BANGALORE, INDIA: Infosys today said it has invested in Australia's IT services industry, committing up to AUS$1.9 million in cash and services to the newly formed Smart Services Cooperative Research Centre (CRC).

The program, launched on July 3, 2008 by Kim Carr, minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, will bring together the best technology minds from industry, six Australian universities and Government to develop an ambitious R&D program aimed at creating intellectual property (IP) of value to Australia's services market – with initial demonstrators planned for the finance, media and government sectors, Infosys said in a statement.

Over the course of the program, this IP will be engineered and commercialised by CRC participants resulting in new technology products and services that will increase the competitiveness of Australia's IT industry and make the services market more innovative.

Infosys is the only global IT services company involved with the program. It is spearheading the Smart Service CRC from a technology perspective alongside SAP. Industry heavyweights including Telstra, Fairfax Digital and Suncorp-Metway are also involved in setting the research agenda.

"Innovation is imperative for growth and with Australia an emerging market on the global IT stage, we're pleased to be contributing to the development of the industry in such a significant way," said Gary Ebeyan, chief executive officer of Infosys Australia.

"The good part of the Smart Services CRC is that we get to work with not only the best and brightest minds from academia but also the private sector – some of whom are our clients. With these companies actively setting the research agenda, our clients as well as the IT industry would be able to reap long-term benefits of this IP development."

Infosys's participation in Smart Services CRC is a joint venture between its Australian subsidiary (Infosys Australia) and SETLabs, the company's research group, headquartered in India. As part of the collaboration, Infosys Australia and SETLabs will initially focus on three research projects exploring business process innovation and service orientated architecture (SOA).

"The CRC program will extend on the research currently being undertaken by SETLabs and provide valuable insights into the needs of the Australian market. It's a good example of how Infosys is thinking globally and acting locally," Ebeyan explained.

The Smart Services CRC will focus on producing graduates with the skills required to alleviate the industry's skills shortage through its close association with Australia's leading universities.

For a number of years Infosys has been collaborating with academic institutions through joint research collaboration, its global internship program InStep as well as its industry-academia program Campus Connect. It plans to use its involvement with Smart Services CRC as a platform to continue this work.

The Smart Services CRC research program will commence in the second half of 2008.