Metropolis Healthcare announces investment of up to $85 million by Warburg Pincus

Metropolis Healthcare Limited (Metropolis), India’s only multinational chain of diagnostic laboratories, announced today that Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity firm, is making an investment of up to $85 million in the company. As part of this deal, Indian private equity firm ICICI Ventures has completely divested its holding in the company, which it had acquired in 2006. The deal involves a primary and secondary component and also includes additional capital that will be available to Metropolis to pursue acquisitions.
In a fragmented market for medical diagnostic services in India, Metropolis has established itself as a national player of scale. Through a network of 45 state-of-the-art laboratories and over 350 collection centers across India, Metropolis processes over 12 million tests a year, serving over 10,000 laboratories, hospitals, and nursing homes and 50,000 doctors. The company has expanded through a combination of organic growth and partnerships. In addition to building a strong business in India, the company has successfully established its brand through 10 laboratories in Sri Lanka, South Africa and UAE. Metropolis will continue to seek attractive acquisition opportunities while expanding its delivery network and deepening its presence in current locations.

Ms. Ameera Patel, Executive Director & CEO, Metropolis said, “Since our inception in 1981 as a Mumbai-based laboratory, Metropolis has been setting industry benchmarks time and again. Over the years, we have built India’s only multinational chain of diagnostic centers, and today the brand is well-respected amongst the healthcare and business fraternity. Our association with ICICI Ventures over the last few years has been rewarding and we are delighted to welcome Warburg Pincus as our future partner. We are confident that with their support we will achieve our vision of consolidating Metropolis as the foremost clinical diagnostics service provider across the emerging markets of South Asia, Africa and Middle East.”


Mr. Niten Malhan, Managing Director, Warburg Pincus India Private Limited said, “Warburg Pincus has a history of partnering with distinctive management teams to create durable businesses with sustainable value. Metropolis is a pioneer in the pathology industry in India and over a period of almost three decades, the company has grown to be the leader in the field of clinical diagnostics with a network of 55 state of the art laboratories across four countries. Led by a talented management team, Metropolis is well-positioned to leverage growth opportunities in the clinical diagnostics business.”

Mr. Dalip Pathak, member of the Executive Management Group at Warburg Pincus said, "Healthcare is an important focus area for Warburg Pincus. We are delighted through this investment to expand our presence in the sector in India, particularly by partnering with Metropolis, which is uniquely positioned in healthcare services."

O3 Capital acted as the sole financial advisor to Metropolis for this transaction. Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff acted as legal advisors to Warburg Pincus, Desai Diwanji acted as legal advisors to Metropolis and Ernst &Young conducted financial and accounting diligence for the transaction.

Vertex extends global Customer Management Outsourcing reach by acquiring Australian provider, PCI

Vertex, a leading global Customer Management Outsourcing (CMO) business has announced its acquisition of fast-growing PCI which has operations in Melbourne Australia and in the Philippines.


Following the acquisition, PCI will be rebranded as Vertex to reflect its prominence within the wider global Vertex group. The new business will build on PCI’s track record of delivering innovative inbound and outbound customer contact services linked to multilingual support in nine languages.
The acquisition adds to Vertex’s existing global portfolio in retail, utilities, financial services and the public sector across the UK, US, Canada and India. Vertex Australia with its location, outbound focus, telecommunications and retail banking experience will further bolster Vertex’s global presence. The new business will invest in client relationships and harness the Group’s experience to capitalize on the high-growth potential in the Asia Pacific market.

The company will open a new site in Ballarat, Victoria. The new location will employ 600 people over the next two years. A further site in Australia and additional investment in the Philippines are also planned.

Commenting on the announcement, Paul Sweeny, Vertex chief executive officer said: “This acquisition will allow us to enter markets where we can make a real difference to the way organizations interact with, and manage, their customers’ experiences. It also gives us direct access to a growing regional market that is an important element of our global growth ambitions. I am especially delighted that Vertex Australia will be able to offer increased, added-value solutions to its clients and enhanced opportunities for all our people.”

The business will be Vertex’s first wholly owned Australian operation and will be led by Phil Allan, CEO who was previously CEO of PCI.

Phil Allan added: “We are excited by opportunities unlocked by the wider Vertex Group, its global infrastructure, first-rate people and innovative technologies. There is considerable potential in our market and we are in an excellent position to capitalize on this.”

Spectranet partners nivio to offer 'Hosted Messaging and Collaboration Services'

Spectranet, an Integrated Communication Services Provider, today announced its partnership with nivio, a cloud computing company, to launch its subscription-based messaging and collaboration service offerings. Spectranet will offer its ‘Hosted messaging and collaboration Services’ on a special ‘Pay- As- You- Go’ and ‘Zero Investment’ model thereby helping businesses to become more productive, efficient and competitive.

Spectranet will offer wide range of hosted solutions right from basic email solutions to high end enterprise applications on the robust Microsoft exchange platform. Supported by the Spectranet’s rapid deployment process, the hosted services will help enterprises and SMBs to achieve significant productivity benefits without any up-front costs.


Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Udit Mehrotra, Director, Spectranet, said, “At Spectranet, we believe in enabling our clients to work efficiently and keep pace in a very competitive market environment. We are focusing a lot on offering innovative ‘Voice & Data’ solutions for the enterprise and BPO sector. In this regard, it gives me immense pleasure to announce our offerings in ‘Hosted Messaging and Collaboration Services’ in partnership with nivio. We see tremendous growth in the overall email market in India growing from mere 15% in 2008 to CAGR of 52% by 2012. There is a huge potential of our hosted services from sectors such as IT/ITeS, BFSI, Government, Manufacturing, Telecom, Health, Retail, Trading etc.


Commenting on the partnership, Mr. Matt Colebourne, Chief Operating Officer, nivio, said, “We are delighted to be working with Spectranet to reach out to a much larger audience and offer hosted messaging and collaboration. Hosted services are the future; enterprises reap the benefits of rapid deployment, best of breed solutions and scalability. They are also liberated from the financial headache of capital expense buying hardware and software and, instead, transform this into monthly spends based on usage.”







Built-in proven anti-spam and anti-virus technologies, hosted services will provide a cost effective and easy to use web interface. Companies will get customized packages basis their need and budget and end users can share emails, contacts, calendars, content and manage multiple tasks without a hindrance. This will be further supported by a 24x7 phone based customer support.


Hosted services also bring in a plethora of benefits such as 100% back up of data, regular software upgrades and updates, optimized data security and high availability of infrastructure with SLA. With these services, end users can improve productivity and get more done by having shared contacts, calendars, share files and messages in public folders and also manage projects by assigning & tracking tasks while accessing information anytime, anywhere.

Andhra Pradesh to host eINDIA 2010

eINDIA 2010, India’s largest event on Information and Communication Technology (ICT), has formally announced the holding of 6th eINDIA 2010 in Hyderabad. The three-day international conference and exhibition will be held at Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) from August 4, 2010 to August 6, 2010.


eINDIA 2010 is a unique platform for sharing knowledge in different domains of ICT for development and facilitates multi-stakeholder partnerships and networking among governments, industry, academia and civil society organizations globally.

The event is hosted by the Government of Andhra Pradesh and is being organised by Center for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS) and Elets Technomedia.

It is being co-organised by Department of IT (GoI), Ministry of Panchayati Raj (GoI), and Ministry of Labour & Employment (GoI), Unique Identification Authority of India, Directorate General of Employment & Training (GoI), IGNOU and the National e-Governance Plan.

Announcing the launch of eINDIA 2010, Smt K Ratna Prabha, Principal Secretary-IT, Government of Andhra Pradesh said, “It gives me an immense pleasure to share that Hyderabad is hosting e-INDIA 2010 event, for the second time in a row. On behalf of the Government of Andhra Pradesh, I invite delegates from India and across the world to eINDIA 2010. I am confident that this edition of eINDIA will able to boost the overall e-Governance framework in the country.”

The event will showcase cutting edge innovations in ICT for development across e-Government, ICT in Education, ICT for Rural Development and ICT enabled Health services. It will allow people and organizations working in apparently isolated domains of ICT for Development, to engage in mutual experience sharing and enable them to build an understanding of convergent issues in development of perspectives.

eINDIA 2010 will also serve as an exhibition host to some of the latest solutions, services, initiatives, and case studies from across India and beyond—over 150 exhibitors from professional service providers, technology vendors, consulting firms, government agencies and national/international development organizations.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri L Suresh, President, IT and ITES Industry Association of AP said, “I am very happy to be part of this event and assure of all possible help from our association. I also thank eINDIA organizers for holding the conference in Hyderabad.”

The event would be attended by stakeholders from across the development and government sector, including elected members of state Assemblies and the Parliament, senior level bureaucrats, policy makers, academia, NGOs and industry associations.

The conference will also have The Secretary Conclave, Hospital CIO Conclave, and a Special Session of Education Secretaries and Vice Chancellors from across the states.

“eINDIA 2010 is happening at a time when economy is in a revival mode. I welcome all the members of STPI to participate in this event and showcase their ICT expertise. I also take this opportunity to welcome more companies to come and set up their operations in Hyderabad. STPI will provide all possible help in this regard” said, P. Venugopal, Director, STPI.

Talking about the event, MP Narayanan, Chairman, CSDMS, said, “We are thankful to the government of Andhra Pradesh for all the support they have provided for hosting the event in Hyderabad. This event will showcase the latest innovations on ICT by leading solution providers. The event will allow delegates to meet professional service providers, IT and telecom vendors, consulting firms, government agencies and development organisations in the domain of ICT.”

Giving further details Dr Ravi Gupta, convener of eINDIA 2010, said, “The three-day conference comprises several tracks and sessions on e-Gov, Unique ID, Municipal IT, Digital Learning (K12, Higher Education & Vocational Training), eAgriculture, eHealth, and Telecentre Forum.”

Some of the speakers at eINDIA 2010 will include Smt D Purandeswari, Minister of State, Higher Education Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, Komathireddy Venkat Reddy, Minister for Information Technology, Communications, Youth Services and Sports Government of Andhra Pradesh, Agatha Sangma, Minister of State for Rural Development, Government of India, Sam Pitroda Advisor to the Prime Minister, Government of India, R Chandrashekhar, Secretary, DIT, Ministry of Communication & IT, Govt of India, K Ratna Prabha, Principal Secretary-IT, Government of Andra Pradesh and R S Sharma, Director General, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).



The exhibition at eINDIA 2010 will facilitate synchronization of demand and supply in terms of adoption of right technology and process, towards enabling e-Governance. To continue the pace of growth and consistent advancement in ICT sector, conference cum exhibition like eINDIA 2010 would go a long way.

SmartPlay adds turn-key design to its services offerings; Chooses Synopsys' tools for RTL-to-GDSII flow

SmartPlay Technologies, a leading provider of SoC design, embedded software and system design services, announced today that it has adopted tools from Synopsys’ Galaxy Implementation and Discovery Verification platforms for its ASIC design projects. In addition, SmartPlay has deployed Synopsys’ Lynx Design System, a tapeout-proven, production-ready IC development environment, as a means to enhance the productivity of its design teams. The new agreement with Synopsys enables SmartPlay to extend the leading-edge design solutions it provides to its customer base.


“We are excited to be engaged with Synopsys. By adopting Synopsys’ tools and becoming a Lynx Design Center, we are taking advantage of industry-leading technology and a design infrastructure with a track record of successful tapeouts to strengthen our position as a complete end-to–end design services company,” said Pradeep Vajram, CEO of SmartPlay Technologies. “With extensive experience in taping out multi-million gate SoCs in advanced technology nodes, we have emerged as a design services partner of choice for our growing customer base. We have achieved significant growth over the years and continue to expand our portfolio of service offerings.”


”We welcome the opportunity to build on the success of prior collaborations with SmartPlay,” said Glenn Dukes, vice president of Professional Services for Synopsys, Inc. “By deploying Synopsys tools and the Lynx Design System in their design centers, SmartPlay is well prepared to deliver turnkey physical design services to their customers and becomes a valued member of the expanding Lynx ecosystem.”

Cisco shares details on its fabric based computing approach to address the Data Center market

Underscoring the significant opportunity in the Indian data center market, Cisco today shared plans to grow and strengthen its market and technology leadership in the space. In addition, Cisco showcased its radically simplified approach with the Unified Computing System and the ‘fabric based computing’ approach.


Fabric based computing helps enable a "wire once" deployment model where changing configura­tions no longer means installing new components or re-cabling existing ones. It helps to reduce cost by eliminat­ing the need for a parallel set of components to support multiple data transmission protocols. Along with the reduction in these infrastructure components on the server side, a similar reduction on the network edge is possible, further reducing costs.


“At Cisco, we aim to bring together network, compute and virtualization technologies into one unified system. We are confident of revolutionizing datacenter management by offering flexibility and taking advantage of the role that the network plays in addressing key aspects such as security, scalability and interoperability”, said Pramodh Menon, sr. vice president, Cisco India & SAARC.


Cisco also shared details of the second-generation Cisco Unified Computing SystemTM, which further accelerates the promise of virtualization, delivering a high performance computing architecture uniting compute, network, storage access, and virtualization resources in a single energy-efficient system. Cisco’s introduction of Unified Computing established a new industry standard for data center virtualization. With new compute, I/O, management and developer capabilities, the 2nd generation of Cisco UCS enables unparalleled scalability, breakthrough performance, and tangible business advantage. With these innovations, the Cisco® data center architecture now delivers:



•Up to four times the compute capacity in the same footprint, compared to first-generation Cisco Unified Computing System servers

•Up to four times the bandwidth capacity in the same footprint with the existing chassis, compared to first generation Cisco Unified Computing System

•Up to 92 percent fewer points of management than legacy networks

•Up to 30 percent greater application throughput with the Cisco Virtualized Interface Card

•Up to 76 percent greater database consolidation with Cisco memory extension

•Up to 10 percent reduced power consumption, compared with like-for-like competitive configurations

These results translate to reduced infrastructure complexity and sprawl, significantly reduced costs, and improved business agility. The solution delivers end-to-end optimization for virtualized environments. It is built to meet today's demands while being ready to accommodate future technologies – including more powerful processors and faster Ethernet standards – as they become available.

Some of Cisco’s recent initiatives in the Datacenter enables cloud computing:

•The shared, virtualized Cisco Data Center 3.0 architecture and solutions from Cisco and partners such as VMware, EMC and NetApp, lets enterprises build their own secure, scalable private clouds.

•Cisco, with its partners, is helping service providers deliver more secure private or virtual private cloud services to their customers. For example, Cisco, NetApp, and VMware recently announced they are working together to deliver greater security in virtualized cloud computing environments.

•The Cloud Security Alliance: a non-profit organization consisting of such corporate members as Cisco, AT&T, Computer Associates, Dell, Intel, Microsoft and RSA. The alliance promotes best practices for cloud computing security and offers education to consumers of cloud computing services. For example, the Cloud Security Alliance's March 2010 report, "Top Threats to Cloud Computing V1.0," offers a deep dive into the most prevalent cloud computing security risks, along with examples and strategies for avoiding or minimizing those threats.

• CloudAudit: formerly known as the Automated Audit, Assertion, Assessment and Assurance (A6) Working Group, CloudAudit is working to provide an open, extensible, secure Application Programming Interface (API). CloudAudit has over 250 members. When the API is ready, cloud providers will be able to offer customers visibility into security and other aspects of the cloud service on demand, without compromising the security of the cloud provider's network or any other customers using it.


IDC report titled ‘Next Phase of Datacenter Development’ predicts that capital savings around parts and the reduction in cabling, coupled with the operational savings will provide the need for more energy efficient datacenters paving the way for Unified Fabric

Lenovo ups its FUN quotient with the introduction of 12 brand new, stylish products

Lenovo India today reaffirmed its mantra of innovation through the launch of 12 youthful and zesty products for the consumer segment. The new range complements people’s unique personalities and individual notions of having fun. “What’s your idea of fun?” is based on the changing perspective of consumers, especially the youth, about personal computers being lifestyle enablers, rather than computing devices. In line with the spirit of FUN, Lenovo India’s new product line packs in functional yet enjoyable features to excite its consumers through 12 all new, stylish products across Notebook, Netbook, All-in-One and Desktop categories.

This initiative is a part of Lenovo’s overall corporate strategy of ‘Getting Closer’ to its customers and partners by understanding and addressing their specific computing requirements from their PCs.

Bearing testimony to Lenovo’s unwavering focus on innovation, these products are well-designed to better suit consumers’ dynamic lifestyles.


Amar Babu, Managing Director, Lenovo India and Alex Li- Vice President, HSB (SMB & Home), Lenovo India unveiled the stylish new range along with Actress and Twitter aficionado, Gul Panag.

Underlining the company’s focus on the consumer segment, Amar Babu, Managing Director, Lenovo India, said “Lenovo’s strategy for the Indian market is gaining momentum. Since the launch of its consumer brand four years ago, Lenovo has made significant progress in this segment. We believe that the introduction of these feature-rich products across all categories and price bands will go a long way in strengthening Lenovo’s consumer product portfolio in India.”

The showstoppers of the launch were the Z-series notebooks - Lenovo IdeaPad Z460 and Lenovo IdeaPad Z560 that offer mainstream performance and multimedia features at a very affordable price.

In addition to the Z series of PCs, the new models included the top-of-the-line multimedia notebooks Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 and Lenovo IdeaPad Y560, the highly mobile and attractively designed netbooks Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3s ‘Moon’ and ‘Wind’, the super- efficient space saving desktop Lenovo H320, an entire slew of sleek and space-efficient All-in-One PCs - Lenovo IdeaCentre A300, Lenovo IdeaCentre B500, Lenovo IdeaCentre B300 and Lenovo C200, and a range of reliable and robust desktops, notebooks exclusively for the SMB segment - ThinkPad Edge (in 14” & 15” display), Lenovo B460 and Lenovo V460.

The wide range of PCs launched today offer cleverly thought-through convenience and security features well in tune with the essential element of fun.



Sharing more details on the new range of products which complement FUN, Alex Li, Vice President, HSB (Home & SMB), Lenovo India, said, “Lenovo believes in adding value to its consumers’ PC purchases by incorporating many exciting features, rarely seen in such product categories. With the launch of this new range, we believe we have significantly raised the bar in terms of product features and are offering an excellent value proposition to our customers.”


Keeping in mind users’ needs and driven by the motto of ‘innovation by design’, Lenovo’s latest range of consumer products is engineered with cutting-edge features and trendsetting designs to provide the ultimate user experience.


Some of the significant features that are on offer are:


· Ergonomically designed chiclet keyboard, Crystal clear HD resolution display

· Dolby Headphone technology, JBL speakers, new generation high-resolution camera
· OneKey Theater for enhanced movie experience, Lenovo Quick Start, Lenovo Veriface face recognition, Lenovo OneKey rescue system

Bharti Airtel launches “Talk-to-me”

Bharti Airtel, the leading telecom service provider in the state, today announced the launch of the first-of-its-kind revolutionary product “Talk to me on Airtel”. The innovative product was launched by Mr. Venkatesh V, CEO - Mobile Services, Karnataka, Bharti Airtel, accompanied by well-known Kannada Film Star Hatrick Hero - Shivaraj Kumar. This new product will now enable Airtel subscribers across Karnataka to connect and interact with their favorite superstars-LIVE at a touch of the button. Airtel is the first telecom service provider in the country which has created this unique platform for its customers to dial, connect and interact with their favorite stars-LIVE.



Airtel Subscribers can call 5432171 through their Airtel network at Rs. 6/ min. With the new dial in Service – Talk to Me, customers will be able to connect to the celebrity / singer. The service will allow a select group of callers at a time to connect with the celebrity for a live conversation in a sequential mode. Every caller will be prompted in advance and given equal time to interact with their favorite star through the IVR. The celebrity will have an option of managing the call by extending the time or move to next customer. Going forward Bharti Airtel will connect to the most popular celebrities in the state with their fan base.


Announcing the launch of new service, Mr. Venkatesh V, CEO, Mobile Services, Karnataka Circle, Bharti Airtel said “It has been a significant year at Bharti Airtel - Karnataka circle. With the circle completing 10 successful years of journey in the state, it has always been a game changer with dominant market share. One of the reasons for our success in Karnataka has been the innovative products that we have launched, which has endeared us to our customers. For any film buff, being able to actually speak to a super star, would be like a dream come true. We are delighted for being the first to introduce this revolutionary product, Talk to Me – a live voice chatting platform, that will help connecting our subscribers across Karnataka with their favorite super stars on the Airtel mobile network”



Commenting on the new product, the noted Kannada film actor ‘Hatrick Hero’ Shivraj Kumar, said, “It’s a great pleasure for me to be here at this moment and to be part of Airtel’s first-of-its-kind innovative product. I’m also honored for Airtel choosing me as their first celebrity for the unique initiative. ‘Talk to Me’ on Airtel now connects the subscribers across Karnataka LIVE with their favourite Kannada & Bollywood film stars and that will also help them to use the same platform to connect, communicate and interact with personalities from other genre too.”



Bharti Airtel has been a foremost player to provide series of Airtel Live products for its subscribers since its inception. It offers an all-in-one platform with a wide array of services. Airtel users can avail easy access to live applications for its subscribers.



ü Live Astro – Subscribers can dial 55315, talk to Pandits live and know their future, past and everything want to know at Rs 9/min



ü Live Aarti – Subscribers can dial 55200 for Live aarti from Tirupati Balaji, Siddhi vinayak, Sai Baba.



ü Live Scores/ Commentary - Subscribers can dial 543212601 to listen to ball by ball commentary of any match.



ü Live Radio – Subscribers can dial 59830 to enjoy and listen to Radio Mirchi Live from Delhi, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Trivandrum and Bangalore at just Rs.10 per week. Package provides 100mins free airtime for Radio.



ü Live TV - Subscribers can SMS TV to 54321 to access a range of 73 channels which is in various Genre, languages including News channels (local & National), Entertainment channels, Glamour Channels, Sports Channels, International Channels, Childrens Channel, Short Movies etc.

Olympus opens its new zone in Bengaluru

G.K.Vale Camera store, today launched its technology section with ‘Olympus Zone’ in Bengaluru that offers a comprehensive range of Olympus digital cameras, professional cameras, binoculars, accessories, voice recorders and a host of other products under one retail roof. After launching an exclusive store of Olympus on April 16th in Bengaluru, this zone is a step further in their plan of expansion in Indian market.


Located in the heart of Bengaluru’s Unit no. 103, Prestige Davanam Emporium, Municipal no 46, MG road, Bengaluru – 1, the new store in this ‘Silicon Valley’ has a wide range of ѕοmе of the best digital cameras ever made. The new store provides the right ambience to Olympus patrons who are assured of an enriching experience as they can touch and feel the entire range of Olympus products. Further, the store is manned by experienced sales team who will guide patrons’ right from entering the premises till the point of purchase.

Through the new store, Olympus plans to showcase and retail its latest breakthrough technology products like the ‘Tough’ series namely 14 Megapixel µ TOUGH-8010, µ TOUGH-6020 and µ TOUGH-3000, stylish ‘mju’ series, as well as the Olympus PEN series including the award winning avant-garde product PEN EPL-1.

On the LAUNCH of their fifth store in the country, Mr. Kinya Yoshimura, General Manager India Operations, Olympus Imaging Corporation said, “We believe in enhancing consumer experience by offering user-friendly solutions. We already have an all exclusive Olympus store in Bengaluru, but keeping in mind the demand here, now we have an Olympus Zone too. Bengaluru is a major step towards not only strengthening our brand but also promoting photography culture in a big way. Through this we hope to reach out to the patrons and bring to them the expertise of Olympus in professional cameras in an accessible form. We are breaking down the technology barriers and making it easy for every patron to relive their memories in the highest quality possible.”

Going forward Olympus aims to open similar outlets in other Metros across India.

Forum Value Mall celebrate their 1st anniversary with Sandalwood superstar Puneet Rajkumar

Bangalore had a memorable time to cherish this weekend in the presence of Sandalwood Superstar Puneet Rajkumar. The actor officially kick-started the 10 day Mega shopping festival by cutting the cake on the occasion of their 1st Anniversary.


As the main attraction of the day Forum Value Mall had organised a Musical chair comprising of 365 participants. Free gifts were given to the customers who had 365 in their vehicles number plates, and every 365th person who entered the mall was gifted goodies.


For the next 10 days, Forum Value Mall will have a 36.5 min shopping dhamaka which will entitle the highest billing customer to win attractive prizes. There will also be a lucky draw contest with prizes declared daily & weekly, apart from a bumper prize, for customers who shop above Rs.2000.


Through this shopping festival, Forum Value Mall, aims to attract customers looking for a good bargain on shopping as well as a fun filled experience.

BEML Registers a Record Growth in Sales

BEML LIMITED registered a growth of 18% in sales and posted a sale of Rs.3558 crores during 2009-10 compared to Rs.3013 crores during the previous year. BEML’s diverse business portfolio helped the company achieve this growth rate. While Rail & Metro business group has achieved phenomenal growth of 114% and Defence business group about 14% over the previous year, Mining & Construction business group has succeeded in maintaining its sales in spite of the general decline in off-take across the world still recovering from its economic slowdown. Company posted a Profit Before Tax of Rs.320 crores and wrapped up the year with a healthy order book of Rs.5206 crores for execution during 2010-11 and beyond.


Some of the major achievements are:


1.Opening of International Marketing Office -- PT.BEML INDONESIA

2.Rolled out India ’s first indigenously built Standard Gauge Metro Car

3.Indigenously developed ‘Intermediate’ Metro cars designed, developed & supplied to DMRC RS4

4.Launched a host of a new R&D products like Catenery Maintenance Vehicle, 125 ton Hydraulic Excavator, Snow Cutter, Aluminium Wagon, BL200-1 Front End Loader

5.Bagged order for supply of Walking Dragline to NCL

6.Established Palakkad Manufacturing Unit in record time of 10 months and 6 months from first brick

7.Signed MoU for setting up Aerospace Manufacturing Unit at Aerospace SEZ, Bangalore


8.Acquired the assets of MAMC along with consortium partners CIL & DVC for diversifying into Under Ground Mining Equipment


With a conducive business environment, robust order book on hand and anticipated emerging opportunities, the company has set for itself an ambitious sales target of Rs.4200 crores for 2010-11 and is hopeful of crossing Rs.5000 crore mark by 2011-12. The company has invested over Rs.500 crore for the last five years. Now plans to invest Rs.680 crores in the next 2-3 years for expansion and diversification.

New Asia Pacific Director strengthens Logica’s Global Financial Products Business

Logica, a leading business and technology service company, today announced the appointment of Richard Davies as director of Asia-Pacific (APAC) for its Global Financial Products Business (GPB). Davies’ main objective will be to build Logica’s financial institution client base in the region, and support these clients in their payments modernisation initiatives.


With many global banks planning to expand their presence in the APAC market and regional players also looking to move into new territories, demand for proven robust and scalable infrastructure for payments processing and filtering has increased. In his new role, Davies will identify these opportunities for growth, as well as further strengthen Logica’s relationships with its current APAC-based clients, which include Standard Chartered, the Central Bank of the Philippines, India and Sri Lanka, CAPS (Clearing and Payment Services) in Singapore and National Australia Bank.

“Banks in APAC are finding they need to drive improvements in their payments operations in response to the fiercely competitive landscape, increased regulatory demands and evolving customer requirements. They are realising that it is crucial to have in place technology that supports their business needs in addressing payment issues within a fragmented marketplace,” said Richard Davies, director of APAC, Logica GPB. “I look forward to extending the footprint of our best practice payments solutions in this region.”

For the past three years Davies served as Logica’s director of Global Payments, based in London. In this role, he helped to further establish its Global Products Business in EMEA. He additionally brings more than 25 years of payments industry experience, having also worked in several management roles within MPCT, American Express and Thomas Cook Group. In his new role as director of APAC, Davies will be based in Logica’s Singapore office, enabling him to work closely with local teams while using his extensive experience and subject matter expertise for the APAC region.

HP Launches New Generation of ProLiant Servers

HP today introduced three HP ProLiant G7 server platforms that offer a significant performance boost and enhanced power savings over previous generations.


Delivering a 23:1 consolidation ratio, HP ProLiant G7 servers with AMD Opteron™ 6100 Series processors increase operational efficiencies, paying for themselves in as little as two months.(1) The line includes the HP ProLiant DL165 G7 and HP ProLiant DL385 G7 rack-optimized servers, as well as the HP ProLiant SL165z G7 scale-out “skinless” server. HP ProLiant servers are part of the HP Converged Infrastructure portfolio, which integrates servers, storage, network devices and facility resources into a common environment, allowing IT to rapidly respond to business demands. HP ProLiant servers provide modular, standards-based building blocks that advance clients toward a converged infrastructure.

“Customers in Asia Pacific want the best possible return on their server investments, allowing them to channel valuable resources towards innovation,” said Rajesh Dhar, Director, Industry Standard Servers, HP India. “The new HP ProLiant G7 boosts systems performance while utilizing fewer servers than previously needed, allowing customers to reduce capital expenditures, energy costs and software licensing fees by 97 percent.”

Built for energy savings

HP ProLiant servers include HP Thermal Logic technologies to reduce power consumption by as much as 96 percent.(2) Power savings are achieved through the combination of the following energy-saving features:



— HP Sea of Sensors – optimizes system cooling and increases efficiency by automatically tracking therm
activity through a collection of up to 32 smart sensors placed strategically throughout the server. The sensors automatically adjust system components such as fans, memory and input/output processing to reduce energy usage.



-HP Dynamic Power Capping technology in HP Insight Control – improves data center utilization and reclaims overprovisioned energy by enabling IT managers to accurately monitor and control the power used by each server. By capping server power usage, clients can triple their data center capacity.(3)



— HP Power Advisor – enables clients to improve energy efficiency by more accurately configuring systems based on real-time power guidance for their specific workloads.



In addition, energy-efficiency innovations in the HP ProLiant platforms, combined with the new AMD Opteron 6100 Series processors, deliver a 27 times performance-per-watt increase.(1)



Maximizes server productivity



The HP ProLiant platform offers a comprehensive set of embedded technologies and flexible tools to maximize the productivity of an IT infrastructure, including:



— HP Insight Control software – improves management productivity while reducing operational expenses up to $48,000 for every 100 users by allowing clients to control the management and monitoring of the server infrastructure onsite or remotely.(4)



— HP Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) Advanced – enables clients to simplify server management and troubleshoot problems from any location, regardless of the server’s operating state.



— HP Insight Remote Support software – reduces issue resolution time by 20 percent with secure remote support for HP servers and storage, including monitoring for hardware failure to avoid problems before they occur.

HP Automates and Simplifies IT to Save Companies Millions of Dollars in Operational Costs

Building on the momentum of its Converged Infrastructure strategy, HP today announced industry firsts in server, storage, network and power management technologies that enable clients to shift millions of dollars in operational costs to activities that drive business innovation.


HP Converged Infrastructure provides a blueprint for clients that want to eliminate sprawl, complexity and excess maintenance costs.

The introductions at HP Tech Forum include the most significant HP BladeSystem advancements in four years, including several new servers as well as innovations in HP Virtual Connect and HP BladeSystem Matrix. Also announced are unique power management technologies that automate energy awareness and control of IT systems across the data center, as well as storage software that provides new levels of simplicity and automation through a single, unified architecture for data deduplication.

“Customers are asking for solutions that remove the layers of complexity and excess equipment that have sprawled across their environments so that IT can focus on innovation rather than operations” said Rajesh Dhar, Director, Industry Standard Servers, HP India. “Today and throughout the year, HP is bolstering its Converged Infrastructure strategy with groundbreaking enterprise solutions across every area of the data center, resulting in greater levels of simplification, performance and savings for our clients.”

HP ProLiant G7 blades and servers: Deliver cost savings in as little as 30 days(1)

HP’s ability to deliver these and other innovations on top of industry standards has driven customer confidence in HP ProLiant, as demonstrated in the company’s market share leadership – a 56.1 percent market share in blade servers and 39.2 percent share in x86 servers, according to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker.(2)

Data-intensive enterprise workloads are driving a massive increase in scalability, reliability and performance requirements. To perform optimally, servers must have a balanced architecture across CPU, input/output (I/O) and memory.

Three new HP ProLiant scale-up servers deliver a number of innovations in automation that allow clients to speed application delivery, more effectively utilize IT resources and achieve improved return on investment. The rack-mount servers offer several industry firsts with memory footprints of up to 2 terabytes (TB) and “self-healing” capabilities that maximize application uptime with a 200 percent boost in availability.(3) Optimized for the most data-intensive workloads, the servers reduce data center footprint, complexity and costs with a consolidation ratio up to 91-to-1.

Seven new HP ProLiant G7 server blades address the most demanding virtualization environments by offering the industry’s first blade with 1 TB of memory and integrated 10Gb Virtual Connect FlexFabric technology for I/O scalability. With an architecture that balances processor performance, expanded memory and I/O capacity, these systems can support up to four times more virtual machines than competitive blades, while requiring 66 percent less hardware.(4)

HP BladeSystem Matrix: Automates private cloud deployment

With manual deployment of applications and infrastructure, it takes weeks or even months to deliver new services to the business. Clients need an automated IT environment to rapidly respond to business change.

HP BladeSystem Matrix software, through new integration with HP Server Automation, simplifies IT environments with one-touch, self-service provisioning of applications. The industry’s first “all inclusive” converged infrastructure offering, HP BladeSystem Matrix enables private clouds by allowing clients to deploy complex IT environments in minutes.(6) As a result, clients can reduce their total cost of ownership up to 56 percent compared to traditional IT infrastructures.(6)

HP Intelligent Power Discovery: Eliminates overprovisioning in the data center

Accurate and timely power usage data and control can save companies millions of dollars in data center energy costs.

HP Intelligent Power Discovery is an industry-first advancement for green data centers that creates an automated, energy-aware network between HP ProLiant servers,(7) third-party facility management tools and data center power grids. Expanding on HP’s Data Center Smart Grid solutions, the software provides greater transparency and insight into power usage by creating a real-time, graphical map of energy usage across servers and facilities. By accurately provisioning energy, clients can extend the lives of their data centers and save up to $5 million per every 1,000 servers in one year

Zee Studios Leverages NAVTEQ’s Mobile Advertising Solution

NAVTEQ, the leading global provider of maps, traffic and location data enabling navigation, location-based services and mobile advertising around the world, today said that Zee Studios, India’s premier English language movie channel, tapped NAVTEQ Media Solutions’ mobile ad network to promote its upcoming movie schedule to Airtel mobile users, a campaign that registered a high impact click through rate (CTR) with consumers.

The centerpiece of the promotion was as an application that mobile users downloaded to browse Zee Studio’s scheduled film broadcasts. After downloading the app, consumers could click on movie titles to view synopsis and movie critiques. High engagement was built with users enabling a calendar synch option which set reminders for movies they were interested in watching.

Free to download, the application is supported by NAVTEQ’s premium mobile ad network and received as high as 8.77% CTR from consumers who downloaded the application. NAVTEQ’s premium mobile ad network provides high quality and impactful mobile advertising solutions throughout India and the world.

“NAVTEQ has a long history with Airtel,” said Christopher Rothey, vice president, advertising, NAVTEQ. “We know the power of mobile advertising and believe it can actually help enhance the user experience of a new generation of applications and products throughout India.”

Comviva Expands its Presence in Latin America and The Caribbean

Comviva, the global leader in providing mobile solutions beyond VAS, today announced its expansion into the Latin America and Caribbean region with the opening of its office in Miami. The company also announced the appointment of Max Padró as General Manager to head the region.


“Our expansion into Latin America and the Caribbean is part of an ongoing strategy to forge closer ties with our customers across the globe by strengthening our presence and capabilities across our key markets. The setting up of the office in Miami will help us serve our customers better while responding faster to market opportunities.” said Manoranjan Mohapatra, CEO, Comviva. “We are happy to appoint Max as the head of our regional operations. Max brings with him over 28 years of experience across the industry and a keen understanding of the market, which will further strengthen Comviva’s presence in the region.”


Commenting on the office opening and his appointment, Max Padró, General Manager, Comviva, said, “I am honored to be part of brand Comviva. The establishment of our new office reinforces Comviva’s commitment to the region and is a first step in getting closer to our customers in Latin America and the Caribbean. Comviva is the global leader with extensive experience in deploying mobile solutions across all major telecom operators worldwide. We are confident of adding value to its existing and potential clients in the region”.

Comviva drives revenues for operators by delivering a broad range of innovative mobile value added solutions that enhance end user’s service experience. Comviva’s award winning mobiquity™ mobile commerce solutions and Virtual SIM address the needs of base of pyramid segments. Whereas its PreTUPSTM prepaid solution brings affordable, easily accessible mobile top-up to prepaid subscribers.

House of Pearl Fashions Designs Its Core Business Performance With SAP

Multinational apparel manufacturing conglomerate House of Pearl Fashions Limited (HOPFL) is deploying SAP® enterprise resource planning (ERP) application to enhance business performance and strengthen market leadership.


HOPFL has rapidly grown inorganically over the last few years and currently operates in 11 strategic locations across four continents. With the deployment of SAP® ERP application, SAP Best Practices for Apparel and Footwear package and Collaboration Folders application, the company has integrated enterprise-wide operations that improve planning and forecasting processes to achieve greater cost and process efficiencies. This includes helping HOPFL integrate a variety of business processes from yarn procurement to wholesale and distribution of Licenses & Private labels across the globe. With SAP solutions, HOPFL is now more flexible in managing its demand cycles and is able to meet the global requirements for sourcing, manufacturing and distribution facilities.


The SAP implementation has contributed to HOPL’s 30% year-on-year growth and more than 50% reduction in their monthly book-closure cycle times, through increasing visibility and efficiency across the supply-chain, including their India and international manufacturing and warehouse locations US & UK

Tesco HSC Unveils Tesco Premier League (TPL) - A coding contest

Tesco HSC, the global service arm of Tesco (world’s third largest retailer) unveils an online coding contest titled Tesco Premier League (TPL). The national level, 10-day contest will be open from June 18 to 28, 2010. The coding contest is designed by Tesco.com team and can be accessed by logging on to www.tescohsc.com/tpl. The contest is designed to challenge technologists who are willing showcase their programming skills.


TPL is split up into two rounds – Online and On-site. The online contest opens on June 18, 2010 at 00:00 hrs and ends on June 28, 2010 at 12:00 hrs. There are exciting prizes to be won including laptops and PSPs. First fifty correct entries also stand a chance to win Tesco branded goodies. Shortlisted top 10 correct entries will be invited for an on-site round that will take place at Tesco HSC campus in Bangalore, India.

Commenting on the contest, Sandeep Dhar, CEO, Tesco HSC said, “Tesco Premier League (TPL) is designed to provide an opportunity for talented developers to compete at a national level. Through the contest, the coders will be challenged to solve complex algorithmic problem sets. The judging and scoring of output files submitted by the contestants will be done based on accuracy of the output and quality of the code submitted.”

McAfee Inc.Positioned as A Leader for Content-Aware Data Loss Prevention

McAfee, Inc., today announced that research firm Gartner, Inc. has placed the company in the leaders quadrant in its “Magic Quadrant for Content-Aware Data Loss Prevention,” as published on June 2, 2010.

According to Gartner, vendors who appear in the leader’s quadrant “have demonstrated good understanding of client needs and offer comprehensive capabilities in all three functional areas — network, discovery and endpoint — directly or through well-established partnerships and tight integration. They offer aggressive road maps, and they will need to execute on those road maps, fully incorporate enhanced features currently in development and address evolving market needs to remain in the Leaders quadrant.”

“Our customers and their business-sensitive data need monitoring and protection as the threat landscape continues to evolve. McAfee delivers cost-effective, intuitive data discovery and features that not only protect the business, but enable it,” said Marc Olesen, senior vice president & general manager of Content Security at McAfee. “Cost and complexity have always been, and will continue to be, a major concern for organizations. McAfee is uniquely positioned to continue driving data loss protection technology into and across corporate security infrastructure, including agents, web, mail, and cloud offerings to simultaneously drive simplicity while increasing capability and scale beyond the enterprise.”


McAfee® Data Loss Prevention delivers the highest levels of protection for all types of sensitive data, while greatly reducing the cost and complexity of safeguarding business critical information. McAfee data protection is delivered through our low-maintenance appliance and the McAfee® ePolicy Orchestrator® platform, for streamlined deployment, management, updates and reports.

Download the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content-Aware Data Loss Prevention here http://www.mcafee.com/us/campaigns/gartner_dlp/

Andrew Solutions Appoints Telecom Veteran Navin Vohra To Leadership Role for Asia Pacific Region

Andrew Solutions, the CommScope, Inc., division that is a global leader in wireless communications systems and products, has promoted Navin Vohra to vice president of sales, Asia Pacific.

Vohra previously served as Andrew ’s vice president of sales for India and SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries. In his newly expanded position, which is effective immediately, Vohra will be responsible for leading all of Andrew ’s customer-facing sales activities in the Asia Pacific region, including India but excluding China . The China sales organization will continue to be led by Chinnee Tong, vice president of sales for China .
Both Vohra and Tong, along with other regional wireless sales leaders, report to Ben Cardwell, the former head of wireless sales for Asia-Pacific who recently was promoted to senior vice president for global wireless sales.
With more than 20 years experience in the telecommunications industry, Vohra joined the company in 2005 from UTStarcom (formerly CommWorks, a 3Com company), where he was director of business development and head operations for West and South India .
"We are delighted to have Navin heading up our Asia Pacific region," said Cardwell. "He has provided astute and decisive leadership by taking Andrew to a market leadership position in India . Under his helm, the India team greatly expanded customer relationships and tripled its annual wireless sales. His wealth of expertise in strategy, sales and marketing, and business development will be a huge asset to Andrew and our customers going forward."
Vohra joined Lucent Technologies India in 1996 as account director where he was instrumental in securing a major infrastructure project for a nationwide CDMA-1X network. Prior to joining Lucent, Navin accumulated experience from companies such as AT&T India and Siemens.
Vohra holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering, electronics and communication from Delhi Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in business administration from Institute of Management Technology , Ghaziabad .

Accenture Is Awarded Henkel Application Outsourcing Contract in North America

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) will deliver application management services to the North American operations of Henkel, a Fortune Global 500 company that markets well-known brands such as Dial® soap, Purex® laundry detergent, Loctite® adhesives and got2b® styling products under a six-year application outsourcing contract. Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.


Under the terms of the agreement Accenture will provide management services for the local applications and related project services of Henkel’s North American business. The technologies covered by the program will include Oracle, Lotus Notes, Electronic Data Interchange, IBM AS 400 and Web applications. The agreement will enable Henkel to benefit from:

· the cost-efficiencies resulting from collaborating with one company for local and global applications

· enhanced management and escalation support

· streamlined operations through standard transition and delivery processes and methodologies
The new contract will complement an existing, seven-year global application maintenance and support agreement announced by the two companies in August 2009.
“Accenture’s work on the global applications program has already demonstrated to us the skills, industry experience and efficiencies that they can offer,” said Dr. Peter Wroblowski, chief information officer of Henkel. “This new collaboration will benefit Henkel and employees in North America thanks to the synergies and economies of scale resulting from Accenture’s work on our global applications.”
Mathias Metzger, senior executive in Accenture’s Consumer Goods & Services practice, commented, “Our work on the global applications program has given us a thorough understanding of Henkel’s application management needs and where we can deliver value for the client. This experience will enable us to deliver a cost-efficient, seamless and enhanced service to Henkel’s North American operations, allowing it to focus on delivering quality and innovation to its customers and achieving high performance.”

Accenture will deliver the services from both North America and one of its Global Delivery Network centers in Bangalore, India.

Value Line launches new showroom in Bangalore

Valueline, south India ’s leading provider of luxury bath and sanitary ware products launched its first exclusive store in Bangalore . Spread over 6,000 square feet, the store offers customers the luxury of choosing premium bathroom fittings and accessories from over 20 international brands including Villeroy & Boch, Dorn Bracht, Sirius, Bisazza, Fantini, Keuco, Burgbad, Hoesch, Viega, Geberit, Crystil-et.Bronze, Petra Antiqua, Gardenia Orchidea, Imola, amongst others. Inaugurated by Mr. Philippe Boff, Director Sales and Marketing, Asia Pacific Villeroy and Boch, the store is located at Laskar Hosur Road , Adugodi, Bangalore .

Valueline is the only integrated distributor of all the world's best sanitary ware brands in the state of Karnataka offering a complete line of commercial and decorative sanitary fixtures and fittings, faucets, accessories, shower and tubs, as well as lavatories, toilets, Air Baths and urinals. The showroom recreates the precise ambience for each of its product categories so that the customer can get a hands-on feel of the product in the right setting ensuring a unique shopping experience for.

Mr.Narinder Anand, Managing Director, Valueline said “At Valueline, we don't sell premium products but ensure that our services and offerings go a long way in enhancing our customer’s lifestyle. Our state-of-the-art showroom in Bangalore will offer the best International brands under one roof. Our association with Villeroy and Boch will further complement our commitment to the customers in providing superior quality, style and luxury.”


There is an increasing gap in the demand and supply of luxury bathroom fittings and accessories. The premium home and hospitality market in Karnataka and specifically Bangalore is in need of such offerings which Valueline is confident of providing. A highly unorganized industry, Valueline is committed in supplying world class products to premium housing and hospitality developers. Their search for internationally styled products ends here.

Everest Group reports project growth of 20% and above for finance & accounting and procurement outsourcing in 2010"

Large buyers signed the majority of IT outsourcing deals during 2009, according to Everest Group, a global sourcing consulting and research firm. Based on the Finance & Accounting Outsourcing (FAO)Annual Report 2010, the FAO market in 2010 is expected to resume a growth trajectory more similar to pre-recessionary levels, moving towards 20 percent and reach nearly US$3.7 billion in annual contract volume (ACV). Everest’s Procurement Outsourcing (PO) Annual Report 2010 projects the PO market to grow in excess of 20 percent in 2010 and reach nearly US$1.3 billion in ACV.
The research reports global FAO supplier landscape – leaders major contenders, emerging players, the 2009 star performers and the dynamic PO supplier landscape of evolving end-to-end capabilities. The report which analyzes suppliers of FAO and PO services comprises of supplier evaluations and relative market positions, and draws comparisons between relative market success and capability developments thereby sharing details about the changes in the global supplier landscape in 2009.
“In the FAO and PO markets, we see two stages of evolution, both of which require buyers to have a strong understanding of the evolving dynamics in these markets to make intelligent decisions that fit the strategies of their organizations,” said, Saurabh Gupta, Research Director, Everest Group. “The mature FAO market is getting increasingly competitive with players vying to carve out unique value propositions to differentiate themselves. On the other hand, the nascent PO market is quite dynamic, characterized by new players entering the market, revised value propositions and significant alliance activity”, added Saurabh.
“The studies detail the supplier landscape & preferences to buyer revenue size, industry group, buyer geography, along with information on the supplier trends to give an in-depth analysis of evolving market. As suppliers have sought to establish differentiated competitive positioning, many have built out distinct capabilities along various dimensions. Buyers will increasingly find themselves weighing these supplier strengths against their own business priorities,” said, Mr Gaurav Gupta, Principal & Country Head, India, Everest group.

The FAO market in 2009 saw successful suppliers fine tune capability mixes and position for anticipated growth this year. IBM, Accenture, and Genpact are dominant leaders, but a number of other suppliers are closing the gap. Moving forward, successful suppliers will continue to identify and refine target buyer segments, meet client needs in terms of global delivery capacity & service, bring technology & process solutions that more closely link process operations with business outcomes, and focus on client relationship management

In 2009, the PO supplier market witnessed the emergence of alliances and partnerships between procure-to-pay (P2P) and sourcing-focused suppliers to compete against global end-to-end source-to-pay (S2P) suppliers such as Accenture and IBM. Last year, suppliers engaged in capability investments, primarily focused on enhancing technology and end-to-end S2P capabilities, and willingly took on componentized engagements that allowed buyers to pursue a phased approach to PO.

“FAO buyers should expect business and process impacts beyond labor savings and existing buyers need to be focused on end-of-term strategies to expand value beyond what was gained in existing engagements,” said Saurabh. “With the expansion of PO supplier landscape, buyers of PO services should exercise their right to chose depending on their desired value proposition.” he added.

More than 20 FAO suppliers with multi-process capabilities are included in the FAO supplier study, including Accenture, ACS-Xerox, Capgemini, Cognizant, EXL, Genpact, HCL, HP, IBM, iGate, Infosys BPO, TCS, Wipro, WNS, among others. Suppliers earning Everest recognition as “2009 FAO Market Star Performers” are Genpact, IBM, Infosys, Wipro and WNS.

The PO supplier study includes Everest’s analysis across 15-plus suppliers with multi-process capability, including Accenture, CapGemini, Genpact, HCL, HP, IBM, , Infosys BPO, TCS, Wipro and WNS among others. Everest highlighted Accenture, IBM, ICG Commerce, Infosys BPO and TCS as “2009 PO Market Star Performers.”
Market Star Performers are suppliers that demonstrated the strongest movement across two dimensions last year:

· Market success in 2009 based on ACV growth, number of contract signings, and value of contract signings in 2009

· Capability advancements in 2009 based on expansion of scale, scope, delivery footprint and technology investments

Firstsource to open new contact centre in Middlesbrough

Firstsource, a leading global provider of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) solutions, announced today its intention to expand into Middlesbrough, by setting up a new contact centre, which will employ more than 500 people. The location will be a newly renovated building at Fountain Court in the centre of Middlesbrough.

Mumbai-headquartered Firstsource is one of the UK’s leading investors and according to the FT FDI Index, is the largest foreign investor in the contact centre and shared services sector during the last three years. The company already has three UK contact centres that employ over 1900 people in Belfast and Londonderry. Firstsource won the UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) investor of the year award at the UK India business awards in 2009.
Matthew Vallance, Jt. Managing Director & CEO designate of Firstsource, said: “We are delighted that the latest phase of our UK expansion will be located in Middlesbrough which promises to be a highly favourable location for us. Our UK business is continuing to show robust growth and the new Middlesbrough centre will complement our existing UK and international operations and provide our clients with a greater choice of operational facilities and talent.”
One North East Chief Executive, Alan Clarke, said: “This is a real vote of confidence by Firstsource in the North East economy. They recognise the ability of the Tees Valley’s workforce to provide excellent services for their clients.
“I am delighted that One North East has been able to support this investment, which has been supported closely by public sector partners to ensure the firm has everything it needs to establish this facility in the Tees Valley.”
One North East contributed to this investment through the Grant for Business Investment initiative which is part of ‘Solutions for Business’, the Government’s package of publicly funded support products offering help to companies to start, grow and succeed. Solutions for Business makes it easier for companies to get the advice and assistance that they need.

Consortium for IT Software Quality (CISQ) Launches India Chapter

The Consortium for IT Software Quality (CISQ), a neutral, open forum in which customers and suppliers of IT application software can develop an industry-wide approach for measuring and improving IT application quality, has announced the launch of its India Chapter. CISQ-India will hold its inaugural India meeting tomorrow, June 9, at Taj West End, Bangalore.


CISQ is an IT industry leadership group comprising IT executives from the Global 2000, system integrators, outsourced service providers and software technology vendors, which are committed to making dramatic improvements in the quality of IT application software.

Sponsored by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University and the Object Management Group (OMG), CISQ was founded by global experts in software quality standards including: Dr Bill Curtis, director of CISQ and author of the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) framework; Dr Paul Nielsen, director and CEO of SEI; and Dr Richard Soley, CEO of OMG.

According to Forrester, the global IT market is expected to witness an exponential growth of 9.3% and touch $1,534 billion in 2010. India has about a 20-25% of share in the global IT consulting market alone. As India’s IT industry continues to make a mark on the global IT landscape, meeting global quality standards is becoming imperative to maintain the momentum of growth in the IT sector. CISQ will now be present in India through its Executive Forum and help enable Indian IT companies raise their quality standards.

“India is steadily emerging as an IT powerhouse. With more and more Indian origin IT companies making it big on the global scene, it is imperative for them to attain the highest standards of software quality” said Curtis, who addressed the media in Bangalore today in advance of CISQ-India’s inaugural meeting. “In the 1990s, the Indian IT Services industry used the CMM framework to establish a global reputation for process excellence. With CISQ standards, I am confident that Indian IT companies will play a key role in taking the lead when it comes to cost effective delivery of highly dependable software solutions.”

In the context of CISQ, SEI will work with OMG to develop software-related standards and appraiser licensing programs. The standards process is co-managed by the two groups and brings together IT leaders worldwide from both organizations.
“SEI provides a neutral environment for IT executives to address quality challenges as an industry and works towards developing the requisite standards and infrastructure necessary to address them,” said Nielsen, also speaking in advance of the inaugural meeting. “OMG’s success in standards development and SEI’s experience in software architecture, quality attributes, process improvement and network security make this a robust partnership with a global reach.”




“For several years, IT executives have complained that there are no industry standards for measuring the quality of business application software,” said Soley. “CISQ will enable us to benchmark the effectiveness of internal development, evaluate the quality of applications acquired from external sources and predict the quality and cost of IT services to the business.”

Major global corporations including Tata Consultancy Services, AXA, IBM, General Motors, McKesson, Morgan Stanley and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are among the CISQ members driving the effort to create a global standard for measuring and reporting the quality of IT applications.

NAVTEQR Map of India Now Includes Lonely Planet Travel Guide

NAVTEQ, the leading global provider of maps, traffic and location data enabling navigation, location-based services and mobile advertising around the world, announced today it has expanded its rich Points of Interest (POI) content portfolio with a new product from Lonely Planet. This content enables NAVTEQ customers to provide recommendations about where to stay, eat or spend their time to consumers using navigation systems that rely on the NAVTEQ map of India.


Available throughout the country, the Lonely Planet for NAVTEQ: Travel Guide product includes Points of Interest in popular categories such as restaurants, hotels, nightlife and tourist attractions. Whether it’s for in-car navigation or pedestrian applications, this rich content will help save consumers valuable time while providing relevant information.

“Including Lonely Planet content supports the way in which Indians use navigation systems,” commented Tarun Harnathka, Director of India map and content products for NAVTEQ. “Our proprietary research reveals 88% of Indians use their navigation systems more frequently when informational sources are included on the device. “Providing Lonely Planet for NAVTEQ: Travel Guide supports the functionality they have declared as valuable to them through their usage habits.”

As with all of its rich content, Lonely Planet for NAVTEQ: Travel Guide lends itself to quick and flexible integration into location-aware applications. First, Lonely Planet content is precisely matched to the NAVTEQ map, enabling end-users to navigate to their desired destinations. NAVTEQ also leverages integration-friendly formats and innovative location referencing which speeds integration into customer applications. Additionally, NAVTEQ’s ongoing relationship with Lonely Planet allows updates to be accurately reflected in the product.

“Location-aware devices enable us to create a new class of intelligent travel guides,” said Chris Boden, Lonely Planet's Global Director of Emerging Platforms. “Lonely Planet for NAVTEQ presents our trusted content in the form of location-based guides that will enable people to explore India in a whole new way.”

Including Lonely Planet for NAVTEQ: Travel Guide in its rich content portfolio reinforces NAVTEQ’s ongoing commitment to provide customers in India access to quality NAVTEQ maps and products. Available in 78 countries, NAVTEQ maps undergo rigorous quality testing and verification to deliver highly accurate end-user experiences for GPS-navigation and fleet management. Central to achieving this quality is a dedicated field force that verifies millions of kilometers of road network data per year around the world. Data includes navigable attributes to support highly accurate guidance, as well as visual content products such as 3D Landmarks, 2D City Models and Junction Views that support end-users’ sense of orientation in unfamiliar places or when facing upcoming complex maneuvers.

Robert Bosch Engineering & Business Solutions Ltd (RBEI) sets up a new centre in Vietnam

Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions Limited (RBEI), the wholly owned Engineering and IT services subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH in India, has decided to expand its operations by setting up a new centre in Vietnam.

RBEI with its headquarters in Bangalore, already has a state-of-the-art location in Coimbatore in South India. It will now further expand its operations with its investments in a new Software and Engineering Center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to further increase its services to the Bosch group of companies globally.

The main focus of this new centre would include embedded software development, IT software and Mechanical Engineering services. “Keeping in line with the fast-growing pace that RBEI has been witnessing so far, we plan to recruit over 500 engineers in the coming 5 years at this centre in Vietnam. RBEI sees this as a critical extension to complement the company’s growth, owing to its proximity to other strategic partners in the region.” says Mr. Friedhelm Pickhard, Managing Director Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions Ltd.

The centre will start operations from August 2010. This will be the third centre for RBEI after Bangalore and Coimbatore. In fact Vietnam was chosen after an extensive study that was conducted in more than 14 cities in 8 countries across Asia, Europe and North America. The company acknowledges the good infrastructure facilities and available talent in Ho Chi Minh City. Recruitments will be done for both laterals as well as for freshers from universities.

The launch of the new centre in Vietnam comes as a major boost as it ensures a lot of opportunities for the Bosch Group globally with its proximity to automotive OEMs in Japan, Korea and China