Microsoft ties up with ICIL

Microsoft Corp India Pvt. Ltd. and International Computers

(India) Limited (ICIL) recently announced an alliance to address the growing domestic and

international e-commerce markets.

The web market in India, according to a recent NASSCOM

study, is slated to cross the Rs 3,000 crore mark by 2002 and e-commerce, both

business-to-business and business-to-consumer, is expected to be a significant

contributor. In keeping with this trend, ICIL's centers of excellence in Pune and New

Delhi will showcase software solutions based on Microsoft e-commerce technologies.

According to the agreement, ICIL will develop e-commerce

solutions based around Microsoft platforms and technologies. ICIL will also set up

Microsoft's centers of excellence in Pune and New Delhi and also deliver expertise

required by customers to develop, deploy and host commerce systems and will jointly work

with Microsoft on strategic accounts. On the other hand, Microsoft will train ICIL

personnel on its e-commerce products and technologies. ICIL will also work to train and

certify more than 700 personnel as Microsoft certified software professionals by the year

2000.