Vadodara to be hub for US IT firm

In a major boost to the nascent IT industry of Gujarat, North-America-based Eclipsys, which is one of the leading providers of advanced integrated information software for healthcare organisations in the US, has decided to make Vadodara its nerve-centre for its foray into Asia- Pacific and the West Asia region.

The company, which has announced the establishment of a development centre in Vadodara, is working on a model wherein its operations in centres around Asia and the West Asia would be co-ordinated from Vadodara owing to the proximity to major metros as well as the low labour cost.

"We are in the process of establishing centres in Singapore, Egypt and a few other countries in the near future and our Vadodara centre will be the main co-ordination centre for all our operations similar to our headoffice in North America," said Keith Figioli, vice-president, Eclipsys.

The company is already planning a second centre in India, most probably on the outskirts of Maharashtra, which would supplement the Vadodara centre, said Figioli. Eclipsys would be investing $ 5 million this fiscal year and another $3-4 million in the next two years in Vadodara.

Typically, a software costs around $ 20 million in the company's sales card in the US but in India, it would be around $1-2 million.

Also, the company expects its softwares, which range from solutions for physicians, nurses, decision support, critical care, surgical management and others to cater mostly to integrated hospital chains in the country, which usually run on basic in-house software.

The company is signing a deal with a Mumbai-based pediatric hospital and is in talks with 5-6 other healthcare majors from different parts of the country.

Eclipsys, which earlier had no plans to come to Vadodara had a change in strategy after it acquired Sysware Healthcare Systems' subsidiary, Mausam Technologies, in Vadodara. It had earlier signed a strategic agreement with Sysware to remarket its PowerLAB laboratory information system (LIS) as Sunrise Laboratory Manager.

Following the acquisition, the 130 or so current Sysware employees in America and India have become Eclipsys employees. With, Vadodara being the head centre, the company plans to recruit 250 employees by the end of 2007 and another 500 in the next two years for the centre.

Eclipsys' operations in India will be headed by IIM-A alumnus of the 1982 batch, Nitin Deshpande, who has plans to enter into tie-ups with the MS University, Vadodara, as well as other premier institutes in the state for campus recruitments in the coming few months.