Pushing the Cloud agenda

As we move forward into the second decade of the 21st century, intelligent business managers are happy to discard tedious and inefficient ‘conventional’ technology in order to streamline processes and boost productivity. For those feeling burdened by the many nuisances of “IT on Premise” and other tiresome models, the arrival of Cloud tech has been nothing less than a gift from above. Of course, for guys like Vikram Dham, CEO and co-founder of Emkor Solution Limited, the blessings have been particularly lucrative.

Before co-founding Emkor, Vikram Dham worked as an independent consultant in Australia where he provided various consultant services to G500 companies, including systems design/integration around cloud technologies, server virtualization, data management, business continuity and disaster recovery solutions.

According to a Zinnov report, by 2015, the cloud computing market in India will reach $1 billion with Software as a Service (SaaS) portion capturing $650 million while Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) portions cumulatively netting around $440 million.

Beginnings

According to Dham, Emkor Solution Limited, the business services company, was created in 2011 after its founders cleverly noted the shortcomings of existing service providers. He indicated that traditional service providers are focused less on results and are not in a position to easily shift to the new “On Cloud–shared services model.”

Commenting on observations that aided the creation of Emkor, Dham said, “Currently most business leaders, entrepreneurs and stakeholders spend between 70 and 80 per cent of their time on Non-Core imperatives managing middle and back office operations. With Cloud computing technology, they can now seek to outsource all their critical but non-core business functions to providers that can run on-demand shared services model, and offer better quality, faster turnarounds and elastic scale up or down charge mechanisms. Since we live in an interdependent world, we at Emkor truly believe that every individual or business should focus solely on their core competencies and imperatives.”

Growth story

Sophisticated business leaders are concerned with core strengths and strategic advantage; they comprehend the reasons for standardized business processes and modern technology, and they’re enthusiastic to embrace both without increasing expenditures. Dham says that Emkor’s Business Function as a Service (BFaaS) offers subscribers a pay as you go, on demand service delivery model that can be leveraged to outsource all critical but non-core business functions.

Dham elaborated on Emkor’s edge, “Globally we are the only true B2B Cloud Company offering platform based end-end outsourcing solutions for IT, F&A, BI & Analytics under one roof. Our competition is traditional “On-Premise” and “BPO Time/Material” type legacy offerings. All these companies will have to switch to a cloud model to stay competitive. In a way Emkor moves all three dimensions of technology, process and people into the Cloud.”

All this has seen traction with customers. According to the company, it has 7 clients in India and one from Dubai, running its platform. Companies like Advance Group with a turnover of $250 million. Similarly, Bravia International General Trading LLC, a Dubai based company which is into frozen food business and retail has implemented its solutions.

Like most startups, the company’s initial challenges were building awareness among SMBs and acquiring skilled talent.

Most business folk are aware of technology’s benefits but may require a little hand holding along the way. Dham explained how his team goes the extra mile, “We are not only providing cloud services, and we are actually educating the market and bringing them up to speed. A large percentage of business owners who invested hugely in change to reap the benefits of new technology and processes, have now realized that change is not easy, it comes at a significant cost, associated risks and entry barriers.”

Future plans

As a part of its future plans, Emkor plans to reach out to 70,000 end users and touch 1400 companies in the next 5 years. While a somewhat similar company, Zoho, which offers an alternative to Microsoft Office and Google Docs, clocks around $100 million in revenue every year, something that Emkor can draw inspiration from. Further, it is working on building similar services for other sectors such as real estate, logistics and healthcare.

The world has seen many changes since the Internet made its debut, and now it’s impossible to run a successful business without it. Smart cookies know the Net is not science fiction, and that critical business processes operate significantly cheaper and more efficiently via the Internet. But at every turn, one can still find a dullard who is unable to understand why someone would need to check email while outside the office, and is unwilling to leverage technologies that would save time, increase productivity, enhance mobility and even boost a team’s morale. Such regressive attitudes regarding innovation can eventually destroy a company. Like a dinosaur, one must either adapt or go extinct.

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