PASSION PERSONIFIED

System integration has
been the mainstay for Ahmedabad-based Sai InfoSystem and that is what
puts Sunil Kakkad, CMD of Sai, at the top of the league of most
powerful SPs in the country. The company specializes in end-to-end
solutions, as a total solution provider satisfying all ICT needs of
its customers. Its major clients include government organizations
like public sector units, state governments and BFSI sector. We
partner with all IT majors as well as PSUs like ITI, TCIL, etc, to
offer the best solution to customers. In FY '09-10, Sai crossed the
Rs 1,000 crore mark while finances for the current year are still
under audit.

The company has been able
to maintain its leadership in all these years by following a few
basic mantras, which include managing processes and not people,
focusing not on what they do, but how they do. As well as using
techniques like process mapping and benchmarking to achieve
continuous improvement; value incremental gains; measuring
performance by customer satisfaction; anticipating, learning,
adopting, and introducing new technologies/solutions/products faster
than competition. Moreover, designing new solutions for efficient
implementations; treating suppliers and customers as partners;
and lastly, managing resources in superior fashion, are some of its
basic mottos.

While the company has been
offering many tailor-made solutions to customers which can be termed
as innovations, one major achievement/project for Sai in the recent
times has been bagging the contract for deployment of voice and video
over broadband and data center services in partnership with BSNL. The
company believes that these services are truly innovative and have
the potential to change the whole perception about Sai InfoSystem.
Besides, its continuous improvement in internal processes have also
helped
it in staying ahead of its competitors. Currently, it is implementing
an ERP system internally to streamline and integrate all its
operations for better efficiencies.

No doubt, Kakkad is the
most influential SP in the country and he has managed to do so by
following Shiv Khera's mantra of doing things differently than
doing different things. He has always thought from the customer's
perspective and has tried to offer superior solutions in a
cost-effective manner. Besides, he has always used speed as a
differentiator in all of the company's internal processes which has
acted as a catalyst as far as the internal learning is concerned and
as a differentiator for its customers. During this journey, Kakkad
had to struggle to change the mindset of the entire ecosystem.
However, as an organization, it came out stronger every time it faced
any challenge. Augmenting the team and aligning the thought process
of new members of the team with the current thought
process is a challenge that the company faces on a day-to-day basis.

As far as expansion is
concerned, the ball has already started rolling for Sai. After
establishing its presence in the Gulf and the US, it is in the
process of setting up shops in Europe as well. Kakkad's immediate
goal is to reposition the company as a global convergence company
from a national IT solution provider.