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Driven by innovation

Diwakar Nigam, MD, Newgen Software Technologies, shares his organisational vision with Chirasrota Jena.

With the vision of bringing a revolution in the document management and business process management business, Diwakar Nigam, MD of Newgen Software Technologies, has introduced many innovative products in this space. He says, “We entered the market very early and are now enjoying the fruit of that early entrance. The initial period of selling the product was a tough challenge before us.”

Before establishing Newgen, Nigam along with his friends had founded another product development company Softek Limited. Softek has specialisation in compilers, operating systems and office productivity tools. He has also spent two years of his career at the software research and development team of HCL. In 1992, Nigam established his own product company. He has been an active founder member of Nasscom and a part of its Anti-Piracy Task Group. Says Nigam, “I had the dream of forming my own company having unique products to help the customer work in a centralised processing unit. So after acquiring my engineering degree from IIT, Madras I had started making plans to establish my own organisation.”

Recollecting the tough times, Nigam adds, “It was very difficult selling products in foreign markets. We had to fight with the mindset of foreign customers. They have a typical image about Indian products. So we spent a few years trying to change the mindset of our customers around the globe.” Newgen has now been able to acquire 600 customers, not only from India but from countries in South East Asia to the Middle East. For him the greatest achievement are the compliments he receives from his customers.

Citibank was Newgen’s first customer and uses its solutions at nearly 40 centres. “With the growth of the ITeS, telecom and banking sectors, there is a huge growth opportunity for different solutions of Newgen. We provide customised solutions to verticals like banking, insurance, BPO, telecom and the government. Newgen enjoys the largest market share in India in workflow and imaging solutions and has to its credit over 300 customers and product installations worldwide,” he adds with pride. As there is a lot of activity going around in the BPO space, Nigam is hoping for huge business success. He also credits the growth of his company to the RBI for its verdict on imaging cheque clearance.

Nigam enjoys playing golf and loves to travel across the country. He says, “I like to spend most of my time in introducing innovations to my solutions along with my team members. And also like to face the new challenges ahead for the company. Now I want to integrate different systems to our solutions to make it more user friendly and make my customers more tech savvy.” Nigam is also working with a few leading NGOs in India, along with his team members, for the welfare of weaker sections of the society.

Disclosing his success mantra, Nigam states that patience, constant innovation along with dedicated teamwork always brings positive results. Disclosing his future plans, he says, “I am planning to make my products available in 100 countries so that the world could get the benefit of made in India products.”