Crompton Greaves Ltd (CGL) and Maersk Data of Denmark have formed a joint venture company called CG Maersk Information Technologies Pvt Ltd to set up a software development centre (SDC) in Chennai to meet the growing global software needs. Initially,an investment of Rs. 10 crores ($3 million) will be made in the software development facility and the company plans to invest Rs. 30 crores ($9 million) more over a period of five years.

CG Maersk is a 50:50 joint venture company aimed at offering applications expertise in areas such as finance, transportation, manufacturing resource planning and business solutions. The president of the company said that the major focus areas will be on off-shore software development, maintenance and enhancement, database conversion and object oriented user interface (OOUI).

The company will also offer services in re-engineering applications, Year 2000 solutions and workflow. The solutions will be offered using advanced systems such as IBM ES /9000 Mainframe computers and open systems such as Unix, Windows NT, client server, Oracle , C++, Power Builder and Lotus Notes. The software development centre has on-line accessibility world-wide on a 24 hour basis through Maersk Data Network having hubs in around 70 countries. The US and Europe will be the major thrust markets for the company initially and later Japan will be targeted for software exports.

Maersk Data is part of AP Moller Group, one of the largest industrial group of Denmark having interest in cargo liners, tankers, drilling, exploration, airline services, shipbuilding etc.,

Madras-based Pentafour Software & Exports Ltd has taken the first step to substantially change the way of movie making in the country by tying up with Kodak to acquire its latest 'Cineon' digital film technology. Pentafour will be investing $2.5 million in setting up a new facility at its software development centre at Kelambakkam, some 40 kms from Chennai.

The tie-up is expected to dramatically reduce the cost of the movie-making in the country, as the conversion of popular television serials into movies will become easy with Kodak's digital technology and Pentafour's computer graphics studio. The Cineon digital film technology, will enable restoration of video films into quality films. The software will enable video to film transfers. The new film system will also allow high speed image access. Besides supplying equipment like film recorder, scanner, digital cameras, colour conversion techniques and software, Kodak may also provide assistance for training. Pentafour's digital imaging centre will be used extensively for multi-media application including the Cineon digital film conversion work.

Datacons Pvt Ltd., Bangalore and PK Technologies Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, have announced a joint venture company on a 30:70 basis. This joint venture will provide world class financial systems solutions and technologies for the capital market/asset and fund management sectors in Malaysia and South Asia/South East Asian regions.

The new company will also establish a regional centre of excellence for financial services and software technology in Kuala Lumpur. The centre for excellence will be an investment of expertise and resources covering design, development, implementation and on-going support of world class financial application solutions.

Initially, the company will sell and support software solutions for fund trusts and asset management companies in Malaysia and South East Asia. The combination of resources which amount to more than 170 technical professionals from both organisations to form a potent and larger organisation to take on larger projects on a global scale.

Microfocus (India) Pvt Ltd., a subsidiary of Microfocus (a multinational specialising in IBM mainframe software emulation and COBOL-related products) and Recursion Software Consultants (RSC), a Hyderabad-based company specialising in Y2K solutions, have joined hands to train software professionals to handle the Y2K problem. The two signed an MoU under which the franchisee training centres will be opened across the country. Initially, it is proposed to open such centres in ten cities.

According to the Managing Director, Microfocus (India), world-wide estimates of programmers needed to fix the Y2K problem are put at 3.5 million. Of this, 50% may be on IBM mainframes. But the total available programmers in the US is estimated to be about 1.5 million only, indicating tremendous job potential for people in India with professional training on mainframes. Most programmers affected by the problem were on IBM mainframes and in CICS, DB2, COBOL and IMS environments. Microfocus will provide the software and course material. The Managing Director, RSC, said from 2000 the company would be concentrating on Euro currency conversion problem which will be another IT challenge like the Y2K.

The Tata Group of companies has launched recently Tata Technologies (India) Ltd (TTIL) to offer state-of-the-art information technology based solutions as a strategic tool to enhance competitiveness in all areas of their operations from design to distribution to meet the challenges of the global market.

TTIL's business partners are SAP (Systems, Applications and Products) of Germany, Contra Corporation of the U.S., Tata Information Systems Ltd. (TISL) and Tata Elxsi. Tata Technologies, Singapore, was earlier Tata Elxsi, a company in which Singapore Government and TELCO are stakeholders.

TTIL is a subsidiary of Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company (TELCO) and will be supported by the computer-based skills of its IT professionals who have over 2500 work-years of experience in developing and implementing high quality systems for Telco's manufacturing plants.

TTIL will offer services like business process re-engineering and implementation of enterprise resource planning systems. The company also provides systems integration, engineering automations systems and turnkey custom-built software systems. Competence centres for SAP and knowledge based engineering systems (KBE) have also been set up in Pune to support customers.

Tulip Computers India - a subsidiary of Netherlands-based Tulip Computers - has entered into an agreement with The Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) for the manufacture of PCs under the Tulip brand name.

Following this agreement , ELCOT will soon set up a PC manufacturing facility at Chennai. This facility is expected to import computers in the SKD form from Netherlands and assemble them locally. These are to be marketed by Tulip India in the Southern region. Reports say that ELCOT is expected to assemble PCs worth Rs. 1 crore ($ 300,000) every month and focus its sales on the Government sector. Though the present agreement is valid for only one year, it is hoped that it will blossom into a joint venture between the two organisations. Tulip Computers is reported to have held similar discussions with a few companies based in the Northern region.

National Telecom India Ltd., (Natelco), the Rs. 80 crores ($23 million) Mumbai-based manufacturer of telecom equipment and radio access products, has entered into a joint venture with Nera Telecommunications, a Norwegian company that manufactures mobile satellite telephones. The joint venture, Nera Globecom (I) Pvt Ltd., will market Nera's Worldphone satellite handsets in the country. These handsets can be used for voice and data services that will be provided by Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL), India's international telecom carrier.