CMC eyes high-end value added services, solutions space

Pragati Simlote

What are the strategic areas for CMC?

There are four strategic areas for CMC. Infrastructure management has always been a core competency of the organization and with remote infrastructure management becoming popular, we have already started providing this as a service. We are synergizing with TCS to provide this service to multinational customers in India and global customers.

We have already been providing things like data center management, business continuity management. In the solutions and services space, we want to go aggressively in providing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Because most of solutions we have developed are actually SaaS, so we understand the concept well and would like to push that envelope further. There are also lot of replicable solutions in specific verticals like our transportation solution, our solutions for ports and shipping industry, general insurance, stock exchanges, mining, etc.

Third area is embedded systems. With the hardware, software background our engineers have, we have very strong capabilities in this area and this has been one of our fastest growing practices within CMC. We are now serving several multinationals global clients - leading telecom companies, process control companies in the US and semiconductor companies like Xilinx. We expect to grow in this space even faster.

The fourth strategic area is digitization services. We are not only good in BPO related to document and work flow management but we have also developed special expertise in the entire scanning, image processing work flow management area. Cheque truncation is another big opportunity that we are looking at.

What is CMC's strategy post privatization?

We are now moving into high-end value added services and solutions space. While CMC was part of the GOI, we used to do a lot of work for the government and most of the work we did were pioneering solutions. These solutions have enormous global potential, so after the privatization and becoming part of TCS, we are synergizing with TCS and are able to now promote and support these solutions and services on a global basis.

What would be your focus on e-governance projects?

We would focus on large e-governance projects for our e-governance solutions; like the Ministry of Company Affairs project that the TCS - CMC combination had won. The project has already gone live in Coimbatore and Delhi. It will be rolled out in other states soon.

We are also doing the Chattisgarh Versatile online information for citizen empowerment 'VOICE' project. VOICE, developed by CMC, is India's first IT solution for municipal corporations across the country and we want to replicate it in many states. Two—three states in northern and northeast India have expressed interest.

We have also developed a treasury management solution — KHAJANE, which computerizes all the treasuries in the state and connects them to a central server at the secretariat through a satellite-based VSAT system. We have already implemented this solution in Karnataka and MP and want to replicate it in other states.

What are the other solutions that CMC has developed?

We have developed solutions for cooperative banks — Branch Automated Information System (BRAINS 2000) and want to replicate it in many cooperative banks in India. We have also created a light version of core banking system — Total Concept -4 (TC/4) for smaller enterprises and mid sized banks.

What is CMC's footprint and what are your target segments?

We have 18 major offices and 150 support offices. We have roughly 3,500 employees and also use a large contracting force. We have an R&D center in Bangalore and offices in the US, UK and Dubai. We leverage TCS's offices also.

For CMC, growth would come from remote infrastructure management, embedded systems and select vertical solutions like insurance, ports and cargo, transportation and in the Middle East African market from many of our banking financial solution. We also see us growing in education and training and digitization.

What kind of revenue growth are you looking at?

For the year 2004-2005, our total revenue was Rs 782.47 crore. We have been transforming as an organization - from an equipment provider to a service provider. We have primarily been operating in the Indian market so our margins have been traditionally lower. But we see India as a growing market. We plan to grow aggressively as we know this market so have the advantage here.

Going forward, we want to focus on verticals like Pharma for RFID and retail point of sales like Internet kiosks, etc.

How beneficial would be the Union budget for CMC?

The budget has been very good. It has put a thrust on e-governance, rural sector and obviously, IT infrastructure and solution in the rural sector will form an important part of it. But we need to be creative to have affordable solutions and that is where I see SaaS as a very good entry point into the market.

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