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Satyam Computer Services, a leading global consulting and information technology services company,announced the launch of a new solutions center in Brisbane’s Central Business District. The facility will support Queensland-based clients across various IT platforms with an emphasis on enterprise application-based solutions.

The facility reflects Satyam Computer Services’ commitment to the Australian market as well as its continuous efforts to bolster its Virtual Global Delivery Model. B. Rama Raju, Satyam’s co-founder and managing director, officially opened the new facility at a ceremony attended by several senior Satyam clients, and officiated by Anita Nayar, India’s Consul General.

The Brisbane development center will serve local government, finance, and insurance clients, while addressing other sectors, including mining. In addition, a significant proportion of Satyam’s Australian development will also take place at the new facility, primarily the development of future enterprise applications for both Australian and multinational clients. The center currently employs 40 professionals and expects to employ another 50 professionals in the near future.

Today, Satyam Computer Services has a diverse workforce of over 1200 associates serving Australia out of which over 800 are based in Australia. Satyam has laid major emphasis on local employment generation and today over 42% of associates in Australia are local nationals. Apart from hiring experienced local professionals Satyam is working closely with Australian Computer Society to foster interest back in IT amongst Australian youth.

Towards this initiative Satyam has offered scholarships to about 100 associates; many of the university students are already enjoying the benefits of this scholarship and are currently getting trained in India to the same exact standards and training that our Indian engineers go through in Satyam’s campuses. These young graduates after their training will come and form part of Satyam’s Australia’s team. Some of these engineers who attended training in India last year are already working with our clients in Australia.

IT majors, TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, Satyam and HCL Technologies have accounted for 1.9 percent of the total $672 billion IT services market in 2006. This indicates an increase from 0.5 percent of the $554 billion IT services market in 2001, as per a study by global research and analyst firm, Gartner.

Allie Young, VP and analyst of Gartner commented that India-centric providers had perfected their respective value propositions through global delivery models (GDMs), providing high-quality yet lowercost labour to buyers globally. He said that those companies were making inroads in key clients, often beginning with smaller, project based or staff augmentation work.

These top six India-centric service providers are relatively smaller in size, but that has not stopped them in making significant strides to challenge the market share leaders’ positions by continuing to show strong annual revenue growth far exceeding the market norm. The average annual growth rate of these companies was 42.4 percent in 2006, compared to 4.3 percent growth of the market leader during the same period.

According to Young, Some may argue that the reason for high growth rates, is the smaller revenue base. While percentage growth on a smaller revenue base is easier to achieve, the India-centric providers are outperforming (in total dollar gains) many organisations far larger than they are.

The increasing competitiveness of the India-centric service leaders is evident their ranking positions. In 2001, the ranking positions of the top six service providers in India spanned from 68 to 212. By 2006, they were within the top 100.

RSA, the security division of US-based software firm EMC Corp, is looking for more acquisitions in India, after buying out Hydrabad-based Valyd Software. The company based in Bedford Massachusetts, is looking for companies in identity protection and security management sector in the country.

The company also plans to increase the share of research output from India development centre in its product development effort, said RSA global president Arthur Coviello Jr. R&D contribution from India should rise as high as 40% of global research within firve years, he said.

He said that they were looking for acquiring small companies having upto 100-200 employees and those which fill the gaps in RSA’s portfolio offerings. RSA, which was bought by EMC for $2.1 billion last year, has grown through acquisitions in 2007.

Besides Valyd Software, it has bought California based data loss prevention solutions company Tabulus and Florida based authentication solutions provider Verid. He said that they were also planing for India operations to contribute as much as 10% of global revenues for the company.

Coviello, who is also the executive vice president at EMC, said the company plans to achieve thise numbers by tapping demand from information technology, business process outsourcing, telecom, financial services and government.

RSA Information Security revenues for the second quarter of 2007 grew 21% to about $125 million. The company employs 300 people in India and has development centre in Bangalore. Experts place the Indian security market at around RS.360 crore with the authentication, authorisation and access market having a near 52% share.