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01 October, 2008
Ace's ambitions revolve around the customers' needs. Neeraj Mediratta, Ace Data, storage solution
provider have not only survived through pros and cons of industry but is also aiming high
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| Neeraj Mediratta |
It would not be an overstatement to say that two brothers Neeraj and Anuj
Mediratta, partners of the Delhi based Ace Data, a storage solutions provider, are
scaling to ace heights. Their journey began from selling computer stationery and
refilling, later, a high-end storage solutions provider. The duo carries the vision of
being the leading providers of heterogeneous enterprise backup, networked storage
(SAN & NAS), high availability and disaster recovery solutions for UNIX and
Windows environment.
"Our ambitions revolve around the customers' needs rather than specific
manufacturer product offerings," says Neeraj Mediratta, 37, director of Ace Data.
Having made a modest beginning by selling pre-printer computer stationery, refilling ribbons, floppies
and media, Ace can now boast of having over 100 customers to its account exclusively in the storage
space including Bharati Tele-ventures, Aviva Life Insurance, Dabur India, and the likes.
Journey with challenges
It was, indeed, not a straight road for the two brothers to taste success. While Anuj Mediratta, who now
handles the technical support part of the business, ventured into software development program from
1996-97 with limited resources. At the same time, Neeraj with pharma background, also stepped in to
support his brother and they developed a program for automation of transport company.
Along with the programming, there was also a need for consumable products by some small customers.
However, the first order for the consumables came from Crompton Greaves for the value of Rs 105.
Ace Softek was established to fulfill the transactions. Neeraj bagged a few orders through references
for the consumables and other accessories and started fulfilling orders for Cisco.
When Cisco was expanding its operations in the year 1998-99, its then country head Anil Batra asked
Neeraj to buy a HP PC. "Anil Batra indirectly helped me to get into this business who understands the
nitty - gritties of doing it", maintains Neeraj. With Cisco's head aspiring for a HP Brio PC , Neeraj's
entry into HP became easier. That was a turning point in his business.
"Initially, we were just fulfilling the orders. It was a time when there were many partners for the
vendors and none looked at us nor agreed to make us their partners," he adds.
Cisco's head wanted them to deliver HP color laser worth Rs six lakh. Due to financial crisis, the
demand was unfulfilled. Eventually, Neeraj and his partner decided to take the order on HP, albeit no
great margins. In the process, he started selling a few pieces. Ace, thereby, got an opportunity to
become HP's partner in 1999 to sell Brio that focused on corporate and SMB customers.
Later, TVS-E came forward to make Ace its partner to drive DMPs and Lexmark printers along with
UPS. As Ace already had displayed its technical capabilities in terms of assembling and fixing issues at
its customers' places, the company got the status of being TVS-E's authorized service partner. HP's lead
generation program helped Ace to manage good customer base that recorded a turnover of Rs three
crore in 2001.
The merger of HP and Compaq helped Ace to look at newer areas. Since HP also wanted certain
partner expertise in storage imparted training, Ace became HP's certified storage partner.
Riding the wave
Today, Ace is in a position to negotiate with its vendor and customer because of its implementation
capabilities. Later orders that Ace saw was for back up storage worth Rs 27 lakh and the order flowed
in relentlessly. The company’’s current position is a turnover of Rs 12 crore with the growth rate of 50
per cent.
In the early 2000, the company went into registering as ‘Ace Data.’ The largest order that Ace executed
this year was from Bharati, deploying EMC's Symmetrix solutions and implementing NOC and disaster
recovery solutions at Rs 3.7 crore.
To acquire all possible skills in implementing any critical solution, the company is leaving no stone
unturned. Ace has become Dell's strong implementation partner and has implemented huge projects for
PWC, Kothari and few others. Today, Ace garners 65 per cent of its revenues from EMC, 25 per cent
from services and the remaining from Quantum and other product lines.
Greater goals
Ace has set a revenue target of Rs 25 crore in the coming fiscal and has huge projects in the pipeline.
With its 14 member team, the company is aiming at having 65 per cent new customers in the coming
year. Ace has created a web based monitory system and has 253 enquiries in the system already from
the corporate and SMB customers. Neeraj and his team have rolled out a training program under the
'Insift' brand name to impart training on various storage related courses. "We are expecting a turnover
of Rs one crore from Insift in the coming year. The areas of focus would be network management
storage, open storage management, software and SQL consolidation programs and so on," maintains
Neeraj.
The partners' focus is to create value to the customers and with specialized expertise to meet their business continuity and storage related challenges across the enterprise.
~ N Geetha
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