The Hindu : ABB moves to Bangalore

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 09, 2002

Business

Business

ABB moves to Bangalore

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE APRIL 8. It was a promising homecoming for Asea Brown Boveri (ABB), the global power and automation giant, which has moved headquarters from Delhi to Bangalore this month, after an eight year gap. ABB also launched here its first global R&D centre outside Europe.

ABB's four major divisions based here are: process industries, manufacturing and consumer industries, automation technology products and group processes.

"Our focus is on the global R&D centre here and its industrial IT software development projects; expectations are high," Managing Director, Ravi Uppal, told The Hindu.

The global R&D centre is the company's first in Asia, focused on industrial IT. ABB has integrated its entire power and automation technology offerings with IT to enable power and industry customers improve productivity. The centre's aim is to develop high quality software for ABB's global use. It will develop, maintain and support a wide range of software products and work closely with other ABB R&D centres and for business areas in the group.

Located in the International Tech Park (ITPL) near Whitefield, it now has a core group of domain experts including some from Europe, working with software programmers. Use of industrial IT in ABB products and services needs a dedicated team. Their work includes developing software and certifying the company's products and services; these are bundled as an intelligent package for customers.

The ABB group spends 7 per cent of its revenues on technology innovation. It employs around 6,000 scientists and researchers and plans an R&D centre in China this year. In India, its channel partners are now online and customers can get real-time information on account and delivery status from anywhere and also select products appropriate for their needs. The South is a key market and the shift will expand it.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business