Exterro, a US-based $12 million privately held legal enterprise software company is looking to double its headcount in India and triple
its revenue in 2010. The company headed by an Indian-born US citizen has set up a development centre here.
"We are planning to book space in the upcoming Tidel Park in Coimbatore to house around 250 to 300 employees. In the first phase, we will expand our operations here by doubling the head count to 90 in 2010," Exterro’s president & CEO Bobby Balachandran told ET.
The company started in 2004 at Portland, Oregon in US by four Indian-born promoters with an investment of $1.5 million is looking to finance its expansion plans through private equity and venture capital. "We are in process of infusing around $15 million to increase revenue by three times in 2010. We will go for an IPO by the end of 2012," he added.
Exterro has two offices, one each in Portland and Chicago and a third one in Coimbatore. Mr Bobby said the Coimbatore centre is treated as an extended arm of the US offices and not as a separate offshore development centre. "India is strategic for our growth and we chose to set base in Coimbatore due to the city’s entrepreneurial nature and huge talent available," he added.
It is currently focused on product development with four unique products namely Genome (data mapping), Legal Hold (preservation of data), Discovery Workflow Management (process data) and FusionGo (snapshot of everything). They are priced in the range of $ 250,000 to $ 150,000 and the company charges 20% on a yearly basis as maintenance cost.
"We are looking to innovate and develop two additional products a year in the electronic discovery platform, whose market is currently pegged at $4.5-$5.5 billion a year," Mr Bobby said, adding software with limited functionality will be launched in the Software as a Service (SaaS) mode from February 2010 for companies in the low and mid market ranges.
"We are doing business in the enterprise software space but we see a growing market in SaaS mode and we expect it to eclipse the enterprise software space by 2012," he said.
Basically a link provider between business and technology, Exterro has specialised in software solutions pertaining to legal governance, risk and compliance management.
"The executives in the West are under lot of regulatory pressure and they need to store, preserve and process data regularly. We help them with our software in managing data for legal enterprise," Mr Bobby added.
Walt Disney, Visa, Pfizer, Hershey’s, Fidelity, Qualcomm, Microsoft, Oracle and Intel are its clients, he said, adding the company is also in discussion with Mittal group and Reliance in the US. Apart from US, the company has set its sights on European Union and is scouting for office space in London. "Asian countries including India are also in our plans, but corporate governance and market regulations are still not mature here," he added.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Do not lower guard on A (H1N1) flu
Public health authorities in Coimbatore seem to be having a bit of relief now with fewer cases of A (H1N1) influenza being reported now than a month ago. But, this is no reason for the public to lower their guard, the authorities warn.
The Coimbatore Medical College Hospital had only three persons quarantined in its 20-bed isolation ward on Wednesday. And, one of them who tested positive in Mumbai tested negative in Coimbatore. “We are discharging him tomorrow,” Dean of the hospital V. Kumaran said.
“Close to a month ago, the two private laboratories approved by Government for conducting flu tests used to report nearly 30 positive cases a day. Over the last one week, the number dipped to 10 or 15. Now, it is even less,” Dr. Kumaran said.
Of the seven persons who underwent tests at one of the laboratories on Tuesday, only two tested positive. One of these persons was from Erode and another from a rural area in Coimbatore. “Cases being reported from the city are steadily decreasing. One inference is people are following the treatment protocol and the other is that the community is developing immunity,” the Dean said.
More in Hindu....
The Coimbatore Medical College Hospital had only three persons quarantined in its 20-bed isolation ward on Wednesday. And, one of them who tested positive in Mumbai tested negative in Coimbatore. “We are discharging him tomorrow,” Dean of the hospital V. Kumaran said.
“Close to a month ago, the two private laboratories approved by Government for conducting flu tests used to report nearly 30 positive cases a day. Over the last one week, the number dipped to 10 or 15. Now, it is even less,” Dr. Kumaran said.
Of the seven persons who underwent tests at one of the laboratories on Tuesday, only two tested positive. One of these persons was from Erode and another from a rural area in Coimbatore. “Cases being reported from the city are steadily decreasing. One inference is people are following the treatment protocol and the other is that the community is developing immunity,” the Dean said.
More in Hindu....
Coimbatore Passport Office plans SMS alerts
The Coimbatore Passport Office plans to launch Short Message Service (SMS) alerts to passport applicants. The service is expected to become operational by January 2010, said B. Balamurugan, Passport Officer, Coimbatore.
The new services include SMS alerts on various stages of processing of applications and ‘first-in and first-out’ concept of seniority-based processing. All district passport cells would be computerised with online application facility. The SMS facility would enable the applicants to enquire about the status of their applications, Mr. Balamurugan said.
He held preliminary discussions with P.V. Raju, senior systems analyst from the Kochi Passport Office, where the SMS system is already operational, on the creation of the required infrastructure. During the process of applications, the passport office might raise queries on police verification details, original documents, previous passport etc. These queries are at present sent by post which consumes time. On receiving the SMS alert, the applicants could respond to the queries promptly.
The ‘first-in and first-out’ system would help eliminate attempts to bypass the seniority of applications. Once the police verification report is attached to the application, it will be serially numbered and processed only on that basis. In emergency cases, only the four designated Passport Issuing Authorities could assure early issuance of passport. The Coimbatore office which has a staff strength of only 21 as against the sanctioned 55 is overburdened. It has asked the district passport cells in the Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode, Salem and Namakkal to become online so that the workload could be minimised.
The new services include SMS alerts on various stages of processing of applications and ‘first-in and first-out’ concept of seniority-based processing. All district passport cells would be computerised with online application facility. The SMS facility would enable the applicants to enquire about the status of their applications, Mr. Balamurugan said.
He held preliminary discussions with P.V. Raju, senior systems analyst from the Kochi Passport Office, where the SMS system is already operational, on the creation of the required infrastructure. During the process of applications, the passport office might raise queries on police verification details, original documents, previous passport etc. These queries are at present sent by post which consumes time. On receiving the SMS alert, the applicants could respond to the queries promptly.
The ‘first-in and first-out’ system would help eliminate attempts to bypass the seniority of applications. Once the police verification report is attached to the application, it will be serially numbered and processed only on that basis. In emergency cases, only the four designated Passport Issuing Authorities could assure early issuance of passport. The Coimbatore office which has a staff strength of only 21 as against the sanctioned 55 is overburdened. It has asked the district passport cells in the Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode, Salem and Namakkal to become online so that the workload could be minimised.
Coimbatore college students develop robotic vehicle
Three engineering students of a city college today claimed to have developed a multipurpose unmanned robotic vehicle which they believe would be useful for ISRO, in exploring the lunar surface in the next unmanned moon mission, besides Army and police in various activities.
The vehicle, which uses artificial intelligence with digital image processing sans any sensors, would do multi-various activities like car chasing, reading book and driving, the students of the Government College of Technology told reporters after a demonstration.
Ranganathan, S R Anantha Krishnan and S Rajesh Kannan, who developed the vehicle, said it was designed to ply on the road automatically and detect both moving and stationary objects such as other vehicles and human beings.
Since the vehicle fitted with a camera can also be controlled through wireless transmitter, it can be added to ISRO-2012 space programme for exploring moon, they said.
The vehicle, which uses artificial intelligence with digital image processing sans any sensors, would do multi-various activities like car chasing, reading book and driving, the students of the Government College of Technology told reporters after a demonstration.
Ranganathan, S R Anantha Krishnan and S Rajesh Kannan, who developed the vehicle, said it was designed to ply on the road automatically and detect both moving and stationary objects such as other vehicles and human beings.
Since the vehicle fitted with a camera can also be controlled through wireless transmitter, it can be added to ISRO-2012 space programme for exploring moon, they said.
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