The $650-million Tech Mahindra, an IT solutions provider in the telecom sector, is expanding its footprint to Hyderabad. The sixth largest software exporter has set up a development centre here. It has also lined up plans to open a campus at an SEZ (Kokapet) near Hyderabad, joining the league of a dozen IT players that are looking at SEZs for their future growth. Companies setting up shop in these zones will enjoy a slew of fiscal concessions, making their operations more profitable. Tech Mahindra has invested around Rs 8 crore in the development centre, which will house around 750 employees. It is looking at an investment of Rs 30 crore by 2010 for its campus at the SEZ. The company has acquired 8.5 acres of land in the SEZ — developed by the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (HUDA). The new campus will be able to house 3,000 people and it is expected to be ready in 2009-10. “The new development centre, on the other hand, will focus on end-toend (E2E) testing practices and business intelligence for the company’s telecom vertical. At present, the facility employs over 150 people and by this year end, we will ramp it up to 750. We also plan to increase our headcount in Hyderabad to 1,500 by next year end, said Tech Mahindra executive vicepresident & CEO L Ravichandran. E2E testing will focus on operational tests that evaluate people, processes and the underlying technology that it is built on and the interrelationships among them. `It allows TechM s telecom clients to form an independent assessment of whether a new product or service that is being launched will meet or exceed customer benchmarks. Besides, this also gives us the capability to analyse the entire solution including those applications developed by our independent vendor partners, he said. Tech Mahindra plans to employ over 200 people for its testing practices in Hyderabad. The company already has a dedicated team of employees for servicing its clients Microsoft and Motorola in Hyderabad.