Inteliant begins India operations

Nanda Kasabe

PUNE: The $100 million Inteliant Corporation has begun operations in India

through its 100 per cent subsidiary in Pune, Inteliant Corporation, India

operations. Inteliant is a wholly owned subsidiary and the IT arm of the $350

million SOS Staffing Services Inc., a Nasdaq listed company based in the US.

"We have grown by using the acquisitions strategy in the US. We see a

tremendous opportunity for offshore development work in India and also wish to

cater to the Indian customers offering them quality work," said managing

director, India operations Sunil Poddar. The development center at Pune is

expected to cater to the needs of the Asia Pacific region.

The Pune development center, incidentally, is the first venture of Inteliant

Corporation outside the US. Pune was primarily chosen for setting up the first

STPI in the country and its strong base in educational institutions. The company

is planning to take the acquisition route in India for its growth. "There

are plans to open offices in Delhi and also South India,'' he explained. While

the Delhi operations would be more of a representative part of the company,

Inteliant is seriously toying with the possibility of establishing another

development center in the South.

The company has been recruiting quite heavily from India since 1998 and

therefore decided that a presence in India would be a better strategy. "The

focus will be two-fold - developing a relationship with whom we hire and

providing a face to talk to them,'' Poddar said. Pune would primarily focus on

Web-based application software. The company has already begun work on a pilot

project. Inteliant has developed expertise in the areas of e-business solutions,

Internet technologies, convergent networking, Enterprise Resource Management (ERM)

and communications infrastructure for providing end to end operational support

system (OSS). It has provided e-business solutions for majors such as HP,

AT&T and Cisco Systems among others.

"We see Pune emerging as a major center for taking care of the needs of

the Asia Pacific region. MNCs now can also have the option to use this

relationship to get their work done in India," Poddar said. He saw this as

a major revenue channel with the existing customers, which would also bring in

the much-needed forex into the country.

Inteliant has invested around Rs 1 crore in setting up the development center

at Pune. Poddar says this figure would rise to Rs 6 crore by the end of March

2001, when the company will have a presence in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai.

The e-business solutions in the areas of healthcare, banking, finance and

manufacturing industry could either be replicated to the local environment or

even building new solutions as per the needs of the customer.