BOMBAY — India’s leading Internet industry player, the Microland Group, has announced the formation of Innerframe — a new entity which will enable the group to become a single point service provider for enterprise, web infrastructure and information security issues.
The new entity, for the time being, will function as a division of the $1.5 billion Bangalore-based Microland Group but may be hived off as a separate company by the end of this year, according to Microland Group chairman and managing director Pradeep Kar.
The new entity has been formed by restructuring and consolidating Microland’s flagship networking businesses, said Kar.
“Technology has rewritten business rules. In this dynamic environment, a critical issue confronting all enterprises is to get the most out of their investments in technology infrastructure,” Kar said.
Innerframe will be headquartered in Bangalore and focus on five geographies – the US, India, Asia Pacific, Europe and Middle East. With a staff strength of 500 plus, the entity is expected to generate revenues to the tune of $16 million in the 2001-2002 period. India is expected to contribute 30 to 35 percent of this revenue.
The new focus of the company, in a way, will help the group tap the strengths developed so far by various divisions and companies functioning under the Microland umbrella, be it in network integration, software services, internet media, or communication software.
This expertise can be leveraged during different stages of the technology lifecycle, from planning and design to management and review, the group believes, says Kar.
Kar said that the positioning stance for the new entity will be “making technology infrastructure perform” as the optimum utilization of the infrastructure is what companies will be asking for, especially in the times of crunch in the industry.
“Innerframe will help companies manage their technology infrastructure, review it constantly, develop inbuilt security measures and if need be start from the scratch,” said Innerframe chief technology officer and vice-president engineering K S Ganesan.
The Microland group has four companies (Planetasia, Net Brahma, Indya.com and IT Space and three divisions MicroUniv, Media2India and Microland.net (now Innerframe).
Innerframe has forged alliances with companies such as Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems, Trend Micro and Entrust Technologies. Its clients include Crisil, Ashok Leyland, Blue Dart, Hindustan Level, GE Information Management, Mindtrac and Asiapapermarkets.