Indian outsourcer Infosys Technologies is setting up an R&D center in Bangalore for French engineering company Alstom, the two companies announced Tuesday.
The R&D center will provide high-end engineering services such as product development, engineering simulation and product life cycle management, the companies said.
This will be the first time that Alstom, which has 18 R&D centers worldwide, has set up an R&D center in partnership with another company, Philippe Joubert, executive vice president at Alstom, told reporters Tuesday in Bangalore.
The R&D center will be housed at Infosys’ headquarters in Bangalore. It will initially work on the localization of Alstom’s power systems for the Indian market, including equipment for power plants, although down the line Infosys will also do R&D for markets outside of India, according to Joubert. If the partnership is successful, more than 20% of Alstom’s R&D will be done from India, Joubert added.
Alstom plans to spend about $39 million on research at this center over three years, during which the staff will increase to 300. Infosys staff will run the R&D center as well as provide the infrastructure, Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani said.
Several Indian outsourcing companies that began their outsourcing business around IT services are now also targeting the market for outsourced engineering services for non-IT companies.
“As information management in power systems is very important, we are leveraging our IT knowledge and systems knowledge,” Nilekani said.
The outsourcing of engineering services represents the next big opportunity for Indian outsourcing companies, he said. Infosys already offers product design and engineering services to clients including a European aircraft manufacturer and a German automotive company, Nilekani added.
