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Baan plans to pump Rs 400 million into IT business

Baan is simultaneously implementing its Rs 600-million expansion plan for software development.

It has already incorporated a company - Baan Institute (India) Private Limited - and has approached the Foreign Investment Promotion Board for permission for investment.

The Baan Institute in India is the second institute being set up by Baan NV and will be on the same lines as the one existing in the Netherlands. It will, however, be bigger and will train 1,000 professionals every year compared to 300 professionals trained in the Netherlands.

It is scheduled to start operations by October this year. The setting up of the institute will provide Baan with strategic advantages in the enterprise resource planning software market globally at a relatively lower cost compared to that of its competitors.

While on one hand the institute will increase the number of consultants for implementing its ERP solution, the training institute will at the same time ensure a continuous supply of software professionals needed by the massive expansion of software development facilities.

The expansion program is scheduled to be completed by the end of 1999 and nearly 80 per cent of the product development work will be done at this centre.

J S Lamba, general manager, Baan India, currently setting up the Baan Institute said: "Those companies which have decided on an ERP solution are not willing to wait, hence if the demand is not fulfilled it dies down. Lack of consultants is one of the biggest hurdles in fulfilling the demand. We are creating resources for the success of Baan's products, the institute by itself would not be interested in making profits.''

The agenda of Baan Institute goes beyond being a resource provider to the parent company. It also plans to undertake business research with its consulting partners like Ernst & Young, McKinsey & Co and also in association with leading engineering and management institutes in India by sponsoring the research projects.

``The plans for these activities are being finalised. The advantages here are of price as well as that of world class quality which this institute is seeking to leverage,'' Lamba said.

- Compiled from the Indian media

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