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It took several stints abroad with various companies for Deepak Gupta to
realize that he could start a business of his own. He recognised the potential
of the nascent Indian call center industry early on and set about creating a
robust backend which would allow BPOs to have 100 percent uptime, besides voice
services
For some businessmen, 'success' does not imply setting up large and
successful business empires-the term perhaps has more to it. Striving for
perfection and delivering quality service is what keeps this set of successful
entrepreneurs going.
Deepak Gupta, CEO, Eurus Network Services is a proud member of this category.
For this Delhi-based businessman, establishing his business never implied
increasing revenue figures or aiming for higher turnovers day in and day out. On
the contrary, work was a means of setting up a precedent for others and
improvising on his shortfalls. His customers thus have always received services
they had been looking for, and Gupta in turn derived satisfaction from the
services offered by his company.
Carving a niche
Engineering was the profession Gupta aspired towards since childhood. Though
his father was a journalist, Gupta had a clear vision that he would grow up to
become an engineer some day. After obtaining a degree in electrical engineering
from IIT-Delhi in 1971, he had his early foundations in the analog and discrete
digital era as a telecom equipment designer with several companies in India.
He then headed for Zambia in 1982 and worked for a mining company. This was
followed by a stint, as the CTO for a Japanese long-distance carrier for several
years. He worked with some of the best known companies like KDD, China Unicom,
KPN, Telia and Star Telecom. It was while working with various companies abroad
that he realized he could start a business of his own. Gradually things fell in
place and Gupta's efforts paved way for his dream company 'Eurus'.
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| PROFILE Name: Deepak Gupta
Designation: CEO
Company: Eurus Network Services
Education: B Tech
Employee strength: 15 |
How Eurus thus earned its name, is yet another interesting story, and as
Gupta narrates it, “Eurus, is a word that implies-Winds of the East. Since at
the time of establishment of the company, every major IT company was heading
towards West and all the activities were majorly happening in that region
itself. I wanted to set-up an example before others that this was one company
from India (East) that had the capability to provide the same technology and
services as that of companies in West.”
Elaborating further, he mentioned, “In 2002, the call center industry in
India was in its nascent stage and was entirely reliant on expensive tier-2 and
3 US-based telecom carriers for voice services. Eurus happened because I saw
that as an opportunity and hence set-up a switching facility in the US, with
telecom facilities equipped to cater to call center traffic-that has
significantly different characteristics than regular telecom traffic.”
When Gupta embarked in this space, his was the only company that had the
capabilities of providing long-distance voice networks, and as time passed by,
his company ensured that it offered the best of the services in that space.
“There were not many service providers in the private sector that had any
significant experience in long-distance voice networks when we began our
journey,” he reiterated. Thus, Eurus started hosting voice muxes in USA and
terminating Indian customers IPLCs there and was offering tech support to
foreign customers from India.
Hard work pays
Ask Gupta what his success mantra is, and pat comes the reply, “Hard work
with the customer in focus and to do my best to help customers achieve their
goals is what has helped me turn Eurus into a successful set-up.” This year, the
company has bagged two contracts with companies such as Net D in the US and
Tiger Comm in Singapore. Very recently, the company has acquired the license for
VoIP from DoT and is very excited to explore this space further.
In the early days of the call center industry, point to point bandwidth was
extremely expensive and Eurus helped customers deploy technologies that were
extremely bandwidth efficient. “Very early on we also realized that since
telecom service was the lifeline of the call center industry, we had to ensure
virtually 100 percent uptime. We achieved this by partnering with multiple
providers in the US and setting up a 24x7 NOC in Delhi to provide round the
clock tech support to our customers. Since those early days, we have installed
predictive dialers, ACDs, etc and now offer a complete range of voice services
required by this industry,” added Gupta.
Hindrances on the way
In the initial years of its establishment, Eurus experienced immense growth
in the business, and in the first four years, Eurus registered 200 percent
growth. However, a global slowdown and the entry of IP-based technology did
affect its business. But Gupta soon picked up and by applying the tricks of the
trade created a niche where his company was no longer chasing customers.
“My company has always approached customers with their best interests in
mind, but I feel that this honest approach is sometimes an obstacle, especially
in the face of competition. Many service providers don't provide customers a
complete picture. Ours is business based on relationships and customers have
built confidence in us over a period of time. However, a major hindrance has
been the lack of clarity in government policies,” he reiterated.
Gupta is overwhelmingly positive, both towards life and business, and
indicated that he has never viewed any hindrances as 'setbacks' but rather as
challenges. “We work with a motto 'Every problem has an elegant solution' with
stress on 'elegant' in a broad sense, that includes effectiveness, efficiency,
and at a workable price point.”
An engineer at heart
“Being a long time telecom industry professional, my thinking has always
been biased towards this industry. I would have perhaps explored opportunities
in terms of developing VoIP devices and applications,” Gupta said. His other
interests include delivering remote NOC services and this is something his
company is trying to establish as an independent business line in Eurus.
The road ahead
Gupta suggested that in the past, there was a lot of scope for the telephony
business, as VoIP technology had not come into limelight. But the advent of
Internet changed things and connectivity was possible due to IPLC. He believes
that with the voice and VoIP technology becoming robust and the cost of the same
witnessing a downfall, the smaller SPs have a lot of scope for business.
He further added that Eurus's primary business was providing voice services
over fixed point-to-point IPLCs. With Internet becoming more cost effective, we
have acquired an ISP and ITSP license and soon plan to launch VoIP services.
With 35 years of experience as an engineer behind him, Gupta reiterated, “I
don't have an ambition to become a Bharti or an SP of higher level, but I aim to
keep myself occupied and offer best in quality services to my customers.”
POOJA SHARMA
poojas@cybermedia.co.in Page(s) 1
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