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NIIT to refocus energies on 'systems integration'

It has already emerged as a solutions provider in the Asian market. As against merely writing software from an offshore site, NIIT has worked with clients as specialised as Sony, the Defence Ministry and the prime minister's

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office in the Singapore government in providing complex solutions.

In order to establish itself in the Japanese market, NIIT has entered a joint venture with leading Japanese systems integration house, CSK Corp.

NIIT Director P Rajendran has said that the company, which has been operating at SEI-CMM Level 3 for software business based on the capability maturity model prescribed by the Software Engineering Institute, US, is targeting to raise to Level 5 by December 1999.

"We are well equipped and probably the only one geared to take up systems integration for corporate houses in a big way,'' he said.

NIIT is one of the 20 software companies outside the US to achieve SEI-CMM level 3 certification. This is rated as a global standard today for measuring the quality of the software development process.

"The geographical information systems will have increasing applicability in various aspects of our life in the country, and NIIT would be able to offer solutions in this area. In this context, we are targeting the government but in due course many private users would also take the help of this system,'' he said.

The company recently set up a full-fledged Strategic Business Unit and NetCentric Solutions Business to offer comprehensive solutions around the Internet and Internet technologies for corporate customers.

They provide networking infrastructure for enterprise to support the Internet, setting up an Intranet, developing software for Internet and electronic commerce applications and training their personnel to adapt to the new technologies.

The company has worked on consulting, systems integration and software development projects with companies across the globe on a range of hardware and software platforms.

Some of these companies include AT&T, Sun Microsystems, Sony, World Bank, Deutsche Bank, Komatsu, PT United Tractors, Jardine Fleming and Lippo Securities.

The Level 3 certification has enabled NIIT bag repeated contracts from clients like SEI Investments, US and the Singapore government while some new customers like British Airways, Metro (Germany) and Visibility (US) have offered fresh contracts.

NIIT, which employs over 3,300 people over 26 nationalities, operates in 25 countries through wholly owned subsidiaries in the US, Europe, Asean countries, Japan and India covering 80 per cent of global markets.

The company is aiming a foray into China and planning operations in Sanghai in collaboration with a local partner.

"China has a very strong IT initiative and backbone. We will help our joint venture partner in designing the modules. We are evolving a common training module for taught lessons and CD-ROM facility with single-path design, so that adaptability would be easier,'' Rajendran said.

The company, which has one of the largest local area networks in the country with over 2,400 nodes having multimedia communications platforms, has the facility to communicate with its employees over 60 locations worldwide.

NIIT's software factory at Calcutta is currently engaged in client-server technology-based projects for year 2000 software solutions.

The NIIT's Net Varsity, an online learning facility, helped win a major contact from Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR) for the development of the first virtual university in Malaysia. NIIT has also been short-listed for the 'Smart Schools Project' of the Malaysian Government.

NIIT is also actively working in the Malaysian Multimedia Supercorridor. "We will engage ourselves in creating the IT savvy Malaysian for the year 2000 as a part of the Smart Schools concept through total interconnectivity,'' Rajendran said.

Being the third largest provider of software to global, markets from India, NIIT has been conferred with the 'outstanding export performance award' in computer software and R&D in electronics by the Department of Electronics and the Manufacturers' Association of Information Technology.

- Compiled from the Indian media

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