How To Set Up an Offshore Development Center in India

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By Zinnov Offshoring Research and Consulting

Often US companies underestimate the process involved in setting up and managing a development center. Many multinational companies that have started development centers in India in the last few years have reconsidered the wisdom of their decision due to the issues they have at the development center related to human resources and cost control. Recently, an IT vendor based in India acquired the subsidiaries of two US companies when the subsidiaries were unable to ramp up as planned.

Why do firms run into difficulties in setting up and running their own India-based subsidiaries?

• Companies don’t understand the different cost components for setting up and running a development center. This often results in inaccurate budget projections for the Indian subsidiary.
• Companies underestimate the commitment required from the different departments, such as finance, legal, human resources and IT.
• Companies don’t understand the selection criteria for the subsidiary’s captive center.
• Companies underestimate the dynamics involved in the hiring process and take a long time to hire the core team.
• Companies don’t understand the complexities involved in the HR policies of the development center.
• Even though the legal and statutory regulations have been greatly reduced in India, companies make a mistake of not planning in advance for the various clearances. This often becomes a bottleneck for the subsidiary setup.
• Companies underestimate the planning and execution effort involved in the infrastructure setup, including real estate, hardware/software acquisition and IT.
• Companies don’t often understand the dependencies of the various subsidiary setup tasks. This increases the time and cost involved in the subsidiary setup process.

After researching the challenges faced by subsidiaries in India, we’ve developed a model, shown in the diagram below, that will reduce the time, cost and risks involved in setting up a subsidiary in India. This article shares details about the incorporation and registration process you need to go through. (For coverage on the other steps in the process, see the link to the whitepaper in "Useful Links.")

Registration