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

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November 1-15, 1999 COUNTRY BUZZ

Aptech's New SW Facility Comes up at SEEPZ

Aptech Ltd has inaugurated its new software facility at SEEPZ in Mumbai. Ravindra Gupta, secretary, Department of Electronics, Government of India, inaugurated the facility at a ceremony attended by software industry leaders and Aptech's software clients.

Speaking at the inauguration, Ganesh Natarajan, managing director of Aptech said, "Aptech has made a successful entry into the world of international software with a comprehensive range of products and services. Four major global firms have chosen Aptech as their offshore software development partner and we are confident of crossing the Rs 100 crore mark in our Software business in 2000." Aptech's software activities commenced in 1998 from their STP unit in Mumbai. Earlier this year, the E-Commerce Technologies Centre commenced operations in Bangalore. The SEEPZ unit has been established in 16,000 sq ft of space, with high-speed data communication links and world class facilities for providing a 24-hour offshore development capability to International clients.

Making Smarter Decisions with Intelligent Tools

Anandan: Get focussed The Department of Management Studies at IIT Delhi recently organised a two-day workshop on Data Warehousing for Business Decisions. The Workshop covered various aspects of data warehousing including global trends and implementation issues. Said Anandan G., deputy general manager, Cognos-BI Solutions, IIS Infotech Ltd, "The Cognos approach to data warehousing allows organisations to provide users with `intelligent access' to the warehouse."

Ikos Sets up R&D Centre for EDA Tools

Nunez: Keeping eyes open Ikos Systems Inc., a US-based company, is into manufacturing simulation-based products for electronic design automation (EDA). The president and CEO of Ikos Systems, Ramon Nunez, was in Delhi recently to oversee the company's newly opened research and development facility at Noida. Nunez said, "Another important reason that I am here for is to determine whether India has enough of customer base to kick off the sales process in this country."

Speaking of the challenges that Ikos faces, Nunez said that to support their customer's ambitious goals, the tool vendors like Ikos have to deliver technology that supports the verification of more complex designs in less time. "Equally important is that the value of Ikos tools must keep pace with the market's growing need for higher performance and capacity," he added.

The company's R&D facility in Noida works on a new technology developed by Dellsoft Technology. Ikos acquired the technology and expertise from Dellsoft, through Interra Inc., for this unit investing to the tune of $8.4 million. Ikos develops tools for electronic designing. This recently acquired technology is for the verification of electronic designs. Says Nunez, "These verifications by ordinary computers could take anywhere from a couple of months to even years. We have reduced the time it takes for verification. Verifications tools have a constant need for upgradation, and I believe that this new technology has very important ramifications in the market."

Nunez feels the key concern will remain software development. "We support the customer by offering technical consulting services for integrating systems."

Binary Intros Lindo Systems' Optimisation SW

Choudhary: Cutting expenditure Binary Semantics Ltd has entered into a marketing and distribution tie-up with Lindo Systems Inc., USA to provide linear and nonlinear optimisation software. This software is best suited to maximise profit and minimise cost by reducing wasteful expenditure on decisions involving production planning, transportation, finance, portfolio allocation, capital budgeting, blending, scheduling, inventory, resource allocation and more. According to Akhil Choudhary, managing director, Binary Semantics, "Increased global competitiveness makes it vital for firms to operate in the most optimal manner to ensure that they cut wasteful expenditure especially in areas such as transportation and route scheduling for delivering their products to their markets. In such a scenario, the need for optimisation software is tremendous and we see a great opportunity."

Lindo products will be marketed by Binary's Scientific Research Software Division (SRSD). This is a new division, which markets and distributes scientific softwares from the top most companies in the world.

Geschke: Bold moves Adobe India R&D Centre to
Push e-Paper Strategy

On a recent visit to India, Charles Geschke, chairman and president, Adobe systems Inc. unveiled Adobe's e-Paper strategy. e-Paper, Adobe's name for its electronic-document products, is the key to paperless office. "The Indian R&D centre plays a major role in developing components of the e-Paper strategy," he said.

SDRC Steps up R&D, Plans Training Centres

SDRC India Ltd, the wholly owned subsidiary of US-based CAD/CAM major, has unveiled a two-pronged strategy to strengthen its Indian operations. This involves broadening the size of R&D operations and simultaneously, setting up more training centres. Recently, the company held its 8th India Users' conference in New Delhi which gave its customers a unique opportunity to gain knowledge on various techniques in enterprise product development. SDRC users' conferences have been one of the most sought-after CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM shows in the manufacturing industry and have seen over 2,500 participants in the last seven years.

SDRC India has decided to increase the size of operations of its research and development centre located in Pune. According to Narendar Reddy, country manager, SDRC India, a manifold increase in size of operations had become imperative given the kind of work that was being undertaken at the centre. The Pune centre is the only R&D facility set up by the firm outside US. It develops critical pieces of software for the future product releases of SDRC worldwide. The company already has permission from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for investments up to $5 million in its Indian subsidiary. SDRC has also chalked out a major plan to set up CAD/CAM training centres in association with several reputed educational establishments like the Indian Institutes of Technology and engineering and design colleges. In the last few months, SDRC has opened three centres in Coimbatore, Chennai and Delhi.The company plans to launch the SDRC Partnership Competency Excellence programme early next year to assist firms in meeting their goals.

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