The Hindu Business Line : Symantec eyes bigger share of services

Pune May 3 Symantec Corporation, player in the security and storage space, is all set to increase its role in services segment. Other plans for the company include increasing the head count in India to 3,500, and continued growth in scope and complexity of technical innovations. Currently, it has staff strength of about 2,100.

Mr Anil Chakravarthy, Vice-President, India Technical Operations, said it would be targeting operations and consulting services as the prime focus areas.

He noted that the software would be installed at the customer location, but the management would be done remotely and out of India.

This forms part of the remote infrastructure management, he noted and pointed out that the company would be doing this with partners.

He also noted that these services were being piloted out from India for the first time and would be launching the services with delivery capability.

Mr Chakravarthy said these services would be carried out from both its locations, Chennai and Pune. The company would be coming out with the clear plan by the middle of the current fiscal year.

Currently, the contribution from the services sector to the total turnover is about five per cent and is looking at touching 10 per cent by 2010, following their 10x10x10 guidelines, he said.

It may be recalled that Symantec had inaugurated its second R&D facility in Chennai this April with plans for accommodating more than 1,000 employees. This level, he said would be reached within two to three years.

Chennai centre

He said the Chennai centre would also play a role in developing innovative products and services across its portfolio and would focus on developing next generation security products, including the Norton product line.

Asked about the new software that had been developed by Symantec for mobile users, Mr Chakravarthy said the service is currently being offered to carriers and enterprises. He noted that the service provider is the target segment and talks have already begun with the carriers. Mr Chakravarthy pointed out that the carriers in the Europe and US are already offering this service to the mobile users but this is not being done in India.

Giving details about the Pune innovation centre, he said Symantec India accounted for 36 per cent of its global research and development workforce, and one third of its R&D workforce was in India.

Innovation Centre

Mr Chakravarthy noted that the Pune Innovation Centre undertook the complete breadth of product development that included innovation, enhancements of core products and sustenance activities. It also provides technical support and IT services to customers. He noted that India accounted for about 20 per cent of its product development.

He added that some of the products that had been designed entirely out of the Pune centre included data leakage prevention (how to capture data leakage from the end points) and data centre automation.