Intoto Inc to expand India operations

Srinivasa Rao Dasari / Hyderabad

Sathyan Iyengar

Intoto India, a 100 percent subsidiary of the US-based Intoto Inc., is expanding its presence in India by setting up new centres in Bangalore, Chennai and Pune. It expects one of the three proposed centres to be operational during the current fiscal. The company is ramping up headcount at the Hyderabad centre to 160 from the existing strength of 120.

Intoto Inc. has earmarked about $15 million to implement its business plan for expanding India operations over the next five years. Intoto, the leading provider of integrated security, wireless, voice software platform products to networking and communications equipment manufacturers, has received $11 million in funding from AsiaTech Management, the Santa Clara-based venture capital firm with a strong presence in Taiwan and China. Intoto India provides customer support for customers in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Intoto Software India, Intoto Inc’s Indian R&D centre has been in the forefront of our operations. Intoto India is involved in design, development, and maintenance of Intoto’s communication products. We have moved to a new facility with a total space of about 22,000 sq ft to scale up technical research and development teams. The $11 million funding will fuel rapid expansion of operations in India and the US, which will help Intoto drive further into profitability and accelerate market momentum. AsiaTech, our corporate partner, will help us get more business. We have sales and marketing support offices in Korea, China, Japan and Taiwan. The company is expanding the Taiwan office,” Sathyan Iyengar, president & CEO of Intoto Inc. told Express Computer.

Set up in 1998 in the US, the company has over 750,000 installations across the US, Europe and the Asia-Pacific. Intoto has licensed its iGateway software solutions to over 100 networking and communication equipment vendors.

“Right from inception in 2000, Intoto India has been focusing on developing niche products in the areas of security, voice and wireless technologies in the communication sector. As part of the expansion plan, the company is investing in hardware, testing labs, product development and manpower,” S N Murthy, president and COO (India operations), Intoto India, said.

The company has so far raised about $14 million and has already invested $6 million on the Hyderabad development centre during the past three years. It is likely to invest about $3 million in the next 12 months.

The company’s iGateway software solutions are proven on a number of embedded microprocessors and network processors and are compatible with all major operating systems (OSes) and real-time OSes.

“Our discussions with many gateway and security appliance OEMs/ODMs confirmed that Intoto is a leader in this market with its advanced technology, performance, and reliability. Intoto’s fully integrated security, wireless and VoIP software platforms are the key differentiators for network appliance vendors. We have personal relationships with top level managerial executives in the Asia-Pacific area, including Taiwan and China and this will help Intoto enhance business volume through our networks,” Katherine Jen, managing partner of AsiaTech Management said.

Intoto’s iGateway software platform, the fully integrated and comprehensive communications gateway software suite includes security, convergence, connectivity, and management solutions for security appliances and broadband networking equipment such as DSL, cable and wireless gateways, firewall and VPN appliances, integrated access devices, SOHO and residential gateways, access routers and multi-service switch gateway equipment.

“The company is currently in the process of filing for patents and is likely to get five different patents for voice and security technologies this year. The integrated security market is expected to grow to the level of $5 billion by 2007 at a CAGR of 40 percent from the present business opportunity of $2.7 billion. By 2007, 80 percent of all security products will be appliances and software licensing enables flexibility in selection of hardware platform. Multimedia gateways will be the future with security, voice and video technologies apart from wirless,” Sathyan Iyengar, explains.