IDC says India's domestic BPO market to touch $6.82 bn

After establishing itself as a major player in the international BPO market, India is now set to shift focus on the domestic market, which is projected to grow at over 30% annually.

According to a report by IT research firm IDC India, the country's domestic BPO market, with nearly 500 players, will grow at a CAGR of 33.3% to touch revenues of $6.82 billion by 2013, up from $1.62 billion in 2008.

The report said the domestic BPO industry would evolve from just running isolated processes for customers to engaging more deeply in identifying and transforming core business processes.

"Positive market indicators of an economic recovery, unbundling of mega outsourcing deals and large unaddressed white spaces such as regional language services support the current optimism," the report said.

Currently, the BFSI vertical contributes the lion's share of 37% to the domestic sector's revenues, while telecom contributes about one-fourth to it.

Other verticals like utilities and services, energy, food and hospitality, aerospace and automotives, consumer durables and government contribute 17%, while the travel segment contributes 8% to the revenue.

Agencies

Check out the latest update of SaaS studies

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is playing an important role in changing the fundamentals of business for user companies and for SaaS providers themselves. These changes are part of a multi-year 'loop' cycle that reciprocates between users and providers, with each side influencing the other in unforeseen ways.

Mismanaging this 'endless loop of innovation' will prevent user firms from being able to derive real competitive advantage from SaaS, prevent SaaS providers from competing on an increasingly global stage and trap ISVs (Independent software vendors) from growing along with the global user IT market.

Understanding how each side influences the others and how to manage it effectively through changing market scenarios, is the key theme of 'An Endless Cycle of Innovation: Saugatuck SaaS Scenarios Through 2014', the latest global research program developed and published by Saugatuck Technology.

On the launch of new study, Bruce Guptill, Managing Director of Research, Saugatuck Technology said, "The research shows us a combination of changing SaaS acquisition and adoption, both as a result of the global recession and as a result of the changing nature of SaaS itself. How users do business with SaaS is changing how providers develop and deliver SaaS and is changing how ISVs and other players will need to compete over the next several years. Failure to recognize and adapt to these changes will make it extremely difficult, and much more costly than it should be, for anyone to benefit from SaaS."

As the demand of SaaS is growing globally, the analysts expect that by year 2012, SaaS solutions is likely to become the de facto choice for the majority of user organizations that are replacing legacy applications or business systems as they reach the end of their useful lives or when driven by other important business considerations.

According to Guptill, by year 2014, SaaS and Cloud Computing will become an integral to infrastructure, business systems, operations and development within all aspects of user firms with variations in status and roles based on region and business culture. Prior to this time period, SaaS is likely to act as an important 'agent of change'.

Agencies

Will Infosys BPO layoff 600 contract workers?

The business process outsourcing (BPO) arm of Infosys Technologies, Infosys BPO, reportedly terminated the services of over 600 contract workers in a staff redeployment exercise in February.

According to the report -- which appeared in a business daily -- the workers, who were on multi-year contracts, included temporary workers, whose exact numbers are not clear.

Incidentally, Infosys BPO is also adding another 2,000 workers by the end of March, which will raise its headcount above the 20,000 mark from around 18,000 at present, according to the news story.

Though company spokesperson maintained that no employee on the direct rolls of Infosys BPO has been laid off. HR industry sources, however, confirmed the development. Infosys’ staffing needs contractors include Adecco PeopleOne, Mafoi and TeamLease.

The country's second-largest software company recently said that it is looking at acquisitions in the BPO and KPO spaces. “We are looking at back office functions where the companies perform very unique services with their own platform or intellectual property,” said Infosys MD S Gopalakrishnan. “There are opportunities in traditional BPOs as well and we are not restricted to KPOs.”

Captives in banking and financial services, manufacturing, and telecom are still considered hot property. “Our acquisition guidelines have not changed in this environment. We will acquire the strategic fit first and then growth,” said Gopalakrishnan, adding that the target company should typically have a revenue of about $300-500 million. Infosys is also looking at smaller acquisitions in the range of $100-200 million.

“There is always more risk attached to the integration of a larger entity. However, if something smaller or bigger comes along we will definitely look at it,” said Gopalakrishnan.

As the company continues to focus on geographically non-English speaking countries such as France, Germany and Japan, it is not averse to acquisitions in other locations. “These are not mutually exclusive with the services offered by the company. If there is an opportunity to acquire a consulting company in the US, we will look at it,” Gopalakrishnan said.

Indiatimes

Progress Software target insurance, airlines sectors in India

Progress Software Corporation is targeting the insurance, logistics, BFSI and airlines sectors that are mushrooming with many foreign players coming into India.

The provider of application infrastructure software for the development, deployment, integration and management of business applications is looking to partner with domestic consultants with large working knowledge in these sectors.

Talking to CXOtoday, Jezmynn Koh, marketing manager, Asia, of Progress Software, said, "We see a very large potential for us in these sectors and, along with the business knowledge of our partners, we expect to grow big in India. This year we see big-time growth for the BFSI, telecom and insurance sectors."

In fact, the company has already selected a partner - Hasel Fre Solutions - who have business knowledge in the insurance sector. "Likewise, we are now looking for partners in the logistics, BFSI and airlines sectors," she said.

Progress Software's OpenEdge platform enables companies like QAE and Epicor to build an ERP solution on top of it. So, several companies in the BFSI, telecom and also public-sector undertaking sectors have customized the platform as per their requirements.

OpenEdge has been the "cash cows" for Progress Software for many years and contributes almost 70% to the company's revenues.

In the telecom space, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has been managing data backend integration using Progress COBRA software so that switch-makers can integrate a totally different billing system. "With the fast growth in the telecom sector, most telecom companies face system integration challenges," said Koh.

Similarly, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has built a customized ERP solution on top of OpenEdge software for buying, selling and distribution for the last many years..

Besides, Progress also sells through their strategic partners - Wipro, TCS, Infosys and Satyam. Regarding continuing partnership with Satyam, Koh said her company will continue to partner as long as there is a business need for different projects.

CXOtoday.com

ING cuts 750 jobs due to economic slowdown

Dutch financial services group ING Groep NV will cut 750 jobs, or 7 percent of its US workforce, as part of a global programme to cope with the economic slowdown, ING spokesmen said on Tuesday.

"As many companies in the United States we need to align operations with market conditions," ING spokesman Dana Ripley said. US companies such as Bank of America Corp have announced job cuts in the past few months to deal with slowing business activity and the U.S. Labor Department said last week that employers cut payrolls by 524,000 in December.

ING will cut the jobs during the first quarter across all its U.S. banking and insurance operations and it will also not fill 170 vacancies in the United States, Ripley said. ING currently has about 11,000 US employees people and a total global workforce of 130,000.

The US job cuts are part of a global initiative to bring costs and operations in line with market conditions as ING said in November, ING spokesman Raymond Vermeulen said. He declined to say if there could be job cuts outside the United States. ING posted a third quarter loss of 478 million euros ($635.6 million) due to 1.5 billion euros of impairments, making it ING's first quarterly loss ever.

Agencies

India gets more room to grow with Stimulus-II package

The government on Friday announced the second and final installment of its fiscal stimulus package. Complementing monetary easing by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Centre enhanced the spending power of states with specific measures to boost credit availability.

It offered additional sops to exporters and the small-scale sector, besides raising the level of protection for cement and steel sectors a tad. It has also incentivised purchase of commercial vehicles.

Credit availability has been hiked in a variety of ways, the interest ceiling on external commercial borrowings has been removed; the cap on foreign institutional investments in the domestic corporate debt market has been jacked up two-and-a-half times from $6 billion to $15 billion; a special purpose vehicle is being created to lend to non-banking finance
companies to the tune of Rs 25,000 crore; Indian Infrastructure Finance Company is being permitted to raise another Rs 30,000 crore by means of tax-free bonds, and states are allowed to borrow an additional Rs 30,000 crore from the market.

In addition, public sector banks would be given additional capital to the extent of Rs 20,000 crore over the next two years, so they can lend roughly 10 times as much additionally.

The latest measures, which come in less than a month after the first package was unveiled on December 7, are aimed at benefiting housing, NBFCs that lend to infrastructure and finance commercial vehicles.

Announcing the measures, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said: “By no measure can we insulate our economy from slower growth, when the external factors are of such enormous magnitude. However, we will be able to manage a 7% growth this fiscal through these measures.”

Mr Singh added that these contra-cyclical steps and fiscal policy “in these truly exceptional circumstances” would ensure that growth momentum would be maintained next fiscal, which, he said, would be tougher than this year. But such counter-cyclical fiscal activism has to pay a price in the form of a higher fiscal deficit.

“Considering the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission, the consensus within the government was a fiscal deficit of 3%. The mid-term review of the economy said that the fiscal deficit would be over 5%, excluding the below-the-line items such as fertiliser and oil subsidy. If we include these items, the fiscal deficit could exceed by 3% of gross domestic product, what was being targeted,” said Mr Singh.

The budgeted target for the fiscal deficit is 2.5% of GDP. The global financial meltdown has already forced the US and some other major developed countries into recession, and hit India too. This year, the economic growth is expected to be around 7%, down from the 9% average of the past three years.

The first stimulus package, estimated at over Rs 30,000 crore, included a 4% across-the-board cut in excise duty for the remaining part of the financial year and an additional Plan spending of Rs 20,000 crore.

“Because of slowing industrial output and resultant tax receipts, the government will have to forego about Rs 40,000 crore this fiscal. This is a rough estimate in a dynamic situation and improved production because of the steps taken could offset part of it,” said finance secretary Arun Ramanathan.

To facilitate access to funds for the housing sector, companies developing integrated townships have been allowed to borrow overseas with prior approval of RBI. The ceiling on interest rates for all overseas borrowings has been removed to provide flexibility to companies to borrow abroad.

Source: Agencies

Is it tough times ahead for techies in 2009?

With sinking profits, eroding margins, cost-cuttings and an acquisition bid gone awry, 2008 was a year with more jeers than cheers for the country's over $50 billion IT sector, which has seen nearly a decade of uninterrupted boom.

However, as 2008 draws to a close, the sector is bracing up for a tough time ahead as the scars of global recession are showing up on the country's sunrise sector.

The sector, which has been charting a growth of over 30 per cent, had to settle for a growth rate of 20 per cent, as the global slowdown plunged the industry into unpredictable times.

In the year littered with economic disasters, the failed attempt of country's fourth largest software exporter Satyam Computer to botch up two family-promoted firms for $1.6 billion not only resulted in loss of face but also hit the reputation nurtured by the Indian IT sector over the years.

Faced with shareholder's revolt and heavy criticism over corporate governance issues, Satyam withdrew the offer within hours of making the proposal. But within a space of 24 hours, the scrip lost over 30 per cent in India and was down 55 per cent in New York Stock Exchange trade.

As a fallout, the Board size also shrank with four independent Directors resigning from the 10-Directors strong Board of the company in the wake of the fiasco.

The Satyam saga is likely to continue next year as well with the Board scheduled to meet on January 10.

If Satyam made it to the headlines for a failed deal, it was HCL Technologies, the country's fifth largest software exporter next to Satyam that made the country proud by inking the largest takeover deal in the software space overseas.

HCL piped rival country's second largest IT giant Infosys to bag UK-based SAP consulting firm Axon for $658 million. While Infosys had made 600 pence per share offer for Axon, HCL made a counter bid of 650 pence a share to acquire the UK-based firm.

The year was also some significant M&As on the IT front, such as the $13.9-billion acquisition of Electronic Data Services by HP. Back home
, Wipro acquired Citi Technology Services, Citigroup's IT arm in India, in an all-cash $127 million deal.

Earlier, TCS had bought out Citi's captive BPO arm Citigroup Global Services for about $505 million, which reiterates the strength of the Indian IT story. Another reason that will give the software services sector a reason to rejoice is the IT Amendment Bill.

The Lok Sabha passed the Information Technology (Amendment) Bill 2006 this month, which gives the government the power to tackle data theft. The bill might act as a shot in the arm for the BPO firms for whom data security is of utmost importance.

The Bill has provisions to deal with new forms of cyber crimes like publicising sexually explicit material in electronic form, video voyeurism and breach of confidentiality, leakage of data by intermediary and e-commerce frauds, among others.

The US is the world's largest technology market and accounts for between 50 per cent and 60 per cent of the revenues of the top Indian firms. Since September, however, the economic situation in the US and the rest of the world has worsened.

Country's software lobby group Nasscom had estimated that India's software and back-office services industry would grow by 21-24 per cent in the 12 months to March, but its president Som Mittal said recently that this number could be revised downward. With no signs of an early revival, all the IT biggies such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro and Satyam have revised their revenue guidance downwards.

The currency volatility has also compounded the woes of the Indian IT sector. If a rising rupee in the last fiscal had dented export earnings, the steady rise of the US dollar against the rupee, British pound and Euro during the second quarter (July-September) impacted revenue realisation in dollar terms since 30 per cent of the billing is done in these currencies.

The sector also experienced slowdown in hiring. Already, under pressure to cut cost, most of the IT biggies had to freeze their hiring in the year. Moreover, the joining dates of the new recruits were also postponed, ringing the alarm bells in the job market. The top five IT companies posted a 36 per cent decline in their rate of manpower addition in the last quarter.

As for hiring by BPOs -- for long looked upon as poor the cousins of information technology companies -- also faced the heat.

However, BPOs remained a bit sanguine, as Nasscom's figures indicate that the BPO sector recorded revenue growth of 31.6 per cent whereas IT companies grew at 28 per cent.

In 2009, as the new administration led by Barack Obama takes a look at the outsourcing story vis-a-vis India, it is the efficiency and resilience of the IT sector which can help it sail through the troubled waters.

Source: Agencies

Top Citi bosses like Pandit to forego 2008 bonuses

Citigroup Inc.'s Indian American chief executive Vikram Pandit and chairman Win Bischoff would forego bonuses for 2008, the ailing banking giant announced as it formalised its bailout agreement with the US government.

Bonuses for other top executives will be "reduced substantially," Pandit said in a memo to Citigroup employees Wednesday.

Citigroup has received $45 billion in federal capital infusions and a government-financed arrangement to insulate it from hundreds of billions of dollars in potential losses after the bank lost three-quarters of its market value.

"The harsh realities of 2008, primarily our earnings results, mean that our bonus pool is dramatically lower," Pandit said.

Citigroup, the biggest recipient of US bailout funds, completed an agreement for a $20 billion government investment, Pandit said in the memo. That was on top of an earlier $25 billion and a US guarantee on $306 billion in troubled assets.

Pandit is cutting 52,000 jobs worldwide after four straight quarters of losses tied to bad loans and failed investments with the last quarter alone accounting for a loss of 2.8 billion dollars.

Citigroup expects "major challenges" to continue into 2009, Pandit said, describing the proposed actions as part of a major overhaul of executive compensation to confront the problems for the company and banking sector.

The new plan may also include "clawbacks" to "recoup executive compensation that over time proves to be based on inaccurate financial or other information," according to the memo.

"The most senior leaders should be affected the most," Pandit said. "Win and I believe this is fair, in light of the challenges of the year and the need for compensation elsewhere in the organization."

The memo said bonuses for the "senior leadership committee "will be reduced substantially." Members of Citi's executive committee would see bonuses "cut even more" and in some cases given as deferred compensation.

Pandit said the principles to guide the company's executive pay would include "pay for performance" and "meritocracy," adding that "compensation will vary based on each person's performance - again, relative to the overall performance of the company."

Severance compensation will be subject to "significant new limitations" for executives and that the top five executives "no longer can receive severance," said Pandit, who became Citigroup CEO in December 2007.

Those affected executives are Pandit, Bischoff, Chief Financial Officer Gary Crittenden and Vice Chairmen Lewis Kaden and Stephen Volk.

Pandit noted that former treasury secretary Robert Rubin, an advisor to the company who has no direct management responsibilities, "has elected to take no bonus for the second consecutive year."

"The overall objective for all of us at Citi is to build shareholder value, serve our clients and customers superbly well and create growth opportunities for our employees," he said.

"Adherence to the principles of compensation outlined above is fundamental to achieving these goals."

Pandit, 51, received 1 million shares from Citigroup as part of a "sign-on" bonus in January, in addition to a $2.5 million "retention equity award," the company said in March. He was paid $250,000 in salary in 2007.

Pandit got $165 million from Citigroup in 2007 when he sold Old Lane Partners LP, the hedge fund he co-founded and ran. Citigroup closed New York-based Old Lane in June and took a $202 million writedown on its $800 million investment.

Source: Agencies

Bank of America to slash 30,000 to 35,000 jobs

Bank of America said it expects to cut 30,000 to 35,000 jobs over the next three years, as it faces a deteriorating economic environment and tries to absorb Merrill Lynch.

The final number could be even higher, analysts say. Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America said it hasn’t yet completed its analysis for eliminating positions, and won’t until early next year. The company and Merrill have about 308,000 employees in total, and the cuts will affect workers from both companies and all types of businesses.

Bank of America is considered one of the country’s healthier banks, and its decision to slash so many jobs illustrates the breadth of the layoffs hitting the United States. The nation lost more than half a million jobs in November alone, and economists expect many more to come. Bank of America’s action is a particularly hard blow for Charlotte, which is also home to the beleaguered Wachovia Corp, a once strong bank that is now being acquired by Wells Fargo & Co. In what amounts to a fire sale. Just three months ago, when the Merrill Lynch deal was announced, Charlotte was dubbed Wall Street South; now, the banking center is being hit as hard as Wall Street and other towns across America, where people go to work in the morning unsure if they will still have a job that night. The announcement of job cuts at Bank of America was hardly unexpected, considering the merger and the wave of job losses seen in the banking industry and in other sectors over the past few months. Bank of America and Merrill Lynch have already eliminated thousands of investment banking jobs over the past year, as have other banks, in an effort to lower costs as they face increasing defaults in mortgages, credit card debt and other loans.

HSBC lays off 193 staffers in India

Foreign lender HSBC has decided to slash 193 jobs in its Indian consumer assets business segment after reviewing its portfolio in the backdrop of the prevailing economic conditions, the bank said. The bank is restructuring its consumer assets business division in the country and has made "every efforts to redeploy the staff," HSBC said. "Some 620 people have been redeployed in suitable positions in the bank and other group entities in India. The leavers have been placed in the bank's priority returners scheme which will give them first preference for suitable jobs that come up in the next year," it said.

Source: Agencies

As crisis drags on; layoffs mount globally

Credit Suisse and Nomura Holdings announced big job cuts on Thursday, further evidence the global financial crisis is unrelenting for an industry battered by heavy losses and weak markets.

The 5,300 layoffs by the Swiss bank and a further 1,000 in London by Japan’s biggest broker are the latest in the global financial sector which has now seen over 150,000 jobs culled since September when Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy.

Of these, more than 50,000 were at Citigroup, which has made more writedowns than any other bank in the world during the crisis.

While the axe had been falling for months in the industry, Lehman’s fall sparked carnage in financial markets and reshaped the industry landscape, resulting in job losses from New York to Singapore to Mumbai. “I don’t think people really know what’s next. It depends on sentiment, which will in turn drive credit markets, which in turn will weigh on banks or not,” said a London-based equities trader.

From the United States to Asian export giant Japan to European powerhouse Germany, the world’s top economies are now in recession as the global crisis deepens.

They are not the only ones with Singapore, New Zealand and Hong Kong also joining in. The losses at banks are increasing. Credit Suisse said on Thursday it made a net loss of about 3 billion Swiss francs ($2.5 billion) in October and November.

It has already cut 1,800 jobs this year and said this week it would cut 650 investment banking jobs in Britain. “Investment banking had a significant pretax loss, reflecting the challenging conditions in the financial markets in the quarter and the costs associated with risk reduction,” the bank said.

Credit Suisse’s shares jumped 8% in European trade in a broader market up 1.6%.
In Asia, Nomura, Japan’s biggest brokerage, said the decision to cut as much as 22% of its London staff followed an internal review after the purchase of the Asian, European and Middle Eastern assets of Lehman Brothers.

Nomura had said the purchase of parts of Lehman Brothers would help the Japanese brokerage achieve its profit target despite poor financial market conditions. “This is a natural move,” said Azuma Ohno, a brokerage analyst at Credit Suisse Securities in Japan.

“Once Nomura bought Lehman, it cannot continue Japanese-style life-time employment. It needs to be flexible in costs to be profitable.”Australia’s top investment bank, Macquarie Group, is cutting 10 to 15% of its jobs in Asia, two sources said last week.

Banks are axing jobs across Asia and even in countries such as India, where investment bankers were snapped up feverishly in the last few years in anticipation of strong initial public offerings and M&A markets. “The layoffs will come in phases and will stretch into 2009,” said Singapore-based Will Tan of Webbe International, an executive search firm specializing in the financial sector.

The job cuts from Nomura and Credit Suisse came a few hours after a report of layoffs at Bank of America. Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis said the bank is in the “final stage of our analysis” for planned job cuts following its purchase of Merrill Lynch, the Charlotte observer said on its website on Wednesday. Layoffs have also gathered pace at fund management firms.

State Street, one of the world’s biggest institutional money managers, said on Wednesday it plans to lay off as many as 1,800 people, or 6% of its staff, in the first three months of 2009. Private equity firm Carlyle Group is cutting about 100 jobs — around 10% of its staff — a source familiar with the situation said. The reductions are the first major cuts made by a large US private equity firm since the global economic crisis hit.

Middle market investment bank Jefferies Group will slash nearly 15% of its employees worldwide and close offices in Dubai, Singapore and Tokyo as it contends with heavy losses for 2008.

Source: Reuters

A lot more job cuts coming?

We are witnessing the worst of financial services job cuts in history? Well, here's one way to look at it: If banks were bent on maintaining their compensation ratio--that is, their compensation costs as a percentage of revenues--they would have to lay off many, many more employees, says a financial analyst.

It says the results of its analysis "range from the farcical (Merrill Lynch) to the disturbing (Credit Suisse), and the reassuring (Goldman and Morgan Stanley)." More specifically, Merrill Lynch would have to lay off more than 58,000. Credit Suisse would have to lay of 16,000. JPMorgan would have to layoff more than 5,000. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley would not require any additional layoffs, adds the analyst.

Source: Agencies

Citigroup to fire 52,000 jobs globally

Citigroup Inc revealed plans to cut 52,000 jobs by early next year in a dramatic move to restore the No. 2 U.S. bank to health as it combats mounting debt losses and sagging economies worldwide.

The cuts announced by Chief Executive Vikram Pandit on Monday affect 15 percent of Citigroup's workforce, and are in addition to 23,000 jobs eliminated between January and September.

Citigroup plans to slash expenses by as much as 20 percent, and spend a total of $50 billion to $52 billion in 2009. That compares with $61.9 billion over the last four quarters.

The cuts will be global, affecting many regions and business lines, including the retail and investment banks, a person close to the matter said. About one-half will come from layoffs and attrition, and the rest from the sale of units, such as the German retail banking business.

Pandit became Citigroup's chief executive last December, and has faced much criticism from investors and others for failing to implement a workable turnaround plan. The New York-based bank has lost $20.3 billion in the last year, and some analysts do not expect it to make money before 2010.

"As the economy continues to weaken they will have greater credit losses," said Michael Holland, founder of money manager Holland & Co in New York. "Cuts will lessen the losses, but they in no way guarantee profitability."

Pandit told employees in a memo that Citigroup has spent the last year "getting fit," and projects a "difficult" 2009 for clients and customers.

Citigroup's latest cuts are the most by any U.S. company since the global credit crisis began last year. They are also the second most ever, trailing the 60,000 that International Business Machines Corp IBM announced in 1993, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

The latest cuts would leave Citigroup with about 300,000 employees, down 20 percent from the end of 2007 and about the same number it had at the end of 2005. People at the bank said the cuts should be made by the first couple of months of 2009.

Lawson to make a dent in the Indian ERP market

Lawson Software, the Minnesota-based third largest ERP company has entered the Indian market as part of the strategy to attract regional partners to serve customers.

According to a Gartner reports, India's ERP market is pegged at $143 million and is growing at 14-15 percent on a yearly basis. With more companies emerging in the infrastructure space, Lawson has opened an office in New Delhi to expand in the region. It has also appointed Kamal Sharma as its regional head for Lawson South Asia.

Talking to CIOL, Harry Debes, president & CEO of Lawson Software said, "we were predominantly a US-based company but have gone global since and have presence in about 33 countries. We see huge opportunities in India and other BRIC countries and expect to grow at a steady pace."

The company is already serving customers in India and Sri Lanka through partnerships with Symphony Services and ETP International and plans to draw on the expertise of more local partners and provide sales and marketing support via its India office.

"Even though ERP major Lawson opens India office have had their presence in India for several years, still we are sure of gaining a sizeable market share in the coming years through our partnership," remarks Debes.

In fact, the company entered India way back in 1994 and has about 25 customers existing in India and hopes to now focus on the mid-level customers. "Walmart, the leading global retail giants is one of Lawson's big corporate customers, so not necessarily targeting only on mid-sized or big corporates but will remain focused on new companies in fashion, F&B, healthcare, public sector verticals in India," says Sharma.

But on specific verticals like the healthcare segment where in Lawson claims to have about a 60 percent market share in the USA, the company is looking for active partners in the healthcare industry mainly for back office. Likewise, it has already signed up with ITC, Reliance Retail, PTEX in the fashion and garment vertical and KPIT Cummins in the equipment service and retail segments. It also has TBA in the food & beverages (F&B), Symphony in the distribution & manufacturing and likely to enter in the other segments also shortly.

The company plans to employ four initially at its Delhi office and grow over the years. On the global front, the company is expected to grow its headcount by 15 percent in 2008.

Lawson currently has offices in China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and also in Thailand.