Company: ANZ

State: MELBOURNE, VICTORIA

Sector: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

As a condition of its takeover of the Grindlays network in India, ANZ
established a software firm near Bangalore in 1989. This made ANZ one of
the first foreign firms to establish such an operation in India, but for
much of the 1990s, ANZ conducted little business from this company, called
Index Technology.

However, from the middle of the 1990s, the extraordinary growth and
success of the Indian IT sector made ANZ again look at how to use this
asset. When it withdrew from its Grindlays' banking involvement in 2000,
ANZ maintained its ownership of this subsidiary. Today, the firm employs
about 450 people, which comprises about 20 per cent of ANZ's technology
staff around the world. It plans to expand this number to about 500 by the
end of 2002. These staff provide solutions for ANZ's internal IT needs
and work closely with ANZ' s Australian and New Zealand IT teams to
develop financial services software products.

ANZ plans to expand the work of its Bangalore subsidiary by partnering
with other financial services companies and financial services software
firms in Asia, Europe and the United States. ANZ anticipates its Bangalore
operation will be a key part of its strategy to leverage its intellectual
capital in the development of new market opportunities.

ANZ learnt many lessons in developing this software firm. They found
the central and Karnataka governments helpful and pro-active when
establishing and developing their operation. Job turnover in the Indian
software industry is high and ANZ found it could not compete on
remuneration alone. ANZ has taken care to nurture and develop its
workforce, resulting in a stable base of skills and experience. The bank
has also established extensive infrastructure links, particularly for
telecommunications and power, to ensure uninterrupted operation. Finally,
maintaining good government relations has been essential to this
subsidiary's success.

Source: ANZ Bank, 2001.