IT firm i-flex plans to open centre in Chile

BANGALORE: IT company i-flex solutions is looking to strengthen its Latino connection. The financial solutions firm, now majority owned by Oracle, is planning to set up a nearshore development centre in Chile.

According to Rajesh Hukku, CMD, i-flex solutions, ``we see a lot of potential in this region in the next five years not just for Flexcube but others like Rev-eleus and Daybreak as well. So we are planning to set up a nearshore centre in Chile to cater to customers in Chile and the Latin American region. Later on, we will extend the support to North America and maybe Europe.'' The centre will be a development cum support centre.

Mr Hukku was speaking to reporters in Bangalore after a meeting with Ale-jandro Ferreiro, the visiting Minister of Trade and Commerce, Republic of Chile.

Currently, the Latin American region contributes about 4% of total revenues for i-flex while Chile itself accounts for 30% in the region, said A Srinivasan, vice president, global sales operations, i-flex.

The company has 23 customers in 16 countries including Brazil, Venezeula, Panama and Peru in the Latin American region. In Chile, the company has 4 customers -- Banco De Chile, Banco Desarollo, Banco Internacional and Banco Security.

i-flex has 14 development centres globally -- Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Singapore, Minneapolis and New York in the US. It employs about 8,000 people including over 1,000 people in the US and over 500 staff each in Singapore and London.

The Chilean minister who is in the city with a trade delegation for the CII Partnership Summit, said that they have been in talks with Indian IT compa-nies like HCL, Infosys and Wipro to invest in Chile. ``The Indian companies need a base to address the US market and Chile meets that need,'' he said. Trade between India and Chile in 2006 tripled to touch close to $1.7 billion.