Microsoft Corp India Pvt. Ltd. and International Computers
(India) Limited (ICIL) recently announced an alliance to address the growing domestic and
international e-commerce markets.
The web market in India, according to a recent NASSCOM
study, is slated to cross the Rs 3,000 crore mark by 2002 and e-commerce, both
business-to-business and business-to-consumer, is expected to be a significant
contributor. In keeping with this trend, ICIL's centers of excellence in Pune and New
Delhi will showcase software solutions based on Microsoft e-commerce technologies.
According to the agreement, ICIL will develop e-commerce
solutions based around Microsoft platforms and technologies. ICIL will also set up
Microsoft's centers of excellence in Pune and New Delhi and also deliver expertise
required by customers to develop, deploy and host commerce systems and will jointly work
with Microsoft on strategic accounts. On the other hand, Microsoft will train ICIL
personnel on its e-commerce products and technologies. ICIL will also work to train and
certify more than 700 personnel as Microsoft certified software professionals by the year
2000.