We are here for the long-haul: Tata CEO says

One of the region's major information and technology solution services provider, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), is expanding its business in the Asia Pacific. The company, which is based in Mumbai and has a US$14 billion market capitalization worldwide, is also planning to set up a subsidiary in Indonesia. The Jakarta Post's Tubagus Arie Rukmantara talked with TCS' CEO and managing director S. Ramadorai recently on the firm's plan to tap the country's IT solution services market. The following is the excerpt of the interview:

Question: In the TCS annual performance report of June 30, you are scaling up your global execution capability. What are your plans for the Asia-Pacific region?

Answer: The company's presence has been very strong in North America, followed by the United Kingdom, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, India, the Middle East and Africa,

Asia Pacific itself is very important for us and we have taken certain initiatives in the last several years. One of them was setting up our Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore four years ago.

Now our regional presence in the Asia Pacific is in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Mainland China, Taiwan, Korea and in that context, we are looking at Indonesia.

What is so exciting about Indonesia? Why is it important for us? There are 220 million people here who definitely will look at upgrading the quality of their institutions; their life and their public services for serving their customers.

When do you plan to expand your business here?

We are currently partnering with a local company. (Tata is teaming up with Inowo Group in providing IT services for banking and mining institutions here). But, as we are looking to the future, we will set up our own subsidiary for the Asia-Pacific region in Indonesia by the end of October.

We are going into the process of incorporating a subsidiary here, as soon as the approval from the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) is received, we will have it on the ground.

You already have a partner here, so what will be the impact of setting up a subsidiary here?

It is to show that we are committed to this country and that we are committed to this region. Another impact is to accelerate our capability both as a local and global player in bringing in the global best practices. Therefore, the best of TCS can be shared for the benefit of this country and the region.

Another factor is, all the big names in the IT industry are here -- IBM, Oracle, Microsoft. All have their operations here through their local subsidiaries. We also want to do the same thing.

Do you think the business climate here is supportive enough to help you expand your business?

First of all, all the facilities are available for an organization like us -- whether it is physical infrastructure, a telecom infrastructure or the implementation of regulations, rules and laws. The clarity of the implementation of rules and regulations is very important to us.

But, most importantly is the availability of professionals. What is important for us is the availability of good skilled people. As long as we can get the people, we know how to train them. Availability of good people is very fundamental for our well being here. Our ability to train our people, not once, but repeatedly, to expand competency in terms of providing services to our global customers could benefit the locals.

Do you think Indonesia's human resources fit the requirements you are looking for?

If you look at the age profile, the major population is below 40. They are trainable and many have an engineering and management background. They can learn to be professionals, but if the quality of human resources is not there, than the investment has to be made by our education institution.

More important is to amplify the quality of human resources. An Indonesian won first prize in a recent contest held by Google. It shows that there is a quality available here because you don't win those things by accident. You have to be very good at it.

Maybe the number is small, but that is not an issue. I have to admit that it is a long journey -- not an overnight initiative. It will happen in one, two years. But again, that is not the issue.

Does that mean that you plan to be here for the long term?

Whenever we go to a country, we are committed to be there for the long haul, whether it is in the U.S., the UK, the Middle East or Africa.

You provide a wide range of services, from banking to education, serving the government and private sector. What are the sectors that you are targeting here?

We are actually working on a business plan for Indonesia. But I can say that first we are focusing on recruiting good people and looking for good infrastructure. Strategically, we are looking at financial services, banking, insurance, telecommunications and government.

We will also look for an opportunity to cooperate with the government where digitalization of a government is a very important initiative across the globe.

How will you convince the government to use IT solution services to support its work as the Indonesian government has not utilized the idea of E-governance?

We have the best world practices. At some stage, we will convince the government that if you want to connect people and bridge the digital divide, there is no other option but to digitalize the government.

For example, in Saudi Arabia we work together with the government there in providing IT services for social insurance; in India, we have provided services in income tax and retail banks. In the United States we have provided services in unemployment insurance.

The government should digitize their services. It is done for internal and external benefit -- Internally, it should be done for the efficiency of the government, while externally, it is to provide services to the people.

For the citizen, IT could help them access government records, whether it be for health care records, immunization, education or an administrative system. But most of all, we believe that without IT we cannot bring in efficiency, we cannot bring in accuracy, real time information, data access and dissemination. And without IT, the government can not scale up its services. Quality combines accuracy and speed of service, which is a critical for the government.