NETLINK BUSINESS SYSTEMS: Getting Linked Successfully

Rajesh Bakshi has an unusual knack. It is to get into a business which might
not be favored by the market, and then turn it around into a successful venture.
So when Netlink Business Systems started its business as a network reseller in
August 1992, he was not surprised to find many people cautioning him about
getting into an unviable business.

But today Netlink has grown its revenues from Rs 40 lakh in its first year to
Rs 47 crore last fiscal. Rajesh hopes to cross Rs 65 crore in 2004-05.

STARTING SMALL, BUT AIMING HIGH

Rajesh started Netlink with his friend, Pankaj Garg, with an investment of
Rs 5,000.

After dabbling in networking for a while, Rajesh decided to provide
end-to-end solutions and tied up with Apple Computers and a year later in 1993,
signed up with Compaq for selling its servers. And for six consecutive years,
Netlink bagged the company’s best performer award in the northern region.

The company formed a separate entity in 1998 named Netlink Ranve, which
developed software solutions.

Slowly it ventured into IT asset management, when the term was hardly known
to many people. Netlink has already 

executed several projects for asset management.

MOVING OFFSHORE

True to his nature of charting new paths, Rajesh stated Netlink’s first
offshore operations in Kuala Lampur in 1999, where it launched a development
center to provide complete CRM solutions to clients like Tanco, a group of
five-star hotels in Malaysia and a sister concern of Petronas. "Today, we
have six major clients in Malaysia and hope to clinch a couple of more deals
this fiscal," Rajesh reveals.

The company moved to Detroit this year as it is on the verge of bagging a
very lucrative deal there. Netlink has kept it options open to have ore offices
worldwide. Rajesh feels this is a prudent move as India is globally accepted as
a tech-savvy nation with inexpensive, but intelligent labor force. He foresees
more solution providers following this trend.

SERVICES IS WHERE THE FUTURE IS

Constantly reinventing the wheel was what kept Netlink ahead of its
competition and also kept the company in good stead when the going was tough.
This was especially true during the recession that hit the markets in 2000.

"IT business was in a bad shape, especially networking. We had to reduce
the salaries of our employees and almost 25% left the organization," Rajesh
recalls. But, he remained focused on solution providing and today his
determination has reaped him good results.

Services is one aspect that Rajesh pays minute attention to, as he is aware
that it is the only way to retain its customers.

Also, services is the most profitable revenue stream today and it contributes
20% to Netlink’s overall revenues. Rajesh would like this figure to be 50% by
2007.

In 2000, his team of engineers started working on a service module called
Total IT Infrastructure Management Services (TIIMS).

"TIIMS contributed Rs 5 crore to our overall revenue in 2003-04. This is
an end-to-end IT service that every organization looks forward to and presently
we have a three-year TIIMS deal with Innodata, which is an US-based company in
Noida," Rajesh adds.

Work is such a driving force in Rajesh’s life that he has even roped in his
wife, Neelam to join him in the business. Today, she is helping her husband
realize his dream of making Netlink a Rs 200 crore company within five years.

TEAM DQCI