Plans are also afoot for productisation of the service and to offer clients customised "digital nervous system", officials said.

Being set up at a cost of Rs 5 crore, the enterprise-wide intelligent electronics network will cut the company's communication costs by over 80 per cent, said KPMG's head of technology Jaison George. "Recurring communications costs such as long-distance calls between offices across the country and also travel-related expenses will come down drastically," said George.

In 1998, KPMG spent around Rs 3 crore on communication expenses through telephone and fax bills, said company officials. The globalconsulting major has five offices in India and representations in 157 countries.

The intelligent network will tap the company's knowledge resources and facilitate better exchange and dissemination of the company's intellectual capital, officials said. This is expected to give added edge to the company in a knowledge-intensive business. "Our consultants will be able to log on to the network and access the company's knowledge and experience base from the client's site," said George. Virtual offices are also expected to cut travel costs manifold, said officials.

Also in the offing is a direct link-up of the India office with KPMG's global area network. "This will throw open a wide spectrum of resources available worldwide on KPMG open access system," officials said.

By the middle of next year, an extranet is expected to be put in place, to be accessible to select clients, said officials. "Clients will then be able to keep tab on their projects from their sites," said George.

With an intelligent networkin place, the India office will be in a position to offer several value-added services to KPMG offices worldwide such as disaster recovery back-ups and 24-hour call centres, officials said.

To be up and running early next year, the network will be one of the most client-focussed application of internet technology achieved by any firm in India, said George.

More than two-thirds of the network has already been put in place and the company is presently working on the security aspects related to the network, said officials. KPMG is working closely with system integrators such as Wipro Infotech and IBM and software majors such as Microsoft for putting the network in place, officials added.

An ISO 9002 certification programme is also on and the company expects to be certified by the middle of next year. The consulting major generated a revenue of $855 million in the Asia-Pacific region for 1998.