Tata Tech sees future in software solutions

BANGALORE: Tata Technologies India Ltd. (TTIL), which specializes in software development for the manufacturing, distribution and process industries, sees growth potential in software solutions for collaborative product development.

According to TTIL general manager N. Diwakar, expertise in the field gathered originally through association in development work of the Safari and Indica from Tata Engineering and Locomotive Co Ltd. (Telco), is now being partly "productized.'' "We call it Collaborative Product Development or Commerce,'' Mr. Diwakar said of the emergent business area, which involves shared design information and development. The challenges to TTIL in enabling these environment covers Product Data Management (PDM) which provides updated inputs based on version changes in parts as they happen. With those linked into the system working on different CAD/CAM software packages, the issue of providing compatibility also arises.

TTIL services the full information technology needs of Telco. The idea of collaborative product development was first put to test for TTIL when it gave IT support for the Indica project. According to him, TTIL may be the only Indian company currently offering this service. TTIL, which recently pioneered the concept of Value Chain Management in India, sees itself growing in Internet-based IT, Internet-based CAD/CAM and Internet-based engineering solutions. The company is targeting a turnover of Rs 100 crore in one-and-half years, Mr. Diwakar said.