Saket Suman: A Go-Getter Who Competes With Himself To Be at The Cutting - Edge | CEOInsights Vendor
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Saket Suman: A Go-Getter Who Competes With Himself To Be at The Cutting - Edge

Saket Suman: A Go-Getter Who Competes With Himself To Be at The Cutting - Edge

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Saket Suman, Partner

Saket Suman

Partner

Ever since the Y2K technology boom, enterprise technologies have never failed to amaze us with its interventions in the business world. Bill Gates echoed these wise words back in 1999, “Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without talking about the other". We've come a long way since then.

From Walmart spending $11.7 billion on technology in a single fiscal year to Nike, the iconic sports brand, introducing a state-of-the-art, AI powered mobile application that allows the customers to scan their feet and find a shoe that fits the best. To hold on to the online market share, technology investment today tops in every successful organization’s budget plan. But make no mistake,‘technology edge’ is not a multinational corporate phenomenon.

"Value creation for a customer is not by offering the best of breed CRM, SRM or ERP solution in silos. It is how we position and interweave intelligent enterprise solutions such as SAP to drive the entire chain of Business Process Transformation"
-Surajit Chakrabarty, Managing Partner

The intervention using the right technology to enable ideal digital transformation could give every organization a competitive edge regardless of the industry that it belongs to. However, analyzing the needs and leveraging the right technology is the key to meaningful digital transformation. NRS Consulting comprises a perfect combination of young talented and dynamic professionals hailing from different industry background with rich accumulated experience of business processes, functions, technology, systems and resources is on a mission to help companies acquaint themselves with this elementary fact and in turn democratize the competitive technology advantage. Co-founded by a trio of Young Turks Saket Suman, Surajit Chakrabarty, and Sandeep Kumar, NRS over the past decade has managed to stabilize and set its strong foot hold in the areas of Digital Transformations System Integrations(ERP), Business Process Management, IT Audit Assurance services, and ERP Application Maintenance Services, among others. In other words, while being at the cutting-edge of technology, the company today is a one-stop-shop for all the assessments, implementations upgrades and managed services requirements of organizations. When experienced and proven expertise combine with innovation & freshness it's no wonder NRS boasts 100 percent repeat business in such a competitive industry.

CEO Insights recently had a delightful conversation with Saket, one of the co-founders. Below is the excerpt of our exclusive interview.

Did you dream of being a technopreneur? What inspired you to start this venture in the IT & Process Consulting industry? What drives you today?
Never had I ever thought of ending myself up as an IT Entrepreneur in a very short span of my career. Coming from an engineering background, the craze has always been towards technology. During my employment days, there was one realization which changed the entire course of my professional journey Consulting is all about knowledge. You need not be a capitalist to venture into it.

In the past, whenever I met my present business partner and co-founders of NRS Consulting (Surajit & Sandeep), we used to speak at length on matters pertaining to finance, taxation, audits, quality and processes and to top it all, technology and its imprint in all these areas. It didn't take much time

The classy workstations, the centrally air conditioned offices, the espressos and the cappuccinos were suddenly gone. Yet deliveries needed to be done from home under equally difficult circumstances. Salutes to a brilliant team at NRS which made this possible.


to realize the edge we had over others. The result was the NRS that we all see today. It is that same approach & vision that drive us even today. Technology has an unending path of change. It is one thing which will probably never see a down turn. The question is its right adoption. That is what we are here for.

"Consulting is all about getting to the roots. The deeper you dive, the more comprehensive the outcomes are and an obvious shift for the customer to the next level of the value chain"
-Sandeep Kumar, Managing Partner, Delivery Excellence

How would you define NRS as an organization and where is it positioned in the populous and highly competitive technology consulting industry? What makes your consulting services stand out from the competition?
NRS has been in business for over a decade. We offer a perfect blend of process & technical consulting by the same team of people which makes it a key differentiator in the industry. Unlike others wherein the technical team are conversant with technology alone, our consulting team comprises Chartered Accountants, Business Analysts, and Industry Experts who understand the customer's business more intricately. When this knowledge is blended with technology, what evolves is the best of breed solution for a customer's require ment. It helps us offer a unique solutioning experience to the clients as well. That is how we are different. We bring the CTOs, CFOs & CEOs all together in the same forum, enabling faster decision making lower TCOs, and better ROI on their investments. It is also this unique consultative approach that attracts budding certified accountants, MBA graduates from premier institutions and old warhorses from the industry towards NRS, giving us an edge in our consulting services.

What does COVID mean for NRS? How has been your response to the need for new business strategies? How would you describe your team's role in tackling those challenges?
COVID has changed business dynamics for one and all. There have been fallouts on both the sides of the coin. Lockdown in FY20 was unprecedented. The biggest challenge was ensuring every single member of our workforce remained motivated at a time when there were large scale retrenchments and massive cut downs in salaries across the industries. It was witnessed more in the mid market and SME segment of which we are an integral part of. During this crucial juncture, NRS is one of a few organizations, where all salaries were paid in full with no job cuts. On new opportunities, undoubtedly they were few in FY20, but for Application Maintenance & Support, it was business as usual in most cases, being governed by long term contracts and MSAs. Change Management in this new world order posed a lot of intriguing questions, especially with respect to work environments, data security, access management, and many more. Learnings from these have been remarkable. We learnt how crucial deliveries can be handled online from home in a virtual set up. Happy to say that during these strenuous times, we have made at least three of our precious customers go-live on their new SAP systems. This gave us a tremendous amount of
confidence that clients can be serviced & projects can be delivered in a virtual set up. We would say offshoring has gone a step ahead in a virtual set up.

All this would not have been possible without that humongous effort of our workforce. The classy workstations, the centrally air conditioned offices, the espressos and the cappuccinos were suddenly gone. Yet deliveries needed to be done from home under equally difficult circumstances. Salutes to a brilliant team at NRS which made this possible.

I am quite sure it's been an eventful journey so far. Which are the milestones that bestowed you with utmost satis faction?
Each day comes with its own set of challenges. Each day is a new learning and a new milestone, yet, some remain special. The day we delivered our first greenfield implementation way back in 2013, the first milestone was reached. The satisfaction and morale boost was unprecedented. Another milestone was when we breached our own revenue goals in the year 2017. What made us proud was, not the one off project which made us breach our roof, rather it was long term contracts. Needless to say, both these customers today account for at least 18 percent of our revenues.

What are the changes in market behavior that you expect to see in the future, and what opportunities do you perceive?
We believe that the market has matured a lot. The amount of trust and confidence customers are now placing on tier III & tier IV companies has made the entire industry very competitive. Today, we find even start ups getting a sizable share of long term contracts especially from the foreign market. The price competition in India has even resulted in a lot of back-to-back outsourcing deals from tech giants. This is a win-win situation for the mid market segment. This in turn is also drawing a lot of talent to the SME segment. Needless to say, for new entrants, it is an accelerated learning curve. Going forward, this trend will prevail with a lot of old timers from the industry getting into entrepreneurship. It is an industry which is knowledge intensive and offers a levelled playing field for all.

What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs based on your extensive expertise in the IT & Process Consulting industry. Do you mentor budding entrepre neurs?
There is a notion that you need to make a sprint and be large to be competitive. Headcount does make you big, but the headcount should be sustainable. For new entrants, where investor equity is relatively not much, the focus should be more on sustainable growth rather than size. In the last decade of our existence, we have seen several IT consulting firms mushroom only to fizzle out in the next 2-3 years. Opportunities are there for all. Focus should be on areas where players are limited robotics, data science, AI, ML & MI are the areas to go for. Even in the SAP space, data security, access management, Analytics, RPAs, and MI are the areas to watch out for. Process re engineering in these areas is the call out today and it is there to stay.

And yes, 10 years ago, I had been assigned as a mentor for a few and now I feel proud to be their 'Guru' and a 'friend' even today.

Saket Suman, NRS Consulting
Being on an entrepreneurial venture from a very nascent stage of his career, it feels nothing is impossible if someone has determination and endurance. Saket is a happy go lucky person, who competes with himself on a daily basis to be a better person than what he was yesterday

Hobbies: Diving into fictional world be it Novels, Movies or Theatre
Favorite Cuisine: A non foodie, Saket loves Indian home cooked food
Favorite Book: Shiva Trilogy by Amish
Favorite Travel Destination: Maldivian Shores

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