It has invested $5 million in its Indian arm and plans to pump in another $10 million over a five-year time frame, said Mr George Koukis, chairman and chief executive, Temenos. The Chennai centre currently houses 200 professionals. Temenos has similar operations in Geneva and London.

Functional experts in banking from India contribute to the banking software application developed by the company. Indians are particularly strong in areas such as retail banking, corporate finance etc, said Mr S P Jayanthan, director of the Indian arm, Temenos India Pvt. Ltd. The rationale of working out of Chennai is the `work culture' of the employees and high level of expertise of the employees, he added.

The company is planning to aggressively look at banks in the country for providing its software applications. The lead time for closing deals for large banking software requirements ranges from 18 months to three years, said company officials. A `market sensitive' price would be offered in the Indian context.

The software outfit has made inroads into other SAARC countries such as Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Nepal and inked contracts worth $12 million. Among the important deals include banks such as State Bank of Pakistan, National Development Bank, Sri Lanka and Machhapuchchhre Bank, Kathmandu. The company's banking application software `Globus' supports 300 banks world wide.

Temenos, which is head quartered in Geneva, Switzerland, has recently acquired Vol-de-Nuit, a Geneva-based asset management company and jBase, US, a software company which provides automated conversion tools through all stock deals, at a combined cost of $20 million. Vol-de-Nuit is expected to strengthen the software outfit functional expertise in asset management.