CIOL president E Abraham Mathew told The Financial Express that the alliance with content providers and global service providers will help the firm reach more customers. The main focus of ciol.com, an IT site promoted by the firm, is to provide services rather than just content.

CIOL is also unveiling a shopping mall within the next three months. "We are in the process of forging alliances with payment gateway providers. Parleys are on with Global Telesystems and the LG group. The proposed shopping mall will offer IT and related products," he added.

The Bangalore-based company had already received funds from Intel Pacific by offering an undisclosed equity stake. Intel has shown interest to fund CIOL in the next round of funding as well. The company on Monday announced the launch of CIOL `e-centre programme' in alliance with Gartner India.

The agreement envisages plans to set up exclusive destinations on www.ciol.com that will address specific industry issues. The e-centre programme enables the visitor to have access to research data, news flashes, case studies and general discussions on the CIOL site. It will also benefit infotech professionals associated with planning and application management, system analysis and consultants.