With courses mushrooming in every corner, one might think the community is flowing with IT professionals. But the potential of the IT sector to empower the community is yet to sink in to the majority.
From childhood, our attitude towards entrepreneurship needs to be changed. Have you noticed that Muslim parents always tell their children to find a good job? Do they ever ask them to become a person who can provide jobs? We need to question and draw attention to one barrier and the lack of confidence to start their own business which prevents community to move forward on the road to economic empowerment.
According to IT expert Imran Shaikh who works for 3i Infotech, IT sector has the potential to empower community economically. Imran opines that there is a need for dispelling a popular myth that IT is not a career path that is suited only for students in science stream. Everyone can do IT. Students who do commerce and economics are better suited for IT,he explained saying they will have the best of both worlds, a sound background on economics and computer knowledge.
But the current trend is for students to pursue the subjects they chose in school, regardless of their ambitions or talents.
The IT experts say the requirement of skilled IT professionals is unlimited for a country like ours. There are many success stories in IT sector which may not be big in term of turnover, but huge in terms of potential. Let’s take a few such success stories that not only survived against the competition from the industry giant, but also created employment.
Ace IT solutions started by Naseem Ahmed, with five borrowed computers and total investment of Rs. 90,000 in 2004 can be termed as an upstart, and like many IT upstarts it now makes a Rs. two crore turnover annually, claim its promoters and forecast to grow to Rs. 10 crore within three years. How?
With more than 20 small as well as big clients the launching pad is ready for the growth orbit said Naseem. This four-year old establishment, is now giving a competition to the established players. Today Ace IT solutions has employed 18 professionals. Naseem Ahmed completed Masters in computer application (MCA) a couple of years ago.
There are many stories of rich Muslim entrepreneurs in IT and other sectors. What is so unique about IT sector is its low entry barrier and minimum investment.
Shahid Saluji, an MSc (IT) teamed up with Solanki Sattar an MBA, to start Perfect Networks, with an investment of Rs. three lakh in 2003. Today they are 30 employee strong with turnover of Rs. seven crore.
According to Shahid, business skills are essential for today’s IT professional. That’s the reason why I teamed up with my friend Sattar. We are providing complete network solution to at least nine corporates, said Shahid.
For growth, Shahid is planning to launch at least two new ventures. A survey conducted by Perfect Networks, marketing team revealed that prog-ramming languages such as Java and C variants are the technical skills in shortest supply. Other skills in demand are web services such as .NET and J2EE and systems storage and network management.
Our growth plan is based on Linux and .Net. We are currently negotiating with few financiers. By January 2009, we will be in a position to launch a new company.
These entrepreneurs do not compete with the big sharks of the industry. They have entered the area which is not lucrative for the big player.
Naseem Ahmed opines that every business enterprise seeks to attain the highest levels of efficiency and productivity at all times. At Ace IT solutions, we completely understand this need to optimize business with innovative and cost-effective solutions. By delving deep into the specifics of our client business environment and requirements, we develop cutting-edge IT products and top-of-the-line services that let our client maximize the potential of their resources and reach for their highest goals at minimum possible expence,he adds.
Another promising startup is Star Systems established by Sarosh Nomani who completed MBA (System) in 2004. The business strategy is to ensure that the client IT infrastructure is reliable, available on a 24x7 basis, flexible, cost-effective, and adaptable to the ever-changing IT paradigms like Web-based applications and virtual offices.
Today Start Systems has a turnover of Rs. three crore and 14 employees. According to Sarosh, the unique selling preposition (USP) of Star Systems is managing the unpredictability of technology on one hand, and providing reliable and uninterrupted services to the customer on the other hand. However, the complexity and sophistication of IT infrastructure remain the same irrespective of the size of the organization. The differentiating factor is the speed of transactions and geographic spread,he said.
With 70 per cent of the revenue coming from repeat businesses, Star systems is planning to achieve the growth of 25 per cent in next 12 months. From a business point of view, it is vital that we hone our client-retention skills and ensure quality of delivery at an optimum cost to achieve our objectives, said Sarosh.
If we look at the success of the three above mentioned small start ups by Muslims from lower middle class, but IT literate, we can say that there is no alternative to achieving excellence in professional skills and dreaming big.
These three small startups are growing inspite of cut throat competition and lack of financial muscles because of their client management skills. Success for this IT service providers came because they delivered on all that they promised.