MUMBAI, INDIA: Software services firm NIIT Technologies Ltd is looking at a subscription-based business model to boost revenue and improve margins, a senior official said on the sidelines of an industry conference. 

The company on Thursday unveiled a software service for the business segment, which can be made available to companies as and when required or on demand.

"Since this is a non-linear kind of a model - where it is not related to the headcount and does not require a ramp-up, it will definitely reduce wage pressure and improve profitability," chief executive officer Arvind Thakur said.

For the quarter to December 2007, NIIT Tech's consolidated net was nearly flat at 353 million rupees, while operating margin fell to 19 percent from 21 per cent the year ago, according to figures on the firm's Website.

Industry research firm Gartner Inc has forecast that by 2012 at least a third of business application software spending will be subscription-based instead of licensed products.

NIIT plans to introduce the model in India first and based on the success here, adopt it globally.

Separately, chairman Rajendra Pawar said there were no immediate plan for selling sister firm NIIT Ltd's 25 percent stake in NIIT Tech.

There have been media reports of the sale plan and was part of the company's stated intention about three years ago to sell the stake to a strategic partner.