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TCS

TCS: The Indian IT Service Company, One of the Best in the World.

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The beginning of computers and information technology was a time when everybody wanted to get an advantage from it. TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) is one of those companies, which began its journey at the time when the computer had just started to become famous, and after more than 50 years of its inception, TCS has grown as much as the IT industry. From India, it has reached more than 140 countries, where it is helping other companies with their IT problems. TCS is known for its software development work for the banking sector and the development of electronic depositories.

TCS, The Company

TCS  is a multinational IT company, with its headquarter situated in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The company is the subsidiary of the famous Tata Group of India. It provides IT services and consulting to its wide range of customers worldwide. TCS, with its innovative ways of working, has become the second-largest Indian company by market capitalization and is always counted among the topmost IT service companies. The Company runs its operations in over 50 countries through its 280 offices as well as has 147 delivery centers in 21 countries. The company has got its name listed in the Forbes and Fortune lists in different categories multiple times.

TCS
Image Source: allvectorlogo.com

Products and Services

The Company provides its services in 67 different categories in IT itself. The company is into software and application development, consulting, business process outsourcing, payment processing, technology education services, asset leverage solutions, cloud infrastructure, enterprise solutions, etc. The company also includes its in-house developed software products named TCS BaNCS and TCS MasterCraft.

The Foundational Story

On 1st April 1968, the already established Tata Sons started TCS as Tata Computer Systems to enter the computer industry and become a part of the IT revolution. At the very beginning, TCS was providing punched card services to Tata’s other subsidiary company TISCO. By 1975, the company started to serve foreign companies, and it developed its first electronic depository and trading system, SECOM, for a Swiss company.

System X from TCS automated the Johannesburg Stock Exchange for a Canadian company. In 1980, TCS founded Tata Research Development and Design Centre (TRDDC) in Pune, an institution dedicated to the software research and development process. The company also worked on a high complexity project, an end-to-end advanced system to manage customer relationships, for Western Trust and Savings Limited (WTSL). This project provided enough experience to the company for handling much tougher projects. The next year, TCS established India’s first client-dedicated offshore development center.

TCS in 1982 came with its flagship product, the Advanced Data Dictionary (ADDICT), a repository for storing project information to make the users understand the design of an entire project and its processes. In 1984, TCS launched the Falcon (Fast Access Local Computer Network).

In 1987, the company established the IBM mainframe Center of Excellence in Madras and also introduced a software engineering tool named Casepac for IBM Mainframes. CAD also came into existence during the same time, which led TCS to step into the engineering software services.

In 1988, TCS launched multiple software products, including Masterkey suite, PRISM, and Integrated Standard Banking System. TCS bagged a project worth $10 million from the Swiss Security Clearing Corporation (SEGA) to build a real-time domestic and cross-border securities clearing and settlement system.

In the 90s, TCS started to build programs that would ease out the working of various institutions. The company came out with E.X., ‘world’s friendliest business accounting software, a trading platform for the National Stock Exchange and Network Custody System (NCS). Later NCS became one of the most popular TCS products. The company is credited for the fastest implementation of a depository system in the world. The system was the first electronic depository in India and was developed only in five months. TCS is the pioneer of the concept of the software factory. It was the first company to provide the solution for Y2K conversion in the late 90s. 

In 2004, TCS started to trade as a public company. By 2008, the company had become the first Indian IT company to enter the bioinformatics market and was reaching revenues worth US$500 annually. In 2013, TCS partnered with the Indian Post and handled a project worth ₹1100 crore for the latter. As of 2020, TCS has become the world’s most valuable IT company. Currently, over 469,261 employees are working for TCS across the world.

The CEO: Rajesh Gopinathan

Rajesh Gopinathan is serving as the Chief Executive Officer of TCS since February 2017. He completed his graduation in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the Regional Engineering College, Tiruchirappalli, and a post-graduate diploma in Management from IIM Ahmedabad. Gopinathan started his career with Tata Strategic Management Group in 1996, and in 2001, he got transferred to the TCS’s e-business unit in the USA, where he worked till 2013. In 2013, he became the Chief Financial Officer of TCS.

Celestica International Inc.

Celestica International Inc.: Providers of End-to-end Product Life Cycle Solutions

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Some companies are not the mainstream ones, but without them, other mainstream companies may fail. Celestica International is an example of such a company that has been enabling the world’s best brands. The company equips its clients with the simplest solutions to their most challenging problems. It is a Canadian electronics manufacturing services (EMS) company with a huge client base across the world. Celestica provides its clients full-fledged services from the ideation of the product to full-scale production and renders its support even after the launch of the product.

Celestica International Inc.

Celestica International is a Canada-based EMS company. The company came into being as the branch office of IBM in Canada, but later it became an independent company. The company headquarter is located in Toronto, Ontario. The services of Celestica include design and engineering, hardware platform solutions, after-market services, precision machining, manufacturing services, logistics and fulfillment, supply chain services, etc.

Celestica International Inc.
Image Source: tangentia.com

Celestica International serves clients from different categories, i.e., enterprise, communications, consumer, aerospace, defense, industrial, alternative energy as well as healthcare across the globe. As of 2018, the company’s annual revenue was US$ 6.6 billion, and 28000 employees are serving the company worldwide.

History of the Company

The history of Celestica differs from most of the technology companies a bit. In the beginning, the current office of Celestica was the Canada branch of IBM. IBM used to manufacture the metal boxes for their mainframe computers at its Canada branch. Later, in the mid-90s, IBM was transitioning from a hardware manufacturing company to a software development and service company. This led to a spin-off of the Canada branch of IBM, and Celestica was formed in 1994.

Though IBM was still owning Celestica, it was unable to focus on the company entirely. So in 1996, IBM decided to sell Celestica and started to look for potential buyers. IBM held an auction between five companies, and with a bid of $750 million for a 69% share of the company, Onex Corporation acquired Celestica International.

Going into the hands of Onex Corporation, Celestica expanded as an independent company. The company in the very next year of its acquisition, in 1997, acquired the manufacturing unit of International Computers Limited, the Design to Distribution. The same year it went to buy a major share in the manufacturing lines of Hewlett-Packard followed by the acquisition of Ascent Power Technology.

In 1998, the company had its first IPO in the EMS field, where it rose $414 million. The very IPO is known to be one of the largest technology IPOs in Canadian history. The IPO made the company turn a revenue of around $3.2 billion annually. In 2005, Celestica became the first EMS provider to win the prestigious Shingo Prize for Lean Manufacturing award.

Acquisitions and Partnerships

Celestica, starting with International Manufacturing Services (IMS), made around eight acquisitions in 1998. In the year 2000, the company partnered with Motorola for the manufacturing of wireless telecom products. The next year, Celestica had another agreement with Lucent worth up to US$10 billion as an EMS provider. The company also made its largest acquisition in Asia by acquiring the Singapore-based EMS provider Omni Industries Limited. Celestica also announced its Global Design Operation in the same year.

With the acquisition of Manufacturers’ Services Limited (MSL) in 2004, Celestica was able to reach an even more expanded customer base. In 2005, the company acquired the flat-panel display repair services provider Displaytronix, followed by the acquisition of CoreSim, a leader in advanced design analysis and redesign services. In 2008 Celestica partnered with Microsoft to develop the BEE3 platform prototypes. In 2010, the company went on to take over the AlliedPanels and Invec Solutions, followed by the acquisition of Brooks Automation in 2011 and D+H Manufacturing in 2012.

The CEO: Robert A. Mionis

Robert A. Mionis is the president and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Celestica. He was appointed as the CEO of the company in 2015. Before that, he was working as the President and CEO of StandardAero. Mionis started his career at General Electric (GE), followed by holding many powerful roles in companies like AlliedSignal, Axcelis Technologies, and Honeywell. Mionis has also been on the board of various companies working in different fields, including industrial, aerospace, healthcare, and automotive segments.

AutoDesk

AutoDesk: The Company that Rules the 3D Graphics Technology Industry

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The computer started its journey as a calculator, and today, there are unlimited tasks that we can perform using this amazing device. Thanks to the various software development companies that have helped us with our major routine works. From keeping a journal online, people can do business online, everything is now possible with this software. One such software company that has been actively providing software solutions to its diverse client base is AutoDesk. AutoDesk is mainly known for its flagship product AutoCAD, but apart from that, AutoDesk has credited the development of software for multiple industries.

The Foundational Story of AutoDesk

AutoDesk was founded in 1982, and the first product that the company launched was AutoCAD. This revolutionary product was enough to help AutoDesk to grow as a leader in the 3D software development industry but other than that, AutoDesk has also launched various other software for different fields. AutoDesk has a long list of clients, and big names like Tesla and One World Trade Center are some of them. The company serves in the area of manufacturing, architecture, building, construction, media, and entertainment industries.  

AutoDesk
Image Source: worldkings.org

AutoDesk Products

The most famous product from AutoDesk is Computer-aided design (CAD), a software used in drafting technical and engineering drawings. Apart from CAD, the company has launched Autodesk Life Sciences, Autodesk Construction Cloud, Civil 3D, Fabrication CADmep, Maya, 3ds Max, Arnold, Autodesk ImageStudio, AutoDesk Revit, etc. It also has its Autodesk suites, subscription, and web services, including the Autodesk Cloud, Autodesk Labs, and Global Engineering.

AutoDesk deals in different categories, including Platform Solutions and Emerging Business (PSEB), Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC), genetic engineering, construction, and manufacturing, etc. Each category has its different products that are used in diverse fields. The company also offers certification and training programs in Autodesk Certified User and Advanced Certified Professional categories for students.

History of the Company

The history of AutoDesk dates back to 1982 when John Walker, along with twelve programmers, collected US$59,000 to start Autodesk. All the programmers started to work on different software, which they would launch for the designers, and the first product they came up with was InteractCAD (old name for AutoCAD). The software was developed to run on the microcomputers of that time. Michael Riddle wrote the code for InteractCAD, but later, John Walker bought the rights for the software from Riddle for a sum of US$10 million.

AutoCAD was a powerful product that changed the face of designing for all. Eventually, the company started to grow at a very fast pace. In just four years, the company grew from thirteen people to 255 employees. Along with employee strength, the annual profit had also risen to $40 million. In 1985, the company became public, and another version of CAD, the AutoCAD 2.1, came in 1986. The software was open for third-party developers as well, so they could add more functionalities to it. In 1989, the recorded annual revenue of the company was around $100,000,000.

In the 90s, the company started to focus on other industries like architecture, civil engineering, and manufacturing and started to make new software. AutoDesk acquired Softdesk in 1997. By this time, the company has discontinued the development of AutoCAD for DOS, Unix environment, and the Apple Macintosh platform, and the only platform that the company was focusing on was Microsoft Windows. During the same time, AutoDesk brought some non-AutoCAD software, including Revit (from Revit Technologies) and Inventor.

Since its inception, AutoDesk has made multiple acquisitions. Some of its acquired companies include Gentry Systems, Buzzsaw, Revit Technology Corporation, CAiCE Software Corporation, Linius Technologies, MechSoft, NavisWorks Limited, Robobat, BIMWorld, Illuminate Labs, Blue Ridge Numerics, Inc., Firehole Technologies, etc.

 The Founder

John Walker is a well-known programmer who founded AutoDesk, along with twelve other programmers, in 1982. People who worked with him call him one of the most brilliant programmers of all time. He served as the AutoDesk chairman and president for a period of four years. After that, he resigned from his post to work as a programmer in the same company. In 1994, Walker resigned from AutoDesk and moved to Switzerland.

Walker has written a book, The Autodesk File, published in 1989. He is also credited for writing one of the first computer viruses, ANIMAL software, in 1974-75. He also founded Marinchi, a hardware integration manufacturing company.

The Company Today

The Current CEO of AutoDesk is Andrew Anagnost. The company headquarters at San Rafael, California, United States. As of 2020, 10,300 employees are working for the company in its various branches across the globe. The total recorded revenue of the company as of 2020 was US$3.27 billion.

ASM International

ASM International: The Biggest contributors in the Growth of Semiconductor Technology

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The semiconductor chips or we simply call them the ICs, have transformed the world of information technology. The founding of the ICs has opened doors for many who wanted to try their hands on a new career through innovation. ASM is one such name that came into being during the time when the semiconductor industry started to pave its way. And today, the names ASM and semiconductor technology go hand-in-hand. The company started as a sales agent in semiconductor fabrication technology, and now, ASM is known as the pioneer of new semiconductor technologies like Photolithography, Epitaxy, Ion implantation, and Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD).

ASM International

ASM has been functioning since 1968, the time when semiconductor technology was at its beginning too. The company has been working as a manufacturer of semiconductor wafer processing equipment for the fabrication of semiconductor devices.  The working of ASM includes designing, manufacturing, sales, and service of the semiconductor wafers. ASM International shines as one of the leaders in the industry and serves in various fields, including communications, entertainment, energy, transport, and medicine.

ASM International
Image Source: telegraaf.nl

The Origin of the Company

Arthur Del Prado founded AMS International as Advanced Semiconductor Materials in 1964 in Bilthoven, the Netherlands. He founded the company behind his house in a small shed, where he developed one of the first products of the company. In the very beginning, Advanced Semiconductor Materials was a sales office for semiconductor fabrication technology. In 1968, it registered as a private limited company.

In the next ten years, in 1970, ASM started its own designing and manufacturing unit for chemical vapor deposition equipment. With the hard work of Prado, ASM acquired a semiconductor molds manufacturing company Fico Toolings in 1974. The company also established its first international office in Hong Kong in 1975, which is known as ASM Pacific Technology today. In 1976, ASM had another office opened in Phoenix, Arizona.

In May 1981, ASM had its first IPO, and it was listed on Nasdaq. Del Prado believed in innovation and started to invest in new technologies like lithography, ion implantation, epitaxy, and wire bonding. This helped the company to grow at an even faster pace. The company then, in 1988, divested ASML Holding N.V. and ASM Ion Implant and ASM Fico to Berliner Electro Holding in 1993.

Different branches of ASM started to focus on diverse technologies to achieve faster results. The ASM Europe was working on the vertical low-pressure chemical vapor deposition furnaces, ASM Japan focused on plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, and ASM America targetted the single wafer epitaxy.

At the beginning of the 2000s, the company was working on the 300-mm wafer technology and atomic layer deposition and introduced the latter in 2007. ASM was among the top ten global companies in the first Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Spectrum study, 2006. The 45nm node and the Pulsar ALD tool from ASM became the first system to be used in the high-volume manufacturing of devices using a new hafnium-based high-k dielectric material. In 2009, the company headquarters was shifted from Bilthoven to Almere, the Netherlands. Currently, the company is working on device geometries of 10nm and below.

The Founder: Arthur del Prado

Arthur del Prado is the name of the legend who has a great contribution to the field of the semiconductor industry. He was born on 17 November 1931 in Dutch East Indies. During the Second World War, he got separated from his family and was locked in a Japanese camp as a teenager. But fortunately, he met his family again after the war was over.

ASM International Founder
Image Source: asm.com

Del Prado joined the University of Twente and studied chemistry, and later, went to the University of Amsterdam to pursue a degree in economics. He also went for further studies at Harvard Business School in 1954. He came back to the Netherlands in 1958, and in 1964, he founded ASM International. Del Prado served ASM as the Chief Executive Officer until 2008 and as the Chairman until 2016. He passed away in September 2016 at the age of 85.

ASM Today

ASM International is known to be the biggest contributor to the growth of the semiconductor industry. The company is currently having its various branches in 16 different countries, and over 2337 employees are working for it. ASM is the major producer of the products in the Atomic Layer Deposition, Epitaxy, Chemical Vapor Deposition categories. Benjamin Loh is the current CEO of ASM International.

Capgemini

Capgemini: A Big Name in the IT Consulting Services in the Digital World

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The most innovative discovery that the world has witnessed in the past 60-70 years is the discovery of computers and the internet. These two technologies have changed the face of the world and have brought humongous opportunities for people in every nook and corner of the world. The internet has made it easy for people sitting in a backward area to work with a company based miles and miles away from their place.

The scope of the internet and computers is not limited to providing jobs to people, but these have also encouraged the startups to provide their B2C and B2B services in the most innovative ways to make the business even easier. Such a company that has taken full advantage of digital innovation is Capgemini, a renowned name in the world of technology and innovation.

About the Company

Capgemini is a French company having its headquarters based in Paris. Serge Kampf founded Capgemini in 1967 in Paris and now the company has expanded to various foreign countries having multiple offices in each. Capgemini is a technology company with expertise in different services, including consulting, technology, professional, and outsourcing services.

Capgemini
Image Source: capgemini.com

The Foundational Story of Capgemini

Kampf founded Capgemini as SOGETI (Société pour la Gestion de l’Entreprise et le Traitement de l’Information) on 1 october, 1967. In the beginning, it started to work as an enterprise management and data processing company. As SOGETI, Capgemini, in 1974, acquired a New York-based company named Gemini Computer Systems. The next year, the company went on to acquire another technology company, named CAP (Centre d’Analyse et de Programmation), leading to a name change of SOGETI (Due to an international dispute on a similar name as CAP of another company), to Cap Gemini Sogeti.

In the next five years, Cap Gemini Sogeti started its international business by launching its US operations in 1981 and opened 20 new branches in the US only. By this time, the company had employed about 500 people and also made another acquisition of a data conversion company, named DASD Corporation. The company cut the Sogeti from its name and changed it to Cap Gemini. It also redesigned the company logo for every branch in the world. This way, Sogeti became a separate subsidiary of Cap Gemini that solely works as information technology consulting company.

In the year 2000, by acquiring Ernst & Young Consulting, Capgemini entered into the consulting business and started its consulting business as Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. In 2017, the company had another rebranding of its name, and from Cap Gemini, it became Capgemini.

The Founder Serge Kampf

Serge Kampf is one of the leaders who are known for their management and leadership skills and are the role-models for many budding entrepreneurs. Kampf was born on 13 October 1934 in Grenoble, France. He was born to a soldier father. Since Kampf’s father was in the army, he spent his school days at a boarding. After completing his school, Kampf passed the entrance exam of the French Telecom administration. He then obtained a double honors degree in Law and Economics. After completing his education, his first job was for an underground telephone exchange as a Telecom Inspector.

While working for the exchange, Kampf realized that he does not like his work and wanted to try something else. While looking for opportunities, he got to know about the newly emerging technology, which was IT. Kampf became curious about IT and computers and immediately applied for jobs in two companies working in IT, Bull and IBM. Though he got offers from both companies, he went on to join Bull. He started as a commercial engineer, and later, with one after another promotion, he became the regional manager of Bull.

After working for seven years with Bull, Kampf got motivated to start his own business. He wanted to have the freedom of a boss and did not want to serve anyone else than himself. So in 1967, he resigned from Bull and started Sogeti on 1 October 1967, from a two-room office in Grenoble, with a team of six people. The company wasn’t one of its kind, but it was the first French IT services company.

Kampf served Capgemini as its CEO till 2002, and in 2012, he resigned as the Chairman of the company too. He served the Board of Directors as the vice-president till 2016, when he died at the age of 81 in Grenoble.

Capgemini Today

Capgemini is dominating the IT consulting services in the world. It has multiple branches in different countries in the world, and as of 2020, more than 370,000 employees are working for the company across the globe. Currently, Aiman Ezzat is the serving CEO at Capgemini, and Paul Hermelin is the chairman of the Board of the company.

BenevolentAI

BenevolentAI: Bringing Innovation in the Field of Bioscience

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Artificial Intelligence is a wonder that people would have laughed about two decades ago, but today, this technology is attracting almost every other type of field. In the past, futuristic sci-fi movies did give us a glimpse of AI in the form of flying cars and automated homes, etc. But we did not know that this technology will be here so soon, making a mark in every category in the world. After bringing a revolution in the field of technology, automobile, and more, medicine and pharmaceutical companies are also up for investing in AI and machine learning to make their research and drug discovery even better and faster. One such drug discovery startup is BenevolentAI.

BenevolentAI

BenevolentAI is a London-based drug discovery startup, that has adopted Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to speed up medicinal research and reduce the overall cost to half. The company was founded by Ken Mulvany on 13 November 2013, in London with co-founders Michael Brennan and Ivan Griffin. It uses AI technology such as pattern recognition to find a match for existing genetic, metabolic, and clinical information in order to develop new drugs. According to the founder, the drug discovery industry has a vast amount of information, that is impossible to handle by humans alone, so using AI, this information can not only stored but also be used to target different diseases.

Most of the clinical trials are focused on hypotheses for a particular disease, but with the AI technology at BenevolentAI, the existing research is used for finding a new disease to target and for which the existing hypothesis fits the best. This way there is no waste of time in discovering a new compound from scratch, but the drugmakers can jump straight to the clinical trials to find new drug candidates from existing information. The company uses AI combined with the expertise of qualified scientists to make sure that the end result is effective.

Ken Mulvany founded the company with a target to find a cure for ALS and Alzheimer’s using AI, and in 2021, the company will also be starting clinical trials for excessive daytime sleepiness in Parkinson’s disease in the US. The company currently has got 90 people working for it in the UK and US. In September 2016, only after four years of its founding, it raised $1.4 billion, becoming a unicorn. In 2018, the company raised another $115 million and valued at $2 billion. Benevolent AI has also acquired the UK operations of Proximagen for an undisclosed sum.

Idea Behind BenevolentAI

BenevolentAI is a machine intelligence company with an aim to develop drugs for every existing disease in the world with the help of artificial intelligence. The company is focusing on using AI to mine and analyze the already existing biochemical information to develop new drugs for the diseases. According to Jackie Hunter, the Board director at BenevolentAI, every 30 seconds a research paper is published, and 95% of them fail. There is vast information about discovery and research for drugs that are going in vain. It takes about ten years and over $2.5 billion to develop, test, and get ‘the drug’ for a particular disease, but with AI and machine learning the time and the cost of producing a drug can be reduced by 30% to 50%.

BenevolentAI collects the already existing drug research data that was for a particular condition but could not yield the desired results. Though the research might have failed for a certain disease, BenevolentAI uses the same research and clinical trials data to test for other diseases, such that the deep research will not go waste, and the existing information is used to find new drug candidate for other diseases.

The Founder

Ken Mulvany has got more than 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur and investor. Currently, he sits as the Chairman of BenevolentAI. Before Benevolent AI, Mulvany also founded another biotech company named Proximagen and served as the CEO of the company. Proximagen was into developing the drugs for central nervous system disorders.  Mulvany sold Proximagen in 2012 to Upsher-Smith Laboratories for $553million.

BenevolentAI Founder
Image Source: miro.medium.com

Today, Mulvany is a member of various advisory boards of different organizations, including the UK Government on Artificial Intelligence and the Oxford Sciences Innovations advisory boards. Apart from that, he chaired the Trustees of the Cure Parkinson’s Trust and is also a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Artificial Intelligence.