The company that created the first COBOL programming environment on the PC in 1976, UK-based Micro Focus, has now set up an office at Bangalore mainly to address the Year-2000 date change problem.

Currently, Micro Focus has its COBOL-based products/applications being used by most of the nationalised banks in India, besides several insurance companies and software houses.

The company is also looking at major tie-ups to offer training on IBM mainframe environment using its products. Micro Focus has finalised two such tie-ups in Secunderabad.

Targeting a turnover of over Rs. 7 crores ($ 2 million ) in its first year of operations, Micro Focus is expecting 50% of the revenues to come from the software export houses and 25 % from the banking sector.

Prosolvia AB, the Swedish multinational software company, plans to set up a virtual reality training centre in India to extend the latest advances and applications for virtual reality to its strategic users, educational institutes, research and development centres and software companies. As a first step, Prosolvia will station a project co-ordinator in Bangalore.

Virtual reality training centres offer companies the opportunity to evaluate technology and develop pilot projects in their specific areas. One of the revolutionary ways companies use this technology is virtual prototyping - the ability to conceptualise future products while still in the idea stage.

Prosolvia's successful concept of virtual reality training centres is spreading world-wide. Five centres are already in operation in Europe and future centres are to be based in the US, UK, Norway and the Netherlands. With the growing recognition of Indian software companies, Prosolvia is interested in developing long-term alliances with them as strategic business partners.

Concert Services, a global communication services company, will expand its Indian network to cover Bangalore by March 1997. The company, a joint venture between UK-based BT World-Wide Ltd. and US - based MCL Inc., will also add the frame relay type of service to its portfolio in the same period.

Concert is represented in India by BT (India) and delivers packet type data services through an arrangement with Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd., (VSNL), India's international data carrier.

Concert will target its frame relay services first at the growing segment of the software exporters in the country. These companies currently operate by leasing 64 kbps telecom lines from VSNL to connect their Indian offices to those of their individual overseas clients.

For the first time in India, a 'software village', incorporating the virtual reality office concept that is in vogue in the West, is being planned near Bangalore by Information Management Resources Inc. (IMR), a US-based company.

IMR India had requested the Karnataka Government for permission to set up the ultra-modern software village for the development of software with an additional investment of Rs. 41.40 crores ( $ 11.8 million). The proposed project was cleared by the state government recently. IMR has so far invested Rs. 50 crores ( $ 14 million ) in its Indian facilities.

In the software village, information technology engineers will work in an office-cum-home environment in a 20-acre land containing everything from a state-of-the-art software development centre to residential-cum-recreational facilities. The software village will also have facilities for career education and training, applied research and development, satellite communications, etc. According to plans, each house in the village would be on a network enabling engineers to carry on work at home and interact with the host computer of clients abroad. Although the concept has been accepted by MNCs operating in the IT industry in India, it is yet to be implemented by any one in the Indian IT industry.

Bangalore, which is often referred to as the Silicon Valley of India and boasts of a number of software technology parks, will take another step forward when a software development township is established by a major Indian software export company.

Bangalore - based BFL Software (a subsidiary of Bangur Foundation) is investing around Rs. 60 crores ($18 million) on its own software township, covering 150,000 sq. ft of building space, at about 23 kms from down-town Bangalore. Work on this township project has already begun.

The township is being designed by an American architect and would be completed in two phases and house about 1,200 key professionals. It will have a software development centre, besides the necessary infrastructural facilities. This new township will be in addition to the two city offices from which the company is operating at present.

The first phase of the company's expansion plans envisages a 85,000 sq.ft development centre, involving an investment of about Rs. 33 crore ($9 million ), which is scheduled to be completed by April 98. The second phase would be ready by 1999.

BFL software is currently operating in 11 countries in North America, Asia and Africa. More than 100 projects are currently under execution in six technology - focus areas : system software, client-server technology, networking technology, tandem technology, re-engineering technology and other emerging technologies.

NCR Corporation India, formerly AT&T Global Information Solutions (AT&T GIS), the computer unit of AT&T, has now become a 100% subsidiary of NCR Corporation Inc. of US.

NCR India will concentrate on the financial, retail, and communication industries, and offer industry-specific solutions for Indian customers. The company will appoint distributors who will mainly play the role of system integrators. NCR is also in talks with some leading IT companies in India for strategic alliances.

Sonata Software Ltd. (SSL), Bangalore, which was spun off as a separate company by its parent, the Indian Organic chemicals Ltd. (IOCL), Bombay, has embarked upon a Rs. 21 crore ( $6 million ) plan involving a 40,000 sq.ft offshore development centre in Bangalore. The first phase, involving 20,000 sq.ft. to house over 400 professionals, is scheduled to be completed shortly. Additional investment is also proposed for the competence centre which has been operational since last year.

IOCL, which entered into a joint venture partnership with Offshore Digital Services Inc. (ODCI) of US in 1992, has been catering to Sonata's marketing needs in the US so far. Sonata has now invested over Rs. 13 crores ($ 4 million) in a branch office of its own at New Jersey to strengthen its marketing base in the US. This branch office is expected to be connected through two 64 Kbps high speed data links from Bangalore. The company's US operations contributed about 6.5 % to its total turnover in 1993 and grew to 21.3 % in 1996.

The company has also received the approval of the Reserve Bank of India to set up an office in Germany. The office is likely to become functional by March 1997.