With the ongoing problem of Coronavirus, small and big companies are asking employees to work from home as the novel coronavirus outbreak continues to spread across the globe. Companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter, Amazon have implemented remote working policies for many or all of their employees around the globe.
Technology, especially ‘Cloud’ is playing a vital role in helping employees operate from remote locations as well and access all the data from the comfort of their home without putting health risks to themselves. For years, the cloud has provided businesses with the resources necessary to remotely process large amounts of data, build and run mission-critical applications and services, and collaborate with partners across the globe.
Talking to Express Computer’s Gairika Mitra, Dr. Christopher Richard, MD & Chief Cloud Architect, G7CR Technologies India Pvt Ltd, tells us how cloud would be the flag bearer.
How do you think is the tech sector performing amid the COVID-19 pandemic?
The tech sector is being traditionally divided into very tech-savvy companies who adapt to things that the technology brings to the table very quickly and other sets of companies, I would say not really non-technology adaptive but are those who take more of a traditional approach towards technology, who want to use technology but do not experiment or look at newer ways on how to work with it. A classical example here is a lot of enterprise companies who would hesitate to have their support staff working from home and yet as the COVID crisis took over, they were forced to adopt to technology that would keep their environment secure, their desktops secure and ensure maximum productivity from home. Having this conversation, a couple of years ago with a couple of enterprises would have been a strict no. Their response would have been something similar to “this is definitely not what we are looking for” although even then there were technologies that would have enabled any kind of support staff to work remotely along with ensuring the security of data.
Having said this, we know with this COVID crisis, it’s a whole new world but also, even without COVID, we would have eventually seen these companies adapt as the market gets more competitive. There are more challenges in basically meeting top lines as well as bottom lines and the pressure of that would have ensured that companies turn to technology to answer such questions. So, technology is definitely going to upsurge. We are going to see a lot more of adaption to technologies that are far more disruptive in nature which changes the regular way of working. We are looking at a lot of artificial intelligence, lots of security products which allows companies to have global floating workforce which mostly I will say, will be a reaction to COVID and companies will be strategizing on how to ensure they fight any similar crisis in future and seamlessly keep their productivity and business going while the world continues to face whatever challenges that may come.
We are also going to see a lot of surge in cloud-related technologies, we will now see a lot of people basically wanting to use cloud as an expansion strategy because quick expansion will be the need of the hour.
How would you call G7CR Technologies a game changer? How is it ahead of the competitors’ curve?
G7CR Technologies is a technology first company. We are a cloud-focused organization; our entire business is focused on the cloud and we are very strong in the SMB front. We are 4 years old in the cloud space and today we do close to around $25 million business in the cloud industry.
In an overly competitive world of today, businesses need to constantly innovate and adopt solutions to keep their edge and Cloud computing is one such offering that allows businesses to go to market faster, zero down their capex cost on IT and plugin ready to use solutions. While these services are available, most business owners are posed with the challenge of choosing the right platform, building competency, keeping abreast of the technology etc, and that is where we (G7CR) create value, we manage these services for you, drive cloud adoption, recommend solutions that suit your business and technical needs and help in implementing them.
One of the major differentiators is the technical value proposition that we provide because most of the partners in the cloud space have majorly been transactional where they might not have the technical expertise to assist the customers. Some of the reasons for customers to like and prefer us are that we have the technical skills and a 24×7 support team. For G7CR customers, cloud support is just a call away; we almost instantly solve their problems.
We constantly keep telling our team that we are here to drive value to businesses, and we tell them that if you are not able to create value for them, just walk away from the order. So, in this way we were able to create very honest, transparent and open relationship with our customers. Today, all our customers know how much margins we make, know how much we spend on the value that we give them and know how much remains for the investors of the company. This kind of openness and transparency ensures that our customers are no longer just our customers, but they work with us as partners and work as a single team. This has been one of the primary reasons for our high growth.
What is the latest mode of technology in cloud computing space that you are catering to your clients?
We are an expert Azure Managed Services Partner, driving the cloud transformation for over 800+ businesses pan India. G7CR provides cloud hosting services on Microsoft Azure, packaged with all the related pro-active support services, reactive support services and migration services for free. These services include managing cloud servers, monitoring cloud deployments, cloud architectural designs, cloud security services, governance services, 24×7 support and implementing advance technologies like power BI, analysis services, artificial intelligence, bots and machine learning. In the recent times, we have also specialized on moving work forces to be distributed with Microsoft’s WVD VDI solution for a cost as low as 14$ per user per month. We were also recently recognized as the Microsoft Country partner of the year 2019.
Do you think there are any major follies involved in dealing with technology?
The way this world is structured, and the people work, not relying on technology will only make people work harder. While the focus of the world and the companies should be to improve the quality of life of the people we recruit and when this is actually the focus, then technology is here to ensure that your job is made less stressful, less prone to human errors and the quality of service towards the customer as well as the quality of life of the people will rely on technology. If you ask whether there are any follies per se, I would say the folly here is not really the technology but it would actually be the state of not really understanding what the business needs in order to basically ensure quality of service output and quality of life output for employee. If these will be the focus for building technologies, they would definitely come out well. Hence the folly will always be the objective of building technologies rather than the technology itself.
Are you looking forward to foraying across the international borders soon?
G7CR is based in India and London and we have begun a rapid global expansion. We will be starting our operations in countries like Netherlands and North America soon by tying up with certain companies as subsidiaries. We recently crossed the figure of Rs 100 Cr and our aim is to double the revenue in the next financial year. The company also plans to expand its presence in European market, South East Asian market and Middle East. Within India, the company plans to not only tap the businesses in metro cities but also Tier 2 cities as well in order to reach the small and media enterprises.
Lastly, any words of advice for those considering to take a plunge into the cloud space?
There is only one advice that I have always stated that as entrepreneurs, listen to everyone’s advice but only do what you are compelled to do at that moment. Don’t do anything unless you feel a need for it because running an enterprise, what you need to do at any point of time comes from the circumstances that you have around. They will compel you to do the right things if you just stay focused on your objectives. So only advice, stay focused. Listen to all but implement any only when you find a need and finally, hang on. Because, hanging on ensures success.