48 DCM Datasystems ltd - Master Of One

alt="+dcm data.jpg (19130 bytes)" border="0" hspace="2" vspace="2"> CEO: Hemant Bharat Ram ‡ PRODUCTS AND SERVICES: Systems, Maintenance, Consultancy  Ø TECHNICAL COLLABORATION: IBM, Dell, Microsoft, Novell ‡ START-UP YEAR: 1971 ‡ EMPLOYEES: 514 Ø QUALITY CERTIFICATION: ISO 9001 ‡ ADDRESS: 4th Floor, Vikrant Tower, 4 Rajendra Place, New Delhi 110008 ‡ TEL: 5719967-76 ‡ FAX: 5755731   Ø WEB SITE: www.dcmds.com PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS l Increased focus on TPM and services like facility management. l Emerged as the largest vendor of IBM RS/6000 machines last year. l Plans to sell off a substantial stake to get fresh funds and tie-ups.

The country's oldest computer company is still learning the ropes. DCM

DataSystems (DCM DS), which had been trying to do several things for several types of

customers-hardware sales, support, design, software exports-crashed down from Rs 85.27

crore in 1996-97 to Rs 74.90 crore in 1997-98. Nevertheless, the spirits of Hemant Bharat

Ram, the young CEO of DCM DS, are high. In a recent move, the 100-percent DCM-owned

company agreed to sell off a substantial stake to get fresh funds and tie-ups.

The objective is to concentrate on just one area-support-where the company feels it has

enough experience and can build on it. It plans to be a service and projects company to

serve select big clients. Hardware sales will only be a part of the project. The new

offerings from DCM DS as service will include network management, site planing, IT asset

management, corporate data asset management, and facility management.

Software exports will continue, of course. Last year was good keeping in view the

impressive client list: NEC (Japan and Australia) for communication software and chip

design, IBM and Unisys for systems software, NEC (America) for ATM chips etc. DCM DS

expects software business to grow by 60 percent in the current year. However, its ASIC

design tie-up with LSI Logic is off, and Synopsis is the new partner for similar work. The

big orders last year came from LIC, SBI, Rasi Cements, Mahesh Co-operative Bank, and the

DoT. DCM DS sold 3,090 Pentium desktops, and, interestingly, 638 486s. The company's

tie-up with Gateway, which aimed to address the fastest growing SOHO market, is off, as

support from the international vendor was proving to be bothersome. Now with the new

focus, which is expected to shift DCM DS away from box-vending to projects, the company

has emerged as the largest vendor of IBM RS/6000 machines last year. It sold two AS/400s,

12 RS/6000s, besides few IBM Netfinity servers and 680 of its own PC servers.

As regard its service focus, DCM DS plans to bank on IBM. It is picking up a lot of

skills from IBM in various support and service areas (both for IBM as well as non-IBM

platforms). Out of the total maintenance revenues of DCM DS, over 20 percent came from TPM

for SGI, Dell, and IBM machines. The company's tie-up with AMP for networking products

continues to be inactive, especially when networking is an integral part of systems

integration service.

Senior management claims that the slide in revenues last fiscal year is also a result

of the move to focus on service. Though this is no niche, and competition will come from

players like Wipro, HCL, and Digital, DCM DS wants to move up the value chain in this area

so as to offer services like BPR, in days to come.