BANGALORE: BPL Telecom Ltd., the networking and info-tech arm of the Rs 4,300
crore BPL group, is planning to have four offshore development centers (ODCs) in
Bangalore. Out of the four ODCs, one development facility will be opened in the
next three months and the other three are in the planning stage. The first
center will have around 750 professionals though the company refused to divulge
more details about other ODCs and the investment part.
Speaking about future plans, BPL Telecom CEO V N Bhattacharya said that the
company would focus on infotech business, which comprises telecom business
solutions, enterprise solutions, system and embedded software and engineering
software. "We are targeting IT business worth Rs 700 crore in the next four
years. The revenue for telecom and IT would be Rs 1,270 crore by 2004," he
added. BPL has a wholly owned subsidiary at Atlanta in the US. It is also
looking at the Japanese and European markets and targeting 100 per cent exports.
The company has partnered with Mitsui, Japan, for marketing IT services in
Europe.
Bhattacharya said that BPL Telecom would target the US brown goods industry,
auto industry and design houses which plan to outsource projects. It plans to
leverage its domain strengths in telecom, manufacturing and engineering services
and achieve rapid growth through its ODCs–overseas as well as in India–and
establish marketing organizations in the US, Europe and South East Asia.
The networking business is mostly domestic and the company has bagged an
order from the Maharashtra State Electricity Board to set up voice and data
network infrastructure worth Rs 14 crore over high voltage lines to power
distribution companies, which will be used for the Dabhol Power Project. The
company has projected a revenue of Rs 779 crore and profits of Rs 165.7 crore
for the year ending March 2003. For 2000-01, revenue and profits have been
projected at Rs 245 crore and Rs 34.9 crore respectively.