Zett Media sets up Indian subsidiary

In the disparate and super-specialised area of software solutions, Zett Media Group AS of Norway has struck a happy solution. It has launched a wholly owned subsidiary, Zett Media & Software Pvt Ltd in Pune, and entered into a number of "strategic long-term alliances" with key Indian solution providers from different software sectors.

The idea is to be able to offer a variety of services without committing on heavy investment. "This will give us the ability to become an integrated solutions provider. One company cannot have expertise in every area of operation. The answer is to tie up with existing set-ups that can provide specialised services," said Kurt Venkatraman, director, Zett Media & Software Pvt. Ltd, on the occasion of the December 1999 launch of the unit in Pune.

The Pune operation is seen as an integral part of the group''s global expansion strategy, catering to clients in all markets. "The research and development activity taking place here in India will impact our worldwide operations in key areas such as educational software, credit rating systems, appraisal systems and e-commerce solutions," said Torgny Sealand, project manager, Zett group of companies.

The group now plans to operate as a single window for contracts in Nordic and Scandinavian countries, and execute them in Pune, India. "We plan to carry out all our software solutions contracts out of Pune," says Venkatraman. There''s been a tie-up with Patni Computer Systems (Mumbai- and Pune-based) for insurance-related solutions, Mascon Computer Services and Infinity Technologies (both Pune-based) for digitising and converting old documents and existing information into electronic data, and Cygnet (Pune-based) for software development. The company plans to enter into similar arrangements with a few more companies.

Says Venkatraman, "Zett Media AS has a five-year alliance with Credit Safe of the US , a company specialising in credit information on companies, to take care of all of its information technology needs. Sunrise Systems of Pune is providing the backbone software for this project. The idea is to be small and dynamic, yet have multiple capabilities," he adds, underlining the rationale for associating with multiple agencies.

Zett Media specialises in providing distance education software in Scandinavia, and is a leading player in education delivery and management systems, from registration to certification. Two prestigious Zett assignments, one for the Norwegian Defence Ministry and the other for the Nordic Aviation Resources AS were executed out of India, on a pilot basis.

Zett''s investments in India, which has already touched Rs 5 crore, is to be stepped up to Rs 20 crore over the next five years. The primary focus of this investment will be on distance education solutions, education delivery and management solutions. "The distance education market has been the focal point of Zett Media AS. We are now looking keenly at the distance education market in India," said Samir Savla, general manager, Zett Media & Software, India.

The group also plans to set up a new company, Zett Interactive Pvt. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Zett Interactive AS, another Zett group company, to focus on e-commerce business.

Zett Media AS has seen a compounded average growth rate of nearly 300 per cent over the last three years. The turnover, which at present is 20 million NOK (Norwegian krone) is expected to go up to 80 million NOK by 2001. This, despite its purported aim to amass users, not sales. "Our objective is not to build up sales to become a takeover target, but to grow, as an organisation," says Venkatraman. Savla adds, "Our targets are more in terms of number of people using our systems rather than turnover. We are looking at a figure of 10 million users of our systems and portal sites by December 2000."