The customer is king! And no company, whether a start-up or a global giant, can afford to ignore this maxim. As Ajay Hiraskar, co-chair, TiE Innovation Partnership Project (TIPP) committee at TiE Pune puts it, “NTT DATA is a large global giant with a multiple and diverse customer base. And as is always the case, different customers have different and specific needs that NTT DATA needs to meet. And the company may not have the capability to meet niche requirements in varied fields.”

“And as is the trend, big corporates tie-up with small start-ups who have the flexibility and bring different skill sets, perception and understanding of the problem to develop a solution. This ends up as a win-win situation for all – the giant, the little flea start-up and the customer.

Like some big corporates, NTT DATA too uses solutions developed by start-ups to help find solutions for their customers. Says Ajay, “NTT DATA has tied up with TiE Pune because we have possibly the best start-up member community that we nurture. This network is a ready pool that any giant corporate can collaborate with to further their goals.”

“Our sole aim is to help start-ups in any which way we can. With NTT DATA it is possible for our start-ups to develop their products as required by customers, gain access to NTT DATA’s platform, develop a POC and even gain customers on a global scale.”

This helps a start-up gain credibility and validation of its products. As a result, in the past three years, TIPP has received 600 applications, from 20 countries and 60 of these have been selected. Of these 60, 20 have collaborated with NTT DATA and developed solutions jointly.

Aniruddha Pant, co-founder, Algo Analytics:

“NTT DATA has been one of the best strategic partners for us. Through NTT DATA we have been able to access markets in Asia Pacific, Japan and Europe. We have grown better than we would have otherwise. Close collaboration with their technology innovation group not only allowed us to access more business deals, but also gave us an opportunity to work with data scientists and researchers and do joint projects that have been mutually beneficial.”

Krish Subbaiah, partner, Orpine Inc.:

“TIPP with TiE Pune and NTT DATA was a great success which resulted in a great partnership. TiE partnership helped us in Business Development, including strategy and identifying contracting and partnership opportunities with Fortune 100 organisations.

Our partnership with TiE Pune and NTT DATA is important to us, and we appreciate the ongoing support, guidance and look forward to continuing to work with the teams to expand our footprint in multiple geographies. The partnership helped us win a large cloud-based implementation with a global MNC.”

Devesh Trivedi, co-founder, Inspekt Labs:

“TIPP has been great for us. For a tech start-up based out of India, it is very hard to get access to global clients in Japan, US and other developed markets. NTT DATA has a large presence all over the world and has connected us with the right global clients. In addition to this, the program is very start-up-oriented. They do not expect you to have the final product ready on Day 1 and are willing to iterate on the product in order to get the right product-market fit. We would not have been able to scale our start-up without this program”