Startups’ decision to outsource their IT needs help them stay warm during funding winter chill

Startups and businesses seeking cost-effective tech solutions are leading the boom in outsourcing of technology services. In addition to cost savings and access to skilled talent, factors such as increasing adoption of cloud-based solutions and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), besides a growing need for cybersecurity and data privacy solutions are further fuelling the demand. Citing this demand for technology service providers, Arun Meena founded RHA Technologies to provide technology, digital transformation and consulting service to startups and multinationals. The Delhi-based company’s services include, developing product and SaaS platform, web and app, smart products, blockchain and IoT, data analytics and others. In an interview with Bizz Buzz, Arun Meena, Founder and CEO of RHA Technologies Pvt Ltd, says: “In my earlier role as the CTO of different organisations I found a clear delivery gap between the large IT vendors servicing global 500, and the rest of the solution providers. RHA Technologies was thus set up to provide organisational digital transformation to the industry at value pricing with transparent, productive, and sustainable delivery. We hire talent that would be empathetic to client requirements and deliver outcomes instead of output.”

What is the current status of the company?

We, a team of 75 employees, have grown at accelerated pace in the last three years while maintaining focus on client delivery. From a standing start, we today serve more than 20 clients across six industry sectors and all technology vectors. The company started as bootstrapped and today our revenues support our global expansion.

What are your plans going forward?

In the next two years we will be expanding to more countries of MENA and Southeast Asia along with European foray. Our operations in Middle East already continue to grow from strength to strength. The team would ideally double in size, with priority on hiring in the AI domain, with a larger share of IT requirements of existing clients along with increase in client numbers. Nevertheless, the focus will remain on excellence in client delivery as word of mouth and deeper market penetration is the way forward.

What support does RHA Tech need to boost its growth?

We request the government and the IT industry bodies to look at small and mid-size service providers as a separate category from the top 100 outsourcing service providers. This will help the policies to focus on creating space for us in government requirements, enabling a retraining budget as our well-trained competent staff is quickly hired by larger players, improving industry employability in engineering colleges, and enabling smaller business and startups with better depreciation and tax adjustment for IT services sourced from smaller domestic service providers.

How is serving a startup different from that for a multinational?

In case of startups, this requires a co-founder level of sensitivity, responsibility, dependability, and empathy while bringing the best of technology talent to the table. In case of medium and larger enterprises, the focus is more on synergistic technology consulting, digital transformation, and technology services and solutions. Thus, enabling the client organisations to realise and strengthen their innovation, differentiation, valuation, and market offering. As business owners, entrepreneurs may make all the decisions regarding their careers. The decision-making role for employees depends on their rank in the organisational hierarchy. Entrepreneurs may not explain their choices to anyone if they work by themselves or have founded their own workforce. Entrepreneurs may have more independence in their roles than employees. Entrepreneurs may have greater responsibilities than traditional employees. Traditional employees may work in competitive environments. For internal promotions, they may distinguish themselves from their co-workers who are pursuing the same positions. The internal work atmosphere for entrepreneurs is not competitive because they may work by themselves. They may aim to exceed other independent contractors in their field, but they may not compete with anyone inside their business.

How is the future of business for RHA during recession and layoffs?

We started our company during the pandemic and were focusing on the domestic India market at that time. Despite the toughest business climate, we were able to grow rapidly. Though the current business environment – though being tough on startups – is a huge improvement over the crisis times of pandemic. We are thus extremely bullish on growth. An idea is a solution for an existing problem in the society, based on which startups are founded. If I am, not wrong... but in the due course, where do customers stand/ placed while a disruptive tech product or service is introduced. The impact of disruptive technologies on customers depends on many factors, including the type of technology, the industry and market in which it is deployed, and the particular needs and preferences of individual customers. To manage these changes, companies must carefully assess the potential impact of new technologies on their customers and seek to maximise benefits while mitigating negative impacts. This may include interacting with our customers, monitoring their feedback and sentiment, and adapting our products and services to their changing needs and preferences. It is for the organisations in conjunction with solution providers to think through the issues and create solutions that minimise negative disruptions.

According to you, which technology is under-utilised?

While every technology has potential for deeper implementation – the call needs to be taken keeping the RoI / competitive advantage in mind. Nevertheless, one technology that has been on the boil for some time but has not been utilised even adequately across various sectors is blockchain and artificial intelligence. Blockchain has the potential to energise multiple industries including finance, healthcare, supply chain management, retail, ecommerce, insurance and more. Yet, despite its potential, blockchain is still in its early stages of adoption, and many businesses are hesitant to invest in it due to the lack of regulatory clarity and the perceived complexity of implementation. However, as the technology continues to mature and more use cases are developed, I believe that we will see increased adoption and utilisation across sectors.

What is your take on the much-spoken ChatGPT, its future and repercussions?

ChatGPT’s ability to create natural language responses when given input from a user makes it a valuable addition to businesses seeking to improve communication with their customers or clients. With its potential to enhance workflows and deliver a superior customer experience, ChatGPT creates opportunities for company’s strategical benefits. The future of ChatGPT and other NLP models is immense. They are continuing to improve in accuracy and capabilities. However, there are also potential issues with their implementation, such as concerns about bias and ethical considerations in decision-making. This may become especially relevant where such a bias creates a watershed of incrementally damaging outputs. It will behove industry across sectors to start experimenting and implementing such emerging technologies to retain their competitive advantage. They will also need to create checks and processes to ensure that the technology is not trusted blindly and the smallest deviations are reigned in at the earliest to avoid cascading an existential crisis.

At present, which tech has been disrupting the industry?

Artificial intelligence is disrupting industries such as healthcare, finance, and manufacturing by automating processes, improving decision-making, and reducing costs. Internet of Things is disrupting industries such as transportation, agriculture, and energy by connecting devices and enabling real-time data collection and analysis. Blockchain is disrupting industries such as finance, supply chain management, and real estate by enabling secure, transparent, and efficient record-keeping. Overall, these technologies and others are transforming industries and enabling new business models and revenue streams. While there may be challenges and disruptions during the transition, the long-term benefits of these technologies are expected to be significant.