Finnish fish for Indian IT skills

BANGALORE: * A paper machinemanufactured in Finland has five times more software than a jumbo jet.* Finnish high-end air-conditioning devices which automaticallycontrol the room temperatures too have a lot of software drivingit.* New diagnostic equipment which increases the efficiency oflaboratory kits by 50 times too have a great deal of software inthem.A world leader in these areas, Finland, is now on the look-outfor Indian companies with specialisation in certain niche areas to providesoftware for Finnish companies. Finnish paper machines are the worldleaders with over 70 per cent market share. Mobile phones, rock drills andhealthcare equipment are some the products from Finland which are globalnames.Says Taneli Sari, director, Location services, ''Invest inFinland'', "We are not looking at software services but are wanting to partnerwith companies which have software engineering expertise. And, for us, it is notthe cost factor that matters but the quality because that is critical to ourproducts."Among the large IT companies, TCS and Wipro haveoperations in Finland.According to Sari, traditional Finish firmscompanies do not come across as IT companies per se. "Most of our companies arein the manufacturing segment but there are leading telecom, IT, biotech andenvironment firms which use an enormous amount of software in their processes.Currently, we are outsourcing most of our IT development work to Israel andRussia - but we are now looking at India too," he added.Forinstance, there are major advances in the environment and eco-friendly materialsthat are developed in Finland. "We are pioneers in developing ecologicallyfriendly building material as well as new developments in mechanical gear whichprotects the human body. All of these has a lot of software guiding thedevelopment processes," Sari pointed out.Commenting on the languagebarrier Indians or other foreign IT workers might face, he said that today, 90per cent of the non-IT firms and 100 per cent of IT and telecom use English astheir company language. "Outsourcing to other countries has alreadybegun and without English knowledge, Finnish companies would not be able to goglobal," he added.