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CBS to sink Rs 120 million in Indian subsidiary

The investment would be made over an year and a half. CBS's services include consultancy on strategic technology and developing and implementing customised solutions.

T O D A Y

• tv.comp • CBS to invest Rs 120m • STPI agenda • MDC to spread wings

CBSI Executive Vice-President (Operations) K Subrahmaniam has been quoted as saying that the expansion of CBSI would be commensurate with global expansion plans. "We are growing in numbers. The company, which employs about 1,450 people in India, will grow to 2,000 people by next year.''

Rs 120 million would be used to expand CBSI's software development facilities in Madras and Bangalore and to spruce up its training division.

The company is also looking at upgrading its infrastructure and communication facilities.

CBSI is acquiring more space in Madras. This would be between 50,000 and 75,000 square feet. In Bangalore, the company expanded in an additional area of 10,000 square feet last month.

Besides, CBSI is gearing up to handle cutting-edge technology projects in e-commerce, object-oriented technology, Internet and in Web enabling legacy systems. Actually, consultancy in emerging technologies is to be a focus area.

CBS Inc's acquisition of companies such as Synergy Software Inc and Costello & Associates has resulted in a lot of value addition in consultancy and technology work areas. "This has helped us reach out to more customers,'' Subrahmaniam claims.

CBS Inc, with a presence in Australia, Germany, the UK and Japan, recently opened a software development centre in the Philippines. "The software skills in the Philippines are good. We have about 30 people there and this will go up to 80 this year,'' he said.

The Indian subsidiary would provide technical support and the delivery methodology to the Philippines software development centre. Apart from this, India provides on-going managerial support.

The company set up an ERP centre for excellence in Bombay a couple of months ago. About 30 professionals provide solutions to domestic and international clients.

CBSI, which has a tieup with SAP and PeopleSoft, will serve as a one-stop solution covering networking, re-engineering, consulting and ERP implementation.

There are plans to have similar ERP solutions centres at other cities. The Bombay centre will serve as the centre of excellence for ERP solutions.

CBS India's revenues have grown from $0.5 million in 1992 to $10.8 millions in 1997. The company expects to keep up the over 100 per cent growth rate in revenue terms.

It has firmed up plans to revamp its training division. "Our training is focussed on software engineering principles rather than usage of tools. We are focussing on bringing about a marked improvement in the quality of training to help people become industry-ready faster,'' Subrahmaniam says.

The company's training division is headquartered in Hyderabad and it has centres in Madras, Visakhapatnam, Bombay and Bangalore. An year-long course in software engineering costs about Rs 32,000 and the fee for an AS/400 training course for three months is almost the same.

- Compiled from the Indian media

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