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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.