Aptech has opened a development centre at Mumbai Seepz, which will further software development activities. The company, as per strategy, is seeking to leverage on the capabilities gained from computer education and would deploy a major chunk of the workforce in building up strengths in the area.

Aptech is now doing major projects for companies in the US in the area of educational systems and content development. "We expect the software development to contribute around 51 per cent of the turnover. Our partnerships with global leaders like IBM and Microsoft to work in various offshore software development projects would help us to achieve the Rs 100 crore mark from this business in 2000," said Aptech managing director Ganesh Natarajan.

The company is in the process of creating a health portal and an education system for universities in the US. The concentration, however, will continue to be the education sector. Aptech will expand globally through online education, which is expected to be a major revenue earner. "We are spending around Rs 50-55 crore each in these sectors," he said. Aptech, which at present has around 1,250 centres in more than 25 countries plans to expand its base. In software, one more development centre will be set up to speed up development activities.

Aptech began its software development in 1988 and has three centres across the country. The newly-established centre in Bangalore looks after e-commerce solutions while the second facility at Mumbai's Seepz will support other activities.

The Aptech initiative, Knowledge Corporation, aims to provide business imperatives of organisations and designs complete solutions for them to build knowledge-managed virtual enterprises.