Driving in the Fast Lane

Since Tata Technologies is a spin-off from Tata Motors, it

was quite expected that parental dependence would be high contributing to nearly

half its revenues of Rs 172 crore in 2004-05. But what this relation has also

ensured is that Tata Technologies is today a premier player both in the space of

offshore engineering design services particularly for the automotive and

aerospace sectors, as well as in IT services where it has carved out a

reputation as a SAP implementation player.

Jeff Sage, COO, Tata Technologies

Since the last two years, the company has shown significant

growth figures, both in terms of revenues and manpower, numbers that have been

generally above the industry average. Even bill realization for services has

shown a marked improvement-these achievements have led to Tata Technologies

gaining both SEI CMM Level 5 as well as PCMM Level 5 during 2005 making it one

of the few companies in the world with the dual recognition.

Much of this was possible owing to the internal restructuring

the company has been undergoing in the last few years. First it was the

appointment of Patrick McGoldrick as the CEO and then even more importantly, the

joining of auto industry veteran Jeff Sage as COO to spur the company's growth

in the global auto market. And in the last few weeks, the growth saga received

further fillip with the company's decision to acquire UK-based INCAT

Technologies for nearly Rs 400 crore, a company that too like Tata Technologies

offers engineering and design services as well as PLM products and services,

primarily to manufacturers and their suppliers in the international automotive,

aerospace and engineering markets.

Post-INCAT acquisition, Tata Technologies operates in four

global business sectors viz., Engineering & Design, PLM, Enterprise

Solutions (the SAP implementation) and Education & Certification in

automotive, aerospace and general industrial domains. The first three businesses

are already flourishing and Jeff Sage points out that the company is planning to

take full advantage of those opportunities to grow its business organically as

well as by acquisition.

Within Engineering & Design services, Tata Technologies

has different offerings including managing the entire vehicle development

process and that includes the actual styling too. Plus, it carries out

operations like the complete tooling fixture, crash analysis, embedded

telematics, designing and modeling besides testing centers. The company designs

all vehicular programs for Tata Motors-this includes maintaining an automotive

data center for them as well as having a dedicated 900-man team. And rumors are

that the company is also designing Ratan Tata's Rs 1 lakh dream car. Not only

the Pune center, even Jaipur, Mumbai and Lucknow support Tata Motors work, while

the Jamshedpur center delivers for HVAT and TPI, subsidiaries supported by Tata

Motors.

However, Sage points out that there is more to Tata

Technologies than only Tata Motors-it has significant contracts with Daimler

Chrysler and General Motors too, its next two largest clients. Not only does it

deliver some of the work for the captive centers these two companies maintain in

India (more precisely Pune), GM also has an ODC running with Tata Technologies.

In addition, the company services about 20 leading global auto OEMs like Ford,

Toyota, Honda, Mazda, aerospace majors Boeing and Airbus, auto ancillaries like

Takada, Delphi and Jet Systems as well as domestic biggies like Bajaj Auto, Tata

Johnson and New Holland Tractors.

PLM services is another contributor to the company's

coffers-it has joined hands with IBM and Dassualt Systems to create a PLM

Competency Center. The INCAT acquisition is expected to further bolster both PLM

and E&D services. In the words of CEO Patrick McGoldrick, "We are

confident that the joint operations of Tata Technologies and INCAT will add even

more value to our combined international customer base through our ability to

deliver E&D and PLM solutions in the most timely and cost-effective manner

— onsite, near-shore and offshore."

Rajneesh De