Rajiv Kaul, former Microsoft India chief executive and now heading CMS Info Systems, majority owned by Blackstone (the private equity investor), feels the company’s revenue will grow by 20 per cent for 2010-11, after a tough year. The company expects to close FY11 with revenue of Rs 800-850 crore.

“Last year was a difficult year. We had to do business with a pricing pressure of 15 per cent. In some cases, clients had stopped payments. Add to this, since the talks of stake sale at CMS were going on for some time, the management bandwidth at the company was low. But from here, I think we are ready to ride the domestic growth story,” said Kaul, executive vice chairman and CEO of CMS. He was a partner with Actis, a PE fund, before he took this position.

With a target to be a Rs 2,000-2,500 crore revenue firm in the next four to five years, Kaul says he has managed to get the right foundation in place after Blackstone took over the company close to two years before.
Team

“If you ask me what is the one important achievement we have managed over the past year, then it’s getting the right team. I think we now have a good senior management team in place,” he added. CMS has managed to pull in Sudev Muthiya from Microsoft to head the information technology (IT) business here. Raja Roy, who was with HCL Infosystems, heading its institute business, is now spearheading CMS Institute Systems. Anand Sunderesan quit HCL Technologies and took over the role of vice-president, Sales. Some others will be joining soon.

For Kaul, a seasoned professional, joining CMS was an entrepreneurial bet. “I think there is a huge domestic opportunity. If you look at the domestic market, there are three large players — IBM, TCS and Wipro. After Wipro, there is a huge gap and enough room for another player to emerge in the domestic market and that’s what we are aiming at,” he added.

CMS Info Systems, the entity carved out from the CMS Group, is 60 per cent owned by Blackstone and 40 per cent by the promoters, the Grover family. Blackstone had acquired the stake for $40 million in December 2008. This is the second investment of Blackstone in the IT sector.

After getting a team in place, Kaul is focusing on the operational side. “Since the promoters were in a sell-mode for over a year, critical investments that are required in a services firm were not made. Of the six verticals that we are in, three are doing very well —- card services, cash management and print services — but three need to gear up. We will leverage Blackstone to get customers,” he added.

CMS Info Systems’ six vertical offerings are managed IT services, systems integration, IT Training, print services, cash management services and card services.

Aims

An objective for Kaul is to also restructure the business into two verticals — IT business and outsourcing services. “Almost 80 per cent of the work is done,” he said. The IT business will have the verticals of infrastructure services, systems integrator, IT training and print services, whereas outsourcing will have cash management and card services.

“Today 40-44 per cent of revenue comes from IT and cash management; print and card services contribute 10 and 5-7 per cent. In future, we want to double our print business,” said Kaul.

Another initiative Kaul is venturing into is the international market, with its remote infrastructure management services. The company has set-up a network operation centre in Mumbai.

“I think the contracts that we have with the Indian government are significant, both in terms of size and work. For instance, we are working with the Registrar General of India on providing IDs (identity cards) for people residing in coastal regions. We have won significant deals in the SI (systems integration) and infrastructure space. We have closed four deals in the public sector and are in talks with another four,” said he. It had also bagged the contract to supply personalised magnetic strip cards for the Rs 1,200-crore Employees State Insurance Corporation project from Wipro.

When asked what would be Blackstone’s exit option and if it is in the near future, Kaul said: “We are in for a long haul. From my conversation with the partners at Blackstone, I can say they are not in a hurry. Besides, right now I want to focus on how I can make 8x of their investments in the company.”

Source:http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/blackstone-investee-cms-info-systems-to-scalebusiness/407914/

STORAGECRAFT has lured a renowned specialist in Microsoft technology for the role of Asia-Pacific technical services general manager.
The appointment of IT entrepreneur and consultant Wayne Small, a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional, was announced at Microsoft’s Tech-Ed 2010 event on the Gold Coast.

The award recognises technical leaders who share their knowledge of Microsoft technology.

Small will control all StorageCraft’s technical services across the region, including technical support, professional services, technical updates and technical training.

“This is a major coup for us,” StorageCraft Asia-Pacific vice-president Richard Giddey said. “Wayne brings with him a wealth of diverse knowledge and is a highly respected industry expert who will be instrumental in helping us to accelerate our expansion in the Asia-Pacific market.”

Small has been involved in the IT industry for more than 30 years, even running a computer repair business as a young boy. Since then his roles have ranged from technical support to account management and marketing support.

In 1997, he started Sydney-based small and medium business IT consultancy Correct Solutions, which grew to an eight-strong team with multi-million-dollar revenue.

In 2005, it merged with two other companies to become a major IT reseller. In late 2006, he handed over the reins to focus on training, presenting and writing on technical and business topics, as well as consulting. Explaining his latest move, he says: “The company is recognised as a thought leader in back-up and disaster recovery, and StorageCraft products are market leaders, featuring innovations such as head-start restore and virtual boot, which reduce the impact on a business should a disaster occur. They are allowing resellers to provide higher availability solutions to their clients at lower costs than ever before.”

StorageCraft provides disaster recovery, system migration, data protection and security solutions for servers, desktops and laptops.

“We have seen exponential growth of StorageCraft ShadowProtect server, SBS and virtual server editions over the past 12-18 months,” Giddey says.
FARID Jarrar has been appointed chief information officer of Stellar’s Asia-Pacific business. He has spent more than two decades in the IT industry, including 12 working with contact centres.

Past employers include Origin Healthcare, Excelsior and Skilled Group.

His expertise spans business process outsourcing and contact centre technology with merger, acquisition, divestment and outsourcing projects.
Jarrar has a master’s degree in information technology and management, and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Britain’s Office of Government Commerce.

Stellar, a business process and call centre specialist, has a big outsourcing contract with a major energy retailer.

Jarrar replaces Warwick Marx, who spent much of his time building synergies between Stellar’s sites and oversaw the opening of a new call centre in Queensland.

FORMER Adobe executive John Treloar has been made Australia-New Zealand managing director at video specialist Ooyala.

He’ll be bringing its business-ready video platform to market and helping customers engage with viewers and maximise revenue from video content.
He says Ooyala’s software as a service Backlot video platform includes analytics to help publishers target videos and advertising.

“Video is exploding on the Australian corner of the internet and customers are demanding a reliable platform for hosting and analysing their online video,” Treloar says.

“Because of our common language with the biggest economies in the world, Ooyala’s platform gives Australian publishers the ability to build, scale and promote global online video businesses.”

Ooyala customers include Australia’s Austereo, Telegraph Media Group, Arsenal Football Club, Electronic Arts and Red Bull.

AUSTRALIAN managed security services provider Seccom Global is celebrating some rapid growth with the appointment of Michael Livingstone as national head of sales.

He will be responsible for co-ordinating sales and developing business relations.

“Michael’s position is instrumental in our national growth plans,” chief information officer Gavin Matthews says.

“I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside Michael in the security space for the past two years. He is well known within the industry and his personable approach and dedication make him a valued member of the Seccom team.”

Livingstone is an industry veteran with more than 20 years experience in the sector.

He was previously sales and marketing director at Australian security vendor Tier 3, responsible for development of the Huntsman product set.

He has also held senior sales and marketing roles with organisations including Sun Microsystems and Silicon Graphics.

Seccom Global offers continuous monitoring of network activity from its security operations centre, including attack definitions, application patches and firmware updates.

HITACHI Australia has appointed Miranda Fong as sales executive for NSW, Queensland and New Zealand, replacing Sue Perez.

Based in Sydney, she will work closely with authorised dealers to raise brand awareness and increase market share in the data projector and interactive whiteboard markets.

“Miranda has proven capabilities and experience in Hitachi’s digital presentation solutions division, making her the ideal person to help drive sales and market share within this market,” digital technology solutions group general manager Dipak Kumar says.

Fong has been with Hitachi Australia since October 2008, having held sales and logistics co-ordinator roles.

Earlier she was sales co-ordinator at Horizon Media, and had similar sales roles at QR National and Queensland Rail.

Fong holds a commerce degree in marketing from Griffith University.

INTERACTIVE Intelligence has bolstered its local presence with the appointment of Rameses Florentino as Australian and New Zealand inside sales representative, based in Sydney.

Florentino has more than 10 years experience in inside sales, customer service and contact centre support.
Interactive provides unified internet protocol business communications systems.

He will be responsible for pre-sales prospect identification and qualification for Interactive Intelligence products, as well as supporting marketing programs to drive brand awareness and partner and alliance momentum.

Florentino was previously inside sales and marketing consultant at FrontRange Solutions, and earlier managed lead generation campaigns at Expand Networks.

He also worked for LAN Systems, DirectIT, Salmat, Coles Myer and GE Finance.

Interactive Intelligence was founded in 1994 and has more than 3000 customers worldwide.

The company employs about 600 people, is based in Indianapolis, Indiana, and has offices throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.

Source:http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/storagecraft-snares-microsoft-expert-as-technical-services-manager/story-e6frgakx-1225914988247