RM Education to enter Indian market

RM Education Solutions India (RMESI), the Thiruvananthapuram-based offshore development centre of Britain's RM Plc, a leading supplier of software, services and systems to the UK education segment, plans to foray into the Indian education scene soon. The company currently provides IT-related services to its group companies.

Connell Viegas, chief executive officer, RMESI, told Business Standard that though "at the moment RM does not have a presence in the Indian market, we have started the process of understanding the market by visiting various schools in Kerala. We do have plans to enter the Indian market. This would happen in a couple of years from now."

RMESI is a fully-owned subsidiary of RM Plc and currently provides services ranging from software development and maintenance, testing services, packaging, real time support and remote network management to the RM group firms.

The company, with its Indian base at the Thiruvananthapuram Technopark, recently completed its third phase of expansion.

"With this expansion, our total investment in Technopark has risen to Rs 8.5 crore. We have plans to further expand in Technopark, which will take our total investment to Rs 10 crore," Viegas said.

Viegas added that RMESI posted export earnings to the tune of Rs 15.67 crore during 2004-05 as against Rs 5.20 crore during 2003-04. As per official figures, RMESI was one among the top IT exporters from Kerala during 2003-04. "The company expects Rs 30 crore export earnings during 2005-06," he said.

RMESI operates out of a total of 23,500 sq ft of space in Technopark. "Of this, we have fitted out 20,000 sq ft. Once we complete the fourth phase expansion, we will decide on our next location to expand, based on availability of space in the park. We have not ruled out the option of having our second centre in another Indian city," he added.

On recruitments, Viegas said, "We started our operations in April 2003 with 26 engineers and have 185 today. We will be 250 in the next six months and 300 by the end of 2007."

He said that the company conducted campus recruitment twice a year and "will roll out a scholarship programme from the next academic year."