Pricol Technologies ties up with U.S. firm The Hindu at 2nd June 2005 Pricol enters IT consultancy The Economic Times at 17th August 2005 The global manufacturing chain Pricol Tech ties up with Blue Ridge The Economic Times at 3rd June 2005 Pumpset Sector goes in for IT Design The Hindu at 22nd December 2005 Pricol Tech forays into product development The Hindu at 13th June 2006 Pricol enters IT consultancy AUTO COMPONENTS major Pricol has entered the IT consulting and services space. The Rs 500 crore Pricol got the approval of its shareholders to "carry on the business of IT consulting and services" by passing a special resolutions through a postal ballot at the recently held AGM. The business, to be done through the company’s arm Pricol Technologies (PTL), will focus on enterprise management solutions and strategic consulting. "We have already developed solutions for our in-house applications. Now, we are taking it to the market," the president and CEO of PTL, Mr A.S. Ramaseshan said. "Pricol has been investing in IT to gain domain knowledge and better understanding of the opportunities. The foray is a logical next step in this process," he said. It is investing close to Rs 3 crore for the IT business. Initially, PTL will offer IT solutions for the engineering industry. "We will concentrate on this domain because we understand it quite well." Mr Ramaseshan explained. The IT consulting and services division of PTL currently has more than 50 employees and the company plans to double the headcount by the end of the current fiscal. PTL which also offers engineering solutions, is planning to aggressively market its products in the US and European markets. "There is a huge market for enterprise and performance management solutions. We are also planning to sell our IT solutions to our existing clients in the engineering space," Mr Ramaseshan said. The company has also started a wholly-owned subsidiary in Detroit as well as a sales office in Stuttgart for marketing its products. "We are looking at high-value, low volume business and do not want to enter areas where there are too many players," he said. It has already done a soft launch of its performance management solution "We are in advanced stages of negotiations with a few big companies for selling the product. Potential customers have already evaluated it," Mr Ramaseshan said.