Mercury set for debut in education business

The US-based $800 million Mercury Ltd, which is into software and process testing, is all set to enter into the education business where it intends to aid students take up software testing as a profession.

According to a survey, India at present requires around 18,000 software testing professional and the country is facing a supply gap.

Mercury is also looking at this space in a big way. "The plan is to start with five franchisee in five cities which would then be enhanced to other centres," said T Srinivasan, managing director, Mercury India.

In the product testing arena, Mercury is a leader with 55.6 percent market share in automated software quality and performance testing, it is also one of the fastest-growing application management/performance monitoring vendor.

The company was also ranked number-one in IT portfolio management. Meanwhile. Mercury is also looking at India in a big way and the sectors being looked at are banking, insurance and finance, the telecom industry and the manufacturing as well as the government sector.

"Asia Pacific contributed around 11 per cent of its total revenue which was expected to rise significantly" he Srinivasan said.

Mercury was also expecting a $1 billion mark in 2005-06 and has been looking at the possibility of setting up a development centre in India.

"We would be looking at India as an option for setting up a development centre in India, but a decision is yet to be taken," he added.

In India Mercury has three marketing offices, it was also planning to open a couple of more offices in centres like Kolkata and other commercial centres to enhance its revenue flow from the country.

"We have recently initiated business in India but it has been one of the major focus centres in our global map," he said.