COVID19: Longer Lockdown Could Impact Netzary

Bengaluru-based SI Netzary Infodynamics provides solutions around open source stacks, server, storage, security, networking, software licensing and compliance as well as cloud computing solutions from leading cloud providers such as AWS, Microsoft and Google. It has its own hosted and managed servers residing across 6 data centres. Ramdas S, Founder-CEO, Netzary Infodynamics admits the situation post COVID19 is grim and a longer lockdown could spell serious trouble for business.

During this COVID19 crisis what are the measures Netzary Infodynamics has undertaken to continue its own business without disruption?  

We are obviously working from home. We are delivering our remote services to our customers and so far things have been smooth.

What has been the impact of this crisis financially on Netzary?

We have been hit badly during this crisis. The timing was bad as we made some large investments in people for couple of upcoming projects which are now unlikely to take off soon. Some of the projects are stalled because we were at the middle of implementation at some customer sites.

What are the measures and initiatives taken for the uninterrupted service for customers?  

Our cloud services practice actually grew in the last 15-20 days. More customers will gradually move to cloud. Every engineer is working from home, and we are using Skype, Zoom and Whatsapp to communicate with the customers.

What are Netzary’s business and operating models? In light of the COVID19 crisis how has this model got impacted?

We had a bad 2019-20 compared to the previous year, though this was not related to COVID. If the country is able to bounce back in the next 15 days, and we are able to bring life back to normal in the next 2-3 months, I think Netzary will get back to our original plans within a period of 3-4 months. However a larger lockdown would wipe out some of our customers and that will be bad for us.

Which are top verticals where you witness maximum traction? How has COVID19 impacted business with these existing customers?

Our top customers are in the government, IT/ITES and services sectors. I believe government projects would take time because lot of funds will be diverted from there. Services sector is badly hit, and will continue to recede. It is quite difficult to talk about IT/ITEs. It really depends on global markets, whether we are going into a recession, or are we heading towards a depression. Overall we do not have a happy picture in sight.

What are the contingency plans you have put in place if this crisis persists or gets escalated?

If this crisis and the lockdown period persist, we will need to scale business down further. That would mean layoffs would happen and there would be definitely salary cuts too.

What sort of business and financial impact you expect for Netzary’s business as a result of COVID 19?

We are a losing about Rs 10-11lakhs a month with the lockdown and a larger period of this could mean trouble for us.