Expansions and Acquisitions

Ness Tech expands Indian operations

Ness Technologies, an Israel based IT and business services provider, has announced the expansion of its India operations. The company has set up a new facility in Bangalore (India), which currently has 300 seats that will be scaled up to 600 by March 2010. Ness currently employs 3,000 Indian employees (35 per cent of its global workforce) and plans to gradually increase this number to 5,000. The company has invested about USD 1 million for the expansion and will scale up the amount over time. The move is in line with the company’s objective of strengthening and expanding its presence in India, a key offshore location from where it serves its customers in the US, Europe and Israel. Ness Technologies, the parent company, earns about 16–20 per cent of its total revenues from the software product development segment, for which the delivery is carried out from India.

Teleperformance sets up third Indian contact centre

Teleperformance, a French provider of outsourced CRM and contact centre services, has launched a new facility in Jaipur, its third in India. According to the company, about 2,500 employees will operate out of the Jaipur centre by 2010. At present, the employees working at the new facility will provide both general support and advanced technical helpdesk services to existing domestic and global Teleperformance customers. It will be a vital part of the company’s worldwide network of over 250 contact centres that provide support to more than 1,000 clients worldwide. The company is combining both offshore and domestic call centres as part of its strategy to provide a complete suite of business solutions to clients.

Symyx sets up new software R&D centre in India

Symyx Technologies, a US-based scientific R&D integration partner, has set up a new software Research and Development (R&D) centre in Bangalore. The company has established the facility in partnership with Encora, a provider of Collaborative Product Development (CPD) services. By the end of this year, the centre will employ 30–35 developers. It will work in coordination with other Symyx sites and will develop core scientific information management software solutions such as an enterprise Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN), data acquisition software, decision support software and scientific information databases. Through this facility, the company will improve its global R&D team’s capability to cater to the present and future electronic lab environment requirements across industries including life sciences, chemicals and energy, and consumer and industrial products.

Partnerships, Deals and Contracts

NIIT bags deal from Prometric to Boot up PC-based CAT

NIIT, a global leader in computer education, has won a deal from US-based Prometric, the world’s largest provider of computer-based testing service that conducts the Common Admission Test (CAT) for Indian Institute of Management (IIM). According to the agreement, going forward, NIIT will look into the infrastructure and administration of the Common Admission Test (CAT) and will make available its test centres across India for the examination. For the first time, the entrance test for the country’s premium business schools will be held using  computers. Financial details of the contract have not been disclosed. However, it is estimated that NIIT will receive USD 10–11 million from Prometric, which was awarded a USD 40 million deal from the IIMs to conduct the online test. NIIT has already begun collaborating with private colleges owing at least 100 computers each for conducting CAT. Until now, it has partnered with around three private colleges that will provide computers, Internet connectivity, image capture cameras, generators and UPSs. NIIT, on the other hand will provide identity cards, biometric equipment and stationery to CAT aspirants.

Etisalat DB Telecom awards 10-year USD 411 million IT outsourcing contract to Tech Mahindra

Etisalat DB Telecom, a telecom licensee, has entered into a 10-year USD 410.6 million IT and infrastructure outsourcing agreement with Indian telecom outsourcing player – Tech Mahindra. According to the contract, Etisalat and its subsidiary Allianz Infratec have outsourced IT operations across 15 circles to the company. The main IT applications that will be provided include those in the Business Support System (BSS) and Operating Support System (OSS) domains. The company is planning to leverage TechM’s domain and process expertise, exhaustive pool of IT skills, and innovative delivery models for its forthcoming service. 

Microsoft India enters into a partnership agreement with TCS

Microsoft India and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s leading IT services and outsourcing firm, have joined hands to launch Microsoft-TCS virtualisation Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Chennai. The CoE will utilise Microsoft’s technologies to showcase virtualisation scenarios across IT architectural layers to clients. The centre is expected to assist the companies in speeding up the adoption of virtualisation technology and bridge the gap between its awareness and adoption in the country. This technology will enable clients to migrate from physical to virtual environments, manage physical and virtual infrastructure from a single console, improve performance and decrease the cost of ownership of IT infrastructure. The strategic alliance with TCS will address the critical market needs and help clients avail the benefits of the virtualisation technology for their business requirements.

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