Software Firm Owner Joins Global Economy Dimitri Nikouline, president of Woodland Hills-based Murano Software, went from being unemployed to presiding over his own growing company in Woodland Hills within less than two years. Credit his creativity and understanding of the global economic forces. The Russian immigrant wrote software codes for a software company until it let him go in 2002, part of the trend in which U.S. high-tech jobs were swept to nations where the pay is cheaper, such as India. Nikouline hasn’t done badly for himself, with a strategy that so far has seemed to pay off. “On (about Jan. 30) I signed a big contract that doubles our revenue, with Seres, a Malibu-based company. It is worth under a million dollars. Murano Software specializes in building Web-based applications for small- to medium-sized companies. “We consult on our own. There are a lot of offshore providers. I used to program codes, but then there were a lot of jobs lost, being taken offshore to India. I lost my job a year and three months ago and the company hired an offshore firm, so I was pretty upset about it. “I decided I would join a trend, set up my own company that offshores to firms in Russia. All the clients are here, and the developers are there. The business is growing, because software development is very expensive, and it’s cheaper there. “This is adapting to the environment. Some people should say that the U.S. government should step up. I say let the American economy be open to everyone. This trend is one of a new twist, with more high-tech jobs, high-skilled jobs in project management. These are the new types of jobs being created.” Slav Kandyba
