Old Timer in Security Business

Nityanand Shetty, MD, Essen Vision Software, is one of the few businessmen
who realized the potential of selling anti-virus software way back in 1995.
Eleven years later, Shetty is still selling anti-virus, but this time he has a
host of network security and management solutions along with it. He is one of
the oldest players in the anti-virus solutions business.

In the last 11 years Essen Vision witnessed many ups and downs. However, with
security solutions becoming a hot area for businesses across the world, the
company slowly shifted gears and picked up speed. “Our perseverance to
security solutions business has finally started bearing fruits since last two
year,” said Shetty.

Nityanand Shetty: We have taken a strategic decision to focus only on customers with 50+ users in size

PROFILE

Company: Essen Vision Software MD: Nityanand Shetty Start-up year: 1995 Address: Second Floor, 315, Indian Surveyors House, Shahid Bhagat Singh Road, Fort, Mumbai 400001 Tel: 022-22622527, 022-22656728 Fax: 022-22631044 Mobile: 9820000904 E-mail: nits@essenvision.com Website: www.essenvision.com

The company closed the last fiscal (2004-05) with revenue of Rs 2.3 crore and
this year it is ready to close the fiscal with revenue of Rs 5 crore.

“Initially, people recognize you as a serious anti-virus player and not as a
security solutions player. So, in the last two years we invested in people,
certification programs, training and expanded our product portfolio. This helped
us become a network security and management solutions company,” said Shetty.

The company now has over 100 clients covering many customer segments.
Earlier, the company used to look at customers with even one user. “Now we
have taken a strategic decision to focus only on customers with more than 50
users,” he added. This strategy, according you Shetty, has helped him grow the
company as a serious player in the security solutions business.

How it all started

Selling anti-virus was not what Shetty had foreseen while starting his
professional career. Soon after completing his BE in Electronics in 1989, Shetty
worked as a service engineer at TIFR. But his keenness to do something on his
own made him leave the organization and start his own business.

“I along with a friend of mine started a computer assembling company called
Gray Systems. However, my partner was stuck in hardware and was not the kind who
would diversify into other areas. It was during those days people started
talking about viruses. My curiosity to know more about viruses and ways to cure
it, made me attend a seminar on computer security conducted by Nevil Balasar,”
he recalled.

“During those days Balsara was known as the person who brought anti-virus
to India,” he said. After attending the seminar, Shetty struck a deal with a
distributor called Quantum for reselling Red Alert — a popular anti-virus
software during those days. With this deal in hand Shetty moved out of the
partnership to start a new company along with his wife. “The new company Essen
Vision Software was christened to sound like the letters 'S' and 'N'
denoting the first initial of my wife's name - Seema and mine,” he
explained adding, “Seema used to work as Territory Manager with Quantum before
teaming up for Essen Vision.”

It was the time when people actually started talking about viruses. And the
biggest win for Essen Vision came when it bagged a big deal from RBI. “I can
never forget the RBI deal because we were just a company with two people, yet we
were able to convince a giant organization like RBI,” he boasted.

With lot of growth prospect for anti-virus business, the company also
partnered for dealership of Dr Solomon Anti-virus. They closed the first year
with a revenue of around Rs 25 lakh.

Withstanding bad times

Being one of the oldest players, Essen Vision ensured that they were loyal to
all its principals. It was at that time Dr Solomon Anti-virus was bought over by
McAfee and bad times rolled in. “Due to biased policies of McAfee towards a
particular partner, we lost about a year's business,” recalled Shetty. “That
was the saddest experience we had. Even today, I have one thing to tell all the
vendors that they should not act like godfathers, let the customer decided who
is better or who should remain in business,” he said.

To revive the falling business, Essen Vision also tried to diversify by
taking up exclusive distribution of mobile phone cards of BSNL in Raigad
district. This did not do very well hence the idea had to be drop in Jan 2005.

Back in business

After keeping a low profile for a long time, the last two years gave the company
a resurrection. The company that started with just two persons today employs a
team of 43 professionals specializing in technical and marketing skills. Of
these a core team of 21 executives specialize only in security products. The
company has all the required departments and processes in place. Shetty's wife
now works part-time, as she takes care of their nine year-old son in the second
half of the day.

Today, Essen Vision has strategic alliances in 68 cities and remote locations
to cater to the customer's support requirements. The company aims at total
customer satisfaction by providing solutions to the customers security needs and
backing it with the highest standards of after sales support provided by the
customer support cell.

It is dedicated to providing solutions that protects the entire gamut of
computer networks from attacks. The company is now an enterprise solutions
partner for Symantec products. It is a gold partner for Trend Micro products, a
premium partner for McAfee products.

For firewall solutions it has tied up with CheckPoint; for unified threat
management solutions it has solutions from Sonicwall; for authentication
solutions it has RSA as its principals. In the intrusion detection space it
offers solutions from ISS. Encryption is taken care by PGP products. Websense
addresses content filtering needs and Symantec's Bright Mail tackles spam
menace.

The most recent addition to Essens Vision's business was in the field of IT
infrastructure management.

With a strategically located office in Fort area of Mumbai city, the company's
future plan is to expand and make the company a multi-city venture. Starting
with an additional office in Bandra, followed by one office each in Pune and
Bangalore.

Nelson Johny