Sanjay Singh in a Face to Face with NASSCOM

NEW DELHI, Sep. 08, 2008 — Sanjay Singh, Managing Director YMSLI, was interviewed for the Face to Face section with NASSCOM

(http://www.nasscom.in )

Q) Yamaha Motor Solutions India (YMSLI) is an automotive industry expert apart from other industry verticals. What is YMSLI’s strategic direction and formula for growth?

We as Yamaha Motor Solution India (YMSLI) are a major subsidiary of YMSL Japan and minor subsidiary of India Yamaha Motor. Within the group company we are collaborating together with YMSL Japan & YMSL China and complementing each other towards our value proposition with Yamaha Motor Group globally. Our services span across manufacturing industry segments and we provide expert solutions for automobile companies, because of our association with the Yamaha Motor Group.

However, our strategic direction for growth includes creating a niche in the IT (Applications) and IT enabled services (Call Centre) to Yamaha Group Companies. We are aiming to “Go Global” and support entire Yamaha Group Companies. We plan to expand our call centre operation for Yamaha customers within our CRM initiative.

Although, we are trying to create a niche in the services provided to Yamaha Motor Group but we cater to outside Yamaha business at a very minimal level. Currently, our solutions provide strategic advantage to few of the admired organizations in the world. Within this mid term, we plan to expand our business outside Yamaha too.

Q) Having a network office in China and headquarters in Japan; in your opinion, what are the advantages India has vis-à-vis China as an IT destination?

India has two vital advantages when compared to China, namely IT skills and language benefit. Being located within the India Yamaha Motor factory gives us an upper-hand in understanding the automobile industry and provide for their demands in a more efficient manner. And the language benefit gives us an advantage of handling the Global customers especially, Asian, American and European regions. Our China unit is very good at taking care of Yamaha’s China and Japan IT requirements. They work very closely with YMSL Japan in developing Global Systems. By Collaborating together with China & Japan, we are now trying to reduce the language barrier. YMSLI India plays a major role in this initiative.

The programming skills and well defined quality processes helps YMSLI to provide flexible and cost-effective solutions and our software engineers have created a niche with the On-site/Offshore Global Delivery Model.

Q) What kind of special training or programs are you looking at for your workforce management?

We have been upgrading our team’s skills by arranging regular training programs. Today most of the team members are certified engineers in their technology domain of Microsoft, Oracle and IBM. In the near future, we plan to build Vertical Solutions (products) rather than only working in the space of customized application development. With this requirement, we would be focusing on Industry specific Functional knowledge and Project Management skills development.

Q) What have been your star products till date?

In the last 5 years we have been focusing more on implementation & customization of standard ERP products like Oracle Apps and Microsoft Dynamics, customized application development, maintenance of legacy application and infrastructure management.

Only in the last one year, we have started focusing on building our star products/solutions in the areas of Customer Relations Management, B2B (Dealer online system) and Dealer management system.

Q) Apart from the APAC and European regions, what are the future target markets?

In future, we would be trying to render our services in the US and the Latin America region, where they are imbibing ICT at a very fast rate.

We would be reaching out to more than 30 companies in APAC region and also looking at expanding our horizon to United States and penetrate deeper in the Latin America region. In the APAC region we are spreading towards Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Cambodia, Australia and New Zealand where as, in South America towards Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Colombia and Chile.

YMSLI has been able to build a sound foundation and strong position in service line in the last five years and we are working hard to grow from a coding factory to become a consulting company. Being a part of the Yamaha Group, it provides us ample opportunities to whet our skills and bring more domain expertise to our team.

Q) Japanese market differs in culture and language. How do you bridge cross-cultural differences?

We have undertaken various initiatives to bridge the cultural gap between Japan & India. On Job Training (OJT), Joint working Teams in important projects, collaborating in PMO activities, Quality initiatives, Japanese language training classes for employees and setting up an Internal Japanese interpreter’s team which acts as a window for us in all projects.

The language and cultural barrier is gradually reducing with exposure to Japanese culture and experience.