AIC gives employees stake in company in order to retain them

Sethuraman NR

Chennai: Following the footsteps of Accel ICIM, where its employees hold 60
percent of the company stake, Chennai-based Athena Info Consulting (AIC) is
providing employees who have an experience background of 10-15 years joining the
organization with a small stake of the company. The motive behind the move is to
attract talent as well as ensure better retention.

Said Rangarajan Sriraman, Founder-CEO, Athena Info Consulting; "We are
going to attract the talent in the industry by offering a unique compensation to
those who have good experience and wish to serve Athena. Employees would be
provided with some percentage stake holding in the company for their
service."

The company has also announced the launch of Remote Infrastructure Management
Services from its state of art network operation center, which is based in
Chennai.

Started in the year 2005 the company has its operations in Singapore, US and
U.K. The focus of the company lies in the SMB segment, and it provides
end-to-end IT infrastructure. "End-to-end solutions are receiving
recognition in the market since SMB segment requires such service with a
consultative approach. This would help the small companies to make informed
decisions on technology investments," claimed Rangarajan.. "SMB focus
has started yielding results and we have the confidence of monitoring critical
functions within IT and would be able to provide a value proposition in our
services," he added.

Talking about the USP of AIC he said, "Athena helps the customers to make
informed decisions in the technology segment. Athena would focus on those
companies, which have revenue size below $ 25 million."

The company has also planned to increase its headcount to 180 from the
present 60 foreseeing huge opportunities in the SMB segment.

On an observation that the company could emerge as a close competitor for the
tier one and two channel partners, who have started focusing the SMB's,
Rangarajan said that AIC had an edge over the channel partners in the consulting
domain. "It is a good news that channel partners are moving out of box
pushing. We have an edge over them in the consulting area, since we have better
expertise," he claimed.