Doing Business Intelligently

Aditya Krishna, Founder & Managing Director, Saksoft Ltd., tells us how sticking to its core competency has helped it gain niche status and shares his strategy on managing and growing businesses in a rapidly changing environment.

Tell us about your business and your journey so far. 

Saksoft is an Information Management (IM) specialist. We focus only on the IM/Business Intelligence (BI) area of the IT industry. In this area, we offer the complete stack of services from the consulting, data-warehouse build, tool implementation and finally, the analytics (including predictive analytics) layer of IT services. We believe in sticking to our core competency, and have invested and consistently grown in this segment in the past. Today, we are a 650-people strong enterprise, with 125 proud clients and over Rs 200 crore in revenues.

Do you think being in the mid- or small-sized category puts you at a disadvantage vis-à-vis your larger counterparts?

Not really. Our niche status as an IM specialist provides us with a differentiator. The ability to understand the domain and provide insights is a skill that cannot be mass produced, and that is where we differ from other players in the market. We have the frameworks, expertise, experience and credibility to serve our target verticals in our core competency of IM. 

Can you tell us about your direct competition in terms of line of business and also in terms of size? 

Our competition is varied and does not conform to a standard list of providers. With our larger clients, we see large systems integrators (SIs) and Indian offshore providers trying to vend their services. With mid-market segments, the competition is typically local. In some cases, there is no competition if we make the right pitch.

How have you managed to cope with the challenges that the competition throws at you? 

We have managed to stand firmly on our feet and not be swayed by temporary waves of opportunity. Retaining our core and established client base, and providing complementary services offerings where needed, has enabled us to face competitive situations. We also work with local resources in local markets, and this is an important differentiator in our engagement model with the typical SME client that we cater to.

What is your take on the overall business environment of today? 

The environment is positive for companies in the BI and Analytics space. The way of doing business has changed dramatically and the people doing business have to be educated and sensitised on the value that is being brought about. It is now more important than ever to manage your business by numbers and use analytics or ‘big data’ to help in decision making. We believe that analytics and IM will drive business growth and profits in the future.

The economic environment has been pretty challenging over the past year or more. How far has this impacted your business? 

In a difficult business environment, it is even more important to use IM to make business decisions and since this is our focus area we see an increasing demand for our services.Our growth has been consistent and we have been early adapters to the changing engagement models in IT services. Also, since we stick to our core competency area (IM), we remain focused and specialised. This has ensured that we have always remained profitable and have tried to maximise returns for our shareholders.

Please take us through your company’s financials for FY14 so far. 

We have had two good quarters in FY14 ending September 2013. The revenues and EBITDA have increased by 59 per cent and 71 per cent respectively for the September quarter. The net profit has also increased by 76 per cent in the said period. 

What, according to you, will be the turning point for the Indian economy in the near future? 

The Indian economy will improve only if there are significant and sustained improvements in our infrastructure and reduced dependency on subsidies to win elections. We need a stable and strong government that can govern properly and ethically. Government policies should be stable and transparent so that the industry can plan rather than constantly resort to knee-jerk actions to survive.Where do you see your company over the next five years? 
Over the next five years, we will be a Rs 1000 crore company with predictable and stable revenue streams. Our focus markets are the developed geographies. We will be a recognised IT services company in the IM business landscape, providing a complete stack of services and assuming responsibility for our customers’ end-to-end analytics needs. We will be the preferred employers for IM/BI professionals and will strive to always do what is best for our customers.

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