1. Players | Case Study ________________________________________________________________________________________________
Team InfoAxon
‘Platforming’: A Unique Formula for
Lasting Business Partnerships
Noida headquartered InfoAxon Technologies erases all doubts around the profitability
of an open source business. It uses the ‘platforming’ approach to cement long lasting
relationships with its customers.
I
nfoAxon Technologies have a profitable business model. However,
began business focusing on that was not because you couldn’t have one, but
proprietary technology back because most of those selling open source and
in 2001. But it soon took the benefiting from it got fixated to the ‘free’ aspect
plunge into the open source world within a year. of open source. They discounted the crucial
InfoAxon has grown steadily from Rs 20 values of open source technology like choice,
million in 2003 to Rs 50 million in 2009, and flexibility and innovation. Thus, they soon hit a
is expected to clock revenues of Rs 100 million dead end on the business road. For companies
this fiscal. Along the way, it has grown from like ours, which saw open source technology
a four-member team to an 80-strong army, as a development model and participated in
comprising open source architects, platform and augmented the collaborative work of the
designers, open source evangelists and open community, the business model automatically
source developers. Armed with open source, happened alongside,” says Shubham Nagar,
it has won over customers in the UK, South chief executive officer, InfoAxon Technologies.
Africa and India.
The story of InfoAxon Technologies speaks The open road
volumes for the profitability of an open source Four friends, with a mix of technical, financial
business. “It is true that initially most businesses and marketing skills, set up InfoAxon
jumping onto the open source bandwagon didn’t Technologies in 2001. Post the dot com bust,
100 | october 2010 | LINUX For YoU | www.LinuxForU.com

2. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Case Study | Players
they saw tremendous scope in the
‘offshore outsourcing model’ to help
global companies reduce time to market
and address the skill gap in developing
software solutions. They also founded
InfoAxon Technologies UK (a 100
per cent subsidiary of InfoAxon
Technologies), and began software
development using .NET technology for
clients like Virgin Media. Shubham Nagar, chief executive
Within a year, things began to work officer, InfoAxon Technologies.
well for InfoAxon, which was looking
at creating a niche for itself within the The early setbacks
software development market. “We had However, despite an easy start, selling
existing customers inviting us to a huge open source at a time when awareness
opportunity emerging in the UK public levels were low wasn’t easy. InfoAxon
sector. One of our initial customers – had to battle mindset issues at a time
the London borough of Camden – was when proprietary software was the de
involved in a project funded by the facto choice. “The initial sales cycles
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister were very long. We had to dedicate
(ODPM), which was working towards substantial time in presentations to
making all government services explain what open source was, as most
available online through a series of customers didn’t understand the model.
projects named the ‘Pathfinder’ projects. Thereafter, a lot of information exchange
To make that happen, local authorities needed to be done to ensure the client
in UK needed a content management remained convinced. Thus, we spent
(CMS) and knowledge management a lot of time and energy in pre-sales
solution (KMS). No proprietary solution legwork. Despite that, many a time, it
fitting the exact need for ODPM projects wouldn’t convert into engagements,”
was available to the public sector back recalls Vineet Dahiya, co-founder
then. They had two options – to either and director, InfoAxon Technologies.
customise a proprietary solution or go “However, this is changing rapidly now,
for open source technology. Realising as there are proven open source success
that the former carried the risk of vendor stories in almost every field of IT and the
lock-in, the deputy PM’s office decided industry verticals. Now, there is less open
to support the open source project, source evangelism required during our
APLAWS (Accessible Personalised discussions with customers. Instead, they
Local Authority Web Sites - http://www. straight away engage us in understanding
aplaws.org.uk). The London borough of the value we provide to them using
Camden, Red Hat and InfoAxon were open source as a model for innovation.
involved in the project from the start. This suits us completely, as we have
This marked the beginning of our open a wealth of open source expertise and
source voyage,” says Nagar. experience and are able to demonstrate
InfoAxon focused on the core our value quite early on, leading to quick
architecture of the APLAWS platform and engagements,” adds Dahiya.
some of its key contributions included
the form builder; the ability to go to the Charting out a new route to
main CMS and create dynamic forms; success
plug-ins for HTML, news feeds and RSS The strategy of selling a ‘complete
feeds; a design of the front end CMS solution’ rather than open source, per
layer, etc, which were all path breaking se; of looking at every customer as
at that time. This is also when InfoAxon, a stream of opportunities/ revenue;
as a company, became entirely convinced and using existing customers as doors
about the open source business model. to reach out to new clients, helped
www.LinuxForU.com | LINUX For YoU | october 2010 | 101

3. Players | Case Study ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
which is a ‘collaborative content management platform’ that
Understanding the opportunities in the
can be used to create content-centric collaboration solutions
open source world
that help organisations address the challenge of knowledge
Open source is the way to go for any budding entrepreneur, feels sharing. It combines collaboration and social capabilities
Nagar. “Apart from reducing your costs, the flexibility proposition with back-end enterprise content management capabilities to
and its ability to create a wholesome platform is eye catching provide end-to-end content and collaboration functionality.
for any budding entrepreneur,” says Nagar. While e-commerce “FusionKM” is another workflow enabled social network-
and CMS are segments worth considering, sectors like financial based knowledge management platform that provides
institutions, the public sector and retail hold huge opportunities infrastructure and a robust design by which new services
for entrepreneurs into open source technology. However, here is a
could be built into the solution. InfoAxon is also involved
word of caution! “Take time to understand open source for what it
is. If you are working on only open source, don’t promote the free in developing large scale knowledge management platforms
argument alone. Look at what open source is, as a whole. Always with integrated business intelligence for the international
focus on the flexibility, choice and innovation argument of open development sector.
source to sell and win over customers. Lastly, be a part of the
open source ecosystem and contribute back to the community,” Is ‘platforming’ a viable business model?
advises Nagar. With platforming currently contributing nearly 70 per cent
to InfoAxon’s revenue stream, there is no doubt about its
InfoAxon win new business over the years. “We realised very profitability. “The business model around platforming is
early on that we would be taking a great risk if we focused on a unique one. As open source began maturing, the cost
customising open source rather than on what the technology proposition took a back seat and the flexibility and innovation
can do. Thus, we focused on selling a ‘complete solution’, edge it provides came to the forefront. In such a situation,
which were our ‘platforms’ to the customer. Alongside, we the customer wanted someone who could cement many
used our existing assignments like the APLAWS project to open source tools together for them to avail the wholesome
reach out to new customers like the European arm of UNDP, benefits of open source. This is where we came in with
Indian Air Force etc. In a nutshell, our platforming focus soon our ‘platforming packages’, which was the first revenue
fell in sync with our business model and value proposition,” stream for us. Thereafter, we worked on enhancements for
says Nagar. the platforms, adding satellite modules/applications. This
Dahiya adds: “After the APLAWS experience, we realised triggered an additional revenue stream for us in the long run.
the opportunity in the public sector and the international We also provided maintenance and support of the whole
development arena, and decided to focus on these sectors. We platform, which soon became a significant revenue offshoot
also kept preaching to the already convinced, like those in the from our platforming solutions. Thus, our platforming
banking and finance sector, who were on the constant lookout approach resulted in long lasting relationships with customers,
for newer technologies and were already bowled over by the with many continuing with us for nearly five to six years and
open source idea.” more,” explains Nagar.
Today, InfoAxon has several customers of their
Platforming – the trump card for InfoAxon platforming solutions who have been with them for over five
‘Solution platforms’, also called platforming, wherein years. Home Connections, which is a service provider of
various open source tools/platforms were integrated into one Choice Based Letting (CBL) services (in the social housing
solution, was the USP and key differentiator for InfoAxon. domain) to local authority partners and housing associations
“Our experience has taught us that most organisations, which in the UK, is one of them. Starting with providing a CBL
have realised the value of open source or are in the process platform powered by open source technologies, InfoAxon
of realising it, don’t want to implement select open source soon found yet another opportunity to add modules like
tools as a quick fix solution, or if they do, they realise quickly housing registers, implement an interface with digital
that they are on the wrong track. They want to integrate a TV where people could bid for affordable housing using
whole lot of open source technologies and create a unique their interactive TV interfaces, etc. Another instance of
platform for their needs within their own domain. We provide platforming leading to new opportunities for InfoAxon was
them such platforms around knowledge management (KM), with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),
business intelligence (BI) and content management systems for whom the firm had developed a KMS platform. The
(CMS) with a vision to provide so much more in the future relationship continued to grow, when UNDP approached
and to do so in diverse domains,” says Nagar. InfoAxon to add features like allowing the other initiatives
Since these platforms could be extended to develop to search content within UNDP using this platform. So was
solutions for different domains/ markets, they hold the the case of the South African government whose association
promise of reducing the overall time to market for customers. with InfoAxon began with a social networking platform for
One of the firm’s noteworthy platforms is “AxonShare”, aid management and thereafter, it chose InfoAxon again to
102 | october 2010 | LINUX For YoU | www.LinuxForU.com

4. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Case Study | Players
transform the same solution into an aid effectiveness and source customisation can lead to. “We also provide custom
grant management platform. development services but use it more as a tactic to lead the
InfoAxon’s Indian experience was equally successful. client to the larger platforming package. And, we have won
HDFC Bank was one of its first customers in India. InfoAxon numerous clients with this strategy. For instance, we recently
helped it move non-core banking applications running on provided a customised e-learning solution for one of our
various technologies onto a single platform, created using Red UK customers. Now we are in talks with them to provide
Hat, JBoss, etc. Other Indian clients soon followed–Yes Bank, a knowledge repository attracting them to our platforming
the Indian Air Force, UNDP India, Castrol, Filex India, etc. solution,” says Dahiya. Today, the revenue generated from
Such long-standing relationships arising out of platforming custom development is 15 per cent.
gave InfoAxon a commercially viable business model.
Scouting around for new opportunities
Support and maintenance Looking ahead, sector-specific platforms and training are new
The platforming model also gave rise to revenue opportunities pastures InfoAxon wishes to explore. “Based on our experience,
from maintenance and support. InfoAxon has an OSS support/ we see a dearth of skilled resources. Most companies like
business continuity support centre that contributes 15 per us rely on home-grown talent. We are considering creating a
cent of its business. “We provide support services for our training arm within our business to induct and train talent on our
core platforms and also are support partners for Red Hat, platforming solutions. Alongside, we are looking at knowledge
Enterprise DB, Pentaho, etc. About 80 per cent of our support intensive sectors like retail, pharma, media, advertising and
services revenue comes from supporting our own platforms,” manufacturing. We might work on more sector-specific
says Nagar. platforms to address the rising knowledge and content concerns
of these sectors,” says Nagar.
Custom development
While platforming is a reliable revenue generator for By: Vanisha Joseph
InfoAxon, it’s the company’s custom development expertise The author loves to experiment, and writing for LINUX For You
is her latest experiment—so beware! Just a minute, she also
that won over people into those long lasting platforming
happens to be a journalist during the day.
partnerships. This amply demonstrates where a simple open
www.LinuxForU.com | LINUX For YoU | october 2010 | 103