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Bharat Kumar

"IT systems need to be taken care of. You cannot ignore them for long. And to do that, you need to start spending again some time. So there is reason for some cheer."

Mr Ross Perot Jr

WHEN you hear the name Ross Perot, and even before you think of EDS Inc or his run for Presidency, Ken Follet's novel "On wings of eagles" comes to mind. It is a story of the Texan billionaire who refused to abandon his two colleagues caught in an Iran jail during a revolution.

Ask Anurag Jain why he decided to sell his company, Vision Healthsource, a healthcare BPO services provider to Perot Systems, and he says, "They impress me with their value systems. Their people are as important to them as mine are to me. The fit was natural."

Ross Perot Jr, son of the man who was at the centre of the above drama, was in town recently. Clearly, he has inherited a sense of adventure, what with his distinction of being the first pilot to go around the world in a helicopter. Perot Jr was as stoic and crisp as would be expected from a president and CEO of the $1.3-billion Perot Systems. Surprisingly, he declined comment on several numbers that would have made for an interesting read. While that left the city media feeling rather let down, his comment on US IT spending and Perot System's India joint venture with HCL Technologies make for interesting reading. Excerpts from the chat:

Was there a reason you did not merge Vision Healthsource with your own healthcare BPO operations?

Only technically are they separate. They complement each other and there is a lot of synergy. There are some processes in which one has the best practices while the other leads in other processes. So there will be a transfer of best practices between these two entities.

As someone who has been in the industry for a while, what is your take on the prevalent opinion that the recovery in IT spending is eternally six months away. In essence, we may never go back to the heady days of the '90s.

I am an optimist. And since recently, I have reasons to be pleased. It's almost, say, four years since any significant spending in IT has taken place, after the Y2K, that is. IT systems need to be taken care of. You cannot ignore them for long. And, to do that, you need to start spending again some time. So there is reason for some cheer.

How is your relationship with HCL Technologies in the 50:50 joint venture (JV) HCL Perot Systems? We have seen recent media reports that say that HCL would be buying you out.

We are very pleased with the JV. It has been doing well. I visit the India centres once in a while. Each of its parents wants to own it wholly at one point in time or another. One day, Shiv (Nadar, Chairman, President and CEO of HCL Technologies) wants to buy us out. On another, we want to buy him out. It goes back and forth and there is no decision on that yet. But the company is doing well.

Your presence in India is through HCL and now through Vision. Do you intend to set up shop on your own here?

Our presence through these two entities is satisfactory. We would like to set up base independently, but there is no time frame for that.

What is your take on India as a centre for software development?

Clearly, the quality of your people is superior in technology. The reason for our company's active interest in India is not so much the cost of labour as the quality of people here.

bharatk@thehindu.co.in

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