Role Model
Touch of Silver
 Vipul Thakkar, Managing Director, Silver Touch Technologies attributes the success of his company to 5Ps—plan, process, people, performance and profits
By Varun Aggarwal
When passion turns into profession, results are often great. And that is the case with Vipul Thakkar, Managing Director, Silver Touch Technologies. His deep interest in information technology had him hooked young. As a result, to give better wings to his ambitions, Thakkar honed his skill-sets at several IT companies during his college years. While the training ensured that he was abreast with the latest in the market, Thakkar didn’t think twice before taking a leap as an entrepreneur as soon as he saw a window of opportunity. Lucky for him, he had the support of three of his close friends—Jignesh Patel, Minesh Doshi and Palak Shah. So in 1992, the four friends started an IT solution and services venture called Silver Touch Computer Inc.
Getting past hurdles
As is the case with most startups, beginning was tough. The company started with a computer and a capital of Rs 30,000 in Ahmedabad. Initially, the company focused on selling computer hardware and offering annual maintenance contracts to small companies. Then, they built software for the sub brokers and an accounting software too. In 1995, the company was rechristened Silver Touch technologies. “We were technically sound, but the capital investment was low. It was difficult for us to get orders and, more importantly, fulfil them,” recalls Thakkar.
In 1999, as a Microsoft partner, Silver Touch bagged a turnkey project in the government sector. That was the turning point for the company. They were offered some large Microsoft contracts thereafter and then there was no looking back.
A year later, in 2000, the Y2K bug plagued the IT industry. Silver Touch chanced on the opportunity and developed a Y2K compliance product. Thanks to this product, the company tasted huge success and received immense recognition in the market. Post this, to get into software outsourcing, Silver Touch started scouting for international locations. In the last five years, the company has opened up sales offices in US, UK and Netherlands.
Like the rest of the IT industry, Silver Touch too has been facing the heat of the economic recession over the last two years. It wasn’t easy to crack big deals in this period. “IT is always a supporting industry for major enterprises and corporate sector. Therefore, during recession, the first expense to be cut is usually the IT budget,” says Thakkar.
But despite the meltdown, the company grew from 25 crore in 2006-07 to 33 crore in 2007-08 to 51 crore in 2008-09. “We believe that in tough times, we need to work harder and put in much more effort. It always pays off when the time changes,” opines Thakkar. He expects the momentum to continue and is positive about a 30 percent growth in the FY2009-10.
Tough times make you stronger
Working harder paid off for Silver Touch and they were able to crack some large projects over the last 12 months.
“One of our biggest projects was automating the manual refueling of aircraft for BPCL, and interfacing the solutions to the company’s SAP system. This cut down the customer’s billing cycles and improved efficiency,” said Thakkar. The cost of this project was approximately Rs 2 crore.
Silver Touch also initiated a project for eGram VishwaGram society, a nodal agency between the government and zilla panchayats in Gujarat, to automate the organization through an online presence. The department and its 26 panchayats were connected online in less than six months. Another project executed by the company was implementation an e-learning solution for the Directorate of Technical Education.
“Over the years, we have built expertise in providing ERP deployment services—which include customization for all platforms like SAP, Oracle and Microsoft Dynamics. In addition, we have been focusing on creating a Web 2.0 interface for business systems, and have also developed our own software applications like CMS and HR built on open source,” explained Thakkar.
The company also built a NOC facility earlier this year to offer remote infrastructure management services (RIMS).
Thakkar believes that the market has improved since Diwali. He feels that the market would improve significantly in the next six months. “We are already seeing good growth in the government sector. Despite the recession, the government has huge funds allotted for IT. In fact, all the state governments are planning e-governance projects. So, we are focusing a lot on the government sector.” Right now, about 30 percent of Silver Touch’s top-line comes from the government sector, and it also contributes more than 40 percent of the company’s bottom-line revenues.
Overseas, Thakkar sees huge growth opportunity for mobile and open source technologies. Silver Touch has already developed customized mCommerce and mobile gaming software for some of its clients in US, UK, Europe, and Canada for. He further adds, “Though we have done a few small projects, we haven’t got a major breakthrough yet. However, we’re bidding for some large projects in the Middle East and hopefully we’ll crack a deal soon.”
At the moment, over 75 percent of the company’s revenues come from the western region of the country, especially Gujarat. Thakkar wants to expand the presence of the company to Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Goa, Delhi and Haryana. In the international markets, Thakkar is planning to expand into newer territories like Australia, Middle East and some of the Asian countries.
Building blocks
In order to sustain aggressive growth, Silver Touch believes in executing the 5Ps—plan, people, processes, performance and profits. “Every business plan can only be successful if it is initiated by right people and those people do right justice to the process involved,” believes Thakkar.
In order to foster a strong team sense in employees, the company has taken some initiatives. “We have a strong induction program wherein we try to introduce new employees to our culture and philosophy. We organize various trainings on not just technical, but also behavioral and cultural aspects. We have our own team to train employees for soft skills development. We also organize talent shows and intra-office cricket tournaments to motivate employees.”
Personal side
Thakkar attributes his success to his family—wife and two kids. His wife also takes an active part in his business and conducts HR and training activities.
On weekends, Thakkar loves to cruise with his family in his Honda Civic. He plans to make the ride more comfortable with a Mercedes Benz soon. When in holiday mood, Goa’s beautiful beaches often beckon the Thakkar family. Thakkar’s dream holiday is to travel to Switzerland and Bahamas.
A fitness enthusiast, Thakkar loves playing cricket, tennis and golf in his spare time. He also likes to read management and spiritual books. Showing his spiritual leaning, he concludes that he would rather be known as an ethical businessman among his friends and industry peer. |