Mindlance India, a division of the global business and information technology consulting firm, Mindlance Inc, is looking forward to expand its operations in India. Its strategy is to tap and ink partnership deals with life sciences companies for a range of IT services.

With the signs of revival in the Indian economy and life sciences sector despite global recession and current Euro currency turmoil, there is a mood of optimism in the sector to increase investments in IT. Mindlance expects this upbeat situation could spur the life sciences industry to increase its capital allocation for IT infrastructure.

The Bangalore-based global IT infrastructure service provider for pharma and biotech companies is also engaged in offering 'At-Site Delivery' and 'Remote Infrastructure Management. As part of its Indian expansion plans, the company is now in the process of establishing a state-of-the-art Center of Excellence in data storage, back-up and IT operations in Bangalore. Recently, it opened an office in Mumbai with additional centres in Bangalore and Delhi, This effort will also see the company double its personnel strength from the current 300 to 600 by the end of the fiscal. Within three months, it intends to hire 180 people, said Kamal Sharma, CIO, Mindlance Group.

As a premium partner to Microsoft, Mindlance has assisted many of its existing customers to scale up Microsoft technology including virtualization and consolidation. Its service offering includes storage, back up, remote management, portals, collaboration, compliance and IT operations. Mindlance being a premium partner to Microsoft has assisted many of its existing customers to scale-up virtualization and consolidation, he added.

Some of the leading customers are Pfizer, Novartis, Ranbaxy, Genentech, Biovail, Wockhardt, Morton Gorve and NYUMC. A recent entry to its user line-up is Sunquest to manage network and server infrastructure on-site and assist in ongoing IT operations.

Mindlance will help Sunquest to manage IT operations for internal users in India. "In fact, we account for a favourable customer retention rate in this industry over the last five years as 80 per cent of the users chipping in repeat business and extending contracts. At least 65 per cent of our customers have reported to increase their business volume in last four years by 25 per cent," he added.

Since its inception globally in 1999, Mindlance developed dedicated delivery models for the life sciences vertical, which makes a big difference in terms of speed and efficiency. The marketing strategy covers increased focus in cities with life sciences industry and participation in related sciences seminars and events.

The biggest advantage is that we carry out extensive research on many of the product deliverables due to large diversification of portfolios. Another advantage is the dedicated resource teams for verticals with a specific thrust on sales, pre-sales, solution design and delivery only to ensure efficient optimization in service, said Sharma.