Iteamic to expand operations in Mangalore

Bangalore, Feb 21 (UNI) Iteamic, a four-year-old Information Technology industry clocking 100 per cent growth year-on-year since inception, will expand its operations in Karnataka by opening a 100- seat branch in Mangalore soon.

Disclosing this to newsmen here, Company Founder and Chief Executive Officer Raghurama Kote and Co-Founder Krishnappa Niyogi said the company had registered profit since its inception.

The 100 per cent export-oriented unit would close the year with a business of Rs 32 crore by March end from its small beginning of Rs 2.5 crore in 2003.

The the turnover would cross Rs 50 crore by 2010 with aggressive growth plans, they claimed.

Replying to a query, Mr Kote said the company had a headcount of 250 people and would be crossing 1000 in another two years.

Most of the clients had repeated their business following company's endeavour in maintaining its credibility.

Of the 12 clients, ten were US-based with one each in Switzerland and Djakarta.

Answering another question, he said the company had suffered eight per cent revenue loss in its total turnover following appreciation in Indian rupee Stating this year's focus would be mainly on alliances to provide offshore and outsourcing services, he said the company had recently entered into a strategic alliance with a San Francisco-based company to offer compliance consulting and software services and helping publicly traded companies regulate their financial reporting.

Iteamic had also started developing solutions around education domain hoping to target the European and Asian Markets.

Mr Kote claimed the Small and Medium Enterprises, which contributed nearly 40 per cent of export earnings, were totally ignored by the authorities.

The government should begin awarding its IT business to only SMEs to ensure their healthy growth, they said. Besides, the Software Technologies Park of India's move to do away with the tax benefits for SMEs should be stopped as it would ultimately kill the sector itself.

UNI SR GM 1827