September - 2001 - issue > Cover

Long before the world discovered India as a software paradise, Ramesh Mehta had identified its potential. Hailing from Bangalore, the Indian incarnation of Silicon Valley, Mehta knew that India could “not just provide body shop services, but also develop creative and innovative technology.”

With this aim in mind, Mehta and Wipro embarked on a joint venture called InstaPlan, which Mehta initially operated out of his basement in 1987. The technology behind the product was “outline processing” for project planning and management. The idea was to craft the details of the product in the United States, and have programmers in Bangalore create the final product, which would then be marketed in America.

Accordingly, Mehta went to Bangalore and, with the help of a colleague, interviewed scores of software professionals and handpicked the team that would undergo rigorous training. But Mehta had to convince skeptical VCs that his idea of using India as an offshore resource was not the raving of a mad man.

“Fourteen years ago they had a concept that India was an underdeveloped land of snake charmers and elephants,” he said, laughing.

But even six months after the product was complete, Mehta refrained from mentioning that outline processing was programmed in India.

“Marketing is all perception and I made sure that customers thought the product was all American,” he said. “We had promised a money-back guarantee and only after we sold to 20,000 customers and had very few returns, I made an announcement.”

People were amazed, he reminisced. And soon after, InstaPlan caught media attention. Articles appeared in several publications, including InfoWorld and Computerworld. That sparked Microsoft’s interest, recalled Mehta.

“Microsoft at the time had a product called Microsoft Project, but it did not have the technology we had,” contended Mehta. “It was inflexible and was top-down, instead of bottom-up.”

Microsoft approached InstaPlan’s VCs, but ultimately negotiations failed.

“There was general nervousness and fear of Microsoft,” Mehta said. “Either they come to buy you or they come to imitate your technology.” Ultimately, the latter happened.

According to Mehta, when the acquisition was called off, Microsoft went to India and advertised with local newspapers, intending to hire software professionals. And they included attractive incentive packages: not only would they help the employee with immigration issues, they would take care of the employee’s family as well, said Mehta.

“They recruited from our team at Wipro and we lost some of our top programmers,” Mehta claimed.

Soon after, Microsoft came out with Microsoft Project 3.0. The event did not go unnoticed in technology publications. InfoWorld reported a story entitled, “Microsoft finally comes up with Microsoft Project 3.0 with the ‘outline processing’ technology, pioneered by InstaPlan,” suggesting that Microsoft had copied InstaPlan’s product, Mehta chuckled. Although Mehta was initially upset, he felt that his technology was recognized.
“Imitation is another form of flattery,” he said.

The same VCs who had been reluctant to seal a deal with Microsoft were now looking to slap a lawsuit. But that was not possible. Eventually, InstaPlan was sold to Symantec in 1990.

“At that time we didn’t have sophisticated employee clauses and intellectual property rights in India,” Mehta explained.

Nonetheless, it was a fulfilling experience for Mehta. He had proved his theory that India was on par with the rest of the world in software development and innovative technology.

“Not only has it been financially rewarding, but emotionally satisfying,” he said, with pride.

Mehta is currently running Medebiz that provides software tools, solutions and infrastructure services for supply chain management. Medebiz’s customers include health care group purchasing organizations, integrated delivery networks, health care systems and Internet supply chain solution providers.