Date:15/09/2004 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/09/15/stories/2004091502020300.htm

Back Cygnus to offer knowledge-based services to UK company

Our Bureau

Hyderabad , Sept. 14

CYGNUS Business Consulting and Research, the Hyderabad-based knowledge services organisation, has finalised a long-term business partnership with the UK-based SURE group to service their knowledge process outsourcing needs.

SURE group is into offering value-added knowledge inputs online to the global class of managers and organisations. In a press release here on Tuesday, the Cygnus Head, Mr O.R.S. Rao, said, "This relationship with SURE group will be significant, as it leverages the skills and experience of Cygnus to offer services to the global market."

According to Mr Rao, the global market for information services currently stands at $300 billion with over 10 per cent of high-value added segment consisting of business research and analysis. The knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) in this high-end area is of recent origin and involves outsourcing of services such as intellectual property rights (IPR) search, secondary market research, data mining, financing modelling, equity research, bond analysis, economy analysis, industry analysis and company analysis.

Users of these services including consulting companies, commercial banks, investment banks, institutional investors, large corporates, media houses and governments. According to Mr Rao, these services demand deep domain knowledge in various industries coupled with strong analytical skills that were backed up with robust professional services culture. The KPO services areexpected to witness a ten-fold increase in the next five years to reach $20 billion from about $2 billion in 2003.

The SURE group consists of four companies — checkSURE, successSURE, terrorSURE and reportSURE. While checkSURE is an online commercial credit checking services company, terrorSURE offers services pertaining to comprehensive assessment of the risks faced by commercial and government organisations. successSURE enables global managers to download practical, time saving productivity tools for their personal use instantly, and reportSURE is a global portal for industry and country surveys with specially configured news feeds and an audio magazine in an MP3 format.

Cygnus, which publishes reports covering economies, industries and companies globally, has domestic customers such as the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Bulk Drug Manufacturers Association (BDMA), Aurobindo Pharma, Nicholas Piramal, Kodak, Institute for Research and Development in Banking Technology (IDRBT), , Nagarjuna Fertilisers and Chemicals and Surya Lakshmi group. Its global customers include Standard Chartered Bank, Robo Bank, Societe Generale and Ernst & Young, the release said.