CXO of the Week: Rohit Singal, VP-India, Rahi

Rahi is a provider of innovative technology solutions and a one-stop provider for an organization’s IT requirements. Rahi leverages state-of-the-art innovative technologies to provide a curated solution. Our logistics and distribution teams understand supply chain processes and continue to deliver engineering and support resources efficiently. We have a presence across six continents, 22 countries, and 32 cities with 1000+ customers, over a span of 10 years. The company provides a full lifecycle of technology solutions from assessment, architecture, design, implementation, and managed services, to professional services and support.

In a recent chat with Rohit Singal, VP -India, Rahi, wherein he talks about his entrepreneurial journey, the unique aspects of Rahi, and the company’s latest endeavors.

Tell us about Rahi, its specialization, and its services.

More than a decade back, enterprises realized that technology was becoming increasingly dynamic, hence it was essential to understand the needs of customers and create tailor-made solutions. To address this gap, Rahi was co-founded in 2012 by Tarun Raisoni, Sushil Goyal, and Rashi Mehta. The vision behind creating Rahi was to provide end-to-end global IT solutions that could help enterprises irrespective of their sizes-small, medium, and large- convert their long-term business objectives into success via technology. Since then, Rahi has strived towards harnessing the ongoing evolution of technologies and helping organizations enhance productivity and profitability.

Rahi has developed the processes and skill sets to deliver IT solutions for customers globally and is further elevating digital transformation to create integrated IT environments.

Rahi is a provider of innovative technology solutions and a one-stop provider for an organization’s IT requirements. Rahi leverages state-of-the-art innovative technologies to provide a curated solution. Our logistics and distribution teams understand supply chain processes and continue to deliver engineering and support resources efficiently. We have a presence across six continents, 22 countries, and 32 cities with 1000+ customers, over a span of 10 years. The company provides a full lifecycle of technology solutions from assessment, architecture, design, implementation, and managed services, to professional services and support.

Rahi’s products and solutions comprise:

• Data Center: Our data center infrastructure solutions are helping organizations to create a dynamic and efficient IT environment that can respond to today’s business demands while being agile enough to adapt to the changing landscape.
• Enterprise IT Infrastructure: Our enterprise IT services extend from data center infrastructure management (DCIM) solutions, server consolidation, and virtualization to storage and asset management.
• Networking & Security: Any company, regardless of its size or sector, needs a level of network and security solutions in place. Not just to expand its growing environment but to also keep it safe from ever-increasing cyber threats.
• Cloud Infrastructure: Our expertise in designing and implementing private or hybrid cloud environments using existing or new infrastructure has helped many businesses maintain visibility and control of workloads ensuring performance.
• Audio/Video: We offer a suite of carefully vetted A/V products that can help to enlighten, entertain and increase engagement and enhance collaboration. We enable businesses with flexible options that can be customized to each specific environment.
• Global Services and Logistics: Rahi also offers logistics services that include product assembly, packaging, tracking, and security. Together, these capabilities enable us to deliver multivendor IT solutions across geopolitical boundaries, helping customers operate efficiently and effectively in every market they serve.

We are now in the post-pandemic phase, what’s your perspective on organizations and their IT roadmap? 

Before proceeding with creating a roadmap for a post-pandemic world, organizations should first identify their position within the enterprise ecosystem. They should understand the present IT marketplace, who their competitors are, and where they are heading. This will enable them to build a fool-proof roadmap that will enable them to make strategic informed decisions.

The rapid acceleration of digital transformation has highlighted many vulnerabilities within the enterprise ecosystem that enable threat actors to deploy their malicious intent. In the post-pandemic world, organizations will need to take extra security measures before deploying any applications or incorporating any new technologies within their IT infrastructure. Also, organizations must embrace flexible working models such as remote and hybrid work models that will help them to recruit and retain top talent that the present IT landscape lacks.

For achieving better growth and economic outcomes, organizations will need to continuously improve their technology capabilities, leadership, talent as well as resources while seeking opportunities in areas of digital disruption.

How are organizations planning their IT and infrastructure needs and how does Rahi come into this picture?

IT infrastructure is the backbone of any organization in order to fulfill the requirements of customers and stay operational 24x7. Efficient management of IT infrastructure will help identify the ill-performing systems and update them to minimize risks. It will also help to plan and strategize for IT emergencies that can occur in the future such as network failure, server overload, data storage issues, etc. Robust infrastructure, along with fool-proof planning help reduce unnecessary downtime, data loss, and other security incidents in your business.

Emergency systems can be installed to monitor and identify vulnerabilities to predict any mishap in advance. Informing customers in advance about the upcoming infrastructure maintenance assists customers plan accordingly to avoid unplanned downtime. Deciding on the right infrastructure helps organizations run businesses smoothly even during data loss or cyber-attacks and organizations can quickly recover data through backups, thus increasing productivity and improving profitability.  Rahi not only helps customers deploy the solutions but manage them for the years to come by providing comprehensive managed services and becoming the true partner of its customers.

Tell us about your operations in India and other countries.

Rahi has a presence on 6 continents, across 22 countries, and 32 cities with 1000+ customers, over a span of 10 years. In India, we are present in almost all metro cities such as Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Kolkata. Our offices are spread across the country and we can service businesses remotely without a direct presence.

• North America - United States, Mexico, Canada
• South America - Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Chile, Peru
• Europe - Ireland, Netherlands, France, Germany, Turkey, United Kingdom
• Asia - India, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, UAE, Indonesia, South Korea
• South Africa & Australia

Going into this year, will there be any change around IT budgets or in terms of the consumption model due to the post-pandemic situation?

As per Gartner, the worldwide spending on IT budgets is expected to reach USD 4.4 trillion in 2022 an increase of 4% from 2021. So, the signs of a budget increase for IT are positive. But, at the same time, the CIOs will be expected to provide proof of ROI from the incorporation of these technologies. This will prompt them to increasingly opt for a pay-per-use business model, enabling them to only pay for what they use. Such consumption models help both enterprises and their customers by enabling customers to pay for what they use and empowering enterprises to optimize their services. Moreover, CIOs will be in a much better position to showcase the importance of integrating such technologies while simultaneously strengthening their position on the board.

Going ahead, with all these partnerships, what’s the roadmap for the company this year?

Rahi is planning to expand to newer locations and work with new customers. They plan to grow by around 30 percent in 2022. We have orders for huge data centers and other projects are in the pipeline. There are multiple other projects for audio-visual requirements and they will be setting up a 30-conference room office in India before the end of 2022. Rahi has also introduced Cloud as a Platform (CaaP) and the team is rapidly adding clients to the portfolio.

Our recent expansion has been to New Zealand for offering services to existing customers and partners. Hiring plans include management trainees, new sales managers, and executives and adding more technical talent to the team almost every month. Rahi recently announced augmenting its workforce by 50% and hiring 500 employees by the end of 2022.

How do you enhance customer experience by managing workload placement?

Businesses everywhere are increasingly confident about moving workloads to the cloud to benefit from scalability and flexibility. Organizations have to assess and analyze suitable applications to move workloads to achieve business goals. Security, performance, ease of management, and availability should be considered when determining workload placement. Some companies might choose to move data, IT resources, or other digital assets to the cloud, and others consider the cloud for technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, or IoT.

Cloud helps organizations choose the right infrastructure for the right workload. Moving data workloads to the cloud help in freeing staff to concentrate on more important tasks. Cloud migration should only take place if it improves a workload and there should be a plan for the migration to the cloud such as experienced service providers, using automation and migration services.