The business forecast is Cloudy,” says Jan Baan, chairman and chief executive officer of Cordys Nederland BV, a global provider of software for business process innovation and enterprise cloud orchestration.
Baan is referring to cloud computing which, he feels, is at least 20 times cheaper than other operating models. “This is a revolutionary change,” Baan, considered as a visionary in the world of enterprise software, tells Business Standard.
According to Baan, Cordys business operations platform is cloud deployable to save time and money, and make better use of existing IT infrastructure.
“You can now do business without Bill Gates (Microsoft) or IBMs’ Lotus. The monopoly position is broken,” he says when asked about the industry trends in enterprise software market.
Cordys, which has 70 percent of its workforce based in India and does product development from Hyderabad and Coimbatore, is expecting to post a revenue of 40 million Euros ( about Rs 272 crore) in the current year.
“Our revenues are doubling every year,” Baan says adding that so far 250 million Euros (Rs 1,700 crore) have been invested in Cordys. The company currently has 600 employees with offices spread over the US, Europe, China and India.
Baan now has plans to approach the Andhra Pradesh government for cloud deployment. “The government could be a very good example. It can afford taking risk and set an example for companies,” he feels.
The founder of Cordys is unperturbed about more and more companies entering the area of cloud computing. “We see ourself leading in Cloud even in the future,” he says adding that Cordys platform at present is the only fully web-based and Cloud-enabled business process management solution in the market.
Baan’s association with India dates back to 1987. He also had the foresight to recognise Hyderabad’s potential in software development way back in 1995 and invested in creating one of the first private IT parks here.
About his future plans, the serial entrepreneur says he would continue to do what he is doing. “ I have the luxury to have my second life. I do things now more with wisdom, I like to contribute to life.”
Prior to the establishment of Cordys, Baan founded Baan Company in 1978 which grew to become one of the top 10 software product companies. In 2000, Baan Company was sold for $700 million to Invensys, a UK-based automation, controls and process solutions group.
