ChannelWorld

Shro Systems, an IT consulting firm for 21 years is dedicated to providing enterprise clients with innovative solutions for their technological needs. “We collaborate with our clients to establish strategies that will enhance their current business platform and prepare for future challenges,” says Anirudh Shrotriya, Director, Shro.

“Shro Systems cares for the environment and hence is committed to promoting the latest eco- friendly green technologies to all our clients. We consider client satisfaction and overall TCE as the top priority and couple it with offering expert advice and cost effective solutions to clients all over India,” he adds. Employee retention and managing positive cash flow also remain top priorities for the company.

Every organization goes through certain phases where it looks beyond its current domain to broaden its horizon. Shro Systems also diversified into computer education, print manufacturing, investments, software development and retail a few years ago. “Our aim was to deliver a total IT experience with a one stop IT shop for clients and not make them look beyond us. But of late, we are consolidating again and shaping our organization towards pure solution selling and remove business lines which are non productive,” he reveals. Shro Systems strives on a continuously evolving strategy in which it changes according to market and customer needs and then reshape and size the organization accordingly, says Shrotriya.

“We are a lean organization with a very high productivity per employee ratio,” he says. The environment is virtualized with a central server which hosts all its applications and knowledge repository. “We are also going live with an ERP in the next 3 months and also plan to go for ISO certification soon. We generally document our big cases and strategic wins and keep using them as examples internally as well as externally,” he says.

Shro Systems has built a Solution Centre; spread over 350 sq. ft, next to its corporate office in Pune which encompasses the latest HP hardware with a lot of industry applications. This is a POC centre where the team can test and furthermore prove the benefits of proposed solutions to customers. “We regularly hold events and training sessions for our clients here and it also serves as a lab for internal testing and R&D,” he says. The Solution centre differentiates us in the market, feels Shrotriya. “A lot of investment has gone into it, but Shro management is very bullish about everything they do and this includes the solution centre,” says Shrotriya.
With a dedicated approach to increase its share in government, education and pharmaceuticals; the company plans to extend its presence in north India and internal cities of Maharashtra. “Shro Systems also intends to add security, networking products, video conferencing products and more service and skill oriented offerings like the Microsoft advanced implementation,” sums up Shrotriya.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

INTERVIEW

Streamlining business processes, increasing employee productivity and targeting emerging verticals are of utmost importance says Anirudh Shrotriya, Director, Shro Systems.

What are best practices followed at Shro Systems?
SHROTRIYA: Shro stands for S – Service towards overall TCE, H- Hardwork towards goal achievement, R- Reliability of our products and commitments and O- Overall ethics and opportunity optimization.

What special efforts are being taken to meet demand in the face of falling supply?
SHROTRIYA: I think it is the reverse now. We are investing a lot of effort in SMB sector to increase our pipeline so that we can create more demand. Supply is no issue now. We are trying to get smaller deals which eventually add to a high value.  Our focus is to address the government and education sector which we think are on a fast growth path.

What methods have you incorporated in your business to ensure the achievement of goal time and again?
SHROTRIYA: We have initiated a concept of  ‘Fridays with Shro’  where we call a select group of  five customers to our solution centre .We present various relevant topics of their interest like server consolidation, virtualization on server side as well as client side, mobility solutions, and printing solutions. This bi-monthly event not only helps increase client footfall and employee morale, but it also contributes to revenue growth. We also do at least one big event every quarter aligning with a vendor, to target a set of 25 plus customer audience. We have launched a unique internal incentive program for employees with smaller targets thereby urging them to achieve their goals.

Are there any specific steps you take to increase employee output and retain your people?
SHROTRIYA: We enabled all our sales staff and some support staff with laptops and some of them even with data cards to increase productivity and thereby create business growth. We appointed a HR team as a first step towards streamlining the HR systems and also restructured our internal teams. We appointed a GM for sales and service, appointed HODs for each department and formed a core team which forms the key team to navigate our business forward. Even during the downturn, we went on a recruitment spree after spending a sizeable amount to strengthen our sales force, both at senior and junior level .Shro has also put a micro sales incentive in place so that the junior level person also earns well to sustain himself.

How crucial is certification and training sessions for the technical staff?
SHROTRIYA: We have placed a huge emphasis on certifications and the company spends good amount of money for sales and service people to attain their certifications. In fact, we enforce it as a business need. We have a ‘Wonder Wednesday’ in the evening wherein employees share their thoughts and exchange notes. We encourage and send many employees to local and national trainings as well. Several employees have undergone national level training fully funded by us.

Finally, which guiding principles do you feel have helped you on road of success?
SHROTRIYA: Customer DEVO Bhava!  We value relationship, whether it is client, vendor, distributor, employee, we take our relations very seriously. Ethics and honesty is of outmost importance to us. We have not defaulted on our internal payments and external payments till date which speaks volumes of our commitment to the market.