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Editors Pick
| Allied Digital Receives CRN Company of The Year 2008 Award | |
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| Posted by Admin 28/6/2008 | |
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The Company of the Year 2008 award was conferred on Allied Digital Services in light of the numerous achievements and industry-firsts achieved during the past year including a successful IPO; nearly cent percent growth; pursuing an acquisition strategy to go global; and identifying new business models like SOC.
In July 2007, Allied's Rs 86 crore IPO was oversubscribed 61 times. Explaining the decision to raise funds through IPO, Allied Digital Chairman Nitin Shah said, “Our aim with the IPO was not to raise funds but to create value and wealth for our stakeholders including our employees. Prior to our decision to list, we had several offers for private equity deals from strategic investors and PE funds." Post listing, Allied demonstrated great growth momentum and recorded 92 percent jump in topline by posting a turnover of Rs 300 crore. PAT jumped by 88 percent to Rs 43 crore. “What’s unique about this growth is that it’s all from solutions and services. At Allied, we have moved away from pure-selling hardware. We design and implement the solution, but let the customer decide who they want to buy the hardware from. We actually help them coordinate with distributors or vendors for the purchase. And customers also appreciate our approach as it gives them a feeling that we are trying to work in their interest. Also, it saves us from blocking our capital on hardware supply, which anyway doesn't generate much margin," averred Shah. According to Shah, one of the key reason that has contributed to Allied’s success has been its decision to move away from the traditional vendor-centric business model to customer-centric. "Traditionally, all of us in channels have been vendor-centric. That’s because in our early days we have benefited greatly in business from our exclusive loyalties to vendors and find it difficult to break that relationship. But what I realized is that being customer-centric is not only beneficial for us but also for the vendors. Vendors sign us up because of the control we have on our customers,” he opined. Allied was one of the first few channel companies to identify the vast potential of remote and managed services. The company has set up a NOC and SOC at its Mhape center to service not only Indian customers but also international. The company also pioneered the concept of Technical BPO by managing end-to-end post-sales service of vendors like Unisys, Dell, Allied Telesyn, Reuters and British Telecom. Last year, the company further boosted its T-BPO operation by acquiring 51 percent stake in third-party RMA provider, Digicomp India for a consideration of Rs 10 crore. The company announced an additional investment of Rs 10 crore to scale up Digicomp’s operations. Now the company has set its eye on the international market and is on verge of acquiring a FMS company in the US for almost $30 million. “The deal has been valued at one time the company’s 2007 revenue. With a few hundred FMS and RIM customers, the acquisition will give us a foothold in the world’s largest IT services market," said Shah. This again will be a first for an IT channel company to acquire a large company internationally. Shah takes pride in the fact that Allied has set several benchmarks and industry firsts in business practices. It was probably the first solution provider to appoint a professional CEO, Bimal Raj, who has been running the company operations for over six years. "Letting someone outside your family run the company that you have built with your sweat and blood is tough. But it is an emphatic statement that anyone can aspire to run Allied one day," opined Shah. According to Shah, employee empowerment is the only way to build a great organization. "My job at Allied is to empower employees so that they can achieve the dreams for me," he added. Allied was also the first to enter into a private equity deal with Bennett & Coleman in 2005 in lieu of branding and advertising support. "It was an important milestone as the branding support from the country's leading media house gave us visibility we couldn't imagine to with our limited marketing budget. It boosted our image and gave us entry into many large enterprises," elaborated Shah. Talking about the future, Shah said, “Our focus will continue to be services. Last fiscal, revenue from services crossed the Rs 100 crore mark growing almost three fold. To sustain our leadership, we will have to continue innovating, not just by growing fast but also building an organization which has global best practices.” This year Allied plans to deploy SAP in the organization to streamline systems and processes. It also plans to attain ISO 27001 certification. An ardent fan of Dhirubhai Ambani, Shah wishes to create an organization that will consistently create shareholder value. “This requires transferring the vision and dreams of the top management to every employee in the organization. The big challenge is to make each employee mirror the vision of customer centricity that we have laid down," concluded Nitin Shah. |
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