Nasscom, the premier body of the Indian software and services industry, has joined hands with Microsoft India Ltd to offer quality certification programme for independent software vendors (ISVs) in India that will allow Indian firms tap global opportunities.

Developed on the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF), the six-month certification course will enable ISVs to align their product development requirements as per the SEI CMM (Software Engineering Institute Capability Maturity Model) level 3 certification, irrespective of the technology platform used by them.

QAI India Ltd, the leading software process consulting services firm in the Asia-Pacific region, will be the implementation partner for the programme that is being priced at Rs.125,000.

Currently, three Indian ISVs - Talisma, PacSoft and Skelta - are piloting the certification initiative on behalf of Nasscom (National Association of Software and Services Companies).

The certification process will cover best practices in the software development cycle spanning architecture planning, development, user experience, testing, release operations, programme management and product management.

Launching the programme here Thursday, Nasscom president Kiran Karnik told reporters the certification would help Indian ISVs to adopt international standards for engineering-cum-product development and access domestic as well as international products.

"Though India has emerged as a global leader in the IT services' domain, there is a need to build on this leadership by leveraging the competencies IT firms have for capitalizing on the burgeoning products opportunity.

"We are confident the Indian ISVs will benefit from this quality certification to tap the global and domestic software products market for moving up the IT value chain," Karnik said.

Currently, of the 650,000 ISVs across the country, about 20 percent of them are engaged in developing software products for Indian and global companies in diverse verticals, such as telecom, banking and financial services, manufacturing and logistics. The ISVs include about 300 product firms, mainly in the small and medium segments.

According to Microsoft India director for product development and platform evangelism Sheila Gulati, the Indian share of the $180-billion global software products market was mere $223 million, accounting for just 0.3 percent of the total market worldwide.

"The increasing investment of global product development firms in R&D centres in India is an indication of the immense potential of the Indian software development community in creating globally accepted products. The certification will provide a level-playing field, allowing Indian ISVs to tap the global opportunities cost effectively," Gulati said.

A Nasscom report, however, estimates the Indian software development market for shrink-wrapped (software on CD roms that are boxed and shrink-wrapped and sold) and enterprise products would grow to $8-11 billion by 2008-10. Similarly, market for outsourced R&D activities is expected to be about $11 billion by 2008.

Worldwide, the market for embedded software products was $21 billion in 2003, growing at a CAGR (cumulative average growth rate) of 16 per cent.

Factors that will lead to the growth of the product development opportunity in India are lower costs, large talent pool, mature quality control systems, proven offshore model and growing domain skill.

In a bid to improve the credibility of the Indian software products and build a robust local software ecosystem, the programme will consist of training on MSF platform using proprietary tools developed by Microsoft, development process, quality audit and certification.