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SaveSmart begins development work in India

Founded by Ashok Narasimhan, former president of Wipro Infotech and Wipro Systems, SaveSmart provides electronic commerce services on the Internet.

Narasimhan said the pilot project for the new service has been successfully completed and the new service is expected to start in August.

The Indian company, SaveSmart Software (India) Private Limited, is headed by Managing Director P N Vaidyanathan.

"The India development centre will develop products for today's hot areas: Internet and Web technologies and relational databases," Vaidyanathan said. "Here software work will be predominantly product-oriented. We will scale up to 100 professionals in 24 months." "The Indian centre is an extension of SaveSmart's Silicon Valley-based R&D facility," Narasimhan said. "We have a couple of process-level patents pending in the US for products our R&D centre has designed."

"It is a new category of Internet services that is dedicated to mass customising as opposed to mass communicating. Customising because SaveSmart uses the PC on the Internet to deliver a desired promotion to the customer. Through our multimedia mode we enable interactivity," Narasimhan said.

He said the world is moving from physical commerce to electronic commerce. "Completing the transaction electronically is what our service provides."

SaveSmart's commerce service will integrate the electronic fund network with the sale of products. The company will earn its revenue from product suppliers like Reebok or Hewlett-Packard or Netscape who sell their wares over the Internet.

Narasimhan said funds for his new venture have been raised from private investors. SoftBank, the largest Japanese software developer, has invested in SaveSmart. SoftBank also owns Ziff Davis Publishing. Bill Melton, founder-chairman of Cybercash, is another strategic investor. Germany-based Quandt Family Fund, which owns 48 per cent of BMW, has invested in SaveSmart.

Narasimhan said he had selected Bangalore for the new development centre as his past experience with the city had been positive. Further, he says, Bangalaore has developed critical mass in key technology areas.

- Compiled from the Indian media

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