Nettlinx Limited, a Hyderabad-based Internet service provider and software development company, has entered into a joint venture (JV) agreement with Srikari Management Consultants to offer new costing software under the ‘Cost Excel’ brand.
Nettlinx will develop a host of customised vertical-specific software packages for the manufacturing industry utilising the cost management practices being implemented by Srikari.
Announcing the launch of the Cost Excel software for the beverage industry here on Wednesday, Narasimha Murthy, system architect and director of Srikari, said the JV was targeting the 150 beverage companies including carbonated softdrink, mineral water, fruit juice makers and distilleries and breweries in the country with the new product.
“The solution is being piloted at Sarvaraya Sugar Limited, a franchisee of Coca-Cola, and we expect about 15 companies to deploy this software in the first year of launch,” he said, adding the JV was looking at rolling out this package in other countries in due course.
The software package, which picks up financial and operational input data in Excel form besides providing input fields covering administrative module, equipment history, vehicle monitoring and stores systems, and cost and stock statements, is priced between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2 lakh per installation.
“A major part of the revenue from the sale of Cost Excel goes to the Narasimha Murthy Foundation, a registered trust which works in the fields of cost excellence in the Indian industry, cost education and for other charitable activities,” Murthy said.
Meanwhile, Nettlinx’s executive director Vijay Bhaskar Reddy said the company’s proposed television channel will be further delayed as they intend not to clutter the channel with run-of-the-mill content.
The Rs 12-crore company, had in 2008, announced that it plans to launch a channel focusing on health and wealth that will be telecast in the four southern languages. “We are now planning to create a slot-based edutainment channel at an investment of Rs 15 crore, for which a government licence is already in place. We are currently scouting for partners for IP-based content, and it will take a couple of years for the channel to go on air,” Reddy said.
