India’s best System Integrators

The System Integrator community is at a tipping point. With enterprise IT witnessing robust demand, SIs are presently at the same stage where Indian software export companies were in the mid-1990s.

Growth drivers

The buzz is evident from the events of last year. Tulip Software and Paradyne Infotech raised funds through successful IPOs. Allied Digital went in for a private placement of five percent with Bennett, Coleman & Company. The most significant of them all was the acquisition of the Rs 150-crore Network Solutions by IBM India in November 2005, reportedly for $40 million.

With this acquisition, IBM acquired 1,400 of Netsol’s trained professionals and its strong countrywide support infrastructure. That is just the beginning. For instance, Frontier admits to having received queries from prospective buyers, and is open to investment from a strategic partner.

With the floodgates opening up, SIs are building business plans. For example, Allied Digital acquired an ERP software company last year, which it plans to leverage to cater to the domestic as well as export markets.

Business innovations

As these companies break into the big league of Datacraft, IBM, HP and the like, they realise they need a strong differentiation strategy. The differentiation, most believe, would lie in the type and quality of services. Frontier has enrolled several senior industry executives to help it formulate a strong service business strategy. Last year it ventured into ITIL consultancy and certification, and plans to get BS 15000 certification next year.

Allied Digital increased its direct service presence from 52 to 72 locations, and entered into strategic partnerships with companies like Unisys, EDS, Fujitsu and Siemens to provide professional and managed services to its clients in the country. It also adopted ITIL & ITSM (BS 15000) standards for service delivery.

Opportunities and challenges

But with this comes another challenge—that of retaining employees. In response, Allied has implemented innovative HR systems to attract the best talent and retain it. Frontier has created a work culture of employee empowerment which it claims has helped it attract talent even from large SIs. Orient has provided notebooks to its field staff so that they can access the company's ERP system through its Citrix servers.

Robust growth is expected. Allied is projecting an 85 percent increase in turnover aided by exports. It plans to launch Tech BPO and increase the revenue from managed services, its security practice by enhancing consultation, and solutions in areas like disaster recovery and business continuity. Frontier plans to focus on boosting its service infrastructure. Orient expects to grow by more than 50 percent and is set to launch software development and knowledge process outsourcing services.

System Integrator

Frontier Business Systems, Bangalore

Ravi Verdes

What started as a box-selling business in September 1994 has evolved into one of India’s leading system integrators. With a turnover of Rs 175 crore in 2005-06 and growth rates bordering around 30 percent YoY over the last two years, Frontier achieved the Rs 100 crore turnover mark for the first time in March 2004 setting itself the task of doubling its turnover to Rs 200 crore by March 2007.

The company struck a number of mega deals last year, the most prestigious being that of providing complete system integration to BHEL, a project worth over Rs 25 crore. The project spread over three to five years will require Frontier to overhaul (on an IBM platform) the IT infrastructure of BHEL entities in Hyderabad, Trichy, Chennai and Ranipet. This includes network integration, power conditioning and deploying the Tivoli network management system.

A network integration project was bagged from the Cyberabad Convention Centre during the previous fiscal. BEML awarded it a project for upgrading its core hardware infrastructure, a project for which it deployed SAP on an IBM server and storage platform.

Clarifying on the perception that Frontier is IBM-centric, Ravi Verdes, the CEO of Frontier says, “It was probably true several years back, but not any more. We have made a strategic shift from a vendor-centric to a customer-centric model. We wanted to be regarded as an IT Infrastructure specialist, and not be perceived as any vendor’s key partner.”

Verdes informs that Frontier decided to work its new branding around the customer-centric approach. Today, the company does business with Sun Microsystems on par with IBM—it has two divisions focussing separately on Sun and IBM (including Lenovo).

The company has a strategic relationship with several vendors—Systimax for structured cabling solutions, Cisco and Symantec for networking and security, Emerson for power conditioning solutions, Citrix for software solutions, and IBM for software and TotalStorage solutions.

Frontier is now moving up the value-chain—providing ITIL consultancy, gap analysis and assessment within the ITIL framework, and tool and help desk implementation. It has launched an ITIL Training and Certification (EXIN-accredited) programme in Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad in association with an Australian ITIL consultancy firm.

Realising that to sustain growth it needs to expand not just vertically but also horizontally, the company has confined itself to south India with support infrastructure in north and west India.

Verdes explains that this has been a strategic decision. “It was consciously decided to focus on the south, grow and consolidate our business, and then once we reach a critical size, expand.”

Frontier has 425 employees, up from about 310 last year. It boasts of a large number of certified personnel for IBM and Citrix technologies. The company spends a sizeable amount each year on skill development across platforms. “For retaining quality employees, we created a work environment which fosters team spirit and competitiveness. We try and ensure that employees have fun doing business,” states Verdes.

In addition, business managers and regional heads are given freedom to plan strategies and implement them to meet Frontier’s objectives. The company has a focussed sales force which reflects its image.

Frontier is looking at getting BS 15000 certification; it already has 10 ITIL-certified personnel. The company has realised that a strong services business is mandatory for sustained growth. “With several customers eager to bypass channels and buy directly from vendors, providing services is the key,” says Verdes. The company will focus on innovation in services to avoid dependency on product sales, and increase its sources of revenues to build redundancy. It will build upon its USP of providing complete IT infrastructure solutions. Frontier has no plans to hit the primary markets to raise funds for growth. “Not just now,” says Verdes, “we still have a lot of work to do. But we are open to strategic partners who can add value to the overall business.”

System Integrator

Allied Digital Services, Mumbai

Nitin Shah

In FY 05-06, the company grew by nearly 20 percent to post a turnover of Rs 110 crore. It credits the growth to several factors including the strategic acquisition of a company having an ERP product for SMBs. Not only did the acquisition help Allied make inroads into the SMB space, but also helped it venture into software exports.

With 72 direct support locations, the company leveraged its service expertise to enter into strategic partnerships with companies such as Unisys, EDS, Fujitsu and Siemens to provide professional and managed services to its client base in the country. At the same time, the company focussed on information security practice, and integration with physical security initiatives such as smartcard, RFID, biometric and e-surveillance solutions.

It strengthened its portfolio by adding products from LANDesk and EMC. Allied bagged several big-ticket projects including a core network and enterprise network management solution on HP OpenView at SBI, asset management and enterprise client management solution for the Emerson group of companies across Asia-Pacific, and IT consolidation using blade servers for Hindustan Petroleum. Other projects worth mentioning are the enterprise-wide LAN and WAN integration for GAIL, and voice data integration at Indoco Remedies.

The company also entered into a strategic tie-up with GE Capital to provide customers a leasing option for its products and solutions.

It adopted ITIL and Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) (BS 15000) standards for service delivery, and implemented CRM to further improve server delivery efficiencies.

Allied Digital expects to achieve a near 85 percent growth this fiscal with the addition of a basket of strategic tie-ups in the professional services area, and the development of niche integration capabilities.

The company plans to launch a technology BPO and increase the revenue contribution from managed services and security consulting and solutions in areas such as disaster recovery, business continuity, asset recovery, and remote network and storage management services.

System Integrator

Orient Technologies, Mumbai

The company registered a 50 percent YoY growth with revenues touching Rs 59 crore. It bagged several projects during the fiscal, boosting its growth. Inox Air Products hired the company to implement a SAP solution on HP Itanium servers in a deal worth Rs 2 crore. Another deal was bagged from Crompton Greaves for an ERP solution worth Rs 1 crore.

Several deals in the Rs 40 lakh-75 lakh range were struck during the year, prominent among them being those of Mahindra Finance for providing a Citrix solution with BladeCenter, of Blue Star (a Rs 60 lakh order) for setting up their Internet data centre, of Goldshield for IBM Storage, and of Glenmark Pharma for a data warehousing solution.

Orient expanded its product and solutions portfolio by adding a Nortel Business Continuity Management solution, Linux mail messaging, WAN accelerator, EFS cluster gateway, and a virtual library system.

The company also deployed an ERP solution to streamline operations. Its field staff has laptops connected to the ERP through Citrix servers. Orient is predicting a growth rate of 50 percent, and believes it can sustain it. With offices in all major cities of the west and south, the company is looking at venturing into B-class cities. It is betting on the BFSI sector. In terms of technology it feels that storage and security will witness phenomenal growth. It also wants to enter the software development and knowledge process outsourcing services space.

System Integrator

Precision Infomatic, Chennai

The company recorded a turnover of Rs 130 crore in 2005-06, a growth of 27 percent over the previous fiscal. Precision attributes this growth to geographical expansion—it commenced operations in Mumbai, increased its focus on SMBs, and looked for opportunities in the storage and server consolidation space and in Microsoft’s volume licencing business.

The company bagged several large system integration projects from companies like Britannia Industries, Google, Qualcomm Communications, and Franklin Templeton. Precision also ventured into providing Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) certification and process implementation.

Precision is an HP Premier Enterprise Partner, Microsoft and Novell Gold Partner, and an IBM Business Partner. It is HCL’s partner for desktops and servers, and an authorised service provider for Toshiba products.

With BS 15000 and ISO 2000 certification already in place, the company deployed ERP to further automate and streamline its operations. In order to serve its customers better, the company introduced a call monitoring system and strengthened its remote support infrastructure to augment onsite capabilities.

Precision’s future plans include setting up a network operating centre to manage and serve customers globally. The company plans to have a national presence in the next 12 months, and expects a 30 percent YoY growth with increased geographical presence and SMB demand.