"The partnership with Crompton Greaves is a major step in our new strategies. The alliance between the two will dominate the Internet, intranet and ISP markets,'' said Silicon Graphic Systems (India) Ltd managing director Ashok Desai.

He said that the Internet and intranet businesses will exchange an estimated $17 billion in goods and services over the Net. "With no geographical boundaries, the potential for Net-based business relationships even in the countries is enormous. International ISP organisations like America Online, AT&T, Sprint and so on already use our products,'' he said.

The local arm had clocked a turnover of Rs 78 crore last year. Admitting that this was slightly below expectations, Desai said that this was mainly owing to prevailingcredit crunch and restriction on technology exports.

However things are likely to change with the launch of NT-based products, he said. Earlier Silicon Graphics ran on Unix platforms. With integration to NT platform, new segments will open up, said Desai.

"The alliance with Silicon Graphics will enable us to provide SGI products, solutions and implementation services to our key customers. Another area that is likely to open up soon is data-mining,'' said Crompton Greaves Digital president SM Trehan.

Crompton Greaves, a part of the Thapar group is a multi-product, multi-location company. It has four strategic business groups - power systems, consumer products, industrial systems and informatics and telecom.

The informatics division called CG Digital was set up 10 years ago and currently employs around 430 people. It is engaged in manufacture of EPABXs, C-Dot switches, wireless in local loops and so on. The group clocked a turnover of Rs 110 crore in the last fiscal, said Trehan.Commenting on thetie-up, he said there will be no investments in it except for manpower.

Crompton plans to contribute by way of it brand equity and image, channel and reach, managerial skills.Silicon Graphics is a world-leader in providing high-performance, interactive computing systems.