The role played by Intellectual Property at boosting bottom-lines of companies worldwide is well known. In India too it is taking on an important role and IP Procure tracks the developments in enterprises that act as a fertile ground for such developments.

The Information Infra-structure companies are coming of age providing complete end to end information solutions. Consequently investing in a dedicated R&D facility gains utmost importance for companies to bring out revolutionary innovations and stay one step ahead in the industry.

EMC Corporation is the world's leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions.

Sarv Saravanan, is the Vice President & Managing Director of EMC India's Centre of Excellence (COE). With over 17 years experience in the IT industry, Sarv currently leads EMC's rapidly growing research and development, global services and business-support operations in India.

Can you talk about EMC's competency as a leader in providing information infrastructure technology and solutions with special reference to the Indian scenario?

EMC pioneered information infrastructure concept. EMC has set a new paradigm in the IT industry with its vision in information infrastructure. Over the past few months EMC has redefined its portfolio and rapidly diversified its business market from being just an information infrastructure company to other areas of expertise in the related field. EMC now focuses on integrating the complete life cycle of data management and provides complete end to end solutions to its customers.

The areas can be broadly classified into 4 categories - Storage, Data Security, Optimization and Leverage. So in addition to providing customers with efficient means to manage their digital information using EMCs revolutionary Data Storage products, EMC also ensures data protection and security using latest RSA security products. Furthermore it is constantly striving to achieve optimization of its products at different levels either by enhancing the features of its current products or re-designing the products to meet customer requirements. It also offers Leverage or Content management for archival of data and information access.

What are the functions of COE as far as EMC's global R&D and innovations are concerned? How does the COE support R&D initiatives of EMC?

We are focusing on new innovations in each of the four areas of information infrastructure by going deeper into technology and filing innovation patents.

Some of the companies, which EMC acquired, are placed in different geographical locations in the US. So the scope for a synergistic interaction amongst these companies, of varied business activities, is limited. The COE in Bangalore has provided EMC with a platform to house the different layers of EMC's activities all under one roof. This in turn enables the independent business units to interact, integrate, synergize and make path breaking innovations.

You joined earlier this year as the VP and MD of EMC Centre of Excellence. Can you tell us something about your new role in heading the EMC COE? What are the big challenges in your new role?

The first big challenge was to make EMC think about India, differently and not consider India as just another place to get a job done. The Indian market offers a huge potential for growth and expansion for EMC. The Indian market has its own unique needs defined by factors like diverse customer base, government policies, and so on. The challenge is to understand the market trend here and capitalize on it.

The second challenge is to identify different business opportunities that would greatly contribute to EMC's overall business agenda and strive constantly to encourage and stimulate its workforce to help EMC realize its vision.

How important is protection of ideas and innovations to your business?

Protection of our ideas and assets is the single most important criterion for EMC. Since EMC COE is in its nascent stages, the prospect of growth in terms of product innovation will gain momentum as the R&D activities scale up. We already have a few patents to our credit. In fact, for every patent filed, the employees are handsomely rewarded. But we believe in having a value system within the organization wherein engineers have their freedom and yet are conscious about the need to protect the company's intellectual property.

What are EMC's business goals for its growth in India?

From an opportunity point of view, EMC will have to invest and continually assess its business model from time to time, by keeping in tune with what is happening in India.

It is vital to understand that the market in India is very different from other countries. So differentiating the market trends in India from its global counterparts is the first step. Then workable options for scalability based on emerging trends will have to be identified. Keeping the Indian market requirements in mind, new models of computing and cost effective solutions will have to be worked out.

What are your thoughts on taking risks with new ideas?

I believe in taking risks only when there is a solid plan and there is a thorough understanding of the current trends. So you can call me a calculative risk taker.  

Gosakan Aravamudan - patent consultant, Ash Tankha - US patent attorney and Chethan Kamath - This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it \n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it "

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