Our everyday encounter with technology is as basic as blinking our eyes. We do not realize the extent to which it has captured our lives. In today’s time it is impossible to imagine a life without technology, from household appliances to communication devices; it caters to all our needs.

In this era where technology is the Key, Amit Patel (MD&CSO) at Setu Net Pvt Ltd has revolutionized the concept of safety via technology in the Indian market.

The Founder

A postgraduate in Business Information System (BIS) from RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia; Patel was greatly influenced by the importance laid on safety and health measures by the Australian government .This influence later grew into inspiration which marked the beginning of his entrepreneurial journey in 1996 when in Gujarat he educated leading corporate executives about the web technologies.

An enthusiastic golfer, he often spends his free time on a Golf Course along with his son who shares the same passion. His love for entrepreneurship helps him to encourage and guide young enthusiasts at various levels.

Amit Patel

MySetu: The bridge to safety IT solutions.

“We are in the business of saving life”, this is how Patel likes to introduce his venture. Founded in 2005 with a simple motto to work for the betterment of people, planet and profit; MySetu redefined the concept of technology in the domain of Environment, Health, Safety &Sustainability (EHS&S) in the Indian market.

Patel’s brain child, MySetu, in true terms acts as a bridge .The IT solutions provided by the company bridges the gap between the company and various institutions. With a customer centric approach and complete focus on quality of product and services, it develops a suite of web-based applications that provide all key functionalities that are essential to build a world-class Environment Health Safety & Sustainability (EHS&S). Setu’s core focus has been saving and improving life of workers in plant/factory.

The Initial Struggle

 A firm believer in creating one’s own opportunity, it wasn’t easy for Patel in the initial stages of his start up. He received strong skepticism from family and friends who failed to see his visionary spectrum behind starting an enterprise when the campus job offers were pouring in. His maiden venture in the field of safety software was even criticized by the people in the industry. Entering a niche market and convincing Indian corporate to adopt IT solutions for EHS was not an easy task to accomplish. But his strong determination and ability to swim against the current enabled him to convince his first client and develop a world class product with them.

The biggest challenge for him was to educate people about IT and its need in one’s life. After a successful stint with the first client, Patel had to patiently wait for a long time for Indian corporate to endorse the practices he followed. His passion towards making a difference did not demoralize him during the lull period rather he utilized the gap and acted as an evangelist to educate people about the domain and its importance by spreading his path breaking vision and ideas.

Patel’s unrelenting appetite to create business opportunity even against the tide couldn’t keep him away from his dream for a long time and soon the orders started to trickle. With high component of uncertainty in the product demand, initially he managed a team through innovations in his resource management and sustaining and being profitable was the key focus.

Creating a Brand Value

 A bootstrapped start up, MySetu has always been innovative in all forms and naming the product “MySetu” (my bridge) Suites and Systems was one such idea. Bound by a common belief and vision the company has always delivered high quality products and has established a brand name for itself. Its unique logo along with unparallel services and support has added to high brand perception in the market.  Aggressive use of technology supplements as a tool to innovative business ideas which are focused to make a difference and save on carbon footprints and contribute towards eco friendly environment. The concept of Web conferencing is among the various initiatives undertaken by the company. At Setu, Patel is involved at strategic level in the activities ranging from product development to marketing and sales and is always trying out new ideas and constantly updating the business model.

ArrangedCycles for everybody at IIT conference to commute- doing our bit forenvironment

Current scenario

Today, MySetu handles the complete HUL account as well as accounts of most of the biggest companies in India. It has also formed a partner network for expansion into new geographies, including, Asia Pacific and the US. The founder, Mr. Patel has started various mentoring program and is professionally mentoring Advance TPM Solution Private Limited (ATSPL), a company in manufacturing excellence domain, to bootstrap to grow rapidly.

Technicaldiscussion with team in a casual free environment

Note to Budding entrepreneurs

“We Entrepreneurs are a strange lot and work with more guts than money. Where no one dares to, we venture out in the open and work towards creating a difference. We have path breaking visions and ideas but very few people who can understand us or our visions” says Amit Patel

Creating an opportunity when there is none has been Patel’s dictum all throughout and he never considered quitting as an option. Being in business was his conscious choice and he worked towards achieving his aim no matter how difficult it was at the initial level.

He says,” If you believe you have enough skills/knowledge/expertise to address the problem better than others in the market, START right away. If you are clear in what you want to do and want to garner experience before starting-up, find the RIGHT job as that is the key to get the needed experience”

As there is never a fixed formula for becoming an Entrepreneur, if one has a risk appetite to go against the tide and a very strong will to survive against all and any odds at some point of time he will surely embark on a successful journey towards entrepreneurship .

Inaugurating Conference with Mr. Umesh Bellur, Advisor Technology and Professorat IIT-B

To know more about the company visit http://mysetu.com/ .

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Courtesy – Marianne Williamson

Your Fitness Club (YFC) is the culmination of long years of preparation, contemplation and a thoughtful approach. Established in September’2009 with an aim to provide friendly, comfortable and well maintained fitness facility at an affordable expense, YFC is a known name in the fitness circles today.

Your Fitness Club

Director’s Cut

As the founder, innovator and spearhead of Your Fitness Club, Mr. Sayyed Rizwan has been a true source of inspiration and motivational light for the YFC team. Sayyed has been instrumental in utilizing his extensive experience in the development & management of fitness clubs and astute sense in the successful establishment of YFC. What today has made YFC one of the most conducive fitness facilities for end users is the meticulous approach of its director, who is an able task master & a strategic planner.

The Founder

About YFC

Established a couple of years back in September’2009, the operational value of YFC revolves around end user satisfaction. The company was created with an understanding to make quality fitness service available to common masses through an affordable & no frills attached facility that can improve their quality of life with varying fitness levels & better health.

With an understanding that fitness is an experience of the body & mind, YFC works towards creating an atmosphere that can offer a perfect balance between you and your fitness. YFC is the doorway to a journey towards the attainment of fitness goals through small changes made in the body under the able guidance of YFC’s fitness & nutrition experts.

“In the span of two years we have six operational clubs in India and planning to capture the Indian market by 2015.”

At YFC

What Sets YFC Apart…

The fitness industry being a booming industry, there are several major players who have been providing users with fancy fitness facilities & expensive gym equipments. While most of these bigger players have higher overhead costs & longer return of investment, YFC sets itself apart by keeping its overhead costs to a bare minimum & offering customers with quick, convenient & affordable workout, that too in a state of the art fitness centre minutes from their home.

Keeping in line with the lifestyle of the current times, YFC offers its customers with a value-driven concept, whereby members have the convenience and flexibility of a member-friendly policy instead of a contract. In addition, the centre ensures affordable & quality fitness service to its members by providing in house training for the fitness trainers and keeping them abreast to the changing trends of the fitness industry.

Front view of YFC

Benefits of Going Techno

By introducing technology into business, YFC has been able to create a symbiosis between administration & fitness operation. This in turn has improved the overall operational dynamics of the club. As additional efforts, YFC has created a presence in social networking sites and initiated the inception of E-letter, to open the lines of communication between YFC and its valuable members.

“In the past two years we have learnt and improved through the feedback received from our members and have grown stronger through the challenges that we have faced.”

Founders day event  held on every 9th of september

Marketing & Branding Strategies Initiated

Developed indigenously in 2009, YFC today is one of the most popular brand names in the fitness sector. This nation-wide brand recognition can be attributed to its strong branding strategies including:

• Internal Branding On Gym Floor
• Cross Tie-Ups With Renowned Companies
• Inception of E-Letter
• Inception of Social Networking Sites

However, if it hadn’t been for the innovative marketing strategies of this fitness club combined to its branding strategies, it would never have evolved from a lone fitness centre into a chain of six operational fitness clubs. Few of the innovative marketing strategies initiated by YFC include:

• Campaigns & Promotions in Malls
• Mass Media Advertising i.e. Flyers & Bus Back
• Mass SMS & Emails
• Hoardings & Banners
• Magazine and Newspaper Advertisement
• Fitness Events

As additional efforts, YFC has made use of social media for marketing its brand. With the help of affordable, interactive media like, newspapers, radio and internet, this fitness club has been able to reach out to the masses. The YFC team shares that a major credit for the promotion of its Bhopal branch goes to the Radio. Other media used for creating an interactive base for members include – Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn.

The happy team at YFC

The Mantra For Brand Success

The secret of YFC’s enormous success lies in its carefully developed branding strategies including:

• PT sales on the floor
• Referrals from the floor and renewals
• Mass SMS & Emails

However, all of this was possible only through service improvement. The team at YFC believes that the best response they have received till date was through their tie-up with Times Deal.com.

“We execute door to door flyers on a regular basis to keep us ahead of our competitors.”

Key Facilities Offered

As an already established brand name in the fitness sector, YFC’s only aim is to ensure its end users with:

• An interactive social networking presence & support
• Regular fitness events
• Affordable & friendly gym user experience

Vision…

It has not been a cakewalk for YFC to evolve from a sole establishment into a successful chain of six operational fitness clubs. Behind it has gone years of efforts, hard work & dedication to develop a brand name & brand identity that the common mass can relate with. With this same determination, YFC aims at tapping the Indian market & have its branches established in all major & smaller cities of the country by the year 2015. Unlike its local competitors, this fitness chain promises to continue offering its customers with better & healthier environment & state-of-the-art fitness facilities.

To visit the same virtually click http://www.yourfitnessclub.in/

SMEstory helps small and medium businesses to bring out their stories and their journey to the world. It is a stepping stone that can motivate the employees, the customers, the vendors and anybody connected to the company. If you would like your company to get featured on this platform send us a mail at story@smejoinup.com

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Courtesy – Jim Collins

SAP Print Solutions is a classic case of what results when like-minded people come together. A perfect orchestra of talented industry players, SAP has a four decade long experience in the fields of Marketing, Finance, Production and Procurement.

SAP Team

 Melwyn Fernandes – Spearheading the overall business development on the domestic front, Mr. Melwyn Fernandes has an unmatched track record of handling endless clients from the capital market. It was the hardwork & tireless efforts of Melwyn that laid the foundation for SAP in the field of financial printing business.

Anil Bihani – A Guide, Visionary & a man possessing over 3 decades of experience in the print sector. With an expansive experience & knowledge, Mr. Anil brings in valuable contributions for SAP in the areas of resource management & supply chain and is responsible for looking into the implementation of growth initiatives.

Santosh & Sanjay Bamne – Two young print technocrats with a flair for processes and systems along with the finer aspects of production and planning. The duo has a great eye for detail & is responsible for the implementation & workflow of projects.

Saurabh Bihani – A young energetic business administrator, Saurabh is responsible for looking into the ideation and execution of new business initiatives.

Work place

 About SAP

SAP Print Solutions Pvt. Ltd. is one of the fastest growing Print Production Companies in India based out of Mumbai. A young & dynamic company, it has over 100 able employees working in its three manufacturing facilities located in Lower Parel, Sewree & Vasai. Rated by Prime Database in top 3 for Financial Printing, SAP is certified by ISO 9001:2008, FSC CoC and CRISIL for “high performance capability and high financial strength”. SAP has a good over 100 companies working in association with it in Commercial, Financial & Publishing Segments.

SAP - Vasai factory

Pillars of SAP

 What got SAP going is the perfect blend of its Finance, Production, Marketing and Procurement knowledge. If it had not been for the 4 strong pillars of SAP – Anil anchoring Finance & Procurement, Melwyn spearheading Marketing & Bamne brothers (Santosh & Sanjay) leading Production, it wouldn’t have been possible for this young company to transform from a 200 sq. feet operations almost 4 years ago, into being the proud owner of a plant spread across 50,000 sq. feet.

On The Financial Front

SAP’s experience with banks has been unadventurous. With most banks ready to offer funds, there was never a need for the company to ask for loan re-structuring. In fact, SAP has been rated by CRISIL as a company with High Financial Strength, which in turn offers it with a better bargaining power for negotiating for lower interest rates.

A Lesson for Fund Raisers

The culture of SAP is greatly influenced by the thought that “If you want to shine like Sun, then you have to burn like Sun”. That’s in fact the reason that, although each of the promoters of SAP in their own right had the credibility to access bank funds, no one opted for it; funding for SAP was entirely done by its promoters. This has essentially been the ‘Success Mantra’ of SAP. The team at SAP feels that it has been a different feeling altogether to invest in their own business, put their skills to test & finally see the company grow to its present stature. This first-hand experience has taught the people of SAP that:

Conviction in the business model

• Experience of the promoters
• People management skills & ultimately
• The fire to perform

are of extreme essence….

The Challenges of Marketing & Branding

 SAP Print Solutions was born in an era when business sentiments were badly hit due to global crisis and its effects were felt in the Indian economy also. This was also the time when new technologies in the publishing and printing industry had been introduced & it was no less than a challenge for SAP to make people adapt to it. Thus, SAP had the dual challenge of countering these problems while also make its presence felt in the competitive business world dominated by few on the basis of their sheer presence for decades and large scale operations.

SAP office

“When the going gets tough, the tough gets going”

 What helped SAP come out with flying colours during this tumultuous phase was their obsession to offer value to their esteemed clients. Instead of being discouraged by the constant challenges, the SAP team looked upon it as an opportunity – the customers now were open to hear more on new technologies and also look for options. Taking an edge over its competitors offering similar services but with less value additions, SAP team with its collective experience, more than adequate technical expertise and management skills, focused in the key deliverables first:

S – Speed

A – Accurate

P – Pro-action

 These three pillars proved to be the game changer for team SAP’s marketing strategies. Speed, Accuracy and being Pro-action offered by SAP meant that the competitors were caught unaware. The SAP brand has since become synonymous with accuracy in production, quick turnaround and pro-active approach in the entire execution cycle.

“We challenged the basics, got a head-way and the SAP Brand was born. Simplicity in communications and delivering what we say is the secret of our success story.”

Marketing Strategies Initiated

SAP has in the past two years rolled out several initiatives to ensure direct marketing & branding activities. Few of these include:

• Participation in Seminars, Fairs, Conferences to showcase products & services
• Direct Marketing through mailers
• Distribution of branded Calendars and Diaries

While SAP has pre-dominantly used print media to market its products & services, it has plans to steer into the electronic media soon.

Most Successful Brand Strategy

When questioned about its most successful brand strategy, team SAP believes that the communication of S for Speed, A for Accuracy and P for Pro-active has gone well which ultimately results in “Performance Speaks” as a concept which the company has promoted. The Performance Speaks concept is now live on the company website (www.sapprints.com) and will be the fulcrum of all its initiatives henceforth.

What Gives SAP an Edge Over Competitors?

The approach of SAP in “Doing what they say & Saying what they do” has been one of the strongest motivations for the company. This approach is also captured in its marketing strategy which revolves around “Performance Speaks”. While most competitors were busy weaving their own success stories, the focus of SAP had been on the success of customers and that’s what gives this innovative company an edge over its competitors.

On the Ethical Front

 SAP strongly believes that it’s not always money that can hold employees back in a company; it is more to do with respect, knowledge empowerment & growth that the employee experiences, that plays a vital role in their retention.

The Growth

A majority of the employees at SAP have been there since inception. This includes several, who have with their sheer determination and consistent performance risen from a blue collar category to holding Managerial positions in the company. Team SAP believes that to keep the company going & growing consistently, efforts are needed to make the employees part of the growth. SAP has been successful in doing just that by encouraging its good performing employees to change gears and be a part of the transition, so that they can contribute meaningfully to the company’s overall growth.

Achievements

• SAP is the only print company in India to be accredited FSC and ISO 9001:2008 Certification within 4 years from its inception.
• Over 80% of SAP business is repeat business year on year
• SAP has single handedly managed one of the largest IPO since year 2008
• SAP has been consistently ranked among the top 3 print companies by PRIME for IPO printing
• SAP has been accredited with a rating of SE 2A from CRISIL, this rating indicates “High Performance Capabilities and High Financial Strength”
• SAP’s top line has grown @70% CAGR for the past 3 years

Vision

With an already established name in the industry, SAP envisions its growth in servicing Financial, Publishing & Commercial Printing and in becoming a Quality Focused Print Solutions Company. Exports being one of the major drivers, SAP aims at spreading its wings in the publishing printing sector across India, Africa and UK.

The company also aspires to offer e-book services, provide robust Content Management Services through the usage of DMS (Document Management Services) for securing, storing and retrieving content provided by their clients with customer interface. A dream service of SAP is to start offering Digital Services for the Publishing segment and focus in POD (Print-On-Demand) which it sees will supplement its core business.

SMEstory helps small and medium businesses to bring out their stories and their journey to the world. It is a stepping stone that can motivate the employees, the customers, the vendors and anybody connected to the company. If you would like your company to get featured on this platform send us a mail at story@smejoinup.com

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“At the time when we started our company, people were getting out of white box manufacturing, but we believed in our ability to innovate which made us survive” – Amit Rambhia

The founders - Amit and Nikit

Laying the Foundation of Vardhaman Technology

The first step for the Rambhias, towards the establishment of a company, was to design small form factor PCs using micro ATX components (which were not easily available in Indian market at that point of time). With the roll out of their first SFF PC, Vardhaman Technology Pvt. Ltd. came into existence in year 2000.

The Progress…

Call it luck or sheer hard work & dedication, the SFF PC was widely welcomed in the market and within months the company was catering to the needs of big players in BFSI sector. It did not take much time for other brands to follow in to inquire if the company could manufacture PCs for them in their own brand. The Rambhias saw this as a golden opportunity to reap benefits of economies of scale in terms of sourcing components.

In 2004, Vardhaman Technology was ready to launch its next innovative product – Micro PC. It is 1/10^th the size of the company’s SFF design.

By 2007, Vardhaman’s product portfolio included Thin Clients, Small Form Factor PCs, Digital Signage and Point-Of-Sale solutions. The company products were already ruling in an assortment of segments from Banking & Finance to Telecom, IT & ITeS, Education, Food & Hospitality, FMCG, Retail, Transport, BPOs & KPOs, industrial and many other fields.

Asia IT Exhibition

Entering the Digital Signage Market

The determination of Vardhaman Technology to not just enter but establish a strong hold in the Digital Signage Market, is what motivated it to come with its next innovation in the digital signage space. The Rambhia’s recall that, “The digital signage market saw a demand for HD playback, and we created solutions based on Nvidia ION as well as using the Intel Z series”.

The company aspired to become no smaller than the next Apple & it even succeeded to a large extent in doing so, by prototyping a tablet PC based on the Intel Atom processor, which looks as good as an Apple iPad.

Product Launch-Pune

Key Strength

One of the key strengths of the company is its in-house R&D and innovation capabilities. In fact, R&D for this company is more of a profit centre than a cost centre. Innovations for the company means a strong pre-planning to come up with affordable solutions, that are best suited to the requirements of the customers.

 “Our ability to design customised solution has been the key factor in our growth.”

Cruising through the economic slowdown

The Rambhia’s believe that what helped them face the economic slowdown of 2009 was their key strength “Innovation”. If it had not been for their innovative approach to product designing, they would never have been able to cut their cost significantly at a time when the markets slowed down and the revenue streams dried up. They were smart at anticipating the slowdown & smartly cut down the production, so that they did not over produce. Even the bank credits were managed well to avoid unnecessary interest cost during low production phase.

Vardhaman Technology has time and again been recognized by Intel, for their innovatively engineered products as per global standards.

INTEL AWARD

Star Innovations

Amongst their most recent innovations, the Rambhia’s are especially proud of their innovative & Interactive IPTV designed for hospitality sector, where hotels can provide their guests with smart technology integrated into their leisure experience.

This product integrates Hotel Management System + Guest Room + Internet into all in one solution and enables guests to access multimedia content including, movies, music, internet, radio, display of room charges, guest gadget connectivity using multimedia panel, currency conversion, weather forecast, etc, on demand over IP. The highlighting features of this product include:

• The communication by hotel management to guests is no more restricted to phone call or door knock.
• Communication can happen over IP without interrupting the guest.
• Guests can interact with the hotel service on their LCD screen while watching a movie.

Excellence Awards

Over the past few years the innovations of the company have been recognized with following awards:

• BEST SYSTEM BUILDER 2011 (CRN Xcellence Award)
• BEST SYSTEM BUILDER 2010 (CRN Xcellence Award)
• BEST INNOVATION 2008 (Intel)
• INNOVATIVE DESIGNS 2007 (Intel)

Award receiving by VARDHAMAN team

CRN Xcellence Awards 2010

Motivation for The Innovation

The Rambhia brothers recall that, it all started with a meeting with a senior person from a reputed hotel chain in India, that was looking out for some means of enhancing their guest experience. As part of its strategy, the hotel assessed the role of in-room technology, to provide both business and leisure guests with a wide range of guest services to encourage loyalty and maximize guest satisfaction. This meant that, the hotel would need to offer guests not only entertainment, but also new and additional ways to communicate about offers, nearby services and other properties in the hotel group.

Considering the hotel’s urgent requirement, the Rambhia’s geared up to design a solution, that delivered everything that the hotel was looking for as a customized guest communication solution. This included features like, on demand music, internet, currency conversion, weather forecast & much more. By means of a small media box mounted behind the LCD/LED, guests could use remote control to access the service from LCD interface.

This innovative solution also offered the hotel the opportunity to build a new in-room sales and promotional channel, that would drive new revenue opportunities. For instance when the guest accesses the free services from the interface in his room, he is prompted for “All Services” @ some nominal price. This has become a good source of revenue for the hotel.

Team at Vardhman

Key Projects in Its Hall of Fame

• Helped a Public Sector giant replace 2,000 desktops with thin clients operating on Windows XP Embedded
• Manufactured an educational PC for Classroom teaching with integrated multimedia & display system.
• Designed and deployed a 24 x 7 running embedded signage solution.
• Designed and supplied 3,000 units of POS terminals for a lottery company for deployment across Maharashtra.
• Designed and deployed an interactive TV system for a Hotel Group with features like On Demand Multimedia content, Internet Surfing and Hotel Management System integrated into one solution.

From the Horse’s Mouth

“It has been quite challenging to convince customers about the technologies that we wanted to sell. Indians are not particularly tech savvy and they are more into saving money. Therefore, that becomes a stumbling block. It’s our job to make them understand and this job brings quite a lot of satisfaction too”.

To know more about the company pls visit http://www.vardhamantechnology.com/

SMEstory helps small and medium businesses to bring out their stories and their journey to the world. It is a stepping stone that can motivate the employees, the customers, the vendors and anybody connected to the company. If you would like your company to get featured on this platform send us a mail at story@smejoinup.com

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The reports were most often found to be accumulating dust in the CEO’s office & the ultimate satisfaction of seeing a sharp profitable growth of client organizations was missing. It was this realization that motivated Sanjay & Prasun to venture out on their own to change the landscape of management consulting with their brainchild – Avenir Management Services Private Limited.

Join us as we unfold the challenging journey & innovative initiatives of Avenir Management.

About The Founders

Sanjay Ghoshal, Founding Director – Sanjay completed his engineering from Nagpur University in 1983 & later worked with H.A.L in operations for four years, before graduating from IIM Bangalore.

Sanjay Ghoshal – Founder Director

Prasun Chowdhury, Founding Director – Prasun graduated from B.I.T.S, Pilani in 1984 with an additional Masters in Economics. Thereafter, he worked with Thermax and then Wipro in sales and marketing, before moving on to complete his MBA from AIM, Manila.

Prasun Chowdhury – Founder Director

After their management education, both Sanjay and Prasun worked in the Industry for a couple of years before joining the consulting organization, ECS in the mid 90s. It was then in 2003, that these consulting experts with only their laptops & an intense desire to create a significantly different future for their clients, decided to launch their brainchild Avenir Management Services Private Limited.

The consulting firm gets its name “Avenir” from the French word for “Future” & aptly reflects the dream of converting the aspirations of clients into reality.

The Motivation

In the initial months of Avenir’s creation, Sanjay and Prasun met the world renowned management Guru, Dr. Elihayu Goldratt, who had pioneered the management science and discipline of Theory of Constraints (TOC), on his seminal visit to India. They soon realized that TOC provided the answers to the challenges of exponential growth that organizations today faced. With this, there was also the realization that, TOC succeeded only when the leadership of client organizations was willing to make paradigm shifts in their way of working. The duo became convinced that, the key to creating a Decisive Competitive Edge was the disciplined implementation of a new set of rules. This would in turn enable their clients to transform into ever flourishing organizations.

Since then, Avenir has been assiduously applying the practices & principals of TOC with its clients that have helped them in achieving magnitude of order growth in their profits in a very short time.

Avenir Global Team during annual meet 2011

Achievements

Since its inception in 2003, Avenir has grown leaps and bounds to emerge as leaders in the management consulting industry in India. With more than 35 top level consultants operating from its bases in New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Mexico, Avenir today serves industry giants ranging from the Godrej Group companies, Tata group companies,  Bharat Bijlee, Forbes, Godfrey Phillips, Delhi International Airport Limited, Levis, Homex Mexico among others.

True to the vision of its founding Directors, Avenir today is a double digit Crore management consulting firm. The firm has not just ushered in significant innovations in the consulting business development and delivery process resulting in significant value gains for its clients, but also seamlessly extended these innovations back into the organization in the way gains are shared with consultants and staff.

The transparent and entrepreneurial work culture of Avenir ensures free exchange of ideas and a drive to accelerate the clients’ growth trajectory.

Prasun Chowdhury (4th from Left) participating in a Rotary Event

Rewards of Innovations Initiated

As a consulting firm, Avenir has its focus on two key processes – Business Development Process & Consulting Delivery Process. The innovations initiated for both these processes have resulted in the following rewards for its clients:

• Increased the ROI of the channel partners (distributors) by 300% or more
• Doubling their profits in less than 18-24 months time
• Reduction in WIP and FG Inventory by more than 40%
• Increasing their capacity by as much 30%-50% without any significant investments

What Makes Avenir Strategies Innovative?

Where most consulting firms fail to take accountability for results achieved by the client & charge a fixed fee for their consulting engagements, Avenir has made significant departures by tying up as much as 80-90% of their professional fees to the P&L audited financial results gained by the client. This promotes the client organization on the path of exponential growth free of charge and even before the main engagement starts.

Sanjay Ghoshal making a presentation in a Seminar

The Upside of Associating with Avenir

Avenir believes that the crux of TOC solutions to develop Decisive Competitive Edge for client organizations in the marketplace lies not in the planning or solution development but in disciplined implementation. It is for this reason that, the initial analysis of the organization and the one day workshop are completely free of charge while the more detailed workshop comes at a very minimal charge. The detailed process of Business Development aids Avenir in determining if the client organization has the requisite management strength and intent to take the initiative forward.

One of the most significant advantages of associating with Avenir is that, it usually enters into engagements only when it is clear that it has a clear solution available to catapult the profits of the client organization to at least 3-4 times.

“The consulting team from Avenir works hands on over a period of 2-4 years in engagement with its clients, playing the role of a coach in the day-to-day implementation of TOC solution.”

Prasun Chowdhury (4th from Left) participating in a Rotary Event

The Success Story From Idea To Execution

With 8 years of experience as consultants, it was not hard for these industry experts to inference the fact that, the problem with the consulting industry lay in the fact that, most consulting interventions did not get implemented. As a result of which, the financial performance of client organizations was never significantly impacted. This realization ignited a burning desire in the hearts of the duo to transform this well recognized industry, script and rewrite the future of the consulting industry and its clients. Under the able guidance of Dr. Eli Goldratt, these passionate two gained experience and success in implementing a few key changes at a time. They also gained the confidence to tie up the professional fees of Avenir with the bottom line results of its client organizations.

Unlike other consulting firms, Avenir’s strength lay in the realization that the time in the engagement should be spent mostly on implementation and not on developing the solution.

The past 8 years have witnessed Avenir’s stupendous success as a consulting firm with the difference and jump in the business performance of its clients being the barometer of its success. But of course, the journey has just begun….

To know more about Avenir visit www.avenirco.com

SMEstory helps small and medium businesses to bring out their stories and their journey to the world. It is a stepping stone that can motivate the employees, the customers, the vendors and anybody connected to the company. If you would like your company to get featured on this platform send us a mail at story@smejoinup.com

If you are a SME owner and want to be part of our SME JOINUP network do sign up on www.smejoinup.com

Atul has been associated with the field of Engineering for almost three decades. From obtaining a BE degree from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 1981  and subsequently, an MBA degree from Faculty of Management Studies, New Delhi, to being the Founder of nSys Design Systems, the journey has been an exciting one.

About the Founder

With nearly 30 years of domain expertise to boast of, Atul Bhatia is one of those few who believe not just in thinking big, but also doing big.  Before he founded and led nSys Design Systems for nearly a decade, Atul  spent twenty years contributing to the growth of DCM Technologies (better known as DCM Data Products). He spent nearly 6 years as the GM and  Vice President (Engineering) and  two years at IBM, Austin. His extended association with the domain helped  Atul Bhatia evolve into  an expert in B2B Marketing, ASIC Design & Verification for PC & Mobiles, Software Engineering & Strategic planning & development of Software products.

About the Company

Every member of nSys Design Systems shared the common vision of becoming the “World leader in Verification IP (VIP)”.  It was this vision that helped nSys become a force to reckon with in the highly complex area of ASIC Verification. The team at nSys strongly believes that, “the customer’s success is equivalent to the company’s success.” It is this positive energy that helped nSys grow a team of just 5 interns to about 100 engineers in less than a decade’s time.

Initial Fundraising Challenges

Atul’s first choice for fundraising was the banks. He sought help from a friend in Bangalore, who was on the Board of Directors of a nationalized bank and helped introduce him to the right people in another nationalized bank. Notwithstanding the introduction, after several meetings Atul realized that this was going to be a painful struggle and no head way could be made in securing loan without providing a collateral. The only hitch was that there was no way Atul could use his house as collateral since it was owned by his wife. Moreover compromising the family shelter was something unthinkable for Atul.

It was at this crucial juncture  that Atul’s friend’s contacts with Bangalore real estate giants offered some hope for  sinking dreams. Such was the hunger of financers to make it big in the high-tech IT space that they signed an MoU for an astounding rupees 3 crores against a 40% stake in the company. But Atul decided not to raise funds from pure financers. The horror stories that he heard later from fellow entrepreneurs about financers without professional background trying to meddle during tough times validated the correctness of the decision.

Atul recalls how he had forgotten all about this offer until he saw the famed movie “Om Jai Jagdish” where Abhishek Bachchan manages to raise a large sum of money for his IT company.

A Heartbreak!

Atul next knocked the doors of a High net-worth individual (HNI), who was the husband of an ex-colleague and  had moved from the banking industry to being a prominent figure on Indian TV. Before he could realize it, a meeting was organized with the  Intel Venture Capital fund team in Bangalore. Though the flight to Bangalore took two and half hours, it took the VC fund team less than a minute to inform Atul that they stay away from seed funding of start-up companies. Another door was closed!

Friends in Need are Friends Indeed!

Upon returning to Delhi, Atul told his HNI friend  about his unsuccessful trip to Bangalore. The HNI friend, offered to help directly. Within a few days Atul received a spreadsheet from his HNI friend estimating his company’s working capital requirements for the first few months, which indicated a need for at least 22 lacs in order to pave the way for initial profits against a reasonable stake in the company. The question in Atul’s mind was: “Is it worth parting with reasonable equity for a mere 22 lac rupees?’.

Atul decided to rely upon his savings. The option of approaching family was ruled out since Atul belonged  to a middle class family, and could not afford to have his family part with their hard earned money. At this stage,  some of the friends  happily pitched in with whatever small amount that they could afford to part with. That too without any strings attached.

The Motivation

With a strong belief in himself, Atul Bhatia had come to realize that there wouldn’t be any angel for him or a VC who would be interested in making an investment in the early stage of his start-up. All he had was his own little share of money, a gang of dedicated friends to back him & and a strong belief that he himself was the solution to all his problems. He had literally become an angel to himself!

Bootstrapping

At a very initial stage itself, Atul had a first-hand experience of how the business world works. He had come to realize that there is ‘no give without take’. People are ready to offer you money not because you need it, but because they are interested in extracting their pound of flesh. However, this initial struggle motivated Atul & and his team to master the art of Bootstrapping. They  learnt to grow at a rate they could afford to grow & became extremely good at it.

A Lesson for Life…

Atul had not been born with a silver spoon & he knew the hardships he would have to face given his middle class family background. But a determined person that he is, his only motivation was his father’s lesson, “Atul I know you will take the right decision. But ‘Be careful’”.

A recipient of the prestigious “Innovator of Asia-Jan 1999” by EDN ASIA, Atul managed to begin with a princely capital of rupees 6.87 lacs. The share capital with which he managed to run the company until the exit. As they say:

“A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work”

SMEstory helps small and medium businesses to bring out their stories and their journey to the world. It is a stepping stone that can motivate the employees, the customers, the vendors and anybody connected to the company. If you would like your company to get featured on this platform send us a mail at story@smejoinup.com

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With an already towering presence in the Refinery, Oil & Gas, Infrastructure & Telecom, Petrochemicals & other significant industries, the success story of Aarvi Encon is definitely something to be shared across.

Board Of Directors

V. D. Sanghavi, Managing Director - Mr. V. D. Sanghavi, has 40 long years of experience in Design, Development, Construction and Operation of Chemical plants. A graduate from the 1964 batch of Chemical Engineer from UDCT in Mumbai, Mr. Sanghavi has been associated with reputed companies like Merck Sharp & Dohme, Lubrizol, Davy Powergas and Bhansali Engineering Polymers, before starting Aarvi Encon Private Limited in 1987.

Jaydev Sanghavi, Executive Director – Mr. Jaydev Sanghavi is a graduate chemical engineer from 1992 batch of Mumbai University.  Mr. Jaydev Sanghavi joined Aarvi Encon in 1992, and has handled several large projects for Indian and International clients. Presently he takes care of Business Development, Operations and execution.

Founders of Aarvi Encon

P. N. Devarajan, Independent Director – Mr. P. N. Devarajan is with Aarvi Encon Pvt. Ltd. since December, 2008. A Chemical Engineer by profession, Mr. Devarajan has served as the Chairman and Managing Director of HOCL. He was the President of Project Development Organization, Shapoorji Pallonji Co., and Chief Executive & Group President of Reliance Industries Ltd. At present, he is the Advisor to ESSAR, Dr.Reddy’s Lab, PLG among others.

History & Overview

Founded in the year 1987 as an Engineering Consultancy, Aarvi Encon is a certified fully integrated Engineering & Technical manpower consulting company, providing services to “Oil & Gas, Refinery, Petrochemical, Power Plant and Infrastructure” among others in India and abroad. The company works to deliver World Class Engineering Solutions with high commitment and honor.

Aarvi has its expertise in providing personnel in engineering, project, construction supervision, inspection, pre-commissioning / commissioning, operation & maintenance and turn around shutdowns.

The journey of Aarvi from a mere 3 engineers to a strong, efficient & competent team of 2200+ employees along with a network of 7 branches in India has been truly challenging!

Aarvi Credentials

A 23 year old company with a growth rate of 60% YOY, Aarvi Encon has a lot to add to its credit. The company has a decade long experience of working in the Middle East, which accounts for its market & client support expertise. Few of the highlighting credentials of the company include:

• Strong client referrals
• More than 80 active clients
• SME 1 – highest creditworthiness issued by CRISIL, Standard and Poor Company
• ISO 9001 and ISO 18000 certified company for Quality and OSHA
• Long standing in market

On The Financial Front..

Though Aarvi has never had to face any financial crisis, there definitely was a need to grow cash for better services to new & existing clients. A banking service that played a significant role in Aarvi’s fund raising was YES Bank Ltd. With their extended cash credit limit, YES Bank has helped Aarvi grow their business manifold in the past five years.

In addition, the reception of SME – I rating from CRISIL for two occasions and the certificate has been significant in helping the company negotiate better interest rate & facilities from banks.

The company shares that at a time when there was an urgent need for external funding & the company’s 15 year long association with nationalized bank had failed to prove of any help, Aarvi received able support from private bank, that was ready to offer facility of Rs. 200 million as against the nationalized bank that was giving only 50 lakhs with 100% security.

Today, Aarvi Encon is proud of its growth from a few lakhs company to a commendable turnover of Rs. 720 millions. What had started with a small capital of Rs. 10,000 has today multiplied into reserves of more than 110 million.

Receiving STAR SME Award from Business Today - Yes Bank from the hands of Shri.Kamal Nath

Business Lessons

Aarvi along its challenging journey of ups & downs has learned several business lessons which today have become the fundamentals for the growth of the company.

• Money never sleeps
• To run business legitimately
• Unutilized assets can be costly
• Keep close watch on interest cost and receivables. Once you have higher bank facility there can be lethargy in recovery of money.
• Not to divert funds for non core business

Aarvi Encon workplace

Marketing & Branding Strategies Initiated

It takes much more than just a newspaper advertisement to make your presence felt in the business world. A successful marketing campaign is one which is low-cost & yet effective. Aarvi Encon is one of the companies to have understood & implemented this strategy. Few of the innovative marketing strategies initiated by the company in the past couple of years include:

• Preparing attractive catalogues for manpower deputation and consulting & presenting them to large clients.
• Preparing web page for better branding
• Giving lectures & talks at international seminars like IORS

Aarvi has also been making optimal utilization of the social media including sites like, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, etc, to generate awareness in the industry for its products & services. One of the strongest marketing platforms though for the company has been personal meetings & Power Point presentations.

The pioneers of the company believe that their most successful branding strategy has been their participation in HR seminars, Technology seminars and putting up stalls at Oil & Gas Conferences. It is this effective marketing campaign that has today made Aarvi the largest player in the domain of Deputation of Technical Manpower.

Combining Resource & Technology

Aarvi Encon has in the past one year hired over 500+ employees. The company strongly believes that, what compels people to associate with the company are its ethics, rules & regulations & flexible policies. In addition, Aarvi clients are associated with some of the most respectable companies in India and abroad, which gives employees a chance to enhance their CV value.

Aarvi also has to its credit of being the only company to be registered for commissioning of large refinery. Trained and experienced manpower from Middle East return to India for specialized assignment for 4 to 5 months and help to start refineries.

Busy at work

Leveraging Technology for Business Growth

In order to maintain its huge amount of data, Aarvi has deployed effective Data Management Tools across all of its branches, so that the data gets shared between all the recruiters across the country & aids in the process of mobilization of engineers on project and closure of any project. In fact, Data management software has played a significant role in locating candidates faster and with reliability.

Certifications & Awards

• NOCIL Award 1993 for Excellence in Design / Development of Process Plant & Equipment
• CDC National Award for Excellence in Consultancy Services
• ISO 9001 : 2008 Quality Management System
• CRISIL SME-1 Rating indicates “Highest Creditworthiness”
• IEDRA Business Leadership Award for Industrial Development
• PPMAI Award for Excellent Contribution towards Industrial Development &  Leadership
• ISO 18000 – 2007 HSE Certification OSHA

Services

Given the efficient & dedicated team of professionals at Aarvi Encon, the company has been able to grow its field of expertise in numerous areas & sectors like engineering, construction, maintenance, etc. Few of the esteemed & exclusive services offered by the company include:

• Engineering
• Project
• Construction Supervision
• Inspection and Testing
• Stores / warehouse management
• Start-up, Pre-commissioning & Commissioning
• Operation & Maintenance
• Shutdown / Turn around

Upcoming Plans of Aarvi Encon..

At present, Aarvi has its established offices across several major cities of India including, New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Jamnagar, Hyderabad & few other cities. The company soon plans to extend its services & branches in Indian cities like, Nagpur & Bangaluru & overseas destinations like, Muscat, Saudi Arabia, Oman, etc.

To know more about the company visit http://www.aarviencon.com/

SMEstory helps small and medium businesses to bring out their stories and their journey to the world. It is a stepping stone that can motivate the employees, the customers, the vendors and anybody connected to the company. If you would like your company to get featured on this platform send us a mail at story@smejoinup.com

If you are a SME owner and want to be part of our SME JOINUP network do sign up on www.smejoinup.com

From a humble beginning in a small shed in South Delhi starting with an Export Turnover of Rs.12.00 Lakhs in 1994-1995, to becoming a Government Recognised Star Export House in 2009 with State of the Art Modern Four manufacturing facilities/factories in Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon, from where export orders worth more than Rs.50.00 Crores to U.S. & European Markets and domestic orders of around Rs.5.00 Crores have been executed… the journey of Omega Designs has been truly challenging!

About the Founders

Mr. Dilip Dugar, Partner – Mr. Dilip Dugar, has devoted his entire career to the Apparel Manufacturing and Export Business. His knowledge of grass root manufacturing saw him work as the Production Director in a prominent Delhi Based Exporting Company. In addition, he has dedicated over 36 years of his life in the International Marketing of Apparel in various countries in the world while also independently running a reputed buying house for clients in the U.S.A., U.K. & Europe. Besides, Dilip is also successfully running a Govt. Recognised Star Export House for the Past 16 years.

Dilip Dugar

Mrs. Kavita Dugar, Partner – Mrs. Kavita Dugar has devoted her entire career to Apparel Designing & Merchandising. Along her career, she has worked as a Merchandising Head in a leading Gurgaon based buying Agency and has spent over 26 years in designing & merchandising garments in the international apparel markets. Kavita also has her expertise in independently running the domestic retail business of Omega Designs, successfully for the past 16 years.

Kavita Dugar

Marketing & Branding Strategies Initiated

One of the most popular brands owned by Omega Designs is Nauti-Nati. The company shares that a significant branding initiative on their part has been the opening of their own stores across India to promote their own brand of Kids wear. While newspapers have been a reliable means for promoting their products & services, the most reliable media has been the company’s own website – www.nautinati.com

Innovations

Dilip & Kavita Dugar strongly believe that it is innovation & intelligence that has helped the company diversify its expertise in exporting readymade garments to retailing their own brand Nauti-Nati in domestic market, which achieved a record turnover of Rs.5.00 Crores in the second year of launch in 2009-2010. Being an innovative product, the company has registered its brand Nauti-Nati with Trademarks Authority of India. Mr. Dilip Dugar happily shares that, “The idea for this innovation came from a very young entrepreneur in my son Mr. Shantanu Dugar.”

The Success Story – From Idea to Execution

Launched in the year 2009-2010 with the aim of capturing a substantial share of the kids wear market in India, Nauti-Nati today is a household brand for kid’s wear for both boys and girls in the age group 0 to 12 years. The company started off with the girls range and has recently introduced the boys range in Spring Summer 2011. The products are manufactured by Omega Designs, Gurgaon which has been a pioneer in manufacturing and exporting kids’ and ladies’ branded garments for the past two decades. Its clients include major international brands like Macy’s, Otto, Next, Saks, Bloomingdales and Nordstrom among many others.

The expertise gained by Omega Designs in making high quality garments for these brands, is utilized to the utmost potential in manufacturing Nauti-Nati garments. The company boasts of an extremely professional team of designers who understand the pulse of the fashion industry, taking inspirations from the European markets in making highly creative designs & styles.

Omega Fabric Stores

Global Presence

Nauti-Nati has its presence in most economically significant parts of the country. Some of the major clients of the company include Shopper’s Stop Ltd., Globus Stores, Jubilant Retail, Chunmun, Petals and many other multi-brand outlets. The company boasts of a tremendous response so far since the sales have doubled in just two seasons. Today, Nauti-Nati is one of the highest selling brands in its category in Domestic Market.

Omega Stitching Unit

Infrastructure

With 500 world’s most renowned machines, Omega Designs has an in-house production capacity of 1,50,000 pcs per month. Each of the factories abide by India’s extensive labor legislation – Anti Child Labor Laws, Pension Savings & Eligibility of Workers for Health Insurance. Infrastructural facilities offered by the company include state-of-the-art sewing & finishing equipment. In order to ensure the availability of only the finest products to its valuable clients, Omega Designs follows the latest TQM techniques with stringent post-production norms. In addition, the designing team is equipped with the latest CAD systems, for enabling them to make the most effective presentations & develop yarn/dyes & prints in line with the changing trends of the season.

Omega Checking Unit

Omega Checking Unit 2

Design Specializations

Omega Designs specializes in embroidery & prints, knit & woven combinations of garments for kids wear. The washed bottoms are designed with strict emphasis on dimensional stability & hand feel. Special care is taken while designing women’s casuals in order to keep in pace with the cutting-edge trends & fashions.

More than 10 years of strong association has motivated Omega Designs on a growth path where most of the company’s exports are Direct Exports to USA & European Buyers. With a vision to take the lead, Omega Designs plans to raise a gigantic economy of Rs.5.00 Crores in the next one year.

SMEstory helps small and medium businesses to bring out their stories and their journey to the world. It is a stepping stone that can motivate the employees, the customers, the vendors and anybody connected to the company. If you would like your company to get featured on this platform send us a mail at story@smejoinup.com

If you are a SME owner and want to be part of our SME JOINUP network do sign up on www.smejoinup.com

While for most companies, technology continues to be underleveraged, there are smart companies like ALIA & passionate entrepreneurs like Mr. Sanjeev Malhotra, for whom technology forms the very base for achieving exponential success & for being recognized as India’s largest packaging pre-media & printing management company.

Join us as we unfold this challenging journey of a business leveraged by technology:

In Brief

Established way back in the year 1995, ALIA is one of those companies for whom, technology is much more than being just a benefit. For ALIA, technology is more of a necessity for achieving a position of eminence in the competitive business world. What has helped this company make the most of the available technological advancements is the realization that, technology plays a vital role in improving the efficiency of work as well as in delivering a convenience platform to their valuable clientele. In addition, it assists in organizing intra-office functioning thereby increasing productivity to a great extent. Today, ALIA has come to literally Breath & Think technology!

A Word about the Founder

Mr. Sanjeev Malhotra, Founder ALIA - Sanjeev Malhotra is an internationally acknowledged authority on branding and marketing communication.  He is the Vice-Chairman of the India Chapter of Point of Purchase International, Washington, DC; the only Asian on the Global Advisory Council of The Design Management Institute, Boston; and a visiting principal faculty member at the National Institute of Design and the Mudra Institute of Communication (MICA), Ahmedabad, India.  A Harvard Business School alumnus, Sanjeev is socially and professionally well networked and is a member of a number of organizations including the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) network. Sanjeev currently lives in South Mumbai with his wife and their daughter.

Introducing ALIA

The only G7 certified company, ALIA is a hybrid between a managed services and a virtual captive firm that combines finest quality with the best in class technology to offer a complete array of client-based pre-media & print consultancy services. Sanjeev believes that what has really helped ALIA in creating a niche for itself is the knowledge that the packaging industry is becoming more and more complex, in terms of innovation, creativity & technology and thus there is a strong need for companies like ALIA, who can bring the brand, print and packaging partners on a common platform. In fact, ALIA was the first firm in India to introduce workflow solutions & global industry-standard technology systems that allow it to service end to end artwork-to-print life cycle. Right from artworks/mechanicals to digital imaging, creative touch-ups, reprographics & online workflow management systems, ALIA is a one-stop-shop for all. Today, the company is credited for being a market pioneer offering reprographic and print related consulting services to leading multinational and Indian FMCG companies.

Mockup unit at the Alia Group

Services

With a dedicated & efficient team of professionals headed by Mr. Sanjeev, ALIA today is an authority name for packaging print processes, with their services being used across regions in South East Asia, South Asia, AMET and Americas. Few of the esteemed clientele of this company include the likes of industry giants – General Mills, Himalaya, HUL, Unilever, Nerolac, etc. Services covered by ALIA include:

• Reprographics incl.
• Color & Ink Management
• Cylinder Optimization
• Print Consultancy
• Creative
• Artwork
• Mockup Production

‘Alia’s very recent wins have been long term engagements with Cadbury-Kraft & Britannia’

Alia Group

3 Pillars of Success

Like most other companies, ALIA too has had its fair share of ups & downs. However, what has motivated it to move ahead are its three pillars of success:

1) Technology: ALIA has constantly leveraged technology for business growth. In fact, technology (especially IT) has been the most significant mantra of growth for this company. Even as a start-up company way back in 1997, ALIAhad a dedicated in house technology resource, that today has become an integral part of their existence. One of the most memorable stepping stones of success through technology for ALIAwas, when in 1996-97, the company posted password protected presentations in ‘html’ accessible a day before for clients to go through from anywhere in the world with conference calls (versus PowerPoint in a meeting room). This not just helped the company save on time but also leveraged the efficiency of their work.

2) Infrastructure: With dedicated investments on developing infrastructure, ALIA ensures its clients with 24×7 support, accurate communication & optimized efficiency. The company is proud of its independent office in the industrial hub of India, Mumbai with a dual production studio in Mumbai as well as Coimbatore. The studios are developed to offer multiple communication channels, 24-hours facility, dedicated security & Internet and power facilities for uninterrupted operations. ALIA confirmed a turnover of Rs.13 crore for the last financial year with an anticipated closure of Rs.18 crore this year. In their stride to provide a satisfactory infrastructure, ALIA has also developed tools & systems with the most advanced technologies. Designed to simplify workflow, these tools are supported by ESKO technologies for providing clients with real time support.

Mumbai office

3) Workforce: One of the strongest pillars of ALIA is its qualified workforce. The dedicated training of employees along with their already rich background in print & packaging is what helps them in effectively understanding the twists & turns of pre-media management.

Benefits of Going Techno

Alia has since its inception been leveraging technology & continues to scour the market for tools that can make its existence felt across innovations, operations & management. In fact, it has a technology cell whose sole purpose is to offer even & instant customized solutions. The cell has been catalytic in developing software in archiving & security space, which can easily be used by others.

As far as deriving benefits from these technological advancements is concerned, Alia considers technology as its strongest pillar for growth backed by other pillars – Relationships & Intellect. It is this technology that has helped Alia to rise up as a young contemporary and progressive firm.

At the unit

The Success Story

If you are wondering about how the company came to use & rely upon technology for its consistent growth, then here’s the explanation from the founder’s mouth…

Alia works with mega MNC’s especially FMCG. As part of its service offering , “Artwork Management” in this case,  it had to go through the tedious process of winning approvals from at times as many as 14 points involving various hierarchies in the client organization, and could take up to three weeks to close a cycle. Alia was the first of its kind in the country to invest in and procure high end software – that was customized in-house (and christened Alia Central) for client requirement and integrated into their mainframe. This enabled bringing all constituents on the same platform at the same time and resulted in collapsing the cycle time to often less than 3 days. In addition, this also reduced time to market reducing manpower at Alia end and providing exponential gains to the client.

This was a major stepping stone in the growth of the company since, this large investment paved the way for Alia to become a supplier of choice, winning longer-term projects and getting an edge over the other players sharing the same space.

What Sets ALIA Apart…

Unlike most other companies that are stuck with the traditional approach of managing their design to print cycle based on using conventional method of approvals by hard copy circulation, ALIA owns this (and related problems) strategically within its clients, often collapsing timelines to a few days with huge cost savings. As a process owner with freedom to operate as an in-house division – its technology and workflow processes are customized & tailor made to complement and integrate into the client systems where required.

At a function

Vision

ALIA seeks to make the leap from simply optimization to evaporation of processes through technological advancements, giving their clients a better control on the overall process whilst bringing in significant efficiencies and long term savings.

 From the Horse’s Mouth

“We would not just encourage but urge SME’s that they make technology a part of their founding pillars. If technology is not embraced – the firm is unlikely to reach any position of significance in its space. Technology has to be part of their blood stream and not an option or a luxury!”

SMEstory helps small and medium businesses to bring out their stories and their journey to the world. It is a stepping stone that can motivate the employees, the customers, the vendors and anybody connected to the company. If you would like your company to get featured on this platform send us a mail at story@smejoinup.com

If you are a SME owner and want to be part of our SME JOINUP network do sign up on www.smejoinup.com

The basic element for Yolkshire

When Mr. Vinod Shastri met Mr. Datta Deshpande – founder and chairman of Pratham Technologies Pvt. Ltd. with his idea of an Egg Speciality Restaurant about a couple of years back, they were still uncertain about what they were getting into. All they knew was that, they had to make their idea grow into a reality restaurant.

Read through to unfold the brief yet challenging story behind the establishment of Yolkshire Food and Hospitality Pvt. Ltd.

entrance and signage of Yolkshire

About the Founders

Vinod Shastri, Founder Director – A Business/Service student from the Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Mulshi, Mr. Vinod Shastri is the brain behind Yolkshire Food and Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. If it had not been for his innovative idea of an exclusive egg speciality restaurant, “Yolkshire” would not have emerged as one of the most popular names today in the likes of metros Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangaluru.

Varad Deshpande, Founder & CEO – A young, energetic & passionate business student pursuing BBA third year from BMCC, Mr. Varad Deshpande has truly been instrumental in steering Yolkshire clear of its initial challenges. If it had not been for the effective & potential business plan developed & presented by Varad, it would not have been easy for Yolkshire to achieve financial aid approval from the Bank of India. Not only this, Varad also took it upon himself to have the interiors of the restaurant done at the earliest. He also extended his support to Mr. Makarand Kulkarni in finding suppliers for kitchen furniture & equipments.

Mr. Makarand Kulkarni, Founder Director – With an extensive experience in business & catering, Mr. Makarand today is one of the strong supporting pillars of Yolkshire. He has especially been instrumental in purchasing crockery and kitchen equipments. Makarand is also the one to have introduced his close friend Mr. Akshay Puranik to Yolkshire. Akshay has had a significant role in initiating restaurant activities, recruiting people, etc.

Supporting Directors of Yolkshire Food and Hospitality Pvt. Ltd.

Sahil Khan, Director Publicity – Being a start-up business, branding was an important necessity for Yolkshire. Sahil Khan along with Kundan Ruikar took care of the branding part including factors like, company tag line, logo, colour combination, etc. Sahil is also the creator behind the tagline “My eggular hangout”. He used his networking effectively for Yolkshire brand to be recognized in & around Pune. In this initial struggle, he sought valuable support from Radio Mirchi & the local newspapers & magazines.

Inspite of all the initial challenges like marketing, location, finance, etc, the real challenge to make all these struggles worthy was to ensure Growth. At such a critical time, two young & dynamic directors took hold of the reigns of Yolkshire.

Bhargav Deo, Director Operation & Rahul Datye, Director Marketing – With a passion for Food & Hospitality Business, this highly professional duo within their 3 months of joining the company, already had the sales of Yolkshire up by more than 25%.

Team members at Yolkshire

Innovative Marketing & Branding Strategies Initiated

Yolkshire since its inception in 2010 has been a loyal partner with Radio Mirchi in their weekly ‘Tikhat (Spicy) Thursday’, where free food vouchers are distributed to their respondents. In an attempt to create goodwill amongst well-wishers & acknowledge their wishes, special personalized ‘Well-Wisher Cards’ were issued, whereby select people irrespective of the number of visits, can claim discounts on permanent basis.

Not to be left behind are the nearby companies like, e-Zest Solutions, Walchand Industries, Persistent Systems, Seed Infotech, etc, where Yolkshire offers corporate discounts to employees.

Other innovative initiatives on part of Yolkshire include, breakfast meet-ups titled ‘Eggups’, which received a good response.

Use of Social Media for Marketing Products & Services

Nearly all of the marketing initiatives of Yolkshire are free of cost except for few mandatory marketing tools like, banners outside the restaurant and a couple of ‘just-cannot-refuse’ sponsorships.

The marketing & branding strategy of Yolkshire is mainly centred around the use of social media. An important marketing strategy for Yolkshire has been to create a Facebook profile, for achieving quick milestones in terms of its fan following.

Yolkshire takes immense pride in its unique distinction of being the second of its kind restaurants in Pune to have introduced the Foursquare platform. Varying rewards for the Mayor of Foursquare are announced ranging from free coffee to free wi-fi access for every visit till the customer is the Mayor.

Yolkshire also has its active social profiles in sites like, Twitter & listings on zomato.com, askme.com, Just Dial & other such sites.

Platform Instrumental in Brand Promotion

Of all the promotional platforms worked upon by Yolkshire, Facebook has been a hands-down winner. In fact, the online presence of Yolkshire has been more rewarding on Facebook than on its still-to-be-developed website. The 3 innovative & highly rewarding initiatives on part of Yolkshire on Facebook have been:

• A quick personalized message from one of the founders to all those who ‘Liked’ Yolkshire, thanking them and seeking their suggestions for improvement.
• A ‘Fan of the Day’ campaign, wherein fans were randomly chosen & their names announced for a 10% discount on immediate next bill, that too irrespective of number of friends they bought along.
• A special birthday discount of 15% announced on Facebook for fans.
  

  team members at Yolkshire

Below The Line (BTL) Marketing Initiatives

Yolkshire has all along relied heavily on Below The Line marketing. The 5 significant BTL initiatives by Yolkshire include:

• Well-wisher discount cards
• Personal text message updates to people in its phonebooks
• Personalized emails to the address book contacts on every Yolkshire update – from addition to the menu to incorporation of a company
• Corporate discounts
• Personalised targeted messages to Facebook fans

Most Successful Brand Strategy

The most successful brand strategy for Yolkshire has been the leveraging of Facebook platform, which has made it possible for them to have over 1500 Fcebook fans with just one outlet today. Leave apart the actual fans that the restaurant has.

Yolkshire takes pride in achieving all its Facebook targets, the latest being to reach 1600 fans by year end with just 10 shy of it & almost a month still to spare. Yolkshire plans to re-introduce its fan-of-the-day concept, which had initially helped shoot up daily active users from 40 to 300+ users.

A complete meal

Lessons from Marketing & Branding Struggle

The unexpected & commendable success of Yolkshire on Facebook has helped the team realize the importance of being transparent, responsive & ethical. Yolkshire has strictly kept away from deleting negative posts or planting positive ones. It is this transparency & the readiness to accept the good, bad & ugly that has been catalytic in making Yolkshire popular amongst the young & old.

Challenges Faced for Having a Social Media Based Strategy

With an entirely social media based strategy, the chances of negative feedback spreading instantly were high, especially on platforms like Twitter & Facebook. However, the transparency of Yolkshire has been significant tool in this respect.

Another major challenge is responsiveness, where there is a need for someone to be online all the time for responding quickly to both bouquets and brickbats.

The biggest flip side of media-based marketing is that at times, demand fails to match availability.

However, the passionate & determined team of professionals at Yolkshire are ever ready to take these challenges Head On!

What Gives Yolkshire an Edge Over Competitors?

The sole fact that Yolkshire is a one-of-its kind restaurant in Pune, eliminates any direct competition with others in that space. Thus, what has truly helped Yolkshire get an edge over its competitors is its quick response, determination & brutal transparency. Not to forget are the weekly contests that the restaurant holds to keep the fans engaged on Facebook. In addition, the fact that Yolkshire takes care to keep all its posts visible on Facebook including the user comments & wall posts, is what accelerates its popularity.

Upcoming Plans of Yolkshire

While there won’t be any new brand launches, Yorlkshire fans can definitely look forward to some new outlets in Pune in 2012.

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