Santosh Kumar Sahoo
CEO
After honing his professional skills in Chennai, Santosh moved to his native Odisha to join as an employee at Computer Lab. By the virtue of his expertise, he soon rose in power and gain the confidence of the stakeholders of the company to take the reign of Computer Lab in his hands. Operating under the seamless leadership of Santosh for the last 32 years, Computer Lab has been providing the best-in-class IT and ITES solutions to its valuable client comprising of base NISG, OCAC, ECIL, BEL, HDFC Bank, Govt of Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Assam successfully delivering quality IT Services.
Santosh engages in an exclusive interaction with CEO Insights.
Define Computer Lab as an organization and its position in the market? What is the unique proposition that your organization offers to its clients?
We are one of the sole organizations in Orissa to complete 32 years in this segment of IT services. Till now, we have provided services to different corporates, government organizations, and private sectors. To facilitate ITas a unified enabler for business needs as well as citizen-centric services, we provide IT services that can be implemented across the day-to-day needs of our customers. Since the Government is also giving good governance through IT, we play a pragmatic role in bridging the gap between the government and the citizen. Equipped with the expertise and
experience in delivering mostly citizen-centric services across our numerous projects, we have managed to cement our position in the market over the last 32 years. Completing many projects successfully, we stand out in the market in terms of our IT resources, manpower, infrastructure; inhouse strength, IT infrastructure, and these all are our core strengths endurances.
Why did you choose Odisha to be the breeding ground of your company? How has the state favored you so far in your operations?
When I started my journey back in 1990, there were hardly any players who were giving services in the field of IT because IT was still in its burgeoning stage. After acquiring some inexhaustible experiences in this domain during my professional tenure at Chennai, I started my professional career as an employee but I always had the zeal to start something of my own. My eagerness and ambition to achieve more by overcoming the challenges, gradually paved my path to mount the executive position within the organization Computer Lab.
After envisaging my skills in marketing and my determination to lead the organization ahead, all my expromoters, who themselves had invested 2% each, gave me 10% shares in the company, even if I didn’t make any financial investment in the company. After that, there is no turning back. Starting our journey from Cuttack, we ultimately decided to shift our headquarters to Bhubaneswar as it is not only the capital of Odisha but is home to many skilled resources. For the last 20 years, we have been operating in Bhubaneswar.
Going forward, what are the changes in market behaviour that you anticipate, and what are the opportunities that you foresee?
Changes are definitely happening and one of the foremost changes is that everything has now become digitized and paperless. Starting from payment to our daily transactions, everything is going digitally. To remain in adherence with the changing times and situation, we are also changing our
Completing many projects successfully, we stand out in the market in terms of our IT resources, manpower, infrastructure, inhouse strength, IT infrastructure, and these all are our core strength endurances
Why did you choose Odisha to be the breeding ground of your company? How has the state favored you so far in your operations?
When I started my journey back in 1990, there were hardly any players who were giving services in the field of IT because IT was still in its burgeoning stage. After acquiring some inexhaustible experiences in this domain during my professional tenure at Chennai, I started my professional career as an employee but I always had the zeal to start something of my own. My eagerness and ambition to achieve more by overcoming the challenges, gradually paved my path to mount the executive position within the organization Computer Lab.
After envisaging my skills in marketing and my determination to lead the organization ahead, all my expromoters, who themselves had invested 2% each, gave me 10% shares in the company, even if I didn’t make any financial investment in the company. After that, there is no turning back. Starting our journey from Cuttack, we ultimately decided to shift our headquarters to Bhubaneswar as it is not only the capital of Odisha but is home to many skilled resources. For the last 20 years, we have been operating in Bhubaneswar.
Going forward, what are the changes in market behaviour that you anticipate, and what are the opportunities that you foresee?
Changes are definitely happening and one of the foremost changes is that everything has now become digitized and paperless. Starting from payment to our daily transactions, everything is going digitally. To remain in adherence with the changing times and situation, we are also changing our
strategies as well as our model of business, meanwhile looking for new business opportunities. Anticipating the changes that are going to happen in the next 5-10 years, we are changing our IP backbone, infrastructure, skill sets, and so on. Work from home model has also become the new norm in the corporate sector. So, we are remaining in compliance with the changing face of the corporate sector. Owing to our expertise as well as our financial and technical strength, we are changing our business model accordingly and that's why we are reigning as the market leaders for the last 10 years.
In the future, are there any particular focus areas where you would strive to create an impact in the IT market?
We are one of the pioneers of e-governance projects in India. Presently, in the government sector, there's a huge gap between the data stored on paper and the need of converting them into digitized data. There are many organizations that are in need of converting their data into digitization format. In Odisha, we are doing a lot of visitations and scanning at present to digitize and store the government data, so that, the paper-based documents can be discarded.
These data of many years need to be retrieved and stored digitally. There is a huge amount of work that needs to be done in this segment across PAN India and we are currently putting our focus on this. We are a part of the Aadharenrolment project across the country. We are also considered the fifth largest Aadhar enrolment agency in the country. Any govt. schemes that are related to Aadhar are handled by us and we have been playing a pivotal role in assisting India in strengthening its digital evolution.
Santosh Kumar Sahoo, CEO, Computer Lab
Currently positioned as the CEO of Computer Lab Private Limited, Santosh takes immense pride in being associated with Computer Lab in its 30 Years of the long and enriching journey from being a toddler to the 6th largest IT Solution in India. Under his impeccable guidance, Computer Lab is regarded as one of the most reputed IT and ITeS organizations in Odisha at present.
Awards and Recognitions
•Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavna Award
•as best IT Entrepreneur in 2003
•MSME National Awards 2010
•Business Leadership Award
•Odisha Business Award
•International Excellence Award from Madhuri Dixit in Thailand
•National Icon Award from Sunil Shetty in Delhi
•Best 100 SME Awards-2018
•Skoch Achievers Awards-2018
In the future, are there any particular focus areas where you would strive to create an impact in the IT market?
We are one of the pioneers of e-governance projects in India. Presently, in the government sector, there's a huge gap between the data stored on paper and the need of converting them into digitized data. There are many organizations that are in need of converting their data into digitization format. In Odisha, we are doing a lot of visitations and scanning at present to digitize and store the government data, so that, the paper-based documents can be discarded.
These data of many years need to be retrieved and stored digitally. There is a huge amount of work that needs to be done in this segment across PAN India and we are currently putting our focus on this. We are a part of the Aadharenrolment project across the country. We are also considered the fifth largest Aadhar enrolment agency in the country. Any govt. schemes that are related to Aadhar are handled by us and we have been playing a pivotal role in assisting India in strengthening its digital evolution.
Santosh Kumar Sahoo, CEO, Computer Lab
Currently positioned as the CEO of Computer Lab Private Limited, Santosh takes immense pride in being associated with Computer Lab in its 30 Years of the long and enriching journey from being a toddler to the 6th largest IT Solution in India. Under his impeccable guidance, Computer Lab is regarded as one of the most reputed IT and ITeS organizations in Odisha at present.
Awards and Recognitions
•Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavna Award
•as best IT Entrepreneur in 2003
•MSME National Awards 2010
•Business Leadership Award
•Odisha Business Award
•International Excellence Award from Madhuri Dixit in Thailand
•National Icon Award from Sunil Shetty in Delhi
•Best 100 SME Awards-2018
•Skoch Achievers Awards-2018