An outstanding outsourcing model

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: As Ashvini Nagpal entered Arvind Kumar’s room in Peeko Ltd, he was busy discussing with the vice-president of materials’ function Kalanidhi Anand about the decision to support requirements for the procurement officers of its tier 1 suppliers.

Nagpal, vice-president, client relations with an outsourcing major in US, was impressed to see the growth of the Delhi-based company Peeko Ltd in the span of 11 years as he returned from the US in July 2006 to meet Kumar, his erstwhile friend from college.

Peeko Ltd has grown multifold in those 11 years. It is now the market leader whereas it was at the fourth slot in 1995. Nagpal remembered his last visit when he met Kumar and his entire team of just four staff members.

Kumar had taken over as deputy manager, EDP, reporting to the vice-president, finance in 1995, after his boss, Khan left to join another company. He managed the MIS department. There was a tremendous improvement of the IT infrastructure at Peeko Ltd.

It was comparable to similar companies in the West and far ahead of the rival companies in the local space. While full of admiration to notice the dramatic improvement, two things surprised Nagpal. One that Kumar was still managing the entire show with a smaller team and the other, he talked more business than IT this time around. Kumar talked about the developments at Peeko Ltd, the way company expanded through organic and inorganic routes in India and abroad. Accordingly, the complexity and quantum of processes also grew and need for the IT system to support these processes.

Initially, there had been a need to integrate systems succeeded by the requirement of partner integration and web enabling to top it all. There was a plethora of software and hardware that has been put in place to enable its human resource, individuals and groups, achieve efficiency and effectiveness. Moreover, there is continuous pressure to leverage new technologies to keep the value lead. Like other companies in the local space, Kumar could have developed an army of technocrats to manage the show but he opted for the model of outsourcing. Kumar outsourced most of the IT functions like inside client servicing, application development, software and hardware maintenance and networking to smaller or mid-size firms from the very beginning when he took charge.