Growth strategy to focus on knowledge leadership in select technologies

Bangalore October 31, 2001 : ITC Infotech India Ltd. (I3L) today unveiled its state-of-the-art learning centre in Bangalore christened "Epicentre" as a part of its growth plans to achieve knowledge leadership and emerge as a significant Business Solutions provider globally.

Housing some of the most contemporary means of learning, experimentation and relaxation in a very typically Indian ambience, the USD one million Epicentre will act as the bedrock in its efforts to continually enrich its employees with the latest in technological advances in the company's drive to achieve knowledge leadership in identified practices.

The Epicentre was inaugurated by Shri RV Deshpande, Large and Medium Industries Minister, Govt. of Karnataka.

The Honourable Chief Minister of Karnataka, Shri S M Krishna said, "In a city acknowledged as India's IT capital, the ITC Infotech's Epicentre uniquely combines training on global technologies with a learning environment that fosters freedom of thought. I am confident that the Epicentre will contribute to India's role in knowledge leadership. It has been the hallmark of our culture for the last five thousand years and is now brought alive by the global successes of our IT entrepreneurs."

Mr Y C Deveshwar, Chairman, ITC Ltd. said, "The I3L Epicentre reflects the ITC approach of building competitive advantage through highly capable and committed knowledge resources. It also reflects the deep commitment of I3L to excel in the technology platforms and business solutions that it plans to focus on."

The Epicentre is complete with a lecture theatre, classrooms, prototype and research laboratory, a well-stocked library, recreational facilities and a Zen Garden. The lecture theatres and classrooms have state-of-the-art equipment - synchronized LCD projections, video-conferencing, visualizers, e-Beam projection and one-touch remote operation among others.

Each seat has Citrix Metaframe thin clients, with capability of simultaneous work on multiple operating systems, IDE's and application servers. The Prototype and research laboratory is equipped with "bleeding edge" tools, prototyping platforms and high-end workstations.

The earthy ambience is intentionally chosen to counterpoint the technological sophistication of the learning environment. The emphasis is on the expansion of mental space, rather than a facile grasp on disjointed recipes or tools.

The Epicentre will significantly add to I3L plans to be among a few IT companies in the world to achieve P-CMM, the highest certification of quality practices in software development.

ITC Infotech, which until recently operated out of independent operations in UK, USA and India has now consolidated its global operations through a single entity, ITC Infotech India Limited.

A key element in I3L's rapid growth over the last 12 months has been its emphasis on building up its team of professionals. With 400 recruitments planned in the year 2001 alone, the company is actively pursuing its goals of consolidating its strong technical base.

A fine-tuned team and state-of-the-art infrastructure has helped I3L chalk-out an aggressive growth strategy. In addition to offices across the Americas, Europe and India, I3L has set up development centres at Kolkata and Bangalore, besides being one of the first Indian IT majors to set up a 30 seat development centre in Milton Keynes, UK.

ITC Infotech is a SEI-CMM Level 5 company and has also been certified for the ISO 9001 Tick IT certification. Its strategic alliance partners include Sun, i2 Technologies, Computer Associates, Parametric Technologies, IBM-Lotus and Microsoft among a host of others.

With domain expertise in core business sectors such as hospitality, consumer goods and commodities, I3L has been at forefront in executing mission critical applications for industry majors such as Unilever, Nike, Sony and Pharmacia across the world.