sierra optima ltd Directors report

ANNUAL REPORT 2000-2001 SIERRA OPTIMA LIMITED DIRECTORS REPORT The Directors have pLeasure in presenting the 8th Annual Report on the business and operations of the company for the year ended 31st March, 2001. DIVIDEND The Board of Directors has recommended payment of dividend at the rate of 20%. The payment of dividend, if approved, will absorb Rs. 6,600,000 for the current year (excluding dividend tax). OPERATIONS The company has continued its strong revenue growth in the current year and its revenues increased from Rs. 205.09 miLLion in the Last year to Rs. 373.17 miLLion this year. AUDITORS The Auditors, M/s Rambabu & Co., retire at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting and have confirmed their willingness to accept the office, if re- appointed. SUBSIDIARY COMPANY The Companys wholly owned subsidiary Sierra Optima (S) Pte. Ltd., Singapore has shown a substantial improvement in performance during the year. Its revenues grew to Singapore Dollars 1,662,093, and the profit after taxes increased to Singapore Dollars 66,536. The audited statement of accounts for the year ended 31st March, 2001 of Sierra Optima (S) Pte. Ltd, the companys wholly owned subsidiary, together with the report of the Directors and Auditors, as required under Section 212 of the Companies Act, 1956 are attached. FIXED DEPOSITS The company has not accepted any deposits and as such no amount of principal or interest was outstanding on the date of the Balance Sheet. PARTICULARS OF EMPLOYEES ParticuLars of employees as required under Section 217(2A) of the Companies Act, 1956 and the Companies (Particulars of Employees) RuLes 1975 as amended form part of this report. However in pursuance of Section 219(1)(b)(iv) of the Companies Act, 1956, this report is being sent to all the shareholders of the company excluding the aforesaid information. The members interested in obtaining such particulars may write to the Executive Director at the registered office of the company. DIRECTORS RESPONSIBILITY STATEMENT PURSUANT TO SECTION 217(2AA) OF THE COMPANIES ACT, 1956 The Directors confirm that: i. in the preparation of the Annual Accounts, the applicable accounting standards have been followed; ii. appropriate accounting policies have been selected and applied consistently, and judgments and estimates have been made that are reasonable and prudent so as to give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the company as at 31st March 2001 and the profit of the company for the year ended 31st March 2001: iii. proper and sufficient care has been taken towards maintenance of adequate and proper accounting records read with the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 for safeguarding the assets of the company and for preventing and detecting fraud and other irregularities; iv. the annual accounts have been prepared on a going concern basis. CONSERVATION OF ENERGY, TECHNOLOGY ABSORPTION, FOREIGN EXCHANGE EARNINGS AND OUT60 The particulars as prescribed under sub section (1)(e) of Section 217 of the Companies Act, 1956, read with the Companies (Disclosure of ParticuLars in the Report of Board of Directors) RuLes, 1988 are set out in the annexure incLuded in this report. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Directors place on record their appreciation of the entire Sierran team for their stellar contribution to the growth of the organisation. The Directors wish to acknowLedge the continued support from Software TechnoLogy Park, Hyderabad, The Reserve Bank of India, State Bank of India - Saifabad Branch & YeLLareddyguda Branch, Hyderabad. The Directors aLso Like to thank their auditors, customers, vendors and other State and Central Government agencies. The Directors place on record the good work done by the share transfer agents in maintaining the smooth working of the share transfers. ANNEXURE TO DIRECTORS REPORT a) Particulars pursuant to Companies (Disclosure of particulars in the Report of Board of Directors) Rules, 1988 1. Conservation of Energy Software operations require low energy consumption. Adequate measures are taken to conserve energy, wherever possible. 2. Technology Absorption a) Specific area in which R&D work has been done by the company The company continues to work towards development of Application Networks(TM). Application NetworksTM integrate enterprise eBusiness systems and supply chains for improved customer service, operational efficiencies, and competitive advantage. By connecting enterprise applications they create robust and integrated eBusiness applications infrastructure, which streamlines business processes across the extended enterprise; such as in order management; customer relationship management; and colLaborative manufacturing. b) Benefits expected from the R&D work Application NetworksTM accelerate time-to-market, reduce project risks, and minimize operational costs for user enterprises. They also increase visibility into core business activites and help reduce total cost of ownership of applications, thereby addressing real needs of corporates in the current scenario. c) Future plan of action Sierras focus on strengthening relationships with partner companies, and extending over to new technology areas, will result in development of Application NetworksTM for business processes across new horizontals. The company is also developing domain expertise to closely match technology deployment with processes. d) Expenditure on R&D The expenditure on Research and Development amounted to about 1% of the software development revenues during the year. 3. Foreign exchange earnings and outgo Foreign exchange earnings Rs. 344.31 million Foreign exchange outgo Rs. 101.75 million On behalf of the Board of Directors Sarath Sura Yeshwanth Reddy Managing Director Executive Director Place: Hyderabad Date : 20th June. 2001