HCL Perot Systems to set up development centre in U.S
Wednesday, 23 April 2003, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: HCL Perot Systems, a 50:50 joint venture between India's HCL Technologies and the U.S.-based Perot Systems, has decided to set up a software solutions and services centre in the U.S. to expand its presence in the global market. The centre, to be set up in Dallas, will become operational from July this year, said Rajnish Kohli, head (corporate communications) of HCL Perot Systems Ltd. "The centre will mainly focus on providing services, which needs frequent onsite customer interaction, to some important clients in the U.S.," Kohli told IANS. He said investment details for the proposed centre were being finalised. HCL Perot Systems currently manages two development centres in India, one each in Noida on the outskirts of the national capital and in Bangalore, and two business continuity centres in Singapore and London. HCL Perot, which works mainly in the domain of finance, travel, telecom, healthcare and insurance, earns around 45 percent of its business from U.S. and 40 percent from Europe. The rest is contributed by India and Asian markets. The company provides services in Britain, Switzerland, the U.S., Luxembourg, Germany, India, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan and Australia. HCL Perot is also planning to expand its Asia Pacific operation by converting its sales office in Australia into a 100 percent subsidiary later this year. It now has 22 sales offices globally. Kohli said HCL Perot would recruit up to 500 software professionals in the current year to work on the existing and some new projects the company is likely to bag in the coming months. "Currently we employ 1,700 people in India and we will add another 500 professionals in 2003. While the majority would work on projects in Indian development centres, some of them would be sent overseas on onsite jobs." The company, however, ruled out any plans for new activities like business process outsourcing (BPO). "At the moment, there are no plans to get into BPO segment. We will continue to focus on our core competency for growth." As India's galloping software exports growth slows to a trot because of belt tightening measures adopted by clients in the U.S., its prime software export destination BPO has emerged as the next big thing for the IT industry. Lured by the emerging opportunity in the sector, a host of India's top software companies are making a foray into BPO to offset the impact of revenue slowdown from software development. Kohli refused to comment on whether HCL Technologies was planning to raise its stake in the joint venture HCL Perot Systems. Differences had cropped up between HCL Technologies, India's fifth-largest software exporter, and Perot Systems some years back after the latter pushed for changes in the senior management level of joint venture HCL Perot Systems. The spat reached a point where New Delhi-based HCL Technologies contemplated buying out Perot Systems' stake in the joint venture.
Source: IANS
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