This Company Tier covers specialist services firms that sell one skill and nothing else, such as software testing, SAP, data engineering, cloud, security, embedded software or preparing data for AI models. A client hires them for that skill by the team, and for an engineer, joining one of these firms means joining the skill as much as the company.
Before a bank releases a new version of its core banking software, a team from a testing firm, such as AQM Technologies in Mumbai, may test it, and do nothing else.
Every other Company Tier in this collection groups firms by what they sell to a client. This one groups them by the one skill they sell. For many services firms, the skill is the firm: a company that does nothing but software testing, or nothing but SAP, or nothing but data engineering, or nothing but preparing data for AI models. A client buys the skill by the team, and an engineer joins the skill as much as the company. So this Company Tier is organised by skill, one section each.
Each firm in this Company Tier sells one skill: testing, a business platform, data and AI, one cloud provider, security, embedded and chip work, or training data for AI models. A few of the firms that sell each skill are shown under it.
Two things follow when a firm is a single skill, and they run through every section:
The work is deep and narrowEngineers learn one skill thoroughly, and little else.
The firm rises and falls with its skill's marketThat matters most for the skills AI is taking over first.
Every firm named here has posted software engineering jobs in India.
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Nine more sections are on this page: What these firms sell, and to whom, QA and testing, SAP, Oracle, ServiceNow, Salesforce: the platform houses, Data, AI and analytics, Cloud partner boutiques, Cybersecurity services, Embedded and semiconductor, AI training data and evaluation, and The firms. Sign in to read them here, in full.
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What these firms sell, and to whom
They sell one skill, by the team, to clients who need it in a quantity or depth their own engineers cannot supply. For example:
- a bank needs its core banking system tested before every release, and buys a testing firm's team
- a manufacturer moving to a new SAP system buys a firm that has done it fifty times
- a retailer that wants to use its data buys a data and AI firm
- an AI company buys a thousand people to label and judge the data its models learn from
Each client buys one skill by the team: a bank buys a testing team, a manufacturer moving to SAP buys a platform house, a retailer buys a data and AI firm, and an AI company buys people to label and judge its data. Even the giants buy testing and platform work when they run short of their own engineers.
The giants' pyramid exists here too, but it is flatter, because everyone in the firm does the same kind of work. The account is still the job, but the skill is the same on every account.
The clients come from every industry. For some skills, the clients are other services firms: the giants hand testing and platform work to these firms when they run short of their own engineers. (More on the giants in Company Tier 1, The IT services giants, in the services-world collection.)
QA and testing
Testing is the oldest single-skill business in Indian IT. QA, quality assurance, means checking other people's software, by hand and with automated tests, against what it is supposed to do and against the last release. The largest testing firms do it for banks, whose core systems must be tested before every release.
AQM Technologiesin Mumbai, tests banking software above all.
QualityKioskin Mumbai and Bengaluru, is of the same kind.
Qualitestthe international testing firm, works from Bengaluru on test automation.
Smaller firmsResillion, KiwiQA, Moolya, Yethi, a1qa, QAonCloud, QAAgility, AppSierra and Lexington Soft
Testing is the skill most directly being automated. So the testing firms are now hiring engineers who build test automation, not only people who run tests.
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SAP, Oracle, ServiceNow, Salesforce: the platform houses
These firms live inside one business platform: large software that companies buy and then fit to their own business, such as SAP for finance and operations, Oracle, ServiceNow for IT and service requests, and Salesforce for customer records. The work is setting the platform up, extending it and connecting it to other systems, using the platform's own languages and tools. It is a different kind of work from general software engineering.
YASH Technologiesin Pune, with Bengaluru and Hyderabad, is the largest firm in this Company Tier. It is led by SAP, and also does app and data work around it.
Birlasoftthe other large SAP firm, is also covered in Company Tier 2. (More on it in Company Tier 2, Mid-sized IT services firms, in the services-world collection.)
ServiceNowNewRocket, Getronics and Unisys
SalesforceForsys
OracleRIA Advisory, S2Integrators and Donyati. RIA Advisory is also covered in Company Tier 9. (More on it in Company Tier 9, Small software shops, in the services-world collection.)
SAPmsg global, GyanSys, KaarTech, Advent Global, Infocus and ArchLynk
Microsoft's business applicationsHitachi Solutions and HSO
Several platformsJade Global, Bristlecone, the Mahindra group's supply-chain firm, and MOURI Tech
Rimini Streetwhich supports business software after its maker stops supporting it
Moving data between platformsSyniti and Definian
Engineering-design platformsEssig and Razorleaf
These skills are in steady demand, because the platforms are everywhere and hard to leave. Their value also depends on the platforms staying dominant. The giants do much of this work too.
Data, AI and analytics
This is the skill the whole industry is trying to buy, and the section with the most firms and the newest ones.
Established analytics firmsFractal, Tiger Analytics, with about six thousand people, Tredence, MathCo, Quantiphi, Impetus, Sigmoid, C5i, Indus Valley Partners, which works for investment managers, Anblicks, Agivant, KPI Partners and Saarthee
Newer firms built around AIGruve, Kanerika, Finarb, Fast Code AI, Codvo, AuxoAI, Akaike, krtrimaIQ, Tatras, PalTech, ShyftLabs and RediMinds
Analytics boutiquesEucloid, UsefulBI, Polestar, USEReady, Convergytics, Decision Foundry, Ormae and Proziod
The work is data engineering, backend work and building AI models. The mix shows a firm's age: the older firms do data engineering first, and the newer ones do AI model work first.
This is the one skill here whose market AI is growing, not shrinking. These firms are selective in whom they hire.
Cloud partner boutiques
These firms are built around one cloud provider's partner programme. The provider pays them, in part, to move clients onto its cloud.
Google Cloud66degrees, Searce and Cloud Kinetics
Amazon Web ServicesCloudwick, Minfy, Rearc, Vertical Relevance, Idexcel and BlueCloud
Microsoft AzureWaferWire, RapidCircle and Terawe
Several cloudsNumeric Technologies, Cloudesign, CloudSufi, SourceFuse, CloudFulcrum, Ideamine and OneByZero. Cloudesign is also covered in Company Tier 5. (More on it in Company Tier 5, The services firms that feel like product companies, in the services-world collection.)
The work is moving clients to the cloud, building their cloud platforms, and running what was moved. A boutique's business depends on its level in the provider's partner programme, which sets what it can sell and how it is paid. So its engineers specialise in one provider's platform, with that provider's certifications, and the firm's fortunes follow that provider's.
Cybersecurity services
Few firms appear here. Most cybersecurity in India is sold by product companies, or by the security practices of the giants and consulting firms. The companies whose business is security are covered in the product-companies collection. (More on them in Industry Vertical 4, Cybersecurity, in the product-companies collection.)
SISAthe Bengaluru payment-security firm
Crest Data
Gruve and Resillionwhich each sell security beside another skill
Embedded and semiconductor
These three firms are covered in Company Tier 6. They appear here for readers who start from the skill rather than the industry. Embedded software and chip engineering are the one skill set here that leads to manufacturers, rather than to business software. (More on them in Company Tier 6, Where the work is hardware, cars and chips, in the services-world collection.)
Tessolve
Sasken
Silicon Patterns
AI training data and evaluation
This is the newest skill here, and the strangest business. These firms' product is people judging, labelling and correcting the data that AI models learn from. They sell it to the companies that make AI models.
TELUS Digital's data arm and Appen are the two large international firms of this kind, each with operations of thousands of people.
Objectwaysin Chennai, Deccan AI, in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, Innodata and Minutes to Seconds are the Indian and smaller firms.
Their software engineers build the platforms the labelling runs on. The labelling itself is done by many more people, often hired through online marketplaces.
This skill was created by AI, and AI is taking it over fastest: every AI company is building models that judge their own training data. The engineering roles that build the evaluation platforms are the part most likely to last.
The firms
The firms are listed above, under their skill. In addition:
YASH Technologies, Sigmoid and Qualitesteach appear under two names.
Six firms are covered mainly in another Company TierBirlasoft (Company Tier 2), Cloudesign (Company Tier 5), Tessolve, Sasken and Silicon Patterns (Company Tier 6), and RIA Advisory (Company Tier 9).
Other specialistsQuanticate, a clinical-data research firm. Torry Harris, iSteer, Pragma Edge and DigitalAPICraft, which connect systems to each other. Bits In Glass and WonderBotz, which automate business processes. TTEC Digital, which builds customer-experience technology. RedCompass, a payments consultancy. OneMetric, which works on marketing systems.
Testing, platform setup, AI training data and cloud migration are the skills AI is taking over, with testing the most exposed. Data and AI, and the part of every other skill that builds the automation, are what AI enlarges.
The single-skill firm that becomes an AI firm.
Fractal, Tiger Analytics, Quantiphi and Tredence have moved from analytics to building with AI models for their clients. They are among the largest employers of AI engineers in the Indian services world. The testing firms' automation arms and the platform firms' AI practices are making the same move, later. Read the sections in order, and they rank how exposed each skill is to AI. Testing comes first: AI already writes tests from a specification. The platform houses come second: setting up a packaged platform follows rules, and the platform makers are building AI to do it. The training-data firms are being replaced by their own customers, and cloud migration is being scripted. What stays standing is data and AI, which AI enlarges, and the part of every other skill that builds the automation. The counter-current: a firm tied to a skill AI absorbs, and unable to move, has a limited future.
That is the specialist firm built around one skill: firms that sell one skill by the team, from testing and SAP to data and AI, each rising and falling with its skill.