PolicyOne opens shop in India

BANGALORE: PolicyOne Inc., an US-based company engaged in the area of

Internet Infrastructure, has launched its fully owned subsidiary in India. The

new company has been formed as a result of merger of Duet Technologies Inc. and

TunnelNet Inc. USA. According to a release, PolicyOne will leverage the strong

software and hardware design capabilities of the two erstwhile companies to

address the worldwide Internet Infrastructure market.

The release said that PolicyOne would develop a product (hardware and

software system) that was targeted at the unserved market demand in the Internet

infrastructure space. In the first phase, this product will be marketed in the

"Internet ready markets" such as US, Europe and Japan.

The second phase will mark its introduction in countries of Latin America,

Eastern Europe and Pan-Asia, including India. PolicyOne Inc. will take over the

Indian operations of Duet Technologies. Duet Technologies had in mid 1999 made a

strategic agreement with Motorola Inc. under which Duet transferred its EDA,

memory compilers and ASIC libraries resources to Motorola in order to focus on

the Internet infrastructure opportunity.

The release added PolicyOne planned to recruit about 100 software developers

and ASIC, Chip and board designers by the end of this year. It is shifting its

headquarters to a new 40,000 sq. ft. facility in Silicon Valley, shortly.

"We will be investing between Rs 10 to 15 crore in the first year of

operations, in the Indian subsidiary", said Vimal Vaidya, CEO and President

of PolicyOne. The Company's India development center will be involved with

product development work right from the inception, along with their counterparts

in the US development facilities. "A large portion of the software system

for the new product will be developed in India", informed Vaidya. After the

product is launched in the market, the Indian subsidiary will be expanded to

provide sales services and support, in addition to product development.