PRESIDENT & CEO: VIJAY K THADANI

Ask an NIITian for their business card and more often than not the designation
will surprise you. Ask an NIITian to describe their organizational structure and most
probably you will get a different answer each time. For an outsider, NIIT Ltd probably has
the most complicated organizational structures in the Indian IT industry. As President and
CEO Vijay Thadani describes it, “Sometimes even employees get confused, but we
don’t worry too much about it.”

NIIT has restructured itself every year, for the last
few years. And the reason becomes obvious once you peer into the business dynamics and
foresight of this growth engine. “Change is an opportunity for some and concern for
others,” according to Thadani. With technologies and global market landscapes
transforming continuously, NIIT has chosen to be in a position to address the requirements
of its customers at all times. And that means flexible structures, virtual teams, and
cross-functional reporting. As
P Rajendran, Chief Operating Officer, puts it, “The real world is too dynamic to
apply solutions from the past. We would be history before we knew it.”

And that aptly describes NIIT–the sheer drive to
avoid becoming any part of history. The continuous restructuring to match the dynamics of
its markets, the relentless drive to improve the quality of products, and the vision of
the global market being the market for all its businesses. With a turnover of Rs 656.2
crore, NIIT has grown by 46 percent over the previous year. The main contribution to its

revenue continues to be training and education at
51 percent; however, the contribution from software exports has steadily increased over
the last two years. And that is the trend for the future. NIIT has become increasingly
global in its business outlook.

In its current structure, NIIT uses geography as the
starting point. The business units, which include software, educational multimedia, and
training and education, now view the entire global market as a potential customer base.
NIIT addresses this complete market through 12 international and two domestic
subsidiaries. The business vision for the future looks at the business units competing in
the global marketplace, supported by three internal pillars of process excellence,
individual employee excellence, and innovation.

As far as its internal processes are concerned, NIIT
uses a backbone of ISO 9001 and ISO 9002 certifications for its educational multimedia and
software business units. The software business unit also has SEI Level 3 certification,
and it is striving to achieve Level 5 by the year 2000. NIIT has been implementing the
Crosby Quality Management System since 1995 and the goal here is zero-defect delivery
systems. The company is also the first in the country to introduce the Economic Value Add,
an asset and monies monitoring system.

The software business unit addresses both packaged
software marketing, and application development and systems integration. The packaged
software business is targeted at the domestic market and supported by alliances with
business software, engineering solution, and geomatic solution vendors. The application
development is mostly focused at the export market with off-shore centers at Delhi,
Mumbai, and Calcutta. The projects include application and systems reengineering, Y2K,
systems integration, and Net-centric applications. The main international clients include
British Airways, Deutsche Bank, Hitachi, Komatsu, NTT Data, Sony Systems,
Ministry of Defence (Singapore), among others.

The educational multimedia business includes development
of Technology Based Training (TBT) products for the international markets. Revenue in the
initial years came from product development assignments from National Education Training
Group (NETG), USA. Since then, NIIT has diversified into product development under its own
name. As recognition of its capabilities, Microsoft has appointed NIIT as its only non-US
courseware development vendor. Out of the 195 titles developed by NIIT under its name, 38
have been for Microsoft. Amongst its clients for product development are Ministry of
Defense (Singapore), World Bank, Reuters, Chase Manhattan, IBM Thailand, and NETG.
However, its most important revenue source is likely to emerge from Malaysia, where it has
Multimedia Super Corridor status.

However, the recognition of the NIIT brand with the public at large has been
built through its mainstay, the educational and training business unit. With the emphasis
on global forays, NIIT has opened its own centers in eight countries and franchised
centers in another nine countries, taking the total number of its training centers to 600.
Driving the demand base for class-room training centers in other countries is the NIIT
NetVarsity site. In the domestic market, NIIT continues to expand its market base through
the launch of innovative programs like BOOT IT for the masses, LEDA for schools, CATERED
for the handicapped, and DigNITy for senior citizens.

Looking into the future, with computers and education
already synonymous, the children of tomorrow are likely to grow up with the NIIT brand an
integral part of their education.