'Over the years, we have built a very strong capability in helping private equity portfolio software companies modernize their product platforms. What RSL brings is its work with very large global software provider brands like Google, Microsoft, and LinkedIn, and helping them build their software. We really want to get into some of those areas that these large software companies are going into, and that's what RSL brings to us,' says Ness CEO Ranjit Tinaikar.

Digital services transformation solution provider Ness Digital Engineering has acquired Raja Software Labs in a move to strengthen its capabilities in the technology, media, and telecom area.

Ness is one of the IT industry's original product engineering firms, having been founded in Israel about 25 years ago, said Ranjit Tinaikar (pictured), CEO of the New York-based company.

"We're basically continuing to build on that core competence around product engineering with the acquisition of RSL," Tinaikar told CRN. "Our core vertical in which we had always had a very strong capability was tech and ISVs, helping software companies build software. Product engineering is different from traditional IT services in the sense that traditional IT services is about implementing other people's software. Product engineering is building other people's software. That's been our core DNA. We've built parts of Microsoft Office, PayPal, IBM Tivoli."

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Ness has had its hands in many software projects, Tinaikar (pictured) said.

"If you step into a Hilton hotel room and turn on the set top box, videos streaming software was built by us," he said. "If you park your car in New York City, the NYC mobile app was built by us. That's the kind of work we do. We don't implement SAP or Oracle or PeopleSoft. That's a different skill set."

That skill set made RSL a perfect strategic fit for Ness, Tinaikar said.

"RSL builds other people's software," he said. "And what made it very interesting was that they did it for software companies. Today, Ness focuses on three major industry verticals: financial services and FinTech, manufacturing and transportation where we do industry 4.0-type of work, and TMT."

TMT refers to technology, media, and telecom, an area where RSL not only brings Ness new product engineering capabilities and competence, but also bolsters its footprint in the vertical, Tinaikar said.

"Over the years, we have built a very strong capability in helping private equity portfolio software companies modernize their product platforms," he said. "What RSL brings is its work with very large global software provider brands like Google, Microsoft, and LinkedIn, and helping them build their software. We really want to get into some of those areas that these large software companies are going into, and that's what RSL brings to us.

"So the top line is, Ness, the original product engineering company, has acquired RSL to continue to build on its core strengths in product engineering with a particular focus on acquiring marquee relationships in the TMT vertical," he said.

While Ness was founded in Israel, the company shut down all its operations in the country seven or eight months ago, just before the Gaza war began, Tinaikar said.

"And it wasn't premonition," he said. "It was a plan that has been going on for a while. We found Israel is a terrific market for new technology ventures, but that has also driven up the cost of labor in Israel. As a result, we have moved a lot of our operations to East Europe. We have fairly large operations in Slovakia, Latvia, and Romania, and in India."

Currently, 40 percent of Ness' footprint is in India, and 45 percent in eastern Europe and Germany, Tinaikar said. The remaining 15 percent in the U.S. and Canada are focused on the company's specialized consulting practices, which cannot be done in a remote fashion, he said.

Tinaikar declined to disclose financials related to Ness' RSL acquisition.

Private equity firm KKR in late 2022 acquired Ness as part of a strategy to build one of the largest digital transformation businesses via both organic growth and acquisitions, Tinaikar said. KKR currently owns 100 percent of Ness and helps fund acquisitions and provide M&A strategy, he said. RSL is Ness' third acquisition, following the buys of Germany-based design company MVP Factory and New York-based data consulting firm Intricity.