Mr.Ranganathan, Founder of Cerebra Computers on building a profitable Green IT Enterprise

Tell me about Cerebra.

Cerebra Integrated Technologies Limited commenced its business in 1992 starting with the hardware sector and later expanded to provide software services and consulting, and today we offer total IT solutions. Cerebra serves it’s customers through branch offices and with over 100 channel partners in India. Our System Integration Division(SID) is located in the Peenya industrial belt of Bangalore with an ultra modern facility. The System Integration Division manufactures servers, desktops, notebooks, workstations, kiosks and world-class servers including rack-mountable servers and high-end 8 way Intel based servers in a fully antistatic environment.

What are the services that you offer?

We also offer the following services to our clients;

Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) At Cerebra LPO, lawyers, paralegals and engineers work together to deliver quality legal services to global clients.

Medical Transcription (MT) Cerebra MT, provides I.T. solutions for physicians and health-care organizations. Our products and services are affordable, interoperable, pragmatic, compliant, and secure. We are providing transcription services and solutions to doctors in the United Kingdom and USA.

Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) Cerebra EMS, has the state of the art SMT line which caters to manufacturing of electronic assemblies to the global market.

Infrastructure Management (IM) Cerebra provides comprehensive services to help organizations optimize critical IT staff. Our Infrastructure Management Services offer a complete portfolio of solutions and services for managing enterprise IT infrastructures.

E-Waste Recycling – Cerebra has tied up with Cimelia Resource Recovery Pte Ltd, Singapore for setting up one of India’s Largest E-Waste Recycling facilities in India. In it’s first phase of operations it has imported a mobile shredder unit from Singapore which can shred about 3600 tons of e-Waste.

Tell me a little bit about your background.

I am an Electrical Science engineer from R.V. College of Engineering. I started my career as a design engineer and worked with Electro systems & Associates for an year. I started two companies, Elco systems and Megatromech systems, before starting Cerebra in 1992.

What is your competitive advantage?

In the IT & ITeS sectors, there is a lot of competition, but, Cerebra is embarking on the advantage it has over geographic areas such as first mover advantage to enter the UK markets and in the IT application development it has embarked upon providing only niche mobility enterprise solutions.

Our E-waste facility will be one of its kind, especially after collaborations with Cimelia Resource Recovery Pte, Singapore which is one of the world leaders in providing environment restoration management solutions. Cerebra has been in the IT business since 1992 and thereby we know the market well and we aim to be one of the leaders in Environment Restoration Management space.

Who are your clients?

Our clients vary from large PSUs to private companies, for the System Integration and Networking divisions. The ITeS division has clients in the USA and UK and clients include law firms, doctors and hospitals, legal service providers and IT companies.

What is your revenue model?

We get revenue through the following channels;

Close-the-loop Recycling Process

Recovery of Metal (Ferrous, Non-ferrous, Precious Metals).

Plastic Recycling

Asset Recovery Services (Repair, Recondition, Refurbishment and Re-marketing)

After sales, RMA services, Warranty Services.

Post-consumer e-waste management.

CRT & LCD Recycling & Disposal services.

Have you fund-raised? Do you have plans to fund-raise?

Yes and the total project cost for E-Waste recycling facility is Rs.32 crores and we have raised about Rs.8 crores for the first phase of the project. Plans are to get the remaining fund to build up the facility to cater to the needs of our clients as per the business plan.

What are your biggest challenges?

Some of the market specific challenges are;

Rapidly increasing e-waste volumes, both domestically generated as well as through imports.

No accurate estimates of the quantity of e-waste generated and recycled.

Low level of awareness amongst manufacturers and consumers of the hazards of incorrect e-waste disposal.

Widespread e-waste recycling in the informal sector using rudimentary techniques such as acid leaching and open air burning resulting in severe environmental damage.

E-waste workers have little or no knowledge of toxins in e-waste and are exposed to serious health hazards.

Inefficient recycling processes result in substantial losses of material value.

‘Cherry-picking’ by recyclers who recover precious metals and improperly dispose the rest.

Where do you see Cerebra five years down the line?

Five years from now;

We aim to achieve a top line of Rs.1000 Crores by the year 2016 with a healthy bottom line. This top line shall be achieved mainly from the E-Waste Recycling Services, Copper Smelting, EMS, System Integration and LPO Services

We aim to be among the leaders in E-Waste Recycling Units in the World with collection centres pan India. Mobile collection points also to be part of the above plan to destroy data at the spot.

Our Plastic to Fuel Plant should be in Operation in Bangalore, which will add to sustainable development and reduce landfill to a very large extent, thereby increased government participation.

We aim to be recognised in the LPO space in e-Discovery, Bankruptcy, IP& Patents, Legal Research as our main focus.

Our World class IT, ITeS facility should have come up near the International Airport in a two acre land in the ITIR region being developed by the GoK.

Our focus on hardware will be directed towards Electronic Contract Manufacturing Services, Remote Infrastructure Management Services, and Networking & System Integration support services.

We aim to complete, at least two acquisitions to be completed for LPO, EMS and/or Recycling facilities.

We at YourStory will keep you posted about all the latest happenings at Cerebra, and we look forward to hearing your comments on this story!