Rahul Meher, Founder and Managing Director, Leon Computers Pvt Ltd, Pune

Since I was operating in unbranded market, it was difficult to get corporate clients. Initial years were tough. There was severe problem of cash flow.

The turning point came in 1997 when we tied-up with Compaq, a computer manufacturer, to provide services to their corporate clients.

Alfa Laval was my first corporate account. In 2003, HP bought Compaq and it gave a huge fillip to our business. We got the momentum as we were exposed to a wide network of companies using HP computer systems. However, in the market, we didn't' have our own identity. In 2006, we took a conscious decision to build Leon as a brand in IT managed services and provide end-to-end IT infrastructure to our clients. Today Leon Computers provides IT managed services to more than 150 companies.

We have a systems integration division, which studies the customer organisation, analyses it's IT needs, and prepares comprehensive solution packages. Besides defining user requirements, the division gets involved in network design, internet and network implementation. The division has an expert cell which works solely on the technology approach going into design. The cell specialises in setting up right transmission loss parameters, data collision parameters, protocol handling and quality issues.

Our networks integrate Voice-Data, VOIP, Call Centres and other services. The approach factors current and future demands from an IT network. The systems integration division dovetails various components like commercial computing and networking, storage management, network & communication, internet and intranet into a single functional fail-safe unit.

We have tied-up with several companies to provide IT management to their clients. It includes HP for IT infrastructure, Oracle for database management, EMC for storage and Microsoft for product implementation. To lessen the dependence on IT/ITes companies, we have reached out to other industries such as manufacturing, infrastructure, and SMB. Fiat and L&T in manufacturing and Rahejas in infrastructure are few of our clients.

Leon Computers has offices in Pune, Bangalore, Nagpur, and Mumbai and employs more than 95 people. We will open our fifth office in Hyderabad shortly. We are also developing are own software development division. Our company has registered 35% YoY growth in fiscal year 08 and we are aiming to have revenue in excess of Rs25 crore by 2010.