MUMBAI, NOV 18: The $ 5 billion US-based Computer Associates (CA) has signed a deal with an Indian company which could potentially be its fourth joint venture partner. The deal signed with Datamatics Ltd, a top software export house, is for new delivering business applications for CA clients worldwide.Speaking to The Indian Express CA Global Professional Services (GPS) executive vice-president Christopher Wagner indicated that partnership could be upgraded to an joint venture with equity participation soon. "We are in the courtship period now," he said about the present model which is driven by business opportunities. This in effect means Datamatics will be part of the CA's enterprise delivery centre (EDC) network catering to client applications based on its products like Jasmine and Unicentre TNG.The partnership is significant because it is the first with CA's newly constituted GPS division. The division was formed in 1998 and marked CA's foray into services. Until then CA was primarily a productcompany, and services and applications were the preserve of value-added resellers.GPS did business of $ 500 million or 10 per cent of CA's total business in the first year. The target for the second year has been pegged at 30 per cent of its total business - a substantial figure considering CA is looking at a revenue of $ 7.4 billion in the current fiscal.The two other partnerships CA entered into this week were with the Escorts group for health and telecom related software, and with Pentafour for enhancements to its accounting product AccPak. CA president and COO Sanjay Kumar said the company had majority stake in both ventures amounting to a little over 50 per cent, at an informal discussion here. CA already has 50:50 joint venture with The Chatterjee Group, an affiliate of Soros Fund Management.Datamatics group chairman Lalit Kanodia said 97 per cent of its revenues were from offshore software development and the model was well-suited to serve CA clients worldwide. However, the group's overseasoffices in 15 countries would also interact with CA offices, he added. The offshore development centre for CA would start off with around 50 professionals and be tripled by the end of the year.
