The Hindu Business Line : iSoft to raise headcount by 650

ISOFT Plc will recruit about 650 software and medical professionals over the next three to four months for its Chennai centre. This follows its successful bid as the healthcare application service provider on three of the multi-billion-dollar contracts in Britain's National Health Service (NHS).

The fresh recruitment is a change in iSoft's plan announced last month wherein the company said it would recruit about 500 employees and invest about $100 million in three years in its Chennai centre, Mr Ravan Boddu, Chief Executive Officer, iSoft, told Business Line.

A majority of the new employees would have Microsoft's .Net capabilities, while there would also be a few healthcare professionals, including doctors having a strong background in information technology, he said.

Fifty per cent of those to be recruited would work on product design and manufacturing, about 30 per cent on quality control and the rest on support infrastructure. The company would also look out for people with Java J2E, and train them on .Net, he said.

Mr Boddu said iSoft would develop the NHS software on .Net platform out of its research and development centre in Chennai. The centre would also be involved in transforming its existing software to .Net platform, from Visual Basic and Visual Basic ++.

iSoft, the UK-based software provider for the healthcare industry, employs more than 2,200 people globally, including 300 professionals in Chennai. In the year ended April 30, 2003, its worldwide turnover was over £90 million.

According to Mr Boddu, iSoft will provide healthcare application software for the winners (Accenture and Computer Sciences Corporation) of three of the NHS information local service provider (LSP) contracts.

While Accenture won two contracts worth over £2 billion, Computer Sciences Corporation won a contract worth close to £1 billion, he said.

"We would have revenue of over $550 million as licence and maintenance fees for our software. We would also get reasonable revenue for services," he said.

In the 10-year contract, the LSPs would develop region-wide information technology infrastructures to hook into the national patient database being developed by BT Group, he said.

iSoft's systems are now installed in over 65 per cent of NHS Hospital Trusts in Britain. The company would use this expertise in the new NHS software, he said.

Takes office space on lease

iSoft has taken on lease 30,000 sq ft of office space from SSI Ltd in the city. Located on Anna Salai, the facility would accommodate about 400 seats, said Mr Ravan Boddu.

iSoft plans to build its own campus on the Old Mahabalipuram Road, the information technology corridor, in 18-24 months. It plans to accommodate all its employees in this centre, he said.

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