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Administer ESOPs online, courtesy ESOP Direct

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

Nanda Kasabe

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PUNE: ESOP Direct, a Pune-based ESOP service provider, has launched an ESOP

administrator module called ESOP Manager for facilitating online administration

for companies.

ESOP Direct was recently spun off as a separate division from Kirtane and

Pandit Consultancy Services (KPCS), which is a part of the KPIT group. ESOP

Direct, headed by Harshu Ghate was hived off in September last year, primarily

to focus on the concept of Employee Stock Option Plans. "The focus at KPCS

was quite different. We were heavily into investment banking, mergers and

acquisitions, business restructuring solutions. Although we were designing ESOPs

for companies, we realized that the skill-sets required for these were quite

different from the usual financial set-ups," Ghate explained.

ESOP Direct recently launched its Web site www.esopdirect.com

with the intention of creating awareness about ESOPs. Significantly, ESOP Direct

is the first Indian company to provide an on-line ESOP administrator.

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The company’s site explains details about the concept, the steps to ESOP,

the prevalent regulations and also how some companies have presented ESOP

related disclosures on their annual results. The Knowledge Center on the site

gives an insight into the ESOP structures, experiences of companies, opinions

and views of international experts.

The global trends, according to Ghate, reveal that more than 88 per cent

companies use software for ESOP administration and over 72 per cent companies

outsource ESOP administration. In India, ESOPs have been administered either

through manual records or Intranet. Both these options are not interactive and

are not useful for multi-locations. The ESOP Manager offers online

administration of ESOPs. Here, every user company has a personalized Bulletin

Board and every ESOP holder has his ESOP record. Moreover, every ESOP holder has

access to the ESOP Analyst to help in decision-making.

"We provide exhaustive query-based reporting to companies. This is done

on a Linux/Oracle framework. With on-going security audits, we ensure the

privacy of every client," he said. Thanks to the ESOP Manager, companies

can focus on their core activities in a cost-effective manner. For the

employees, the ESOP Manager provides 24 x 7 online access and service, the

interactive ESOP Analyst and forward links on personal finance.

Till date, the ESOP Direct has designed and structured ESOPs for around 40

companies. Some of the major clients include Tata Telecom, BSES Telecom,

Shoppers Stop, the UB Group, ESSEL Packaging, Geometric Software and Tata

Interactive Systems.

ESOP Direct is in the process of signing up with an IT company for ESOP

Manager. The company has planned another product, ESOP Review, that would assist

companies which have already gone in for ESOPs to revise their strategies. The

growth plan for the year would be to focus on promoting the ESOP Manager.

"We plan to target the SE Asian markets, Australia, New Zealand and

Japan," Ghate revealed. The company has targeted revenues of Rs 2.5 crore

next year.

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