May 28
	by Rukmini Priyadarshini

THE slowdown seems to have been a blessing in disguise for ICMG, which is foraying into the US and Japanese markets with its K2 and Component Educational Servers (CES).

``With our K2 server, we offer technical solutions to telecom solutions providers,'' said Mr Sunil Dutt Jha, CEO.

ICMG is about to close a product co-development deal with the US-based telecom product company, TCSI.

It is also entering into an agreement with Roguewave -- which has the largest library of C++ in banking and telecom as well as products that can be integrated with ICMG's K2 server.

Roguewave, with its large East Asian presence, is also interested in marketing ICMG's CES products in Japan and Hong Kong, said Mr Jha.

ICMG is also in talks with several Indian telecom solution providers for its K2 server.

``Our customers feel that the K2 server infrastructure could be an ideal replacement for their deployed infrastructure,'' said Mr Jha.

For companies seeking to convert their legacy systems into e-business platforms, the K2 server provides the entire integration, he added.

Network management systems, intelligent networks, integrating network devices with network services and making Web applications access telecom services through `one-touch' and `zero latency' servers are areas ICMG sees its opportunities in because of its strong CORBA background.

``We offer more than just man and material supply, and our customers are discovering that Indian companies can be at the cutting edge of technology too,'' said Mr Jha.

More than cost advantages, ICMG is positioning itself in the world market based on technology bandwidth, technical solutions and ``culture for technology'', he added.

The Indian market, too, has received ICMG's offerings favourably, according to Mr Jha.

ICMG intends to get the top tech companies in India as clients by the end of the quarter; ``we are 50 per cent on target.''

Having recently bagged the Mascot Systems contract for its component education server, ICMG is in advanced talks with Wipro and Mindtree for integrating its CES in their training programmes.

``Using ICMG's server has been found to reduce costs by as much as 50-70 per cent,'' said Ms Poornima B.R., Chief, Operations and Branding. The deals could translate into several thousand licences for ICMG.

``It is because we offer robust scalable technical solutions that increase revenues by converting legacy systems to e-business platforms and cut costs through the component education server that we have made rapid progress this year,'' said Mr Jha.

ICMG's palette now consists of consulting, development, products and solutions. ``With our focus on building solutions, we expect to be competitive in the global market,'' he added.