Best System Integrator - North
Progressive Infotech, New Delhi
Progressive Infotech recorded a turnover of Rs 158 crore in FY 2007-08, posting a 40 percent growth over FY 2006-07 topline of Rs 110 crore.
With nearly 80 percent of the revenue from solutions and 20 percent from services, Progressive attributed the growth to several new business development initiatives undertaken by the company during the last fiscal.
Progressive clinched several turnkey projects each ranging between Rs 2-5 crore. One such large deal involved setting up an integrated infrastructure management facility for a leading FMCG company. The solution included both remote infrastructure manageme nt and an onsite management solution.
Another project involved setting up of Linux-based high-availability virtualized solutions for a large PSU.
In addition, Progressive designed and deployed SAP
| Performance Highlights | - Launched RIM services by setting up a NOC
- Achieved ISO 20000 certification for IT
infrastructure services management and ISO 27001 certification for IT information security management
- Piloted RIM projects in the US
- Plans to build managed services portfolio including SaaS
| | Company Snapshot | Company: Progressive Infotech
CEO: Prateek Garg
Year of Inception: 1998
Turnover 2007-08: Rs 158 crore
Turnover 2006-07: Rs 110 crore
Employees: 670
Certified employees: 410
Principals: HP, Cisco, Symantec, Microsoft, D-Link, 3 Com, Citirx, VMware |
for several mid-market companies.
Last year was notable for the company as it launched its network operations center (NOC) and began providing remote infrastructure services not only in India but also piloted some projects for customers in the US.
“The current fiscal will be critical in terms of expanding our RIM operations internationally. We have been off-shoring RIM services to a few clients in the US and they are immensely happy with the quality of SLAs,” said Prateek Garg, CEO, Progressive Infotech.
With over 670 employees, 410 of them technically certified, Progressive boasts of a market coverage of 80 cities.
The company automated its business systems using Ramco ERP in 2007, and set up a CRM system which has helped Progressive in plotting buying trends and IT needs of existing customers, leading to deep-selling opportunities.
It also attained ISO 20000 certification for IT infrastructure services management and ISO 27001 certification for IT information security management, during the fiscal.
“As we look to expand globally it’s imperative to have quality processes and automated systems. Our focus this year is to further strengthen the quality of our service delivery and enhance the efficiency of the organization,” averred Garg.
Going forward, Progressive’s focus is to aggressively push its RIM services around the world. It intends to strengthen its presence in west and south. “I am extremely bullish about off-shoring of RIM services. It has immense potential, probably more than the export of software services, due to the acute talent shortage confronting the world. So we will continue to build more capabilities around our RIM offerings which could include managed security and application services and even SaaS,” opined Garg.
Best System Integrator - East
Embee Software, Kolkata
Kolkata-based Embee Software clocked revenue of Rs 117 crore growing by a robust 60 percent over the previous year's topline of Rs 75 crore.
| Performance Highlights | - Expanded operations to 10 locations across the country
- Became SAP implementation partner
- Set up SAP Centre of Excellence
- Implemented SAP B1 for finance, CRM, logistics
| | Company Snapshot | Company: Embee Software
CEO: Sudhir Kothari
Year of Inception: 1992
Turnover 2007-08: Rs 117 crore
Turnover 2006-07: Rs 75 crore
Employees: 195
Certified employees: 30
Principals: HP, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe, SAP, Numara Software |
Listing the factors for growth Sudhir Kothari, CEO, Embee Software said, “We grew on the back of geographical expansion and focus on providing end-to-end infrastructure management services. We added SAP B1 deployment capabilities earning us several projects in the Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore range from mid-size manufacturing companies.”
One of the largest projects Embee bagged was of overhauling the core infrastructure for a leading FMCG company. "It required us to set up a datacenter with full virtualization capabilities using latest technology blade servers, SAN and 10 gigabit network backbone," informed Kothari.
The second project came from a BPO company for deploying Microsoft Exchange and Share Point services to manage the entire workflow management of the customer and also included setting up 2,000 node IT infrastructure.
The company also set up a SAP Centre of Excellence at a premier IT Park in Kolkata.
Embee deployed SAP B1 in the organization during 2007. "We have already gone live with inventory management system and ERP. We plan to activate the CRM module soon. We are currently evaluating a HR management system which we plan to deploy during this fiscal itself," explained Kothari.
To retain talent and provide them a growth path, Embee introduced an innovative intrepreneur model in the organization last year. "Intrepreneur means treating your key managers as entrepreneurs and empowering them to run their business as entrepreneurs and that also means allowing them to take calculated risks like every entrepreneur takes," elaborated Kothari.
Under this program, the company identified 5 business managers who were designated as intrepreneur in the organization. "This program has not only allowed us to expand our management bandwidth by creating a strong second line of command but also reduced attrition, as now employees see a growth path for them," he claimed.
Embee expects to achieve Rs 250 crore mark by 2010, which amounts to doubling the turnover over the next two fiscals. "While topline is one consideration, we want to improve our bottomline as well and expect to garner a PAT of 6 percent by then. The topline growth will come from business expansion to south and north, the bottomline improvement will come from increased focus on services," concluded Kothari.
Best System Integrator - West
Sai Info Systems, Ahmedabad
Headquartered in Ahmedabad, Sai Info Systems (SIS) posted a turnover of Rs 440 crore in FY 2007-08, a whopping 260 percent growth over previous year topline of Rs 158 crore.
| Performance Highlights | - Won a large system integration project from Rajasthan government to set up a data center, DRM site and network integration
- Ventured into remote management services and set up a 5000 seat NOC
n Introduced SIS Slim, diskless and CPU-less thin client, in technology collaboration with N Computing
- Achieved ISO 14001:2004 for environmental
management systems and ISO 27001 for information security management
| | Company Snapshot | Company: Sai Infosystem
CEO: Vijay Mandora
Year of Inception: 1992
Turnover 2007-08: Rs 440 crore
Turnover 2006-07: Rs 158 crore
Employees: 390
Certified employees: 49
Principals: Cisco, D-Link, Sun Microsystems, Lenovo, Microsoft, HP, Computer Associates, Wipro, Sony, IBM |
With nearly 50 percent or Rs 150 crore of the turnover coming from system integration business, SIS deployed several turnkey projects in the government and PSU telco space. Remaining contribution came from retail (30 percent); sub-distribution (10 percent) and services (10 percent).
Recounting the growth drivers, SIS’ Executive Director, Vijay Mandora said, “We bagged several large projects from new customers this year. Our retail business has grown considerably, contributing nearly
Rs 120 crore and we have also started manufacturing a number of innovative products such as SIS Slim and a range of routers and converters," explained Mandora.
One of the largest system integration projects won by the company included IT infrastructure consolidation and network integration for the Commercial Tax Department (CDT) of Rajasthan to run customer facing applications. The project also involved setting up of a DRM site at Hyderabad and MPLS Layer 2 link between central data center and DRM site. According to Mandora, the highlight of that integration project at CDT was that it is a converged IP network based on open standards, delivering data, voice and video.
SIS also implemented a number of e-governance related projects for Gujarat Government across 500 locations.
The company ventured into remote management services and set up a 5000 seat NOC using N-Able MSP platform.
It also introduced SIS Slim, diskless and CPU-less thin client, in technology collaboration with N Computing. “We localized the product for India and started manufacturing it at our Parwanoo unit. So far we have bagged a 200 node project and a couple of others are in the pipeline,” informed Mandora.
SIS achieved ISO 14001:2004 for environmental management systems and ISO 27001 for information security management, during the year.
During the current fiscal, SIS is planning to start overseas operation in UAE, Hong Kong and Singapore. It is also planning to enter niche service areas such as security consulting, and managed application and IT infrastructure services. “We plan to provide remote infrastructure management services to international clients from our NOC facility in Ahmedabad. We expect Sai Slim to take off in a big way as we expect desktop virtualization to gather momentum just like data center virtualization. We are aiming to grow at 60 percent over the next two years,” concluded Mandora.
Best System Integrator - South
Locuz Enterprise, Hyderabad
FY 2007-08 proved to be an eventful year for the Hyderabad-based Locuz Enterprise Solutions. While it grew by a remarkable 75 percent over the previous fiscal recording a topline of Rs 80 crore, towards the year end the company sold a strategic 26 percent stake to 3i Infotech.
| Performance Highlights | - Bagged Rs 8.2 crore project from Department of Space involving setting up 230TB of storage spread over disk and tape including an ILM solution from Sun
- Deployed Rs 1 crore identity management including workflow management related to user lifecycle
management for HDFC Standard Life
- Signed up with Meru Networks, NEC and SGI
- Added identity and access management and
managed security services
| | Company Snapshot | Company: Locuz Enterprise Solutions
CEO: Vijay Wadhi
Year of Inception: 2000
Turnover 2007-08: Rs 80 crore
Turnover 2006-07: Rs 46 crore
Employees: 205
Certified employees: 125
Principals: Cisco, Sun Microsystems, Dell, Symantec, HP, VMware, Riverbed, Meru Networks |
“Our revenue growth last year was due to a combination of deep selling to our existing enterprise customers and adding a large base of new customers. We decided not to indulge in pure hardware sales (corporate reselling) at all and only focus on providing solutions. We concentrated on generating 50 percent of our revenue from advanced technologies like IT management solutions, identity management solutions and server & storage consolidation and virtualization,” said Vijay Wadhi, Director, Locuz.
During the fiscal, the company added nearly 150 new clients which contributed 25 percent to their existing revenue. The company also added an IT management software called Altiris from Symantec, signed up with Meru Networks, NEC and SGI and added identity and access management and managed security services to its portfolio.
Last fiscal also turned out to be a landmark year as it bagged one of the largest project ever executed by a tier-2 system integrator. The Rs 8.2 crore consolidated storage and information life cycle management solution from Department of Space involved setting up 230TB of storage spread over disk, and tape including an ILM solution from Sun.
For HDFC Standard Life, Locuz deployed a Rs 1 crore identity management solution including workflow management related to user lifecycle management. Another such prestigious project was bagged from Satyam HMRI worth Rs 1.5 crore for monitoring and management of IT assets.
ISO 9001:2000 and ITIL certified, the company embarked on the implementation of SAP B1 which is likely to get operational during this fiscal.
With 3i Infotech as a strategic partner, Locuz expects to scale up even faster than last year. It plans to get into very specialized areas like parallel storage systems, managed services and unified communications. Plans are afoot to expand its network operations center to strengthen remote infrastructure management services.
Locuz plans to enter new industry verticals like retail, infrastructure and government and will set up offices in Chennai and Delhi.
“The 3i partnership gives us access to larger funds, wider geographical presence and entry into large enterprises not only in India but also overseas to provide IT infrastructure solutions and services,” said Wadhi. |