Following every leadIT consulting firm has carved niche for growth

MORRISVILLE – Pradeep Palreddy is sitting in his IT consulting company’s small headquarters explaining his outlook on business.
Think about all the companies that are within a five-mile radius of the office, he says. The vast majority aren’t customers of his. But it’s what he says next that gives you an insight into how he’s wired.
“They could be,” says Palreddy, whose contagious drive and optimism have helped grow Keshav Consulting to 130 employees in five-and-a-half years. Palreddy likes to describe himself as a meat and potatoes kind of guy with a strong work ethic. He’s convinced that he can land a target customer’s business if he can just tell them his story, which combines his background with Keshav’s sales pitch.
“He has a passion,” says Lennox Superville, a senior technology adviser for Keshav. “He follows through on every lead.”
Palreddy is CEO of the firm, which he co-owns with brothers-in-law Ram Shapuram and Praveen Reddy. They named the company, which was founded in March 2004, after Shapuram’s son, Keshav.
While the firm is based in Morrisville, it employs only about nine people in the Triangle. Several dozen work at client offices around the country, while about 80 are based at the company’s software development center in Hyderabad, India.
Palreddy hails from Hyderabad. He came to the U.S. about nine years ago to pursue a master’s degree in computer science from Frostburg State University in Maryland. He eventually found a home in the Triangle, where he threw himself into building Keshav.
There are a lot of IT consulting firms similar to Keshav, and many of them have more resources and employees to throw at big contracts. Palreddy has found a niche landing projects in the range of $50,000 to several hundred thousand dollars. He says the company’s annual revenue is in the range of $5 million to $10 million.
One of the strengths of a smaller consulting firm such as Keshav is that customers can have direct contact with the CEO. When Keshav clients communicate with Palreddy, they know they’re talking to someone who has the authority to make things happen.
“You can get a definitive answer to a question right away,” says Michael Eastman, chief information officer for Thrift Recycling Management Inc., which has used Keshav’s services in the past.
Eastman says Keshav employees are courteous and polite, and adds that the firm’s administration was easy to work with. Thrift Recycling Management, which is based near Seattle, sells used books online.
The nature of Keshav’s business is service, not products. That means many of the firm’s employees have to work directly with clients for months or years at a time. For that reason, Palreddy is careful about who he hires.
Being a good programmer isn’t enough. Job candidates also must be able to fit in while working in client offices. “I am willing to wait for the right people,” Palreddy says.
Like most companies, Keshav has seen business slow in recent months. But Palreddy says he has seen some signs that make him hopeful that business will pick up in the first quarter of 2010.
Superville says one important challenge for Keshav right now is to continue to be strategic in the way it goes after new business. It’s a message that could apply to many firms during this recession.
In a slowdown, some firms get desperate and pursue any business they think they can get. While adjustments must be made based on market conditions, Superville says, it’s important to correctly line up resources with the jobs being pursued.