Gitanjali Gems gets into IT

The Rs 1,250 crore jewellery company, Gitanjali Gems, has announced its foray in the information technology (IT) sector by floating Ivida Technologies, a wholly-owned subsidiary, to launch its software, technology and telecom business.

The subsidiary will be essentially engaged in web development, infrastructure management and enterprise resource planning (ERP).

Explaining the rationale behind the move, Sam George, director, Ivida Technologies, said, "The company intends to tap opportunities in the retail boom and the IT sector in general."

He added that technology will play a key role in Gitanjali's expansion plans as the company is looking at automating all its retail operations.

Apart from addressing the IT requirements of the group company, the subsidiary will also cater to its independent clients.

George said, "The company has bagged some US-based jewellery clients for the web portal operations. We are also in talks with companies to be their enterprise resource planning (ERP) partners in India."

He further added that the third area of immediate concern for Ivida would be hardware and networking.

The company is also looking at partnering with solution providers such as JDA, SAP and others for specific retail solutions.

Subsequently, Ivida also aims to focus on media and graphics and knowledge processing outsourcing operations. Currently it has a team of 30 people, which would be scaled upto 75 by the end of the first operational year.

According to Nasscom, software and services exports in 2006-07 grew by 33 per cent to register a revenue of $31.4 billion, whereas the domestic segment grew by 23 per cent to $8.2 billion. Within exports, IT services touched $18 billion, a growth of 35.5 per cent, while ITeS/BPO exports grew by 33.5 per cent to clock a revenue of $8.4 billion.