D.Murali

Chennai: AMI is seeing software development opportunities opening up in Europe, which was hitherto a difficult market to penetrate, informs Mr Jayaram Krishnan, CEO of American Megatrends India (AMI) Pvt Ltd. “With a cost arbitrage as well as technical pool of talented software engineers in India, this opportunity was bound to open up,” he adds.

Established in 1995, AMI has been catering to the software development services of companies in the Far East and Europe, apart from its parent company American Megatrends Inc, US. “We see a huge potential for selling our products such as StorTrends IP SAN (Internet protocol storage area network), and Falcon-i vehicle tracking system in Africa, Middle East and India,” says Mr Krishnan, speaking to Business Line.

On the Europe market for software, he explains that the range is vast, from engineering design and embedded applications to business applications. “A current project of AMI in the UK involves the profilometer software which tracks measurements made by non-contact instruments. This enables, for example, the manufacture of prefab building blocks with a high degree of accuracy and finish.”

There are signs of demand coming from board designers and manufacturers in India, not only for computers but also specialised applications like mobile and telecom, says Mr Krishnan. Globally, where is growth in the embedded technology sphere coming from? “If you look at the computer board design/manufacture, we see a shift from Taiwan to China, which is also emerging as a market for embedded components such as BIOS, WinCE applications, and remote management solutions.”

The Falcon-i vehicle tracking system of AMI, says Mr Krishnan, was conceptualised and designed in India, to cater to the vast and fast-growing demand from companies in the IT (information technology) services sector, educational institutions, fleet operators, cab owners, and specialised transport sectors (such as for oil, milk, food, local bodies, police and defence).

“Launched in 2007 the product promises to be a flagship for years to come, with demand growing at a phenomenal pace,” he hopes. “Falcon-i works on the GPS (global positioning system)/GSM (Global System for Mobile)-GPRS (general packet radio services).”

The product gets information from sensors such as immobiliser, door open/shut, fuel gauge, speedometer, temperature and humidity gauge, and RFID (radio-frequency identification) readers. This information is used by the owner to track and manage the fleet remotely.

When entering/exiting the vehicle, the employee can swipe his/her card on the RFID reader mounted on the bus or van, elaborates Mr Krishnan. “We have been providing customised solutions to IT/ITeS (IT enabled services) companies for the safety and convenience of their employees.” The system gives alerts to the management on critical parameters, from the mass of information collected.

Bus and truck majors are seriously considering the bundling of the tracking system in their vehicles, he informs. “We see this as a promising development.”