'We will invest $15 mn in India this year'

Chairman, CEO and co-founder of Syntel, Bharat Desai is ready to assume

another avatar: that of mentor and brand ambassador for his company. Under Desai's

direction, Syntel has grown over the past 24 years to become a global IT

services company, employing 4,000 people in North America, Europe, and Asia, as

well as seven fully-networked global development centers in the US and India.

Desai spoke to Nanda Kasabe of Cybermedia News about the company's big plans

for India, and his desire to make Pune Syntel's largest worldwide center.

There have been plenty of changes within Syntel. What is the rationale

behind these?



There are three key changes happening at Syntel. The first is building

infrastructure and overhauling the telecommunications infrastructure worldwide.

The second key change is the change in the leadership structure and the third is

identifying new business areas for growth. The idea is to be prepared for the

customer demand coming up in the areas of healthcare, financial services and

building services around these.

Could you elaborate on these?



Syntel has acquired 40 acres at Pune to build a sprawling campus at Talawade,
which will be the flagship facility for Syntel worldwide. Another 23 acres has

been acquired at Chennai. We have estimated a total of 9,000 seats in three

phases, which would cost around $40 mn. The first phase with 3,000 seats will

become operational by August 2005. The $20 mn to be invested in this facility

has come from the Indian subsidiary of Syntel. The Chennai facility is coming up

at the IT corridor near SIPCOT soon.

In anticipation of huge customer demand we have decided to overhaul our

entire telecommunications infrastructure. Nortel Networks has been identified as

the equipment vendor for this. Secondly, Keshav Murugesh has been promoted last

month as COO. He handles the day-to-day activities at Syntel leaving me free to

pursue other areas. I intend to take on a mentorship role and become a brand

ambassador for Syntel globally. My role would also be to identify new areas for

growth. We also intend to come out with major announcements once every quarter

bringing our productized services to the market. The new service offerings would

be extensions of the current product line.

You have predicted a convergence of IT outsourcing and BPO. Do you see a

change in the focus of existing BPOs?



I see a convergence happening between IT outsourcing and BPO. Customers will

soon look for one-stop shops for their IT outsourcing needs and the BPO needs.

Syntel will now push this model and take steps towards becoming a one-stop for

meeting both the needs.

Typically, IT applications for a BPO are given to another vendor and this is

where inefficiencies creep in. Instead, one vendor could be held responsible for

the end-to-end function.

Syntel has opened a 400-seater BPO at Mumbai, which offers data services

related to high-end transaction services in two to three verticals-healthcare,

insurance and finance. Presently, BPO is a small component of the overall

revenue model, but we see this changing with the convergence happening. During

the current year, we will invest $15 mn in India.

You have won the IIT Alumnus of the Year award for 2004.

Do you have plans of involving yourself with your alma mater, providing the

necessary thought leadership?



Of course. IIT will be celebrating its golden jubilee in two years. IIT,

Mumbai has launched an alumni association and as Pune has over 500 IIT alumni,

we have therefore launched the Pune chapter of the alumnus. The aim is to

formulate plans for IIT for the next two decades, identify future areas of

research, future technologies and funds for these. We see both biotech and

bioengineering emerging as hot areas of technology.