Driving Sales Via Service

Banglorean Dinesh Danapathi’s determination to offer top-quality support services to corporate and SME clients has helped his company Hardsoft register repetitive sales. Despite certain setbacks, the company through its dedicated service approach, commands an installation base of over 2,500 machines.

It is his determined approach towards ensuring customer satisfaction that has made Dinesh Danapathi’s organization, Hardsoft Solutions, a well-recognized name among resellers and end-users in

Bangalore. 

Service as a business option was one of the last things Dinesh had on his mind while he was heading the support division at Computer Point in Bangalore. Also considering his family background, where rarely anyone had been into business, his decision to venture on his own came as a surprise to everyone. 

But this was sixteen years ago. Today, Dinesh runs a successful software development center and a third party service facility in Bangalore and Udupi. His ideology to focus on services rather than competing in the volume-pushing game has helped his company create an image of a reliable support and service provider for ‘any brand, any product´. 

GETTING A JUMP-START



Incorporated in 1987, Hardsoft today has a branch at Udupi and a very strong customer base in almost all verticals. The company is also being empaneled for computer maintenance with the Government of Karnataka. This has helped Hardsoft to grow from being a mere AMC provider to a well-recognized third-party maintenance and systems integration organization. 

The company was started by four first-generation businessmen, two of who are still actively involved in its day-to-day affairs.

Dinesh Dhanapathi and Sathish Babu, while working for Computer Point, saw a growing need for a company that was primarily focused on support, while selling cost-effective solutions. This inspired them to set-up a support service center in Bangalore along with two other individuals, Joseph John and Madan Mohan. 

Because of his extensive contacts and experience in the local market, courtesy Computer Point, Dinesh did not face much difficulty. Needless to say, all this resulted in a success that by any standard is enviable. 

Dinesh started his venture with a capital of Rs 1 lakh and recorded a turnover of Rs 1 crore in less than a year. “Our success in the very first year can be attributed to the undivided focus on support that we had right from the start,” he proudly informs.

Hardsoft also partnered with Sterling Computers and Wipro in the early 90s and by 1997 its revenues touched its peak. “We registered a turnover of Rs 6.5 crore during 1997 and this was an all-time high performance of Hardsoft,” informs he. During the same period, Dinesh ventured into software development and enterprise systems management space as well.

He also partnered with Acer and decided to withdraw Wipro´s range of products from the company´s portfolio. But this move didn’t work out too well. According to Dinesh, this shift in focus resulted in a sharp fall in the company´s topline growth. Hardsoft’s turnover declined to Rs 2.1 crore in 2001-02. 

However, he soon realized the shortfalls of his action and wasted no time in taking necessary corrective measures and established a support facility at Bhanashankari. Dinesh´s well-balanced approach to tackle this situation helped the company bounce-back and register a turnover of Rs 3.1 crore during the fiscal 2002-03. For the current fiscal, he is aiming to achieve a growth of about 40%.

Dinesh believes that Hardsoft’s partnership with Acer, HP and IBM will add more mileage to achieve the targeted growth set by him. “Today we are also business partners of APC and Quantum Power for their reliable and cost-effective UPS Systems,” adds he.

LIVING UP TO EXPECTATIONS



Over the years, Hardsoft has gained considerable faith and trust from leading, corporate, public/private sector and ISO 9000 certified clients. Hardsoft is also one of the few companies to have sustained the demanding pressure for maintaining consistent levels of support service in

Bangalore. 

Today, Hardsoft has an installation base of over 2,500 machines, along with a workforce of 30 highly-trained support engineers specializing as MCPs, MCSEs, CNEs and CNAs. “Our support engineers are well-trained to work on all popular platforms like Novell Netware, Windows XP, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Linux, and other platforms/applications,” says Dinesh with confidence.

As part of the company´s IT infrastructure management operations, Hardsoft has also trained on-shore engineers at BEL-CRL, Cross-Domain Solutions, Directorate of Census Operations, JSS Institutions, Karnataka Power Corporation, KSFC, KSHDC, KUIDFC, Tyco Electronics and Tyco Power, to name a few.

PERFORMANCE PAYS OFF



Hardsoft has also won many sales and support achievement awards from Acer and HP. “We value the awards that we have received from our principals for our dedicated after-sales service. But, we don´t believe in resting on our laurels,” adds Dinesh. According to him, each of these awards reflect the company´s uncompromising performance as far as support infrastructure, technical expertise, response time, product downtime and customer satisfaction levels, are concerned. 

Of the many corporate accounts, Hardsoft today caters to organizations such as Arrow Electronics India, BPRL, Padmini Products, SSS, Shining Emotional Brand Building and Victory Glass, to name a few. Hardsoft is also the preferred name for support services in several software companies namely Cross-Domain Solutions, MDC Infoway Limited and Vimsoft. Dinesh has leading chartered accountancy firms like Sridhar & Britto and Singhvi, Dev and Unni added to his clientele list.

Hardsoft has also developed and implemented a program, Internal Management Control of maintenance operations. Apart from this, Dinesh plans to get the company´s support center ISO-certified by this year-end. Alongside, Dinesh has established a separate technical repair center (TRC) for component-level card and peripherals repair.

BANKING ON BOTTOMLINE 



Dinesh has always focused on bottomline even at the cost of losing some deals. “Our focus has always been to improve the bottomline. There are many players who go for the top-line. But we have restrained ourselves from doing this,” he points out. 

Quality-selling rather than quantity-selling has been Dinesh´s philosophy. Talking about his vision for Hardsoft, he says, “Our aim is to have proactive and prompt interaction with all our business partners, to be responsible in our approach, to have integrity in conduct of our business and accountability for all our actions.”

Dinesh is also envisaging setting up a national-level service network with branches spread across major cities in the country.

“Our alliance with Sify will be the first step towards this direction,” informs he. According to him, this alliance will help Hardsoft gain access to many more enterprise accounts at a national level. Dinesh also plans to strengthen the company´s network maintenance expertise, while focusing his skills to offer corporate customers, customized, yet cost-effective networking solutions. 

 SUNILA PAUL in Bangalore