The agreement will transfer the intellectual property rights (IPR), support and marketing rights for Kale''s banking branch automation products including Plutus, WinBanl, TMS and others. The agreement also envisages the transfer of all Kale''s customers for these products along with their respective support and maintenance contracts.

The transfer has been facilitated by Kale''s business strategy of focusing on the airline and travel industry. Says Vipul Jain, Managing Director, Kale: "This move will enable us to focus better on the huge opportunities in the airline and travel space for our products and outsourced business services."

Addsd Jain: "We feel the interests of our banking product customers are best served by transferring ownership of the branch banking software to a specialist company that is able to invest in its further development. We chose Onward Technologies because they offer the best assurance of continuity to our customers and growth prospects to our employees."

Onward already enjoys a dominant position in the banking branch automation market where it currently has over 3,000 branches running its ALPM / PBA / TBA solutions. As a first step towards strengthening its position in BFSI sector, Onward''s banking division has been moved into a wholly owned subsidiary, Onward eServices Ltd. Onward believes that the acquisition of Kale''s banking products and customers is the next logical step to help consolidate it further.

Says Harish Mehta, chairman, Onward: "We are very excited by the opportunity that this creates for both our customers as well as us. This acquisition dovetails into our overall plans in the BFSI segment. Our focus is to leverage existing banking infrastructure to deliver value to our customers." Subrata Dasgupta, V-P, Onward eServices, adds: "These best of breed products are some of the key pieces in our framework for personal financial services."

Both companies believe that their customers'' and employees'' interests are best served by this acquisition. Both companies have been servicing banking customers for over a decade, and the combined team will offer premier services to the industry through 51 locations spread across the country, with a commitment towards high level of customer satisfaction. For Kale, it will mean that its customers are in safe hands, given Onward''s commitment to the banking industry.

The agreement requires Onward to meet current service levels that Kale has already contracted with its customers. There will be a three-month transition period during which Kale will continue to support their customers to enable smooth transition to Onward.