''The biggest challenge that we face is to meet customer expectations, while not suffering on profitability''

Rajat Mathur has ensured increased returns on particular IT solution
deployment for Wipro by replicating various components of and re-using it for
other projects. SMB is one segment where he feels the company will be a
preferred solution partner, because of its holistic approach and capabilities to
provide everything from PCs to the entire gamut of IT services.

As the solutions arm of Wipro Infotech, how successful has your business
in the domestic market been?

Our business on the domestic front has grown in the last couple of years.
Hence, we decided to focus on the enterprise business, especially around
packaged implementation for products from Oracle, SAP, and PeopleSoft.

Rajat Mathur

We also focus on developing competencies on enterprise application
integration (EAI), data warehousing, and application development based on
technologies from WebSphere, BEA among others.

From a customer's perspective, we have seen a significant change in their
mindset. Today, they are keen on involving us from the stage of
conceptualization of a solution, which also enables us to offer much better
value-adds to them. The domestic business for this division has grown well over
100% in the last fiscal.

Given the fact that solution selling is not as simple and straightforward
as product selling, what are the key challenges you face?

The biggest challenge that we face is to meet the customer's expectations
and at the same time not let our profitability suffer. Most projects we work on
are fixed-price projects. Also, in most of these projects, customers implement a
solution for the first time, and hence their expectations during the due course
of project also escalate. Our task is to keep the customer happy and at the same
time, ensure that our overheads don't shoot up, earnings per project remain
good and productivity is optimum.

So how do you tackle these challenges?

One of the models we have developed involves using replicable components of
our solutions in one project after the other. Essentially, we are collating all
that we have done in the past three years under a single framework to take to
the customer as a ready and modular solution. This helps us generate maximum
returns on the solutions that have been developed once and also takes care of
any escalation that might happen in customer expectations.

Tell us about some of the major projects and the nature of solution you
deployed in the recent past?

We are doing a very high-end project for the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE),
which involves setting up a surveillance system for them. We have also been
short-listed by SEBI for a similar implementation. We did a project for the
customs department, which involved providing a gateway for a large base of
customs agents to be able to effectively interact with the customers. We are
working with Maruti on similar lines, to put a dealer management system in
place, which will enable it to have a complete visibility of the businesses of
its over 600 dealers across the country. 

How much business comes from domestic operations for the solutions
division?

The share of domestic business for this division would be between 25% and
30%. But that in itself is quite a high figure, if you consider the fact that
this business being very service-oriented has a very 'carry-forward' kind of
character. This means that every year there is at least 60-70% revenue coming
from the business of the previous year. Since we had a very thin focus on
domestic opportunities in the past, the carry forward was also low. However,
considering the opportunities in the Indian market, we believe the contribution
from domestic business would be much higher with it growing at well over 100% in
the current fiscal.

What kind of focus are you putting on tapping opportunities in the SMB
segment?

SMB is showing amazing growth and we have a specific strategy to address that
market, especially from the ERP perspective. This is due to a lot of pressure on
many SMB organizations to meet the standards set in international market.

There are these companies in India today, who are interacting with global
giants like Wal-Mart and have to compulsorily deploy world-class IT solutions.
Textile industry is another such example in SMB space, where a great deal of
consolidation has happened and those ready to compete in a global landscape have
no option but to opt for strong IT solutions.

In view of this, we are closely partnering with companies like SAP to address
the needs of this segment.

GOLDIE in Bangalore