—Dr. S. Dharmavasan, Managing Director, KingslakeKingslake
software solutions for
several domains including
company, in India for the
long haul, plans to
introduce cutting edge
tools, Dr. S. Dharmavasan
tells Lalitha Rao
.Online collaboration tools help
to achieve project efficiency,
faster gestation and lower costs.
With the thrust on infrastructure
do you see better prospects
for your company's services?
There is a tremendous pressure on
the industry to deliver projects
faster. This means optimising the
whole process from concept to
delivery. The traditional methods
of sequential processes are no
longer adequate and the industry
needs to embrace some of the
principles that have been developed
in other engineering disciplines,
such as concurrent engineering.
Also, new types of contracts
and partnerships help
towards more efficient use of
resources. This means that the
same information is used by many
parties during the lifecycle of a
project in different ways.
Therefore, integrity of information
is critical. Can you imagine
trying to manage this process
manually? Therefore, online collaboration
tools are essential.
These need to be built on common
data models so that different
disciplines such as design
engineers, civil engineering
contractors, electrical works,
quantity surveyors, accountants,
and project managers can
look at the same information in
ways relevant to their tasks.
We are introducing really cutting
edge tools to the Indian market
so that the industry can benefit
from these advanced tools immediately.
We are doing this because
of the conversations we have had
with the major players in this
industry where they have voiced
their needs. So, yes, we see excellent
prospects for our solutions.
Is India yet to embrace online
collaboration tools? Which are
the leading countries worldwide
to this effect?
The infrastructure industry is a
conservative one for very good
reason. You cannot have a bridge
falling down and killing people by
trying out software that is not tried
and tested. The need for online
collaboration tools become important
when the complexity of the
infrastructure projects increase
due to technically complex projects
or complexity due to the number
India is certainly at the stage
where online collaboration tools
will benefit the industry.
Certainly, in the US, Europe and
Japan it would be almost impossible
to do a project without some
form of online collaboration.
However, the next stage is to build
data models that can be used during
the entire lifecycle of not only
the project but the lifecycle of the
object being constructed.
We are currently working with
VanMeijel, a leading developer of
software for the infrastructure
industry, on their next generation
tools for online collaboration
called TICON. We will be making
these tools available to the Indian
industry next year.
What is your forte in the Indian
Currently, we are working with
the Indian infrastructure industry
to solve their problems of estimation.
This phase is often overlooked
and slight errors in estimation
can lead to major losses or
projects not being done. Currently
much of estimations are based on
spreadsheets with much manual
work. We are looking at streamlining
this process and making sure
that the information from the estimate
can then flow into the other
process such as project planning,
procurement etc. This approach is
working well and we are making
good headway here.
Which projects in the Indian construction
sector is Kingslake currently
In construction, we are focused
purely on the infrastructure sector.
This means anything horizontal
such as roads, bridges, railways
etc. Therefore, we see significant
opportunities for our solutions
and services with the mid to
large infrastructure contractors.
Most of these companies have
grown significantly in the last
few years and are in the process
of introducing systems to make
them much more competitive.
This drive to be world class combined
with the increase in infrastructure
projects in India will
drive our business.
Are private sector project developers
more inclined to adopt
online collaboration tools?
In Europe, for example, a number
of infrastructure projects are of a
PPP nature. With this in mind,
government agencies actively
encourage online collaboration
tools. In fact, they have in certain
cases pushed the industry to
adopt better tools. This obviously
results in better quality projects.
India needs to spend over $1 trillion
on infrastructure. Is the time
right for Indian companies to
seriously consider online collaboration
We would say that without these
tools companies will not be able to
scale up to take up the challenge of
taking on the increased workload.
Let's not forget that these online
collaboration tools essentially
leverage the skills and experience
of the people in the industry. In
order to increase the productivity
of this team online collaboration
tools are essential. In fact, the
industry faces a skills shortage
and one way of overcoming this is
to use the tools to leverage the
expertise of experienced staff.
Which is Kingslake's most complex,
albeit satisfying, project?
It is hard to come up with one
project. Every project has its
challenges. We have been in this
business since 1990 where some
of our earlier projects were on
offshore oil and gas platforms in
the North Sea. We worked on
looking at making these platforms
safer whilst reducing
operating costs by looking at different
More recently, we have
focused on the manufacturing
sector where complex logistics
plays a major part in the success
of organisations. In the medium term, which countries
do you feel will contribute to
Kingslake's global growth? How
important is India?
In the medium term, we expect
India to contribute significantly
to Kingslake's global growth. We
believe that the growth of the
Indian economy will provide significant
opportunities to companies
that are committed to working
in India. We are committed to
India and are here for the long
haul. Currently, 20 per cent of
our revenues are from India but
this is growing significantly.
Do you have plans to diversify
into other areas and expand your
We have a significant footprint in
manufacturing and infrastructure.
We are also diversifying into lifesciences/
healthcare as we see this
as an important area, especially in
Asia. Currently, we are working on
a couple of important clinical trials
in India and a major hospital
group in Malaysia to make their
operations more efficient.