BANGALORE, AUG. 6.

BUCKING the layoffs trend, iCMG plans to double staff in the next four-six months. Buoyed by the response to its component education server, and having launched K2, claimed to be the world's first CORBA complaint application server, iCMG sees business growing because of the slowdown.

With aggressive pricing, and clear ROI propositions added to its edge in component technology, iCMG is targeting industry verticals such as retail, manufacturing, telecom, insurance and banking for its CORBA compliant application server.

``Apart from doubling the technical staff to 120, we also plan to increase sales and support staff by about five times,'' said Mr Sunil Dutt Jha, CEO.

Till now, software development companies were the customers for iCMG's component education server.

Having bagged customers such as Cognizant and Renovision Systems, iCMG is also talking to CRM and supply chain vendors.

``We offer customers cost savings of 50 per cent. The ROI is immediately apparent and realisable,'' Mr Jha said.

The company's offering has also generated interest in Finland, Germany, France and Spain, according to him.

``The K2 server is useful when building large-scale applications with huge legacy systems that the enterprise is trying to extend and expose them to e-business.''

iCMG is partnering with the e-commerce division of IDM Holdings, the largest IT education, training and software developer in Colombo.

This, according to the company, will help reuse legacy core service applications not rewrite it. ``From the programmer's viewpoint too, using CORBA components makes it easier to build, deploy and manage the software.''

Since the K2 server is robust, mature and scalable, it provides a highway from the existing infrastructure for e-business, said Mr Jha.

According to him, iCMG's offering offers reduces costs and increases programmer productivity, time to develop and software requirements through co-programming.

``Perhaps, because of the recessionary trend, the cost advantage is convincing. But it is the technological innovation that is convincing to the developed and mature markets of the West,'' Mr Jha said.

iCMG is also in talks with 3-4 very large clients in the US and extending that strategy to the Japan, Germany and the UK.

``There is a huge demand, especially as we give tangible savings and increased revenues to customers,'' Mr Jha said. The company is also pursuing alliances and partnerships aggressively.