CHENNAI: CSS Group, the San Jose-based IT Services Group with offshore facilities in Chennai, has announced that it has acquired e-Brahma Technologies, a Coimbatore headquartered IT Services firm specializing in the ERP space.

The acquisition has been fully funded from internal reserves. Paramasivam, founder e- Brahma will join the group as VP Engineering and Ramasubramaniam, co-founder of e-Brahma will head the ERP offerings of the CSS group

e-Brahma has competence in J2EE/J2ME/C++ and a proven track record in Navision, an Enterprise Business Solution for SMEs. The company is also a Microsoft Business Solutions partner for Navision.

e-Brahma Technologies has a 25000 sq. ft facility in Coimbatore and the acquisition marks CSS Group's foray into Tier 2 cities in India with its expansion into Coimbatore. CSS plans to add about 150 IT professionals in Coimbatore this year. e-Brahma's strengths in the ERP space ties-in well with the CSS Group's imminent entry into the packaged play segment, with implementation of SME ERPs.

This acquisition, and the addition of a new service offering, is another aggressive step in the CSS Group's plans to become a $100m IT Group in 12 – 18 months. The CSS Group currently employs over 3500 professionals out of its offshore facilities in Chennai, India and has plans to grow its headcount to over 6000 over the next one-year.

Commenting on the acquisition, Shiva Ramani, Co-Founder, CSS Group said, “We expect the acquisition to give us a six-month head start in terms of our entry into the SME ERP segment. e-Brahma's core competence in this space will give us a much wider canvas to operate in the global IT space.”

On its expansion into Tier 2 towns, Shiva Ramani said, “We had earlier this year indicated our intention to expand into Tier 2 cities. Coimbatore has a number of reputed technical institutions and this gives us easy access to the huge talent pool available there. We expect our expansion into Coimbatore to accelerate the employee acquisition growth at SlashSupport, which is currently witnessing a lot of customer traction, both in Tech Support as well as in the Infrastructure Management space.”