Ed Longa, COO of Greenwood Village, Colorado-based Ciber told ComputerWire: The deal isn’t structured as an acquisition although we will own a 51% stake in the business and iGate a 49% stake. We are going to provide the sales and marketing investments and iGate the technical delivery from India.

Under terms of the deal, Ciber will form Ciber India Pvt as a joint venture firm with Bangalore, India-based Gate Global Solutions, formerly known as Mascot Systems until last week. Longa said the operation will act as a contract between the two firms, and give Ciber access to 1,500 staff located in India. iGate provides a range of offshore software and services, including application development, IT consulting, maintenance, computer re-engineering, package implementation and infrastructure management, across a range of software including ERP, EAI, wireless, business intelligence and legacy systems.

iGate Global Solutions has six offshore development operations in Asia, and presence in a number of other countries including Germany, the UK, Japan, China, Australia the Netherlands, and Sweden. The company has also been accredited at the CMM Level 5 for the quality of its offshore software and services projects, as well as the BS7799 Security Compliance Certification.

Longa said: We don’t have to worry about having a presence in the market, and we have already worked together for customers for the past 10 months where they have performed application management and testing services for our clients.

Longa said that there is no time frame on the joint venture contract, which he claims has already established a robust pipeline of contracts. If the project is a success, over the next 12 to 18 months, we aim to have a run rate of between $10m and $15m from the venture, he said.

Ciber’s decision to enter the offshore software and services market follows US-based rival Keane Inc, which made its way in to the Indian market last year through the acquisition for $62m last February of US-based SignalTree Solutions, which has development centers in Delhi and Hyderabad.

Source: Computerwire