NEWS: Indian IT companies go Down Under

[Frederick Noronha <fred@bytesforall.org>]

Australia-IT-India

Indian IT companies go Down Under

by Paritosh Parasher, India Abroad News Service

Sydney, Jan 29 - The Indian software development industry got another boost
after it bagged a contract to develop software for an Australian company
that was facing tremendous problems with Australian web developers.

The contract is a latest in the growing number of Australian firms that are
turning to Indian information technology (IT) companies for their software
development solutions. It is also a reflection of an international
phenomenon as more than 200 of Fortune 1,000 companies are outsourcing their
software development needs to India.

Rafael Chavan de Montero Ozbook, founder and CEO of Ozbooks, opted for
software development in India after reportedly burning his fingers with two
reputed Australian software-developing companies.  He spent several hundred
thousand dollars to get his Web site developed. But both failed to honor the
agreement, Montero is quoted as saying in a report in the Sydney Morning
Herald.

Australia's book retailer Ozbooks, who retails books only on the Internet,
set up its own software development facility Hilory Technologies in Chennai
as it was facing consistent problems with Web developers in Australia,
Montero said.

Indian Web developer and co-founder of Hilory Technologies Sundarganapathi
Gopalkrishnan, 25, would be looking after the company affairs in India, said
reports in the Sydney Morning Herald. The new firm plans to move to
Bangalore, the IT hub of India, in the near future.

Montero got disillusioned with one of the two software developers when it
demanded an exorbitant amount of money to add a goods and services tax (GST)
functionality to the Ozbooks website. The amount, according to Montero, was
the same as the original cost of the Web site itself. Montero is considering
legal action against that firm.

Gopalkrishnan contacted him at this stage looking for work. He was
commissioned to add the GST functionality to the Ozbook Web site after
"initial skepticism." The Indian software programmer reportedly completed
the job in record time for "a fraction of the price" quoted in Australia,
leading to the partnership in Hilory Technologies.

Montero spent the same amount, Aus.$300,000, to establish the new company in
India as he had forked out to get one single Web site up and running in
Australia, according to the report. The Chennai-based company has already
started churning out revenue for Ozbooks as the first Web site developed by
them, OzHiTech hit the Web a month ago.

Software development is a booming industry in India and, according to
India's National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom)
figures quoted in the report, the Indian IT software and services industry
had grown from US$150 million a decade ago to almost US$9.5 billion in the
1999-2000 financial year.

-- India Abroad News Service