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Swiss Technology Firm Expands Operations in China

Boxalino, a leading global software and professional services provider, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, announced plans to expand its presence in China, following the completion of a merger with another major Swiss technology company on September 19, 2007, in Beijing.

The merger between Boxalino and Cognosense, which develops technology solutions in a similar field, will allow the newly expanded corporation to increase the range of services and products it offers here. Boxalino set up a subsidiary in China in 2006 and has ambitious expansion plans.

Erick Caron, Boxalino’s chief executive officer, said: “The merger has added new depth to our product portfolio. China is integral to our strategic business objectives and it is important for us to be able to provide the necessary scope of services to meet projected customer demand in this market.

“Having established our operation in Beijing in 2006, and having spent much of the last 12 months building customer relationships and developing our service offerings for the local market, we are planning to grow our business and presence in Greater China and in the Asia Pacific and double year-on-year over the next three years. The growth in our solution set, which has been brought about by the merger, will help us to achieve these goals.”

Beijing is the centre of China’s political life, but it is also a headquarters for the country’s numerous national corporations, industrial associations, and financial institutions. Its large market potential, convenient infrastructure, high levels of science and technology and its rich human resources convinced investors to invest in 2,106 new foreign projects in 2006. Beijing used US$4.55 billion in actual foreign investment, an increase of 29.1 percent over that of 2006. In 2006, the total value of its exports and imports was US$158.18 billion, reflecting an increase of 26 percent, including US$37.98 billion in exports, an increase of 23.1 percent.

Originally, Boxalino developed solutions in the customer relationship management field, while Cognosense provided advanced customer engagement technologies such as Cognosense ICC (intelligent customer care) and Cognosense ICP (intelligent customer profiling) lines. ICC provides an intelligent user interface for search and navigation in any knowledge base, and ICP is a personalization software platform, enabling automatic one-to-one marketing.

With the merger, the new entity––still named Boxalino––has now become an innovative global provider of advanced software development tools and technologies in the fields of intelligent search, customer care, personalization and profiling, all aimed at enhancing the customer experience that an enterprise can offer.

“Basically, we are in the business of helping our clients target and serve customers individually. We can help improve the profitability of online clients, like e-commerce portals, and brick-and-mortar customers, like call-centres. We offer solutions that can enhance the way Chinese companies do business with their customers,” said Caron.

Boxalino has established a partnership with China Broadband Communications (Beijing) Incorporation with the intent to resell a Boxalino suite of software technologies to their current and future customers and partners across China.