An Interview with Vinay Rajadhyaksha, GM-Europe & Japan, LTITL

Q: To what extent is India's infotech fortune due to its low cost structure and manpower abundance? Does the argument about India's lack of cutting-edge technology work hold water? Can it aspire to be an infotech 'superstar'?

VR: True, India's advantages are partly due to its low cost but then in IT projects you have the added dimension of technology apart from cost and time factor, which heightens the risk factor. Out there, there are a lot of applications running on mainframe and legacy systems also which present the problem in all three dimensions. India has been traditionally strong in this area and naturally attracts a lot of these projects also- those where migration to newer systems would be expensive. Skill sets and experience matter here.

As for cutting-edge technology- yes and no. True, no major cutting-edge technology work has taken place here. The reasons being no funding or institution backing for these risky projects while marketing of our skills and home-grown products is another.

No, because, in terms of technology there is no gap between Indian companies and those abroad. But mainframe and legacy applications are one of the identified and acknowledged strengths of ours and we keep getting more of the same.

Q: The IT industry sees heavy attrition rates. What do you think it is due to? How are the companies coping? LTITL specifically?

VR: There are a few main reasons for attrition. The monetary aspect, the chance to go abroad and the chance to work across different projects and gain experience. Companies try and address these three mainly.

At LTITL we have an open culture which allows a person free access to facilities and information so that the employee doesn’t feel constricted. We ensure our salary is on par with industry standards. Job rotation across different projects and in different countries ensures a learning experience while regular training updates them with the latest technology.

Q: One of LTITL's major areas is mainframe and legacy systems. What is the future of these systems? Can they serve the current and future needs or will they need migration and reengineering at some stage? Compared to client server systems how future proof are they? What will be the architecture of the future?

VR: Mainframe systems served the requirements of the past but will need reengineering at the front end at-least. The back end processing can stay. The character based front ends of the legacy systems will have to make way for the graphic user interface (GUI)based systems now and web based applications sooner. The legacy systems are stable, rugged and robust machines that the clients find comfortable to deal with. Add to that the low maintenance and response time. Re-engineering the front end is one solution. But for client server systems the main advantage is the availability of packaged software and their seamless integration with the rest of the systems.

As such there is no major trend in porting or re-engineering so that you find islands of these two (client server and mainframe) systems. The trend is now towards web enabling applications across all platforms but then over time client server architecture will be the preferred platform.

Q: What are the future plans for LTITL? How do you see the domestic and world-wide market growing? Which are the major technological and market changes that you foresee?

VR: LTITL now has ambitious plans to expand world-wide (In the US and Japan specifically) and in India by acquiring office space. It has now been internally reorganised on functional lines that will help us gain and group industry/ area relevant experience. We are also expanding our delivery mechanism.

For us, we see e-commerce, ERP, web enabling of legacy application to be our major business areas. ERP may have been speeded up with the Y2K problem since companies could have found it viable to trash old systems and implement the latest ERP solutions, given the high cost of ERP solutions.

World-wide, Internet will drive the direction of infotech. Newer application areas like CRM (customer relations management) will drive competitive advantage while territorial markets like South Africa, Australia and New Zealand will be hot markets.

SD: The domestic market is evolving to measure upto world standards. The market is evolving in the direction of the software and service provider and companies are willing to pay for better technology and quality. Post Y2K, the companies are now keying up for the real expansion in infotech.