Tally may move development centre out of Bangalore

The Rs 225-crore Tally Solutions is planning to move its core development centre out of Bangalore, to be in individual markets and understand them as it prepares for global expansion.

The company, which has entrenched itself in the accounting software product space in India, is expanding across West Asia and South East Asia and subsequently would move to other major geographies.

Speaking to Business Standard, Bharat Goenka, MD, Tally said: "India accounts for 10 per cent of the global marketplace. We clearly have a significant presence in India and as we expand, we need to figure out where the hub of development will be."

The company is examining various options including 'moving the hub out of Bangalore to either Dubai, Hong Kong or Singapore.' "The company currently has an employee base of close to 1,000, of which 30 per cent are into development based out of Bangalore. Goenka added that the global expansion plan will most probably involve a hub and spoke model with distributed development centres.

The company is looking at an expansion plan of close to Rs 100 crore in the near future as part of its initiative to target mega geographies and to launch its ERP product, Tally Ascent. "We are comfortable with the cash position and even if we need more cash, it is not difficult to raise it," he added. Tally also has the advantage of having Mukesh Ambani as its 50 per cent shareholder.

Outlining the strategy for expansions, Goenka said: "We are on a drive to meet the entire software requirement of any firm wanting to use our kind of software product. First was accounting and training and now it is ERP. We are looking at various kinds of services to dip into our customer base and to leverage the trust we have built." Tally is also looking at spreading itself into the retail and pharma verticals with specialised offerings.

He added that the ERP product is 6-7 weeks away from the launch and will be priced in the range of Rs 3 lakh per location with unlimited users. "We do not go by modules and our ERP product encompasses the entire range," he explained, stating that he wants to bring the power of simplicity to ERP after doing the same with accounting.

"A majority of our ERP implementation can be done by customers themselves and this is the kind of simplicity we are looking at," Goenka noted.