iCST founder Ashok Nalamalapu originally worked at IBM in NY and NJ then later became an independent consultant. "I moved to Portland and took a job at National Semiconductor because of my wife's fellowship in Pulmonary medicine at Maine Medical Center. Once National Semiconductor sold Fairchild, I decided to create an opportunity in my own backyard. I started the business originally providing resources in SAP and client server technology. In 1997, we began coordinating total projects in our offsite facilities. The benefits for clients are that they can outsource the project and focus on their business goals. We save them 40-50% of the cost, develop the systems much faster, and have talented resources from schools such as MIT and IIT."