The Hindu Business Line : EMC to double R&D team

(From left) Mr Manoj Chugh, President (India &SAARC, EMC Corporation, Mr Ajaz Munsiff, Regional Practice Leader, and Mr Steve Coad, GM, Asean, at a press conference in the Capital on Thursday. - - Ramesh Sharma

New Delhi , Feb. 19

STORAGE solutions provider EMC Corporation has announced that it would double its research and development team in the country later this year. At present close to 100 employees work in its R&D centre.

The company had in November last year stated that it proposed to make $100 million worth of investments in the country during a five-year time frame. EMC had set aside over half the amount for expanding its R&D efforts and the rest for launching new products, market development and partnerships.

"This year we plan to grow this team by 100 per cent. The expansion is part of the plan announced in November. Our India team is contributing to the overall efforts at EMC to develop new technologies and their contribution will grow with time," Mr Manoj Chugh, President EMC, India & SAARC, said at the launch of more than 12 new products and software innovations across the entire line-up of EMC tiered storage platforms.

He noted that the company had recently opened two logistics centres in Bangalore and Mumbai. It will be announcing a new logistics centre and a new distributor and partner within the next three weeks.

"EMC is expecting mid-tier organisations driving its growth in India. The Indian IT industry is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 21 per cent till 2006. Small and medium businesses will drive growth in 2004 and mid-tier storage market will more than double by 2007. Our new products address the affordability issue in storage market and the market will grow on from here. Mid-tier storage will add firepower to the market," Mr Chugh said.

Mr Steve Coad, General Manager, EMC South Asia, said, "Last year we announced a five-year multi-million dollar investment to deliver the best storage solutions to our customers and today we are keeping our promise. The company has refreshed its entire range of offerings within 12 months of their launch. We have brought down the product lifecycle from three years to 12 months. Competition has not even come up to our earlier levels reached in 2003. With today's launch of phase two products we gain a further lead."