Computers Today, November 1-15, 2000; Country Buzz pg1

Sybase Inc. has unveiled an elaborate business strategy to significantly expand and consolidate its position in India which includes expansion of its sales and marketing activities, setting up of a technical support centre, appointment of distributors and resellers and also commence software development operations to utilise the skilled manpower available here. The database company has also hinted at making top-level management changes in its Indian subsidiary. "India is a very important market for us and we are initiating all our efforts to re-enter the market. The market had a very good user base for Sybase products and solutions, but somehow, the customers began gradually shifting to our competitors. We will not miss the bus this time," John Chen, chairman and CEO, Sybase Inc., told Computers Today at the Sybase Asian User Conference in Phuket, Thailand.

Chen said, "As a initial thrust to initiate its development activities, Sybase has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Calcutta-based TCG Software to commence joint development activities on Sybase products." TCG Software will be involved in marketing the Sybase products in the Indian subcontinent. Sybase plans to set up sales offices in Chennai, Calcutta and Bangalore in addition to the existing ones in Delhi and Mumbai.

"Towards our education initiative, we plan to tie up with IITs and regional engineering colleges to set up dedicated laboratories to enable students and the faculty to train and work on leading-edge technologies," Chen said.

INTERVIEW: JOHN CHEN, Chairman, President and CEO, Sybase Inc.
"Incorrect policies led to slowdown in India"

Why is Sybase lying low in the database and applications server market, especially in the wake of Oracle's 9i?

I personally feel it's not the right business strategy to counter the challenge by a competitor. Even though we are scared like hell with Oracle's 9i, it won't make much of a difference in the marketplace. We are not moving out of the database management solutions market. It seems Oracle has done a good job to confuse readers as far as our standing is concerned.

Even with its focus on segments like CRM, isn't Sybase a late entrant?

There is never a question of being late. It's a matter of: Is the market ready? As far as competition from CRM vendors like Vantive and Siebel Systems is concerned, we are not competing with them. We are working more on analytics and as such, are complementing them.

When can we expect to see the change actually taking place in Sybase's efforts to reorganize itself at the corporate level and in its offerings?

Even since I took over, the organisation's operational structure has been reorganised into two wholly-owned subsidiaries, three business divisions, several vertical, services, education and support groups. As a result, we have already become a leading provider of enterprise products and services-including enterprise portals (EP), mobile and wireless technologies and vertical solutions.

But the change is hardly being felt in India.

Yes, I do agree with that. For incorrect corporate policies and an inconsistent approach towards developing the Indian market (which had a large user base of Sybase products and solutions), the blame squarely lies on the Indian management. However, now I'd like to convert our weaknesses into our strengths and at least this time round, try and no miss the bus. India is a very important market for us and significant and drastic decisions at the operational, development, administrative and management levels are definitely on the cards for us to re-enter the Indian market.

The pointer refuses to come down. India's IT majors have posted better-than-expected results for the period ending September 30, 2000. HCL Technologies Ltd has made public its financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2000, with record revenues. The company has experienced a net income of Rs 96 crore, a growth of 164 per cent over the corresponding quarter last year (Rs 36 crore). Gross revenue increased by 64 per cent to reach Rs 318 crore for the three months ended September 30, 2000.

Melstar Information Technologies Ltd's income from operations for the first half-year period ended September 30, 2000 was Rs 27.63 crore as compared to Rs 13.36 crore for the corresponding period of the previous year, an increase of over 106 per cent. The firm posted a net profit of Rs 4.09 crore, an increase of 98 per cent over last year's figure for the corresponding period the previous year.

Pentasoft Technologies has recorded a huge jump in its net profit from Rs 9.82 crore to Rs 63.87 crore for the period in question. The company registered a turnover of Rs 285.66 crore against Rs 46.06 crore for same period last year, a company release said. Total sales stood at Rs 279.47 crore against Rs 45.7 crore. The firm's net profit for the second quarter zoomed to Rs 33.88 crore against Rs 5.25 crore for the corresponding period last year.

Mastek Ltd has reported a 22 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 6.99 crore for the first quarter ended September 30, 2000, as against Rs 5.72 crore for the same period the previous year. The total income of Mastek during the quarter went up 13 per cent at Rs 25.08 crore (Rs 22.29 crore the previous year). The Mastek group has registered a 28 per cent rise in its net profit at Rs 8.58 crore (Rs 6.71 crore) during the period. The total income of the group rose by 13 per cent to Rs 68.54 crore (Rs 60.85 crore).

Sonata Software Ltd has announced an increase of 69 per cent in net profit and 67 per cent in total earnings for the second quarter ended September 30, over the corresponding period of the previous year. The company has reported a net profit of Rs 8.79 crore on a total turnover of Rs 33.21 crore for the quarter, as against a net of Rs 5.19 crore on a turnover of Rs 19.87 crore earlier. B. Ramaswamy, president and managing director, Sonata Software said the comapny was well-entrenched on the growth path and the current results reflected its consistent progress since it went public in December, 1998.

The key feature of the financial results is the continued acceleration in the underlying business. Sure, the devaluation of the rupee has also bolstered revenues to a major extent. However, overseas software business has been on the upswing-thus helping these companies to post impressive revenues. Another reason is that Fortune 1000 companies continue to focus on E-enabling their businesses, leading to larger market opportunity for Indian IT solutions providers. Says Infosys Technologies chief N.R. Narayana Murthy, "Our relationship with companies in this segment and our ability to scale-up operations to meet their demands continue to be a key driver of our performance."

India's largest infotech conglomerate, Wipro Ltd, has been finally listed on the world's biggest bourse-the New York Stock Exchange-opening at $44.50 per American depository share (ADS) on its debut. However, due to the ongoing meltdown in software stocks across the globe, Wipro made the offer at $41.375 per ADS. This was much below the underlying price of Rs 2,222 in the domestic market. Wipro chairman Azim Premji said, "It is very exciting and quite an event for us. It means that we are part of the global scenario and gives us the clear transparency with the existing customers and with the new ones.

IBM India has launched its business intelligence competency centre at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. The centre combines the firm's global experience and technology expertise to deliver advanced business intelligence solutions. It will provide technology infrastructure to IIM Bangalore's fraternity to create a national level competency laboratory for the usage of business intelligence solutions in emerging industries.

IBM India has also launched a new generation of servers-the eServer-featuring mainframe-class reliability and scalability, broad support of open standards, and capacity on demand for managing of E-businesses. Nipun Mehrotra, vice president, IBM India, told Computers Today, "The eServer is a product of Project Mach 1, a major cross-company initiative begun three years ago to harness the company's best technologies and practices to support the infrastructure for the next phase of E-business." Tony Ho, director, Personal Systems Group, IBM ASEAN/South Asia, said, "This new E-business infrastructure-consisting of high speed networks-seemlessly integrates applications and powerful servers engineered for specific types of workloads."

In an extension of its strategy to use the Net as a tool for a sustainable competitive advantage, the international business division (IBD) of ITC Ltd has launched a new Web site called the itcbd.com. According to Y.C. Deveshwar, chairman, ITC, this Web site is a synergistic alliance between the firm's two competencies, namely, agriculture and IT, to create an E-marketplace for agricultural commodities.

With this Web site ITC hopes to focus on customers, which, according to the industry, is rare in the arena of commodities trading. The site, claims the company, will be a "goldmine" for the entire range of ITC's customers, which include soyameal importers from Indonesia to shrimp distributors in Japan. ITC also claims that the site has been designed with many customer-friendly features, most significant among which are the concepts of "transaction manager" and "decision support calculator". The transaction manager allows customers from different time zones a real-time update on the status of all live contracts with the IBD.

Compaq Computer India Pvt. Ltd has launched its online store-www. compaq.co.in/cooldukaan-in India. The launch makes Compaq the first big player in the hardware segment to offer customers the option to complete an end-to-end transaction process over the Web on a wide range of products.

Compaq vice-president, Commercial Personal Computing Group, Paul Blinkhorn, said the move to offer products online will help cement company's leadership position as an innovator in the Web-driven economy. This is also in tune with the firm's commitment to provide customers with best-in-class technology and world-class services at the click of a button, he said.

The online store will offer products like Compaq's iPaq Desktop, Deskpro SB series, the Presario range, finger-print ID and smart card readers, micro portable projectors and Armada notebooks. The online store is targetted at the SME segment, small offices and home offices, and will also feature a customer call centre in Bangalore, which will support queries regarding the products. Customers logging on to the site will be able to complete the sale on the Web and will not have to wait for a sales representative to contact them. Customers also have the option to avail of the convenience of shopping on the Net and the option to purchase a configure-to-order PC utilising the company's manufacturing plant in Bangalore.