Released on: September 1, 2008, 4:28 am

Press Release Author: Long Circle

Industry: Computers

Press Release Summary: As the world turns its attention to the 2008 summer Olympic
games in the northern Chinese city of Beijing, it would be a good time to share the
story of Brian Schwarz, a western journalist granted rare access to one of China\'s
offshore development centers in the eastern city of Shanghai.

Press Release Body: Seizing on the growing outsourcing trend, China has built a
number of offshore development centers (ODC). “As a western business journalist,
ODCs seemed mysterious. Questions filled my head, such as how an ODC actually
operates and how two teams of engineers on opposite sides of the globe can be able
to work together to create a successful product.”

Schwarz requested and was granted one-day access to Long Circle, an ODC providing
engineering services to multinational companies developing embedded software and
hardware technologies. What follows is a description of that day, changing only the
names.

“I was honored to have an opportunity to visit this state-of-the-art facility in
Pudong, on the eastern side of China’s most vibrant commercial city.” Long Circle’s
Voice-of-Customers (VOC) team—with members in both the U.S. and China—has been
working with U.S. clients on project definition and management since 1994. China’s
Engineering Center of Excellence in Shanghai carries out the project work.

Even before arriving at Long Circle at around 8 a.m., the company was buzzing with
activity. “Hayden phoned Jim, Speedsmart’s U.S. VP of engineering to discuss
recruiting efforts. Speedsmart was a long-time client, and Hayden has had
conversations with him before.” On this day, Jim was looking for a team of top ASIC
design engineers.

Speedsmart’s recruits were required to have extensive front-end and back-end system
and architecture experience, and Long Circle had been building this team for more
than a month. “We are not a headhunting service,” Hayden explained with a smile,
“but part of building a team for our customers, of course, requires us to find the
team.”

At 8:25 a.m., more staff members started to stream in. Hayden stepped into the
doorway and asked if Schwarz would like to attend their weekly teleconference with
MagicImage, another ODC customer. He jumped at the chance. Standing beside Hayden
was Long Circle\'s VP of technology, Weiming, who oversees all project management
work for ODC teams. “We went into the conference room where the rest of the
MagicImage ODC team—a total of six— was sitting, and dialed into a U.S. bridge.”

The meeting focused on the status of defects found in a new product that was to be
released soon. The two teams ranked the severity of each defect and identified which
one to focus on first. “By listening to the discussion, I could tell both teams
understood the system equally well, and had formed a close relationship.”

At 9:25 a.m., Schwarz and Weiming walked out of the conference room to a secure area
that Weiming accessed with a badge. “He took me to the MagicImage’s ODC area, where
Vivian explained to me how the complex system works. I didn’t understand much.”

At this point, Weiming explained that Steven, leader of U.S.-based Solarios—another
ODC customer—just got a hold of him over Skype and wanted to have an emergency
teleconference as soon as possible. Steven was planning to show some new products at
an exhibition in Taiwan and his ODC team needed to help resolve some technical
issues.

By 10:50 a.m., the emergency teleconference had started, with application screen
shots projected on the wall. The application runs on cell phones and interacts with
a GPS board over Bluetooth. Steven, still on Skype, said he did not like how some of
the logic flows were going.

Just before noon, Hayden hung up his phone. He and Speedsmart’s Michael just
completed a joint phone interview with a candidate who might be a good match. With
12 years’ experience in the right area, there was a lot to talk about. Now we were
ready to head out for lunch.

At 3 p.m., Weiming started his presentation on the Product Development Process for a
couple of new hires. Schwarz joined in. The five-step process considers the client’s
specific needs. “The process involves requirements specifications, system modeling
and analysis, design-build-test iteration, project acceptance and delivery and
postmortem.” Each step has numerous sub-categories.

By 5:30 p.m., it was off-duty time for most of the staff, but the ODC working for
Steven’s company was still undergoing its emergency work. Hayden said it could last
another several hours. “I asked Hayden when he would go home. He said he had another
interview at [6 p.m.] and he would leave after it concluded.” Schwarz decided he
would leave for home.

So why would a U.S. company want Long Circle to build and host an ODC rather than do
it on their own? “This is often asked by candidates,” explained Hayden. “Three
reasons: recruiting network, service orientation and cost savings. Very often the
talent they need is not something they can recruit easily to their satisfaction, or
within a meaningful time frame.” Schwarz cited research from Gartner that Chinese
ODCs can cost as much as 30 percent less than so-called “captive ODCs,” which
companies build and operate on their own.

Web Site: http://www.longcircle.com

Contact Details: Long Circle (Shanghai)
Engineering CoE, Ltd
1990 Long Yang Road, Suite 5A
Long Yang Business Building
Pudong, Shanghai 201204, China

Office Tel: +86-21-5134 8988
Office Fax: +86-21-5134 8976