IT’s raining centres...

IT’s raining centres...
VeriSign, Birlasoft Log Into IT City
The Times of India

Bangalore: VeriSign Inc., the $1.2 million US-based infrastructure services provider for Internet and telecommunication network has announced the opening of its India development centre in Bangalore.

VeriSign plans to invest $6 million in India over the next year. The company is already about 40-strong and plans to have about 125 people on board by the end of this year. This is expected to scale up to 200 by the end of 2007. VeriSign’s present investment is primarily on infrastructure, HR and R&D in wireline and wireless, ecommerce and other online transaction processing security services.

Indicating the company’s satisfaction over the high quality talent pool in Bangalore, Aristole Balogh, senior VP, operations and infrastructure, VeriSign, said, “The centre will help VeriSign develop products and create more releases quickly.”

While the overall strength in India will more than double in the coming year, the company is also keen on doubling its 600-strong R&D team in the US. Including the recent acquisitions it has made in India, the company is nearly 200-strong here, while Europe has another 250 people working on R&D.

Meanwhile, Birlasoft, the C.K. Birla Group-owned software company plans to add new facilities in Bangalore and Noida at a cost of $15 million. The company already has two centres in Noida and also has centres in Chennai and Australia. The new centres are likely to take the overall headcount to 3,600 from the present 2,400 people.

“We will be a quarter billion dollar ($250 million) company by 2008. To achieve this, we would have to grow at 35-40%. The market is very bullish,” Kamal Mansharamani, CEO, Birlasoft, said.

Symbol Tech too: Symbol Technologies Inc., the enterprise mobility company, on Tuesday opened its software development centre in Bangalore. This centre will focus on developing Symbol’s next generation of wireless and mobility systems management products and will augment the firm's three other global technology development centres, a release said. The $1.7 billion firm has network of offices world wide and a workforce of nearly 5,700.