China tussle: Hitachi Solutions eyes other Asian countries to expand

The company said it was looking at India, Vietnam, Myanmar and the Philippines as part of its plan to expand itself in the Asia-Pacific region

The growing political differences between the two biggest economies in Northeast Asia – China and Japan – are compelling Hitachi Solutions Limited, a core information technology solutions company of Japan’s Hitachi Group, to look towards other Asian countries like India to expand and sustain growth.

It may be recalled that territorial tensions brew up between the two Asian power houses over the ownership of the uninhabited Senkaku Islands. China had in November 2013 declared that it had imposed an air defence identification zone over part of the East China Sea and Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. The vast zone covers territory claimed by China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.

“We found our development centre in China, which is currently working for our Japanese market, to be interesting 10-15 years ago. However, the market is changing now. We do have some issues between Japan and China in many aspects (political and economic). We think, it is much easier to have sustainable growth here in India,” Masakazu Kuji, executive director of Hitachi Solutions Limited, told mediapersons here on Thursday.

Stating that the existing companies in China were still very important for Hitachi Solutions, he said the company was not just looking at India but was also contemplating spreading wings to countries like Vietnam, Myanmar and the Philippines as part of its plan to expand itself in the Asia-Pacific region. “Given their English-speaking capabilities, they will be a natural fit for us.”  

<b>Global development centre at Hyderabad</b>
The company today announced the setting up of its new global development centre (GDC) in Hyderabad. which would deliver Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Dynamics CRM-based business solutions. Besides driving the global intellectual property (IP) development needs of Hitachi Solutions, the Hyderabad GDC will cater to the support needs for the company’s customers in the US, Europe, Canada and Asia-Pacific. “We currently have 200 consultants across the Hyderabad and Chennai centres. We see good skills in this part of the region and plan to employ about 500 people here by 2015,” said Mike Gillis, chief operating officer of Hitachi Solutions (business solutions group).

At present, Hitachi Solutions represents 20-25 per cent of the $19-billion IT business of Hitachi Group. Kuji said the company garnered $30 million in revenues from its Microsoft Dynamics’ business a year-and-a-half ago.

“Post the acquisition of Canadian consulting company Ideaca a couple of days ago, it (Dynamics' business) is probably $125 million today. We have a mid-term plan of creating $600-million Dynamics’ business by 2015,” he added.

According to Ananth Subramanian, chief executive officer of Hitachi Solutions India Limited, the company had started an initiative in India to address the need for sustainability of their business.

The initiative, called the Microsoft Academic Alliance, involves 6-7 months of in-campus training to 50-100 final year students of computer science discipline, and then a three-month training through internships in Hitachi’s India offices, he said.