Amit Chatterjee is a part of the trio charting a five-year strategy for growing CA’s (formerly Computer Associates) business in India. A veteran of HCL and Hewlett-Packard, he took over as managing director for India & Saarc at CA India Technologies Pvt Ltd, the India arm of CA Inc, in May.
Within two quarters, he brought about sweeping changes in the way CA sold products in India. Through the new ‘go to market’ initiative, Chatterjee aims to ensure that CA grows higher than the industry average of 25% in India. “Together, we are looking at what we can do in India and what we can do with India,” Chatterjee told Rini Mukherjee in an interview. Excerpts:
CA got in three senior leaders, including you, to steer the India business. What is the plan?
CA has been investing in emerging markets, particularly in India. That is the reason why senior-level appointments have happened in the country through this year. William Bauman relocated to Hyderabad from the US and took charge as senior vice-president & general manager of India Technology Center in early 2009. Next, Saurabh Shrivastva was appointed India chairman. He oversees the domestic business and also CA’s R&D centre — the India Technology Center at Hyderabad. I joined CA in May from H-P, where I spent almost a decade. So these appointments are a clear demonstration of the company wanting to invest in India. My mandate is to grow the India business.
Will’s mandate is to deliver excellent products through the R&D that is happening in Hyderabad. Saurabh’s mandate is to make India more significant for CA, whether in terms of sell-to-market which is my mandate— what needs to be done to grow the business, what is selling in India. His other mandate is to supervise the engineering centre and see how we can cross leverage. His third mandate is to look at the large integrators and how we can leverage them for CA globally.
So together, we are looking at what we can do in India and what we can do with India. For this we need connectivity at the right levels, with the government, industrial bodies, etc. I have around 100 people in my team. Our total strength in India is approximately 1,800.
You were at H-P when the insider trading fiasco and the financial debacle at CA happened. Does the past haunt?
No, not really. Nobody talks about it anymore. Perhaps they did when I was with H-P. But public memory is short. In fact, since John A Swainson took charge as CEO in 2005, a lot of things have been streamlined at CA.
What is the company doing to undo what had gone wrong?
You see, when a company sees a crisis like CA did, it doesn’t survive. It is either taken over or vanishes completely. Here’s where CA’s success lies. Even after suffering such a great financial debacle, CA has emerged stronger. In fact, when I look at the processes today, for example core-to-cash process, the way we get an order, legal approvals, etc, they are extremely tight. Today I cannot look at a customer unless I have a legal approval. I can’t send anybody to a government official, or cannot entertain a government employee unless I have clear approvals. So, corporate governance has been given a lot of emphasis. Our products were strong anyway. In India, our customers and partners are very strong. There are customers who have been with CA for decades.
What are your targets for India?
We have decided that we would focus on five business verticals — government, BFSI, telecom, IT & ITES and defence. Currently, the government and BFSI are our strongest verticals. Out of our total revenues from India in the IT management segment, the government sector gives us 40%, BFSI 25%, IT & ITES 25%, telecom 6% and defence 4%. Clearly, the growth areas for us are telecom and defence.
What kind of work are you doing for the government?
The government is going to be the largest IT spender in the next five years. We are working with three departments of the government. Each central ministry is rolling out its own e-governance project. We are working with the IT department for its national e-governance programme (NEGP).
NEGP has been rolling out for the last three years will continue at least till next five years. It started off with state-wide area network, or SWAN, and currently we are rolling out state data centres or SDCs. So far, the government has made investments in building the core infrastructure, i.e. the network, and now they are building these data centres.
Next, we will roll out the e-services programme—the Mission Mode Projects, or MMPs. In SWAN, we have a 60% share, which is unusually large and we are the market leaders there. SDCs have just started rolling out and only three or four have been announced so far.
Out of these, we have won a few and we are well on path to have a leadership position in this segment, too. MMPs are still a while away. The ministry of power is rolling out its Restructured Accelerated Power Development & Reforms Programme (R-APDRP) for cutting down the distribution losses. In R-APDRP, till now seven projects have been announced and we’ve won five out of that.
These are a combination of IT and non-IT projects for which large infrastructure companies are bidding for. Some IT biggies are also bidding for these. So, we are working with the Reliances and L&Ts of the world as much as we are working with Infosys, Wipro and TCS. We bid as part of a consortia.
We do the seeding directly with the end customer, but when it comes to bidding, we bid through a system integrator. So for CA, both things are vital — having a direct footprint in the market and evangelising and seeding with the end customer. We create pull from the market by working with the end customer and create the push factor by working with the system integrator. So, lot of investment has gone into partner training as well, on partner skills, development programmes, bonuses, etc.
What about your innovations? Are you planning India-specific products?
We haven’t launched any yet, but we definitely need to. In a mature market, one product caters to all. However, this may not be the best way in an emerging market like India. In fact, that is what the chairman’s office is currently doing now. They are building a five-year strategic vision for CA in India.
What about your security products? Has the demand grown after the spate of terror attacks in India?
I won’t say growth is significant, but there’s definitely a significant promise for growth. Till now, CA was known more as an IT management services provider in the government circle. Within six months, we want to be seen as a prominent security services provider also.
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