Global IT firms ramp up local operations

Come January 2004, Motorola India will move into a sprawling 2.8 lakh sq ft campus in Bangalore. The new $13 million campus will house the company's research operations to develop next-generation mobile phones.

Hewlett Peckard (HP), too, is integrating a significant amount of its workforce at its new facility, built across a massive 2.5 lakh sq ft in the IT capital of the country.

Name a multinational IT behemoth and it is ramping up its local operations aggressively. Texas Instruments, Oracle, Accenture, PeopleSoft, SAP, Convergys, Honeywell, IBM, Microsoft, Dell, and India's own Sasken "" all are building their own campusses and are increasing the scale of their operations. IBM, HP, Dell and Microsoft alone have massive campuses spanning a staggering 11 lakh sq ft in Bangalore alone.

Says Soumitra Sana, managing director, Motorola India Electronics Ltd, "Our new campus in Bangalore will be one of India's largest captive R&D facilities with a build in area of 2.8 lakh sq ft. The campus will integrate our two existing centers in Bangalore and will cater to future expansion plans. About 1,200 professionals will work on next-generation technologies here."

"The centre will produce software for Motorola's infrastructure, subscriber and semiconductor products. Currently, the centre is heavily involved in development of software solutions for CDMA-1X products, in addition to the entire range of 2G, 2.5G and 3G mobile phones. We are also involved in the development of wireless applications for both infrastructure and subscriber sectors. In addition to Bluetooth & WAP, the centre will work in areas such as WLAN, multimedia messaging, cable modems and security."

The centre, which is among the first software development units in India to be assessed SEI-CMM Level 5, has also been involved in developing an over-the-air provisioning of CDMA handsets solution for Reliance Infocomm. It also pioneered WAP, Bluetooth and VoIP in Motorola.

"We were among the first telecom companies to realise India's software potential and invest in establishing a development center here. Today, the India development center is an integral part of our operations and is developing cutting-edge solutions in software and applications for Motorola products and on future technologies such as 2.5/3G mobile handsets and networks, consumer electronics," Sana added.

Rajiv Kaul, managing director, Microsoft India, said, "Way back in 1990, Microsoft was among the first major IT companies to set up operations in India. Since then we have made several strategic investments in the country and contributed significantly towards shaping the IT landscape. In 1998, we also set up the Microsoft India Development Centre in Hyderabad for specialised development work on products strategic to Microsoft. And very recently, in October of this year we opened up the Microsoft Global Support Center in Bangalore to reach more customers and support our worldwide customer base. Our overall strategy is to have a multi-facility presence in the country depending on the needs of our business."

Real-estate developers in the city are upbeat on all these plans. Says Harkirat Singh Bedi, managing director, IDEB Constructions, "We are keenly tracking all the MNC developments in Bangalore. We are constructing 6 lakh sq feet ready-to-occupy facilities and built-to-specificiation units for these companies and the first phase of our project is already operational with companies such as L&T Infotech, Amsoft and Nirvana taking space. We are investing Rs 225 crore over the next 12 months for this kind of expansion needs of these IT giants."

SAP Labs, on the other hand, is en route to setting up its second biggest development unit outside of its German headquarters in India. The recently opened 2.5 sq feet campus currently houses 750 professionals and will spearhead the transnational's market access into the Asia-Pacific region. The company is looking at ramping up the headcount to 1,100 over the next 12 months.

Its battery of high-tech professionals will devote their energies to global reasearch and development for products and services introduced to SAP customers in India and other markets worldwide. SAP, known extensively for its manufacturing solutions, undertakes almost 40 per cent of the manufacturing and distribution development in India, thereby making it the company's biggest development center for the manufacturing sector.

Stating a crucial point on India's strength, Peter Zencke, member of SAP Executive Board, said, "Despite challenging economic times, the IT industry in India has maintained its growth momentum due to innovation. To remain competitive today, innovation is essential and India has been at the forefront of setting benchmarks in the industry."

"SAP Labs India has traversed a sharp growth curve to now emerge as a strategic solution development center for the SAP organization worldwide," said Claus Neumann, managing director of SAP Labs India.

"The lab is committed to the development and integration of new initiatives, technologies and capabilities in SAP business solutions for small, midsize and large organizations."

As the development center for the Asia-Pacific region, SAP Labs India is involved in product localisations to suit the legislative requirements of countries across the region. Taking advantage of its proximity to a large customer base in the Asia-Pacific region, SAP Labs India is in a unique position to react quickly to market changes, thus reducing turnaround time for the delivery of solutions.

PeopleSoft, a provider of application software, has recently set up India services centre with an aim of leveraging the strength of 700 professionals, who will focus on development, implementation and support of Enterprise Solutions for its customers worldwide. The initiative will mean customers can implement PeopleSoft's software faster, and at a reduced cost, whilst receiving a high-quality service.

The company's India services centre, the first of its kind in Asia, will also be the largest remote-services centre globally. The facility will offer remote configuration capability utilising PeopleSoft's lab-based implementation methodology, providing high-quality service, while driving down the cost and time required for implementations and upgrades.