Writankar Mukherjee, Kolkata, April 27, 2009
The Economic Times (Kolkata edition)
Cellebrum, the mobile VAS arm of Spice Group, has decided to set up a new R&D facility in Bangalore to develop solutions targeted at the enterprise segment. The facility will develop technology around Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) and towards integration of ERP systems on the mobile phone. The unit will initially employ around 100 people.
This will be Cellebrum’s fourth development centre. Its three existing centres are in Singapore, Noida and Himachal Pradesh. The Singapore facility is into 3G VAS solutions while the other two centres are involved in developing VAS applications across all categories, be it GPRS, SMS or voice related.
Cellebrum plans to kick off the first phase of the Bangalore facility next month. In step with this, Cellebrum plans to target the enterprise segment as one of its future growth drivers.
“We have decided to focus on enterprise solutions since several companies in sectors like FMCG, banks and airlines now wish to adopt mobile solutions to reduce cost and increase productivity. The Bangalore facility will develop both voice solutions and those centred around tracking of inventory, finance and HR,” Cellebrum CEO Saket Agarwal said.
Cellebrum has already bagged two major enterprise segment deals. The first is from Indian Railways, which involves rolling out an enquiry system on the mobile phone across voice, SMS and GPRS platforms. “We also plan to integrate train, hotel and cab reservations under this system,” said Agarwal.
The other major deal is from State Bank of India (SBI) where Cellebrum is developing technology, which will enable SBI customers to access their bank account and undertake transactions on the mobile phone.
“We are currently under discussion with mobile operators to start the service. We hope to rollout this service over the next three to four weeks,” said Agarwal.
Cellebrum also plans to expand its international revenue over the next three years.
“We have overseas marketing and support offices in Singapore and Bangladesh with plans to open the third office in Dubai. International markets currently account for 5 percent of our turnover and we plan to grow this to 20 percent by 2012,” Agarwal said.
The company has 550-odd people on its rolls with over Rs 200 crore turnover. “While we have been growing our turnover by near 100 percent, this year we expect a growth of around 40-50 percent as consumers have reduced their spend on VAS. Even operators are seeing a fall in the ARPU levels,” said Agarwal.
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