| US-based $120 million billing software company, Portal Software Inc, is relocating a part of its core research and development operations to India. The company is planning to set up a software development center in Bangalore in partnership with an undisclosed Indian software company.
However, sources indicate that the company is working out the possibility of a joint development center with one of its existing system integration partners including Wipro, Satyam and Tata Consultancy Services. "It is a possibility," Portal Software vice president and general manager for Asia pacific John Tull said indicating that the company might go with any one of these three partners. He, however, declined to comment on the type of partnership with the Indian company.
"As the development center is at a planning stage, we will not be able to comment on the investments and size of operations right now," Tull said. He, however said that the company would like to undertake development of core products for wireless telecom billing applications as well as development of peripheral software products to be used along with the core product.
"We will relocate a few of our engineers already working in the US to India to kick start the development work as it will otherwise take a longer time to achieve the maturity level required for core product development," Tull said, adding that apart from cost and skill advantage, the Indian center would also provide a footprint to the company in Asia.
"We are also considering setting up support center operations in India to service our clients in other countries," he said. Portal Software is eyeing Asia to develop it as its major market base in next few years. "We plan to earn around one third of the total revenue from the Asia region alone by the end of next year," Tull added.
Portal Software has recently launched its sales and marketing operations in India and has also won an order from its first telecommunication client, Data Access.
The company is believed to have earmarked around $10 million to be invested in India to develop the local market. Although Tull did not commit any specific figure, he said India had tremendous growth potential for its products and solutions.
Portal Software currently employs around 550 people including around 150 software engineers engaged in software development operations located in Silicon Valley in the US. India center will be the second development center of the company. However, the company's sales operations are also spread across the globe.
Source: The Financial Express
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