Cognos to open India office

The company that is eyeing government sector will soon app-oint business
partner in Delhi Business intelligence (BI) solutions provider Cognos, which is
operating in India through business partners, will soon be opening its India
office in Mumbai by the end of this quarter. According to company sources, the
new office would look after sales, service and support of all BI solutions that
the company is offering. Since it already has business partners to cater to the
needs of Western and Southern region, it is now planning to appoint another
partner in Delhi for the Nort-hern region. Forrest Palmer, MD, Cognos,
Asia-Pacific said, "We have been providing BI solutions in India through
our partners for long time now. We are among the top BI solutions provider in
the country. BI market in India is picking up and lots of new verticals are
ready to adopt BI solutions. We thought now the time has come to have direct
presence in the country".

Palmer also revealed that the company is soon going to app-oint India head.
The company already has presence in BFSI and manufacturing verticals and is
planning to foray into new verticals like government, pharma, healthcare and
tele-com. "We are eyeing govern-ment sector in the major way as ministry of
finance and taxation department are lucra-tive sectors and we are provi-ding
similar solutions to gove-rnments in other countries," Palmer added.

The company operates through local partners in the country. Systime and Data-matics
take care of western region while Keysoft looks after the Southern region in the
country. Cognos recorded revenue of $ 683.2 million last financial year (March
2003- February 2004) and is expe-cting to cross the $ 750 million mark this
year. It expects a double-digit growth from India this year. (CyberMedia News)

Rahul Gupta

Mumbai