A company bound on Mission Impossible is how CATS likes to describe itself. Amrita Ghosh of IT@TT met up with Rajeev Goswami to learn more about CATS' past, present and future.
IT@TT: How and why did you feel the need to initiate a project like CATS?
RG: I'll begin with a historical background. CATS (Computer Associates TCG Software) is a 51:49 joint venture between Company Associates International (CAI) and The Chatterjee Group. In 1997, Sanjay Kumar, the then COO of CAI came to India and decided to set up R&D operations here on the lines of a collaboration. Calcutta was a natural choice because there weren't too many hi-tech software companies operating out of here. We thought that setting up base in Calcutta would (also) help to attract talent from other cities. CAI has major investments in the industry and this is their first big initiative in India.
IT@TT: So, have you been able to sustain that belief, as well as attract outside talent?
RG: I'll come to that. CA has a lot of other interests in India and because CATS is an Indian venture, it would be wrong to say that Calcutta was chosen simply because it has many desirable things. That's not the right picture. We have about 200 people working here and we've been able to attract talent. So if you ask me whether this experiment of trying to fill a gap in the city's IT scene has been successful, I would say, Yes. We're slowly but steadily getting there.
Calcutta is a good place, but what we still lack here is a pool of senior talents in our area of focus. That's a challenge for us.
IT@TT: Then why are professionals still reluctant to make a conscious choice of moving to Calcutta?
RG: There are several reasons for that. Not much was happening on the IT industry scene when today's senior professionals were younger. So they felt compelled to move out to other cities for better opportunities. Now that things are changing and the IT industry's beginning to look up, I'm sure many people would come back. For example, I'm not from Calcutta, but I made a professional choice to come and work here for the betterment of the industry. And not because of personal reasons.
These are certain issues that are being resolved with the changing industry scene in Calcutta. And the fact that many well-known companies are on the verge of extending their operations here is proof of this.
IT@TT: Getting back to your roots, what happened after 1997?
RG: Venkat who's from R&D and is now in Singapore managing the SouthEast Asia operations, came in and started this JV. I joined in 1999. Now it's important to note that there are many companies doing back end work and offering Internet solutions. But we do front end work in the form of product development, which is launched in the USA by CA. Last year we developed Jasmine ii, our e-business infrastructure. We've started adding to our portfolio. We're developing Maintenance Level 214, an ERP package. We set up a centre in Delhi last year. Plus we've grown into testing, porting, maintenance, consulting and implementation of CA products.
IT@TT: Have you developed any product so far?
RG: We don't launch products; CA does. We're still a JV. Jasmine II was a big product that CATS was a part of. It was a joint development, but a considerable amount of work was done here.
IT@TT: Have you already done any substantial amount of work in the area of e-business?
RG: We've participated in CA's e-business activities and we're developing an e-business application that's going to be implemented in Europe. We're also into web-enablement of those products and security consultation of a couple of CA's products. So we're already involved in product development, application development, implementation, consulting and all-in-all, we stand as a strong solutions provider.
IT@TT: Do you think e-business will be able to sustain the hype surrounding it?
RG: I believe the 'e' will be dropped, because all business will become e-business. There won't be any business, other than e-business. The difference between e-business, brick and mortar, click and mortar and all these variously called businesses will cease to be. Brick and mortar companies will be strengthen by their transformation through web-enablement. And then success will come naturally, as is happening all over the world. E-business is basically e-enablement. And all businesses, whether you call them e or not has to become enabled. Initially, everybody thought e-business means portals, but that's not true!
IT@TT: How is CATS e-enabling Calcutta? Do you participate in campus-recruitment?
RG: We're doing meaningful work here by creating a talent pool in the e-business arena. We intend to be one of the preferred employers by choice and everyday we're enhancing our work environment qualitatively.
We recruit from Eastern campuses.
IT@TT: Is this planned Mousecltr Quiz geared to achieve the same ends?
RG: Yes, you can say that. We're simply trying to extend our in-house efforts to improve and motivate our employees to a wider arena and initiate a meeting of minds of the Calcutta IT industry.
IT@TT: But why a quiz? Why not something else? Or is it because of Calcuttans love quizzes?
RG: Exactly! Plus, first time around, we wanted to do something that's attractive and appeals to all wavelengths. Quiz seemed an obvious choice. And it's a quiz with a difference. It's for the practising community of IT experts and will not involve the technicalities of IT. It concerns IT trivia, an extremely interesting and informative area, that's often passed off as 'gossip'. It's going to be great fun.
IT@TT: So it's trivia that livens up conversations?
RG: Absolutely! We want to promote an atmosphere where IT professionals can relax, interact freely and entertain themselves and thus ensure better productivity. Many of our practising fraternity are brilliant in their work, but are extremely introvert. We want to draw them out to a world of information beyond the computer screen and show how we can all have fun. That's our simple intention.
IT@TT: As of now, you're spearheading the venture. But in the future, would you expect other companies to join you in such initiatives?
RG: We'd like to retain this as our initiative, but we really don't know how things will fare. You can brand something only if you have something happening. However, we can think about it. We haven't given it much thought, but if circumstances permit, then why not.
Interviewed
By Amrita
Ghosh
[email protected]
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