Inderpal Singh : Punjabi By Nature

Inderpal Singh, CEO of Aman Technologies, comes from a business family with a
well-established transport and fruit vending business in J&K and Punjab. But his
father saw early on that his son, a class 12 state topper from J&K, was meant
for bigger things. So there were no long faces when it became apparent that
Singh preferred an engineering career to becoming a fruit vendor or transporter.
Instead, there was much jubilation.

After completing his schooling from St Josephs, Pathankot and Nagbani Public
School in Jammu, Singh went to BITS, Pilani in 1985 where he completed his BE
(H) and MS (H) in Electronic Engineering. He capped this with an MBA from IMDR,
Pune University.

Asked how he landed in the IT business, he shared that during his final year
he did a six-month project with ICIM for its client-Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL)
in Bangalore. He was part of the team that designed and implemented the
Production Planning and Control (PPC) software radar-manufacturing package for
the Indian defense forces.

The expertise he gained there helped him enormously in his first job in the
IT department of Telco, Pune where he worked for two years. From 1987 to 1993 he
offered software consultancy in Washington DC, Florida, Connecticut, Tennessee
and San Francisco for organizations like Bank of America, the Florida Federal
Bank, Ameribank, 7/11 convenience store and the Methodist Hospital.

PROFILE COMPANY: Aman Technologies ACADEMICS: BE (H) and MS(H) in Electronics Engineering from BITS, Pilani and MBA from IMDR, Pune YEAR OF STARTUP: 1992 ADDRESS: 206, A-2, South Block, Bahu Plaza, Gandhi Nagar, Jammu Tawi - 180012 TEL: 2477384, 2477385

India calling

But despite his lucrative career overseas, the love of his country and
family brought Singh back to India. “Back then there were no opportunities in
J&K for IT professionals. That was why I decided to start my own venture,” he
reminisced. Aman Technologies came into being in 1992. Today, it has a turnover
of Rs 7.50 crore and a 30-strong workforce. The firm, with a branch office in
Srinagar, services major brands such as Wipro, WeP, Canon, Microsoft, Oracle,
Sun, Dax, D-Link, offering complete IT solutions: Hardware, software, systems
integration and more.

Initially, the low market acceptability for his products and services made
the going really hard for him. Yet, at no point did this Pathankot-born ever
regret his decision to return to his roots and do his own thing.

Support system

Launching Aman Technologies with personal savings of just Rs 3 lakh was
possible only because he had a supportive wife and parents. “My wife Parveen
Kaur is my constant source of inspiration,” said Singh, who himself enjoys his
family man status as much as his career. He loves spending time with his two
teenaged sons-Amanpreet and Tavleen and nine-year-old daughter-Dhihum Kaur. He
even named his company after his elder son. “I spend quality time with my kids
and family. That is how I unwind.” He also likes traveling, reading, playing
tennis and watching cricket, and is a fairly gregarious person. “Social
interactions help me stay fit and in good humor,” said Singh who can't imagine a
life without socializing. He is an active member of Lions Club, an NGO and a
charitable trust.

An avid traveler, Singh has toured all across US and India, among other
places. His favorite travel destinations are San Francisco, Los Angeles, Florida
(in the US) and Delhi and Himachal Pradesh (in India.) A great food aficionado,
he relishes as many cuisines as there are tastebuds in his gourmet mouth:
Chinese, Mexican, Thai, you name it. And yes, in true-blue Punjabi style, he is
also a great cook of butter chicken.

Singh puts premium on diligence, dedication, commit­ment and sincerity.
These, he believes, are all the more crucial in the changed business dynamics of
today. The cutthroat competition, declining profit margins, rising costs of
operation and manpower all add up to a powerful challenge. “One has to keep
track of all these to sustain oneself in the marketplace. And as India is a
price-sensitive market there needs to be, in addition, a constant
product-and-solution mix of low-income high-volume sales and high-income
low-volume product and services sales. Only then can one maintain a proper
balance,” he shared.

The road ahead

Aman Technologies, which provides end-to-end IT solutions, is now planning to
work more closely with the telecommunication sector. For that it now plans to
integrate its IT and telecom segments, to deliver niche customized solutions in
a more nuanced format.

MANISHA K

manishak@cybermedia.co.in