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.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
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.
IT market
Dell sees public-sector boost from Perot deal
Computer maker Dell said its Perot Systems acquisition will boost its IT services offering to the public sector, as some of its government customers face a freeze on spending due to the recession.
"(The acquisition) was a really good fit for a bunch of reasons, but the domain expertise that Perot brings in government and healthcare is particularly powerful," Paul Bell, president of Dell's global public sector business, said in an interview in London on Wednesday.
About half of Perot's revenue comes from healthcare, and a further roughly 20 percent from government, but Bell said he was not the only one of the group's four divisional heads pushing for the $3.9 billion deal, which closed earlier this month.
"It was unanimous," he said. "This was a company-wide decision, with the intention of leveraging their capabilities across all of our customer types."
Dell is increasingly offering higher-margin IT services to its public-sector customers, which include schools, hospitals and government departments, as computer hardware prices fall.
Its services revenue of $5.7 billion in its last fiscal year, however, is dwarfed by IBM's $58.9 billion global services revenue and HP's $22.4 billion.
Bell said Dell is typically increasing efficiency through cutting the number of applications for its customers, and making more use of virtualisation, even though that can cannibalise its sales of servers, PCs and notebooks.
"The range of solutions we can bring to bear is quite broad now," he said.
For example, Dell announced on Wednesday it was stepping up its push into the healthcare services market with a new offering aimed at simplifying life for doctors on the move.
Public-sector budgets are coming under pressure, however, particularly in Europe where government spending has soared in the recession.
"Right now, many of our customers have projects ready to go (that) can reduce costs in coming years for their own departments and yet they are faced with a freeze," Bell said. "That could be backwards economic logic."
Dell, which recently fell to third position in PC makers behind Taiwan's Acer as demand from its corporate bedrock slowed, reports third-quarter results Thursday.
"(The acquisition) was a really good fit for a bunch of reasons, but the domain expertise that Perot brings in government and healthcare is particularly powerful," Paul Bell, president of Dell's global public sector business, said in an interview in London on Wednesday.
About half of Perot's revenue comes from healthcare, and a further roughly 20 percent from government, but Bell said he was not the only one of the group's four divisional heads pushing for the $3.9 billion deal, which closed earlier this month.
"It was unanimous," he said. "This was a company-wide decision, with the intention of leveraging their capabilities across all of our customer types."
Dell is increasingly offering higher-margin IT services to its public-sector customers, which include schools, hospitals and government departments, as computer hardware prices fall.
Its services revenue of $5.7 billion in its last fiscal year, however, is dwarfed by IBM's $58.9 billion global services revenue and HP's $22.4 billion.
Bell said Dell is typically increasing efficiency through cutting the number of applications for its customers, and making more use of virtualisation, even though that can cannibalise its sales of servers, PCs and notebooks.
"The range of solutions we can bring to bear is quite broad now," he said.
For example, Dell announced on Wednesday it was stepping up its push into the healthcare services market with a new offering aimed at simplifying life for doctors on the move.
Public-sector budgets are coming under pressure, however, particularly in Europe where government spending has soared in the recession.
"Right now, many of our customers have projects ready to go (that) can reduce costs in coming years for their own departments and yet they are faced with a freeze," Bell said. "That could be backwards economic logic."
Dell, which recently fell to third position in PC makers behind Taiwan's Acer as demand from its corporate bedrock slowed, reports third-quarter results Thursday.
IT market, new openings
Accentia to add 2,000 jobs at techno-lodges
The Kerala IT department’s decision to roll out techno-lodges, making IT infrastructure available at the panchayat level, has drawn instant interest from the industry, with Accentia Technologies announcing that it intends to add 2,000 jobs to be based out of these techno-lodges.
Accentia CEO Pradeep Viswambharan said his company planned to create these jobs across the villages of Kerala where the IT department and the local panchayats would develop requisite infrastructure for the IT industry. Healthcare receivables cycle management (HRCM) major Accentia, based at the Technopark here, had recently commenced operations from the UK, with the objective of tapping potential markets in Northern Ireland, England and Scotland.
The first two of the techno-lodges in Kerala, both located in Kollam district, have been fully taken up by Accentia Technologies. Mr Viswambharan said the company would base its production centres at these lodges and that all openings generated in these centres would be given to graduates from the respective villages.
He said the company was willing to take up more space at the upcoming techno-lodges, and that the political leadership had promised an environment free of hartals in these villages. Accentia has a presence in Oregon and New Jersey, US and in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE besides over half a dozen cities in India.
Accentia CEO Pradeep Viswambharan said his company planned to create these jobs across the villages of Kerala where the IT department and the local panchayats would develop requisite infrastructure for the IT industry. Healthcare receivables cycle management (HRCM) major Accentia, based at the Technopark here, had recently commenced operations from the UK, with the objective of tapping potential markets in Northern Ireland, England and Scotland.
The first two of the techno-lodges in Kerala, both located in Kollam district, have been fully taken up by Accentia Technologies. Mr Viswambharan said the company would base its production centres at these lodges and that all openings generated in these centres would be given to graduates from the respective villages.
He said the company was willing to take up more space at the upcoming techno-lodges, and that the political leadership had promised an environment free of hartals in these villages. Accentia has a presence in Oregon and New Jersey, US and in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE besides over half a dozen cities in India.
IT market, New Deals, Outsourcing, Wipro
Wipro bags Australian univ deal
Australia's University of Canberra, which awarded an outsourcing contract to Wipro in May earlier this year, plans to bring down its operational costs by up to 40 per cent over next three to four years, and focus better on its core business of teaching and research.
The University of Canberra, along with other Australian educational institutes are expected to spend around $650 million on different IT initiatives in order to modernise their processes, bring down operational costs and compete better in the global education market.
“There is a real competitiveness happening in education and I want every spare dollar to go into teaching and research”, said professor Stephen Parker, vice-chancellor and president of the university.
The university decided to outsource when it felt its IT support was expensive and not as effective as it should be. “It was a new world to me and we linked to the people in India who can do such things,” said Mr Parker.
Bruce Lines, registrar of the university added that offshoring of services was not an easy choice because of anti-offshoring sentiments in Australia.
However, the university decided to go ahead with outsourcing in order to save 30-40 per cent in operational costs, and manage different applications and data records of almost 10,000 students better.
“I almost fell off my chair when somebody mentioned the term offshoring, but gradually we realised that it is more about efficiency gains beyond pure cost savings,” he said.
Universities in Australia are also expected to use some $350 million infrastructure grant from the government towards modernisation of their processes and administrative systems.
“Education is Australia’s third biggest export market. There is a huge potential to tap this unexplored market, where universities need huge IT support not only to maintain administration, but also for high end research and development,” said Kannan Natarajan, general manager at Wipro for Australia, Asean and Middle East Markets.
Meanwhile, the university did face backlash when it announced its contract with Wipro. “We realised that it makes sense not only for cost benefits, but also because there are people who can do a job better than us,” said Mr Parker. “We are living in globalisation which is about exchange and it is not one way,” he added.
As educational institutes prepare to address a growing market, their investments in modernisation of different systems is likely to increase.
The University of Canberra, along with other Australian educational institutes are expected to spend around $650 million on different IT initiatives in order to modernise their processes, bring down operational costs and compete better in the global education market.
“There is a real competitiveness happening in education and I want every spare dollar to go into teaching and research”, said professor Stephen Parker, vice-chancellor and president of the university.
The university decided to outsource when it felt its IT support was expensive and not as effective as it should be. “It was a new world to me and we linked to the people in India who can do such things,” said Mr Parker.
Bruce Lines, registrar of the university added that offshoring of services was not an easy choice because of anti-offshoring sentiments in Australia.
However, the university decided to go ahead with outsourcing in order to save 30-40 per cent in operational costs, and manage different applications and data records of almost 10,000 students better.
“I almost fell off my chair when somebody mentioned the term offshoring, but gradually we realised that it is more about efficiency gains beyond pure cost savings,” he said.
Universities in Australia are also expected to use some $350 million infrastructure grant from the government towards modernisation of their processes and administrative systems.
“Education is Australia’s third biggest export market. There is a huge potential to tap this unexplored market, where universities need huge IT support not only to maintain administration, but also for high end research and development,” said Kannan Natarajan, general manager at Wipro for Australia, Asean and Middle East Markets.
Meanwhile, the university did face backlash when it announced its contract with Wipro. “We realised that it makes sense not only for cost benefits, but also because there are people who can do a job better than us,” said Mr Parker. “We are living in globalisation which is about exchange and it is not one way,” he added.
As educational institutes prepare to address a growing market, their investments in modernisation of different systems is likely to increase.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)