News & Events

Companies Merge to Create Symbio, A Global Leader in Next-Generation Outsourced Product Development

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0800

BEIJING, China, SAN JOSE, Calif., USA and TAMPERE, Finland – September 23, 2009 – Symbio Group, a leading Web and enterprise software outsourced product development (OPD) company, Flander, a leading mobile and embedded software development company, and Ardites, a leading expert in user experience technologies, today announced a definitive agreement to merge the three companies to create Symbio. As one of the world’s largest outsourced product development companies, Symbio formed to meet the needs of leading global enterprises that demand converged technology solutions, richer user experiences, high-quality strategy and design, and the most cost-effective outsourced product development solutions.

Delivering Deep Domain Expertise in Enterprise Technology Convergence

Symbio provides software product engineering and product co-creation solutions across the entire product lifecycle, from ideation and development to user experience, testing and scaling. In addition to expanding global reach, Symbio integrates domain expertise, strategic consulting and design engineering talent across mobile, Web, enterprise and embedded technologies. World-leading companies like China Mobile, IBM, Microsoft and Nokia already trust and rely on Symbio for expert technology innovation and cost-effective execution.

"While achieving dramatic success in the past five to ten years, the offshore IT services market, and the players competing in this space, are faced with an unprecedented set of economic forces and changing customer needs that is forcing this industry to make dramatic changes in their businesses to ensure both short- and long-term growth," said David Tapper, vice president for Outsourcing and Offshore Services at IDC. "IDC believes that success for these players will reside in their ability to either find niche areas of focus or scale up and provide end-to-end capabilities with stronger local (developed market) presence and a greater focus on outsourced/managed services, which increasingly includes provisioning of services in the form of utility-based offerings."

“Markets and technologies are converging and disrupting industries, while creating new opportunities for businesses. That’s why Symbio was formed, to deliver innovation, expertise and cost-effective execution on a global scale,” said Jacob Hsu, CEO of Symbio. “In today’s business world, it’s not just about labor arbitrage. Our merger adds significant scale and extensive combined expertise across technologies, geographies, and industries – it’s a win-win for large enterprises that don’t have the resources to support full-time development that convergence demands. We look forward to delivering broad, innovative solutions to our global enterprise clients across their local, national and global communities.”

Massive Global Scale, Unique Local Touch

Symbio clients can hedge geopolitical risks by leveraging both offshoring and near-shoring expertise to address key product development priorities across the US, Europe and Asia. This approach ensures project confidentiality, trusted infrastructure management, maintenance, support and quality assurance that maximize value for enterprises by embracing their local and global supply chain strategies. Symbio fast facts:

· Global headquarters in Beijing, San Jose, and Tampere

· Expanding footprint of 22 locations

· Seven R&D centers in the Finland and Sweden

· Five offshore development centers in mainland China, Taiwan, and Bangladesh

“The merger delivers the scale, resources and domain expertise needed to meet the rising demand for outsourced product development,” said Markus Suomi, President and COO of Symbio. “With our ability to manage the full product lifecycle, we provide a truly global OPD environment for our enterprise clients who seek premier talent, unique strategic and vertical-specific expertise, a richer user experience and very cost-effective execution. Symbio is well positioned to lead the converged OPD market globally, with the extension of onshore and offshore services across the markets our enterprise clients care about most – the US, Europe and Asia.”

Expanded Portfolio of Services

Bringing a collective 34 years of software product development expertise to the worldwide market, Symbio is unveiling new global practices in Mobile & Embedded Software, Internet, Enterprise & Industrial Applications, QA, Testing & Globalization and Test Systems. Its cradle-to-grave service portfolio now includes:

· Product Design

· Product Engineering

· Product Extensions

· Quality Assurance

· Test Services

· Globalization/Localization

· Test and Measurement Systems

· Center of Excellence

· Technical Support

About Symbio

Symbio designs and develops feature-rich products for companies embracing transformational advances in communications and technology. By leveraging its deep expertise in enterprise, embedded, mobile, Web-based and user experience driven technologies, Symbio enables its clients to focus on their core competencies while building mission-critical technologies and products to sustain, speed and secure the long-term success for the business. World-leading companies like China Mobile, IBM, Microsoft and Nokia already rely on Symbio for faster, innovative, and highly cost-effective IT outsourcing. With global headquarters in Beijing, China, San Jose, USA, and Tampere, Finland, Symbio is the outsourced product development partner companies trust to deliver truly integrated global reach with local touch. For more information about Symbio, visit www.symbio.com.

Symbio Makes a Global Play With Merger

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0800

Scandinavian developers Flander and Ardites are merging with Symbio Group to create a global player in the outsourced product development space in a deal announced late tonight. Symbio, which has headquarters in Beijing and Silicon Valley, provides outsourced product development (OPD) services to clients such as China Mobile, IBM, Microsoft and Nokia. Flander develops mobile and embedded software, and Ardites creates user-experience technologies. The longtime partners hope to leverage Symbio’s presence and brand in China with their collective scale to compete with ODP behemoths such as Persistent, Globallogic and Symphony — all of which have a strong presence in India, according to Jacob Hsu, who will serve as CEO of the new Symbio. I spoke with Hsu in advance of the announcement.

“What’s going to be a really unique differentiator is that we’re the only one who is China-based,” Hsu said. “A lot of people like to make India vs. China comparisons. We don’t really view it as an either/or, but China is clearly emerging as a global R&D leader. Over 600,000 engineering graduates are coming out of China’s universities every year…That’s why I think a lot of technology companies are shifting from India to China.”

The OPD segment is undergoing a fundamental shift, Hsu told me, as companies take a closer look at their outsourcing activities. Many firms didn’t fully enjoy the economic benefits they thought outsourcing would bring and are looking to get more value for their outsourcing dollars. Hsu hopes to tap into that demand by combining China’s active R&D market with global reach and technology from Flander and Ardites.

“It wasn’t a haphazard choice to come to Scandinavia” to forge partnerships, Hsu said. “Last year, China was the No. 1 destination for R&D spending…So you’ve got China being this emerging leader in terms of R&D, and at the same time we’re marrying that to Finland (Flander’s home market) and Sweden (Ardites’ turf), which are No. 1 and No. 2 in terms of R&D maturity, R&D spending per capita. We’re trying to take mature hubs with proven processes and cultures and marry that to the most scalable R&D location in the world.”

'Merger Of Equals' Creates China Outsourcing Giant

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0800

As China increasingly becomes a premier destination for outsourcing research and development work, three privately held companies are joining forces to offer "cradle-to-the-grave" product development services from a Beijing office and more than 20 other locations.

The Symbio Group, an outsourcing company based in Beijing and Silicon Valley, is participating in a "merger of equals" with two Finnish start-ups, software-testing company Flander Oy and software-development company Ardites Ltd., said Jacob Hsu, Symbio's chief executive.

The three-way merger involves no cash, Hsu said. All three companies are simply pooling their stock together, and the combined entity will keep the name Symbio, Hsu said.

"Everybody is doubling down to continue this company," Hsu said.

Finnish private-equity firm CapMan Capital Management is the only institutional investor involved in the deal, Hsu said, as the firm backed Flander with undisclosed investments. In 2005, CapMan took a 31% stake in Flander after a financing round, VentureWire records show.

Both Symbio and Ardites were backed by individuals and company management, Hsu said.

Vesa Wallden, the deputy head of CapMan, declined to say how large a stake his firm holds in the newly formed Symbio, which will be headquartered in Beijing. The combined company has 21 other offices worldwide, Hsu said.

Established in 1997, Flander provides software testing and application development with an emphasis on the wireless industry. It tests mobile terminals and solutions and develops wireless applications for Symbian, Java, and Linux environments, company materials said.

Ardites, founded in 2002, builds mobile software for a wide range of customers, company materials said.

Symbio is a tech-bubble survivor that was founded in 1994 by IBM Corp. veterans, Hsu said. The company has done outsourcing work for a who's-who list of prominent tech companies, including Google Inc., IBM, Nokia Corp. and EBay Inc., Hsu said.

He declined to give information about revenues, profitability or valuation.

The combined company will have 1,400 employees, Hsu said, and will be a dominant player in the outsourcing business.

"We are creating the world's number one product development platform," Hsu said.

Three firms join forces under Symbio name

Thu, 8 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0800

SAN JOSE — The merger of two Scandinavian technology companies with a Beijing-based company will mean more jobs for Silicon Valley, as the headquarters for the newly formed business plants itself in the Bay Area.

"San Jose will be the hub for all of our senior executives and U.S. projects," said Jake Hsu, CEO of the newly formed Symbio.

Hsu was also CEO of Beijing-based Symbio Group, an outsourced product development provider that is merging with Flander, a mobile and embedded software development company, and Ardites, an expert in user experience technologies.

Financial terms of the merger were not disclosed, but Hsu described the all-stock transaction as a "merger among equals" despite retaining him as CEO and using a variation on the Symbio name. The new company is being described as one of the five largest in the $3 billion outsourced product development space.

Worldwide, the company will have 1,400 employees. Symbio Group already had about 10 people working in a San Jose office, and the new Symbio will hire about 25 people in the near term and expand its operations to include an innovation center where clients can go to do project planning and visioning.

"We will continue to add talented sales consultants, solution architects, and program managers as we look to build out a high-caliber client solution center where our clients can come in for innovation workshops with our architects and product designers," Hsu said. "As we integrate more closely with our U.S.-based clients, we will scale our near-shore technical and program management teams, and we will also have a small lab as well for those highly confidential projects that cannot be moved offshore."

Symbio's client list reads like a "Who's Who" of technology giants, and includes IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Nokia. Symbio Group, which was formed in 1994 by a group of IBM engineers, also works closely with PayPal Inc. as an outsource partner in China; PayPal localization quality manager Catherine Dove said the merger will help PayPal make a greater impact in Scandinavia.

"They have huge technical capabilities, and they're able to perform as if they were PayPal employees, and it's amazing how much expertise they have in Beijing," Dove said. "The merger is going to help us a lot, because we¹re going to need more resources in Scandinavia and now we're going to be able to go in country using local resources."

John McCarthy, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, said that for Symbio, the merger is a play to build out the company's particular expertise in the hot telecommunications arena.

"I think this economic downturn will do to offshore product development what the last downturn did for offshoring of IT," McCarthy said. "This could be the first in a series of acquisitions in the product development space."

Hsu said the merger also will help the companies scale across technologies, geographies and industries.

"It's a win-win for large enterprises that don't have the resources to support full-time development that convergence demands," Hsu said.

At-a-glance

Headquarters: San Jose
CEO: Jake Hsu
Founded: 2009
Employees: 1,400
Web: www.symbio.com
Phone: 408-694-9601

Flander, Ardites ja Symbio Group yhdistyvät Symbioksi

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0800

Suomalainen teknologiaosaaminen saa vahvan jalansijan Aasian ja USA:n markkinoilla Flanderin ja Arditesin yhdistäessä voimansa kiinalaisen Symbio Groupin kanssa. Järjestelyssä syntyy suomalaisvetoinen IT-palvelualan yritys, Symbio, joka pystyy haastamaan kilpailijansa ohjelmistomarkkinoilla maailmanlaajuisesti.

Symbion asiakkaat hyötyvät uuden yhtiön paikallisuudesta Euroopan, USA:n ja Aasian markkinoilla 22 paikkakunnalla. Koska projekteja voidaan hoitaa joustavasti usealla eri aikavyöhykkeellä, mahdollistuu niiden kustannusrakenteen optimointi. Symbiolla on useita tuotekehitysyksiköitä Suomessa, Ruotsissa ja USA:ssa, sekä off-shore yksiköt Kiinassa, Taiwanissa ja Bangladeshissa. Alueelliset pääkonttorit sijaitsevat Tampereella, San Josessa ja Pekingissä.

”Tämän fuusion ansiosta meillä on ainutlaatuinen kokonaisuus kapasiteettia, resursseja ja osaamista, jolla täyttää kasvava kysyntä ulkoistetulle ohjelmistokehitykselle,” sanoo Markus Suomi, Flanderin toimitusjohtaja.” Symbiolla on hyvä asema edelläkävijäksi ohjelmistopalveluissa asiakkaittemme tärkeimmillä markkinoilla – USA:ssa, Euroopassa ja Aasiassa. ”

”Tarjoamme maailmanlaajuisesti innovaatioita, osaamista ja kustannustehokasta toteutusta,” perustelee Jacob Hsu, Symbio Groupin toimitusjohtaja yhdistymistä. ”Valmiutemme ja osaamisemme eri teknologioissa sekä tuotteiden ja palvelujen parhaan mahdollisen käyttökokemuksen toteuttaminen ja varmistaminen yli maantieteellisten ja toimialarajojen lisääntyy huomattavasti yhdistymisen myötä,”sanoo Jacob Hsu.

Arditeksen toimitusjohtajan Janne Räsäsen mukaan ”Symbiossa yhdistyy kolmen oman alansa edelläkävijän vahvuudet ja mobiili-, internet-, sovelluskehitys-, sulautettujen järjestelmien ja laadunvarmistuksen huippuosaaminen. Pystymme vastaamaan kokonaisvaltaisesti asiakkaittemme tarpeisiin kehittää tuotteita ja palveluita käyttäjälähtöisesti aina matalan tason ohjelmistointegroinnista, tuotteiden ja palvelujen kehittämiseen, laadunvarmistukseen ja ylläpitoon."

Asiakkaat kuten esimerkiksi Nokia, Vaisala, China Mobile, IBM ja Microsoft luottavat Symbion osaamiseen huipputeknologian kehittäjänä. Symbio työllistää jatkossa yli 1 400 alansa ammattilaista ja yrityksen yhteenlaskettu liikevaihto vuonna 2008 oli yli 50 miljoonaa euroa.

布局全球化的大未来

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0800

　　一年多以前，软件外包企业文思创新正式登陆美国纽约证券交易所，发行价8.5美元，融资6502.5万美元。文思创新的成功上市，在当时被看做是中国软件外包业欣欣向荣的一个信号。时隔一年多，国际金融危机席卷全球，中国的软件外包企业站在了风口浪尖上。外包企业并购收购、做大做强也成为今年外界关注的焦点。而在9月23日，信必优集团和移动及嵌入式软件开发商Flander、Ardites，共同宣布三家公司合并建立新的信必优公司，该公司致力于满足全球领先企业对融合的技术解决方案、丰富多样的用户体验、高质量的策略和设计以及经济高效的产品开发外包等方面的需要。三家看起来业务并不是很相关的公司，缘何走到了一起？在企业融合后，原有的业务又将如何发展？新公司又会有着怎样的新战略？

　　与移动嵌入式厂商融合的新商机

　　在谈到为什么有此次收购的时候，信必优公司的首席执行官徐嘉说的最多的一个词是“融合”。“市场和技术正加速融合，使各行业重新定义游戏规则，同时也在创造新的商业机会。在全球范围内向客户提供创新、专业以及经济高效的解决方案，是三家企业此次合并成立新的信必优公司的动力。”徐嘉表示，“在现今的商业领域，我们的合并不仅仅是人力上的优化，它实现了跨技术、跨地区及跨行业的扩展，并且带来整合的技术和解决方案——对于需要资源来满足开发和技术整合需求的大型企业来说，合并实现了各方共赢。我们期待为全球企业客户，在企业所在地、所在国乃至全球范围内提供全面和创新的解决方案。”而提出融合概念的软件外包企业不止信必优一家，东软2006年与2007年的解决方案论坛都是以融合作为主题。

但是为什么此次信必优选择与移动及嵌入式领域的厂商进行融合？徐嘉并没有正面回答，他只是谈道：“Flander和Ardites的优势是在移动和嵌入技术领域的设计，而信必优拥有多年积累的值得客户信赖的全球交付能力、商业应用的创新能力以及网络开发经验。经过合并，我们建立了可以满足客户需求的研发中心。”

　　而看重移动嵌入式市场的似乎不止信必优一家。无独有偶，在此前，东软与芬兰公司SESCAGroupOy签订股份购买协议，收购其拥有的从事高端智能手机软件开发业务的三家子公司的100%股份。缘何在此时，大家都开始进军移动嵌入式领域呢？

　　3G牌照发放后，中国市场成为各智能手机厂商的必争之地。与此同时，运营商也成为各大厂商的关注重点。赛迪顾问的报告显示，在市场规模方面，全球及中国的手机市场将在未来3~5年内持续保持两位数的增长，中国依然是全球规模最大、增速最快的手机市场。到2011年，全球手机市场规模预计将增长到 2000亿美元。在市场格局方面，品牌集中度不断提升，手机市场利润不断下降，手机更新换代速度不断加快。因此迫使各个手机厂商降低手机的研发成本、缩短研发周期，特别是在手机软件的研发方面，从欧美、日本向与中国和印度合作转移的趋势愈发明显，这也将在未来3年内给包括信必优在内的中国软件外包服务提供商带来机会。目前，中国移动和诺基亚均是信必优的客户。在此之前，东软也用了一年半的时间，让它的电信事业部完成了从2G到3G的业务升级。9月份在南海召开的中国服务外包论坛上，前中国驻美国大使馆参赞李武强也表示：“嵌入式是中国软件外包企业寻求突破的一个关键点。”

融合后的新业务和新战略

　　在采访中，记者问道：“三家公司采用何种方式进行合并，管理团队和业务以谁为主体？”对此，徐嘉表示，此次交易平等合作，但不愿意透露具体的股权处理方式。在整合后，新的信必优集团将结合原来三家公司的业务特点，进行业务的调整，合并之后的公司将拥有新的业务组合，包括移动和嵌入式领域、互联网、企业架构与软件开发、质量保证、测试和全球化、测试和检测评估系统，服务包括产品设计、全球化和本地化、测试和检测评估系统、卓越中心和技术支持。

　　谈到公司的管理团队，徐嘉表示，未来将进一步加强人才队伍的建设，并进一步增强公司跨地区的创新能力，他将致力于战略、策划及业务全球发展，公司的总裁MarkusSuomi将负责公司的运营。

　　合并后，企业文化的融合也成为关注的重点。对于这点，一直做外包业务、强调与国外客户文化和思维融合的信必优来说，也不是一个难题。嵌入式软件具有的工业标准化较差、与客户的紧密程度高的特点，使得除了对技术及经验有特定要求外，在合作过程中的模式与融合也至关重要。所以，对于想在移动嵌入式领域分得一杯羹的信必优来说，融合是并不可少的。

　　此外，信必优总裁MarkusSuomi表示：“合并使得我们在规模、资源及技术专长方面，可以满足产品开发外包日益增长的需要，通过对整个产品生命周期的管理，我们能为那些寻求优秀人才、独特策略、行业专长，以及丰富用户体验和高效节约等优势的客户提供真正的全球产品开发外包环境。信必优致力于引领全球融合的产品开发外包，提升在美洲、欧洲及亚洲市场上的境内和离岸服务的扩展能力，这些区域是我们客户最集中的地区。”

　　徐嘉也表示：“信必优的文化是全球化的、开放的、整合而且灵活的。我们的目标是在质量，客户满意度和可靠性上获得客户信任，为他们提供更加灵活、更优质更快捷的服务，而这与Ardites、Flander的目标是一致的。未来，我们会紧密地整合我们的员工，以独特的、团结的文化帮助客户。”

　　并购实现中国软件外包的全球化

　　中国的软件外包在顺应全球化的趋势下，正在步入一个高速成长的时期，同时，整个行业的结构也在调整，未来，中国的软件外包将涌现一批有实力的企业。中国的服务外包将逐渐摆脱依靠低成本获取客户的模式，转而依靠技术创新为客户提供更有价值的服务。“中国从一个劳动力低成本的输出国逐渐转变成一个高科技，创新力和工程技术输出的源地。”徐嘉说道。

　　不仅仅是技术的创新，中国的软件外包也正在走向全球化。以信必优为例，通过此次收购，信必优的客户，可以借助他们离岸和近岸服务的专业技能，解决产品开发的关键性问题，并在美洲、欧洲及亚洲等地区规避地域政治风险。这既确保了项目的机密性和基础设施管理的可靠性，又使维护、支持以及质量保证等工作顺利开展，从而帮助企业优化其本地和全球供应链策略，实现价值最大化。

　　印度外包公司之所以发展得如此之快，并购是极其重要的手段。例如，印度塔塔咨询公司在2004年收购了澳大利亚FNS公司以完善其银行和金融服务外包的产品线；2006年收购了位于瑞士和法国的TKSTeknosoft公司以进一步增强金融服务能力，同时加快进军欧洲市场；2008年10月，又以5.05亿美元收购了美国花旗集团在印度的外包业务。

　　现在，印度的配套设施、政治的稳定性和人才成本已经成为制约印度外包行业发展的瓶颈，欧美地区出于政治的考虑也不可能把所有的外包订单都给印度，而通过并购进行全球化和国家化的战略布局是中国企业超越印度企业的必由之路。

　　各大咨询机构对软件外包发展的观点

　　近期麦肯锡在商业科技方面的一项报告预计，全球离岸商业和技术服务的市场规模将从目前的每年800亿美元增长到2020年约5000亿美元。虽然届时市场将有超过6倍的增长，但那时整个行业也只挖掘了不到三分之一的潜在市场。麦肯锡预测在2020年潜在市场规模将达到约1.65万亿到1.8万亿美元。

　　根据联合国2008年12月的一份报告，中国在2007年已经超越美国和印度成为全球第一的研究开发的大国。这份报告指出，中国大概有1000个研究开发中心，大部分都面向高科技领域。

　　印度研究公司Zinnov认为中国有920个跨国公司的研究开发中心，而印度只有671个。同时，普华永道和杜克大学联合发布了一篇报告指出，中国正在从印度手中蚕食更多的软件开发订单。印度在全球软件和产品开发外包领域的份额一直在下降，2002年之前，印度占68%，在2002～2004年间，印度占55%,而在2005～2007年间，份额降到了 50%。未来5年，印度的市场份额预计要下降到40%。与此形成鲜明对比的是，中国所占的市场份额从2002年之前的1%，到2005～2007年，已经增长到9%，因为很多的软件和产品开发在此期间跟随制造业进入中国。印度的行业巨头例如Infosys、Wipro、TCS面临来自中国对手的强劲挑战。

　　IDC公司外包及离岸服务副总裁DavidTapper认为，在离岸IT服务市场角逐的企业，在过去的5～10年取得了巨大成功，目前也面临着前所未有的经济冲击以及不断变化的客户需求。客户需求的日益变化推动整个行业产生重大变革，从而促使企业采取新的策略以保持短期和长期的增长。IDC相信，这些企业成功的秘诀不仅在于它们聚焦核心业务领域的实力，还有它们提供全面服务的能力，而这正是通过其强大的本地资源（成熟市场）以及对外包/管理服务的重视实现的。这其中，服务的范畴越来越多地体现在实用性的服务形式上。

In Their Hands

Mon, 2 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0800

Until recently, the Chinese credit card industry was bizarrely unprofitable. Bizarre, that is, because credit cards themselves were extremely popular.

“Having a credit card used to be a status symbol,” explains Matthew Cule, CEO of M&Y Data Solutions, a BPO company with delivery centres in China that he set up with university friend Yan Xu. “I remember one dinner time when my business partner’s father put all his cards out on the table to show how proud he was.”

But that pride was usually trumped by Chinese frugality. People might possess four or five cards, Cule says, but they would only use one and they would typically clear their balance immediately, meaning no interest for the credit card providers.

That is now changing. “The age group under 30 are now spending,” Cule says, “and more importantly, they are not paying their full balance every month. This is good news for the banks.”

Generational shifts in culture are a constant and inevitable part of human society. But when the society in question is China, with a population of well over a billion and a rate of cultural change more pronounced than most, generational shifts become world-shaping trends.

The ways in which China’s younger generation influences technological development are twofold. First, with their newly liberal spending habits they are a growing market for consumer gadgetry, an industry that has traditionally catered predominantly (Japan and South Korea aside) for Western tastes. But they are also increasingly in the driving seat when it comes to technology research and development.

An EU report published in September predicted that by 2025 China and India will control 20% of the global R&D industry. Recently, the Chinese government announced a 25% increase in its own R&D investment budget to $26 billion. And while it has been somewhat tempered by the recession, investment by foreign firms in Chinese research centres is still growing apace.

This R&D investment is imbuing young Chinese people with commercial and technical know-how. As a result, a vibrant start-up community is blossoming, says Jacob Hsu, chief executive of China-based R&D company Symbio, which counts Microsoft, Google, IBM and CA among its clients.

“Predominantly, these start-ups have been focused on the domestic market,” he says. “But this is why China is becoming so innovative – it’s a very difficult market to crack, and highly competitive.”

In the past few years, young China’s appetite for online gaming and social networking has attracted the attention of start-ups. Now, as smart phone penetration grows, a lot of interesting work is being done in areas such as speech recognition and augmented reality (see page 20), says Hsu.

Of more immediate significance to enterprise IT is the development work relating to infrastructure. China’s online population of over 250 million – 75% of which is under the age of 35 – is the largest in the world, and is driving demand for highly scalable systems.

”China has done a lot of research into scalability, because obviously everything needs to scale,” says Hsu. “There are six popular online video sites in China, and each of them is adding a terabyte of storage every day.”

But perhaps China’s most significant contribution to technological change will be to accelerate the pace. “Typically, Chinese engineers can crank out new releases faster than is expected [in the West],” says Hsu. “Getting stuff done quickly is embedded in the culture.”

跨技术、跨行业、跨地域，信必优面向融合——访信必优首席执行官徐嘉先生

Tue, 1 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0800

中国服务外包网：信必优作为一家知名的跨国服务外包企业，近年来的发展情况如何？请大概介绍一下成长速度和业绩表现。

徐嘉：作为一家私营公司，我们不方便透露市场份额的数字，但是我可以说我们是市场上最大和增长速度最快的产品开发外包公司之一。正如分析师预测的，在产品开发外包市场增长的方式，要么是合并，要么是内生增长。我们将继续通过这两种途径实现增长，并且评估所有的发展方式，以保持我们在全球不断增长的客户群中所拥有的竞争优势和价值。

我们的客户包括中国移动，IBM，微软和诺基亚。

最近我们和Flander以及Ardites宣布战略合并，Flander在移动和嵌入式领域拥有强大的实力，Ardites是用户体验科技方面的专家。而信必优在商用软件和互联网领域拥有多年的经验和长期的客户资源。

此次合并缔造了产品开发外包市场的下一代融合专家，该领域一直由全球最具先见的公司所驱策，这些公司一直致力于跨技术、跨行业及跨地区的技术创新，并以此来满足企业需求。我们为客户提供他们所需的-全方位的领域专长、高端设计和用户体验创新以及最高成本收益的产品-满足客户无论何时何地的需求。

我们目前在全球22个办公室拥有1400多名工程和技术人员，覆盖移动，网络和嵌入式等领域。

中国服务外包网：信必优在美国、芬兰、中国都设有全球总部，三个总部之间是什么关系，这种机构布局的思路是什么？未来的重心会是在哪里？

徐嘉：信必优在全球22个地区有办公室，其中在中国北京，美国硅谷和芬兰坦佩雷有3个全球总部，在瑞典和芬兰有7个研发中心，在中国和孟加拉有5个离岸开发中心。

信必优得到了国际企业客户的长期认可和信任，现在，信必优是全球领先的产品开发外包企业。

信必优帮助客户聚焦核心业务，开发核心产品。利用在本地和离岸的交付能力，我们提供从软件设计到维护支持的全周期服务。

中国服务外包网：在本次与Flander、Ardites的合并中，信必优在技术、市场、人才等方面都会得到加强，比较来看，哪方面最为成功？能否具体介绍一下，三家企业各自在本次并购合作中的主要价值体现？

徐嘉：此次合并，为信必优在全球扩张奠定了基础。

Flander 和Ardites在移动和嵌入式领域以及用户体验科技方面拥有强大的实力，而信必优在商用软件和互联网领域拥有多年的经验和长期的客户资源，合并后，我们能为客户提供整合的产品开发解决方案。当前，技术融合已是大势所趋，而信必优则定位在跨技术，跨行业和跨地域的技术开发。信必优的成本，人力资源，地区分布，设施和创新优势将使我们能够提供更出色的服务。

中国服务外包网：能否介绍一下信必优在全球发展的战略设想。

徐嘉：信必优致力于服务客户，培养员工，我们持续审视我们的策略，以满足客户的需求。而我们的优势在于我们的员工。我们在企业架构，网络，移动和嵌入式领域拥有深厚的技术积累。同时，我们全球的交付网络，使我们能够为客户提供多种服务模式，满足他们的业务需求。在人力资源，业务广度和知识产权保护方面，我们拥有独特的优势。

中国服务外包网：信必优如何看待中国服务外包的本土市场？在中国市场的目标客户是如何定位的，核心竞争能力如何体现？如何做到提供切合中国本土企业实际需求、文化习惯的服务？

徐嘉：就像国外的公司想进入中国市场一样，中国本地的市场对我们也有巨大的吸引力。

今天，中国已经超越美国和印度，成为全球研发投入最高的国家，中国正在发展成为世界的创新中心，这里拥有大量的创新性的人力资源。

根据Accenture 2008年的一份报告，24家财富500强公司是中国公司，同时将有更多的中国企业将出现在榜单上。中国公司今天面临的问题，是如何在国际的市场取得增长。
北京是信必优在亚洲的总部，我们的交付网络遍布在欧洲和美国，我们致力于为全球客户提供高附加值和经济高效的产品开发外包服务。

Symbio on steady growth track in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50/500 listing

Mon, 2 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0800

Ardites and Flander, two Finnish technology companies, who merged with Symbio Group in September to create Symbio, have been listed again among the 50 fastest growing technology companies in Finland.

The listing is based on revenue growth over a consecutive five year period.

In the 2008 survey, Ardites ranked 34 with 239 % and Flander 45 with 126 % growth in revenues over the past five years .

Deloitte Finland has been listing the fastest growing technology companies in Finland since 1995. Flander, founded in 1997, has been on Technology Fast 50/500 list since 2002 and the Ardites, founded in 2003, since 2008.

Global Outsourced Product Development Leader, Symbio, Acquires Cubical Solutions

Sun, 6 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0800

BEIJING, China, SAN JOSE, Calif., USA and TAMPERE, Finland – December 8, 2009 – Symbio, a leader in next generation outsourced product development (OPD), today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the business operations of Helsinki-based Cubical Solutions, an established software engineering service company for the telecommunications, financial services and manufacturing industries. This acquisition adds market-leading specialization in open source software utilization and product development, strengthening Symbio’s expertise in critical domain areas that enable rapid technology convergence between IT and telecom.

Adding Linux Expertise, Traction with Global Leading Clients
With over 15 years of software engineering expertise, Cubical delivers service excellence to global industry giants including Fujitsu Services, Nokia Siemens Networks, and EADS. The acquisition of Cubical adds significant expertise for Symbio in Linux and open source product development, leveraging operating environments like Red Hat, SuSE, Maemo, Wind River Linux and OpenEmbedded Linux. This agreement further extends Symbio’s deep domain expertise across mobile, Web, enterprise and embedded technologies, underscoring its commitment to delivering tomorrow’s technology today for world leading innovators.

"In continued efforts to differentiate Symbio as the leader in converging enterprise technologies, while meeting business demand for deeper domain expertise, we acquired Cubical for its success and engineering talent in Linux and open source product development,” said Jacob Hsu, CEO of Symbio. “With this acquisition, Symbio furthers its strategy of delivering ‘innovation outsourcing’ across all converging platforms, technologies, languages and geographies, and strengthens its proficiency across all Linux-based operating environments."

Symbio Growth Plans
Symbio continues its multi-pronged approach for growth: scaling up operations in Asia, Europe and the US, investing in high-level global engineering expertise, and broadening its expertise across converging technologies to deliver the most strategic and economical enterprise user experiences for global businesses.

About Symbio
Symbio is a leading innovator of product co-creation solutions worldwide. By leveraging its deep domain expertise in enterprise, embedded, mobile, Web-based and user experience driven technologies, Symbio enables its clients to focus on their core competencies while building mission-critical technologies and products to sustain, speed and secure the long-term success for the business. World-leading companies like China Mobile, IBM, Microsoft and Nokia already rely on Symbio for faster, innovative, and highly cost-effective product engineering. With 22 locations across the US, Europe and Asia, Symbio provides worldwide integration services with a unique local touch. For more information about Symbio, visit www.symbio.com.

Symbio Displays Latest Innovation Mobile "Green" Converged Application

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0800

Symbio, a top innovator of product co-creation solutions worldwide, showcased its mobile “green” converged application expertise at Mobile World Congress. Symbio designs and develops feature-rich products for companies keen on transformational advances in communications and technology. By capitalizing on its rich expertise in enterprise, embedded, mobile, Web-based and user experience driven technologies, Symbio helps its clients to concentrate on their core competencies mean while building mission-critical technologies and products to sustain, speed and secure the long-term success for their business. Global companies like China Mobile, IBM, Microsoft and Nokia already depend on Symbio for faster, advanced, and highly cost-efficient IT outsourcing. Symbio is the outsourced product development partner company’s depend on to deliver highly integrated global reach with local touch.

Symbio has collaborated with Entre Marketing, an event marketing and trade fair specialist, to design and develop Entre Exhibitor, a converged mobile and Web Green Stand software application that helps the events industry to save millions in paper costs while drastically reducing its carbon footprint. Symbio also announced it has expanded its mobile, embedded and Web practice areas to offer industry leading companies green design and development expertise. All of Symbio’s rich graphic design, multimedia User Interfaces development and software stack performance optimization are designed with low energy consumption in mind.

An average trade show attendee takes home up to 10 pounds of paper, and a typical expo generates waste paper an equivalent of 170 trees. In a bid to develop a strategic solution to deliver efficiencies to this market, Symbio assisted Entre Marketing to co-create Entre Exhibitor, an eco-friendly, easy-to-use cross-platform software application that avoids wastage waste and provides reliable information to attendees, exhibitors and event organizers alike.

The Entre Exhibitor’s highly advanced Green Stand software application, built on the Brieftec platform, is downloaded to the mobile devices of exhibitors and visitors and a software client communicates with a Web solution.

Brieftec is mobile solution provider for various information management processes. This allows exhibitors can easily manage their client interface, generate leads, digitally share contact information and marketing material with likely customers and view reliable data on visitor behavior. The application is designed to support virtually every mobile phone. Visitors can in no time easily get the product information they are interested in by snapping pictures of 2D tagged collateral and even share it with their colleagues. Now with Entre Exhibitor, event organizers can finally offer and brand a truly green exhibition and collect reliable data on exhibitor as well as visitor behavior.

Symbio Showcases Mobile “Green” Converged Application Expertise at Mobile World Congress

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0800

BEIJING, China, SAN JOSE, Calif., USA and TAMPERE, Finland – February 10, 2010 – Symbio, a leading innovator of product co-creation solutions worldwide, is showcasing its mobile “green” converged application expertise at Mobile World Congress. Symbio has teamed up with Entre Marketing, the event marketing and trade fair specialist, to design and develop Entre Exhibitor, a converged mobile and Web “Green Stand” software application that enables the events industry to save millions in paper costs while significantly reducing its carbon footprint. Symbio also announced it has expanded its mobile, embedded and Web practice areas to offer industry leading companies green design and development expertise. All of Symbio’s rich graphic design, multimedia User Interfaces development and software stack performance optimization are designed with low energy consumption in mind.

Clean/Green Mobile App Rescues Carbon Stamp of Events
The average trade show attendee takes home up to ten pounds of paper, and the typical expo generates the equivalent of 170 trees in waste paper. In the effort to develop a strategic solution to deliver efficiencies to this market, Symbio helped Entre Marketing to co-create Entre Exhibitor, an eco-friendly, easy-to-use cross-platform software application that eliminates waste and provides reliable information to attendees, exhibitors and event organizers alike.

“By helping over 1000 clients design and implement services for 300 international trade fairs in 25 countries, we have seen massive amounts of marketing collateral waste and great inefficiencies in information exchange,” said Harri Kaasinen, CEO, Entre Marketing. “We turned to Symbio’s mobile and embedded experts to design and develop an elegant solution to this problem. They worked with us onsite and leveraged their global experts to deliver a completely integrated offering that we are now selling to event organizers."

“We are delighted to help Entre Marketing design a mobile green application that virtually eliminates the need and cost of paper at business events, while increasing the efficiency of information exchange,” said Jacob Hsu, CEO of Symbio. “Our deep domain expertise in converging technologies and unique end-to-end skill set in bridging mobile, Web and server software, helped deliver this innovative solution.”

How it works
The Entre Exhibitor cutting-edge “Green Stand” software application, built on the Brieftec platform, is downloaded to the mobile devices of exhibitors and visitors and a software client communicates with a web solution. Exhibitors get to easily manage their client interface, generate leads, digitally share contact information and marketing material with potential customers and view reliable data on visitor behavior. Designed to support virtually every mobile phone, visitors can in seconds effortlessly gather the product information they’re interested in by snapping pictures of 2D tagged collateral and even share it with colleagues back at the office. With Entre Exhibitor, event organizers can finally offer and brand a truly “Green Exhibition” and gather reliable data on exhibitor and visitor behavior. For more information please visit: http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/exhibition/environment.htm.

To schedule a media or analyst briefing at Mobile World Congress or for further inquiries, please contact Jennifer Abelson at (917) 445-4454, or via e-mail at jennifer@abelsongroup.com.

About Symbio
Symbio designs and develops feature-rich products for companies embracing transformational advances in communications and technology. By leveraging its deep expertise in enterprise, embedded, mobile, Web-based and user experience driven technologies, Symbio enables its clients to focus on their core competencies while building mission-critical technologies and products to sustain, speed and secure the long-term success for the business. World-leading companies like China Mobile, IBM, Microsoft and Nokia already rely on Symbio for faster, innovative, and highly cost effective IT outsourcing. With global headquarters in Beijing, China, San Jose, USA, and Tampere, Finland, Symbio is the outsourced product development partner companies trust to deliver truly integrated global reach with local touch. For more information about Symbio, visit www.symbio.com.

About Brieftec
Brieftec is an award winning mobile solution provider for various information management processes. Brieftec’s solutions provide tools for mobile phone users to optimize their information gathering and storing abilities within the service industry, the event and exhibition industry as well as the interactive education industry. Known for its customer-oriented software solutions, Brieftec, whose head office is in Oulu, Finland is focused on contextually aware information management solutions. For more information about Brieftec, visit www.brieftec.com.

About Entre - Thoughtfully Measured Encounters Entre Marketing Ltd's operations focus on the design, building and implementation trade fairs, exhibitions and event marketing activities. Services are available to both individual companies and business clusters around the world. Entre is a market leader in Finland serving in 32 countries. Entre Exhibitor is vital part of Entre’s success story in facilitating Finnish companies brand, visibility, knowledge and business contacts in international markets. You will find more on Entre at www.entre.fi.

Symbio CEO Jacob Hsu Honored as Young Global Leader by World Economic Forum

Mon, 8 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0800

BEIJING, China, SAN JOSE, Calif., USA, STOCKHOLM, Sweden and TAMPERE, Finland – March 3, 2010 – Symbio, a leading innovator of product co-creation solutions worldwide, today announced that the company’s CEO, Jacob Hsu has been honored by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as a Young Global Leader (YGL) 2010.

Every year, the World Economic Forum recognizes 100-200 of the most exceptional young leaders worldwide as Young Global Leader honorees. The Selection Committee composed of the world’s top media leaders and chaired by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, selected Hsu after carefully screening the profiles of thousands of leaders from every region of the world across many disciplines and sectors.

Hsu’s nomination is in recognition of his professional accomplishments, his commitment to society and his potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world through his inspiring leadership. Hsu has been instrumental in helping thousands in China attain a better life through education, helping design and develop a web-based solution that connects students with affordable student loans, organizing global training programs and by providing his own personal support. An active speaker at conferences around the world, Hsu is a thought leader in global technology innovation, and is passionate about encouraging people to develop not only their technical skills but also their individual skills such as global citizenry, problem solving, and effective leadership behaviors.

Hsu joins this year’s honorees including Marissa Mayer, Vice President, Search Product and User Experience, Google, Inc., Evan Williams, Co-Founder and CEO, Twitter and Steven Chen, Co-Founder and CTO, YouTube, Inc. Hsu and the other Young Global Leaders are invited to convene at biannual summits, and other Forum events and meetings, to collaborate on initiatives to tackle some of the toughest and most challenging issues of our generation.

"Being a part of the World Economic Forum YGL program is an incredible opportunity to partner and collaborate on ways to help change the world for the better,” said Jacob Hsu, CEO of Symbio. “Symbio’s growing international presence and dedication to pioneering the innovation outsourcing industry means we are committed to tapping the brightest minds in the world and developing true co-creation partnerships with the companies we serve to deliver local touch and global reach. Symbio is dedicated to co-creating the best products that make a difference in the marketplace, and ensuring education opportunities in our communities and participating in corporate social responsibility initiatives through the World Economic Forum and our other programs."

“Jacob’s key strength is his visionary and creative approach to problems that inspires global team members to achieve amazing results whether for clients or for helping empower those less fortunate through education,” said David Lee, Symbio Chairman of the Board. “We expect Jacob and Symbio to continue to be recognized for leveraging their extraordinary and global technical design excellence, development expertise, knowledge, and resources to help advance society.”

About Symbio
Symbio designs and develops feature-rich software products for companies embracing transformational advances in communications and technology. By leveraging its deep expertise in mobile, embedded, enterprise, Web-based and user experience driven technologies, Symbio enables its clients to focus on their core competencies while building mission-critical technologies and products to sustain, speed and secure the long-term success for the business. World-leading companies like China Mobile, IBM, Microsoft and Nokia already rely on Symbio for faster, innovative, and highly cost-effective technology outsourcing. With global headquarters in Beijing, China, San Jose, USA, Stockholm, Sweden and Tampere, Finland, Symbio is the outsourced product development partner companies trust to deliver truly integrated global reach with local touch. For more information about Symbio, visit www.symbio.com.

About The Forum of Young Global Leaders
Established in 2004 by Professor Klaus Schwab, The Forum of Young Global Leaders (www.younggloballeaders.org) is a unique, multistakeholder community of the world’s most extraordinary young leaders who dedicate a part of their time to jointly address global challenges and who are committed to devote part of their knowledge and energy to collectively work towards a better future. Together the Young Global Leaders work to discover innovative solutions to today’s most pressing problems through various initiatives and workstreams as well as catalysing the next generation of leaders.

The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Incorporated as a foundation in 1971 and based in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Economic Forum is impartial and not-for-profit; it is tied to no political, partisan or national interests (http://www.weforum.org).

Symbio To Showcase First Chinese Applications Built with PayPal X at China Developer & Partner Conference

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0800

BEIJING, China – December 14, 2009 – Symbio, a leader in next generation outsourced product development (OPD) and PayPal’s partner, today announced it is sponsoring PayPal’s China Developer & Partner Conference being held on December 14, 2009 in Beijing at The Opposite House.

PayPal will unveil PayPal X, the world’s first truly open global payments platform, at the one-day conference. Attendees will learn how to embed PayPal’s secure global payment system into their applications and platforms.

A leading value-add business partner to PayPal and an early adopter of PayPal X, Symbio will showcase real world test pilots using PayPal X, including their work for Qifang, a person-to-person lending company that assists Chinese students who need to fund their education. With PayPal X, Qifang will be able to accept lenders from around the world, in multiple currencies. Symbio has designed, developed and delivered applications built with PayPal X for companies in a range of vertical markets and use cases.

"The launch of PayPal X means developers can now easily create and implement custom payment methods,” said Jake Hsu, CEO of Symbio. “Symbio builds products that support technological convergence and tomorrow’s technologies and as an early adopter of PayPal X, Symbio is delighted to share its experience in helping developers embrace this new payment platform and accelerate time to market.”

PayPal X provides a complete platform that includes Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) technical documentation, sample code, applications, examples and an entire resource community designed to support PayPal developers. The platform enables developers to collect payments in non-traditional scenarios – expanding the types of transactions for which PayPal can be used, such as paying rent or employee payroll. PayPal X is designed to be adaptable to the many different payment scenarios that developers need and giving them access to PayPal’s 200 million accounts in 190 markets and 24 currencies worldwide.

Symbio CEO, Jake Hsu and Naveed Anwar, senior director of the PayPal Developer Network will host a joint panel at the conference offering their perspectives and insight on ways the development community can immediately implement this leading platform to help facilitiate online transactions and further stimulate e-commerce.

"More than 9,000 developers have signed up to PayPal X since we first opened our global payment platform a few weeks ago because they recognize the enormous business opportunity,” said Osama Bedier, PayPal's vice president of platform. “We’re excited to bring that global opportunity to China and to work with Symbio to help businesses around the world change the future of payments.”

Symbio agrees to buy Cubical Solutions

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0800

Symbio, which focuses on outsourced product development, said Tuesday it agreed to acquire the business operations of Cubical Solutions.

Symbio, which has U.S. headquarters in San Jose, did not disclose terms of the deal.

Helsinki, Finland-based Cubical Solutions is a software engineering service company for the telecommunications, financial services and manufacturing industries.

Symbio said the acquisition adds expertise in "critical domain areas that enable rapid technology convergence between IT and telecom."

In October, Symbio announced plans to merge with two Scandinavian technology companies under the Symbio name.

Symbio Invites You to Attend the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on February 15 - 18, 2010

Mon, 4 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0800

Meet us in Barcelona!

Symbio invites you to find out more about our services at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, February 15 - 18, 2010.

Please join us to discuss our specialized expertise in graphics and multimedia, user experience optimization and end-to-end services implementation. With our complete lifecycle understanding in mobile software development, Symbio can help you make the hardware meet the content. We will have demos of our embedded graphics and technology expertise available.

To set up an appointment with Symbio at the Mobile World Congress 2010, please contact us at sales@symbio.com or call us at +358 10 835 8300.

Join us for Canapés & Cocktails.

You are welcome to join us for pre-dinner canapés & cocktails at the Symbio Pavilion at 5-7 pm, during each day of the Congress.

Stop by to relax, grab a drink, enjoy a snack, and network with the Symbio team. We look forward to meeting you! The Symbio pavilion is located on Central Avenue, Pavilion AV60.

For more information, contact Mia Ryynänen at +358 400 985 568

For more information, please visit:
http://www.3gsmworldcongress.com/

Symbio to Acquire Business Operations of Cubical Solutions

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0800

Symbio, a next-generation outsourced product development company, has reportedly entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the business operations of Helsinki-based Cubical Solutions.

Cubical Solutions is an established software engineering service company for the telecommunications, financial services and manufacturing industries.

Symbio said it believes that this acquisition will add to its specialization in open source software utilization and product development. By acquiring Cubical Solutions, the company hopes to strengthen its expertise in critical domain areas that enable rapid technology convergence between IT and telecom.

Company officials said that the acquisition of Cubical adds “significant expertise” for Symbio in Linux and open source product development, leveraging operating environments such as Red Hat, SuSE, Maemo,Wind River ( News - Alert) Linux and OpenEmbedded Linux.

Additionally, the agreement also extends Symbio’s domain expertise across mobile, Web, enterprise and embedded technologies, said company officials.

“In continued efforts to differentiate Symbio as the leader in converging enterprise technologies, while meeting business demand for deeper domain expertise, we acquired Cubical for its success and engineering talent in Linux and open source product development,” said Jacob Hsu, CEO at Symbio.

He said that with this acquisition, the company furthers its strategy of delivering “innovation outsourcing” across all converging platforms, technologies, languages and geographies. In addition, the acquisition also strengthens the company’s proficiency across all Linux-based operating environments.

In September, Symbio Group, a Web and enterprise software outsourced product development company; Flander (News - Alert), a mobile and embedded software development company; and Ardites, an expert in user experience technologies, announced a definitive agreement to merge the three companies to create Symbio.

Anshu Shrivastava is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anshu’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Marisa Torrieri

Set Up A Test Server System

Mon, 4 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0800

Key Points

Testing is needed in order to prevent application outages and unexpected downtime.

Direct replication of hardware and software is too costly for an SME, but virtualization can create testing benefits without significant expenditure.

Having a consultant on call can be helpful for getting advice from experts who understand application design and installation issues.

When implementing new programs and system changes, many small to midsized enterprises understand the need for creating some type of test environment so they keep a “live” system out of danger in case of glitches. Although there are some instances where a direct replication of hardware and software can be overly costly, there are still ways to develop a network of test servers, staging servers, and production servers.

Seeing The Need

One of the most important aspects about a test server setup to understand is the necessity of such a system.

“Unfortunately, most SMEs think that setting up test and stage environments is too complex and costly for them to have in place in their corporate infrastructure,” says Dylan O’Connor, CTO of Staples Network Services by Thrive (www.thrivenetworks.com). “What most SMEs fail to realize is that by not addressing the need to test and stage releases of their software applications in a methodical manner, they expose their IT infrastructure to greater risks.”

Those risks include unexpected downtime or application outages, he notes, which can happen when a release is taken straight into the production environment without proper testing. O’Connor believes that most SMEs should think about their current IT infrastructure with an eye on replicating the infrastructure in a way that mimics production as closely as possible but also keeps their budgetary constraints in clear focus.

Using Virtualization

Direct replication on a one-for-one basis in both a stage and test environment shouldn’t really be considered for an SME, notes O’Connor, because the costs are just too prohibitive.

Also, that type of setup requires that a significant amount of manual configuration work must be done to keep the environments in sync, adds Tomi Kankaanpää, chief technologist at Symbio (www.symbio.com).

But an approach that leans on virtual infrastructure to replicate the majority of the infrastructure can be done on a very budget-friendly level.

“Eighty to 90% of the issues caused by new code or application release can be tested completely virtually at less than 20% of the cost of replicating the entire production infrastructure,” he says. “Given that most SMEs are doing little to no prerelease testing, getting that amount of testing capability out of that low [of] an investment is a simple and cost-effective approach to application release staging.”

Although the initial capital expenditure might seem daunting at first glance, O’Connor notes, the long-term cost savings achieved by leveraging the approach can more than pay for the initial investment. By using a virtual infrastructure, one single server can run many virtual server instances on one piece of equipment.

Also factored in is the ability to save templates of common server images—for example, an SQL server, a Linux Web server, and a server running Windows 2008—and this can create a solution that allows for test and staging environments to be set up on the fly, which may be necessary for instances in which new applications have to be installed quickly.

A virtualized test environment can be deployed multiple times, and different testing activities can be carried out in parallel. Another benefit is that such an environment is more transferable, so it can be utilized with outsourcing partners.

The same virtualized environment can be deployed in different hardware configurations and scaled according to the phases of the project, Kankaanpää says. Time and money are saved by maintaining the core server environment virtualization image instead of multiple physical environments, and the benefits can be even greater if the virtualization and hosting services are used for deployment.

Key points to consider when setting up this type of environment are performance, security, and reliability requirements, Kankaanpää notes. He says, “The best approach to determine whether to go for a full-blown environment is to perform combined ROI and risk analysis for different alternatives—such as virtualized vs. real environment—and make the determination based on the results of this analysis.”

Bringing In Help

Even with a strong test server environment, it can be helpful to bring in experts when a rollout or upgrade is major, says Shane O’Donnell, vice president of engineering for BlueStripe Software (www.bluestripe.com).

“In the cases where customers have problems moving apps from test servers and into production, the common theme is that they have tried to substitute someone who understands the application’s design with someone who can simply install the software,” O’Donnell says.

In general, test server setups require more planning than just getting the app up and running, he adds. Instead, test environments need to work hard to anticipate how a server-application combination will relate to the greater whole of data center resources.

Symbio在中国开发商和合作伙伴大会上展示第一个基于PayPal X 的应用方案

Thu, 7 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0800

全球领先的下一代外包产品开发（outsourced product development，OPD）和PayPal合作伙伴Symbio公司宣布，该公司赞助PayPal在中国的开发商合作大会并介绍公司业务的最新进展。PayPal在中国的开发商和合作大会已经于2009年12月14日在北京举办。

在本次大会上，PayPal宣布了全球第一个真正意义上的全球支付平台，在本次会议中，参会者得到更多关于该平台的优势，以及如何在该平台上开发应用的具体信息。

作为一家领先的PayPal合作伙伴和PayPal X平台的早期采用开发商，Symbio展示了在现实环境下PayPal X的应用和测试成果，包括用于学生就学资助的系统Qifang，在PayPal X平台下，Qifang可以接收来自全球不同地区、不同货币种类的捐助。至今，Symbio已经设计、开发和推出了许多基于PayPal X的应用。

Symbio 公司CEO Jake Hsu先生表示，PayPal X平台的发布意味着开发商可以更容易地创建和实施各种不同类型、各具特色的支付系统。Symbio公司帮助客户设计产品，迎合当今技术融合的发展趋势，并且可以支持未来技术发展的需求。作为一家早期采用PayPal X平台的厂商之一，Symbio公司愿意与各行各业的开发商一起分享PayPal X的技术优势，并且可以更加充分地利用该平台的技术优势，加快产品上市。

据介绍，PayPal X提供了一个完整的平台，包括应用程序接口（Application Programming Interfaces, API）、技术文档、样本代码、应用实例、以及用于支持PayPal开发商的所有社区资源。该平台允许开发商在一些非传统的领域开发全新的支付业务。例如，在支付租金和员工薪酬支付等领域，都可以采用该平台进行设计。PayPal X也可以适用于多种不同的方式，开发商可以得到来自全球190个市场、包括24种货币的2亿多用户的帐户信息。

PayPal平台副总裁Osama Bedier介绍说，从几周前我们首次在全球推出支付平台以来，已经有超过9,000个开发商进行了登记注册，因为他们注意到这种平台带来的巨大商业机遇。我们很高兴也把这种平台带给中国客户，和Symbio一起为中国乃至全球的支付活动更加便利、更加高效而努力。

Symbio Delivers Extensive OpenWF Conformance Test Suite and Conformant Sample Implementation to Khronos Group

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0800

BEIJING, China, SAN JOSE, Calif., USA and TAMPERE, Finland – January 25, 2010 – Symbio, a leader in next generation outsourced product development (OPD), today announced it has completed and delivered the OpenWF™ conformance test
suite and a conformant OpenWF sample implementation to the Khronos Group industry consortium. The Khronos Group is a 100+ member-funded association committed to creating open standards that enable the authoring and acceleration of graphics and dynamic media on a variety of platforms and devices. Symbio’s highly experienced team and deep domain expertise in test, design and development of converging technologies provided the necessary skill set to contribute to the OpenWF specifications. The conformance test suite is now available to Khronos members and the sample implementation is available to industry members as open source.

The OpenWF 1.0 Standard, released in November, is a key system-level enabler for graphics IP vendors, hardware manufacturers and device manufacturers that enables the integration of individual components and APIs for an overall enhanced user interface experience. An operating system-independent and hardware-neutral foundation for building windowing systems and providing display control functionality in accelerated mobile and embedded devices, OpenWF enables a new degree of portability, acceleration and abstraction for windowing systems, while adding functionality and features through close integration with Khronos application APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).

Through its contract with Khronos to provide the conformance test suite and conformant sample implementation, Symbio, a Contributing Member of the Khronos Group, makes it possible for OpenWF adopters to take the next step from reviewing and testing their platforms and devices to adopting and implementing the standard.

The conformance test suite verifies compliance with the OpenWF specifications and provides an assessment of visual quality. OpenWF implementers benefit from reduced costs associated with developing in-house testing infrastructure and users now have a guarantee of quality when using compliant implementations. The sample implementation provides implementers concrete examples and helps to resolve questions regarding intended behavior.

"We are delighted that Symbio completed the OpenWF proof of concept validation so quickly, and efficiently provided a robust and rigorous conformance test empowering the rapid and effective uptake of the OpenWF standard,” said Neil Trevett, president of the Khronos Group. “We are very pleased with the quality delivered and the unique expertise Symbio has provided. Through its progressive training, design, integration, implementation and testing services, Symbio is a valuable contributor to advancing and strengthening the Khronos ecosystem.”

“The OpenWF standard speeds the introduction of high efficiency video and graphics functionality into a wide range of platforms and devices, accelerating time to market,” said Jarkko Kemppainen, director, Technology Solutions, at Symbio. “The Khronos OpenWF sample implementation and conformance test suite enables companies to fully embrace the benefits of OpenWF with confidence.”

"Symbio was central to the sample implementation and conformance test suite and sample implementation for OpenWF 1.0.," said Pete Wilson, OpenWF Working Group chairman and ARM Media Processing Division. "Execution of the contract to implement the whole system was exemplary, with Symbio's expertise and flexibility ensuring a high-quality, timely and low-cost delivery."

About Symbio
Symbio designs and develops feature-rich products for companies embracing transformational advances in communications and technology. By leveraging its deep expertise in enterprise, embedded, mobile, Web-based and user experience driven technologies, Symbio enables its clients to focus on their core competencies while building mission-critical technologies and products to sustain, speed and secure the long-term success for the business. World-leading companies like China Mobile, IBM, Microsoft and Nokia already rely on Symbio for faster, innovative, and highly cost effective IT outsourcing. With global headquarters in Beijing, China, San Jose, USA, and Tampere, Finland, Symbio is the outsourced product development partner companies trust to deliver truly integrated global reach with local touch. For more information about Symbio, visit www.symbio.com.

Symbio Joins AT&T, Ericsson, and Sprint at Mobile World Congress “Shared Services and Outsourcing” Session

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0800

BEIJING, China, SAN JOSE, Calif., USA and TAMPERE, Finland – February 10, 2010 – Symbio, a leading innovator of product co-creation solutions worldwide, today announced that CEO, Jacob Hsu will join industry leading executives from AT&T, Ericsson, Sprint and others at the Mobile World Congress, “Shared Service and Outsourcing” panel being held on Wednesday, February 17, 2010 which starts at 4 p.m.

The interactive panel discussion will focus on innovative ways mobile operators can use outsourcing and shared services to reduce operating expenditures and increase their commercial focus.

Joining Symbio’s CEO Jacob Hsu are:

Jeff McElfresh, VP, Product Development & Operations, Emerging Devices, AT&T
Valter D'Avino, Head of Managed Services, Ericsson
Ashwini Bakshi, Head, Global Managed Services, NSN
Steve Elfman, President, Network Operations & Wholesale, Sprint
Chris Parsons, Chief Marketing Officer, Vesta

The panelists will discuss which assets should be retained, shared or outsourced and provide real world use case examples of successful global partnerships in which operators have controlled cost savings, better enabled service quality and reduced risk.

In addition to presenting at Mobile World Congress, Symbio will showcase its mobile and embedded product engineering expertise in rich graphics and intuitive multimedia user interfaces with demonstrations of its latest design and development projects for clients. At Symbio’s Pavilion located on Central Avenue, AV60, visitors can see a stunning, interactive 3D Virtual TableTop User Interface using Symbio’s OpenGL ES 2.0 engine implementation. Visitors can also experience an innovative “Green Stand” converged mobile to web software application and learn about the Blitrix software–based 2D accelerator for embedded User Interfaces utilizing the ARM Neon CPU.

To schedule a media or analyst briefing at Mobile World Congress or for further inquiries, please contact Jennifer Abelson at (917) 445-4454, or via e-mail at jennifer@abelsongroup.com.

Symbio at Game Developers Conference 2010 in San Francisco, CA on March 9-13, 2010

Mon, 8 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0800

Meet Symbio at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the world’s largest professionals-only game industry event, where Symbio Director Petri Talala will present interesting use cases leveraging Khronos API environments at the GDC Khronos Mobile Session. Symbio has a proven track record in solving software related challenges in multiplatform support for mobile content and games.

You can meet Petri on Friday, March 12, 2010 at the Khronos Mobile Session - Featuring WebGL
Time: 3:00pm — 4:00pm
Location: Room 123, North Hall, Moscone Center

For more information on the session, please visit:
https://www.cmpevents.com/GD10/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=10555

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Symbio
Serious About Software

Symbio at China Mobile Internet Summit 2010 in Beijing, China on April 7-8, 2010

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0800

Meet Symbio at the China Mobile Internet Summit 2010, an annual meeting where international and domestic telecom operators, multinational media groups, mobile content publishers, advertisers, IT & high-tech solution providers and others come together to discuss policy updates, business models, partnership opportunities and innovations across the world.

Symbio CEO Jacob Hsu will examine the recipe for success in designing intuitive mobile user experiences across devices that inspire fierce subscriber loyalty. Mr. Hsu discusses the latest developments in 3D and HD graphics, multimedia and the increasing importance and benefits of participation in industry consortiums such as the Khronos Group and other leading standards bodies.

You can meet Jacob and the Symbio team on April 7-8, 2010 at the Symbio exhibit booth.

Location: InterContinental Financial Street Beijing, 11 Financial Street, Xi Cheng Beijing 100034 China

For more information about the event, please visit: http://www.china-mis.com

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Symbio
Serious About Software

Symbio at LISA@Chinasoft Fair 2010, Chengdu, China on April 18-20, 2010

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0800

Meet Symbio at the LISA@Chinasoft Fair 2010, a forum where industry leaders and software developers from China and abroad, as well as government officials and academicians will gather to discuss building quality software products for international markets, leveraging China as a global product development hub.

Symbio CEO Jacob Hsu will identify and discuss the latest trends in software development and globalization and how Chengdu is ideally positioned to capitalize on these advantages.

Symbio will host co-host an afternoon workshop alongside with Symantec and Wipro, where Ernie Huang, Symbio Vice President, will give a thorough overview and real-world use case examples on how to apply quality assurance and localization solutions to develop quality software.

Meet Jacob, Ernie and the rest of the Symbio team on April 18-20, 2010.

Location: InterContinental Century City Chengdu, 88 Century City Boulevard, Chengdu 610041 China

For more information about the event, please visit: http://www.lisa.org/Overview.1353.0.html

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Symbio
Serious About Software