PMAM Corporation CEO Pankaj Kumar tells Irene Fernandez that his company's success is thanks to transparency, better tools and enhanced productivity

Mumbai: Pankaj Kumar is the chief executive officer of PMAM Corporation (www.pmam-corp.com), which has over the past few years built up a range of solutions and services from legacy modernisation and maintenance to custom software development and maintenance, and enterprise integration. All these services are delivered both on an onsite and offshore basis through the company's technology centres that provide solutions to customers across continents.

PMAM, the global IT solutions corporation, is among the fastest growing IT companies in the US, with operations in India. The company's software business is focused on specific geographies - USA, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

PMAM's global software customers include the Spar group, Cool Jobs, Ti3, Medsynergy, Datasight, Shiptrax, PDBC, Presage Solutions, the MMC group, Datamatic, Rapidlinc, Interface Rehab, the Thomas Edward group, ETCG Consultants and SoS Solutions. The company executes projects in the Internet, networking, client-server and legacy maintenance and modernisation areas.

PMAM addresses global opportunities in various domains such as process manufacturing, discreet manufacturing, banking, finance, securities, insurance, IT, transportation, logistics and utilities. Its software development centre in Mumbai is equipped with dedicated communication links that allow over 60 software professionals to communicate to their customers and PMAM offices worldwide.

Kumar has over 20 years of experience in business management, management consulting, IT consulting and software project management. Currently based in Dallas, US, Kumar holds responsibility for PMAM's products and services businesses, global marketing operations, and international new business initiatives. He has played a pioneering role in establishing the offshore development centre in India to provide high-end solutions to major corporations all over the world.

Kumar joined Birla Technologies as worldwide CEO in 1997 where he undertook wide-ranging technology consulting and software project management assignments in the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. During his tenure as head of the group from 1997 to 2000, the revenues of the company almost doubled every year and under his able leadership, the company saw rapid growth.

Kumar was also the IT advisor to the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh. Among his other distinctions, he is a member on various boards including Indo-American Chamber of Commerce. Excerpts from an interview:

Can we begin with a quick sketch and update on PMAM?
PMAM is focused on a 100-per cent offshore-oriented strong IT services business model. We cater to the industry verticals such as insurance, telecom, retail and merchandising in various areas like human resources, sales, finance and operations.

How would you classify the services at PMAM?
In the recent times, the revenue growth has been elusive for corporates and therefore cost-containment has been one of the big pushers for a part of selling opportunities. PMAM is focusing on e-business and enterprise applications such as ERP, SCM and CRM. These are the two key areas where IT spending is happening worldwide.

Is your company into call centre business?
Not at all.

What sets PMAM apart from its competitors?
Transparency with which we work for clients, better tools than some of the majors, processes to monitor the productivity of tech specialists by clients on a click of a button… Not only does PMAM promise faster, better and low-cost IT and business solutions, it also provides the tools to clients to measure these matrixes.

What is it in PMAM for companies and new recruits? How do you oversee these departments?
PMAM is differentiated by scientific methods it deploys to attract and recruit the best talents in the industry and achieving higher productivity through the code library it maintains. All these tools are internally developed, keeping in mind the challenges any offshore business model provides. In fact, some of these tools have been bought by our customers to help simplify their business processes.

Can you elaborate on your strategy regarding the running of PMAM from Mumbai?
We give complete freedom, international exposure and responsibilities to our people. Our processes are transparent to clients. Our people enjoy working in the open culture and in turn it helps us to arrest the turnover to the bare minimum.

PMAM's marketing base is in Texas while the workforce is based here in Bombay. So how does the information flow in terms of data and material happen?
We have developed state-of-the-art tools such as the offshore project management system (OPMS), which takes complete care of the online information flow between clients and the project team. It improves the delivery process considerably and gives us an opportunity to stick to the tougher deadlines of highly demanding international customers.

What are the projects that you have handled to date out of Mumbai?
We have handled projects with focused technology areas and also AS 400 to .NET technology in some of the very fast-moving verticals such as finance, insurance and retail.

As for the marketing department, when they sit down with clients, what are the three or four compelling points they would give for them to decide to choose PMAM, considering that the backend office is miles away?
India Inc's offshore mantra is money and a larger workforce. Companies are focused doing IT, delivery methods, high-quality services and solutions, transparent web-based processes, monitoring tools and high ROI Vs low TCO. These are some of the positive points that also help PMAM to clinch the deal in its favour.

What has been the investment in PMAM so far? Turnover… Future…
We have invested in the best possible infrastructure, latest technology and incredible connectivity. Our people growth is more than 10 times and the sales turnover growth is 200 per cent compared to that of last year.

What are you growth plans in India? Will you be also setting a marketing base here?
We plan to grow minimum 100 per cent every year. If the situation demands then we will definitely have a much larger sales force based in India.

(Irene Fernandez can be contacted at irene__f@hotmail.com)