Explaining the concept, Aptech's vice-president R Krishnan said: ``Knowledge about an organisation's systems that exist with employees is lost when these people leave the organisation. Knowledge management solution is the new area that tries to capture this soft knowledge and store it for use by future employees.''

The group also does similar work for US-based corporations. The software services group of Aptech accounted for 25 per cent of the company's turnover of Rs 278 crore in the year ended December 1998 and is aiming at a 30 per cent share of Aptech's projected turnover of Rs 430 crore in financial 1999.

Krishnan feels that though, as of date, Andhra Pradesh is the the only state that has thought of capturing soft knowledge in this manner, states like Maharashtra, Gujarat or Rajasthan who havealready networked the state administration can also go for such solutions.

Knowledge management solutions is a high-end area that is going to be very important in the near future for the company, as well as the industry. In fact, the current areas that generate revenues for the software industry will contribute around 20 per cent of the industry's earnings in 10 year's time. ``Other areas will come up to take their place and knowledge management solutions is one of them,'' Krishnan feels.

He adds: ``We are expecting that after the successful completion of the pilot project which is working on one particular area, we will be able to take on other areas is Andhra Pradesh.''

While the company has not bagged any Indian corporates as yet, Krishnan says: ``Some multinationals who have operations in India have shown an interest for their Indian arms but otherwise most of our customers are overseas.''

Interest in knowledge management however, is increasing in Indian companies. Earlier this year, managementconsultancy KPMG advertised for a full-time Chief Knowledge Officer for the Indian operations.However, due to the specialised nature of the job, KPMG has still not been able to find the perfect candidate for the job.

Krishnan was in Calcutta to announce the launch of Aptech's tie-up with the New York based Regents College, for offering a graduate programme jointly for Indian students.