Desi girl with her desi team

Introducing Ms.Saloni Malhotra, CEO, DesiCrew Solutions

By the time Saloni Malhotra had successfully completed her engineering from Bharati Vidyapeeth (Pune University) in 2003, she was certain of one thing - she wanted to start-up something of her own. So, instead of joining a well-established technology firm, Saloni chose to work with Web Chutney, a startup interactive agency. She believed the opening would offer her a chance to multitask and get the feel of what it is like to be part of a growing new venture.

Inspired to go rural

Saloni was drawn to the rural sector too, but in a positive way. She explains what this means - "Most people equate rural India with poverty, illiteracy and agriculture, with the latter representing scores of debt-ridden small land holders on the brink of suicide. Perhaps because of this, grants routed through NGOs working for the social and economic betterment of farmers complete the picture. Contrary to this perception, I was enthused by images of rural people gainfully employed by technology-driven profit-making enterprises."

Soon after, Saloni had the opportunity to hear Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala of the IIT-Chennai speak on technology in the context of rural India. Appreciating his clarity on the subject, she was inspired to send him her CV for his consideration.

"He receives hundreds of CV's from hopefuls. So I consider myself very lucky to have received a one-line response from him - ‘Why don't you meet me?'" she recalls.

Meet she did, even if it meant her traveling all the way from Delhi to Chennai. Saloni believes that her enthusiasm must have convinced Dr Jhunjhunwala of her seriousness - "After all, he had made no commitment or serious offer in his response."

Pioneering the rural BPO concept

Having heard her out, Dr Jhunjhunwala proposed that a rural BPO would probably be the kind of profit-making venture she could setup in rural India. The Telecommunications and Computer Networks (TeNet) Group at IIT-Chennai would offer her office space at the IIT, plus access to the rural network they had already established. Beyond that, it was upto her.

"He made it clear that he would support me for only 18 months. By then, he wanted me to deliver a live company, not a research paper!" shares Saloni.

In January 2005, assisted by a team of 7-8 people, Saloni set about understanding the mindset of the village folk in Tamil Nadu. More specifically, what were the challenges that they perceived stood in the way of a rural BPO?

Speaking of her findings, Saloni says, "I realized that a professional BPO - even in the rural sector - mandated 100 percent up-time of its infrastructure. This was hardly conceivable by the villagers."

Growing from a humble beginning

Undaunted, the team pressed forward by plugging the infrastructural loopholes. UPS and gensets would function as power back-ups, while BSNL telecom connectivity was supplemented with a private connection. Then, they were face-to-face with their most challenging task - finding their first customer.

"We ran round ex-IIT alumni running small to medium-sized companies in Chennai. The pressure on us was not only about launching a startup, but also presenting a new business model. Rural BPO's were unheard of in 2006. Still - we found our first client before formally launching DesiCrew Solutions (henceforth DesiCrew), the company, in January 2007," shares Saloni.

All along, an angel investor had supported the team's efforts. In 2008, Rajiv Kuchhal, a senior member and long time ex-Infosys and OnMobile joined the growing team and invested further equity. As of early 2009, the 105-member strong team spread over six centres in districts Salem, Coimbatore, Erode and Nagapattinam serves five anchor customers which includes one of the top 3 insurance companies, 2 of the world's largest internet companies and 4-5 more sporadic customers.

Reversing brain drain from villages

Since its inception, DesiCrew has proven that a rural workforce may be taught new sets of skills so as to turn into service providers at a rural BPO.

DesiCrew's rural delivery centre trains and absorbs villagers in different projects according to their aptitude. So far, it has trained rural teams to offer services related to the publishing industry, such as manuscript digitization (print-to-text and handwritten-to-text), proof-reading, formatting and page setting, and translation services in various Indian language scripts. 

DesiCrew's rural teams also serve market research companies in the data-entry, translation, and transcription of data (audio/video recordings, questionnaires, respondent forms and translations) gathered to validate research premises. Some associates have also been trained in GIS plotting, tele-calling and data mining jobs. 

But DesiCrew's business model is not only novel because it has effectively gone rural with what was so far an urban Indian concept. In the process, it is also addressing a pressing issue plaguing rural India - the growing decline in agricultural opportunities due to population explosion (and hence, falling sizes of land holdings) and increasing migration to cities in search of work. Besides, DesiCrew has opened employment avenues for many young women who no thanks to social restrictions rooted in gender-bias, would have had no opportunity to contribute to their household and hence national income.

The way forward

Today, other organizations like Sai Seva, Source Pilani et al are also engaged in the rural BPO sector. But Saloni and her team are by no means threatened by the growing competition. Quite the contrary! Here is Saloni's take on the infusion of new players in the sector - "We welcome the competition, as so far, whenever we approached prospective clients and explained our concept / business model, we were often taken to be ‘just another IIT-supported' endeavour that would probably die its own death. Having more people engaged in the rural BPO sector bodes well for us, as it indicates the concept is in a growth mode and here to stay."

Indeed - it would perhaps be safe to say that the goodwill DesiCrew is generating in rural India will stand it in good stead, as it opens new centres in more villages. 

Charu Bahri is an author, freelance writer, columnist and [part-time] manager - projects and information systems at J Watumull Global Hospital & Research Centre. More about her at http://charubahri.googlepages.com

Issue BG97 April09