Sierra Atlantic plans extensive ramp-up

Enterprise application software company, Sierra Atlantic Software is planning
to expand its existing 800 strong team at its development center in Hyderabad to
1,000 by the year-end and to around 1,500 by next year.

The company also wants to move beyond Hyderabad and have a 500 number
facility in Bangalore, Chennai or Pune. While these three cities are currently
under evaluation, the company's VP-business development Sanjay Khendry
admitted that Bangalore remains the top contender. "We are eager to tap the
talent and potential business potential in Bangalore. We want to do software
product development and custom development in Bangalore. This would help us
broaden the breadth and depth of our presence," he added.

Describing Sierra Atlantic as the "Swiss knife of enter-prise
application business", Khendry informed that the company is also in talks
with four-five companies involved in SAP applications based in Bangalore and
Chennai, and plans to acquire one by the year-end.

Explaining the reasoning behind this, he said, " While we work on
diverse appli-cations like Oracle, Siebel and Peoplesoft, we are the weakest in
SAP. We think that the best way to bridge this gap is the buyout route. Our
ideal wish list is a company that has around 80-100 employees, with some
inter-national clients."

On the investment that would go in the ramp-ups and proposed acquisition,
Khendry informed that the company had an existing allocation of $18 million,
which would be used to fuel expansion.

Priya Sreenivas

Bangalore