Role Model
Global Aspirations
 Tarun Seth, Director, MicroClinic, aims to transform his company into a global services provider over the next five years
By Trupti Ramball
Delhi-based MicroClinic is regarded as a leading corporate reseller and solutions provider in the country today. However, its road to success has been strewn with many challenges.
Director, Tarun Seth says, “I quit my cushy job to start the company. To top it, I had no business background and no financial backing. Hence, I had to invest all my savings into the new venture.”
For the first 10 years of his professional journey, Seth was employed with large multinationals. His first job after completing his MCom from Delhi University in 1981 was with Xerox India (then called Graphics India). In 1985, he was scouted by Raychem, a fiber optics company. After four years with them, he joined a newly set up IT company called Computer Point. It was while working there that Seth got interested in IT and learned the ropes.
Starting point
“During 1991, Computer Point wasn’t faring as well.
I took it as my cue to venture out. I bought mobile vans and started my company in 1991 with a clear focus on post-sales support and AMC,” says Seth. He christened the company MicroClinic and coined an interesting motto: Life after death within four hours. The company’s van, which looked like an ambulance, would go to customers’ premise and repair their IT equipments.
Initially, MicroClinic attracted a lot of curiosity. “Many were very skeptical, as we were promising a
service turnaround of four hours which was unheard of in those days. Even large companies took four days for post-sales service turnaround,” he said. But after seeing it deliver on its promise, several large companies signed up MicroClinic. “In fact many customers like Schneider, Ministry of Commerce, and China Trust Bank continue to be our customers till date.”
Year 1994 turned out be a big milestone for MicroClinic, when it started marketing Dr Solomon’s antivirus products. This marked the company’s entry into security segment. “We became their north India partner and that added 50 percent to our bottom line,” he says.
Seth regards year 2000 as another important year in the history of MicroClinic when the company evolved into the solutions business by partnering with companies like HP and IBM. “We became their business partner, selling their entire portfolio of products. Keeping our main focus intact, we also became their service partner.”
“We were one of the first HP partners to provide service across 10 cities. In fact, this also became a guiding policy for expanding our vendor partnerships: To only align with vendors who also make us their service partners. This has worked really well for us as just selling products doesn’t give you a hold on the customer, but selling services ties you to him for years. Hence our mantra is what we can’t service, we won’t sell,” he adds.
The company is the service and sales partner for HP, Acer, APC, McAfee and Trend Micro.
Current business
In FY2008-09, despite the onset of recession, MicroClinic grew by more than 50 percent from Rs 81 crore in annual turnover to Rs 124 crore. In the current fiscal, FY2009-10, MicroClinic is expecting to record a turnover of Rs 110 crore. While this means a dip in the revenue growth, Seth proudly says that the company’s bottomline will grow by almost 24 percent.
“FY2008-09 was a great year for us as our government and PSU business grew really well. The primary reason was our partnership with Spanco India. We worked with them on several large e-governance projects,” informs Seth.
Discussing about FY2009-10, Seth states, “Our focus over the last 12 months has been to increase our infrastructure solutions business and foray into automated managed services (AMS), and we decided to go slow on the hardware-led business. The focus on high-end solutions and services has played a big role in boosting our profitability.” Incidentally, MicroClinic’s focus on security and backup solution has meant a 300 percent growth in that business.
In the middle of last year, the company launched an ambitious project to provide AMS on SaaS platform. Using Kaseya’s MSP platform and Amazon’s cloud infrastructure, the company has created a unique SaaS offering for its infrastructure management services under the interesting brand name, 1440 Services. “While many of our peers who have forayed into RIMs or AMS have set up their own NOCs, we decided to take the SaaS route as we felt that it will provide us more scalability in terms of offerings and to address new markets,” he opines.
According to Seth the SaaS approach has worked well as it has made the infrastructure cost much lower and thus allowed the company to offer its AMS at lower price points compared to its peers. “Using Amazon’s cloud platform has allowed us to provide AMS at Rs 120 per PC per month for all modules including software and patch updation, asset management and anti-virus management. In less than a quarter of commercially launching the service, we have bought 18,500 licenses and have already installed 4,200 nodes (assets). Our customers include Carrier Aircon, Naukri.com, Bacardi and Taj Hotels.”
MicroClinic is in the process of taking its SaaS AMS offering to US and launching a sister company called PC Wiser that will offer cloud-based AMS services there. “We have appointed Mike White, a web designing and marketing expert who makes animated films for Hollywood, on our board of directors to help us launch our services in US in the coming quarter. We are creating a new company and a whole new offering under a new brand to cater to both consumers and businesses. Our tagline for US venture is: So simple that even your grandma can use it,” he offers. The target for this fiscal is to connect 50,000 nodes across India and US.
For the new venture, MicroClinic has also got on board California-based venture capitalist Ravi Sajwan—who has previously worked with Intel and Cisco. Additionally, the company is in talks with a former LIC Chairman for the position of Chairman of the new venture.
Beside US, MicroClinic is also entering into a partnership with a telecom service provider in Singapore to provide AMS to the telco’s customers.
The next big plan is to get into providing mobility solutions to businesses as Seth believes that with 3G connectivity and growing number of mobile enterprise applications, mobile phones will soon replace traditional PCs as preferred clients in the next few years.
Core strengths
With a strong focus on service, the core strength of the company is its manpower. Little wonder that out of the current employee strength of 591 at MicroClinic, more than 75 percent are vendor certified. Seth brands his human resource as the best in the industry. “At MicroClinic, we believe in empowering and giving ownership to employees. We assign targets and tell them about the business they should pursue. The product mix, what to sell and what not to sell is completely their call. We haven’t been let down so far.”
In its bid to retain talent and keep employees happy, MicroClinic evaluates salaries every six month. “We couldn’t offer any increment last year due to financial downturn, but our executives make more than any MNC employee as they also earn a percentage of the profit from every sale they make,” he offers.
The company gives its sales and technical employees an option to get certified. “We assess the employee’s area of interest and then sign him up for the training and certification sessions. We pay for their training. However, we sign a contract that if the employee quits before completing a year, then he has to pay back 50 percent of the certification costs.”
According to Seth, MicroClinic’s business thrives on creativity and honesty—and that is what sets them apart. “We don’t believe in doing fulfillment jobs. If we can not add value, then we are not interested. Our team follows a strict policy: Don’t promise what you can’t deliver. We don’t mind if we have to turn down deals.”
The service provider is unconventional in its choice of employees. “We hire executives from advertising and hospitality industry as they bring creativity, ideas and service orientation to the company. It has worked really well for us,” he adds.
In another two years, Seth plans to hand over the baton to the next in line. “At MicroClinic, we have two vice presidents. One manages the north and east, and the other west and south. Both have been with us for a while. Over the next two years, they will take over the day-to-day operations and I will take on the role of an advisor.”
Getting personal
Seth considers former Vice Chairman of Xerox India, Raghunath Murti, as his role model. Several of MicroClinic’s business policies are based on Murti’s business philosophies and ideologies.
Seth says that despite the pressures of IT business what helps him stay balanced and focused is what his dad taught him: Never to give undue importance to money and rather focus on doing good karma.
He regards his wife as his backbone. “Hadn’t it been for her, I wouldn’t have been able to devote myself to my work putting in 16-18 hours every day.” Seth has three children; the eldest one has just completed his engineering and is poised to join the business. “But it’s not going to be handed to him on a platter,” he chuckles. “I had to work hard to achieve success; he will have to prove his mettle too.”
In his free time, Seth heads towards the golf course. “I picked up golf about five years ago. Playing golf can be a great leveler.” Football is his another passion and he admires ex-Chelsea coach José Mourinho.
While signing off he says, “God has been kind to me. I started my career with a salary of Rs 750 at Xerox and look at where I am now. It’s my turn to do something for others. I would like to be available for my family, friends and employees, whenever they need me.” |