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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (10196)	12/21/1999 9:09:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12475

Wipro sets up infotech co in US with NRI angel investor wipro.com Sanjeev Sharma NEW DELHI 21 DECEMBER (FE) WIPRO has spawned an American infotech company for the first time. Vice-chairman Vivek Paul told ET that this overseas venture was part of its growth strategy. The California based venture - Alopa Networks - has been set up in partnership with NRI angel investor Prakash Bhalerao and will be in the business of providing internet applications. Mr Paul said Wipro has conceded management control in the company, in which Wipro holds a 10 per cent stake. He said Wipro was also seeking to acquire software companies in India and abroad and plans to float an American Depository Receipt to fund these activities, as part of its e-commerce expansion plan. Talking about Wipro's innovations, he said Wipro has introduced the concept of "productised services" which meant that services provided by the company should have a core component. "Services should be re-usable and they should cost less every time they are used again." Mr Paul expects a consolidation exercise in the form of a tiering structure in the software industry. He said there would be companies offering body shop solutions and others, like Wipro, in the premium value segment offering solutions. Meanwhile, Wipro on Tuesday said it is setting up an offshore support centre for the $11 bn California based Farmers Insurance Group, a property and casualty insurance company.Called `FarmPro', the offshore centre being set up at Chennai will focus on legacy maintenance work. It will take up research and development (R&D) work on technology areas, such as developing applications for fraud management. Currently, Wipro has 50-60 employees doing on-site work at Farmers, working on customisation and implementation of customer relationship management applications. "We will continue with this mix of off-shore and on-site models, and as we grow old together we will ramp up the off-shore business," said Markus Nordin, vice-president, applications and development, Farmers Insurance Group. Farmers does not plan to set up a development centre on its own, and neither does it intend to work with other software companies in India, besides Wipro, he said.