Satyam Infoway looks at organisational recast

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JAN. 4. Satyam Infoway Ltd. is contemplating to commission the services of the well-known global consultancy firm - McKinsey - to undertake a thorough review of the company's growth strategy and suggest a suitable organisational structure accordingly.

The need for external help to take a dispassionate look at the working of Satyam Infoway has become quite imperative now that the company has become highly visible following the conclusion of the biggest acquisition yet by an information technology company in India when it took over a little-known India World Communications Private Ltd. in a cash all deal at the fag end of last year. Since then, Satyam Infoway has been in the public glare with a series of joint ventures with well-known names such as Bank of Madura, ICICI and the RPG Group.

Sources concede that managing the growth is bound to be a daunting task. The consultant will primarily be asked to recommend an organisational structure even while suggesting the right growth strategy for the country's first private sector Internet service provider. Typically, it will examine whether Satyam Infoway should follow an organic path or pursue an aggressive take-over route to grow. Once this issue is addressed, the consultant is expected to prescribe the right structure for the organisation.

McKinsey, it is learnt, will examine the issues in entirety and look at various options. Should the company have a real time structure? Or should it have a fixed one? At what frequency should a review of the structure take place? All these questions are be addressed by the consultant.

Sources, nevertheless, have made it clear that Satyam Infoway's focus will continue to be on five stated areas - corporate connectivity (including B2B), Internet, portals (including B2C), web services and Cyber caffe. The consultant's suggestions or recommendations will conform with the broad business areas of the company.

Satyam Infoway, in the meantime, is set to have a Chief Operating Officer (COO). Once a COO is inducted, Mr. R. Ramaraj, Managing Director, is likely to relieve himself of the daily operational aspects of the company and exclusively focus on strategy planning and clearing policy cobwebs relating to the businesses in which Satyam Infoway operates.

Launches services portal

Satyam Infoway has greeted the millennium with the launch of its virtual market place - www.serwiz.com. The website is bound to open up global markets for Indians in the service industry by offering an instant connection between the service provider and the consumer of services.

What is serwiz.com? It creates a virtual community for services. It brings together providers and users of services on a global scale. This is a portal with complete, end-to -end business process integration - certification, marketing, registration, transaction and settlements.

Some of the services that the portal can offer are remote customer interaction, back office operations, multimedia services, legal services and insurance claims processing.

At a press conference here today, Mr. Ramalinga Raju, chairman, Satyam Computer Services, said the potential was unlimited. A host of small and medium sized businesses and professionals in India could now effectively offer their services to the global market through Satyam's initiative.

While they bring in their skills, the company would assist them with the soft and hard infrastructure and marketing support which gives the service provider valuable time to devote to quality, speed of delivery and price of their services.

Mr. Ramaraj indicated that the demand for IT enabled services could be substantial in the next ten years. The company's vision was to bring dependable , quality service at lower cost, he said.

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