Persistent announces major expansion plans

BANGALORE: Persistent Systems, a provider of software product development services, today announced the first phase of major expansion plans.

In a statement issued here, Persistent said it plans to increase its team strength by 40 per cent by the year-end. It currently has over 2000 employees.

Parallel to this expansion, Persistent also announced setting up of a new facility for 2500 software

professionals in the heart of Pune by March 2006.

"The Software Product Development space is developing rapidly and the market has witnessed remarkable growth in the last several quarters. Our expansion plans have been charted out to meet this growing market demand," says Dr. Anand Deshpande, chairman & managing director, Persistent.

According to a NASSCOM-McKinsey report, the global market for product and technology services, otherwise known as outsourced product development, grew from $1.08 billion to $1.40 billion in FY 2002-03, thereby registering a growth of 29.4% in a single year. In FY 2004-05, this figure was pegged

at $3 billion and is expected to touch a whopping $8-11 billion by 2008.

Persistent's expansion plan is fuelled by a 79% increase in the company's export revenue in FY 2004-05 and a rise in its team strength from 841 in 2004 to its current strength of 2016. The growth drivers have been in the areas of Telecom, Life Sciences, Connectors, Data Infrastructure, Security & Compliance, Supply Chain Collaboration and RFID.