The Hindu Business Line : Eicon plans 20 tech partnerships in India

EICON Networks Corporation, provider of communication products for networked business applications, plans to establish 15-20 technology partners in India in six months, according to Mr Chew Weng Hock, General Manager, South Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Eicon.

The company, which has two partners, Xtend and iAxis, will promote its Diva Server V-Series family of adapters for voice, speech and conference applications in the Indian market. It will promote this product through its Eicon Network Technology Partner Programme (ETP), which will in turn work with Dax Networks, Eicon's networking distributor.

Most of these ETPs are independent software vendors and system integrators who build customised voice solutions on Eicon's servers for end users.

The partners will have access to Eicon's resources such as technical and development support along with sales and marketing assistance, Mr Hock told reporters here on Wednesday.

According to Mr Hock, India is an important market for Eicon, and the company plans to leverage the voice opportunities in Indian BFSI (banking, financial service and insurance), telecom, railways, airlines, corporate and business process outsourcing sectors, he said.

Eicon, which is based in Montreal, Canada, expects India to contribute to about 40 per cent of its revenue from South Asia, which accounts for about 5 per cent of its global revenue. Mr Hock declined to give the firm's financial details.

Mr Franz Josef Eberle, Product Line Manager, Eicon, said the Diva server would enable companies to integrate multiple voice technologies that include interactive voice recognition (IVR), speech and conferencing.

The product provides a full set of voice processing functions, including tone detection and generation, voice activity detection and echo cancellation. For instance, through an IVR, a customer can get airlines or railways information without human intervention, Mr Eberle said.