CHENNAI: iGate Global solutions has announced that its Chennai operations would be made a 'Center of Excellence' (CoE) for J2EE and .NET, which will focus on developing cutting edge applications for the manufacturing vertical.

Announcing this at the inauguration of its second facility in Chennai, iGate CEO Phaneesh Murthy said, "iGate has identified Chennai as a choice for its CoE, thereby building J2EE and .NET competencies for the manufacturing vertical". With the addition of the second facility in 35,000 sq ft, iGate's total office space is increased by one lakh sq ft and would house around 350 employees in the new facility. The company also plans to increase its total investment from Rs 7.5 crore to Rs 15 crore for its Chennai operations.

"Our strategy has always been to move towards a value-added intellectual property intensive model and in this context, it is imperative to put in place CoE", Murthy said. "The operating profit of the company has improved from minus two percent to six percent over the last four quarters and we hope to improve this substantially over the next few quarters," he added.

The company has plans to develop its campus program in the five-acre land of iGate, here, after the completion of the development center in the 14-acre land in Bangalore, which will take its total offshore infrastructure to 5,50,000 sq ft. The company also announced that it would hire 1,000 people in the next 12 months for its BPO operations in the Hyderabad center, which was setup last year.

Inaugurating the new facility, Tamil Nadu IT secretary, Vivek Harinarain said that Chennai is witnessing faster growth in IT and by 2010, it would be known as the best IT destination for companies who are interested in investing in India. "The companies, who have setup their offshore development centers in Chennai have grown faster than the expected period and it is because of the availability of the quality talent, work ethics and low operational cost," he added. He also announced the establishment of Knowledge Industry Townships (KITS) at the suburbs of Chennai shortly.

Email This   Print This   Comments   RSS