Rajshekar Roy, Chief Executive Officer, Four Soft Ltd, holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Jadavpur University and is an MBA from IIM, Calcutta. He has over 20 years of business management experience in the areas of software services, business process outsourcing and management consulting. He was the first President of OfficeTiger in India, was the CEO of a medium size software development firm in Chennai for 4 years and the Director of India Operations of an US based E-publishing firm for 2 years before his present assignment in Four Soft. He had earlier worked in Hewlett Packard where he migrated several HP processes to India and was selected as the best global manager for successful deployment of these processes. Raj holds He is a certified trainer in Organizational Development, Change management and Quality management.
Four Soft a innovative software solutions and IT consultancy services exclusively for the logistics and supply-chain management market place. It is the market leader in the transportation and logistics segment with a large international client base including the majority of the top transportation & logistics companies in the world. With regional offices strategically located worldwide, it supports customers including DHL, Schenker, Agility, UTI and Geodis-Wilson. Four Soft, offers a full suite of web-native products across the logistics supply chain. This includes 4S eTrans for freight forwarding and logistics, 4S eLog for extended warehouse management, 4S Visilog & 4S VisiLog plus for track & trace, visibility and supply-chain management, 4S eCustoms for customs brokerage, 4S iShipping for shipping line execution and 4S eConnect for business-to-business connectivity.
Speaking with Yash Ved of IIFL, Rajshekar Roy says, "We may look for acquisitions or joint venture in China, South America, South Africa."
Brief us about your growth in IT, BPO and SCM space?
We are mainly into software services and software products sale. We have products in logistics and supply chain management space. We have to do lot of services into our existing products. We are not going for more BPO service as of now. Most of the contracts of our existing customers is by and large neutral.
Customers were spending at slightly lower level. In 2009, most of the customers had postponed their buying decision. The last 6 months have been quite positive and we have put larger sales force in US.
Our business is closely linked to economic upturn. In April and May 2010, we have signed orders of US$1.5mn and we have pipeline of US$8-10mn.
Brief us about your expansion plan? Are you in race for any acquisitions?
We are mainly into software solution and we are looking at both organic and inorganic growth.
We have organic growth where we sell current product and inorganic growth for some acquisitions.
We plan to grow at about US$100mn company by 2012-2013. We may look for acquisitions or joint venture in China, South America, South Africa. Out of US$100mn, US$35mn will be for the acquisitions.
Brief us about your international operation? Are you planning to focus on new geographical area?
We are present in Asia and we have sales office in Japan, Singapore. We also have three office is UK, Europe and Netherlands and US. We are looking at Software as a Service Model (SAAS). With SaaS. A provider licenses an application to customers as a service on demand, through a subscription or a "pay-as-you-go" model
There were reports that Kotak Private Equity was likely to sell its stake in your company?
We have denied reports of Kotak Private Equity to sell stake in the company.
Brief us about your new deal you have bagged from AFS Transport?
AFS Transport is a logistics company based in The Netherlands. They have selected our eLog system to support their complex warehousing requirements.
Brief us about your Q1 financials?
The company has reported its financial results for the first quarter of FY 2010-11.
PAT was up 460% to Rs27mn against Rs4.8mn in Q1 FY10. Revenues for the quarter stood at Rs293.9mn, as against Rs357mn in Q1 FY10. The EBITDA recovered strongly and stands at Rs30.6mn, translating into an EBITDA margin of 10%.
How do you see the margins going forward?
We will sustain margins of around 13-14%.
Brief us about your revenue segment in percentage terms?
About 5% of business comes from India, while 95% of business comes from International operation.
What is the current cash level and debt?
The total debt is Rs230mn and out of the same Rs57mn is payable within 1 year.
What kind of hiring are you looking at?
We are looking at hiring in fresher and senior level. We are planning to hire about 150 employees for FY11.