-Chokkapan Srinivasan
Ahmedabad-based IT services company, Rubik Infotech, has carved out a niche for itself in the information security domain over the past 20 years. With the rising use of big data analytics, mobility, and cloud, the company website puts it succinctly, “business needs from IT infrastructure are changing and becoming more complex by the day. Meeting these challenges head-on requires agile and innovative solutions …“
Rubik Infotech’s consulting and managed services promise to deliver exactly the same: the resources and capabilities required to assess, design, build and manage an agile, flexible IT environment. The company vouches, “By aligning your existing IT infrastructure to your business goals, we empower you to become a responsive, growth-oriented business.” This must be one of the reasons that helped the erstwhile reseller to realise and reassess its commitment towards its customers.
A Memorable Journey
As Rubik’s founder-Director, Jitesh Chauhan, too, has come a long way since the founding of his brainchild. He has seen much success and overcomes several challenges during his chequered entrepreneurial journey. “It’s been a rollercoaster ride,” he rightly terms it, “I have witnessed a lot of ups and downs in my business over the past 20 years.”
If Mr. Chauhaan had to grapple with the Y2K problem and the Dot-com Bubble Burst at the helm of his freshly-minted company back in 2000, the global IT slowdown followed eight years later added to his troubles. “The Corona pandemic-induced lockdown is the latest hurdle to our business,” he says matter-of-factly. Mr Chauhaan, however, is eternally grateful to his customers, vendors and employees who supported him through thick and thin, including when he had to be bedridden for almost a year after an accident.
As with every enduring journey, there, however, were so many high points accentuating the way. Every stumbling block counterpointed by a resounding success story. “We have never witnessed negative growth in any of these 20 years, despite facing some headwinds in between. In fact, the year 2016-17 has been a dream come true, as we enjoyed a phenomenal 40 percent growth,” beams Mr Chauhaan.
Realizing Dreams
His success story is certainly what dreams are made of and how they could be realized with perseverance and hard work. “Once we bagged a prestigious enterprise security project – on data loss protection – from a global construction and engineering conglomerate, by stepping into the shoes of Symantec,” recounts Mr. Chauhaan, “It involved scaling up the protection of the data of 6,000 users from 1,000 with little turnaround time. Our staff members successfully pulled it off.”
International recognition from the U.K.-based IT security company, Sophos, also ranks high on his list. “We were awarded as the best solution provider for the entire Asia-Pacific region by Sophos, which I consider a remarkable achievement.”
Apart from awards and accolades, Mr Chauhaan rates winning customer trust paramount for any business. His secret to success: “If you are just a reseller, the customer might not stick to you for long is another key takeaway for me. We launched a unique model when we realised customers inclined more towards the OPEX model than the CAPEX one, as they purchase and renew a service after a few years. After this, we have been consistently witnessing a year-on-year growth of 15-20%.”
Innovation at the Core
Rubik’s constant innovation is another crucial aspect that keeps his customers happy. “The post-Corona lockdown, in particular, has taught me to keep innovating no matter what. Even your employees might initially be averse to the innovation, but will come around sooner. The bigger risks you take, the bigger the rewards will be,” observes Mr Chauhaan.
This explains why the information security service provider has been associated with 18 Top-100 companies from the Fortune-500 List. He divulges, “In Gujarat, most of the pharmaceutical and manufacturing companies are our customers. We have good clientele in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) sectors as well.”
Future Prospects
As for what the future holds, Mr Chauhaan feels that 2021-22 will see more budgets being allocated for information security. “More people moving to the cloud and the prevailing Work-From-Home scenario means that security needs will grow. Information security partners in India will witness a boom in business from the upcoming quarter.”
“The Europe and U.S. markets have reached a saturation point, whereas security players in India will grow by 20 percent, thanks to cloud security requirements,” concludes Mr Chauhaan.
