Usha Somayaji

Focus is the most important word in the lexicon of Tata Technologies Limited (TTL), and its philosophy — “to improve the way leading manufacturers compete” — reflects precisely that.

Carved out of Tata Engineering’s erstwhile management services division and engineering research centre, TTL has created a niche for itself by providing consulting services to manufacturers and their partners on the strategic use of information technology.

Providing services to manufacturers is, and has been, the key area for TTL. And with good reason, as Managing Director and Tata Group veteran Patrick McGoldrick explains. “Initially we looked at what’s driving businesses and economies in the Asia Pacific region [TTL’s initial target zone],” he says, “and found that about 30 per cent of the GDP of these countries comes from manufacturing.”

The company spotted the opportunity to deliver competitive benefits to manufacturers through the use of infotech. It understood that the American and European manufacturers who were flocking to Asia to make the most of cheap labour needed a more sustainable advantage to get ahead of the competition. Infotech would, TTL rightly reckoned, provide that advantage.

According to Mr McGoldrick, who has been at the helm of TTL since August 2000, making infotech work for manufacturing requires knowledge of technology as well as business. “India has a tremendous number of highly skilled, well-educated people; some understand business, some understand infotech. The challenge is to find those who understand both. We found such a group within Tata Engineering and we outsourced it to launch Tata Technologies India.”

The company’s beginnings in Tata Engineering have given it a significant insight into the way manufacturing companies function, and the specific business processes, software products and service demands their businesses need. TTL put its pedigree to profitable use by concentrating its attention on addressing specific markets.

The strategy has paid off in spades for the company. Its clients include names such as Daimler-Chrysler, General Motors, Boeing, Airbus UK and Singapore Telecom. In India it has completed projects for, among others, Tata Engineering, Bajaj Auto, Tata Chemicals, Kinetic Engineering, Whirlpool India and Thermax.

“We strive to radically improve the way leading manufacturers compete,” says Mr McGoldrick. “We do that in two ways. First, by allowing them to outsource the engineering and business processes to our centres in India. That has a cost advantage, plus we can do some things faster. Secondly, by implementing the application software for their business”

Tata Technologies has been structured on three broad lines of business: engineering automation, enterprise solutions and application services. In their totality, these three arms serve, end-to-end, the entire life cycle of a manufacturing-based business activity.

“Manufacturing companies design products, engineer them and then manufacture them. This is the concept-to-production process. Additionally, they ‘talk’ to other enterprises, their suppliers, for example, to get sub-assemblies and other goods. They also market and sell to their dealers and end customers. To be competitive, manufacturers have to do these things well.”

TTL’s engineering automation business fine-tunes the concept-to-production process, from conceptualising and designing a product to engineering and manufacturing it. “Engineering automation is all about creating a product, and doing it faster while maintaining quality and cost. We were one of the early adopters of infotech in this area and it has helped us radically reduce the amount of time it takes to design something, whether it is a welding fixture or a car bonnet.”

In engineering automation, the company’s range of services extends from product design, manufacturing and tooling, to knowledge-based engineering and product data management. TTL’s enterprise solutions are tailored to optimise manufacturing processes and business requirements while addressing country-specific needs. The company’s third line of business is as an application service provider, where it manages all the infotech activities of its clients in a manner that maximises their business gains.

TTL also develops and operates e-business applications which enable companies to conduct their supply chain and dealer network management online, using a system called value chain management (VCM). Suppliers interact with OEMs, receiving orders, shipping schedules and payment advices via the Internet through TTL’s VCM portal, myvaluechain.net.

Dealers interact using other TTL-developed systems. One such system, called WOW (‘warranty on the web’), allows dealers to process customers’ warranties online. “Our VCM customers save tremendous amounts of money by eliminating the phone and the fax. But the real saving comes from fewer rejections due to wrong schedules and inventory reductions.” Telco saved an estimated Rs 30 crore annually by using such a system.

As impressive as TTL’s list of customers are its partners: SAP, SDRC (now part of EDS/PLM Solutions), Parametric Technologies Corporation, Dassault Systems, Knowledge Technologies International, Microsoft, Compaq, Siebel Systems, Sage and Oracle, all of whom the company collaborates with in implementing solutions.

The secret of TTL’s success is its domain expertise. “We have tremendous experience because we have 1,300 people who know manufacturing inside out. They have lived it and they have dirtied their hands with it. They studied the problems before them and came up with solutions. Now, with the commercial software they have, they understand the whys and hows.”

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