Rahul Kanodia is the Managing Director of Datamatics Limited, the software consultancy flagship of the Datamatics Group. Mr. Kanodia joined Datamatics as an executive in 1987 and became MD of the organization in 2000. He completed his four-year graduation in information systems from Babson College, USA in a record 18 months. He also did his MBA from Columbia University, majoring in Business Strategy and Marketing

Q: Going forward, where do you intend to take the partnerships with Sweden-based Cybercom and UK-based BUPA, which were in the news recently for setting up a Center of Excellence and a Global Development Centre, respectively?.

A: We are two months into operations of our joint venture, Cybercom-Datamatics Information Solutions. In the next four months, we would have signed a total of 8-10 new customers. This is a very encouraging situation. Through CDIS, we are offering a strong front-end and local access to customers and a good value proposition, as well as global delivery. This is the first time that Cybercom, a high-tech consulting company, is engaging with an Indian software development and consulting company. We find the Nordic markets, particularly the telecom sector, are very attractive.

With respect to BUPA, we are rapidly increasing and deepening our engagement, and delivering higher value-add solutions. One step in this direction is, in March this year, we signed a multi-year, multi-million pound agreement with BUPA, a not-for-profit organization in the health and care market, to set up a Global Development Service Center in Mumbai. We have had a long-term relationship with BUPA, spanning over six years, providing application development and maintenance and support services across the world. The team strength of the GDSC will be growing by over 30 percent by end of December 2006. This relationship is slated to grow manifold in the next 9-12 months.

Q: You have been a proponent of Value-addition in the products/services you deal in? How are you adding value?

A: We believe that we can add substantial value to our customers by meeting not just their unmet needs, but also their unstated needs.

Over the years, customer expectations & customer demands have changed substantially. Customers now expect consulting companies like ours to be thought leaders, strategic advisors and business process reengineering consultants. We go beyond executing a task for our customers. Instead, our value is in giving them a distinct competitive advantage.

Total Customer Satisfaction is the foremost priority for us. Within our various business and delivery teams, discussions are always centered on how to achieve a path-breaking consumer experience. Today, customers are more demanding and expect stringent service levels, superior performance, reduced price, increased value. In short, Excellence.

Outsourcing, today, really means best practices. The phenomenon of outsourcing has shifted from a cost-oriented approach to a productivity & innovation-based model; because cost reduction has already been obtained by selecting an offshore model.

Customers want the best service for the best price and the best of breed solutions. Customers want suppliers who are experts in 1 or 2 things. Customers want suppliers to get involved in the business objectives with the line of business executive, understand their business objectives, and effectively deliver a transformed environment.

Today, customers want a partner who can add value to their business, proactively introduce Innovation in business process that will improve productivity upon which the customer will compete for next 5 years. In a sense companies are looking for suppliers who can transform their business and take their business to tomorrow.

In the past 2-3 years we have been consciously moving away from just application / product support services, testing and quality assurance services like maintenance, enhancement and testing services. We are now well poised to turning ourselves into a high-impact business solution provider that will transform the business of the customer. We have successfully repositioned ourselves into a leader in the area of IP generation, domain and technology-based services and management consulting where we are selling process and methodology, technical expertise and expert knowledge.

Q: As a software development and consultancy organization, do you see challenges from packaged software vendors increasingly introducing customized solutions?

A: I see packaged software and services co-existing. Both are interdependent. Hence, there's no conflict. Packaged solutions have increased the size and scope of the market, and also changed its nature.

Q: Which verticals have you identified for maximum growth in the coming years? Which technologies will these verticals require?

A: Technology as such is becoming important in today's business world. As I mentioned earlier, Datamatics is increasing its focus on delivering solutions that add business value to our customers. Among industry verticals, while we have been creating solutions for verticals like Banking and Financial Services, International Organizations, Healthcare and Manufacturing, we have identified Telecom and Insurance as high-growth verticals.

Q: How do you intend to maintain the ideal balance between higher-margin offshore work and the volume business?

A: Our focus has always been and will remain towards a higher value work. High volume work tends to be price-sensitive and India is rapidly losing its cost advantage to other lower-cost countries. Our core competence does not lie in providing low-cost services.

Q: Mention a few of the training and people development programs initiated internally?

A: We are a PCMM Level 5 company, being one of the first to achieve the milestone. We follow processes in every activity concerning people in our organization. We recognize that people are our most critical assets.

Internally, we put a lot of emphasis on maintaining a friendly, open atmosphere that strengthen a participatory culture. Our training programmes are geared toward developing core competencies and creating leaders out of fast trackers. We also believe in empowerment for our employees.

We have set up the Datamatics University through which we undertake programmes in collaboration with training institutes and IITs, apart from a network of reputed trainers. The University has a vast repository of knowledge assets.

As an organization we promise a smooth integration into our culture and adaptation to processes, systems and work culture to everybody who is new to the Datamatics family. In April this year, we introduced a buddy system called "Sarathi". Each department has a Sarathi who hand-holds the newcomers for the first 100 days. We have also set up an active Outstation/Overseas Help Desk to cater to our onsite employees. This help desk handles all issues related to the welfare and well-being of the employees.

Recently, we also started an initiative called Fun & Joy at the workplace. This is a series of activities aimed at breaking the monotony of the workplace, breaking up possible tensions and conflicts. We believe that over a period of time these activities will help in strong employee bonding and reflect in improved quality of work.

Datamatics is an established IT consulting and services company offering a wide range of software solutions that help deliver superior business value. We conceptualize and develop industry-specific technology solutions that are tailored to our customers' requirements. We are deeply committed to our philosophy "Delivering Value through Technology", and our track record bears testimony to this. We have successfully undertaken and completed IT engagements for global corporations including Fortune 500 companies in 58 countries. Our domain expertise in focus areas including BFSI, Telecom, Manufacturing, ISVs and International Organizations enables us to offer business relevant solutions. Complementing this domain expertise is our focus on quality. We are committed to providing consistently high quality delivery-we are currently assessed at SEI-CMMi Level 5 and PCMM Level 5 besides being an ISO 9001:2000 certified organization.