IonIdea, an IT services company also present in in India, the US and Ukraine, has set up its development centre in Hubli.

Currently, IonIdea's solutions delivery centres are located at Bangalore in India, Fairfax, Virginia, in the US and in Ukraine (Simferopol). The company plans to use Hubli as an extended delivery centre to Bangalore and later make it an independent centre.

Mr Manohar Joshi, Director, Quality Systems told Business Line , “[The] Hubli centre will endeavour to deliver global customers projects by leveraging local engineering talent, provide delivery in key tech areas such as Java, J2EE, Microsoft technologies, open source solutions, and verification and validation services.”

The company planned to expand its solutions delivery in India in addition to Bangalore into the tier-II cities in India, and after shortlisting nearly 10 cities, narrowed down to Hubli in Karnataka.

“The main key reason for getting located in Hubli is due to the quality of the engineers, the quality engineering talent available in this region and strength of the various engineering- and computer-science degree colleges located in and around here,” said Mr Joshi.

IonIdea's capital expenditure at Hubli is around Rs 1.5 crore, mainly for setting up the 2,400 sq. ft facility to house 60 seats.

Mr Joshi said, “The Hubli facility is a rental facility at present, and we are starting with 25 to 30 engineers. We have a target to grow to a size of 500 resources in the next two years. The rental facility has a capacity to hold 60 employees.”

“After hiring few engineers locally from Hubli to commence our operations, we have worked out our monthly operational expenses to be between Rs 32 and 35 lakhs,” he added.

He further said, “Our expansion plans in Hubli calls for hiring about 1,000 employees over the next 3 to 5 years. Our vision is to create [an] IT campus and engage local talent on cutting-edge technologies working for international clients and assignments.”

The company is planning to collaborate with universities and colleges in the region for employees.

“We plan to replicate our Bangalore experience of working jointly with colleges which include industry-specific training/labs. Engage the students for last 2 to 3 semesters. Provide exposure on industry trends/tools/techniques,” Mr Joshi.