i2 Technologies to invest $20 m in India

BANGALORE: US business-to-business software maker i2 Technologies Inc plans
to invest up to $20 million in India over two years to boost product development
and cut global costs, the head of its Indian unit said.

Texas-based i2, whose software helps firms manage inventories and purchases,
will shift 150 US-based employees to India by the end of this month, R
Swaminathan, managing director of i2 Technologies India Pvt Ltd., told Reuters
in an e-mail reply to questions.

"The goal is to have 50 per cent development work done out of the US and
50 per cent done in India," he said. Between 17 and 20 per cent of i2's
global software development work is being done by the 1,000-strong Indian unit,
which is adding staff and expanding infrastructure.

Like i2, many slowdown-hit technology firms like IBM, Oracle and Sun
Microsystems have turned to India's cost-efficient engineers to develop
software. Founded by Indian-born Sanjiv Sidhu, i2, an early leader in supply
chain software to manage raw materials, now brings buyers and sellers together
online.

It posted a $5.53 billion net loss in its July-September third quarter and
revenues fell 39 per cent year-on-year. The firm's shares closed at $8.8 on the
Nasdaq on Tuesday. i2's chief executive officer Gregory Brady told Reuters in an
interview on Tuesday that corporate technology spending had begun to recover
after shrinking for the better part of 2001.

Asia, which historically accounts for about 12 to 15 per cent of group
revenues, is i2's fastest-growing market, Brady said. Swaminathan said India was
always a key source of workers for i2.

The company, which said last October that it would slash 1,000 jobs, or 20
per cent of its workforce, planned many cost cutting initiatives including an
invitation to its software development staff to shift to India. "The
voluntary relocation programme was being planned for quite some time. It was
just accelerated because of the recent economic conditions," Swaminathan
said.

(C) Reuters Limited.