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CMC plans to reclaim top position

"We expect to catch up within two to three years,'' says S S Ghosh, chairman and managing director of CMC Limited.

T O D A Y

• Big Blue cuts red tape • 37% more PCs sold • CMC plans resurrection • $11 m for BPL project

Ghosh has been quoted as saying that even as an IT company can achieve growth through exports, it should have a strong domestic base to sustain that growth.

Ghosh, who took charge as CMD of the company a couple of months ago, was in Hyderabad recently to chair the company's annual general meeting.

Speaking about the vision of the Rs 2.96-billion CMC Limited, he elaborated on three areas in which the company is pursuing its interests.

The initiatives would be broad basing support services, setting up infrastructure to support e-commerce and strengthening export performance of software development.

As part of the new initiatives, the public-sector IT giant plans to provide comprehensive support services for multi-locational companies.

"We are geared up to provide A to Z services for our customers,'' he said.

CMC has a tie-up with Frantec, a Swedish company, for Indonet, the infrastructure to support e-commerce, and plans to provide all networking services for e-commerce. On the software export front, the company expects to earn about Rs 600 million this year.

"Reinforcing our strengths in the niche and focused areas where we are number one will be the beginning. Based on the domain expertise we gained, we would like to take up geographical spread with vertical expertise. In due course, we will tie up with international users in those areas,'' he said.

CMC wants to be seen more as an outsourcing partner for information technology services, especially in VLSI, tool design and support services. "We would like to be partners of global players on contract basis, where 80 per cent of work will be done here and 20 per cent there,'' he added.

"In the present order of things, it is necessary to have joint ventures and tie-ups and the collaborations need a faster pace than what we are accustomed to,'' he said.

In relation to the problem of attrition in the IT industry, Ghosh said that CMC provides remunerative package at entry level. "But, at the higher levels it has been difficult to retain people or attract senior professionals. We are attempting to tackle this with ad hoc measures. We may have to be more market-oriented and bring in changes in tune with the industry norms,'' he said.

Indian software professionals are very good at 'productisation' but when it comes to corporate image, branding, and marketing, none of the Indian IT companies has sufficient resources, he pointed out.

"CMC developed so many products and our products in banking, fingerprinting and stock market have a great potential. But how can we promote them, when we have to spend a fortune on advertising and marketing,'' he asked.

- Compiled from the Indian media

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