i2 tech bank for a turnaround

BANGALORE: i2 Technologies hadrevenues of $1 billion in 1999, but this plummeted to $400 million in 2002-03.Now, through restructuring -- that involves moving much of its operations toIndia -- and better business practices, it hopes to do aturnaround.The US-based supply chain management solutions firm''sfounder and CEO, Sanjiv Sidhu, said that the company was "bullish" on leveragingits workforce in the country, to drive it along a high growthpath."We have moved a majority of our research and applicationdevelopment, as well as our support services to India," he told reporters at apress meet.Sidhu said that next generation supply chain managementsolutions were going to power the business environment. He noted that thecurrent move towards simultaneous mass production and customisation of products,necessitated a high velocity SCM solution. "When variablity is high-- say, you have to market about 50 different shades of lipsticks to variousoutlets -- managing them by SCM solutions, creates more productivity and moreefficiency," he said.Today, when enterprises are getting integratedat the manufacturing level, the situation becomes more complex. "You have tosync all divisions -- fulfilment, product manufacturing, sales and finance --only then can you actually achieve the end to end integration that we aretalking about. And, this includes integrating hundreds of suppliers using theInternet," Sidhu added.The company expects flat growth in thecurrent year. When questioned about the revenues the company is looking at,Sidhu said "we are not exactly out of the red this year and I cannot give anyguidance either."i2 India managing director, Sankalp Saxena, addedthat the company was looking at site implementation and product maintenancefrom. "We moved about 200 people to India from the US and we now have a strengthof 1,058 people," he said.