HFS Challenger: Cybage

At a glance

Cybage recently received HFS’s coveted “Challenger” title and was recognized as a Disruptor (Horizon 1) in the HFS Horizons: Assuring the Generative Enterprise™, 2024 study. Cybage’s product engineering frameworks, including PIE (Product Intensive Engineering) and the TAPAS transition framework, help clients with go-to-market (GTM) strategies and enable faster outsourcing. Its product engineering heritage and wide range of skills and capabilities bring a unique proposition for independent software vendors (ISVs) and enterprise clients across industry verticals. The solutions focus on resolving modern-day technology transformation, enabled by its proprietary frameworks for digital excellence. Besides software product engineering, Cybage is known for its quality assurance and ADM (application development and maintenance) capabilities.

Cybage has experienced consistently low attrition, a critical success factor in maintaining long-term client relationships.

Founded in 1995 and headquartered in India, Cybage is a product engineering firm that has grown organically and built its business by emphasizing client relationships and references. Half of its clients have been with the company for more than 10 years, and 95% renew annually. Its focus on delivering value to businesses is a three-pronged approach of delivery excellence, vertical expertise, and partnership ethos:

• Delivery excellence is built on a solid foundation using Cybage’s proprietary platform, ExcelShore^®, which helps its customers realize operational and cost efficiencies.
• Vertical expertise builds on Cybage’s technology capabilities, industry knowledge, and efficiencies to deliver customer value.
• Partnership ethos originates in the fact that, as trusted advisors and partners in the transformation journey, Cybage brings ownership, adaptability, flexibility, and a strong culture of open communication to client deliverables.

With solid technology skillsets, delivery capabilities, and a robust governance model, Cybage’s end-to-end product engineering services include greenfield and brownfield development of application development services and packaged software integration, with platform services, custom development and integrations, business process automation, e-commerce, and logistics. These product engineering services cater to ISVs and industries such as travel and hospitality, high tech, digital retail, media and advertising, supply chain and logistics, healthcare and life sciences, and fintech.

Currently, the compelling necessity across industries is for centralized capabilities and integration that incorporate all business functions in one ecosystem. Service providers need a robust technology stack and established partner ecosystem to deliver this value to enterprises. Service providers must build technology solutions that meet business needs by understanding what is required for their business and assessing how they operate. Cybage’s noteworthy partnerships across the ecosystem with Korber, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Microsoft, AWS, and Magento are global. These partnerships augment Cybage’s capabilities across the industries they serve, as shown in the case studies in this paper.

Cybage leverages its proprietary framework, platforms, and competency centers to deliver excellence

Delivery governance plays a decisive role in successful project delivery. Cybage invests in its data-driven decision-making platform, ExcelShore^®, for consistent delivery, bringing operational and cost efficiency. Cybage’s PIE (Product Intensive Engineering) framework is an automated engineering and design thinking framework for building software products with predictable speed and quality. It combines the key pillars integral to a digital transformation program—people, culture, processes, tools, and technology. Furthermore, media and advertising clients use its digital maturity assessment framework (SCORE) to define digital strategy, identify personas, develop content, and leverage tools for marketing automation. The framework uses a scientific, data-driven approach.

The company’s homegrown platforms, ExcelShore^® and Gratifi, are critical R&D investments. ExcelShore^® is a decision-making platform that de-risks Cybage’s approach to provide its clients with consistent delivery excellence. Gratifi is a rewards and recognition platform for employees, customers, and channel partners; it endorses employee experience.

Collaboration is a continuous agenda at Cybage

In recent years, co-innovation has been a key driver for enterprises engaging with service providers to address the needs of the future. However, innovation must be strategic, requiring tracking, measuring effort, and defining the roadmap to outcomes. Cybage approaches innovation as a continuous improvement process, driving depth in emerging technology with accelerators through dedicated competency centers.

Cybage has continuously invested in R&D at its competency centers. The competency centers’ primary charter is to explore emerging technologies, develop proofs of concept (PoCs), and introduce the PoCs to drive differentiation.

An example is a competency center Cybage recently established for generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), where GenAI use cases are developed and co-created. Since the technology is nascent, there’s tremendous scope for mutual learning and education. Many of Cybage’s competency centers focus on technologies and product services such as data science, cloud and big data, and business automation, including ServiceNow, CRM (customer relationship management) and RPA (robotic process automation), content management, the internet of things, and GenAI. These dedicated technology groups include experienced technology professionals and learning and development professionals to support project-specific requirements.

An influx of technologies and the pace of technology development in today’s industries have enterprises and service providers dealing with a talent crunch. Cybage has strong talent development and retention programs in place. Its talent acquisition is a well-thought-out strategy to hire experienced talent with industry-specific knowledge and train new talent for skill development and ongoing growth to build career paths and retain talent.

Collaboration is a continuous agenda for Cybage’s engineering pillars, with a robust governance framework, customer connections and feedback, business reviews, and customer meetings. Collaboration is critical to digital transformation projects, as it drives better customer experiences and business process integration. It also enables Cybage to commit to value creation through regular connections and opportunities to co-innovate with its clients.

Cybage prioritizes social responsibility and sustainable development to demonstrate consciousness in its operations

Sustainability is critical when measuring a potential partnership, as it leads to building an environmentally conscious organization. Cybage is committed to looking at social responsibility beyond compliance while making social thinking the DNA of its existence. Cybage believes in giving back to society and positively impacting communities. It seeks to improve the overall welfare of society through its Cybage Foundation. Cybage is also conscious of its carbon footprint and has implemented initiatives to reduce its environmental impact, gaining ISO certifications for its Environmental Management System (2023–2025). The company performs some of its society-benefitting work through its responsible business and Cybage Sanjivani initiatives.

In a nutshell, Cybage has built its vision around existing and potential clients by fueling increased investment competency centers, partnerships, and alliances to help its clients convert technology disruptions into meaningful business opportunities.

Key differentiators

Cybage’s proprietary delivery platform ExcelShore^®—with its strong focus on delivery excellence, attention to existing client relationships through delivery governance, deepening client relationships, and investments through its competency centers, tech stack partnerships, and alliances—makes Cybage stand out in the highly crowded digital engineering market. HFS identified Cybage’s ability to deliver value to customers via its three-pronged approach as a worthy proposition in an enterprise’s transformation journey. Cybage’s high level of repeat business is testimony to the value outcomes of its delivery frameworks, as are the long-term client relationships nurtured over many years.

HFS’ take

Cybage’s focus on client relationships and delivery excellence makes it a stable partner for ISVs and enterprises looking to accelerate their digital transformation journey, particularly for platform modernization and data- and process-centricity.

Its rewards and recognition platform and investments of 10%–12% of its revenue into developing competency centers and proprietary platforms and frameworks are evidence of its customer-centricity and conviction in creating a strong value proposition that delivers quantifiable client benefits. We also applaud Cybage for its contributions to society by minimizing negative environmental impacts and building a responsible business that benefits the communities in which it works.

Client case studies

Challenger fact sheet