IBS plans to go public in 2004

Sreekumar R

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: IBS group, a software exporter from Kerala, is charting an ambitious growth plan and would go public in 2004. IBS as part of its expansion plans is opening a new development center in Bangalore apart from opening new centers in UK and Japan.

V K Mathews, Chairman and Managing Director, IBS however refused to reveal the turnover of the IBS group that has now emerged as a leading player in the travel, transportation and logistics (TTL) sectors. IBS Software Services that had a 60:40 joint venture arrangement with Atraxis Group of Swiss Air had bought back the Atraxis shares when the company was sold to EDS. The future growth of the company is very much linked to additional capital infusion through equity, Mathews said.

Outlining his business vision, Mathews said that by 2007 IBS wants to become a leading supplier of software in the TTL segment. "Our focus shall continue to be in TTL although we would be adding one more vertical into our business before 2007," Mathews said. "IBS hopes to achieve a turnover of Rs 250 crore in another five years," he added.

IBS had attained CMM Level 5 recently and would be focussing on product development rather than just projects as other Indian companies are doing. It has already developed a good portfolio of products for the TTL segment. iPort, TopAir, iTrack and Proficient, a project management tool, are some of them.

"IBS' greatest achievement is the development of iRES, a new generation passenger services systems (PSS). Launched in New Orleans in October, the new PSS is expected to revolutionize the transportation industry that has been running on legacy system of IBM and Unisys," Mathews added.

It may be recalled that the grounding of Swiss Air, the largest customer of IBS, had affected its operations last year. However, new projects and more geographical coverage in Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific had helped the IBS turnaround, according to Mathews.