'We see the Indian networking market growing at around 30 per cent per annum'- Ron Cattell, Chief Executive Officer, Datacraft Asia Ltd

With 25 years of experience in technology and telecommunications, Singapore-based Ron Cattell, who closely resembles Hollywood star Chuck Norris, leads a company that is known to provide its clients the state-of-the-art technology in networking. As the chief executive officer of Datacraft Asia, Cattell strategizes, manages and oversees all aspects of Datacraft Asia group's operations, and is also responsible for the group's general business management. He has been with Datacraft Asia for over ten years. He joined the organization as the marketing director in December 1988, bringing with him a wealth of experience in the business and technology of data communications systems as well as in the management of international trade.

CI interviewed him when he was in Mumbai recently, to announce the launch of Datacraft India, a fully owned subsidiary. Excerpts from the interview:

What is Datacraft’s strategy to retain its leadership in India?

Datacraft has established sales offices in seven cities and operates over 20 support centers throughout India to provide nationwide service and support to our customers. We are very confident of the company’s continued growth and expansion in the face of a booming IT market in India and increased demand for Datacraft’s networking expertise and capabilities. Datacraft’s high rate of organic growth is supplemented by strategic acquisitions. We have purchased 15 companies in the last four years and our acquisition of the minority interest in Datacraft India clears the way for us to roll out an aggressive acquisition programme in India. This is one of the largest investments Datacraft has made in any country. Our strong focus on the enterprise, telecom, service and e-commerce segments will ensure that Datacraft maintains its leadership position in India.

Which means you are looking at partners in India…

That’s right. We are looking at network systems integrators with a high service content, as well as lending e-commerce application integrators. We see the Indian networking market growing at around 30 per cent per annum and we plan to grow at 40 percent to 50 percent, as we increase our market share. We have a precise idea of what we want to do. We are looking at profitable companies with a good track record and good technical skills. We don’t have the time to turn around sick companies. That goes both for network integration and e-commerce. All e-commerce companies that we have bought into, are profitable companies.

How strong is Datacraft on technology?

We are exploring every technology. For example, VoIP is the preferred method for mobile telephony in Korea. We are looking at that technology very closely. We also have a tie-up with Checkpoint for firewalls as well as Baltimore for PKI. For network management, we have partnered with Micromuse. We are specialists in network integration. We also have in-house R&D. But of course, we don’t want to invent better switches than CISCO. We take all available products and we add value through integration. We identify vulnerabilities before we implement. What we are offering is service. Of course, we are also a value-added reseller and we have alliances with companies across the region.

Could you tell us more about Datacraft’s R&D efforts?

We have probably invested five million dollars in R&D for software packages. We have solutions for finance, manufacturing, SCM as well as Internet content delivery. We can use these packages over and over again. We are also into web-enabled ERP integration and vertical e-marketplace infrastructure. We have even developed middleware to run all these packages together. We have ownership of all this intellectual property.

Quite clearly, Datacraft seems to have gone beyond network systems integration. Would you like to comment?

We have come a long way from merely pushing boxes and we are ourselves a very big channel, thanks to the large number of companies who are our partners. Datacraft Asia is certainly a network systems integrator, but increasingly, our revenues will be generated from services. In fact, around 30 per cent of Datacraft’s revenues are expected from services and by 2002, more than 50 per cent of it will be from services.Could you elaborate?

Well, I am talking about managing corporate networks. More than 70 of our clients have asked for such services. In India, that is a maturing market. We post our engineers at the premises of our clients. The network management of Singapore’s national ATM backbone is outsourced to us. Many corporates would like to outsource their network management to us because they don’t want to employ specialists. Besides, there are other services. In fact, we have identified another area to expand our operations -- B2B e-commerce systems integration projects. Some organizations like banks require hardware encryption. For this, we have a relationship with Cylink and Racal in India. Then, there are customization projects. We have done customization projects on a turnkey basis for Singapore Telecom. Our main aim is to tap brick and mortar large corporations who are in need of network integrating their supply chain management.

Can Datacraft also remotely monitor networks?

We have the expertise to remotely monitor and diagnose faults of any network outsourced to us. We can find out if a particular board is performing well or needs changing.

At the moment, there is no network insurance scheme in India. Do you plan to introduce one?

No, but we already have something as good as that. We have service level agreements with companies whose networks we manage. We usually enter into contractual agreements with them. The contract goes something like this — if a network fails, we set it up and get it running within two hours. But if Datacraft fails to revive the network, we pay the company a particular amount.

What is your millennium strategy?

Our new millennium strategy is to maintain focus in existing businesses like telecom and Internet infrastructure, enterprise networking as well as technical and professional services. We intend to add new business streams like enhancement of services and value-added software offerings for telcos, besides network security and e-commerce applications integration.

Bobby Anthony in Mumbai