In many ways, Neeraj Mediratta has the fianc? of a client?s secretary to thank for where he is today. Chancing upon Cisco in 1997-98 was a fortuitous event towards bigger things. Building a Rs 12-crore company?2007-08 revenue?from virtually nothing wasn?t easy, but the challenges and the celebrations keep Mediratta, managing director of Ace Data Devices, going.

Ace?s beginnings were modest. It started out selling ribbons, cartridges, floppies and other low value media and computer consumables. Anuj Mediratta, Neeraj?s brother, a software engineer by training, started the company in 1996, with close to zero capital, in the living room of their home in Kirti Nagar. Four years later, the brothers breached the crore-point; their company clocked Rs 1.12 crore in revenue. Today, they have a 3,000 sq ft office in the NCR?s prime commercial location, Gurgaon.

There were lulls and there were storms, and the brothers never knew in which order they would show up. When Ace was formed, Neeraj was in his seventh year with Wockhardt where he had been working in frontline medical sales covering the national capital region. During the few months of overlap between Ace and Wockhardt, Neeraj would contribute his monthly salary of Rs 3,600 into the business.

Soon after Ace was registered, Neeraj joined his brother in the business. One early client was Crompton Greaves, to which they supplied printer ribbons. Soon, they were supplying to CG Informatics, Crompton?s systems integration arm, peripherals like keyboards, cables and network equipment. The supplies graduated to assembled PCs and and printers.

But Neeraj learnt quickly that getting into new areas is not smooth sailing. The knocks were both big and small but the brothers ?never thought of turning back?. There was a time Ace sold 150 PCs to an IPO-hopeful company. But its IPO-application was rejected at the last minute, driving the company into bankruptcy and eventual closure. Ace was left on its own to face the music and thatdrove Neeraj to tak e loan to pay off his vendors for the 150 PCs, the instalments of which he is still paying off.

Ace?s big break came in 1997-8 when Cisco was entering India. Cisco was known for purchasing computers only from the organised sector. At the time Anil Batra was the CEO of Cisco India. The word got out that Cisco was looking for a computer vendor. It reached Neeraj through a supplier, who happened to be the fianc? of Anil Batra?s secretary. The supplier felt they had a chance if Neeraj could make an impression on Batra. Neeraj geared up to represent Ace and its suppliers but was up against a formidable list of organisations, including Hewlett-Packard (HP), Wipro, IBM, vying to be Cisco?s vendor.

As destiny would have it, Cisco representatives were impressed with Neeraj?s ?simplicity, approach and attitude? and Cisco went on to use Ace as its medium to source computers and peripherals from HP and its suppliers and vendors. This put Ace in a bigger league.

Things were going smoothly for Ace with both Cisco and HP till 1999-2000, when HP merged with Compaq. Bidding started again and this time Wipro, Dell and the other big boys sidelined Ace.

Subin Joseph, who then headed the PCs and servers unit at HP and was a mentor to Neeraj, suggested a move over to the storage space, a specialised domain requiring technical skills. Neeraj jumped at the idea. The opportunity was ripe as the storage solution segment was budding and opportunities abounded, including in training.

The leap of faith proved positive. In 2003, Ace phased out the peripherals business and submerged itself into storage solutions. The brothers realised quickly that partnerships were needed to give clients a full range of storage solutions. EMC was an initial partner and later Iron Mountain?which provides desktop back-up?and Network Appliances became partners.

Today, Ace is the sole authorised service provider for EMC back-up software. Mediratta points out that EMC?s core strength was making storage hardware and it acquired about 40 companies to build its capability in storage software such as recovery, information protection, security and information record management.

Ace?s clients now include Bharti, Dabur, Hughes Software Systems (rechristened Erscent) and Hero Honda. Neeraj says Ace?s USP has been its ability to understand the client?s need and recommend and implement specialised solutions. Neeraj remembers the long wait to win Dabur?s confidence. Finally, it won the trust when it cleaned up a mess left by a multinational major. Ace met Dabur?s tough standards.

And then, when a rival storage company poached their entire workforce of 15 people, Ace had to rebuild its work-force quickly.

Today after five years in the storage industry, Ace strives to be ahead of the storage game. It plans to expand in the south and the west to better meet the needs of its clients. Recently, it tied up with Storage Network Industry Association (SNIA) (the Nasscom of the storage industry) which defines standards for the storage industry. Ace has formed what it calls InSift (Institute of Storage Integration Future Technology) and in collaboration with SNIA provides beginner, intermediary and advanced training on storage solutions, execution and design to its partners, customers and end users.

With an estimated $300-million market in India for storage solutions, and demand on an upswing, Ace Data Devices hold all the aces of an early bird. Neeraj?s success mantra is: ?Specialised storage solutions is required for specialised needs. Form partnerships with storage companies to fulfil varied customer expectations.?