Computers Today, July 1-15, 1999, Country Buzz pg1

July 1-15, 1999 COUNTRY BUZZ

Wipro Chief is Richest Indian, says Forbes

Azim H. Premji, Chairman, Wipro Ltd Making money ain't easy. But this man believes in making it cyber-fast. According to the latest ranking of the world's billionaires profiled by Forbes magazine, Wipro Ltd chairman Azim H. Premji has emerged as the richest Indian with a net worth of $2.8 billion. Premji has surpassed the wealth of Lakshmi Nivas Mittal who commands $1.9 billion, followed by Dhirubhai Ambani and HCL chairman Shiv Nadar (both $1.2 billion). Premji's meteoric rise (his wealth jumped up by 150 percent in 11 months), has been closely related to the company's performance on the Indian bourses. The scrip has shot up 140 percent from Rs 1,680 last July to Rs 4,050 last fortnight on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

COMPUTER BUSINESS
Compaq India Gets New Chief, Sets up Partner NW

Doraiswamy: India has immense prospects Compaq Computer (India) Pvt. Ltd, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Compaq Computer Corp., has strengthened its Indian presence by initiating several changes in its operations. It has appointed Balu Doraiswamy as the company's new managing director, who takes over from Som Mittal. The latter has been put back to his earlier post of managing director, Digital Equipment (India) Ltd. The company has signed up with Intelligroup Asia Pvt. Ltd to address the requirements of ERP customers in India. It has set up Partner Network on the Web to support its channel partners in India. Commenting on his new appointment, Doraiswamy said, "I am familiar with the Indian IT market and believe that India is one of the fastest growing IT markets in the world that has immense growth prospects for Compaq. I am very pleased to have the opportunity to lead the Indian operations." Prior to his appointment, Doraiswamy was director, Global Accounts of Compaq Asia Pacific, based in Singapore. He will report to Paul Chan, vice president and managing director, Asia Pacific Division.

Compaq has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Intelligroup Asia Pvt. Ltd to address the requirements of ERP customers in the Indian market. Both the companies will work as preferred partners in selected market segments and customer organisations. Intelligroup will be responsible for consulting, ERP and E-commerce solutions implementation, optimisation and maintenance, system management and network design and implementation. Compaq will be responsible for installation of ERP, DBMS, OS, hardware and hardware sizing for ERP and E-commerce applications. The MoU also provides for setting up an IGA-Compaq ERP Competence Centre using Compaq servers running applications on either Unix and/or NT. The centre will be used for showcasing Compaq's ERP technology and demonstrating the Compaq platforms' performance and capabilities for ERP. It will also run benchmarks, develop templates and test applications.

Reinforcing its commitment to channel partners, Compaq has launched Compaq Partner Network (CPN), an exclusive site for the company's distributors and systems integrators. Also launched is a Compaq Resource Centre (CRC), a Web-based information service for its resellers. CPN and CRC can be accessed at http://compaq.com/india and http://www.resource.compaq.com/india.

Cisco Forms Subsidiary, Plans to Invest $20m

Abbott: Cisco's India growth hinges on ISP and telecom deregulation The networking giant, Cisco Systems Inc. would open a Global Engineering Development Centre in Bangalore, and invest $20 million (about Rs 87 crore) in the next one year in India. Speaking to Computers Today, Todd Abbott, Cisco's managing director for Asia, said that this R&D centre is Cisco's first outside the US. The company has also converted its liaison office in India into a wholly owned subsidiary, called Cisco Systems India Pvt. Ltd (CSIPL). Cisco also plans to increase its staff strength in India by over 250 percent in the next 12-18 months, added Abbott. The R&D centre in Bangalore will conduct development and testing of Cisco IOS software, network management software, ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits), and other technologies like ATM and VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol), explained Anil Batra, country manager, India and SAARC Region, Cisco. "We had already been doing some development work in collaboration with HCL and Wipro. All this will now come under the gambit of GEDC," he added.

"We are making these investments because Cisco believes that the market will continue to expand dramatically as the telecommunications and Internet Service Provider (ISP) markets in particular are further deregulated," explained Abbott. The $20 million investment would also include equity in the new subsidiary. In the Asia Pacific region, it has two support centres in China and Australia. Asia Pacific accounted for 12 percent of the networking company's revenue growth in the last financial.

Infotech Acquires Dataview Solutions of UK

In a move that would synergise their capabilities in CAD and GIS products worldwide, Infotech Enterprises Ltd has signed an agreement with Dataview Solutions of UK, to buy all the outstanding common stock of the latter, Under the agreement, Dataview's founder and chairman, Geoffery Kendell, and its managing director, John Renard, would continue building the business of Dataview Solutions as it merges with Infotech.

B.V.R. Mohan Reddy, CEO, Infotech says, "The acquisition marks a new and important stage of growth for Infotech Enterprises." The company is acquiring Dataview Solutions with an upfront cash payment of $1.8 million, approximately Rs 7.50 crore, and issue of Infotech stocks worth $1.8 million over the next two years, based on the earnings of DataView for fiscal 2000-2001. "Not only does the acquisition broaden our geographic marketing presence into Europe, it also capitalises up on the significant GIS products and services developed by Dataview," Reddy added.

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