Altosys to form XOU Indian subsidiary

Appointing SIs, to focus on management services

Altosys Software Technologies Ltd, the development and support partner for
UK-based XOU Solutions Limited, is hiving off its division to facilitate the
formation of XOU Indian subsidiary-XOU Solutions India Pvt Ltd. The Indian
subsidiary will be formed within three months and Altosys will continue to play
a key role in the new entity as it has cross holding in the ven-ture. Initially,
XOU Solutions India will be primarily involved in marketing of inventory manager
and network key solutions here, before growing into a management service
provider. "Currently, we are appointing channel partners-mainly software
resellers and system integrators to market the solution and in Chennai, we have
signed up with Veeras Infotek, Computer Factory, Raksha Technologies and Secure
Network Solutions. Soon, we will be appointing more channel partners across the
country," said G Dijendra-nath, COO, Altosys Software.

In the next stage, the company will move into cities such as Hyderabad,
Bangalore, Cochin and Trivandrum, followed by Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Kolkata.
"We are not limiting on the numbers and would want to have as much partners
as possible, as there is a huge opportunity in the market. In SMB segment alone,
we estimate the market poten-tial to be over Rs 50 crore for management
services," he said. The company would also get into direct marketing
targeting IT companies, BPO, IT-enabled services, BFSI, hospital, educational
institu-tions and hospitality, among others.

Inventory manager is an IT asset management tool which keeps track of all
hardware, software, services and appli-cations information. It is an audit tool
which generates report useful for critical deci-sion-making while IT purchases
are made. The inventory manager is priced at Rs 650 per installation (one-time
cost) and currently, it is agent-based version. "However, the custo-mer
needs to pay additional Rs 150 per system/year for maintenance and
support," said Shajan K Johny, Senior Executive (Business Develop-ment),
Altosys Software.

Network key is a monitoring tool which tracks down information basically on
two parameters-device based and interface-based. The device based tracking
helps user to identify system uptime and downtime, along with memory
utilization, while interface-based tracking focuses on port monitoring, error
analysis and in-out traffic. Network key enterprise edition is priced at Rs 7
lakh onwards and it is targeted at organizations which have more than 200
systems. "We have some more products in the pipeline which are currently
tested in UK. And, when all these services are rolled out, we will become a
complete management service provider (MSP)," said Jayakumar Kapali, General
Manager, Altosys Software.

XOU Solutions has already presence in the US, UK and Europe, while it is
entering into Middle East and Asia by next year. India is a very critical market
for the company as the development and support for worldwide operations are
being carried out from here.

Chennai-based Altosys Software Technologies Limi-ted is an ISO 9000:2001
certified software company registered with STPI. The company is into health
care, BPO, multimedia and commu-nication-oriented products and services. Last
fiscal, the company registered a turnover of Rs 25 crore and targets Rs 30 crore
by this year.

S Gopikrishna

Chennai