07/21/97 STALKING THIRD-WORLD SOFTWARE WIZARDS

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STALKING THIRD-WORLD SOFTWARE WIZARDS

In her suburban Pittsburgh office, Sushma Rajagopalan, a transplanted Bombay native, surfs the Internet, looking not only for programmers but also for signs of distress, perhaps a currency collapse, or hostage event--something that will spur a software developer to forsake home for the suitcase-lugging life as a programmer for hire. Rajagopalan is a global recruiter for Mastech Corp., a Pittsburgh-based outfit that supplies desperately needed software skills to such giants as Ford Motor Co., IBM, and the U.S. government.
And she knows where to look. Chile, for instance, is one of South America's hot spots for software. But for Rajagopalan, who worked in Citibank's information-technology division in India before moving to the U.S. six years ago, it's simply too prosperous and comfy--there's not enough of what she calls ''push'' for programmers to pick up and leave. Conversely, she sees promise in strife-torn Colombia, and Hong Kong could be a recruiting oasis if the Chinese crack down. ''It's much easier to sell something to people who are anxious to leave,'' she says.
DANCING APPLETS. Sound a bit cold? It's a sign of the frenzied times for outsourcing companies--and for anyone who is in need of software skills. With worldwide computer technology spending expected to reach $3 trillion during this decade, the demand is sky-high for software wizards who can do everything from tie global networks together to make an Internet applet dance on a World Wide Web page.
That's where Rajagopalan comes in. She's the No.1 recruiter for Mastech, a $125 million company founded 10 years ago by two Indian emigres, Sunil Wadhwani and Ashok Trivedi. While others in the industry pursue programmers mostly for home-market assignments, Mastech figures that the more talent it finds, no matter where, the faster the company will grow. After all, each employee--there are 2,000--is expected to generate $90,000 in revenue and an operating margin of 12%. In this calculation, demand does not abate. ''This isn't like pork bellies or coffee,'' says CEO Wadhwani.
In this market, Rajagopalan comes up against all kinds of competition. She puts talented programmers on a job, and pretty soon the customer is sidling up and asking where, exactly, in Sri Lanka or South Africa, she found the worker. She doesn't tell. Today, says Rajagopalan, who spends half her time on the road, clients are sending human resource execs around the globe to find talent for themselves. ''I'm competing with my own customers,'' she complains.
BENDING RULES. Mastech's plan is to hire hundreds of programmers, dispatch them around the world on projects, and link all of them via satellite to large software factories and training centers in India. Already, the company--which went public last year at $15 and whose shares are now trading at $23--has operations in Britain, Canada, Singapore, Australia, and Japan, and a factory in India. ''Mastech transformed our business,'' says Curtis Smith, controller at Cloister Spring Water Co. in Lancaster, Pa.
Ideally, Rajagopalan would hire programmers who have mastered English, which is high tech's lingua franca, as well as the latest technologies. But in a hot labor market, everyone settles for less. She's bending on English. And often she has to hire the technology experts she can find and then train them or find a fit for their knowledge. Filipinos, for example, are strong on old Unisys systems--just what's required for a major contract under way at the U.S. Housing & Urban Development Dept.
The question, of course, is how global recruiters such as Mastech would weather a drop-off in demand. Wadhwani doesn't see one coming. ''The growth of computing power in the world is doubling every two years,'' he says. ''Software has to keep up.''
If that's true, Sushma Rajagopalan can expect to bump into lots of fellow recruiters as she roams the world in search of brainpower.
By Stephen Baker in Pittsburgh

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