"Bits, the software division of which is expected to be operational by next December, is targeting a revenue of Rs 25 crore from software exports during the next calendar year,+ company president and CEO MR Tripathi told PTI on Sunday.

Revenue of the company from the education sector was expected to increase from Rs 18 crore during the 10-month period ended March 1999 to Rs 25 crore in 1999-2000, he said.

The company would give thrust to developing its own software products, initially focusing on areas such as healthcare, business applications and medical transcription, besides education software, he added.

Bits had recently signed an agreement with US-based Sterling Software Products Inc for distributing their enterprise resource planning (ERP) product -- cool.plex -- in India and West Asia, he said addingthat it also obtained reseller licences for products of Microsoft, Computer Associates and Visio.

Hardware maintenance education operations would be in place by December or January next, he said adding that it was entering the sector to reap its synergies with its software education activities.

Tripathi said the company would like to enter into tie-ups with US universities and colleges to introduce globally accepted certification courses in internet and e-commerce, as part of pursuing its plan of becoming a leading internet education company.

It already has tie-ups with the Institute for Certified Computing Professionals (ICCP) and American Council of Education (ACE) of the US and Peutronics Ltd and Nasscom.