Computers Today, April 1-15, 2001; Country Buzz, [pg1]

SAP Labs India, a wholly-owned development subsidiary of the $6.3-billion SAP AG of Germany, plans to invest $125 million in the next two years for expanding its existing operations, which includes setting up its own facility in Bangalore.

Unfolding the subsidiary's plans, SAP AG board member Dieter Matheis said that during the current year the company would be investing $26 million in the development activities of its flagship division mySAP.com as it is the E-business platform of the global company. "The focus of the Labs this year will also be on customer relationship management (CRM) and marketplace development. About 30-40 per cent of the proposed $26 million will go into E-CRM projects, while the rest would be spent on enhancing mySAP.com solutions," Matheis disclosed. The company had so far invested $23 million in its Indian operations. "But in the next two years, we will be investing around $125 million in setting up our own infrastructure facility which will be ready for occupation by the third quarter of 2002. The headcount will cross the 1,000 mark, and will be the largest such SAP Labs facility in the world," he added.

SAP Labs India co-director Clas Neumann said the Bangalore facility was stepping up the localisation of R/3 products. "We are also developing mySAP.com solutions for the Asia-Pacific market, besides customising the R/3 products to the Indian industry sectors."

Set up in 1998 at the International Technology Park (ITP) in Bangalore, the subsidiary has been growing over 100 per cent every year to have a customer base of 244 in India alone. Being a cost centre, the company officials declined to reveal the revenues generated from the Indian subsidiary as the billing is done by the parent company in Germany, which also accounts for royalty. Complementing the centre at Waldorf in Germany, the Indian facility is the fifth of its kind. "As the development centre for the South Asia-Pacific region, SAP Labs India is set to play a leading role in all of the company's worldwide initiatives, including customisation of its entire range of products to suit country- and industry-specific needs," Neumann claimed.

Dell Targets 10% Market Share
The computer giant is working on new strategies for the finance, banking, insurance and telecom sectors for ramping up its products' sales.

Dell Computer Corp., the world's leading direct computer system company, has taken concerted steps in order to enhance its India operations. The company, which started its operations in the country in September last year, is working on new strategies for the finance, banking, insurance and telecom sectors. It has appointed K.S. Viswanathan as the managing director for its Indian subsidiary. Having spent 13 years with Wipro as head of the business solutions division, Viswanathan brings with him over 19 years of experience in marketing service with a strong focus on providing infotech solutions to corporate and software development units in the country.

"Direct model will help us win"

How will the slowdown in the US economy affect Asian operations, India in particular?
There is no doubt that the US economy is facing a slowdown and it will impact all the companies in the US market. I see the pressure building up in the Asian markets to make up for the US slowdown. And Dell has identified China and India as the largest emerging markets, followed by Korea and Australia. India is a huge market and is now opening up. I think we are entering the place at the right time and should be able to create an impact here.
What will be your strengths then?
It will be our direct model which will work for us to come out as a winner during the slowdown. The other leading players in computer systems business are retaining at least a two-tier distribution model and spending around 30-40 per cent of the cost. Dell, dealing directly with consumers, has a tremendous price advantage which will work as a competitive edge against others. Dell targets to be in the top three players in the computer systems industry here.

Speaking to Computers Today, Viswanathan said, "Dell Computer India is targeting to pocket 10 per cent of the local market in order to enhance its India operations. It currently holds about 5 per cent of the market share." Dell's line of computer systems includes notebooks and desktop computers, workstations, servers and storage products. He further added that the revenues, after the company launched its direct-to-customer selling operations in India, has grown by 103 per cent in the last five to six months.

The company, however, has ruled out immediate plans to set up manufacturing facilities in India. "We have two manufacturing units in Asia-one each in China and Malaysia. With the expansion of the Malaysian unit, the company is comfortable for the next couple of years," Ron Goh, vice president, Asia, said. Dell has also set up its sales and technical support centre in Bangalore. The company currently has 20 seats, which is expected to grow as the business expands.

Dell has also launched a new range of enterprise products in the Indian market. The latest suite of enterprise products include the general purpose servers, PowerEdge 350 and PowerEdge 1550; application servers, PowerApp.Web 110 and PowerApp.web 120; and storage area network (NAS) products. The PowerApp.webs are turnkey Web server appliances that can be deployed in minutes running either on IIS 5.0 or Linus Apache 1.3.1.2. The appliances are suitable for Internet and application service providers, hosting companies and dotcoms. The company also plans to launch its Intel Itanium processor-based high-performance servers by the middle of this year. These new servers will be available in two versions, based on the speed of the processors.

Linux is the New Mantra for IBM
The firm unveils plans for the development of Linux and making India the hub for its sales and marketing initiatives in the ASEAN/South Asian region

IBM India is eyeing the Linux platform by building an entire range of systems, right from desktops to servers, which include the I and G series. The company would lead its Linux sales and marketing initiatives in the ASEAN/South Asian region from India as it sees the country as one of the largest potential growth markets for Linux in the region.

The newly appointed IBM India managing director and CEO Thomas Abraham told Computers Today: "Our company has enabled our entire range of hardware, software, middleware and services on Linux. We have announced our faith in its future and many of our key strategies will be built around Linux."

Opening Up the Source

ť IBM India is eyeing the Linux platform by building an entire range of systems
ť The firm would lead its Linux sales initiatives in the ASEAN/South Asian region from India
ť The IBM Linux Development Centre in Bangalore is one among the seven such facilities worldwide
ť It plans to develop an operating system for a device the size of a wristwatch

The company is actively participating with the open source community for the development and growth of Linux. The IBM Linux Development Centre in Bangalore is one among the seven such IBM facilities worldwide that supports business partners and independent software vendors across the ASEAN/South Asian region. It brings key IBM enterprise-class strengths to Linux, especially in areas such as reliability, availability and service, and clustering and file journaling systems.

Besides this, the company has plans to develop an operating system for a device the size of a wristwatch, thereby demonstrating the viability of Linux across all platforms-from large enterprise servers, to workstations, desktops and mobile computers to smallest intelligent devices. "We have announced many programs to develop the base for Linux in the country that includes premier education programs to develop skills and to enable application porting and development. We will very soon announce a university program which will enable universities to develop curriculum with applications, middleware and tools on Linux," said Abraham. Besides this, the company would also manufacture IBM Netfinity server at its Pondicherry facility. Set up in November 1999, this plant has been manufacturing desktop computers.

In spite of the slowdown in the US economy, IBM India has proposed major plans to increase its operations in the country by increasing its manpower strength to 10,000 within the next two to three years; open a development facility in Gurgaon near Delhi, and consolidate its development centres in Bangalore into a single software development institution. As part of the staff induction programme, the company plans to appoint as many as 1,700 new software professionals taking up its total strength to 4,500. This apart, the company has also earmarked $100 million investment in improving infrastructure such as real estate, bandwidth and professionals.

The US-based auto major, Ford Motor Co., plans to make India the hub for outsourcing software solutions and technologies required for its Asia-Pacific operations. It has set up a wholly-owned IT arm, Ford Information Technology Services of India (FITSI), to develop an E-business strategy and provide CRM solutions. John E. Larson, director, Ford Asia-Pacific (IT), said the company has earmarked a sum of $6-10 million for setting up a software development centre in Tidel Park, Chennai.

Ishoni Networks, which is engaged in building broadband engines, has raised nearly $35 million from several venture capital firms, investment banks, venture lenders and strategic partners in the third round of venture funding. According to the company, the new investors include Brad Peery Capital, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Banc Alex Brown, PacRim Venture Partners, SinoStar Capital and several other strategic investors. Investors from the earlier round, Bessemer Venture Partners, Information Technology Ventures, INVESCO Private Capital and Lucent Venture Partners, also participated. The company has so far raised approximately $65 million.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corp. (DMRC), which is executing the Rs 8,400 crore mass rapid transport system in the capital, has awarded a Rs 400-crore contract for the design and supply of the automatic train control, signalling and telecommunications system to a consortium led by Alstom Transport (India) Ltd. Alstom Transport (France), Alcatel (Portugal) and Sumitomo Corp. (Japan) are the other members of the consortium. The signalling and train control communication system will use microprocessor-controlled "solid-state-interlocking" to ensure full safety during the operation of metro trains.