Smiths Aerospace & HCL open Chennai dev center

By Aritra   |   Wednesday, 28 February 2007, 18:30 IST
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Chennai: Smiths Aerospace, in collaboration with HCL Technologies has opened its development center in Chennai. The inauguration of the development center by Mike Taylor, vice president, supply chain, Smiths Aerospace follows the signing of an agreement between Smiths Aerospace, part of the global technology business Smiths Group and HCL Technologies on December 20, 2006. As per the specifications in the agreement, HCL will provide the resources and management at the center, assigning 60 positions for engineering services. The center will commence work immediately. Speaking at the inauguration, Taylor said that the Group's partnership with HCL would result in time, cost, and quality benefits for the company. He further pointed out that the company's association with HCL goes back to 2005. The dedicated design center will cater to Smiths Aerospace's global engineering requirements, and will have the ability to ramp up quickly to more than 150 dedicated professionals who will offer a multitude of IT and engineering services, noted HCL's Ramesh Pillai, director, aerospace practice, North America. He stated that HCL is the first Indian IT solutions provider in the aerospace segment to obtain AS 9100 certification. Its aerospace practice currently counts several global aerospace majors including airframe manufacturers, system integrators and Tier 1 suppliers amongst its clients. HCL Technologies, along with its subsidiaries, had revenues of $1.058bn for the twelve-month period ending 30th September 2006. The Smiths Group on the other hand, has four divisions: Aerospace, Detection, Medical and Specialty Engineering. On 15 January 2007 it announced the sale of Smiths Aerospace to GE, which remains subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals.