Progress Soft to invest $6mn in India

Progress Software Corporation, a $363-million supplier of e-business application development, deployment, integration and management products, has indicated an investment of $6 million in India in a year's time.

The company will also be increasing its headcount in India from the present 45 to 150 by the end of 2006.

Addressing a press conference, Joseph W Alsop, chief executive officer and co-founder of Progress Software Corporation, said, "We have invested $2 million in Hyderabad to set up our largest software development centre outside the US. We will be tripling our investment in a year's time on par with our expansion in terms of employee numbers." The company has seven development centres and employs 1,700 people across the globe.

Progress Software started its operations in Hyderabad six months ago with 45 employees doing software design and development in Java, C++ and .Net.

"At present, the development tools for Sonic and OpenEdge are being done out of Hyderabad. Later, all the development tools will be done in Hyderabad," Alsop said, adding that there is an opportunity for developers both at the entry as well as advanced level at the company.

The Nasdaq-listed company has four operating units "� Progress OpenEdge Division, Sonic Software, DataDirect Technologies and Progress Real Time Division. It has a market presence in 60,000 organisations with over three million users.

"India, as a market, has a huge potential. At present, the Asia-Pacific region contributes around seven per cent to our global revenues. Therefore, India does not contribute much to our business. But there are opportunities for market expansion over here and we are likely to set up our sales presence in India too," Alsop said. Steel Authority of India Limited is one of the clients of Progress Software in India.

With regard to their inorganic growth strategy, Alsop said that they are open to acquisitions in India. "We are always looking for opportunities," he added.

Progress Software is estimated to touch revenues of $401 million in FY05. The company has a Progress University Programme wherein it conducts training programmes at the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT).

It is also sponsoring a Student Programming Contest to test the programming skills of students in a complex systems software. The main competition will be held during Computer Society of India's national annual convention in Hyderabad on November 11, 2005.