The Rs 268-crore closely-held company has a paid up capital of Rs 20 crore and is promoted by chairman and managing director, RD Grover and directors, VK Prasad and S Ramadorai.

According to CMS chairman and managing director, Ramesh D Grover, the company is yet to decide on the fund raising route although the public issue is high on the agenda. CMS has two group companies, Systime Computer Systems, which was acquired in 1984, and CMS Institute, the education arm. Grover, however, refused to comment on whether the company would dilute its stake in any of the group companies.

Says Grover, "Once our plans to increase development team and set up overseas ventures is finalised, we will need more funds." CMS was started as a computer maintenance company for IBM mainframes soon the American giant was forced to leave in the late 70s. IBM was not allowed to set up its fully owned subsidiary, which eventually forced the world's biggest computer company to quit India. Since there were a number of government and private sector companies using the mainframes, CMS decided to cash in on this opportunity. It also offers migration to PC environment.

The company, however, has a strong brand equity in traffic signal systems. It has nearly 400 indigenously designed controllers installed in the country.

According to CMS chairman and managing director, Ramesh D Grover, CMS today supplies traffic lights and components to Hong Kong, Malaysia and Ireland. It is implementing advanced traffic systems in Bangalore, which will be powered by solar cells batteries and anohter advanced verion in Delhi. The company faces competition from Keltron, a Kerala government owned company in this area.

The company is an implementing partner for JD Edwards' enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions and has 30 live sites at the moment. On the research and development, Grover said that the company invests on average of three per cent of the turnover in these facilities. The company also has a presence in printing solutions.

Other plans include increasing its smart card business through its tie-up with Data Card of US. "We are providing smart cards to banks and other institutions. Demand will go up once the RBI clears guidelines on the use of cards for trading on the Internet," Grover said.

It is also implementing a video conferencing project for Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) using PictureTel equipment. CMS is a partner for StorageTek's range of storage solutions.