Similar centres planned in Chennai, Germany and Tokyo


CHENNAI: Satyam Computer Services Limited, a global IT consulting and
services provider, has unveiled its state-of-the-art automotive centre of
excellence (ACE) in Detroit to enable better customer engagement,
according to Subu D. Subramanian, Director and Senior Vice-President-
Manufacturing and Automotive Business Unit. In a videoconference from Detroit on Friday, Mr. Subramanian told reporters that Satyam was planning to follow it up with similar facilities in Chennai, Germany and Tokyo.

ACE's focus areas

ACE, built over 6,000 sq ft., would house more than 50 engineers initially, he said. It would focus on automotive industry specific solution building and R and , "leveraging the company's alliances with leading industry domain and technology solution providers and educational institutions." With the launch of digital manufacturing practice, the company was looking to tap the huge market by 2009 for digital manufacturing software and services. The initial investment for all the four ACEs would be about $12 million followed by $5 million to $7 million in subsequent years, he said.

MoU with IIT Madras

ACE had signed a memorandum of understanding with IIT-Madras and planned to tie-up with leading institutions like MIT, USA, for acquiring basic knowledge and trends in emerging technologies, Mr. Subramanian said. This would help the company tap the post-2006 business opportunity offered by GM, with which Satyam had a strong relationship. The company was already catering to seven of the top ten global automotive OEMs and four of the top ten automotive suppliers.
Mr. Subramanian said Satyam, by partnering with CapGemini and Hewlett Packard, had been offering services and solutions to General Motors over the last four years.
GM's recent announcement on awarding contracts worth $7.5 billion to a number of key Tier-I IT suppliers to provide integration services over the next five years has helped Electronic Data Systems (EDS) to get a lion's share of $3.8 billion, while International Business Machines Corp. got $500 million and India's Wipro bagged $300 million. Hewlett Packard and CapGemini had won orders worth $700 million and $500 million, respectively, from General Motors.

This in turn had helped Satyam win an order worth $150 million from HP and CapGemini, with whom Satyam was carrying out application development
and maintenance project for GM.