Computers Today, July 1-15, 1999, Country Buzz, pg2

July 1-15, 1999 COUNTRY BUZZ

APC to Set up Manufacturing Base in B'lore

Sethi: The booming USP market is a strong attraction factor Power shortages are music to its ears. Which is why American Power Conversion (APC) India feels it is in the right place at the right time. APC India has announced its plans to set up a manufacturing base in the country. To be established in Bangalore, this would be the company's fourth manufacturing unit in Asia after three in Philippines and one in China. The upcoming facility is expected to be completely operational by end-1999. According to Rishipal Sethi, country general manager, APC India, "With the Indian UPS market witnessing a growth of about 34 percent each year, the company has decided to establish a manufacturing base here. The manufacturing facility would cater to the increasing requirements of the Indian market. At a later stage, we may look at exporting the UPSs to other regions," Sethi adds, declining to divulge further details.

The company, which set up a subsidiary in India in 1997, has five distributors here. These include Electronic Resources India Ltd (ERIL), Compuage, Datapro and Godrej Pacific Technology. APC has also launched its Back-UPS AVR 500, targeted at network and standalone computers. The product offers efficient use of battery runtime and is compatible for use with most fuel-based generators.

CITIL's Flexcube To Net-enable Mainframes

Citicorp Information Technology Industries Ltd (CITIL), an affiliate of Citicorp, is developing an Internet-enabled version of its banking automation solution called Flexcube. The new product, which allows banks to have an Internet interface even with its existing technology base, would target large banks in Europe and US. The new product would cover all core processes of banks.

Explaining the technology, R. Ravisankar, CEO, Citil says, "There are many banks in Europe, which depend on mainframe and other older versions of technology and have invested huge sums in building infrastructure over the years. These banks stand to lose business if there is a serious shift towards Internet banking sooner or later. But products like Flexcube seek to plug this technology with the newer user interface." The company is currently holding talks with various foreign banks to implement the solution. CITIL is likely to complete the development of Flexcube by the year-end.

ENTERPRISE COMPUTING & USERS
Price Waterhouse Revamps HR Management at HLL

Towards streamlining the HR functions at Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL), Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) has completed the implementation of the first large PeopleSoft Human Resource Management System (HRMS), at the former's head office in Mumbai. The project started in May 1998 and phase I of the system was recently delivered live.

Prior to this implementation, HLL had a number of legacy systems in the area of HR on different platforms. HLL chose PeopleSoft as a replacement for its legacy systems so that all HR-related data would be available in one central system, to deliver increased efficiency through automation and standardisation of HR processes, and bringing HR data structures in line with Unilever worldwide. In addition, HLL decided to proceed further and implement workflows to support the key HR processes of the organisation.

The project was undertaken as a joint effort between HLL and PwC and was based on PwC's global PeopleSoft implementation methodology. The development effort was supported by PwC's global helpdesk.

The Bug is a Business Problem

The millennium issue is a business rather than an IT headache. If you did not believe that, there were enough eye-openers at a seminar on Y2K, held recently in Mumbai. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and IT Secure, a computer security solutions company, organised the "Y2K-Clean Management" seminar in Mumbai recently. The seminar, which was inaugurated by Vijay Jatia, member core group, FICCI, was attended by CEOs, MIS managers and Y2K project heads of various organisations.

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