Thriving in a Niche
 KV Jagannath, Managing Director, Choice Solutions, shares his past failures and successes and the future he envisages for the company
By Dhaval Valia
Hyderabad-based Choice Solutions is regarded as one of the leading data center solutions companies in India. Of its FY08 turnover of Rs 71 crore, nearly 45 percent came from providing data center solutions and services. With 11 offices and 450 employees, Choice’s specialization includes not just the IT infrastructure component of the data center, but also the assessment, designing and implementation of power and cooling solutions for the physical infrastructure of the data center.
“Did you know that the biggest reason behind power disruption in organizations is the charging of mobiles by employees?” asks K V Jagannath, MD and CEO of Choice. “Recently, an IT company came to us for a solution to the frequent power disruptions in their office. We recommended that the company disallow the charging of mobile phones at employee workstations, and instead set up charging points just like the ones you find at airports. These charging points were then fed with a separate power line.”
Choice branched into power solutions in the early nineties. “In 1993, I happened to attend a conference organized by a power management software company. At that time there was no concept of uptime and green IT. But I felt that power management solutions would become critical issue in future, and hence decided to focus on it,” recalls Jagannath.
The company’s exposure to the power management solutions space became a boon when the concept of data centers took off in 2003. “By then we had specialized in power and cooling solutions from the electrical engineering perspective,” says Jagannath. “We also had IT infrastructure integration skills, and hence providing data center solutions came naturally to us. This gave us a great head-start over our peers.”
Since 2003, Choice has seen a 49 percent CAGR. It has also ventured into power and cooling audits, storage and network audits, and data center consultancy services.
Jagannath attributes Choice’s success in the data center solutions space to its adaptability. “Some companies in this field have a rigid approach with regard to their customers. They sell customers what they are good at, while we design and execute solutions based on what is best suited to our customers. We have the one of the largest teams of data center-certified professionals in the country.”
Turning points
Choice Solutions came into being through a series of accidents. The first occurred when, after completing his masters in physics and environmental science from IIT-Roorkee in 1986 (then known as the University of Roorkee), Jagannath applied for the post of a junior scientist with a company that specialized in making detonator equipment. During the interview, the head of research and development was impressed with Jagannath’s IT skills and recommended that he join their IT department instead.
He worked as a systems engineer with the company for a year before joining Computer Point, a leading IT company of the time. The decision to start Choice was also unplanned and sudden. Jagannath reminisces, “Within three years, I was promoted to branch manager responsible for entire Hyderabad. In 1991, I approached the owner with a business plan to get into software licensing because I saw a great future in it. He didn’t take it kindly that a branch manager was giving him ideas for growing his business.”
Convinced about the potential of his business idea, Jagannath decided to venture on his own. With a seed capital of Rs 21,000—his provident fund money—he started out in a rented garage-like office in Hyderabad. Thus was born Choice Solutions, in October of 1991, selling software licenses to enterprises. It signed up with ITC Infotech, which was then the sole distributor for Lotus cc: Mail; PCL for WordPerfect; and a partner of Tata Unisys for Microsoft products.
Help also came from a school friend, Ravi Devulapalli, who was then working in the US. “When he came to know about my new enterprise he sent me a sum of Rs 25,000. Ravi today manages our HR and RIMS business in the US,” informs Jagannath. Interestingly, five out of nine top managers at Choice are friends from Jagannath’s school and neighborhood. “I have been fortunate to have friends working with me, all of them of IIT or IIM pedigree. At every juncture when I set out to do something new, I was lucky to have friends who shared my dreams.”
His schoolmates, M J Dwaraknath and Ravi Kumar C, are respectively Executive Director and CTO in the organization. Neighborhood pals Bhanu Prakash heads the finance function while Dr Pavan Gundepudi heads marketing. Brother Srinivas Kallakurchi is President of the company’s US operations.
Ambitious plans
Recently, Choice has put together a three-year plan for future growth. “The goal is to grow five-fold to Rs 400 crore by 2012,. We will require an investment of Rs 100 crore by 2012, which is why we are actively looking for investors. We will pursue organic as well as inorganic growth strategies,” reveals Jagannath.
New areas of operation include setting-up of an NOC to provide RIMS to global clients, launching power auditing solutions for clients ranging from large enterprises to small businesses, and commencing manufacture of electrical accessories under the Green Volt brand.
“All these plans are in an advanced stage of execution,” Jagannath discloses. “Manufacturing of electrical accessories will start in six months; we will make small components that are critical in data centers. Although these components are available locally, the quality of products is less than what is desirable.”
A pet project is to roll out affordable power and cooling auditing services for SMBs. “This is my dream project; to make power audit services which we provide to large enterprises available to SMBs. This will help them save on electricity. We are working with a distributor to provide these services available through channels.”
The company is already providing RIMS services in the US through a sub-contract arrangement. “We have a unique offshoring model in partnership with Agilent Networks, where the NOC is owned by them in the US, but our engineers monitor and manage their RIM customers through a console in Hyderabad. The lower manpower cost in India provides Agilent a cost advantage of almost 30 percent,” reveals Jagannath. “We went in for the present arrangement as it provides us with a great learning experience and yet doesn’t require huge upfront investments. We have seen many companies our size set up an NOC and then not do well. Once we are confident of our capabilities, we will set up our own NOC.” Over the next two years he expects to make $4 million from RIM services.
Choice recently took on board two industry veterans, Ravi Sutrave and Kailash Jayaswal, to respectively head its network auditing and optimization services, and environmental and power audits business. Jagannath explains why: “We are particularly bullish about network audits and optimization. Enterprises are increasingly looking to make their existing networks efficient. We are also expanding our power audit services to include environmental services as I believe such audits will increasingly assume more importance in an enterprise’s IT strategy.”
An admirer of Jack Welch, Jagannath believes that the key to the success of an organization is the quality of its people, and that’s why he is keen to have the best people work for Choice. “Like Welch, I believe that having the smartest people around you and managing them in a way that brings out the best in them is what makes a good manager.” Jagannath takes immense pride in the culture of transparency and honesty at Choice. “From the beginning we emphasized on being transparent and ethical in the way we do business, not just with our customers and vendors but also with our employees.”
Moving on
The man admits to being a workaholic, and spends an average of 16 hours working every day. But come September 2013 and he says he will be a free bird. “For the past 25 years I have been so focused on work that I haven’t had the time to follow my other passions. I have therefore decided to retire by 50, and am currently working on a succession plan. Once I retire, I plan to pursue all those things I have always wanted to do but didn’t have the time for.”
Among those things: photography and writing. “I am planning to write a book titled The Art of Corporate Begging, which will unravel the best of sales profession. My aim is to underline the art of smart selling, particularly technology selling,” informs Jagannath. |