CHENNAI: Maples ESM Technologies, a Chennai-based IT consulting and training company, plans to set up a centre in Japan to train Japanese engineers in network and systems management. Company Chairman, N. Ram Subramani, says Maples will finalise an exclusive tie-up with the Japanese city of Uchinada in November, when the city's Mayor will visit Chennai.

Japan is the world's second largest economy, but with an aging population, it faces a shortfall of IT engineers to the tune of two lakh, says Yuji Nishio, Director of Uchinada's Community Policy Promotion Department. Having visited Maples' Chennai facility, he hopes the partnership can help bridge that gap.

Japanese market potential

From the Indian point of view, the potential of the Japanese market has not been fully explored because of the language barrier.

"You cannot do business in Japan without knowing Japanese," says M. R. Ranganathan, advisor to the National Chamber of Nippon India Trade and Industry. Maples, which will open a Japanese branch in the next few weeks, plans to tap this market. The training centre will have infrastructural support from Uchinada's city government. Maples will invest $250,000 initially. The centre will open by April 2007 and train 1,000 Japanese engineers over the next 18 months. It will also act as a feeder for Maples' Japanese operations.

At the same time, the company is training its Indian engineers in the Japanese language.

The company hopes that this "mix-and-match approach" will help it grab enterprise systems management (ESM) and remote infrastructure management deals from small and medium size Japanese firms worth $10 million over the next year, says Mr. Subramani. Maples is also eyeing multinationals — both Japanese multinationals based in the US and US multinationals based in Japan.

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