Banibrata Banerjee Promoter, Datapings Software

Software is no longer a soft option. The majors are facing problems in a recession-wary US. This, in turn, is percolating down to smaller players at home. Today, just smart strategising is not good enough. You need the patience to stick it out and the guts to overcome the frequent tight bends. Some have what it takes. Meet Banibrata Banerjee, the dapper promoter of Datapings Software, a Delhi-based software solutions firm.

With a childhood spent in the dusty mining town of Dhanbad, there wasn’t much in the environment to encourage him for a life in business. Coming from a solid middle-class background, his father a mining engineer, the emphasis at home was always on studies. So study he did and did it well. Says he: “I did my schooling from De Nobili School, Digwadih, Dhanbad. Those were the good days when life was only about studies and play.”

School for a small boy in a sleepy town is always fun and he was no exception to this rule. “I have fond memories of my schooldays as well as the vacations,” says Banerjee. He has the usual stories of making friends for life, hanging out together, experiencing the thrills of adolescence while sticking to a strict curriculum and regimen under the watchful eyes of his parents and his friends’ parents.

Of course, De Nobili has had a firm hand in shaping his destiny. Apart from a large network to fall back on for securing business and general support when the going gets tough, the school “helped me develop the attitude to adapt to diverse circumstances”.

And the ability to take risks grew from this attitude. The entrepreneurial streak was probably ingrained in him and the environment helped him firm that up.

But Banerjee took a safe option at first. He did his BCom from Deshbandhu College, Delhi University, and then went on to do a postgraduate diploma in technology management from the All India Management Association.

He experimented with different companies before setting up shop on his own. “I worked with organisations like Panacea Biotec, Indiasky, Genesis PR, Development Alliance and Apollo Tyres. I had the opportunity to work with top-level CEOs and learnt a lot from them,” says Banerjee. One thing that has remained from the time he worked for others till now is his ability to meet challenges head on. This is probably the single-point secret of his success.

After all this chopping and changing, entrepreneurship called. One fine day, he chucked his well-paid job to open his own firm. And that’s how Datapings came into being. Another motivating factor for his venture was “that the ideas that I had were not being accomplished as a mere employee”.

There has been no looking back since then. The company has grown from a paltry Rs 5,000 venture to Rs 60 lakh in the last fiscal; Banerjee’s eyes are set on a Rs 1,000 crore enterprise in the next 20 years.

His core area is providing software solutions, HRMIS, website development, intranet management, and database maintenance. He counts Apollo Tyres, the Orissa Forest department, various NGOs and several Department for International Development (DEFID)-funded projects among his clients.

Of course, he wasn’t without his share of problems and heartache. However, friends and family chipped in and helped him stand on his feet. Also, “in any business, there are problems but one needs to keep his nerve,” says Banerjee.

Banerjee has a simple formula that explains his success. “Honesty, sticking to my principles, and never forgetting that sales price minus cost price is profit,” says Banerjee. He has as role models N.R. Narayana Murthy of Infosys and India’s milkman Varghese Kurien and tries to follow their examples.

So how does this techie businessman relax? He simply takes work as a challenge and negates most of the stress this way. Also, he loves watching movies and going off for impromptu drives with his family.

And in a business where every day brings a new challenge, and choices matter, he’s played smartly for now.

Based on a conversation with Shibani Chattopadhyay in Calcutta