United States-based software company Pegasystems plans to triple its workforce in India over the next 12 months. The provider of business process management software has a research and development centre in Hyderabad, which employs over 100 people.
“Our operations in India are aimed at making the best of the talent available here, not at cutting costs,” Suman Reddy Eadunuri, managing director of the company’s Indian arm, said. “To that end, we have seen tremendous traction here.”
Pegasystems has also launched its customer support centre in Hyderabad, which would cater to its customers both in India and abroad. So far, the company’s support centres located in Massachusetts, US, and Reading, UK, have been servicing global support requirements, including 10 per cent of requirements from customer and partner staff located in India.
India’s support centre will open with an initial staff of 10, and is expected to scale up over the coming years, Eadunuri said. “Expansion of the India operations is expected to give a further economic lift of $50-$100 million to the Indian economy over the next five years,” he added.
The company expects turnover for financial year 2009 to be $250 million. For the next year, the company anticipates breaching the $300 million mark.
“We have had several consecutive quarters of record growth even while the world was reeling under the economic recession. Once the situation starts improving, we are hopeful of doing even better,” Mike Pyle, senior vice-president, engineering, said.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
IT market, Outsourcing
Europe is still distant for Indian IT
Indian IT firms have been beefing up their focus on the European market in the wake of the US downturn. While this potential market, especially continental Europe, is large, it won’t generate proportionate opportunity in the next three years, according to Forrester Research.
Sudin Apte, principal analyst, Forrester Research, said that at present Europe appears to be a lucrative opportunity which is not achieving its targets vis-à-vis the traditional offshore sales story. “It is a huge challenge and only providers who are culturally fit have a better chance to succeed,’’ the analyst added.
A study conducted by the analyst firm — Continental Europe: Growth opportunity or never ending sales cycle — highlights the fact that for Indian service providers European business is difficult to realise. The issues they face include highly federated decision making in European firms, complex procurement processes and contracting terms, language barriers and political relations with India, including the visa policy.
Apte said that there are possibilities of work alliances coming from Europe, but the business is dominated by the UK, which is more like the US market. Offshoring from continental Europe is still in a stage of infancy with only companies with global operations willing to pursue it.
India’s IT/BPO export figures with Europe is presently about $14 billion with UK accounting for $9 billion and continental and nordic regions contributing $5 billion. It has a small base and the deal sizes are very small, said Apte.
According to him, the advantage that US majors like IBM, Accenture and HP have over Indian firms is that they have been in Europe for a longer time and have invested heavily in setting up development centres offering broad-based solutions in several countries.
“Indian firms have started to set up near-shore and local centres, but most have capabilities in particular services or verticals,’’ said Apte. He argued that Indian companies and their sales model will have to redefine the cost structure, their value proposition, and cultural affinities to become successful.
Sudin Apte, principal analyst, Forrester Research, said that at present Europe appears to be a lucrative opportunity which is not achieving its targets vis-à-vis the traditional offshore sales story. “It is a huge challenge and only providers who are culturally fit have a better chance to succeed,’’ the analyst added.
A study conducted by the analyst firm — Continental Europe: Growth opportunity or never ending sales cycle — highlights the fact that for Indian service providers European business is difficult to realise. The issues they face include highly federated decision making in European firms, complex procurement processes and contracting terms, language barriers and political relations with India, including the visa policy.
Apte said that there are possibilities of work alliances coming from Europe, but the business is dominated by the UK, which is more like the US market. Offshoring from continental Europe is still in a stage of infancy with only companies with global operations willing to pursue it.
India’s IT/BPO export figures with Europe is presently about $14 billion with UK accounting for $9 billion and continental and nordic regions contributing $5 billion. It has a small base and the deal sizes are very small, said Apte.
According to him, the advantage that US majors like IBM, Accenture and HP have over Indian firms is that they have been in Europe for a longer time and have invested heavily in setting up development centres offering broad-based solutions in several countries.
“Indian firms have started to set up near-shore and local centres, but most have capabilities in particular services or verticals,’’ said Apte. He argued that Indian companies and their sales model will have to redefine the cost structure, their value proposition, and cultural affinities to become successful.
IT market, Wipro
Wipro ties up with Intel for rural medical solutions
Wipro Technologies has tied up with Intel to provide medical solutions in rural areas. With its new medical gateway solution aided by Intel Atom processor, Wipro is hoping to address some of the difficulties faced by healthcare providers, the company said on Tuesday.
The medical gateway is essentially an intelligent embedded platform, which enables patients, doctors and other healthcare professionals to monitor and track healthcare information from a remote location. The solution enables real-time clinical view by capturing vital data from multiple medical devices, such as blood pressure monitors and glucose meters. Devices can connect to the gateway solution through wired and wireless technologies such as Bluetooth/USB to provide real-time medical data, video and image transfer.
According to Manimaran, general manager -medical devises, Wipro Technologies, ageing population in the developed markets are playing an active role in taking care of their health. “This has spurred advances in remote patient monitoring technologies. But these are beyond the financial reach of a large section of the population in the emerging economies. Wipro’s medical gateway solution would help bridge this gap and enable faster time-to-market for medical device OEMs to launch customised products,” he added.
In hospitals, the medical gateway has the ability to transmit real-time medical data to application servers and physician handhelds. According to Wipro, the low-cost solution would bring about improvements in existing solutions whose adoption has been low due to their high cost.
Intel South Asia’s marketing director for emerging markets, Sanat Rao, said the new solution is an example of how Intel enables groundbreaking applications. “The Intel design house programme provides hardware and software support and training to get products to market,” he said. Intel, however, said that no clear figure had emerged about the addressable market size for this particular solution. “But India will emerge as one among the top six destinations for medical software by 2010,” said Rao.
The medical gateway is essentially an intelligent embedded platform, which enables patients, doctors and other healthcare professionals to monitor and track healthcare information from a remote location. The solution enables real-time clinical view by capturing vital data from multiple medical devices, such as blood pressure monitors and glucose meters. Devices can connect to the gateway solution through wired and wireless technologies such as Bluetooth/USB to provide real-time medical data, video and image transfer.
According to Manimaran, general manager -medical devises, Wipro Technologies, ageing population in the developed markets are playing an active role in taking care of their health. “This has spurred advances in remote patient monitoring technologies. But these are beyond the financial reach of a large section of the population in the emerging economies. Wipro’s medical gateway solution would help bridge this gap and enable faster time-to-market for medical device OEMs to launch customised products,” he added.
In hospitals, the medical gateway has the ability to transmit real-time medical data to application servers and physician handhelds. According to Wipro, the low-cost solution would bring about improvements in existing solutions whose adoption has been low due to their high cost.
Intel South Asia’s marketing director for emerging markets, Sanat Rao, said the new solution is an example of how Intel enables groundbreaking applications. “The Intel design house programme provides hardware and software support and training to get products to market,” he said. Intel, however, said that no clear figure had emerged about the addressable market size for this particular solution. “But India will emerge as one among the top six destinations for medical software by 2010,” said Rao.
IT market, new openings
Honeywell’s $34m Gurgaon centre
Honeywell is planning to invest $34 million to establish a new technology centre in Gurgaon to expand its global research capabilities in refining, petrochemical and other technologies in order to better serve customers in the region. The company also plans to employ about 100 people within five years in the centre.
The 400,000 square-foot centre will be set up at an existing Honeywell-owned property and will be managed by UOP India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of UOP that has an existing 250-person process technology engineering centre in Gurgaon.
“This centre will allow us to conduct development closer to our end customers, while at the same time tapping the recognised engineering talent of India,” said Andreas Kramvis, president and CEO of Honeywell Specialty Materials. “It will strengthen our product and process commercialisation capabilities globally, especially in Asia, where it will complement our existing research centre in Shanghai.”
“With four technology centres operational in the country, we are excited about this new technology centre, which is yet another reinforcement of Honeywell’s commitment to grow in the country and leverage its intellectual capabilities.” said Anil P Gupta, president, Honeywell India.
Honeywell’s employee base in the country has grown from 1,000 employees in 2002 to more than 10,000 today. Honeywell earlier this year opened a $50 million research, development and engineering facility in Bangalore, India, its second in the city.
The 400,000 square-foot centre will be set up at an existing Honeywell-owned property and will be managed by UOP India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of UOP that has an existing 250-person process technology engineering centre in Gurgaon.
“This centre will allow us to conduct development closer to our end customers, while at the same time tapping the recognised engineering talent of India,” said Andreas Kramvis, president and CEO of Honeywell Specialty Materials. “It will strengthen our product and process commercialisation capabilities globally, especially in Asia, where it will complement our existing research centre in Shanghai.”
“With four technology centres operational in the country, we are excited about this new technology centre, which is yet another reinforcement of Honeywell’s commitment to grow in the country and leverage its intellectual capabilities.” said Anil P Gupta, president, Honeywell India.
Honeywell’s employee base in the country has grown from 1,000 employees in 2002 to more than 10,000 today. Honeywell earlier this year opened a $50 million research, development and engineering facility in Bangalore, India, its second in the city.
IT market, new openings
Honeywell looks for hiring 1,000 people next year
Business conglomerate Honeywell said on Sunday that it is considering to increase its India headcount by about 1,000 employees next year as it expects growth to bounce back in line with global economic recovery.
The company is also planning to provide bio-fuel technology for the country's airlines industry.
"This year the growth has been flat, but still we are hiring 500-700 people for the entire group in India. Next year we should recruit about 1,000 people as our domestic base expands," Honeywell Automation India Managing Director Vimal Kapur told PTI.
The company, which has an employee strength of 11,000 people, has been adding about 1,000 staff every year in line with its annual growth during the last few years, he added.
"The new recruitments will be done in all our verticals, including R&D, avionics (aircraft cockpit system), auto components and chemicals division," he said.
On Honeywell India's, the wholly-owned subsidiary of the US-based firm, new initiatives in the country, Kapur said: "We are developing bio jet fuel technology as part of our energy saving initiative and the test flights are being carried out in the West. Our aim is to introduce this in India."
The company plans to work in conjunction with fuel suppliers, like HPCL and BPCL, for use of the technology in the Indian aviation industry, he added.
The company is also planning to provide bio-fuel technology for the country's airlines industry.
"This year the growth has been flat, but still we are hiring 500-700 people for the entire group in India. Next year we should recruit about 1,000 people as our domestic base expands," Honeywell Automation India Managing Director Vimal Kapur told PTI.
The company, which has an employee strength of 11,000 people, has been adding about 1,000 staff every year in line with its annual growth during the last few years, he added.
"The new recruitments will be done in all our verticals, including R&D, avionics (aircraft cockpit system), auto components and chemicals division," he said.
On Honeywell India's, the wholly-owned subsidiary of the US-based firm, new initiatives in the country, Kapur said: "We are developing bio jet fuel technology as part of our energy saving initiative and the test flights are being carried out in the West. Our aim is to introduce this in India."
The company plans to work in conjunction with fuel suppliers, like HPCL and BPCL, for use of the technology in the Indian aviation industry, he added.
IT market, Recession
3i Infotech to implement four day work week for US employees
In a bid to cut costs, 3i Infotech, plans to implement initiatives such as offshoring and a four-day work-week for its US employees, a top company official said.
3i Infotech is a leading information technology services firm.
"Apart from debt management, we plan to focus on cost reduction during the current fiscal. We plan to give a four-day work-week to at least 400 US employees," 3i Infotech's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, V Srinivasan, told news agency here.
Presently, 3i Infotech has a staff strength of 13,500 with around 4,500 employees working overseas.
Increasing offshoring, which involves moving work from onsite to India and other low-cost destinations will help the company in reducing its costs, he said.
"Offshoring of work will help in cutting costs," Srinivasan said.
He, however, did not disclose how much savings the company would effect by these initiatives.
Asked whether the company planned to up its headcount, Srinivasan replied in the affirmative, saying the company would increase its headcount in the coming days.
"We plan to hire at least 500 professsionals for our India and foreign offices," he said.
3i Infotech is a leading information technology services firm.
"Apart from debt management, we plan to focus on cost reduction during the current fiscal. We plan to give a four-day work-week to at least 400 US employees," 3i Infotech's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, V Srinivasan, told news agency here.
Presently, 3i Infotech has a staff strength of 13,500 with around 4,500 employees working overseas.
Increasing offshoring, which involves moving work from onsite to India and other low-cost destinations will help the company in reducing its costs, he said.
"Offshoring of work will help in cutting costs," Srinivasan said.
He, however, did not disclose how much savings the company would effect by these initiatives.
Asked whether the company planned to up its headcount, Srinivasan replied in the affirmative, saying the company would increase its headcount in the coming days.
"We plan to hire at least 500 professsionals for our India and foreign offices," he said.
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