BW: Tell us about Sapient Interactive
More and more companies are moving from mass media advertising to interactive, web promotions. This is shifting business online. In the late 1990s, with the Internet, came new expertise in user experiences, web design, etc. This also forced marketing campaigns to become more interactive, to take advantage of the new capabilities. We built up capabilities in marketing, brand strategy and media buying. In January 2006, we acquired a private firm known as the Planning Group. They brought even more skills to our team.

I'll use a project we undertook to illustrate how we're involved on the Web. One of our clients was TV Guide, the US publication that helps millions of people get a lock on their favourite TV show timings. They wanted to move from just publishing to having an online presence as well. We helped them create the right platform for this as well as transfer all their data into a digital format.

BW: This has become successful enough to branch it off as a separate business
Yes. Sapient consulting focused historically on business and strategy. This included new applications and outsourcing. We began to develop expertise in different areas such as risk management, SAP, etc. As the web became more dominant, we found more clients wanting to take advantage of this. Emarketer, a market research firm, estimates that the value of online marketing will grow to $36.5 billion by 2011. This is a very big market.

We started the division two years ago and we're already the 2nd largest firm of our kind in developed markets such as the US and Germany. We believe this could be nearly 50 per cent of our future business.

BW: You're now doing much of the work for Sapient Interactive out of India…
India has traditionally been strong on tech skills. We want to combine that with our methodology, business results and creative skills, as well as our marketing skills and industry exposure. This makes India a natural location to work from from. We can integrate all of the above competencies into our projects.