Ministry of Communication and Information Technology has given a nod to set up a hub of the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) in Ahmedabad, a press release issued from the Gujarat Government said here today.
“Ahmedabad becomes the seventh city in the country that is getting the hub of a national Internet exchange,” the release said.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Todays News
GOVT AID LIKELY TO DRIVE GROWTH IN IT SECTOR
Niranjan Bharati, New Delhi, October 29, 2007
The Department of Science and Technology (DST) is considering setting up of a fund for IT companies to assist them in implementing innovative ideas. The proposal is aimed at encouraging companies to adopt innovative means for value addition of their products.
The DST is also planning to launch specialised orientation training for IT companies to develop innovation and excellence in the sector. The proposals were initially mooted by the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) and has got a strong backing from the department of information technology (DIT).
If implemented, the scheme would help IT firms in creating value-added IT software products, branding of firm specific IT services and solutions and enhancing business processes and service delivery models among other things. The step would also help IT companies in retaining their competitiveness in the international market, which stands challenged in the wake of the rising rupee eroding profit margins. A large part of the revenue earned by IT companies is generated from exports. “If the companies use innovative tools to add value to their products without increasing cost, it would give them a comfort level at the time of exports even if they quote a higher price,” said an industry observer.
MP GETS OVER RS1.20 LAKH CRORE WORTH INVESTMENT PROPOSALS
Manoj Ahuja, Indore, October 29, 2007
When IT rains, it pours. Investment proposals to the tune of Rs 1.20 lakh crore were signed at the Global Investors Meet that concluded here on Saturday. The figure is likely to get revised in the next few days, as some more investors are keen to put their money in Madhya Pradesh.
It was a hectic day when 97 MoUs worth Rs 58,641 crore spanning across sectors such as IT, health, education, real estate, manufacturing and agro processing were signed taking the total number of MoUs to 102 and the figure to Rs 1,20,541 crore.
Real estate firm Emaar MGF signed MoU worth Rs 5000 crore – the largest investment proposal of the day – to set up projects at major cities of the State. Parsvnath SEZ signed a MoU of Rs 2100 crore for its upcoming Indore SEZ.
MoUs worth over Rs 6500 crore were signed in the IT sector by Indian and foreign companies including Genpact India Ltd, Tech Mahindra Ltd, Amrapali Group, First Source, CLTF Finland to set up software and BPO centres.
IBM TO BOOST WEB, PHONE SALES IN INDIA WITH TWO NEW CENTRES
Regina Anthony, New Delhi, October 29, 2007
International Business Machines Corp. or IBM, which makes almost two-thirds of its $13.3 billion (Rs 52,535 crore) global pre-tax profits from hardware and software sales, plans to increase the spread of its phone and Web sales teams in India by setting up centres in Mumbai and New Delhi by end-2008.
The teams will help IBM better understand requirements of customers in the western and northern regions in India, the world’s fastest growing market for software and hardware products.
The new teams in Mumbai and New Delhi—in addition to one based in Bangalore—will focus only on sales through a distribution channel IBM calls “Ibm.com”, referring to online and phone-based selling at the company. The Bangalore Ibm.com centre employs around 100 engineers and business managers to sell to up to 10,000 customers—both existing and prospective—complementing its sales partner network of 2,500 distributors and retailers.
Initially, each of the “satellite centres” at Mumbai and New Delhi will have between 10 and 15 people, with plans to scale this up later, said Sanjiv Pande, vice-president, Ibm.com, India. The tele-Web business channel, through which IBM sells hardware, software, and services, is mostly aimed at price-sensitive small and medium business.
“Around 60% of IBM’s revenues in India come from small and medium businesses, nearly half of which come from ibm.com. In terms of volume, ibm.com forms 90% of all SMB customers,” Pande said. IBM defines SMB or small and medium businesses as having less than 1,000 employees or Rs 100 crore revenues.
IBM does not disclose country wise revenues, but trade magazine Dataquest estimates the company’s India sales at Rs 3,380 crore from software, storage and server products in fiscal 2007.
The sales through Ibm.com in India are thrice that of the channel’s share globally for the company. In 2006 (IBM, like for most US companies, reports results for the calendar year), ibm.com accounted for 10% of the company’s $91.4 billion revenues.
The opening of the new centres is part of a drive to develop a stronger regional focus in a large country such as India. “We want to spread out to Mumbai and Delhi to form closer relationships and more proximity to our customers so we can tap the regional trends and requirements better. As the number of customers who buy IT in India grows, there are many regional trends that overtake national trends,” said Pande.
AP TARGETS 20% OF IT EXPORTS Hyderabad, October 29, 2007
The Andhra Pradesh Government is targeting to step up the State’s share of IT exports to about 20 percent of the country’s total exports, from the current 14 percent, by focussing on skill development and extending necessary support, including infrastructure.
The sector’s exports have grown significantly over the last three years from Rs 8,000 crore in 2003-2004.
Announcing this at a press conference here, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, said that though the State accorded top priority to agriculture and irrigation sectors, IT would enjoy similar importance with all necessary Government support.
The Deputy Secretary General of Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Rajan Kohli, said that the Hyderabad IT Summit, to be hosted in March 2008 jointly by FICCI, Nasscom and the Andhra Pradesh Government, would be a global event attracting IT majors from across the world.
IT PARKS/SEZ
COMPANIES SEEK FOREIGN ARCHITECTS FOR STANDOUT DESIGNS
R. Balaji, N. Ramakrishnan, Chennai, October 29, 2007
From buildings that were functional to ones that are unique and make a design statement. This is the change that is happening across the country in the hundreds of buildings — commercial, office or residential — that are coming up.
Look closely and you might not be surprised to see foreign architects associated with designing a number of these buildings. Most often, this is in association with a local architect. The tasks are clearly divided — the foreign architect deals with the concept design after which the local architect takes over.
There are several reasons for companies choosing foreign architects over local ones. One, the size of the buildings being constructed, especially in the information technology sector, is much bigger.
When till recently a 1 million sq ft building was considered the norm, companies like Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Technologies are going in for IT parks that are spread over 3-5 million sq ft. Indian architects do not have much experience in designing and working on such large buildings.
Two, information technology companies want something different. Rather than have a typical box-like structure, they prefer buildings that stand out from the crowd — one that will make a statement for itself and also make it interesting for employees to want to work out of that building.
“We wanted something unique,” says N. Chandrasekaran, executive director & chief operating officer, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, when asked why the company went in for a Uruguayan architect for its Chennai software development centre.
TCS’ IT special economic zone at Siruseri, on Chennai’s IT corridor, has been designed by Carlos Ott in association with Carlos Ponce de Leon, of Uruguay. The local architect for this project is C.R. Narayana Rao, a Chennai-based architect firm with over 60 years standing in the industry.
MICROSOFT SETS UP WORLD’S FIRST ITP AT PUNE
Pune, October 29, 2007
The Maharashtra state government’s effort to enhance partnership with Microsoft has borne fruits. The IT major has set up the world’s first Innovation Triangle Park (ITP) at Pune. Symbiosis International University and College of Engineering, Pune have joined in as the first partners with the doors open for others.
The ITP will consist of one or more Microsoft Innovation Centres focused on areas like skills and intellectual capital; industry partnerships; and funding for software companies looking to create intellectual capital.
Elaborating on the critical need for innovation by a much larger section of the industry, Ravi Venkatesan, chairman, Microsoft India said, “We believe India is at that inflection point and if it has to move up the value chain in the global knowledge economy then the entire ecosystem has to innovate. For us, innovating with India is as important as innovating from and for India.”
The Innovation framework also includes the Microsoft Start-up Accelerator Program; the Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator Program and the Business Model Innovation program. The Startup Accelerator Program will provide access, guidance and support to software startups, develop their business and marketing skills, access to venture capitalists and market visibility.
The Innovation Accelerator will help Imagine Cup finalists from the software design competition to harness their exceptional talents and take their ideas a step closer to commercial reality. It will inspire students to apply their skills and creativity to make a difference, both globally and locally, through technology.
VCF/PVT. EQUITY
INTEL'S VENTURE FUND IN TALKS WITH IT START-UPS IN BENGAL
Sutanuka Ghosal, Kolkata, October 29, 2007
Intel Capital, the venture capital arm of the US chip giant Intel Corporation, is in talks with the West Bengal government for financing some of the promising IT start-ups in the state. A clutch of 20 start-up software firms have already held an initial round of talks with Intel Capital managing director (India, Japan, Australasia and South East Asia) Sudheer Kuppam, who was in the city recently.
Confirming the development, Debanjan Datta, managing director of Webel, the IT arm of the state, said: “From the state government side, we are taking a structured approach to drive the growth of IT. As part of this, Webel had organised an interactive meeting between the Intel Capital top brass, including Sudheer Kuppam, and 20-odd small start-up IT companies specialising in software. The software firms have put forward some of their proposals, which are now being scrutinised by Intel Capital.”
Incidentally, India is one of the important emerging markets for Intel Capital. The venture capital outfit, in 2006, had invested about $1.07 billion in 163 deals with approximately 60% of funds invested outside the US. Intel Capital focuses on both established and new technology firms that help to develop industry standard solutions, drive global Internet growth, facilitate new usage models and advance computing and communications platforms.
Webel has plans to invite more venture capital funds in the next few months. “This initiative was lacking in the state, which is rich in the knowledge-based industry like IT and ITeS. The first meeting has only dealt with IT firms with expertise in software. We plan to bring in venture capital funds in all sectors of information technology. We have also decided to take help of IIM Calcutta to structure the business proposals of the IT firms that will be placed before the venture capital companies,” Datta further added.
M&A
TREND MICRO SET TO BUY PROVILLA
Coimbatore, October 29, 2007
Network anti-virus major Trend Micro is all set to acquire fingerprint-based endpoint solutions provider Provilla for data leak prevention in organisations. Under the agreement, Provilla would operate as a subsidiary of Trend Micro's US affiliate. Trend Micro envisages an enhancement in its portfolio of easily deployed and managed multi-layered content security solutions with Provilla's technology and products.
While conceding to the plethora of endpoint data leak in organisations, Trend Micro has in a release stated that Provilla's technology would help control leaks at multiple endpoints. It would also let organisations know the exact locations of sensitive data for active and effective control."The acquisition of Provilla would strengthen our ability to execute our content-security strategy with technology and products complementing ours,'' said the founder and CEO of Trend Micro, Eva Chan.
SOFTWARE
VIRTUSA EXPANDING OFFERINGS
V. Rishi Kumar, Hyderabad, October 29, 2007
Virtusa Corporation is expanding its banking, financial services and insurance practice business given the big market opportunity to offer business transformation solutions.
“The potential is huge and continues to present challenges for banking and insurance sectors as they continue to grapple with regulatory issues, changing compliance norms and yet continue to be innovative and cost-effective,” according to John Segretta, Head Insurance Practice at Virtusa.
He told Business Line that BFSI sector is addressing integration issues through the Services Oriented Architecture. The entire approach now is to ask IT services provider to offer solutions rather than technology.
Virtusa combines its consultancy services and solutions for these enterprises.
NOVELL’S LATEST OPERATING SYSTEM
Bangalore, October 29, 2007
Novell India has released the latest version of PC operating system openSUSE - version 10.3. It has a dual-boot (an option to start running either Linux or Windows on the PC), compatibility of OpenOffice.org office suite with Microsoft Office and better multimedia support. The latest GNOME and KDE desktop environments have been included, including a KDE 4 preview. AppArmor protects the operating system and applications from attacks, viruses and malicious applications. Version 10.3 also now includes MP3 support for Banshee and Amarok, the default media players. Users can also set up a home network and run a Web server with virtualisation software such as Xen 3.1 and VirtualBox 1.5 on the OS. With ‘1-Click Install’, the installation of new drivers and applications is simplified. OpenSUSE is created by the openSUSE project, which has more than 54,000 registered members.
COS KEEN TO TAP INTEGRATED RISK MANAGEMENT SPACE
V. Rishi Kumarm, Hyderabad, October 29, 2007
Banking, financial services and insurance sectors are gradually moving to an integrated risk management approach. This is to meet their internal business requirements and market challenges, and also to address mandatory compliance-related issues, including Basel II in the case of banks and solvency for insurance sectors.
For large financial services players, who offer both banking and insurance services, it is now an integrated technology transformation challenge. The Head of Product Marketing, Reveleus, Arun Pingaley, told Business Line that systems built by financial institutions themselves are prone to judgment errors, as risk management arms have independent roles.
Therefore, the best solutions lately are those supplied by external vendors, which provide total transformation addressing risk and capital issues. Pingaley, who represents, Reveleus, an i-flex business addressing BFSI segment, said that risk mitigation is itself passing through a transition, wherein from external approach, it is becoming an integral part of the organisation. That is why even regulators, who have evolved Basel II, are moving from external to internal assessments, which experts believe are more reliable.
Increasingly, banks in India are taking up streamlining of their technology infrastructure to align with risk mitigation strategies. Banks are looking at this tactically, and have the advantage of by-passing intermediate stages and leap-frogging to new technology frameworks like Reveleus.
The other important aspect is that many banking and financial services players in India such as the SBI, ICICI Bank and HDFC are becoming all-in-one service providers — banking and insurance. This also presents them with the opportunity to address risk in an integrated form.
HARDWARE
TAILORED FOR AN SME FIT
Archana Venkat
Indian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) appear to have a variety of hardware solutions to choose from, unlike in the past. This change in market scenario is largely a result of the SME sector’s growth, which is close to 20 percent, industry reports say.
There are over 10 lakh SMEs with scope for IT implementation. Research firm Zinnov says Indian SMEs spent about $4.8 billion on hardware in 2006, a 24 percent growth over 2005. Storage solutions contributed about $500 million to this.
Amit Aggrawal, Engagement Manager, Zinnov, says hardware utility among SMEs is high, unlike software.
This is illustrated by SMEs opting for hosted server solutions where each company takes up 10-15 ports for storage as opposed to buying the entire server.
This ensures that the companies pay only for the ports they use.
Ports are interfaces on a computer to which one can connect a device. They equip data transfer and storage.
In the past, SMEs bought systems with more ports than their requirement, thus ‘paying more for less.’
NEW CHIP ON THE BLOCK
Moumita Bakshi Chatterjee, October 29, 2007
After proving its mettle in IT services and chip designing, India appears set to script its next success story, this time in the semiconductor manufacturing space.
The building blocks — that promise to position India in the global map to join the ranks of Taiwan, China, Korea, Japan, Singapore and the US — are beginning to fall into place.
India’s over $10-billion fabrication dream took shape earlier this year when the Government unveiled a Special Incentive Package Scheme (SIPS) to encourage investments for establishing semi conductor fabs and other micro and nano technology manufacturing industries in the country.
Simply put, fabrication is the process used to create chips — the integrated circuits that are present in electrical and electronic devices. The entire manufacturing process is performed in highly specialised facilities referred to as Fabs.
After proving its mettle in IT services and chip designing, India appears set to script its next success story, this time in the semiconductor manufacturing space.
The building blocks — that promise to position India in the global map to join the ranks of Taiwan, China, Korea, Japan, Singapore and the US — are beginning to fall into place.
India’s over $10-billion fabrication dream took shape earlier this year when the Government unveiled a Special Incentive Package Scheme (SIPS) to encourage investments for establishing semi conductor fabs and other micro and nano technology manufacturing industries in the country.
Simply put, fabrication is the process used to create chips — the integrated circuits that are present in electrical and electronic devices. The entire manufacturing process is performed in highly specialised facilities referred to as Fabs.
Under the mega-scheme, the Centre has announced capital subsidy for investors setting up chip manufacturing units. On offer is an incentive of 20 percent of the capital expenditure during the first 10 years for the units within the special economic zone (SEZ) and 25 percent of the capital expenditure for non-SEZ units. Non-SEZ units would also be exempt from CVD. The incentives offered by the States or its agencies would be over and above this.
Any unit can claim incentives in the form of capital subsidy or equity participation in any combination, including equity in the project of up to 26 percent; or capital subsidy in the form of investment grant and interest subsidy. In the case of semiconductor manufacturing (Fab units) products, the threshold Net Present Value (NPV) of investment has been fixed at over Rs 2,500 crore.
“This is India’s opportunity to bridge the gap between the projected electronics consumption and manufacturing. Already the response that we are getting (on the semiconductor policy) from the industry is tremendous,” points out M Madhavan Nambiar, Additional Secretary of the IT Department.
INT/E-COMM
BSNL TO INCREASE ITS CUSTOMER BASE IN KASHMIR VALLEY
Srinagar, October 29, 2007
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will provide 2.45 lakh new telephone connections, including two lakh mobile phone connections, in Kashmir valley during the current fiscal.
Two lakh new mobile phone connections, 30,000 WLL phones and 15,000 broad band phone connections will be provided to subscribers in the valley, an official spokesman said after launching BSNL's high speed wireless data card services here yesterday.
Minister of State for information and science technology Javeed Mustafa Mir inaugurated the high-speed wireless data card services for Internet and other services to the BSNL consumers.
The facility of Internet data services would be provided initially to those consumers who are having landline and WLL connections.
NETWORKING
CIENA BAGS VSNL NETWORK DEAL
New Delhi, October 29, 2007
Ciena Corporation has bagged a project from Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd to create the first nationwide intelligent optical mesh network in India. The new network enables VSNL to offer its customers maximum network reliability and service agility using automated service restoration and provisioning. Tata Teleservices will also use the new network. The mesh design enables the network to survive multiple failures caused by either natural disasters or man-made issues, such as accidental fibre cuts.
E-GOVERNANCE
700 COURTS TO BE COMPUTERISED WITH WEB-CONNECTIVITY
New Delhi, October 28, 2007
In a significant step to dispose the backlog of 2.75 crore cases in country's district and subordinate courts, 700 new courts are set to be computerised with web-connectivity by next month as part of a Union Law and Justice ministry-supported project.
"The allocation of laptops to 700 new judicial officers for digital connectivity will be completed within a month," said Justice Gopi Chand Bharuka, chairman of the e-committee overseeing the five-year plan to computerise all courts for speedy disposal of cases.
He said the provision for e-connectivity in 700 courts would be in addition to the facility in 12,155 courts, which have already started working on-line.
"One of our objective is to enable judicial officers access judgements of the Supreme Court, high courts and even international courts at a click of a button and speed up their research work for a judgement, thus, improving the rate of case disposal," he said.
For the common litigant, the e-courts project is likely to lend greater transparency to judiciary, along with speedy disposal of cases.
IT TRAINING
ADOBE, NIIT TEAM UP TO OFFER TRAINING PROGRAMMES
New Delhi, October 28, 2007
NIIT Ltd and Adobe Systems Inc on Saturday announced a global alliance to create a talent pool for design, web, mobile and interactive media. Through this strategic partnership, NIIT would offer training programmes on Adobe’s software tools and technologies used in business, entertainment and personal communication across 32 countries. Adobe would provide access to its software for the programme.
As part of the alliance, NIIT would provide these training programmes in 600 centres in India and overseas in the next three years, and target 60,000 students. The two companies would also jointly set up showcase centres in metros. Over the next one year two such centres would come up in Mumbai and Chennai. NIIT would also offer the training programmes in the emerging markets such as China and Vietnam, in addition to 30 other countries in its global network.
As per Nasscom estimates, there is a requirement for three lakh animation professionals by 2008 and the market for gaming development in India is expected to touch $300 million by 2009, growing at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate of 78 per cent. Other factors driving the need for such professionals are the boom in online advertisement and Pay TV advertising.
IT ENABLED SERVICES
SERVING NEWS
October 28, 2007
Satyam has signed an agreement with Fujitsu Services to provide IT services to Reuters as part of a 10-year, $1-billion internal information systems transformation programme.
INDIAN IT MAJOR SPREADS CHEER IN NORTHERN IRELAND
London, October 28, 2007
Indian BPO major HCL, which has reposed faith in trouble-torn Northern Ireland since 2001 when Western companies were chary of investing there, has spread more cheer by employing its 2000th employee in the region.
Many view HCL investing in Northern Ireland as one of the foremost landmarks of India-Britain relations during Tony Blair's tenure as prime minister. Since 2001, other Indian companies such as Firstsource, Pix Transmission and Tech Mahindra have followed HCL into the region.
HCL has so far invested 16 million pounds in three expansions in Northern Ireland in the last seven years - the most recent led to the development of a second BPO/contact centre in Armagh. It has now hired the 2000th employee in the region.
From its centres in Northern Ireland, HCL provides a range of high value BPO, contact centre (including multi-lingual) and online services to a range of clients from sectors as diverse as telecoms, retail, banking, media, publishing, utilities and technology.
According to Jeremy Fitch, managing director of business (international) at Invest Northern Ireland, a regional development agency, "HCL BPO Services is a valuable asset to the local economy. Since 2001 this global service leader has not only offered varied career opportunities for talented local people, it has repeatedly invested in its employees as part of a corporate commitment to training and development.
"Recruiting its 2000th employee is a tremendous achievement and clearly communicates to other global organisations that Northern Ireland is the most competitive European location available.
"This announcement is evidence of the growing partnerships that are developing with the Indian business world in terms of both inward investment and export opportunities, and it is particularly fitting that this announcement is made as our local business community fostered even stronger links with India during the recent Invest NI trade mission."
Kevin Houston, senior vice president and general manager for HCL BPO Services UK, added: "I am very excited by the progress achieved to date and by the operation's long- term potential.
"Since HCL BPO Services was originally established in Northern Ireland in September 2001, the company has grown locally and globally. We now employ 2,000 in Northern Ireland and over 13,000 people around the world.
"Our two centres in Northern Ireland are complemented by a network of nine service delivery centres in India and our NI expansion is based on HCL's realisation that while outsourcing to India can produce cost savings of up to 60 per cent, this differential by itself is not sufficient to build a global BPO services company.
"For us in Northern Ireland, this means that while our India centres are an integral part of the solution we offer our clients, the Belfast and Armagh centres offer us an opportunity to tap into another skilled workforce which will enable us to service European markets even more effectively."
Ranjit Narasimhan, president and CEO of HCL BPO Services Ltd, echoed Houston's enthusiasm: "Independently conducted research has established that Northern Ireland's people, infrastructure and cost base make it the best place in the UK - if not in Europe - to set up a customer BPO/contact centre.
CRM/SCM
UTI WORLDWIDE TO INVEST $25M IN INDIA
New Delhi, October 29, 2007
Logistics solutions provider UTI Worldwide has lined up an Investment of $25 million (about Rs 98.25 crore) for India in the next five years as it plans to make the country its second business hub after China. The supply chain management firm considers China as its only “strategic engine” in the region. “India’s markets are still under served, specially the back-end operation services. It has a huge potential when the economy is growing at nearly 10%,” UTI worldwide CEO Roger I Macfarlane said.
LAUNCHES
YOUR PERFECT MINI NOTEBOOK
October 28, 2007
Dopod Communication (India) Private Ltd has launched the world's first 3.5G mini note- book- the 01000. It combines a number of features such as wireless Internet, mobile phone, a 3 megapixel CMOS camera, GPS navigation system, convertible screen selection and many more. The 01000 is a mini powerhouse that is suitable for both work and play.
STOCKS
INTEREST RATE-SENSITIVE STOCKS IN FOCUS
Vishal Chhabria, Mumbai, October 29, 2007
Last week, the bulls were seen roaring as lions, considering that the markets viz BSE Sensex and S&P CNX Nifty were up nearly 10% each. In fact, the Sensex gained on each of the five trading sessions.
Within indices, except the BSE IT index (down 1.07%) and BSE Teck index (up 1.62%; top IT and telecom companies enjoy an 80% weight in the Teck index), all other sectoral indices (as well as Midcap, Smallcap, etc) were up between 4% and 21% during the week. The BSE Auto, FMCG, Oil & Gas and Healthcare indices though ended with gains, were the only underperformers as compared to the Sensex and Nifty.
Among losers, wherein the list is not long, it was mainly the IT companies.
Lastly, the week ended with the inflation rate stable at 3.07% for the 12 months to week ended October 13.
With a good week behind, the question is how will the current week emerge? And that too, when the RBI as well as the US Fed have their meetings scheduled around middle of the week.
Says Deepak Jasani, head of retail research, HDFC Securities: “We could see a good opening for the week. The immediate target is 19,800-20,000 on the Sensex.” He adds: “The RBI’s policy announcement will be watched for the direction of the interest rates in the near-term, whereas the US Fed meeting will decide the speed of flows into India in the near-term.”
RESULTS
VAKRANGEE SOFTWARES Q2 NET PROFIT JUMPS 165 PERCENT
October 29, 2007
Vakrangee Softwares Ltd. registered a jump of 165 percent in its net profit to Rs 12.74 crore for the quarter ended 30th Sept., 2007 as compared to Rs 30.25 crore Q2 FY07. The gross turnover of VSL during Q2 FY08 shot up by 84 percent to Rs 56.26 crore as compared to Rs 30.25 Crore in the corresponding period for the last fiscal. The operating margin of Vakrangee Softwares Ltd. jumped to 46.34 percent in Q2 FY08, while the net profit margin rose to 22.64 percent as compared to the corresponding figures for the same quarter in the previous fiscal.
APPOINTMENTS
RAMESH PUNWANI APPOINTED ADVISOR TO BLUE STAR INFOTECH
October 29, 2007
Ramesh Punwani has been appointed advisor to the board of directors of Blue Star InfoTech for the growth of travel and hospitality vertical. Punwani is currently the chief financial officer of US-based Federal Aviation Authority. He was earlier senior vice president for global strategy at Cendant Corp.
FORBES PUBLISHER ON REDINGTON BOARD
October 29, 2007
William Adamopoulos, president and publisher, Forbes Asia, has joined the board of directors of Chennai-based information technology major Redington (India) Ltd. Redington is the first Indian company on whose board he has been inducted.
SALGAME APPOINTED PRESIDENT OF TEJAS NETWORKS
October 29, 2007
Rangu Salgame has been appointed president of Tejas Networks. Salgame will lead Tejas through its next phase of market expansion and growth. Prior to joining Tejas, he was with Cisco Systems as president, global projects.
EVENTS
BANGALORE IT SHOW TAKES OFF TODAY
Bangalore, October 29, 2007
It promises to be bigger and grander this year. Over 200 top information technology companies, 60 of them global majors, will converge for BangaloreIT. In arguably Asia’s largest IT and telecom annual event, to take off at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre here on Monday. The four-day event will go on till November 1.
Companies whose expertise range from software and services to telecom and ITES, e-learning and hardware to semiconductor and infrastructure, will showcase their products and services, said Karnataka IT and BT Secretary M.N. Vidyashankar.
Billed as the IT gateway to Asia, the 10th edition of BangaloreIT.in will see the participation of delegates from over 20 countries, including the United States, Germany, Australia, Canada, Sri Lanka, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Russia, Korea, Japan and the United Kingdom.
INTERNATIONAL
TAIWAN TO BECOME WORLD MICROCHIP SUPPLIER NUMBER TWO: REPORT
Taipei, October 29, 2007
Taiwan will overtake the United States to become the world's second-biggest microchip supplier this year, the state Central News Agency reported on Sunday.
Taiwan will account for 18 per cent of global semiconductors, behind Japan with 24 per cent, the agency said, citing a report by the official Industrial Technology Research Institute.
The sector has been boosted by the continuing expansion of plants producing 12-inch (300-mm) wafers in Taiwan, said institute analyst Peng Kuo-chu. In the three months to December, Taiwan's semiconductor makers are forecast to churn out 595,000 12-inch wafers, 16 per cent more than a year ago, he said.
The United States and South Korea are expected to tie at third with a 17 per cent share.
SOFTBANK TO SPEND $350 MN ON DATA CENTRE
Tokyo,
Internet and telecoms giant Softbank Corp will spend about 40 billion yen ($350 million) to start operations next year at a new data centre in Southwestern Japan, a business daily said on Sunday. Electronics conglomerates Fujitsu Ltd and Hitachi Ltd are also investing in data centres to tap growing demand for outsourcing by Japanese corporations of management and maintenance of their information systems, the newspaper said.
Softbank plans to begin operations at a facility at the data centre in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, in October 2008. It will build two additional facilities, each with a floor space of 3,500 square metres, by early 2009, the newspaper said.
The data centre will eventually house more than 100,000 computer servers and have an area of 140,000 square metres, making it roughly the size of three Tokyo Dome stadiums and one of Japan's largest data centres, the Nikkei said. No one at Softbank could be reached for comment.
Japanese corporations are increasingly looking to outsource management of their data to improve productivity. The trend is being pushed along by the planned introduction in fiscal 2008 of tougher internal controls regulations that will boost the amount of data that needs to be managed, the newspaper said.
APPLE'S NEW OS: FIRST LOOK
Apple's upgraded Leopard operating system debuted this week as trend-setting iPods and iPhones cause the ranks of Macintosh computer lovers to swell.
Eagerly-awaited by Apple's notoriously cultish followers, Leopard's release was delayed so the company's engineers could devote their time to getting iPhones to market in the United States in June.
Rival Microsoft, whose software powers 90 percent of the world's computers, released its own new operating system, Vista, in January.
Time Machine
Leopard features include playful “iChat” video-conferencing and a “Time Machine” that resurrects lost data. The 3D Time Machine was inspired by a survey that indicated only 26 percent of Macintosh users regularly backed up information on their machines to avoid losing it forever in system crashes.
Niranjan Bharati, New Delhi, October 29, 2007
The Department of Science and Technology (DST) is considering setting up of a fund for IT companies to assist them in implementing innovative ideas. The proposal is aimed at encouraging companies to adopt innovative means for value addition of their products.
The DST is also planning to launch specialised orientation training for IT companies to develop innovation and excellence in the sector. The proposals were initially mooted by the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) and has got a strong backing from the department of information technology (DIT).
If implemented, the scheme would help IT firms in creating value-added IT software products, branding of firm specific IT services and solutions and enhancing business processes and service delivery models among other things. The step would also help IT companies in retaining their competitiveness in the international market, which stands challenged in the wake of the rising rupee eroding profit margins. A large part of the revenue earned by IT companies is generated from exports. “If the companies use innovative tools to add value to their products without increasing cost, it would give them a comfort level at the time of exports even if they quote a higher price,” said an industry observer.
MP GETS OVER RS1.20 LAKH CRORE WORTH INVESTMENT PROPOSALS
Manoj Ahuja, Indore, October 29, 2007
When IT rains, it pours. Investment proposals to the tune of Rs 1.20 lakh crore were signed at the Global Investors Meet that concluded here on Saturday. The figure is likely to get revised in the next few days, as some more investors are keen to put their money in Madhya Pradesh.
It was a hectic day when 97 MoUs worth Rs 58,641 crore spanning across sectors such as IT, health, education, real estate, manufacturing and agro processing were signed taking the total number of MoUs to 102 and the figure to Rs 1,20,541 crore.
Real estate firm Emaar MGF signed MoU worth Rs 5000 crore – the largest investment proposal of the day – to set up projects at major cities of the State. Parsvnath SEZ signed a MoU of Rs 2100 crore for its upcoming Indore SEZ.
MoUs worth over Rs 6500 crore were signed in the IT sector by Indian and foreign companies including Genpact India Ltd, Tech Mahindra Ltd, Amrapali Group, First Source, CLTF Finland to set up software and BPO centres.
IBM TO BOOST WEB, PHONE SALES IN INDIA WITH TWO NEW CENTRES
Regina Anthony, New Delhi, October 29, 2007
International Business Machines Corp. or IBM, which makes almost two-thirds of its $13.3 billion (Rs 52,535 crore) global pre-tax profits from hardware and software sales, plans to increase the spread of its phone and Web sales teams in India by setting up centres in Mumbai and New Delhi by end-2008.
The teams will help IBM better understand requirements of customers in the western and northern regions in India, the world’s fastest growing market for software and hardware products.
The new teams in Mumbai and New Delhi—in addition to one based in Bangalore—will focus only on sales through a distribution channel IBM calls “Ibm.com”, referring to online and phone-based selling at the company. The Bangalore Ibm.com centre employs around 100 engineers and business managers to sell to up to 10,000 customers—both existing and prospective—complementing its sales partner network of 2,500 distributors and retailers.
Initially, each of the “satellite centres” at Mumbai and New Delhi will have between 10 and 15 people, with plans to scale this up later, said Sanjiv Pande, vice-president, Ibm.com, India. The tele-Web business channel, through which IBM sells hardware, software, and services, is mostly aimed at price-sensitive small and medium business.
“Around 60% of IBM’s revenues in India come from small and medium businesses, nearly half of which come from ibm.com. In terms of volume, ibm.com forms 90% of all SMB customers,” Pande said. IBM defines SMB or small and medium businesses as having less than 1,000 employees or Rs 100 crore revenues.
IBM does not disclose country wise revenues, but trade magazine Dataquest estimates the company’s India sales at Rs 3,380 crore from software, storage and server products in fiscal 2007.
The sales through Ibm.com in India are thrice that of the channel’s share globally for the company. In 2006 (IBM, like for most US companies, reports results for the calendar year), ibm.com accounted for 10% of the company’s $91.4 billion revenues.
The opening of the new centres is part of a drive to develop a stronger regional focus in a large country such as India. “We want to spread out to Mumbai and Delhi to form closer relationships and more proximity to our customers so we can tap the regional trends and requirements better. As the number of customers who buy IT in India grows, there are many regional trends that overtake national trends,” said Pande.
AP TARGETS 20% OF IT EXPORTS Hyderabad, October 29, 2007
The Andhra Pradesh Government is targeting to step up the State’s share of IT exports to about 20 percent of the country’s total exports, from the current 14 percent, by focussing on skill development and extending necessary support, including infrastructure.
The sector’s exports have grown significantly over the last three years from Rs 8,000 crore in 2003-2004.
Announcing this at a press conference here, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, said that though the State accorded top priority to agriculture and irrigation sectors, IT would enjoy similar importance with all necessary Government support.
The Deputy Secretary General of Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Rajan Kohli, said that the Hyderabad IT Summit, to be hosted in March 2008 jointly by FICCI, Nasscom and the Andhra Pradesh Government, would be a global event attracting IT majors from across the world.
IT PARKS/SEZ
COMPANIES SEEK FOREIGN ARCHITECTS FOR STANDOUT DESIGNS
R. Balaji, N. Ramakrishnan, Chennai, October 29, 2007
From buildings that were functional to ones that are unique and make a design statement. This is the change that is happening across the country in the hundreds of buildings — commercial, office or residential — that are coming up.
Look closely and you might not be surprised to see foreign architects associated with designing a number of these buildings. Most often, this is in association with a local architect. The tasks are clearly divided — the foreign architect deals with the concept design after which the local architect takes over.
There are several reasons for companies choosing foreign architects over local ones. One, the size of the buildings being constructed, especially in the information technology sector, is much bigger.
When till recently a 1 million sq ft building was considered the norm, companies like Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Technologies are going in for IT parks that are spread over 3-5 million sq ft. Indian architects do not have much experience in designing and working on such large buildings.
Two, information technology companies want something different. Rather than have a typical box-like structure, they prefer buildings that stand out from the crowd — one that will make a statement for itself and also make it interesting for employees to want to work out of that building.
“We wanted something unique,” says N. Chandrasekaran, executive director & chief operating officer, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, when asked why the company went in for a Uruguayan architect for its Chennai software development centre.
TCS’ IT special economic zone at Siruseri, on Chennai’s IT corridor, has been designed by Carlos Ott in association with Carlos Ponce de Leon, of Uruguay. The local architect for this project is C.R. Narayana Rao, a Chennai-based architect firm with over 60 years standing in the industry.
MICROSOFT SETS UP WORLD’S FIRST ITP AT PUNE
Pune, October 29, 2007
The Maharashtra state government’s effort to enhance partnership with Microsoft has borne fruits. The IT major has set up the world’s first Innovation Triangle Park (ITP) at Pune. Symbiosis International University and College of Engineering, Pune have joined in as the first partners with the doors open for others.
The ITP will consist of one or more Microsoft Innovation Centres focused on areas like skills and intellectual capital; industry partnerships; and funding for software companies looking to create intellectual capital.
Elaborating on the critical need for innovation by a much larger section of the industry, Ravi Venkatesan, chairman, Microsoft India said, “We believe India is at that inflection point and if it has to move up the value chain in the global knowledge economy then the entire ecosystem has to innovate. For us, innovating with India is as important as innovating from and for India.”
The Innovation framework also includes the Microsoft Start-up Accelerator Program; the Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator Program and the Business Model Innovation program. The Startup Accelerator Program will provide access, guidance and support to software startups, develop their business and marketing skills, access to venture capitalists and market visibility.
The Innovation Accelerator will help Imagine Cup finalists from the software design competition to harness their exceptional talents and take their ideas a step closer to commercial reality. It will inspire students to apply their skills and creativity to make a difference, both globally and locally, through technology.
VCF/PVT. EQUITY
INTEL'S VENTURE FUND IN TALKS WITH IT START-UPS IN BENGAL
Sutanuka Ghosal, Kolkata, October 29, 2007
Intel Capital, the venture capital arm of the US chip giant Intel Corporation, is in talks with the West Bengal government for financing some of the promising IT start-ups in the state. A clutch of 20 start-up software firms have already held an initial round of talks with Intel Capital managing director (India, Japan, Australasia and South East Asia) Sudheer Kuppam, who was in the city recently.
Confirming the development, Debanjan Datta, managing director of Webel, the IT arm of the state, said: “From the state government side, we are taking a structured approach to drive the growth of IT. As part of this, Webel had organised an interactive meeting between the Intel Capital top brass, including Sudheer Kuppam, and 20-odd small start-up IT companies specialising in software. The software firms have put forward some of their proposals, which are now being scrutinised by Intel Capital.”
Incidentally, India is one of the important emerging markets for Intel Capital. The venture capital outfit, in 2006, had invested about $1.07 billion in 163 deals with approximately 60% of funds invested outside the US. Intel Capital focuses on both established and new technology firms that help to develop industry standard solutions, drive global Internet growth, facilitate new usage models and advance computing and communications platforms.
Webel has plans to invite more venture capital funds in the next few months. “This initiative was lacking in the state, which is rich in the knowledge-based industry like IT and ITeS. The first meeting has only dealt with IT firms with expertise in software. We plan to bring in venture capital funds in all sectors of information technology. We have also decided to take help of IIM Calcutta to structure the business proposals of the IT firms that will be placed before the venture capital companies,” Datta further added.
M&A
TREND MICRO SET TO BUY PROVILLA
Coimbatore, October 29, 2007
Network anti-virus major Trend Micro is all set to acquire fingerprint-based endpoint solutions provider Provilla for data leak prevention in organisations. Under the agreement, Provilla would operate as a subsidiary of Trend Micro's US affiliate. Trend Micro envisages an enhancement in its portfolio of easily deployed and managed multi-layered content security solutions with Provilla's technology and products.
While conceding to the plethora of endpoint data leak in organisations, Trend Micro has in a release stated that Provilla's technology would help control leaks at multiple endpoints. It would also let organisations know the exact locations of sensitive data for active and effective control."The acquisition of Provilla would strengthen our ability to execute our content-security strategy with technology and products complementing ours,'' said the founder and CEO of Trend Micro, Eva Chan.
SOFTWARE
VIRTUSA EXPANDING OFFERINGS
V. Rishi Kumar, Hyderabad, October 29, 2007
Virtusa Corporation is expanding its banking, financial services and insurance practice business given the big market opportunity to offer business transformation solutions.
“The potential is huge and continues to present challenges for banking and insurance sectors as they continue to grapple with regulatory issues, changing compliance norms and yet continue to be innovative and cost-effective,” according to John Segretta, Head Insurance Practice at Virtusa.
He told Business Line that BFSI sector is addressing integration issues through the Services Oriented Architecture. The entire approach now is to ask IT services provider to offer solutions rather than technology.
Virtusa combines its consultancy services and solutions for these enterprises.
NOVELL’S LATEST OPERATING SYSTEM
Bangalore, October 29, 2007
Novell India has released the latest version of PC operating system openSUSE - version 10.3. It has a dual-boot (an option to start running either Linux or Windows on the PC), compatibility of OpenOffice.org office suite with Microsoft Office and better multimedia support. The latest GNOME and KDE desktop environments have been included, including a KDE 4 preview. AppArmor protects the operating system and applications from attacks, viruses and malicious applications. Version 10.3 also now includes MP3 support for Banshee and Amarok, the default media players. Users can also set up a home network and run a Web server with virtualisation software such as Xen 3.1 and VirtualBox 1.5 on the OS. With ‘1-Click Install’, the installation of new drivers and applications is simplified. OpenSUSE is created by the openSUSE project, which has more than 54,000 registered members.
COS KEEN TO TAP INTEGRATED RISK MANAGEMENT SPACE
V. Rishi Kumarm, Hyderabad, October 29, 2007
Banking, financial services and insurance sectors are gradually moving to an integrated risk management approach. This is to meet their internal business requirements and market challenges, and also to address mandatory compliance-related issues, including Basel II in the case of banks and solvency for insurance sectors.
For large financial services players, who offer both banking and insurance services, it is now an integrated technology transformation challenge. The Head of Product Marketing, Reveleus, Arun Pingaley, told Business Line that systems built by financial institutions themselves are prone to judgment errors, as risk management arms have independent roles.
Therefore, the best solutions lately are those supplied by external vendors, which provide total transformation addressing risk and capital issues. Pingaley, who represents, Reveleus, an i-flex business addressing BFSI segment, said that risk mitigation is itself passing through a transition, wherein from external approach, it is becoming an integral part of the organisation. That is why even regulators, who have evolved Basel II, are moving from external to internal assessments, which experts believe are more reliable.
Increasingly, banks in India are taking up streamlining of their technology infrastructure to align with risk mitigation strategies. Banks are looking at this tactically, and have the advantage of by-passing intermediate stages and leap-frogging to new technology frameworks like Reveleus.
The other important aspect is that many banking and financial services players in India such as the SBI, ICICI Bank and HDFC are becoming all-in-one service providers — banking and insurance. This also presents them with the opportunity to address risk in an integrated form.
HARDWARE
TAILORED FOR AN SME FIT
Archana Venkat
Indian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) appear to have a variety of hardware solutions to choose from, unlike in the past. This change in market scenario is largely a result of the SME sector’s growth, which is close to 20 percent, industry reports say.
There are over 10 lakh SMEs with scope for IT implementation. Research firm Zinnov says Indian SMEs spent about $4.8 billion on hardware in 2006, a 24 percent growth over 2005. Storage solutions contributed about $500 million to this.
Amit Aggrawal, Engagement Manager, Zinnov, says hardware utility among SMEs is high, unlike software.
This is illustrated by SMEs opting for hosted server solutions where each company takes up 10-15 ports for storage as opposed to buying the entire server.
This ensures that the companies pay only for the ports they use.
Ports are interfaces on a computer to which one can connect a device. They equip data transfer and storage.
In the past, SMEs bought systems with more ports than their requirement, thus ‘paying more for less.’
NEW CHIP ON THE BLOCK
Moumita Bakshi Chatterjee, October 29, 2007
After proving its mettle in IT services and chip designing, India appears set to script its next success story, this time in the semiconductor manufacturing space.
The building blocks — that promise to position India in the global map to join the ranks of Taiwan, China, Korea, Japan, Singapore and the US — are beginning to fall into place.
India’s over $10-billion fabrication dream took shape earlier this year when the Government unveiled a Special Incentive Package Scheme (SIPS) to encourage investments for establishing semi conductor fabs and other micro and nano technology manufacturing industries in the country.
Simply put, fabrication is the process used to create chips — the integrated circuits that are present in electrical and electronic devices. The entire manufacturing process is performed in highly specialised facilities referred to as Fabs.
After proving its mettle in IT services and chip designing, India appears set to script its next success story, this time in the semiconductor manufacturing space.
The building blocks — that promise to position India in the global map to join the ranks of Taiwan, China, Korea, Japan, Singapore and the US — are beginning to fall into place.
India’s over $10-billion fabrication dream took shape earlier this year when the Government unveiled a Special Incentive Package Scheme (SIPS) to encourage investments for establishing semi conductor fabs and other micro and nano technology manufacturing industries in the country.
Simply put, fabrication is the process used to create chips — the integrated circuits that are present in electrical and electronic devices. The entire manufacturing process is performed in highly specialised facilities referred to as Fabs.
Under the mega-scheme, the Centre has announced capital subsidy for investors setting up chip manufacturing units. On offer is an incentive of 20 percent of the capital expenditure during the first 10 years for the units within the special economic zone (SEZ) and 25 percent of the capital expenditure for non-SEZ units. Non-SEZ units would also be exempt from CVD. The incentives offered by the States or its agencies would be over and above this.
Any unit can claim incentives in the form of capital subsidy or equity participation in any combination, including equity in the project of up to 26 percent; or capital subsidy in the form of investment grant and interest subsidy. In the case of semiconductor manufacturing (Fab units) products, the threshold Net Present Value (NPV) of investment has been fixed at over Rs 2,500 crore.
“This is India’s opportunity to bridge the gap between the projected electronics consumption and manufacturing. Already the response that we are getting (on the semiconductor policy) from the industry is tremendous,” points out M Madhavan Nambiar, Additional Secretary of the IT Department.
INT/E-COMM
BSNL TO INCREASE ITS CUSTOMER BASE IN KASHMIR VALLEY
Srinagar, October 29, 2007
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will provide 2.45 lakh new telephone connections, including two lakh mobile phone connections, in Kashmir valley during the current fiscal.
Two lakh new mobile phone connections, 30,000 WLL phones and 15,000 broad band phone connections will be provided to subscribers in the valley, an official spokesman said after launching BSNL's high speed wireless data card services here yesterday.
Minister of State for information and science technology Javeed Mustafa Mir inaugurated the high-speed wireless data card services for Internet and other services to the BSNL consumers.
The facility of Internet data services would be provided initially to those consumers who are having landline and WLL connections.
NETWORKING
CIENA BAGS VSNL NETWORK DEAL
New Delhi, October 29, 2007
Ciena Corporation has bagged a project from Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd to create the first nationwide intelligent optical mesh network in India. The new network enables VSNL to offer its customers maximum network reliability and service agility using automated service restoration and provisioning. Tata Teleservices will also use the new network. The mesh design enables the network to survive multiple failures caused by either natural disasters or man-made issues, such as accidental fibre cuts.
E-GOVERNANCE
700 COURTS TO BE COMPUTERISED WITH WEB-CONNECTIVITY
New Delhi, October 28, 2007
In a significant step to dispose the backlog of 2.75 crore cases in country's district and subordinate courts, 700 new courts are set to be computerised with web-connectivity by next month as part of a Union Law and Justice ministry-supported project.
"The allocation of laptops to 700 new judicial officers for digital connectivity will be completed within a month," said Justice Gopi Chand Bharuka, chairman of the e-committee overseeing the five-year plan to computerise all courts for speedy disposal of cases.
He said the provision for e-connectivity in 700 courts would be in addition to the facility in 12,155 courts, which have already started working on-line.
"One of our objective is to enable judicial officers access judgements of the Supreme Court, high courts and even international courts at a click of a button and speed up their research work for a judgement, thus, improving the rate of case disposal," he said.
For the common litigant, the e-courts project is likely to lend greater transparency to judiciary, along with speedy disposal of cases.
IT TRAINING
ADOBE, NIIT TEAM UP TO OFFER TRAINING PROGRAMMES
New Delhi, October 28, 2007
NIIT Ltd and Adobe Systems Inc on Saturday announced a global alliance to create a talent pool for design, web, mobile and interactive media. Through this strategic partnership, NIIT would offer training programmes on Adobe’s software tools and technologies used in business, entertainment and personal communication across 32 countries. Adobe would provide access to its software for the programme.
As part of the alliance, NIIT would provide these training programmes in 600 centres in India and overseas in the next three years, and target 60,000 students. The two companies would also jointly set up showcase centres in metros. Over the next one year two such centres would come up in Mumbai and Chennai. NIIT would also offer the training programmes in the emerging markets such as China and Vietnam, in addition to 30 other countries in its global network.
As per Nasscom estimates, there is a requirement for three lakh animation professionals by 2008 and the market for gaming development in India is expected to touch $300 million by 2009, growing at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate of 78 per cent. Other factors driving the need for such professionals are the boom in online advertisement and Pay TV advertising.
IT ENABLED SERVICES
SERVING NEWS
October 28, 2007
Satyam has signed an agreement with Fujitsu Services to provide IT services to Reuters as part of a 10-year, $1-billion internal information systems transformation programme.
INDIAN IT MAJOR SPREADS CHEER IN NORTHERN IRELAND
London, October 28, 2007
Indian BPO major HCL, which has reposed faith in trouble-torn Northern Ireland since 2001 when Western companies were chary of investing there, has spread more cheer by employing its 2000th employee in the region.
Many view HCL investing in Northern Ireland as one of the foremost landmarks of India-Britain relations during Tony Blair's tenure as prime minister. Since 2001, other Indian companies such as Firstsource, Pix Transmission and Tech Mahindra have followed HCL into the region.
HCL has so far invested 16 million pounds in three expansions in Northern Ireland in the last seven years - the most recent led to the development of a second BPO/contact centre in Armagh. It has now hired the 2000th employee in the region.
From its centres in Northern Ireland, HCL provides a range of high value BPO, contact centre (including multi-lingual) and online services to a range of clients from sectors as diverse as telecoms, retail, banking, media, publishing, utilities and technology.
According to Jeremy Fitch, managing director of business (international) at Invest Northern Ireland, a regional development agency, "HCL BPO Services is a valuable asset to the local economy. Since 2001 this global service leader has not only offered varied career opportunities for talented local people, it has repeatedly invested in its employees as part of a corporate commitment to training and development.
"Recruiting its 2000th employee is a tremendous achievement and clearly communicates to other global organisations that Northern Ireland is the most competitive European location available.
"This announcement is evidence of the growing partnerships that are developing with the Indian business world in terms of both inward investment and export opportunities, and it is particularly fitting that this announcement is made as our local business community fostered even stronger links with India during the recent Invest NI trade mission."
Kevin Houston, senior vice president and general manager for HCL BPO Services UK, added: "I am very excited by the progress achieved to date and by the operation's long- term potential.
"Since HCL BPO Services was originally established in Northern Ireland in September 2001, the company has grown locally and globally. We now employ 2,000 in Northern Ireland and over 13,000 people around the world.
"Our two centres in Northern Ireland are complemented by a network of nine service delivery centres in India and our NI expansion is based on HCL's realisation that while outsourcing to India can produce cost savings of up to 60 per cent, this differential by itself is not sufficient to build a global BPO services company.
"For us in Northern Ireland, this means that while our India centres are an integral part of the solution we offer our clients, the Belfast and Armagh centres offer us an opportunity to tap into another skilled workforce which will enable us to service European markets even more effectively."
Ranjit Narasimhan, president and CEO of HCL BPO Services Ltd, echoed Houston's enthusiasm: "Independently conducted research has established that Northern Ireland's people, infrastructure and cost base make it the best place in the UK - if not in Europe - to set up a customer BPO/contact centre.
CRM/SCM
UTI WORLDWIDE TO INVEST $25M IN INDIA
New Delhi, October 29, 2007
Logistics solutions provider UTI Worldwide has lined up an Investment of $25 million (about Rs 98.25 crore) for India in the next five years as it plans to make the country its second business hub after China. The supply chain management firm considers China as its only “strategic engine” in the region. “India’s markets are still under served, specially the back-end operation services. It has a huge potential when the economy is growing at nearly 10%,” UTI worldwide CEO Roger I Macfarlane said.
LAUNCHES
YOUR PERFECT MINI NOTEBOOK
October 28, 2007
Dopod Communication (India) Private Ltd has launched the world's first 3.5G mini note- book- the 01000. It combines a number of features such as wireless Internet, mobile phone, a 3 megapixel CMOS camera, GPS navigation system, convertible screen selection and many more. The 01000 is a mini powerhouse that is suitable for both work and play.
STOCKS
INTEREST RATE-SENSITIVE STOCKS IN FOCUS
Vishal Chhabria, Mumbai, October 29, 2007
Last week, the bulls were seen roaring as lions, considering that the markets viz BSE Sensex and S&P CNX Nifty were up nearly 10% each. In fact, the Sensex gained on each of the five trading sessions.
Within indices, except the BSE IT index (down 1.07%) and BSE Teck index (up 1.62%; top IT and telecom companies enjoy an 80% weight in the Teck index), all other sectoral indices (as well as Midcap, Smallcap, etc) were up between 4% and 21% during the week. The BSE Auto, FMCG, Oil & Gas and Healthcare indices though ended with gains, were the only underperformers as compared to the Sensex and Nifty.
Among losers, wherein the list is not long, it was mainly the IT companies.
Lastly, the week ended with the inflation rate stable at 3.07% for the 12 months to week ended October 13.
With a good week behind, the question is how will the current week emerge? And that too, when the RBI as well as the US Fed have their meetings scheduled around middle of the week.
Says Deepak Jasani, head of retail research, HDFC Securities: “We could see a good opening for the week. The immediate target is 19,800-20,000 on the Sensex.” He adds: “The RBI’s policy announcement will be watched for the direction of the interest rates in the near-term, whereas the US Fed meeting will decide the speed of flows into India in the near-term.”
RESULTS
VAKRANGEE SOFTWARES Q2 NET PROFIT JUMPS 165 PERCENT
October 29, 2007
Vakrangee Softwares Ltd. registered a jump of 165 percent in its net profit to Rs 12.74 crore for the quarter ended 30th Sept., 2007 as compared to Rs 30.25 crore Q2 FY07. The gross turnover of VSL during Q2 FY08 shot up by 84 percent to Rs 56.26 crore as compared to Rs 30.25 Crore in the corresponding period for the last fiscal. The operating margin of Vakrangee Softwares Ltd. jumped to 46.34 percent in Q2 FY08, while the net profit margin rose to 22.64 percent as compared to the corresponding figures for the same quarter in the previous fiscal.
APPOINTMENTS
RAMESH PUNWANI APPOINTED ADVISOR TO BLUE STAR INFOTECH
October 29, 2007
Ramesh Punwani has been appointed advisor to the board of directors of Blue Star InfoTech for the growth of travel and hospitality vertical. Punwani is currently the chief financial officer of US-based Federal Aviation Authority. He was earlier senior vice president for global strategy at Cendant Corp.
FORBES PUBLISHER ON REDINGTON BOARD
October 29, 2007
William Adamopoulos, president and publisher, Forbes Asia, has joined the board of directors of Chennai-based information technology major Redington (India) Ltd. Redington is the first Indian company on whose board he has been inducted.
SALGAME APPOINTED PRESIDENT OF TEJAS NETWORKS
October 29, 2007
Rangu Salgame has been appointed president of Tejas Networks. Salgame will lead Tejas through its next phase of market expansion and growth. Prior to joining Tejas, he was with Cisco Systems as president, global projects.
EVENTS
BANGALORE IT SHOW TAKES OFF TODAY
Bangalore, October 29, 2007
It promises to be bigger and grander this year. Over 200 top information technology companies, 60 of them global majors, will converge for BangaloreIT. In arguably Asia’s largest IT and telecom annual event, to take off at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre here on Monday. The four-day event will go on till November 1.
Companies whose expertise range from software and services to telecom and ITES, e-learning and hardware to semiconductor and infrastructure, will showcase their products and services, said Karnataka IT and BT Secretary M.N. Vidyashankar.
Billed as the IT gateway to Asia, the 10th edition of BangaloreIT.in will see the participation of delegates from over 20 countries, including the United States, Germany, Australia, Canada, Sri Lanka, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Russia, Korea, Japan and the United Kingdom.
INTERNATIONAL
TAIWAN TO BECOME WORLD MICROCHIP SUPPLIER NUMBER TWO: REPORT
Taipei, October 29, 2007
Taiwan will overtake the United States to become the world's second-biggest microchip supplier this year, the state Central News Agency reported on Sunday.
Taiwan will account for 18 per cent of global semiconductors, behind Japan with 24 per cent, the agency said, citing a report by the official Industrial Technology Research Institute.
The sector has been boosted by the continuing expansion of plants producing 12-inch (300-mm) wafers in Taiwan, said institute analyst Peng Kuo-chu. In the three months to December, Taiwan's semiconductor makers are forecast to churn out 595,000 12-inch wafers, 16 per cent more than a year ago, he said.
The United States and South Korea are expected to tie at third with a 17 per cent share.
SOFTBANK TO SPEND $350 MN ON DATA CENTRE
Tokyo,
Internet and telecoms giant Softbank Corp will spend about 40 billion yen ($350 million) to start operations next year at a new data centre in Southwestern Japan, a business daily said on Sunday. Electronics conglomerates Fujitsu Ltd and Hitachi Ltd are also investing in data centres to tap growing demand for outsourcing by Japanese corporations of management and maintenance of their information systems, the newspaper said.
Softbank plans to begin operations at a facility at the data centre in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, in October 2008. It will build two additional facilities, each with a floor space of 3,500 square metres, by early 2009, the newspaper said.
The data centre will eventually house more than 100,000 computer servers and have an area of 140,000 square metres, making it roughly the size of three Tokyo Dome stadiums and one of Japan's largest data centres, the Nikkei said. No one at Softbank could be reached for comment.
Japanese corporations are increasingly looking to outsource management of their data to improve productivity. The trend is being pushed along by the planned introduction in fiscal 2008 of tougher internal controls regulations that will boost the amount of data that needs to be managed, the newspaper said.
APPLE'S NEW OS: FIRST LOOK
Apple's upgraded Leopard operating system debuted this week as trend-setting iPods and iPhones cause the ranks of Macintosh computer lovers to swell.
Eagerly-awaited by Apple's notoriously cultish followers, Leopard's release was delayed so the company's engineers could devote their time to getting iPhones to market in the United States in June.
Rival Microsoft, whose software powers 90 percent of the world's computers, released its own new operating system, Vista, in January.
Time Machine
Leopard features include playful “iChat” video-conferencing and a “Time Machine” that resurrects lost data. The 3D Time Machine was inspired by a survey that indicated only 26 percent of Macintosh users regularly backed up information on their machines to avoid losing it forever in system crashes.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Blu-ray vs. HD DVD: a Solution Abroad
Some savvy consumers are looking overseas for a way to take some of the risk out of buying a next-generation DVD player.
Many movie lovers have repeatedly said they are reluctant to buy one of the new high-definition movie players because of a format war pitting two incompatible technologies against each other. As the battle has unfolded, some studios have made deals to exclusively distribute their titles in one format or the other. Sony Pictures, for example, releases high-definition titles only in the Blu-ray format, which parent Sony Corp. developed. General Electric Co.'s Universal Pictures, on the other hand, releases high-definition movies only in the rival HD DVD format.
A number of high-definition DVDs like these -- that are available only on Blu-ray in the U.S. or that won't come out on HD DVD for months -- are readily available overseas in HD DVD.
Clever movie buffs have discovered a workaround: Several dozen titles out in the U.S. exclusively on Blu-ray are available overseas on HD DVD. While studios like Sony, News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox and Walt Disney Co. tout their unswerving allegiance to Blu-ray stateside, in other countries titles like Sony's "xXx," Fox's "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" and Disney's "The Prestige" are available on HD DVD.
No overseas travel is necessary to tap into this stream of alternative discs. A visit to a site like amazon.co.uk does the trick, albeit typically at a higher price than in the U.S. For those reluctant to pay shipping costs from Europe or Asia or worried about currency conversions, gray-market U.S.-based sites such as xploitedcinema.com offer selections.
The loophole lies in distribution. Studios often farm out DVD sales in other countries to a patchwork of companies with expertise in those markets. Those partner companies sometimes have arrangements to use a high-definition format different from that of the U.S. studio.
Often, a studio co-produces movies with a partner that retains rights for distribution in certain parts of the world. Take the Sharon Stone classic "Basic Instinct." One of Sony TriStar's co-producers was the French company Canal Plus, an HD DVD backer. Buy a French version of the DVD, turn off the dubbing, et voilà -- an HD DVD version of a movie that is available only on Blu-ray in this country.
For regular DVDs, studio restrictions known as region codes typically make a disc purchased in one part of the world unplayable on a DVD player purchased elsewhere. Region codes (meant to protect varying release schedules in different countries) have become less important in recent years, however, and HD DVD doesn't have region codes, although Blu-ray does.
Some titles that come out exclusively on HD DVD in the U.S. come out on Blu-ray overseas, such as Universal Pictures' "Bruce Almighty" and "Hollywoodland," but consumers must be sure they are buying from a region that works with U.S. players. For Blu-ray, the U.S. is in the same region as almost all of the Americas and Southeast Asia.
Still, most major high-definition titles available overseas seem to reflect a switch to HD DVD, rather than the reverse.
It is too soon to say whether the availability of films from overseas will give a decisive edge to HD DVD, since relatively few consumers are tapping that market regularly. "This odd dichotomy only helps reinforce the idea that the high-def market is still in its relative infancy," says Paul Erickson, director of DVD and HD market research at NPD Group's DisplaySearch, an industry research company. "The studios themselves are still watching, waiting and evaluating the market." The number of titles exclusive to a format, after overseas releases are factored in, is only about 190 each, he says.
"It's too early to tell" if imports will give one format an advantage over the other, says a spokesman for the HD DVD Promotional Group. "The Blu-ray Disc Association does not think any format should count on a grey-market channel," a spokesman for Blu-ray says.
Buying DVDs from overseas is generally legal. "Anyone can lawfully purchase a single copy of a DVD from outside the U.S. if it is for private use and not for distribution," says Owen Sloane, an entertainment lawyer at Berger Kahn in Los Angeles. However, setting up a business based in the U.S. that sells these imports "would be illegal from the get-go," says Paul Supnik, a copyright and trademark lawyer in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Xploitedcinema.com, which offers a selection of horror and art-house films, as well as foreign DVDs, did not respond to requests for comment.
To some, the availability of Blu-ray studios' movies on HD DVD overseas is ironic, given the adulation with which the Blu-ray-only studios tout their favored technology. When Fox committed to the format, for example, it called Blu-ray a "superior" high-definition technology. On its Web site, Disney says Blu-ray offers "unsurpassed picture and audio quality." Sony says Blu-ray delivers "The Best Picture. The Best Sound."
Adam Gregorich, a system administrator at AT&T in Brier, Wash., who has bought a few of the imports, says he was surprised last year when he first heard about the loophole, but he realized studios need to sell whatever works best for them. "It's just business," he says.
Some studios point out that the overseas rights for many of these movies were negotiated years before Blu-ray and HD DVD existed. The situation is part of "making movies in the 21st century," says a spokesman for Fox, who adds the studio remains firmly in the Blu-ray camp. "These movies are co-productions or domestic-distribution deals only, and, as a result, we do not have distribution rights in all of the foreign territories," says a spokesman for Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Disney's DVD arm. "As you know, this is very common in our industry."
A Sony spokeswoman called foreign non-Blu-ray DVDs "anomalies, since the vast majority of our split-rights titles around the world will release on Blu-ray."
Sometimes, consumers can land high-definition DVDs weeks or months before they come out in the U.S. by buying overseas. For example, "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," a Fox title, won't come out on Blu-ray here until December, with a suggested price of $39.98. In Poland, it is already available on HD DVD.
The Polish Web site edvd.pl sells it for 109.99 zlotys, or about $42, but navigating the site is a bit of a challenge for non-Polish speakers. Xploitedcinema.com sells it for $39.95.
Browsing an online forum for high-definition fans last autumn, Tim Glover, a youth counselor in Monroe, La., noticed that "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" was available on HD DVD in the United Kingdom. In the U.S., it is available in regular DVD, but it isn't coming out on either Blu-ray or HD DVD until December. "I thought, 'Oh, man, I don't want to wait," he recalls, and ordered it from amazon.co.uk. Pleased with the quality, he has bought a few more imports, mostly from xploitedcinema.com. "There's something about having something that's hard to get," he says.
Many movie lovers have repeatedly said they are reluctant to buy one of the new high-definition movie players because of a format war pitting two incompatible technologies against each other. As the battle has unfolded, some studios have made deals to exclusively distribute their titles in one format or the other. Sony Pictures, for example, releases high-definition titles only in the Blu-ray format, which parent Sony Corp. developed. General Electric Co.'s Universal Pictures, on the other hand, releases high-definition movies only in the rival HD DVD format.
A number of high-definition DVDs like these -- that are available only on Blu-ray in the U.S. or that won't come out on HD DVD for months -- are readily available overseas in HD DVD.
Clever movie buffs have discovered a workaround: Several dozen titles out in the U.S. exclusively on Blu-ray are available overseas on HD DVD. While studios like Sony, News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox and Walt Disney Co. tout their unswerving allegiance to Blu-ray stateside, in other countries titles like Sony's "xXx," Fox's "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" and Disney's "The Prestige" are available on HD DVD.
No overseas travel is necessary to tap into this stream of alternative discs. A visit to a site like amazon.co.uk does the trick, albeit typically at a higher price than in the U.S. For those reluctant to pay shipping costs from Europe or Asia or worried about currency conversions, gray-market U.S.-based sites such as xploitedcinema.com offer selections.
The loophole lies in distribution. Studios often farm out DVD sales in other countries to a patchwork of companies with expertise in those markets. Those partner companies sometimes have arrangements to use a high-definition format different from that of the U.S. studio.
Often, a studio co-produces movies with a partner that retains rights for distribution in certain parts of the world. Take the Sharon Stone classic "Basic Instinct." One of Sony TriStar's co-producers was the French company Canal Plus, an HD DVD backer. Buy a French version of the DVD, turn off the dubbing, et voilà -- an HD DVD version of a movie that is available only on Blu-ray in this country.
For regular DVDs, studio restrictions known as region codes typically make a disc purchased in one part of the world unplayable on a DVD player purchased elsewhere. Region codes (meant to protect varying release schedules in different countries) have become less important in recent years, however, and HD DVD doesn't have region codes, although Blu-ray does.
Some titles that come out exclusively on HD DVD in the U.S. come out on Blu-ray overseas, such as Universal Pictures' "Bruce Almighty" and "Hollywoodland," but consumers must be sure they are buying from a region that works with U.S. players. For Blu-ray, the U.S. is in the same region as almost all of the Americas and Southeast Asia.
Still, most major high-definition titles available overseas seem to reflect a switch to HD DVD, rather than the reverse.
It is too soon to say whether the availability of films from overseas will give a decisive edge to HD DVD, since relatively few consumers are tapping that market regularly. "This odd dichotomy only helps reinforce the idea that the high-def market is still in its relative infancy," says Paul Erickson, director of DVD and HD market research at NPD Group's DisplaySearch, an industry research company. "The studios themselves are still watching, waiting and evaluating the market." The number of titles exclusive to a format, after overseas releases are factored in, is only about 190 each, he says.
"It's too early to tell" if imports will give one format an advantage over the other, says a spokesman for the HD DVD Promotional Group. "The Blu-ray Disc Association does not think any format should count on a grey-market channel," a spokesman for Blu-ray says.
Buying DVDs from overseas is generally legal. "Anyone can lawfully purchase a single copy of a DVD from outside the U.S. if it is for private use and not for distribution," says Owen Sloane, an entertainment lawyer at Berger Kahn in Los Angeles. However, setting up a business based in the U.S. that sells these imports "would be illegal from the get-go," says Paul Supnik, a copyright and trademark lawyer in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Xploitedcinema.com, which offers a selection of horror and art-house films, as well as foreign DVDs, did not respond to requests for comment.
To some, the availability of Blu-ray studios' movies on HD DVD overseas is ironic, given the adulation with which the Blu-ray-only studios tout their favored technology. When Fox committed to the format, for example, it called Blu-ray a "superior" high-definition technology. On its Web site, Disney says Blu-ray offers "unsurpassed picture and audio quality." Sony says Blu-ray delivers "The Best Picture. The Best Sound."
Adam Gregorich, a system administrator at AT&T in Brier, Wash., who has bought a few of the imports, says he was surprised last year when he first heard about the loophole, but he realized studios need to sell whatever works best for them. "It's just business," he says.
Some studios point out that the overseas rights for many of these movies were negotiated years before Blu-ray and HD DVD existed. The situation is part of "making movies in the 21st century," says a spokesman for Fox, who adds the studio remains firmly in the Blu-ray camp. "These movies are co-productions or domestic-distribution deals only, and, as a result, we do not have distribution rights in all of the foreign territories," says a spokesman for Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Disney's DVD arm. "As you know, this is very common in our industry."
A Sony spokeswoman called foreign non-Blu-ray DVDs "anomalies, since the vast majority of our split-rights titles around the world will release on Blu-ray."
Sometimes, consumers can land high-definition DVDs weeks or months before they come out in the U.S. by buying overseas. For example, "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," a Fox title, won't come out on Blu-ray here until December, with a suggested price of $39.98. In Poland, it is already available on HD DVD.
The Polish Web site edvd.pl sells it for 109.99 zlotys, or about $42, but navigating the site is a bit of a challenge for non-Polish speakers. Xploitedcinema.com sells it for $39.95.
Browsing an online forum for high-definition fans last autumn, Tim Glover, a youth counselor in Monroe, La., noticed that "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" was available on HD DVD in the United Kingdom. In the U.S., it is available in regular DVD, but it isn't coming out on either Blu-ray or HD DVD until December. "I thought, 'Oh, man, I don't want to wait," he recalls, and ordered it from amazon.co.uk. Pleased with the quality, he has bought a few more imports, mostly from xploitedcinema.com. "There's something about having something that's hard to get," he says.
Friday, October 19, 2007
India's Wipro posts 18 percent profit growth on overseas orders
Wipro, India's third-largest software maker, posted higher-than-expected second-quarter profit growth of 18 percent Friday on the back of overseas orders, new clients and a 600 million dollar US acquisition.
Profit rose to 8.237 billion rupees (208.4 million dollars) in the three months ended September 30, from 7.002 billion rupees a year earlier, the Bangalore-based company said. Revenue rose 35 percent to 47.84 billion rupees.
Wipro's profit exceeded forecasts of about 7.8 billion rupees by analysts, and also beat its own projection of revenue from global information-technology services.
Wipro said it won several large multi-year deals during the quarter, including two with a combined contract value of 435 million dollars, to counter a steep 12 percent appreciation in the value of the rupee this year that dented export revenue.
It added 59 new clients during the quarter and also completed the acquisition of Nasdaq-listed outsourcing firm Infocrossing, which it bought in August in the most expensive overseas purchase by an Indian technology firm.
"The results for the quarter demonstrate strong execution by Team Wipro on all fronts," said chairman Azim Premji. "Revenues from our global IT services at 796.5 million dollars for the quarter were ahead of our guidance of 777 million dollars."
"The deal pipeline continues to be robust," added Premji, whose 80 percent holding in Wipro makes him one of India's richest men.
For the quarter ending December 31, Wipro forecast revenue of 905 million dollars, and Premji downplayed concerns of a US economic slowdown that may force US firms to tighten their belts and cut their IT budgets.
US companies plan their budgets in November and December, and "my personal judgement is that there won't be any impact," he said.
On the Mumbai stock exchange Wipro closed up 4.1 rupees or 0.83 percent at 500.5, from the previous close of 496.45, as the broader market plunged on concerns over capital controls.
Premji has built Wipro into one of India's biggest IT companies from a maker of soaps, riding on an outsourcing wave by US firms that sought to cut costs by tapping the country's large engineering talent pool and low wages.
The company's revenue grew at three times the industry average during the first half. Its India, Middle East and Asia-Pacific business recorded 72 percent growth in revenue during the quarter.
The depreciation of the dollar against the rupee shaved 15 billion rupees off Wipro's revenue in the first half, said chief financial officer Suresh Senapaty.
"Our performance on profitability demonstrates the resilience of our business," he said. "It helped us not only fully mitigate the adverse impact on account of offshore salary increases but also deliver an operating margin expansion of 80 basis points."
Infocrossing, the new Wipro subsidiary, won a 275 million dollar contract to provide services to Missouri HealthNet Programme until 2014, the Indian company said.
Wipro also benefited from a 160 million dollar contract from a US-based technology firm, and a 50 million dollar deal with an American insurance firm.
The company announced the opening of its first US development centre in Atlanta after setting up a "near-shore" facility in Monterrey, Mexico, during the quarter to September 30 to service US clients.
Profit rose to 8.237 billion rupees (208.4 million dollars) in the three months ended September 30, from 7.002 billion rupees a year earlier, the Bangalore-based company said. Revenue rose 35 percent to 47.84 billion rupees.
Wipro's profit exceeded forecasts of about 7.8 billion rupees by analysts, and also beat its own projection of revenue from global information-technology services.
Wipro said it won several large multi-year deals during the quarter, including two with a combined contract value of 435 million dollars, to counter a steep 12 percent appreciation in the value of the rupee this year that dented export revenue.
It added 59 new clients during the quarter and also completed the acquisition of Nasdaq-listed outsourcing firm Infocrossing, which it bought in August in the most expensive overseas purchase by an Indian technology firm.
"The results for the quarter demonstrate strong execution by Team Wipro on all fronts," said chairman Azim Premji. "Revenues from our global IT services at 796.5 million dollars for the quarter were ahead of our guidance of 777 million dollars."
"The deal pipeline continues to be robust," added Premji, whose 80 percent holding in Wipro makes him one of India's richest men.
For the quarter ending December 31, Wipro forecast revenue of 905 million dollars, and Premji downplayed concerns of a US economic slowdown that may force US firms to tighten their belts and cut their IT budgets.
US companies plan their budgets in November and December, and "my personal judgement is that there won't be any impact," he said.
On the Mumbai stock exchange Wipro closed up 4.1 rupees or 0.83 percent at 500.5, from the previous close of 496.45, as the broader market plunged on concerns over capital controls.
Premji has built Wipro into one of India's biggest IT companies from a maker of soaps, riding on an outsourcing wave by US firms that sought to cut costs by tapping the country's large engineering talent pool and low wages.
The company's revenue grew at three times the industry average during the first half. Its India, Middle East and Asia-Pacific business recorded 72 percent growth in revenue during the quarter.
The depreciation of the dollar against the rupee shaved 15 billion rupees off Wipro's revenue in the first half, said chief financial officer Suresh Senapaty.
"Our performance on profitability demonstrates the resilience of our business," he said. "It helped us not only fully mitigate the adverse impact on account of offshore salary increases but also deliver an operating margin expansion of 80 basis points."
Infocrossing, the new Wipro subsidiary, won a 275 million dollar contract to provide services to Missouri HealthNet Programme until 2014, the Indian company said.
Wipro also benefited from a 160 million dollar contract from a US-based technology firm, and a 50 million dollar deal with an American insurance firm.
The company announced the opening of its first US development centre in Atlanta after setting up a "near-shore" facility in Monterrey, Mexico, during the quarter to September 30 to service US clients.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Timesjobs launches Rate your boss viral campaign on Bosses Day!
Yesterday was Bosses Day! Which like other special days like mothers day, fathers day, friendships day etc meant that you needed to communicate more and be nice to your boss! Leveraging this day and the possibilities associated with it Tribal DDB has launched an interesting viral campaign at http://www.bossmeter.net
for its client Timesjobs.com!
Even earlier we have admired tribal DDB’s work on Timesjobs and even this according to me is a great way of doing branding among the passive job seeker audience in the job market. Lets explain the simple concept of Rate your boss campaign. It basically allows employees to rate their bosses annonymously and send the rating directly to him on his email address.
The boss recieve a report card which looks something like the image above. This can be sent either on the same day or on anyday through the month of october. Besides collecting emails of all Bosses (mid and senior employees) this campaign according to me also helps connecting the timesjobs brand with fun element and helps brand recall. Its sad that such campaigns are not back by huge marketing money both online and offline as its a great branding opportunity for clients but this is understandable as well as most clients still view internet from an ROI perspective and not a branding perspective
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Attacking Criminal Networks on the Internet..A Make & Break Game..
"Computer Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University are developing techniques to analyze and disrupt black markets on the internet, where criminals sell viruses, stolen data and attack services estimated to total more than $37 million for the seven-month period under study. To stem the flow of stolen credit cards and identity data, researchers have proposed two technical approaches to reduce the number of successful market transactions. One approach to disrupting the network is a slander attack where an attacker eliminates the verified status of a buyer or seller through false defamation. Another approach undercuts the cyber-crooks' network by creating a deceptive sales environment. "Just like you need to verify that individuals are honest on E-bay, online criminals need to verify that they are dealing with 'honest' criminals," says Jason Franklin, one of the researchers. "The scary thing about all this is that you do not have to be in the know to find black markets, they are easy to find, easy to join and just a mouse click away," Franklin added."
e-paper.....
"We all know the Sony Reader, the book-like electronic paper display — but how will the e-book of the future look? And what kind of revolution will electronic paper bring to our lives in general. An interesting article by TFOT takes a look at the past, present and future of this exciting technology in order to determine how electronic paper will change our life in the next few years."http://www.tfot.info/articles/1000/the-future-of-electronic-paper.html
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