Kanbay's Hyd campus to be operational by Jan '06

Kanbay India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the $183-million Kanbay International Inc of the US, is setting up its own campus here in an extent of over 15 acres. The new facility, which is expected to be operational by January 2006, will house around 3,000 associates.

"Kanbay has identified Hyderabad as its next growth centre," Manoj Menon, vice-president (global services delivery), Kanbay Software (India) Private Limited, said.

Incidentally, the Hyderabad development centre, which currently has a strength of 850 people, is the 'Centre of Excellence' for Kanbay's insurance practice.

Focused on providing software solutions to the financial services sector, Kanbay offshores most of its work requirement to India.

About 80 per cent of its 4,000-strong workforce is based out of India with development centres in Pune, Hyderabad and now in Chennai. Nearly 50 per cent of its revenues of $183 million in 2004 was from India.

Menon said that the company was looking at a total strength of around 6,500 people from India to deliver solutions to its customers globally.

At Pune, Kanbay has three development centres with around 2,500 associates. Recently, Kanbay acquired Chennai-based Accurum, a leading software services company, for the capital market for $12 million.

"The acquisition of Accurum has helped us in diversifying our portfolio," Menon said, adding that Kanbay was envisaging a $6 billion additional global market per year. At present, the company has 21 platinum clients from whom Kanbay foresees a business of $5 million each in two years.

Kanbay's business focus areas are credit card services, banking, insurance and securities, encompassing trading, brokerage and investment banking.

Its major clients include Household International, Citigroup, AIG, Experian, 21st Century Insurance, Regence Blue Shield and GE. The immediate plans of the company, according to Menon, is to further strengthen its financial services business.