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Credibility At Stake

Mumbai-based Acma Computers prepared the blueprint for the project. “We suggested conversion of tower servers into rack servers and blade servers to take additional loads of trading transactions. We quoted an Intel blade solution with 14 Bay SAN,” recalls Purvesh Selarka, Director, Acma Computers. The upgrade of internet lines was also part of the quotation.

“For rising number of franchisees and increased website hits, performance requirement and aging hardware were concern area,” says Selarka adding, “The suggested upgraded servers had the capacity enhancement for taking users load, which can even double as compared to earlier one.”

Over five years Acma had put together a steadfast trustworthiness with the customer. The engagement began through AMC of twenty PCs at Progressive shares in 2005. After couple of quarters, the customer going for retail expansion of connecting 15 franchises across India wanted to build a server room. Selarka recalls, “Progressive being a start up with constrained budgets, we deployed 8 Intel tower servers for applications, networking and low cost bandwidth solutions.” The second expansion phase in 2007 included connectivity for 150 machines at their HO and franchisees. Progressive Shares again relied on Acma Computers. The third and latest IT revamp at Progressive Shares in October 2010 seemed like a cake walk for Acma Computers.

The Risk Factor

The mindset at Progressive Computers, however, was keener for HP as it was a prominent brand. A HP quote by another partner alerted Acma Computers to rebuild a relationship with the customer and prove their value. Maheshwari at Progressive Shares wanted best of breed technologies as he says, “HP and IBM are more popular brands. We got a quote from HP and Acma Computers was suggesting Intel.”

There was a series of negotiations with both partners. The preceding relation of Acma with customer did not matter much. There was a total threat of loss of account as customer was ready to pay the premium for HP at one time, recalls Selarka.

A change in IT team of a customer often evokes few jitters to channel partner. “The situation was more time consuming and required more effort than a new customer,” says Selarka.

Acma Computers stuck to its belief of giving the best solution as per customer needs at almost 50 percent less than the other quote. The number of visits by technical team of Acma Computers to the customer increased with time. HP did not offer in built SAN and reducing servers at customer end was not sufficed with HP, according to Selarka. In case of downtime, an extra back up server meant more investment. These disadvantages were conveyed to Progressive Shares regularly.

Investment Pays Off

Over the years Acma has invested substantial resources in building a technical team with domain expertise and software development to create a niche in the stock broking industry and as a result has 50-odd such customers today. “They are using Intel servers. Any other solution provider cannot give Intel servers at a price point given by us,” says a confident Selarka. “We understand the permutations and combinations of this industry and design the server by tweaking OS and applications to provide redundancy,” he adds.

Intel SAN server solution ensures backup at all areas – data, windows, server and also the applications. A similar scenario with HP means double the cost by either putting extra SAN or having an additional mirroring, says Selarka. “For stock broking and trading application, the solution should offer maximum of 5 minute downtime in case of failure,” says Maheshwari at Progressive Computers.

Acma Computers suggested Maheshwari to visit their existing stock broking customers for referral on Intel servers. “We shared a video tutorial highlighting the benefits of Intel. The convincing bit continued for a month. For the final meeting, Acma prepared an exhaustive presentation for the customer and Anil Gaggar joined the meeting for the first time in this project.

“We had many discussions with the customer over a month understanding his pain points, price point, and expected performance level. The comprehensive presentation complete with technical specifications of HP and Intel servers clearly displayed advantages for customer in long run,” says Selarka. Gaggar and Maheshwari both looked convinced with the Intel pitch and the deal was finally closed.

The Bonus Offer

The deployment commenced in last week of November included conversion of tower servers to rack servers, application shifting and addition of 6 blade servers. The blade technology meant the server strength of 18 was reduced to 15. “HP and IBM are major brands in servers than Intel. But if we dwell deeper, they both use Intel chipset. Hence we went with Intel servers,” says Maheshwari.

The upgrading of 6 servers led to the configuration upgrading of all 18 servers. “Intel offers on site service support of replacement first than taking the faulty part. This is good for an industry like ours where minimal downtime is crucial,” says Maheshwari.

As Progressive Shares was opening branches, Acma Computers suggested managed services during the project. Selarka says, “The customer is able to control his HO and multi location branches. Being a single IT person, this gives him single console access across the country.” The biggest advantage is that they can monitor their assets at a central location. The customer value is big though the amount of these services is negligible compared to entire project cost.

Acma again benefited from customization of managed services for stock broking industry. A single dashboard gives snapshot of entire server room, alerts and other relevant fields. Maheshwari agrees, “Managed services through Acma Care helps majorly to download patches, update desktop/server machines automatically, manages AV itself, scheduled back up for database, etc, which is highly beneficial.”

The Right Call

The project completed in mid-December last year is benefiting the customer. The SAN storage server solutions led to saving of 2 servers and helped for future data capacity enhancement. The project with, which with HP would have cost Rs 16 lakh, was deployed at around Rs 11 lakh.”

Apart from space savings, there is a major difference in back office applications, says Maheshwari. A client report at end of the day takes only 15 minutes as against earlier 90. The productivity has increased at front end applications too.

The project took much longer than expected. “We respect customer concerns and in the end, our compelling proposition benefited them. A partner needs to demonstrate technical strength, fight competition and deliver the right solution for every project at customer end, even if it’s a loyal customer,” says Selarka.