A US-based Digital Customer Engagement company leveraged global talent for product development

Client’s challenge

A US-based Digital Customer Engagement company that provided its software services to over 12k global brands and retailers had the plan of expanding their capabilities through a Global Engineering center. The goal was to leverage the global talent pool for product development, while optimizing on R&D talent costs.

To further their vision, they wanted to conduct a portfolio and location analysis to narrow down a viable site for their Engineering center. This center would house and employ the world’s talent pool to develop numerous products on-site.

Zinnov was tasked to identify the most suitable global locations for the client’s goal and program manage the entire setup, including recruitment for the new center.

How Zinnov helped

We shortlisted 7 global cities of strategic relevance with deep focus on cost and talent availability, and a mature ecosystem to carry out operational activities and scale the business at scale.

After collaborating with the client, and arriving at the top 3 locations, we tried to acquaint the client with the key stakeholders and relevant peers and/or similar technological companies. Furthermore, a financial model was chalked out to compare the probable costs for each location to help determine the project’s total financial obligation. We then assisted the client with ready-to-occupy office spaces, global talent recruitment, and administrative services.

Impact created

By leveraging the Zinnov-proprietary framework, products were plotted by measuring the operational readiness and strategic fitment. This helped in crystallizing a broad view of the current product portfolio. Furthermore, the relevant skillsets were identified as per the business requirement. Post identification, talent could be scouted and hired, keeping the skills in mind.

Our partnership with the client was transformative throughout the project and resulted in considerable victories like – the addition of 80 new employees in the first year of operations, recurring savings in talent cost attuned to ~USD 12 Mn annually, and end-to-end development of multiple products from the new Engineering center.

The entire process was carried out in less than 3 months – starting from arriving at the center location, to the setting up stage, followed by kickstarting operations.