SSI on the go, completes 10 years

CHENNAI: SSI, which has India's third largest software education company, SSI

Education under its wings along with SSI Enterprise Support and the two-year-old

SSI Technologies, today came out with its vision for the future on completion of

10 years in the industry.

From just one education center in Chennai in 1991, SSI Education today has

grown to over 500 centers across the country, which include its own centers,

franchisees and education service providers. It has also set up international

educational centers in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Dhaka, Colombo, Kathmandu and Seoul

with another one in Myanmar set to start soon. The company is looking at future

growth through franchisees in the domestic and the international market. With

its eyes set on the vast market in China, it has entered into a joint venture

with a Hong Kong-based IT company to gain access to that country.

Though education has been a major revenue earner, its percentage has been

steadily decreasing over the past few years. From 81 per cent in 1999, it

declined to 61 per cent in 2000 and 58 per cent in the first quarter of fiscal

2001.

Eating into its share is the software division. In less than two years, SSI

Technologies has acquired over 35 clients worldwide, including Nasdaq, the US

stock exchange, and Clearstream, a leading clearing bank in Europe. Its share of

revenues has increased to 33 per cent in the first quarter of 2001 from a meager

3 per cent in 1999. It provides vertical solutions in the areas of insurance,

banking, securities, healthcare, telecom, e-business etc.

SSI Enterprise Support provides value added software products, licensing and

support, implementation, maintenance and training solutions on multi products

and platforms. SSI is the leading product sales and support partner of Microsoft

and Oracle in India. It also focuses on customized knowledge management and

productivity enhancement solutions in industry verticals such as FMCG,

insurance, transport, engineering and process industries, among others. It also

has a customer base of over 500, which includes reputed brands such as HCL

Technologies, Wipro, Satyam Infoway, Star TV, LIC, BHEL and NTPC among others.

"We have come a long way from our first education center at Chennai.

Today, we stand as a single entity, harnessing the strengths of three powerful

divisions, where the sum of the parts makes for a greater whole," said

Kalpathi S Suresh, chairman and CEO of SSI Ltd. He also unveiled the new logo of

the company with a brand vision, ‘Raising the bar'.