Role Model
IT in God’s Own Country
 In mid-90s, a true-blue Malayalee, Benley Noronha, Managing Director, Nortech Group, decided to work with his two loves, Kerala and IT. And the result—a solution provider with Rs 58.2 crore turnover—is there for every one to see
CRN Network
When quizzed about what inspired him to become an entrepreneur, MD of Nortech Group, Benley Noronha, chuckles, “Setting up something in God’s own country, nothing can go wrong there!”
Curently, the entrepreneur oversees the operations of several companies under the Nortech Group like Nortech Infonet, Compumobiles IT Solutions, Nimbient Systems, Prominare Quantity Surveying Solutions and Indigo Aqua Farms.
In the beginning
After his bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from M Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology, Noronha started his career in IT at a time when the industry was a fraction of what it is today. A few short stints later, the itch to get into the thick of things resurfaced. “It was the beginning of the IT revolution, an exciting time to be in the industry. I wanted to set up an IT company in Kochi. Lucky for me, my brother-in-law Dunston too shared the same vision,” he reminisces.
In mid 1996, Noronha along with his brother-in-law, Dunston Noronha (Director, Business Finance) founded Nortech Infonet, albeit on a very small scale with limited resources and infrastructure. Soon enough, close friends Jerry T Karivelithara (Director, Enterprise Solutions Group), Antony Linus (Director, Sales) and Deepak PR (Director, Customer Support) joined the brothers-in-law. Thus began Nortech Infonet’s journey as a corporate reseller.
In the beginning, the times were tough and the market highly reticent. “We literally had to lug Compaq boxes from Bengaluru to Kochi and go from company to company, pushing for meeting with CEOs, till we got our first order,” he says.
But the turning point came in 1999 when the team began working with a metro-based SI, MicroLand. It awakened them to the potential of the untapped market in tier-1 and teir-2 cities.
In 2000, Noronha decided to increase focus on solutions and services. It became one of the first companies to bring enterprise networking and systems integration services to the market. It also branched out to newer geographies and set up presence in Chennai, Bengaluru, Coimbatore and Indore markets.
The company got its big break when it gained access into education segment and bagged several customers including IIM Indore and Basaveshwar Engineering College in Karnataka.
In 2004, the company added document management solutions and became the partner for ERP and CRM solutions from 3i Infotech.
“If you want your business to deliver, you need to invest. We realized that and emphasized on training and certification in emerging technologies like data storage, data security, converged networks, IP telephony and wireless networking,” he says.
In 2006, Nortech invested in a technology consulting company Prominare Quantity Surveying Solutions.
Current business
Today, Nortech Infonet boasts of several reputed clients including ABB, BPCL Kochi Refinery, Daimler Chrysler, Samsung, Allianz Cornhill, Catholic Syrian Bank and Asianet Satellite Communications. Its key vendors include Cisco, HP, Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, Fortinet and SAP.
In FY2009-10, the company posted a turnover of Rs 58.2 crore, a growth of 13 percent over the FY2008-09 topline of Rs 51.7 crore. The company attributed the growth to its focus on virtualization, storage consolidation, IT security and specialization in ERP deployment.
“World over, IT businesses were badly hit during the downturn. We realized the effect sooner as we barely registered 5 percent growth in FY2008-09 over previous fiscal’s Rs 49.2 crore. Our shift towards SAP sales and implementation, and SaaS helped a lot,” Noronha explains.
During the last fiscal, Nortech Infonet’s solutions business contributed 30 percent to the topline and services 25 percent. Corporate reselling led the pack contributing 35 percent, while remaining was put in by retail.
Noronha ascribes his company’s growth over the last few years to focus on understanding the pulse of its customers’ businesses. The company has segregated its teams into Networking Solutions Group (NSG) and a research department Technology Solutions Group (TSG).
The TSG team tries to understand both customer requirements and new technologies. The research results are presented to the board for scrutiny that jointly takes a decision on which technologies to invest in. “Our efforts to segment the market vertical-wise, study the nature and behavior of each vertical, and provide customized solutions according to requirements and criticality have aided in profitability,” he says.
Nortech Infonet also utilizes its internally developed CABS (consult, architect, build and support) methodology to package solution, develop the invitation to tender, evaluate criteria and manage the evaluation and selection process on behalf of the client.
Last fiscal, Nortech Infonet bagged several high-value projects involving end-to-end network integration for Arbitron Technology Services (India), ABB, Allegis India, and Mercedes Benz. Repeat business from long-term customers such as Asianet, Catholic Syrian Bank, Malayala Manorama and Federal Bank also helped its topline growth.
Noronha claims that three new dedicated HP authorized service centers—making the total count of five—has helped in improving the bottomline.
People and processes
Currently, team Nortech Infonet boasts of 105 vendor certified employees out of the total head count of over 200. “We continuously evaluate our employees’ performance, offer regular in-house training on technical and soft skills, and encourage participation in certification programs from our lead vendors like HP, Cisco, Avaya, AMP, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle and Symantec,” adds Noronha.
But with so much of focus on employee training comes another problem, that of retention. “We do everything in our power to retain the talent identified. Recently, five of our top-performing employees were inducted on to the board,” offers Noronha.
To tide over the downturn, the company curtailed overheads by optimizing the use of resources for each strategic business unit (SBU). It also streamlined its entire sales and marketing plans and entrusted the different line of businesses to different senior executives.
Nortech Infonet implemented SAP for both CRM and ERP to increase overall productivity. “The idea was strategic not just to the productivity, but for the company’s plans for being a premier SAP implementation partner.”
In order to manage large orders without delay, Nortech Infonet, last year, started building up an inventory of spares. The company also increased focus on collections and that has helped to reduce banking charges, adding to the profit growth. “We are choosy about the orders we are take up. We have also been urging our customers to shift to the Opex model,” he adds.
The ISO9001:2000 certified company is also getting ISO27000 certification, and is planning to enter the security audit business.
Future outlook
The company expects to close the current fiscal at Rs 70 crore, a growth of 20 percent over FY2009-10. It has set an aggressive target of achieving Rs 100 crore in topline within the next couple of years.
The company plans to add Business Intelligence (BI) products, software solutions for retail/POS, jewelry, tea industry and healthcare, and SCM implementation and support services to its portfolio. It recently added software service smart+connected space for project monitoring and management, quantity surveying, variance analysis, MEP and BIM design using a SaaS delivery model along with Cisco UC tools to its burgeoning services portfolio.
Nortech Infonet is an authorized partner of Kaseya’s RIM services. Looking at the future prospects of RIMS, the company recently rolled out its automated managed services, with an investment in a Network Operations Center (NOC) in Kochi. It plans to manage about 2,000 nodes by end of 2010.
The company is keen to expand its geographic footprint to Middle East especially in KSA, UAE and Kuwait.
Getting personal
Immensely proud of his roots in Alleppy, Noronha is committed to social causes and engages in several upliftment drives. As the current President of the Rotary Club of Cochin City, he is on the board of an orphanage for girl children at Kochi.
An automobile enthusiast, his latest hobby is ornamental fish breeding—which he has already turned into a commercial venture, Indigo Aqua Farms. The exotic ornamental fish breeds are now being exported to Europe.
He credits his better half Ann, a practicing dentist, as his support system and motivation behind all his endeavors. “My wife and sons, Bradley and Joshua, keep me balanced. At the end of the day, they are the reason why I push myself so hard. I want them to be proud of me.”
Noronha firmly believes that success comes to the vigilant. “To be successful, you should ensure that learning never stops. I keep myself updated on new developments, even if it means taking up management and IT courses and putting my nose in the books at 45.” |