Spotlight

Securing India’s defenders

From reselling products to crafting solutions and integrating systems, Brij Infotech's journey has had its hiccups. Today stable growth is on the cards. By Kushal Shah

The company’s founder, Sandeep Agarwal was fond of computers at a time when few used Pentium machines in India. In 1994 he got a fair bit of exposure to the computer industry. In that time, most of the computer products in India were from Nepal, largely the preserve of the gray market. This led him to start a business in 1995 from a car garage of importing computer products. “People in India were price rather than technology driven. So I went to Singapore and after studying the market there we started importing a few products,” says Sandeep Agarwal, Managing Director, Brij Infotech Pvt Ltd.

The company was launched with imports of CD-ROM drives and similar multimedia devices. In the mid nineties, the Internet was opening up in India. In that growing Internet age, the supply of modems seemed limited and Brij Infotech saw that gap and started importing dialup modems, thus entering into the import of communication products. Initially they started selling them as an alternative to the then expensive fax machines, which used to cost upwards of Rs. 35,000. When VSNL began offering Internet connections, Brij Infotech began growing substantially in this area of business. By 1999 it had the biggest share of the pie in the western region. Brij continued its leadership in the communication space and adopted it as its primary business with investments going into R&D to fine-tune the products as per Indian requirements. Dialup modems were fading away and it was time for a shift to ISDN lines and related activities in 1998. By 2001, the company had added about 20 communication related products to its portfolio and continued in the business of reselling and distribution.

A step ahead

In 2001, Brij Infotech felt the heat from the entrance of new players in the communication segment. This was the time when it started moving towards solutions and away from product based business which had given it a fair bit of success for about six years. It launched a VOIP solution. “We were the first company to start VOIP in India. We were selling that as a total solution to the end customer and we found a niche in this segment,” explains Agarwal.

In 2002, VOIP became quite common and which made it feel a step ahead of the competition since it had launched the same service a year before. The Internet had become popular with most organisations using it for day-to-day business. It was time for yet another change—this time Brij shifted its emphasis to low cost wireless connectivity. In those days wireless connectivity was new and expensive. “There were few players who ventured in that segment in those days, our cost-effective solution helped companies curb their expenditure and sustain their profitability,” says Agarwal.

By 2003 it had made a major dent in the wireless market with dominance in west, east and north India.

Difficulties and commitment

After its commercial success, the company started doing work with Indian defence and paramilitary forces in 2003. It did not have a significant breakthrough that year. The following year it did a small number of deals but proved itself on the ground. At this time it started preparing itself for such clients. This was the time when it started concentrating on niche system integration and worked completely according to a client’s requirements.

Soon working in difficult situations and working with the defence establishment became its specialty. Brij Infotech became the first Indian company to deploy a city wide surveillance system in Kashmir which was a difficult terrain. This part of the country has a lot of weather and insurgency problems. In difficult situations the company successfully implemented the system that became a topic of discussion in the entire country.

Apart from Kashmir, it did a lot of telecom projects in Manipur which was also a difficult place to work owing to heavy insurgency. It did some development and connectivity work here. The major problem for it was that BSNL lines were being cut frequently by insurgents. In the absence of major players in the wireless domain in those days the company successfully implemented a wireless network for Manipur. Even in Nagaland, after being threatened, the company stuck to its guns and finished the project.

In last three years Brij Infotech has done projects in Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Jammu and Kashmir all areas that are subject to insurgencies and thus it has become a specialist in such business. It has even done telecom projects in Afghanistan and Iraq. For Afghanistan, a project on security is in the pipeline.

Talking about difficulties, Agarwal explains, “A normal product cannot work everywhere, it has to be customised according to the place. A product cannot work in J&K because of varied temperatures and power requirements.” It is very difficult to move in such risky areas so they have to work as soon as possible and move out of the field immediately. This leads to increase in backend work so that workers have to spend the least possible time in the field.

Success and recognition

When you are successful you will be rewarded and people will know you even more. In early days, the company was recognised by international magazines. In 1996 it became the first company to get TEC approval for a 33.6 Kbps modem. It gained wider popularity with its launch of VOIP in 2001 and in 2003 with ISDN.

The company’s biggest success comes in the form of work for administrative and defence bodies. More than 80 percent of the armed forces, military, paramilitary forces, air force, navy, research organisations of defence, railways and ammunition factories are doing business with the company to some extent or the other.

Since it is not a product based company anymore and has started concentrating on hardcore system integration in insurgency prone areas, Brij has gained recognition.

“For me every project is important. I am not the kind of person who would rate a project on the amount of money it gives me, be it Rs 1 lakh or 10 crore—all are the same for me,” says Agarwal. The J&K and Nagaland implementations are especially important for him.

In J&K, especially in Srinagar, the company faced a lot of problems. It had to work in minus seven degree conditions in 2005 and had to complete the project in three months. Due to continuous disturbance of blasts in the valley none of the engineers were ready to work. Everybody used to work there and fly back the next day, which was big problem. To make the situation worse, engineers witnessed a blast but even after such difficulties they continued to work

and finished the project in Agrawal’s presence for the entire duration of the project. Another such project was in Nagaland where the Brij team had to work in a curfew like atmosphere in an environment that was riddled with insurgency. They actually managed to finish this project also despite the difficulties.

“These projects are not done on the basis of commercial benefits. In both these projects we lost our major capital and we were pushed back but still they are favourites because they are most talked about,” explains Agarwal.

From a garage

From a car garage, the company has grown to as many as 14 branches apart from the head office in Mumbai. It has branches in Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, Ahmedabad, Srinagar, Guwahati, Patna, Hyderabad, Chennai, Indore, Manipur, Kohima, Siliguri and Tejpur.

The company has seen various ups and downs during the last 12 years since its inception. It made about Rs 10 crores in the late nineties and dropped to Rs 2 crore in 2002 due to the change in business from reselling to solutions. In 2006-07 its balance sheet read about Rs 12 crores. The company has been growing steadily after making itself comfortable in solution and system integration. In the last two years it has finished as many as 30 projects with 80 percent of its income coming from government related agencies. About 15 percent of its business comes from major telecom companies to set up networks. Despite all this, the company does not intend to go public.

Tough resources

Most employees are engineers by qualifications and come from a close network of people so that the level of trust is maintained. Brij have a backend hardware, software and power team to handle things. Apart from that the R&D team conducts research and coordinates with manufacturers abroad to study the latest technologies.

Currently it has about 120 contracted employees and about 18 others managing things. “We can do our work with 60 people but we have kept a 1:1 ratio for backup,” says Agarwal. The training which employees have to undergo is rigorous to make them strong enough to work in extreme and dangerous conditions.

Though 80 percent of its clients are non commercial, the company hopes to reach a target of 100 crores turnover in the next five years.