The 10 Best Performing IT Leaders to Watch in 2019

The 10

Best Performing

Leaders

IT

VOL 03 MARCH 2019

ISSUE 07

to Watch in

John Owen CEO, Mastek

John Owen Driving Transformations to Deliver Results

2019

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Managing Editor Devasish Kanojiya Executive Editor Rahul Niraj Art & Design Head Amol Kamble Associate Designer Poonam, Shweta Art & Picture Editor Rahul Kavnekar Co-designer Mayur Koli

Business Development Manager Akansha Garewal Sales Executives Rutuja, Kaustubh, Shraddha, Joan

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From the

Editor

Enabling the Change: IT Leaders at their Best

T

he Information Technology sector has truly revamped the Indian economy and with a plethora of diverse platforms along with countless tech-enabled startups joining the foray, IT continues to a dominant element of the Indian GDP. With new avenues and opportunities, evenly backed up by the infrastructural advancements, the IT segment in India also showcases the acumen of the IT leaders who have played a significant role. Along with the patriarchs who have laid a solid foundation, the young and dynamic leaders have taken the responsibility to be the torch bearers of the next generation. Embracing innovative technologies, exploring infinite possibilities and the zeal to create niche services, these IT leaders are disrupting the standard approaches and building new pathways. Successful IT leaders have come forward in changing the business environments by grabbing every opportunity. Be it a basic fundamental task or exploring the most complex strategies – they are changing it all!

This issue gives an interesting insight into today’s IT leaders who have embarked the journey that promises an even mix of innovation, teamwork, and success. It’s exciting to witness how these leaders are redefining the paradigm of leadership bettering their performance. Another major shift is the change of the outlook from the management that nurtures these budding leaders and offers the required platform.

As Indian IT companies have understood the relevance of new-age leaders and are offering ample fertile ground for grooming the leaders, this substantial change would surely unlock new potentials for tomorrow.

vasish

K. De

Devasish Kanojiya

COVER STORY

Trendsetter Unveiling the 5 Business Trends of 2019

08

John Owen

Driving Transformations to Deliver Results

INTERVIEW WITH INSIGHTS SUCCESS

CXO

16

32

Expert’s Opinion

B2B Mobile eCommerce: Future is here

ComUnus Technologies Expanding the World of Network through Innovative Practices

40

In an exclusive interview with Insights Success, Lokesh Agrawal Founder of Ace Consultancy speaks about his journey and key learnings of life.

ARTICLES

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Redening the Path of Innovation

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e have countless tech giants who have been at the forefront in leading the tech revolution in India. Now as the torch passes to the new generation of IT leaders, we expect a lot more than what has been achieved so far!

To honor and acknowledge the contributions of the IT leaders, we bring you have this special edition - “The 10 Best Performing IT Leaders to Watch in 2019”. In this publication, we have encompassed a few of the exceptional players who have mastered the leadership skills and are the torchbearers in expanding IT-enabled solutions in India.

On the cover story, we have John Owen – CEO, Mastek. As a customer-centric, results-orientated executive with strong leadership, commercial and communication skills, John has held various leadership roles with noted companies.

Continuing this exciting journey, we have included various leaders who have performed exceptionally well and have excelled in the market. Amit Singla – CEO, Next Generation Computers is an IIM-A Alumni and his professional journey is one of the most motivating examples for the budding entrepreneurs. As the Co-founder of Cyber Info Services, Sudhir Srivastava has always remained true to himself and is committed to serving his customers and vendors with genuine services and products of superior quality. Moving ahead we have Azad S Chauhan, Director of TC Infotech. With twenty-eight years of expertize, he is a tech-enthusiast and was into technology and cars from a very young age. Hasan Ali Kanba, CMO – PAZO brings over eight years of acumen in business strategy, planning and execution across various sales and marketing roles. The Director of Konverge Technologies Pvt. Ltd - Kunal Mittal is a proven technology leader with a history of success in aligning Information Technology with business goals and objectives. Sanjeev Verma, Director of AGC Networks Ltd is a veteran in the field of technology having extensive global experience in the ICT domain. Satnam Singh, the Founder of S G Informatics has always believed in striving to simplify the technology for the clients and align it with the business goals.

Also, we have some captivating pieces of articles provided by industry connoisseurs along with our in-house editor who has penned his thoughts on the latest business trends and an exclusive interview that concludes this edition.

COVER STORY

John Owen Driving Transformations to Deliver Results

CEO, Mastek

T

he world right now is caught in the midst of a digital transformation. Business, Governments, citizens everyone is racing ahead and embarking the journey of digital transformation to keep themselves abreast with the technological world. So When John Owen joined Mastek as its CEO in 2016, the first task at his hand was to reposition Mastek from a traditional IT services company into a global leader in enterprise digital transformation. With John at the charge, the strategy involved him succeeding the promotor and then CEO, Sudhakar Ram. It also included moving the global HQ from Mumbai to London to better reflect where it secured the majority of its revenues.

The Big Leap For an Indian listed company, this was a bold move to enable Mastek to respond faster to the dynamic and fluid business requirements that drive the digital agenda. Mastek had historically done a fantastic job engineering enterprise level, mission-critical software but hadn’t grown in the way one would have expected. John saw an organization with everything it needed to grow and ride the digital wave by differentiating itself from the larger legacy IT service providers. His job was to simply put in place the vision and strategy to enable Mastek to fulfill its potential. He recalls, “Mastek started from a fantastic position and having built start-ups previously, it had all the fundamentals in place: cash, capability, people, customers, and an under-served growth market…it just needed to build a flawless execution culture and that was within its control.”

Since John’s appointment, Mastek has enjoyed strong growth with revenues up to 28% over the past 12 months and employee numbers increased by over 30% over the same time period taking the total number of ‘Mastekeers’ to over 2,000 and counting.

Mastek operates out of 11 locations across the UK, US, and India

The Strategic Leader John has earned himself the badge of a transformational international business leader who injects energy, and passion. He is viewed as a customer-centric, results-orientated executive with strong leadership, commercial and communication skills. He leads the growth strategy at Mastek and has over two decades of sales and marketing experience. Prior to joining Mastek, John held senior leadership roles in global blue-chips such as HP, Nortel, and Serco, as well as successful start-ups such as Sycamore Networks. He also owned Owen Partnership Ltd, an independent consultancy helping companies in the B2B and B2G sectors execute growth strategies, protect and expand their major account relationships. He is credited with inspiring a culture of excellence in customer focus, business performance, and continual improvement by building professional teams and client relationships.

Transforming Business One Step at a Time With John at the helm, Mastek has been delivering solutions that help organizations to adapt to the new methodologies and technology. Based on the requirement of the organization, they help organizations in one of three ways; • Recovering troubled or stalled digital transformation projects John shares the example of how Mastek helped a major UK retailer which had been working with a supplier to roll out a large-scale Business Intelligence project to enable its customers to price match at the shop tills without success. He recalls, “We came in, got the project back on track, ultimately delivered it ahead of schedule and ended up delivering a ten minute time saving across nearly 500 stores.”

• Modernizing legacy environments Through legacy modernization team Mastek helped Together, a 40-year-old UK specialist lender. Previous to working with Mastek their brokers had to use obscure, complex product interfaces. John says, “We replaced that with a unified broker portal which has led to a 30% cut in underwriting time and a 150% growth in their loan book. Unsurprisingly, satisfaction with the new portal is running close to 100%.”

• Creating new digital interfaces.

For a prestigious client, Mastek created new digsital interfaces. John shares, “The work we’ve done there

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Since coming to the UK we've delivered some massive and complex projects including building the largest data warehouse in Europe for the UK National Health Service (NHS) provides the client with extensive processing solutions for ensuring quick decision-making through efficient and timely data sharing.”

At the Helm of Changes Working in the capacity of CEO at Mastek has been a fun run for John. He says, “I’ve got a pretty straight forward approach to business, primarily shaped by my Lancastrian upbringing and work ethic. I strongly believe that winning is a habit and winning teams require pride, passion and a strong belief system.” John believes that he has managed to instill some of that into the organization and it’s apparent the company has a renewed confidence, direction, and belief that it can successfully compete against any world-class competitor in the enterprise digital transformation market.

On every metric, John and Mastek have had an incredibly successful year but he considers that one good year’s performance doesn’t make a great company. He says, “Our financial performance is now predictable and accretive; we’ve delivered 8 consecutive quarters of revenue and profit growth. Customer Satisfaction continues to remain high at 92% and employee engagement has increased too as has headcount which has increased by 716 taking us to over 2,000 employees.”

While John is incredibly proud of everything the team has achieved, he is an equally strong believer in the idea of ‘resetting to zero’ at the start of a New Year and new quarter. He stresses on the need to look forward and strive

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to once again earn the respect of loyal customers, and be seen by Mastekeers as their employer of choice and by the shareholders as providing the best returns.

A People’s Place John considers that it is the people who make Mastek a success. As a human capital business, Mastek’s success is fundamentally driven by its ability to attract, develop and retain the key engineering talent it needs to service the increasing demand from its customers. John explains - “In my experience, too many companies and executives spend too much energy focusing on what they haven’t got versus the market leader and not enough time building on the assets the company actually has. In our case, we have a fantastic track record in delivery and this is because we respect, reward and nurture a culture of engineering excellence.” Mastek has a unique philosophy known as ‘Mastek 4.0’ which truly empowers individuals and teams enabling them to focus on delivering the customer’s outcome, whatever it takes.

Mastek 4.0 aims at empowering human assets and creating a self-managed environment rather than working in a hierarchy. John explains, “It’s these assets that enable Mastek teams to work agilely with rapidly changing business requirements from the customer: these are the traits that are the key to success in digital programmes and allow Mastek to successfully compete against traditionally larger players where economies of scale drive the value.”

Mastek now has absolute clarity and discipline in its business model, operating model, where it invests, where it sells and which markets are relevant and which segments it should simply exit.”

Vision 2020 John has a bold, single-minded plan dubbed ‘Vision 2020’ which will see Mastek evolve as the most respected company to serve the enterprise digital transformation needs of its customers. The plan involves a sharp focus on the time to business impact, which requires engineering excellence whereas the traditional IT service market continues to focus driving the cost out of the inputs by using lower cost, less experienced engineers.

Taking care of its human resource will be another key factor. John assures, “We select from the best Universities, drive rigorous assessment processes, invest in developing hard and soft skills, drive learning opportunities through project redeployment from day one; all of which means our

People across Mastek are organized as self-managed teams, rather than in a command and control based hierarchical structure people stay longer, are more experienced and ultimately deliver better business outcomes for our customers.”

However tough the competition, Mastek will not compromise on its business ethics and will continue to work in a way that is progressive, future-compliant and delivers customer delight. John further adds, “I’m clear that Mastek cannot and will not join a cost-based ‘race to the bottom’. If I think about some of our retail customers, they don’t worry about the cost of an individual software engineer; their focus is on ensuring they have a robust web commerce platform launched in time for Black Friday and Cyber Monday when 65% of their annual revenue is earned. Delivering two months late might have been acceptable in the old world but in the digital age it is business critical and that’s where we have the edge.”

John is confident that at every level, Mastek will continue to grow so by 2020 it will be an organization in excess of 10,000 Mastekeers continuing to engineer great digital solutions for its global customers!

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ComUnus Technologies: Expanding the World of Network through Innovative Practices

E

mbracing the state-of-art IT solutions and best-in-class technologies and adopting the best business practices, ComUnus Technologies Pvt Ltd has set the right trajectory of growth and advancement for the future.

In a conversation with the Managing Director – Vishal Sharma, he talks about the core strengths, partnership with CISCO, along with explaining the current trends, and challenges of the healthcare startups in India Kindly brief us about the company – inception and the overall journey to date.

Founded in 2016, the ComUnus Technologies Pvt Ltd is a recognized software solutions and services Organization with more than 37 years of cumulative professional experience and practical engagement. It is formed with a vision of providing state of art IT solutions using best in class and latest technologies and adoption of business standard. ComUnus comes with A Cumulative IT Consultancy Experience of more than 35+ years.

ComUnus is specialized in providing maximum business value for enterprises around the globe.

Currently Serving a Leading NBFC, Three Insurance company and also Building Application’s for couple of 16 |

Fintech and start-up Companies.

ComUnus undertakes custom development projects for specific requirements that cannot be met by packaged software. We provide IT Infrastructure services in underneath platforms like Operating Systems, Middleware, Database, Storage, Network etc. We have wide range of mobility solutions that can give business the true Mobile advantage.

The Managed Services delivery model for Information Technology services has become more and more popular in recent years.

Please tell us something about your Founder/CEO and his/her contribution towards the company and the industry.

Vishal Sharma is the Managing Director of ComUnus. He has studied Bachelor in Engineering with more than 16 years of experience.

His aim is to simplify day-to-day operations and to save time in all processes by designing tools and platforms optimized for quality, time and cost. His strong vision to achieve the successful outcome for the company has helped him to implement various innovative strategies. These unique capabilities of Vishal are the major assets of the company which assists it to increase the turnover as well as customer satisfaction.

He has hands-on experience running a small to mid-size organization and has worked closely with his management team in planning, budgeting, product development, execution, escalation of entire business ecosystem and in decision making activities in the processes like sales & marketing, business development, risk management, & quality compliance for any business to sustain and stand out in the crowd.

Kindly talk about the Network services you offer along with your expertise and capabilities in this domain.

We offer end-to-end network life-cycle management services including planning and design, deployment, integration and testing, services migration, and unified NOC services.

The service includes consulting, network audits and network strategy; engineering services for planning, design, customizations, deployment, integration and testing; service and program management for service fulfillment, service assurance, enhanced customer experience and unified NOC services. Clients that use TNS benefits from the flexible pricing models and the higher customer focus.

We have wide range of experience into Network services, specialized in CISCO platform. We have experience | MARCH 2019

Interview with Insights Success deploying advanced network infrastructure solutions. We are specialized in designing and implementing core voice and data networks utilizing traditional routing and switching technologies as well as advanced security, wireless/mobility, and optical networks: - LAN/WAN - To effectively and securely connect networks using integrated devices capable of delivering voice, video, and data.

- WAN Optimization - To significantly reduce branch office costs while increasing efficiency and productivity.

- Wireless - To give end-users complete freedom and flexibility in the way they interact with your networks.

- Optical - For campus, metro, WAN and multi-service networking as well as business continuity/disaster recovery services and high-availability storage networks.

Having a deep domain knowledge and industry leading expertise what is your viewpoint regarding the present scenario of the Telecom services and solutions industry in India?

Vishal Sharma Managing Director ComUnus Technologies

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India is currently the world’s second-largest telecommunications market with a subscriber base of 1.20 billion and has registered strong growth in the past decade and half. The Indian mobile economy is growing rapidly and will contribute substantially to India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to report prepared by GSM Association (GSMA) in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). App downloads in the country grew approximately 215 per cent between 2015 and 2017.

The mobile industry is expected to create a total economic value of Rs 14 trillion (US$ 217.37 billion) by the year 2020. It would generate around 3 million direct job opportunities and 2 million indirect jobs during this period@. India’s smartphone market grew 14 per cent year-on-year to a total of 124 million shipments in 2017.

India will emerge as a leading player in the virtual world by having 700 million internet users of the 4.7 billion global users by 2025, as per a Microsoft report. Internet economy expected to touch Rs 10 trillion (US$ 155 billion) by 2018, contributing around 5 per cent to the country’s GDP. Being the pioneer of the telecom, telephony solutions what are your distinct services and products.

By offering our in-depth industry knowledge and experience, we can provide the advice and expertise customer will need to make an informed decision. Our telecommunications consultants will take time to understand how customers business works and identifying their needs allowing us to provide a solution that is tailored to their business.

Kindly talk about the journey of your alliance with networking giants – cisco?

We are closely working with CISCO for almost 2 years. We build high performance customized software solutions (Web and Mobile) which can 18 |

help CISCO customers to use CISCO products in a user-friendly way.

What kind of quality values do you incorporate while offering your services to your esteemed clients?

Our main focus is on Performance Management. In terms of networking, performance management is the configuration and measurement of network traffic for the purpose of providing a consistent and predictable level of service. Performance management involves monitoring network activity and analyzing and adjusting network design and configuration in order to improve performance and traffic management.

Performance monitoring involves the continuous collection of data concerning the performance of network elements. Performance monitoring is designed to measure the overall quality of performance, using monitored parameters to detect degradation.

Is there any specific area which you are trying to concentrate in the industry? Or, have you identified any gaps in the industry which you intend to fill in with your services.

As mentioned in earlier point our focus of area is performance. The collected performance records may require additional processing and analysis to evaluate each entity’s performance level. Performance analysis includes the following functions: • Creating recommendations for performance improvement • Evaluating threshold policy • Forecasting network usage • Capacity analysis of the network What is the USP of your business?

Key features and highlights.

Before you can begin to sell your product or service to anyone else, you have to sell yourself on it. This is especially important when your product or service is similar to those around you. Very few businesses are one-of-a-kind. A strong unique selling proposition lets you to stand apart from

competitors and actively focus your energy on creating things that cater to your ideal group of customers. When it comes to developing a unique point of difference for your business, it’s impossible to give one-size-fits-all advice.

That said, there are certainly some best practices that work across marketplaces and that any business owner can apply to make their unique selling proposition worthwhile.

Kindly share us with your Vision and Mission of your organization.

To be a global leader in providing value-driven solutions by leveraging technology to enable our customers to reach their focused business growth.

Empower our clients’ business by being a seamless extension of their IT and support organization.

Consistently achieving these goals by crafting cost-effective, time-saving and value-driven solutions through the concerted convergence of People, Process and Technology.

How do you portray the future of telecom services industry and how do you plan to embrace the change?

The telecom business is quick advancing. Broadcast communications are as of now following bleeding edge improvements, which are making the business more unique and fascinating.

With its extended skyline, there are different opening for the forthcoming applicants. All things considered, it is amid such examples when telecom head hunters scouts might want to enable you to settle on the correct decision, by choosing the best possibility for your firm.

One of the greatest difficulties confronting the telecommunications industry these days is the rising need of capital consumption. The telecom business is as of now one of the main development segments in the worldwide economy.

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Amit Singla CEO

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here are dreams, ambitions and then there is destiny. What we want to achieve might not be our destiny and what destiny holds, no one can be sure.

But when the two unite, a spectacle happens. When Amit Singla took the road to education, everyone around him including parents and relatives dreamt of him following in his father’s footsteps, an IITian and a role model for the clan. But two years into the college, Amit realized that life has different plans and that education is not really his cup of tea. It took courage, lots of convincing and blind trust on inner instincts for him to drop out of college and find his true calling.

The Formative Years Amit started looking out for opportunities once he was sure about quitting college. He saw an advertisement about a Dutch Computer company namely Tulip Computers looking for dealers in Chandigarh and took it up. He then started working slowly and gradually still looking for his passion. As the retail market was getting tougher he got into the enterprise segment and made his mark but with limited

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AMIT SINGLA AN INSPIRATIONAL JOURNEY

success. Finally, he found his calling in the booming education sector which saw mushrooming of many Engineering and PROFESSIONAL Colleges across the length & breadth of the country. His company Next Generation Computers (NEXTGEN) founded in 1995, has evolved into one of the foremost providers of IT Infrastructure, offering a wide portfolio of solutions and services to clients in Education, Government as well as the Corporate Sectors.

About the Company NEXTGEN has been working in the education sector since past 12-13 years and supplying everything from a SMARTCLASSES to a Computer Labs based on Zero clients to a Robotics lab to a Language lab. It has moved from being IT Company to an EDUTECH company and has its footprints in more than 1000 institutions across India.

Its portfolio of products and service includes: • Complete Range of ICT solutions including – Interactive Flat Panels, Integrated Smart-class

| MARCH 2019

presence in everything big and small which means missing out on personal time.

“

MY WORK HAS BECOME MY PASSION AND I DON’T ENJOY ANYTHING MORE THAN MY WORK

”

Solutions, Smart Boards, Projectors, Digital Podiums, Information Kiosks, Visualizer etc.

• Virtual Classrooms & Video Conferencing • Implementation of Servers & Data Centers • Provisioning Commercial Desktops, Laptops & Workstations • Enterprise Networking & Wi-Fi Solutions • Thin clients & Virtualization • Cloud based Solutions • Skill development and training NEXTGEN has been affirmed as the preferred vendor by its several clients including NComputing, Specktron, Intel, Dell, Lenovo, HP, CISCO and Emerson. It has formed partnerships with the Government of India and working as a partner for its skill development programmes. It is also working with some of the biggest educational and corporate enterprises of North India.

Relishing Challenges Amit considers entrepreneurship as his passion. But what’s an entrepreneur’s life without challenges. He says, “It’s been the challenges that always motivated to give my best.

Sometimes I’m very low & feel why I’ve to face so many hardships in life, and then I think I’m the chosen of God so that I get polished and able to do much bigger things in life.” Finances have always been an issue. The unpredictable nature of cash flow makes it difficult to run a business. Another challenge is the necessity of personal

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He finds his strength in his family. His father has been the role model, mentor guide and standing by in all the tough situations of life. His wife has always been adjusting to the dynamic nature of his work. Even his ten-year-old kid understands his pressing schedule when he is not around to play and support. He says, “It’s the sacrifice of the family which has seen me reach such heights. Also, persistence, hard work, positive outlook, and passion made me succeed in my endeavors” Industry Dynamics Amit acknowledges that business today has become tough due to Cloud/ E-Commerce and fierce competition plaguing the industry. With the advent of disruptive technologies, new means need to be harnessed. The hardware racks are moving to international locations, public companies are heavily subsidizing costs of hosting and other similar challenges need immediate attention. But he strives on challenges and has always come out of the tough situation as a winner and stronger than ever before.

Walking the Talk As a seasoned entrepreneur now, he points out the irony of being a college drop-out who now works with more than 500 educational institutions and is an IIM-A Alumni, after getting an EEP Certificate from IIM-A. His life is a lesson for budding entrepreneurs. He advises them to believe in themselves, be driven by the passion to succeed and be ready to embrace failures.

The Road Ahead Looking ahead, Amit admits that business climate is unpredictable and enterprises need to constantly reinvent themselves to keep afloat. Next Gen strives to enhance the users’ everyday experiences with innovative and insightful technology. Its incredible team of system engineers and marketing experts are working tirelessly to bring Next Gen to the forefront of the IT Services world. Looking forward to a future of new challenges and solutions he quotes the famous proverb, “Do not fear failure. Fear that you’ll be the same person this year as the one last year”.

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Azad S Chauhan DIRECTOR

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ndia’s IT industry is developing rapidly day-by-day. It is focusing on digital opportunities as digital data is poised to be a major segment in few years. It is also currently the fastest growing division, growing at over thirty percent annually. As more and more companies are transitioned online and more businesses are conducted via online methods, the current scenario is much positive and tech-enabled services will be even more challenging and exciting than ever. This is where TC Infotech comes in and delivers end-to-end IT solutions with a global reach and international customers. The company utilizes its vast experience across various industries in establishing state-ofthe-art IT infrastructure to help companies grow along with offering them the latest technological developments.

TC Infotech was established with the notion of providing all technological solution for enterprise IT infrastructure. It started as a one-stop solution for the enterprises and today, it delivers exceptional business infrastructure quality and helps clients in adapting to the latest technological developments.

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AZAD S CHAUHAN

INNOVATING COST-EFFECTIVE IT INFRASTRUCTURE SOLUTIONS The firm’s sole mission is to deliver cost-effective IT infrastructure to small and large businesses. It is committed to excellence and value-added services to improve the entire business scenario of the clients. As the company grows, it wants to help other companies to grow with the help of its one-stop technological solution needs. In addition, its vision is to become an innovative and smart IT solution infrastructure provider.

Meet the Business Technophile The current Director of the TC Infotech is Azad S Chauhan. Graduated in BA from Delhi University, he was always a tech-enthusiast and was into technology and cars from a very young age. His early career stage was not financially strong and he worked and capitalized on the technological knowledge he had. He started working from the young age of twenty-one and with twenty-eight years of industry experience, he established TC Infotech in the year 2010. In the beginning, the company was resellers of laptops and then slowly grew and expanded into cabling and then to switching, routing, and wireless solutions.

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“

WE FOCUS ON OUR CUSTOMER’S NEEDS AND PROVIDE TANGIBLE SOLUTIONS WITH MEASURABLE RESULTS

”

During the initial years, the company collaborated with technology giant Cisco.

Stepping into the Client’s Shoes TC Infotech engages in delivering better and faster services to its clients. The firm has involved human touch in every testing of its product. Its expert technicians conduct these testing to the capability and the functionality of the product.

The corporation makes sure that no stones are left unturned and each and every feature of a product is explored before it goes out into client’s hands. By this, the firm delivers peace of mind to the clients, as they know each and everything is tested. In case of any problem, TC Infotech’s teams, which, consist of the expert technician, is ready to help clients.

This acts as the company’s main differentiator and aids it in standing out from the sea of similar companies.

Enterprise-Oriented Services The firm concentrates on how effectively it can deliver the technological needs of the medium to large enterprises. It offers hassle-free services to the clients and delivers them in no time. As everything is shifting to online, there is a dire need of technological products for each company or enterprises that are looking to expand into the technological solutions. TC Infotech comes handy in here and produces a better value for money for the enterprises.

• • • • • •

Triple Play Voice Video and Data Transmission Last Mile Access Offshore Technical Support Facility Management Network Consultancy

According to the company, sometimes it comes across clients who are not much aware or not much knowledgeable enough about such services, which make them gullible. The firm states,“Clients who have no technical knowledge can be manipulated very quickly and easily. That still possesses a gap in the industry. But here at TC Infotech, we first educate the customer or client about all the information and then we deliver tried and tested solutions to the clients”.

Unyielding Fundamentals The striking difference between TC Infotech and other enterprise solution providers is that TC Infotech keeps its priorities right and regularly test each product for its features and functionality to ensure its clients receive the best quality experiences.

The firm collaborates with various tech product providers and offers client an excellent understanding of the installed products. TC Infotech’s clients can have special access to its experienced technical support team, which is ready to help if there is any difficulty or when a problem arises.

There are very few companies, which can design the whole IT network of the entire company. TC Infotech offers better pricing options as it deals in bulk quantity orders. There is zero to none issues with delivery as the firm regularly maintains its product stock.

Forthcoming Solutions The company is very optimistic regarding its future and hopes that, with the current scenario in progress it will just accelerate in the future by leveraging the present conditions. As more and more businesses are growing, especially in the start-up section, most of them try to take the route of online services because of the reach of the internet. TC Infotech is looking forward to helping such companies to get their technology solutions onboard.

The firm’s business-friendly solutions include: • Telecom and Networking solutions

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UNVEILING THE

5

Business Trends 2019

The year 2018 has witnesses skyrocketing discoveries and evolutionary changes that have transformed the business world like never before. These business transformations backed by emerging and existing industry leaders has revolutionized the canvas of diverse sectors be it healthcare, finance, technology, retail, etc.

Let’s take a deeper dive into the business world and unveil the trending picture and analyze what's in store for the year 2019.

Enhanced Business Collaborations The industry players are placing their best foot forward to build partnerships and collaborations and create a prominent niche in their sectors in this year.

Banks are collaborating with fintech companies for boosting the startups and betterment of the underprivileged. Additionally, the financial institutions are surpassing the traditional systems and sharing APIs and data empowering businesses effectively.

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Trendsetter

Personalized Marketing Acknowledging that the business space is getting more customer-centric, the organizations are embracing unique strategies to quench the needs of the clientele in the longer run.

These strategies include: • Influencer Marketing • Customized Campaigns • Blending Online and Offline Marketing

Payment Methods The Payment methods are getting more personalized and simpler through: • P2P services • Use of mobile devices • Voice-assisted retail • Biometric payments

Tech-enabled Revolutions Embracing tech-enabled advancements to t h e c o re , t h e ex i s t i n g a n d b u d d i n g entrepreneurs are seeing and going beyond demographics. Companies are leveraging AI and ML, developing algorithms, and are coming up with advanced analytics solutions and datasets.

Empowering Employees Nowadays, the companies are tweaking their policies to build in flexibility within the work environment. The organizations are providing work from home or (work-from anywhere) facilities to their employees boosting productivity, thereby resulting in cost savings for both employers and employees.

-Rahul Niraj

MARCH 2019 |

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Harbir Ghai MD & Founder

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arbir Ghai, MD and Founder started Spectra Technologies in 2004, it is said that diligence is the mother of good luck, so with his diligence and assiduous hard work, he managed to take the company to reach the heights by being leading independent manufacturer & integrator of specialized thin client and desktop computing solutions, offering the widest range of Virtual Desktop in the industry; innovative software & solutions; that enable the clients to benefit from low cost of ownership. Spectra have worked for specific solutions for the healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, education and financial sectors.

“The operating systems on virtual desktops are designed in such a way that they can be connected on to the private as well as the public cloud. Depending on the multiple protocols offered by the industry, we are operating our own data center by the name of SpectraCloud,” explains Harbir Ghai. With collaborative team work they support customers so that they can connect to various modes, be it public or private. Being an end to end system integrator, Spectra Technologies follows an approach that’s modular in it’s way. “Owing to the modular approach, and we are able to

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HARBIR GHAI LEADERS DO NOT PUSH; THEY PULL

push in other solutions on our products,” says Harbir. All of Spectra’s virtual desktops have enough of variants, software or the operating system customization on to the platform so that it fits into different industry verticals.

With Harbir’s industrious efforts, the company has set the standard in smart client technology, offering customized thin client products and services that deliver a host of benefits like Ease of Use, Increased Security and Reliability, Improved and Centralized Asset Management, Improved Total-Cost-of-Ownership, Reduced Overall Computer-Related Energy Consumption, Smart Green Technology.

Spectra Technologies is a pioneer in Virtual Desktops & Multi Location Computing. Spectra virtual desktops are deployed in every industry or business verticals in the diverse markets over the years & with lots of success stories; transforming the use of Personal Desktops to virtual desktops with affordability in mind.

Spectra products are based on industry-standard technologies but with unique and proprietary features.

| MARCH 2019

line. “We plan on the operating systems of thin client, peripherals and server sizing. This makes us a little different than what the rest of the people have been doing in the market,” points out Harbir.

“

TRANSFORMING THE USE OF PERSONAL DESKTOPS TO VIRTUAL DESKTOPS WITH AFFORDABILITY IN MIND

”

Spectra Virtual Desktop are used with Microsoft Windows & Linux Terminal Services servers. These servers enable the user to run any application that is supported by these servers including productivity tools, database systems, and mainframe connectivity tools.

Computers today are powerful enough and a normal desktop user cannot consume the computing power it can deliver. To leverage on this excess available computing resource, Spectra virtual desktops are the ideal end points for the users, whether they are connected to LAN or the Internet. These resulted in savings in hardware, software licenses, maintenance & running costs. Spectra virtual desktops are used in Education, Manufacturing, Retail, Hospitality, Railways, and Government.

Winning Client’s Confidence is Success to Spectra Spectra technologies takes extra effort required to develop confidence and with intense care implementation is done before deploying solutions. Considering the vital factors like patterns, size, users and requirements of clients, Spectra’s team gives its best shot with customized thin client servers w with an additional 20 percent back up according to company’s requirement which is supplementary factor.

Spectra Technologies formulates applications of virtual desktops which are compatible in different environments through desktop virtualization, terminal service and application virtualization at attractive price points.

Nevertheless, Delhi-based Spectra Technologies has been predominantly deploying thin client computers that inarguably provide a good return in ROI to clients from heterogeneous verticals.

Leaders Deliver Results Spectra has been assessed by RICL and found comply with the requirements of ISO 27001 & ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System for the System Integration, Installation of- Virtual Desktop, Media Player, etc.

In 2014, Spectra was awarded as Company of the Year and titled as Spectra Technologies: Reducing Costs and Enabling Better Application Deliveries through Thin Client Computing.

A Vision with Execution Spectra virtual desktops systems that work as an alternative to Personal Computers, have an optimized and small footprint operating system with a Graphical User Interface having no application installed locally. As it is connected to Windows Terminal services, AppAnywhere, Citrix or UNIX servers, it requires almost zero management and administration for numerous desktops. Following all these qualities, Spectra virtual desktops help enterprises to diminish IT Management costs, virus vulnerabilities, energy costs by as high as 75% and also by increasing centralized security measures. With deploying Spectra Thin client servers, it’s emerging clients Safex Chemicals India Limited is showing exceptional growth with the phenomenal pace of 50 to 60 percent a year. “We have been investing in the virtual desktops, terminal services, in all the scenarios in such a way that Safex’s complete infrastructure had been scaled up on running itself on the virtual desktops or on the remote sessions,” adds.

For instance, if a company has 200 users, Spectra Technologies takes a margin for 250 users keeping in mind for the expansion of a firm in one or two years down the

MARCH 2019 |

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Kunal Mittal DIRECTOR

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ince its inception in April 2013, Konverge Technologies Pvt. Ltd. has come a long way. It is a top-notch service provider in fields such as networking, computing, messaging, and collaboration platforms. With a strategic vantage point, Konverge easily delivers turn-key IT solutions from structured cabling to collaborative markets. The company is headquartered in Gurgaon; and has expanded over the years to some of the prominent and major metro cities of India and has also set up international operations in Australia & Singapore.

The company abides by the methodology, “Customer First and we have been on war foot to make sure our clients have the best of services”. Its business comprises of 72:28 ratio of product v/s services. Konverge partners with the top five technologies OEM’s like Cisco, Checkpoint, Commscope, Netapp, and HP. Today the firm stands strong with overall revenue of INR 155 Cr. A Prudence of Konverge The company aims to enable precise benefits in terms of business prosperity by providing top-notch services and

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KUNAL MITTAL A DYNAMIC INDIVIDUAL LEADING FROM THE FRONT

solutions on a regular basis. It helps with this through industry-oriented solutions and next gen technologies.

Konverge is the lever that any company needs to pull to get unique value-added services. It combines world-class talent within itself; by setting standards at the world stage, all the while steadily improving its service.

Its principled mission is to deliver comprehensive state-of-the-art solutions, global domain expertise, and performance-driven value systems that define its DNA. With such a modernized work culture, Konverge aspires to be the world’s leading next gen business enterprise solutions provider, world over. It serves as the catalyst and amplifier of returns on technology investments.

A Consistent & Creative Leader Konverge’s directorial team is the back-bone of the organization and has grown the organization not only with people, but also aligned them with technology needs in-house. Its Director Kunal Mittal is a proven technology leader with a history of success in aligning Information Technology with business goals and objectives. He has

| MARCH 2019

“

IF YOU CAN THINK IT, WE AT KONVERGE CAN BUILD IT

”

completed his education in Computer Engineering and after working for six years in this field, moved to the next step of forming his own organization along with Rakesh Kumar & Pema Almadi. Kunal is a strategic thinker known for a relentless focus on customer service and quality and the ability to transform and energize IT organizations.

Kunal is a true professional with impeccable integrity and is known for his balance of drive, flexibility, and consistency.

His creative execution, with a successful history of introducing emerging technologies and process improvements, recruiting top talent, and developing strong teams; has taken the company to achieve great heights as a solution provider.

Delivering the Very Best that the Networking Realm has to Offer The company’s most important strength is keeping its clientele requests and needs as a priority always. This strategy has helped it in remaining at the peak of success at all times. Right from automated tool’s for cataloguing the call to 24x7 technical support to its customers, the company makes sure they don’t feel too far from them. The organization makes sure to achieve each SLA committed to its client; this feat is achieved seamlessly by its specialized and highly trained engineers. Konverge has been achieving an overall SLA of ninety-seven percent with its clients, which are highest in the solution industry. Dedicated service & project managers make sure each project is executed with the highest level of precision and success.

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Konverge has been concentrating on data center and cloud services along with security and cyber security services. It has six business units, which makes it possible to give each technology an equal importance. The company offers high fidelity to its clients with sophisticated real-time solutions in the following domains: Cloud, Security, Data Center, Virtualization, Networking, Application Solutions, Client Computing, Server Storage, Wireless Mobility, Contact Center, Messaging & Collaboration, Server Storage, Boardroom/Conference Solutions, Unified Communication/Collaboration, to name a few.

The Bright Way towards Success The company has achieved numerous accolades and the woofing profits & healthy cash flow are more than adequate proof of its growth. Its customers are referring its products/services to their colleagues. Due to its healthy work environment and appreciative nature, Konverge has a low employee turnover.

The organization believes that the staff is the founding stone to a successful nurturing work environment, and focuses on hiring quality staff. Great staff morale, high voltage, and competent planning throughout the company have led it through a successful journey. Powerful staff buy-in on key strategies and initiatives, project management & resource coordination, and strong leadership/staff communication are the core values agreed upon throughout Konverge.

The Company’s culture is generally open to change; and the organization as a whole understands how the company will grow in the future. Konverge is very competent in diagnosing the real problems or obstacles to growth and remains one step ahead of the marketplace and its customers, as their needs change. These qualities have had a rock solid effect on the seamless functioning of the Company.

Recent Trends in the Solution Industry Speaking of the recent trends of the sector, the director asserts, “Solution industry in our business has always been on an evolution stage, and needs change in every 5 years.

Today, we are talking to our clients from on-site and private DC’s to migration on cloud or a hybrid environment.”

“With new industries being set-up in India we have bigger opportunities to grow our business and educate our clients with different and better solution which suits their environment” he adds.

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B2B Mobile eCommerce:

Future is here Saket Singhi, MD Saket Singhi is an entrepreneur who established JVS Group: a Research based Clinical Software Solution company in 2002.

He successfully took JVS Group from a start-up to one of the top 5 Healthcare IT companies in India.He Co-founded Quick eSelling in 2015 with focus on providing cutting-edge Mobile eCommerce solution for B2B & B2C sellers. He has 16 years of expertise to incubate and build teams, resolve business issues quickly and leverage existing investments to develop new business solutions with big results at minimal investment in Healthcare and eCommerce domain.

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| MARCH 2019

Expert’s Opinion

Saket Singhi MD

MARCH 2019 |

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T

oday’s B2B customers are emulating B2C trends and transitioning their buying into online and mobile environments. There is a major shift from traditional activity of exploring print catalogs and talking to sales representatives, to starting the digital process by performing online searches on mobile devices. This is reshaping the B2B buyer journey.

“Worldwide B2B e-commerce will reach $6.7 trillion by 2020 and majority of these transactions will happen on Mobile” Forbes B2B Mobile Commerce: Mobile e-commerce has become part of everyday life and most of the people engaged in B2B industry are already using it for B2C. For B2B businesses, mobile app is a self-service sales channel which offers advantage of connecting with their buyers and solving one of the biggest problem in sales: the decreasing performance and increasing cost of sales representatives.

The new age B2B buyers having decision making powers are around 35 years age. Nearly 75% of B2B buyers prefer buying online instead of interacting with sales reps and mobile commerce sales are growing at double the speed of B2C ecommerce.

Challenges for Mobile Commerce in B2B There are several challenges resulting in slow growth of B2B Mobile e-commerce. From Buyers perspective, B2C like experience in B2B mobile apps with easy checkout process, quick re-ordering and in app tools for communication with seller to negotiate price are must have features. They also wish to have their communications & transaction history available on their fingertips through Apps.

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From Seller’s perspective, keeping price and inventory updated on their e-commerce store is one of the challenge along with the cost of development. An average cost of mobile app development could be anywhere in range of $50K to $300K, several months of development time and additional annual cost for maintenance. There is a very high financial risk for most of the sellers in adopting B2B Mobile e-commerce.

Benefits of Mobile App in B2B: A personalized experience while using the App is one of the biggest benefit of Mobile e-commerce. When buyer lands on home page of the app, they see products which they frequently order along with re-order options. With native features like finger print scans and face recognitions, a mobile app offers quick access to view order status and transaction history in mobile app.

For supplier, Push notifications are one of the most impactful marketing tools available today in the digital world. By sending regular push notifications, sellers can easily engage buyers with new products and offers.

This makes it easy for seller to re-engage buyers and increase sales.

Many wholesalers & distributors are opening multi-location cash-and-carry stores. As B2B buyers are always short of time, by offering inbuilt GPS feature to track nearby pickup location, a B2B mobile app offers the convenience to order-on-go and collect their order in similar way as drive through concept works in B2C. Trying to replicate the Native Mobile App experience on mobile responsive website is a near to impossible task and sellers should not try to fight for it.

are ready to use e-commerce Mobile app platforms, which are offering free native apps to help B2B businesses get started with Mobile e-commerce journey at zero capital investments.

These platforms offer native apps within minutes and are easy to use through backend CRM. They also offer integration with various ERP, POS, Accounting software’s for inventory and price synchronizations.

The way, these new start-ups are making life easier for B2B sellers, most of the non-tech savvy wholesalers and retailers have already started shifting to a mobile-first or mobile only strategy. These sellers are reaping benefits of 24/7 connectivity with their customer through apps while ditching the legacy problems of relying only on sales reps.

Takeaway: B2B mobile commerce brings tremendous opportunity for B2B buyers and sellers. Buyers & sellers are looking for easy way to stay connected. With increasing numbers of people shopping on mobile devices, there is immediate need for B2B sellers to offer same m-commerce experience as buyers are used to on B2C platforms. By opening a new channel of shopping for buyers, most of the manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors can offer value to their customers. Mobile e-commerce is no more a hype, it has already arrived.

B2B companies that want to stay ahead in their business must reshape their sales strategies as having sales reps and a B2B ecommerce site is not enough.

One must have a native B2B ecommerce mobile app to remain competitive.

Technology & Trends: To overcome these challenges, there

| MARCH 2019

Hasan Ali Kanba

Sharjeel Ahmed

CMO

CTO

Zoeb Itarsiwala CEO

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hat is the first thing that would have grabbed the attention of your eyeballs, whenever entering into an office? Piles of files and countless of papers underneath it consuming a majority of the spaces and to add to the woes, maintaining and dragging any info out of them was a complete nightmare! Secondly, operations management is a challenge in every industry.

The success of every business is dependent on the fact that how seamlessly it manages the daily operations without hampering or slowing the pace of work. With thousands of paper-based activities performed across various large conglomerates, SME’s, startups and even government offices, innovations in technology has finally come to the rescue that eliminates paper-work and stores everything on the digital platform!

The story unveiled below illustrates the journey of PAZO, an operations management app and software platform for mobile inspections and maintenance management. With a mission to resolve the age-old operational issues, it plays a significant aspect in streamlining the daily operations.

PAZO offers a transparent solution that empowers the relevant stake holders to have a panoramic view of the daily

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operations – in just a click; every minute detail can be checked. This determined thought, backed by the passionate workforce fuels the company to outperform their own milestones every other day!

The Marketing Wizard As the CMO of PAZO, Hasan Ali Kanba brings in over eight years of acumen in business strategy, planning and execution across various sales and marketing roles.

Belonging to the Dawoodi Bohra community was also a factor he commenced the journey of entrepreneurship.

Hasan started his professional journey with GE and thereafter worked in various start-ups in multiple roles related to Sales & Marketing. With a degree in Electronics followed by MBA, working in startups ignited his aspirations to be an entrepreneur and finally the distant dreams became reality when he joined hands with the other partners to form PAZO. “PAZO is solving a big problem for organizations in giving them the visibility of the daily operations and we are currently on a mission to make operations management a

| MARCH 2019

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MAKING OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT A CLICK AWAY

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click away for the relevant stakeholders. It is this mission which keeps us going. Also we have a wonderful team that is passionate on reaching this goal together which pushes us to perform better and better every day”. –Talking about his motivation towards attaining excellence, Hasan reveals that he is hugely inspired the way PAZO has shaped up and delivering core solutions to users.

The Dynamic Duo Zoeb Itarsiwala - CEO and Sharjeel Ahmed - CTO are the other two co-founders who have collaborated with Hasan Ali and had contributed equally to the success of the company. Before PAZO is their 2nd entrepreneurial venture that they have commenced together.

Zoeb has always been passionate about technology, and therefore had always a huge inclination towards tech-oriented career and jobs. After completing his studies, finally he got the opportunity to step into the world of tech startups. His initial journey with an NFC-based startup assisted him immensely; however it was too ahead of its time. However, the exposure and learning’s proved to be the essential elements in crafting his future objectives. “It gives me very high motivation to see that Pazo is solving core operations pain points. The team is wonderful and talented and looking at their passion for the product is the main reason we are being appreciated by our customers daily” – asserts Zoeb.

MARCH 2019 |

Sharjeel is a technocrat and has previously worked with global MNC’s like Microsoft, Adobe to name a few.

Designing the tech framework, building highly scalable products from the scratch and technology mentoring and guidance are his forte. He always up to accepts challenges and accordingly delivers viable solutions for the same.

The Inception Saga Founded in the year 2016 in Bengaluru, PAZO is operational-excellence software for retail chains and large facilities to manage their daily operations through their mobile phones. Embracing digitalization and erasing the concept of manual paper-based processes, it’s a single platform that assigns, schedules, and even communicates the daily tasks in the most utmost manner. With PAZO one can ensure that the right person is doing the right work from the right place at the right time. Along with a dominant presence within the Indian shores, it is also a registered company in USA. As customers are becoming aware about product availability like this, the acceptance in the market has grown multifold. Developed on the SaaS platform (Software-as-a-service), this innovative software has been implemented by prestigious clientele like Sodexo, Metro Cash & Carry, JLL, TATA, Central, Brand Factory, VR Malls, Bangalore Metro Rail and many more. Used over 40 plus cities with thousands of users spread across countries like India, Sri Lanka, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia etc, this software has made a remarkable impact in the market and continues to lead the path of innovation.

While other players emphasize optimizing operations for either the front line or back-end operations alone, PAZO works with a unique business proposition that collaborates both teams on a single platform as the teams are dependent on each other.

The Path Ahead Having an optimistic view of the future, team PAZO is confident and determined to evolve as a matured player in the coming times. As the team continues to be a technology partner for various industry segments and contribute to their growth story, it has infinite opportunities to stand amongst the global giants in the future.

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Sanjeev Verma CEO

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SANJEEV VERMA

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echnology is a paperless flair that has bought salient modifications in diversified service offerings. The tech-enabled industry is revolutionizing with innovative services and solutions to offer various businesses. One such company with a purpose of accelerating their customers’ business with best-in-class customized solutions is AGC Networks. The company is a global solution integrator representing the world’s best brands in Unified Communications, Data Center & Edge IT, Cyber Security and Digital Transformation & Applications to evolve the customer’s digital landscape. AGC’s ability to mold solutions across every quadrant is strengthened through delivery of seamless customer support services. It is the customer’s trusted go-to technology solution integrator to architect, deploy, manage and secure their IT environment.

AGC Networks is an Essar Enterprise and being a leader in enterprise communications in India, it has significantly spread its wings across the globe in countries like Africa, North America, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, and Middle East. Having a vast presence in many countries, it serves more than 3000 customers around the world. In collaboration with global technology leaders like Avaya, McAfee, Palo Alto, Cisco, HPE, Trend Micro, Juniper, Nutanix, NICE, Verint, Polysom, Genesys, and Mitel among others, the company delivers domain-focused, flexible and customized technology solutions and ensures Return on Technology Investment (ROTI).

A Resourceful CEO A charismatic personality, Sanjeev Verma, is the CEO at

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PURSUING EXCELLENCE

BY OVERCOMING OBSTACLES

AGC Networks, who is a veteran in the field of technology having an extensive global experience in the ICT domain.

He has a highly successful track record in diverse set of management and leadership roles which include the areas of business operations, sales & marketing, consulting, M&A and startup operations universally.

Sanjeev is an adroit leader, who has remarkably contributed in the stability of AGC’s national and international operations. His sheer inputs and principled work ethics have successfully delivered the key drivers of AGC’s international footprint namely organic growth and inorganic acquisitions. He is a visionary with a deep understanding of diverse geographies which is suitably reflective in his ‘glocal’ strategy of Think Global Act Local.

Before joining AGC, Sanjeev has contributed to the progress and establishment of a leading global technology giant in India. During this tenure, he was leading the business developments initiatives and also helped drive multifold growth in sales and profitability. Earlier, he has also held senior management roles in India & overseas and used his entrepreneurial & leadership skills to play an instrumental role in successful startups and running companies.

An Excellent Service Provider AGC Networks caters to the digital as well as the applications domain by layering the same with a spectrum of globally aligned service delivery model. With a clear focus on these areas, the company is in a unique space with customization and solution architecting showcased in a

| MARCH 2019

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ONE OF THE KEY MOTIVATIONS FOR AGCIANS IS TO THRIVE FOR EXCELLENCE OF THEIR CUSTOMER’S DIGITAL LANDSCAPE

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simulated environment in AGC’s Customer Experience Center(CEC) giving a before purchase experience. These are some of the key highlights of the company.

AGC’s business strategy revolves around the concept of triangle of equity that is value creation for customers, employees and stake-holders. This is enabled by the firm commitment to integrity, fairness, accountability, empowerment, collaboration, innovation, continuous improvement and to withstand the market complexities.

AGC’s core strength lies in integrating the customer’s business by accelerating and augmenting it. This leads the company to concentrate on core operations · Going Glocal · Tech Integration · Better Engagements · Business Acceleration · Enhance and Exceed · Orchestration · Quick Response · True Evolution Existing Picture of the Tech-enabled Industry The entire technology landscape is experiencing an adoption of cloud and digital initiatives and disrupting the traditional business model of IT across verticals.

Anticipating the customer’s need to monitor and secure IT landscape at low costs, AGC has been making on-going investments in creating state-of-the-art facilities to provide managed services through the Global Security Operation Center (G-SoC) and Global Network Operations Center (G-NoC). This can give multiple customers a cost arbitrage and keep their organization future ready.

AGC understands the customer’s requirement and works in coordination with leading global OEMs to bring innovative technology solutions delivering a paramount solution set to

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its customers. The company closely integrates the best-of-breed applications and end devices on an open standard enterprise collaboration architecture powered by Software Defined Networks (SDN) that enables seamless connectivity to business applications. With its industry vertical solution architects, AGC Networks has the unique advantage of being able to consult, deliberate, design and deliver architectures and frameworks translating into much better ROI and TCO. A Valuable Customer-Centric Approach AGC’s business philosophy and customer-centric approach are driven by 3 R’s that is Relevance, Relationships, and Results.

Relevance - The Company’s relevance to the customer organization is a direct association of their technology requirements and the ability to deliver. It believes in being relevant to the digital age and cyber workplace. This begins with a deep understanding of the customer’s business by considering their large industry landscape, gaining in-depth knowledge of how they see their business evolving in the future, securing it and aligning the relevant technology from across OEMs. It also implies having relevant skilled resources to implement emerging technologies within an identified framework.

Relationships - A carefully built network of technology partners (global OEMs) and esteemed customers, who define industry benchmarks through their well cultivated and evolved expertise is the backbone of AGC’s solution and service offerings. As a Glocal solution integrator, the company has built deep relationships with our partners and OEMs that leverage to customize solutions thereby helping customers win in the marketplace.

Results - The constantly evolving digital enterprise and the communication space coupled with unique requirements of verticals is the moving focus that AGC is geared to deliver results for. In the last three decades, the company’s efforts are towards delivering objective results which are aligned to the large customer organization but driven by technology.

Fast-Tracking with Time The company’s commitment of servicing existing potential customers is through investments covering new age technologies such as SDN, Data Center & Edge IT, Cyber Security and Digital Transformation including speech analytics, robotic process automation and Omni-channel across verticals, which is beginning to show results. The company will continue to build on the momentum created towards enabling the customers meet their business objectives through AGC’s solution and services portfolio.

AGC is also working on the areas of expertise like Global-Security Operations Center (G-SoC) and Return on Security Investments (ROSI) to achieve future milestones.

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IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH INSIGHTS SUCCESS,

Lokesh Agrawal

FOUNDER OF ACE CONSULTANCY SPEAKS ABOUT HIS JOURNEY AND KEY LEARNINGS OF LIFE. IS: Kindly brief us about yourself, your initial journey since the beginning of your career?

Lokesh Agrawal Founder

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Lokesh: My name is Lokesh Agrawal and I hail from the city of Jabalpur in MP. After my MBA (Finance) degree, in 2001, I started working as an executive in a finance consultancy firm in Mumbai for a year. Post that, I was recruited as a Team Head by a limited company. Here, I handled a team of 10 executives till 2003 end. In 2004, I started a partnership firm that dealt with almost all banks and NBFCs. Towards the end | MARCH 2019

Interview with Insights Success of 2007, we dissolved the partnership firm. I then started ACE Consultancy on 14th February, 2008.

from doing something different, as they looked up to me for inspiration.

IS: What drives you every day to work? Or what is your motivation which pushes you to enhance your performance?

It was my go-getter attitude and support from family that helped me overcome all hurdles, little by little.

Lokesh: In our industry, we come across something new every day. There are always new challenges that we successfully tend to. These become our success stories and case studies.

We believe that our purpose is to make lives better than before. So, to keep ourselves on track and fit it to serve our purpose, we need to keep evolving. We must adhere to new processes, train ourselves and enhance our expertise. This is what drives our team to work every day, pushing us to enhance our performance.

IS: How does your family contribute to your success?

Talk about your family values, the culture which has strongly impacted your professional journey?

Lokesh: My family is my biggest motivation. My wife, Amruta, is also a working professional. She understands the importance of my contribution to my employees and company and supports me wholeheartedly. My very thought of my children, Parth and Ananya, brings a big smile on my face and it makes it easy for me keep going, climbing one ladder after another.

I have inherited the values of integrity, commitment, love and discipline from my parents. These values define my culture and keep me motivated, loyal, joyful and helpful.

IS: Please mention the challenges you have faced in your professional journey and the solutions you have identified to overcome these challenges.

Lokesh: Everyone faces challenges, irrespective of whether it is one’s job or business. I have encountered multiple challenges at the beginning of my career and when I started my partnership firm. Mumbai was alien to me before I started my first job. Everything here was a challenge, from accommodation to food, job search, travel, communication with the locals, traditions and mindset. But because I was the first person from my family to step away from our traditional jewellery business to do something different and on my own, I knew I couldn’t afford to lose to the challenges I faced. I knew that I had to keep going to prove to myself that I had made the right choice. Had I given up, it would have stopped an entire generation in my family MARCH 2019 |

IS: Kindly describe in detail about your company and its unique services and products.

Lokesh: ACE Consultancy is a 11-year-old finance consultancy firm. We are associated with various banks and NBFCs as their service providers. We deal in various debt fund products like Property Loan, Working Capital, Lease Rent Discounting, Debt Consolidation, Project Finance, Structured Finance and Unsecured Finance. Our motto is not to simply arrange the finance for our clients. We are more interested in fulfilling their various requirements by getting them the best possible deals. Our transparency is our biggest USP. IS: Brief us about the industry scenario from your perspective.

Lokesh: I predict that the finance industry will grow many folds in the next three years. Post demonetization and GST, the industry had taken a hit. But now, the foundation for exponential growth has been laid. The challenges of the debt market seem to be falling in place. We have already started witnessing a consistent increase in banking transactions, working population, disposable income, business competition, innovations, new banking licenses and new ventures. This new wave in the finance market along with support of good government policies is acting as a boost.

IS: What would you advise to the budding entrepreneurs?

Lokesh: The true definition of an entrepreneur is to get the things done rather than doing it yourself. An entrepreneur should be able to delegate right and manage the business overall. First, set the goal on paper, define the task, list down what resource is required to get the task done, assign it to your team with strict deadlines and, finally, get going. I would like to leave budding entrepreneurs with this thought…Know what you want, what you are doing and where it will take you.

IS: State us your major achievements and your company’s achievements under your leadership.

Lokesh: We have had many success stories, for which we | 41

were also recognized by a magazine as one of the Top 25 most promising debt consultants in India. Additionally, we have received testimonials from many of our clients, some of which available for your perusal on our website and YouTube channel. However, to give you a few examples: 1. We successfully closed a deal of one billion in 3 months’ time 2. So far, we have served more than 1100 clients, raising over 850 crores in finance 3. Apart from finance figures, we have achieved the trust of innumerable people IS: State your passions, aims, and goals.

Lokesh: Our purpose (or passion) is to make lives better than before.

Our aim is to satisfy people in reality.

Our goal is to constantly create success stories.

IS: How are you foreseeing the future in terms of expansion of your business, the advent of new technologies and increasing players in the market?

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Lokesh: Business dynamics, on the whole, are constantly changing due to newer technologies and increasing competition. If we do not come out of our comfort zones of going about our businesses in the traditional manner, we will be out of the market sooner or later. Change is inevitable! At ACE consultancy, we understand the importance of changing, evolving and upgrading. We have introduced in-house systems to increase our productivity and efficiency, enhance smooth and seamless processes and achieve quick results. Our focus is towards being more customer-centric with the intention of giving them a “wow” experience throughout our long-lasting relationship.

Part B: Quick Questions- (The answer to each bullet point in this section should be in Max 1-5 words) ➢ Major Prominent Clients: Lokesh: Since we deal with the debt market, players from almost every industry is our client. However, the following are some of them… > Agrochemicals > Air Conditioning > Beverages > Brand Management > Builders > Catering > Commodity Brokering > Chemical > Digital Media 42 |

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Satnam Singh FOUNDER

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ith the vision to be the most trusted and respected technology provider, helping customers and businesses for all their technology-related needs, S G Informatics (I) Pvt Ltd has unfurled its wings to win the IT market. Striving to simplify the technology for the clients and align it with the business goal, have become the mission of the brand. Satnam Singh, the founder of S G Informatics clarifies while discussing company’s goal, “As our clients are the technology partners, when their business grows, ours grows automatically. Therefore, we work hand in hand with our clients to support their growth and ours as well.”

The Backdrop of the Initiation S G Informatics (I) Pvt Ltd was incorporated in 1997 as a third-party support provider for IT products. The products and services of the company have been advancing as per the changing market dynamics and the evolving

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SATNAM SINGH SIMPLIFYING IT SOLUTIONS & BETTERING LIFE

technologies. It has already covered PC, Servers and Networking infrastructure soon after its launch. In 2004, when PC became available off the shelf, the company decided to diverse its focus to the enterprise segment. Since then the main focus area has been the enterprise and corporate sector.

Understanding the Ever Changing Market IT services industry is always growing due to its ever-evolving technologies. The company keeps updating the knowledge level to embrace the transition. This has become the best opportunity for the brand as this has offered them to become the first ones to make the latest technologies to their clients.

The OEM associations have been changing as per the demands of the market and assessment and the suitability of new technologies, and thus the company is currently having

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THE BRAND HAS TAKEN AN OATH TO TAKE IT SOLUTIONS TO ITS FUTURISTIC ZONE; TO BE THE BEST IN THE MARKET AND SERVE THE CLIENTS WITH UTMOST PROFICIENCY

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a customer-centric approach, rather than OEM centric services.

While talking about the USP of the company, Satnam indicates to always have a ‘Client Centric Consultative’ approach while architecting a solution. The other factor by which S G Informatics always live up to is bringing the latest technologies to the clients.

The Current Situation and Services to Satiate That The tech enabled IT solution industry is at a very interesting stage right now. Some great technologies are being released every now and then across the world. But there is still a shortage of such solution providers, who can integrate these technologies and put together in a solution to the clients. As India is overflowing with technically skilled manpower, the competition is crucial and to stand out in services and technologies, a brand must be competitive and well knowledged about every aspect of the industry along with the future possibilities.

Every brand must have those focus areas, mastering on which they can make a difference in the competitive market. S G Informatics is being no exception in identifying the focus areas. The company has mastery on Hyper Converged Infrastructure / Converged Infrastructure Solutions, as well as in Virtualization solutions. Apart from that, Business Continuity Solutions, Cloud Solutions and also Enterprise Storage Solutions, are those sections where

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they seriously focus to be the usher to the clients. As a matter of fact, Hyper Converged Infrastructure is relatively new to the market and there is the need for products and system integrators who can sell, and along with that implement solutions.

Going Digital The company also has a digitization division, which provides Digital Asset Management Solutions, digitization services and long term preservation solutions to its clients.

The company proudly completed the project of digitizing the old historical negative photos of all prime minters of India and making a Digital Visual Library for it. The company has been awarded the project for Long Term Preservation (using Microfilming and Microfiche) by Delhi Govt. recently to preserve the land records and other precious historical artifacts of Delhi. With this technology, the artifacts can be preserved for 500 years, which is not possible with traditional IT technologies.

New Feather on the Crown With the successful entering into digitizing, S G Informatics has taken the initiatives of preserving historical Audios, Videos, and Manuscripts at Nehru Memorial Museum & Library. The company is also proving Digital Asset Management Solutions to the big newspapers and media houses for better management of their digital assets.

All these attempts of S G Informatics are just to stay ahead of the time and competitition, and to be creative at the same time in a technical field with a philanthropic standpoint.

Proficient Brain Behind the Establishment A ship always needs a good sailor to thrive through the difficulties and to reach the shore of success. Mr. Satnam Singh has been the same for S G Informatics (I) Pvt Ltd. The company was founded more than over two decades ago, with the dedication of Mr. Singh, who is a hardcore technopreneur (Techie turned Entrepreneur). Technology being his passion, he has a keen eye for the latest technologies and eventually has become his uniqueness as he keeps bringing new products to its clients. His passion for technology has helped the company to create a niche for itself. The company is known as a respected solution provider on cutting-edge technologiesto all the clients from all over the world.

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Sudhir Srivastava FOUNDER

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n a challenging and complex marketplace, the IT sector is emerging with a boon. It is working as per the need of the hour and delivering efficient solutions to resolve technical IT concerns. With the vision to empower the society and country to become an IT enabled powerful environment enters Cyber Info Services- an IT company established in 2003. Initially, working from a limited space, the company focused on delivering customized IT solutions to its customers.

Earlier it was difficult for the company to deal with multiple emerging players and surpass competition to stand amongst all. Gradually, Cyber Info Services spread its wings with its paramount service offerings and prompt response to the customers. The appreciation received by their venerated clients, boosted the company’s confidence to expand its business network and support. Over the years, the company has earned a reputation and successfully positioned itself as one of the best IT System Integrator Company in Delhi and NCR. 46 |

SUDHIR SRIVASTAVA CUSTOMIZING IT SOLUTIONS

The Resourceful Duo Two diligent and leading personalities building new blocks along the way are Ashok Prasad Singh and Sudhir Srivastava, Founders at Cyber Info Services.

As diplomacy is a truly sought after thought in the business sector, Ashok and Sudhir always remained true to their self. They always aimed to serve their customers and vendors with genuine services and products of superior quality. This sincere approach has led the company to conquer new markets by embracing innovative solutions every day. The company’s biggest assets are their customers and vendors, who have helped it, become a reputed brand in the IT sector.

Fostering with Excellent Amenities Right from the beginning, the company has adopted the principle of customizing their IT solutions to the clients in a personalized manner. This states Cyber Info Services has always focused on offering top-notch IT | MARCH 2019

persistently worked and delivered solutions on projects related areas.

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WE BELIEVE ONCE OUR CLIENT IS CONTENT, OUR GOAL IS COMPLETED ONCE OUR CLIENT IS CONTENTED WITH OUR SERVICE

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solutions, which has ended-up in benefitting the customers as well as the company on the go.

Cyber Info Services is a one-stop solution platform delivering utmost and inclusive solutions to cater the requirements of the clients. It has diverse service offering which includes the product and service line, vendor alignment and post sales services with inherent advancements. With a personalized service approach, the company has successfully delivered state-of-thetechnology solution to its customers. It has also started computing its business and transformed into a full fledge IT System Integrator Company.

The core expertise of Cyber Info Services lies in offering complete solution to customer, which includes identifying requirement, suggesting best solution, budgeting, quoting, vendor alignment, implementing solution and also assisting after post solutions to resolve any error situations. One of the key features of Cyber Info Solutions is providing proper escalation matrix to the customers where the management is always in contact with customers and keeps them updated.

Cyber Info Services has a wide-ranging product offering from computing to IT security, IP CCTV Solutions, multi projection display solution, video conferencing solution, building management system solutions and many others.

In addition, the experts of the company has also

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Cherishing Virtues and Folks The company celebrates a healthy and respectful working atmosphere to experience a principle work ethical environment. It believes in treating everyone with respect and worships humanity above all. Any person in their premises, be it client or employee, Cyber Info Services welcomes everyone with a smile. With such a friendly attitude, the company has earned the trust and belief of customers and professionals.

Speaking about their virtues, the founders expressed “Our customer is our oxygen- we are alive till they are associated with us. We try to offer the best satisfaction we can with our services to the customers queries, be it a small service, product or turnkey project.” This concludes that, Cyber Info Services understand that customers are the highest priority for the entity.

The company counts its professional success on the basis of its customer’s successful journey. Cyber Info Services measures its benchmark on- how successful and satisfied the clients are with their service offerings.

Technology – A Momentous Stride Technology is a paperless flair that has brought salient modifications in multiple services and solutions with changing times. Currently as the IT sector is expanding at a rapid pace, there lies a set of new opportunities that can be conquered. The government is incorporating effective measures of connecting more than hundred smart cities and villages to internet broadband through dirt cheap 4G services.

Reinforcing with Time Cyber Info Services believes in embracing the change and keeping pace with recent times. It is also committed toward fulfilling the dream of the Digital India. The company has come a long way over the years, and currently it has joined hands with top vendors like CISCO and Dell to provide best solutions to its customers. This will also keep the customers updated on the upcoming new technology solutions. With changing times, the industry is developing its interest on cloud based and service based solutions, be it Artificial Intelligence or other solutions.

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