SunGard Offshore to ramp up India operations

SunGard Offshore Services (SOS), the subsidiary of the $4-billion US-based SunGard Inc, which offers software and processing solutions, is significantly ramping up its India operations with the country emerging as the fastest growing R&D centre for the company.

Last year, the firm opened its second development facility in Bangalore. The company has been in operation in India since 1993 with a development centre in Pune.

The company gained access to India following the acquisition of the US-based SCT Software Solutions worldwide 13 years ago.

Last year, the headcount of SOS in India was 650. "We are witnessing tremendous activity from our Indian R&D centre. Already, 40 per cent of the software development of the firm is carried out in India. Consequently, we intend to raise the headcount in India to 2,000 from the present 1,300 over the next one year," SunGard CEO Ron Lang told Business Standard.

The company has 50 development centres worldwide with an average headcount of 100 in each. "India has the single largest concentration of our employees worldwide. Besides, it is the fastest growing centre carrying out all kinds of R&D," he added.

SOS plans to develop Bangalore as its centre for core banking solutions. "We find that Bangalore has the ideal talent to develop software for core banking solutions. Of the 700 techies we intend to hire in the coming months, a significant number will be deployed at the Bangalore office," Lang stated. SunGard recently acquired System Access, a company specialising in core banking solutions.