The Hindu Business Line : BEA Systems to forge more Indian alliances

Many of BEA Systems' next generation products like Alchemy are being developed in India. The company is also exploring the scope of outsourcing a part of the development work on QuickSilver to India.

San Francisco , May 30

BEA Systems Inc, among the world's largest application infrastructure software companies, is keen to have more alliance partners in India.

At present, the company has alliances with six major IT companies in India including Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, HCL and MpHasis.

In an interview here with Business Line, Mr Bobby Napiltonia, Vice President (Worldwide Channels & Alliances) of BEA Systems Inc, said the company was ready to forge new alliances with other IT companies, which would not necessarily be as big as the present alliance partners.

Through such collaborations, BEA Systems plans to offer products and services to a different segment of the market. The San Jose-headquartered IT major already has a subsidiary in India. It has also firmed up plans to ramp up its operations in India within the next one year.

Given that a senior executive has been put in place to interact with its Indian partners, India is likely to play a key role in the company's global business plans.

At present the co-operation with the Indian alliance partners is to service BEA Systems' clients in the US - across verticals such as telecommunications, financial services, insurance and retail.

The long-term goal would be to leverage on capabilities to offer products and services to large Indian corporates .

"We can focus on marketing and reaching out to our customers while our Indian partners can facilitate delivery of solutions effectively," Mr Napiltonia said.

Mr T. Scott Edgington, Vice President and General Manager, said that a single global approach would not not suit all alliances .

As such, local partners were a great help when it came to ``localisation, innovation and differentiation.''

Alliance partnerships were also leveraged upon for ``influencing, co-selling, re-selling and ensuring faster time-to-market delivery.''

According to Mr Chet Kapoor, Vice President and General Manager (Integration), BEA Systems' Indian operation assumes special significance, as many of BEA Systems' next generation products like Alchemy were being developed in India.

The company is also exploring the scope of outsourcing a part of the development work on QuickSilver to India . ``There is a huge potential for the development of high-end products in India.''