OAT Systems starts Bangalore operations

US based OAT Systems, a RFID framework provider, has opened its product
develop-ment center in Bangalore. The 12,000 sq ft facility currently houses 20
engineers and would focus on product development, services and support of RFID
software.

Speaking at the launch of operations, OAT Systems CTO Dr Sanjay Sarma, who is
widely acknowledged as the "Father of RFID", said, " We are
strongly focused on product develop-ment and we expect the Bangalore center
headcount to exceed that of the US R&D team some years down the line."
He informed that with the emphasis being on product development, the company was
not focused on increasing the number of employees as much as adding value.

About the investment into the center, he said that a por-tion of the $11.5
million fund-ing that the company received from VCs-Matrix Partners and Greylock
would be pumped into the new facility. The com-pany currently employs 90 people
spread across its Walt-ham, Massachusetts, Chicago, London and Bangalore
offices.

OAT Systems has a suite of RFID software called the OAT Foundation suite that
caters to more than 40 Global 500 clie-nts including Tesco, Gillette and HP. OAT
Systems has also announced that it would partner with Infosys to leve-rage its
RFID practice to iden-tify business opportunities across multiple vertical mar-kets.
"Infosys would help in deploying OAT Systems' RFID Software and both
companies would follow a joint go-to-market strategy," Sarma said.

He added that the Indian center would play a strategic role in terms of
extending the company's reach to Asia and the European Union in terms of
services and support. "By the end of the year, we expect around 30 odd
deployments in Asia alone," he said.

The company is optimistic about growth potential from India. "While
India is still behind in retailing, RFID could find use in areas like defense,
oil and gas and the pharma industry," Sarma said.

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