, C#, ASP.NET / VB.NET, OOPS, .NET framework

Hiring Strategy: It recruits mainly from IITs, even if you are a pretty average guy from IIT you stand a good chance of getting a job there(If you say IITians can’t be average then atleast their software skills could be average).

Positive/Negative highlights of the company:

Pays well around 5.2 to 5.5 for freshers. Sends you onsite for long term as well as short term. The company infrastructure is not very good and work load can be high

Location: Banglore and Noida.

Company Website: http://www.headstrong.com


Infosys – Company Synopsis

June 2, 2007

Number of Employees: 67,000

Company Structure: Infosys has several Development Centers (DCs) spread mostly across South India. All the development centers have their own campuses are full with all kind of facilities. The company is divided into several IBUs(Integrated Business Units), for example there are separate IBUs for dealing with retail, banking, telecom, insurance companies. There is separate IBU for Finacle(a banking product by Infy), Enterprise Solutions( it handles all Oracle/SAP/Peoplesoft projects). All the IBUs may not be present in all the Development Centers.

Major source of revenue: Major revenue comes from software services which includes maintenance of IT systems of big companies (like IT operations of a company like DHL), migration projects which involve upgrading new software packages for its clients (switching from Oracle to DB2), implementation of packages (like implementing Oracle/SAP CRM solutions for a big retail company).

Nature of work: Work could be customization of a package for any client, testing of packages, development of new modules for client, customer support work for clients.
It could be like learning a tool that is being used by banks for maintaining/analyzing their data.

Skills required: You don’t require much of technical skills you never have to code from scratch; the need is to understand about the project you get. If you understand the requirement of the client and the domain you are working on, your job is going to be cakewalk. But most of the real life IT systems are huge and learning them takes time of around 3-4 months.

Hiring Strategy: Infosys hires employees with average and consistent academic background. For experienced persons the criteria may depend on the demand for that particular skill. The written test for freshers consists of easy puzzles from books like Shakuntala Devi. They might look for average communication skills apart from knowledge of English.

Positive highlights of the company:
Campus: Infosys campuses have all the things you can ask for in this modern day world.
Gym, swimming pool, food court, everything.

Location:
Banglore(20000+), Hyderabad(6500+), Pune, Mysore, Mangalore, Bhubaneswar(2000+), Trivandrum, Mohali.

Company Blog: http://www.infosysblogs.com/

Company Website: http://www.infosys.com/