Service, The Money Spinner

A services company look ing for partners?! Yes, that is what Mumbai-based

Kiran Shiveshwar and Vasant Bhanushali of Crystal Solutions are doing. They have

established themselves firmly among leading corporates with their top-level

service in anti-virus solutions and are now looking for partners who could sell

these services for them and earn attractive margins.

Crystal Solutions distributes a basket of niche products as well. It is the

national distributor for FSecure. It also distributes Veritas products.

Kiran, who is the President and CEO of the company, claims that his was the

first company then in 1995 to establish a 24-hour, 7-days a week support center.

Says he, "I am certain that there was no one else offering this kind of

support then."

Backing Kiran, says Vasant, who is a Director, "This is what helped us

to grow by reference to become a Rs 1 crore-plus company today."

SMALL BEGINNINGS



Kiran started Crystal Solutions in 1993 from his residence. After he had secured
a BE in electronics from Mumbai University and a post-graduate diploma in

business management from Jamnalal Bajaj, he began selling anti-virus solutions

on a commission basis.

His college-mate Vasant joined him a year later and the two together

formulated a strategy to develop services as the core strength of the company.

The result is that today Crystal Solutions has 14 engineers to provide solutions

and support in back-up, Linux, network health, security and messaging.

Crystal Solutions today offers support to clients such as Reliance, Bennett

& Coleman, Jet Airways, Sun Pharma among others.

The experience gained in servicing enterprises became handy for Crystal

Solutions to start US operations where it has an office in New York and employs

15 consultants.

FREEDOM FOR ENGINEERS



Kiran and Vasant like to give a lot of freedom to their engineers to ensure
their personal and intellectual growth. The result is that the attrition rate in

the past two years has been zero.

Vasant points out that there have been cases where engineers who had left

Crystal Solutions for better prospects want to come back.

The committed manpower has helped Crystal Solutions to build strong bridges

not only with customers but also with select partners. The company is working

together with Mumbai-based Lauren Software, Dynamic Solutions, Ultimate

Computers among others.

Kiran and Vasant are confident that their service strategy is bound to

succeed because every organization today is looking at integrating the Internet

to enhance business operations.

A DQCI Report