November 8, 2005 – Noida, India - Nicol Stephen, Scottish Deputy First Minister and Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning, visited Momentum’s Delivery Centre in Noida, India.? This is the first ever visit to India by an Executive Minister from Scotland that was arranged in view of India’s emergence as one of Scotland’s crucial trade and investment partners.

Mr Stephen met Pankaj Agarwal, CEO of Momentum and Ann Park, International Business Development Director, to explore how Sopra Newell & Budge has been able to make the globalization trends in IT work in Scotland’s favour.

“The establishment of our own dedicated delivery centre in India has allowed our customers access to the traditional benefits of cost and scale associated with offshore while we still maintain domain expertise and skills in Scotland. India is a hub of innovation and talent and greater synergy between both the countries will work for both our benefits,” commented Park.?

“This provides a compelling alternative to UK and North American Clients to pure offshore organizations, who are aggressively marketing into the UK and Ireland, and whose focus, understandably, is generating wealth and employment in their own economic regions.? By harnessing the cream of Scottish and Indian talent in our ‘bestshore’ approach, we have been able to achieve remarkable growth that has outstripped that of our peers and which continues to generate greater wealth and employment. We plan to recruit heavily both in the UK and in India.? Our planned new premises in Noida are designed to accommodate over 800 staff.? We expect our numbers to increase rapidly to this level and are aggressively recruiting staff in the hundreds” says Park.

Pankaj Agarwal, CEO, Momentum Technologies - a Sopra Newell and Budge company, said, "Sopra Newell & Budge is a highly regarded business with an enviable track record in market sectors such as financial services and public sector. Their acquisition of Momentum Technologies has enabled them to tap the available talent pool in India and leverage the cost advantage, that the Indian subcontinent has to offer”