A True Microsoft Specialist

Suresh Ramani, CEO of TechGyan discovered his passion and remained persistent on his path despite of jolts of failures.

He is best known as a hardcore Microsoft guy in the industry. Suresh Ramani, CEO of TechGyan discovered his passion and remained persistent on his path despite of jolts of failures. Under his vision and a dynamic leadership TechGyan today is one of the leading solution providers in Microsoft Technologies. In a candid interaction with DQ Channels, Ramani recounts his journey from a pharmacy graduate to a Cloud Computing evangelist.

Initial days of struggle and leanings

A pharmacy graduate, Ramani was always at the forefront in the extracurricular activities during his golden days of college. His professors encouraged him to use his leadership strengths in a right direction and he seriously started looking into entrepreneurship.

“My professors told me that I have the ability to excite people and drive them for a common goal. I also realized my strengths and came to the conclusion that I had drive and passion and ability to think clearly. These traits would be very useful as an entrepreneur. That’s when I made a decision”, recalls Ramani.

Passionate to create a difference, Ramani laid the foundation stone of TechGyan and started with a typical SI business. However, soon he was bitten by a software bug. He floated a new company for software products specifically sales and service management and despite of very less prospects at that time in India he went on pumping resources in terms of people and money. The decision badly hit him and dragged him in a big business loss.

“I failed big time in software products. Around the same time, I had bad debts in my SI business and this potent combination dragged my SI business putting me into negative Spiral,” recounts Ramani.

Clever move of getting into MS Solution business

Ramani took stock of the situation and decided to sell his software business, with its IP and also drastically reduced his manpower. Fascinated by the Microsoft Technologies, he decided to focus mainly on Windows Small Business Server Solution from Microsoft. That helped him around the company to cash flow positive. When he was doing very well in the solution business, Ramani got one more opportunity to offer Computer Aided Drafting Services to Architects in USA. However, after doing excellent for nearly four years, the recession took a toll of this business.

“My major customers went bankrupt and I lost lots of money. But this time I was strong enough to withstand it”, recalls Ramani who was well learned from the past experience.

Ramani started TechGyan as an SI and had good growth. After initial failure, he decided to focus only on Windows Small Business Server. Microsoft introduced Cloud solution in India in 2007 and TechGyan became the early partner of Microsoft who adopted Cloud and moved out of its SI business. In a major turning point in the business, TechGyan was conferred with the first Worldwide Partner of the Year Award from Microsoft in Small Business Category in 2007 and also nominated to the Worldwide Small Business Advisory Council of Microsoft in the same year. Today, TechGyan is well known for its Microsoft expertise and high standard services. TechGyan is one of the few Gold Certified partner in Cloud solutions for the small and medium sized business in India.

 “We gave up many of the product lines we were handling and decided to focus on only 3 lines a) Cloud b) Microsoft Licensing, c) Managed Services. Since then, we have seen consistent growth in bottom line”, Ramani smiles.

Discover passion and happiness in work

Ramani stresses on finding the passion and happiness in the work because that gives motivation to chase the dreams. He also advises to get a Mentor to avoid the mistake and walk towards proper direction.

“I realized a long back that I loved Microsoft Technologies. But I never really committed myself to the same. It is only as late as 2011 that we finally decided to commit ourselves completely to Microsoft Technologies and Cloud. And work has been a great pleasure since then”, Ramai says.

On the professional front, Ramani has started Azure Practice and Office 365 Practice. He is also extensively working with other partners in Mumbai and outside Mumbai and delivering Cloud solutions to their Customers.  Ramani is also working a lot with Not for Profits and deploying Technology Solutions for them so that they are more Productive. He works closely with NASSCOM Foundation and help Not For Profits leverage Technology.

A die heart fan of R D Burman, Ramani is one of those entrepreneurs who never compromise on learning and always eager to gain knowledge in different domain. Due to his interest in Law, Ramani enrolled himself for LLB and became a fully qualified Lawyer in 2014.

“I do not intend to practice in the Courts. Instead I would like to focus on Mediation and Conciliation Services whereby my aim would be to help people resolve their differences and land up in the Courts. A few Partners have already come to me to resolve their differences. That is something very interesting which I would love to pursue more”, Ramani says.