'We Still Work Closely With Unisys'

The company has always had a foreign partner since its inception in 1978, when it was called Tata Burroughs Limited. Subsequently, Burroughs and Sperry merged to form Unisys Corporation, a $6 billion entity.

Unisys is in computer hardware and has a wide installation base of its mainframes. Tata Infotech makes software, specifically for this hardware platform. Besides, it makes Unisys hardware which is exported. It also markets Unisys hardware in India. In the last five years, Tata Infotech has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 35 per cent.What repercussions will the split have on the company? Dr. Nirmal Jain, managing director, Tata Infotech Limited talks to Niraj Bhatt about the new entity and the infotech industry.

 

Q: Why did Unisys opt out of the joint venture?

A: For Unisys, it was purely a financial decision. But, we are still working very closely with Unisys. We are marketing their hardware, software and solutions in India. We also continue to provide support to Unisys worldwide. So, it is not really a break-up in the true sense. Many times, for financial reasons one wants to sell some assets or a company and that is what they have done.

Q: So, what changes for the company? How do you lose and how do you gain?

A: Yes, for us there is a change. Though, it was not a 51 per cent subsidiary of Unisys, we were working in close assocation with Unisys and all our goals were tied to Unisys. While Unisys continues to be our major and principal partner worldwide and in India, we will also be able to work with other companies, which we did not look at earlier.

Neither of us loses much. Our relationship continues. We will still do software for them. We give good, effective and quality service and they are able to maintain and satisfy their customers. And we continue to market their hardware in India.

Q: What are your major business areas?

A: We have four main divisions; hardware manufacturing, software distribution, education and systems integration. In manufacturing, we make hardware for Unisys and this goes for their consumption worldwide.

The second business is of software distribution where we have relationships with companies like Microsoft, SCO and others. We distribute and add value to their software in the Indian market. The third major business is education through Tulec. The fourth is the solutions business, what we call the systems integration division which provides solutions to different companies in India and overseas.

Q: What is your model of the software company?

A: As I said, we are not just a software company, we are in solutions. We will provide customers with all that is required.

The major direction we take is in providing total solutions. And there solutions would mean providing completely hardware, software, networking, training, support, everything. This is the model on which we are working.

In many cases, the solutions may not be ours but we would find solutions that are best suited to the customers. We also plan to have relationships with other solution providers and work closely with them. We will also have our own solutions. We already have some solutions and will continue to develop them where we have the expertise. We want to make sure that solutions are good and we provide quality service to the customers.

Technology is the major integrating factor. We want to follow where technology is going and keep on integrating technology in our operations and to our customers. So, these are the key points in our model.

Q: Is your dependence on Unisys-related business reducing? What about the demand for the Unisys platform and Unisys-related software?

A: No. Though we do other work too, most of our business is still based on the Unisys platform.

But this will change in the next few years. As far as the Unisys platform is concerned, their higher end platform will continue as it has a large installed base around the world and it cannot stop. It is the same story that we heard about IBM going out of business