Local entrepreneur is in hot pursuit of technical success

When the economy took a nosedive, many IT consulting and technology services providers felt the pinch in the form of decreased revenues and reduced demand for their services. Some ended up going out of business.

Like most companies, The Montopolis Group (TMG), a technology consultant and services provider, was not left unscathed.

"Growth over the last two years has been relatively flat," says Babul Mukherjee, president and owner of TMG.

However, Mukherjee says, the company managed to stay afloat by serving as a one-stop shop that catered to the needs of small and medium-sized businesses.

"Plus the clients we had weren't dotcoms, but real businesses who depended upon their computer systems and applications to continue to stay in business. For many businesses, the computers and applications that run their processes are not luxuries, but necessities," Mukherjee says. "We were fortunate to have built our relationships in such a way as to continue to provide them with service."

The other reason for the company's success, Mukherjee says, is because it has always been self-funded, with no loans, investments or financial debts to anyone.

"We could be lean when we had to. And, we had to," he says.

TMG provides services such as Web site development, Web hosting and software development and integration.

As an example of the company's talent pool, the company has designed a remote management system, that allows it to service companies globally without ever leaving the office.

Fast track

One of the things TMG does best, Mukherjee stresses, is speak to its clients in language they can understand. As a result, the firm's client base has grown significantly.

"In the last 12 months, we've worked with 255 individual clients, both small and large. I'd say 80 percent of our work is from returning clients," he says. "In the past five years, we've served over 550 individual clients, both locally and nationwide."

Earlier this month the company announced that it had struck a deal with Hewlett-Packard.

"Under this agreement," Mukherjee says, "we (will) develop a software program that oversees the maintenance cycles of their assembly lines."

He admits to being a little intimidated when he first met with Hewlett-Packard (HP).

"To us technical types, HP is a technical company with a long, fantastic history, and I wasn't prepared or ready to be there. To actually be on-site among them was an honor," he adds.

Kurt Cleveland, engineering support manager for Hewlett-Packard, says he is pleased with how TMG conducts business.

"In my opinion," Cleveland says, stressing that he doesn't speak on behalf of Hewlett, "they're responsive and professional and they make it right.

"Babul (Mukherjee) is an exceptional professional programmer and that expertise drew us to him and his business. ... We needed his skills," he adds.

Mukherjee's company also developed a custom-access management program for Sonterra Properties' gated community, located north of Loop 1604, off of Stone Oak Parkway. With the touch of a keyboard, security guards can verify that visitors and deliveries are expected and can then be allowed access.

"In the past, if a visitor came, a guard would need to pick up the phone and wait to hear back from the resident. In the meantime, traffic is backing up. Time is lost," Mukherjee says. "Now, the information is readily available. And, any office with them can update the information."

TMG is currently working on the second phase of this software, he says, that will allow residents sitting at home to log on to the Internet and add on to the visitor's list as they need to.

Steve Grau, operations manager for Sonterra & Stone Oak Properties Owners Association, says he is pleased with the program Montopolis developed.

"It does everything we could have hoped for and more," Grau says. "They went and sculpted a program that fit our needs, and they did it better than we could have imagined. And, for the price that we paid, we're really, really happy with what we got."

The 5-year-old TMG's list of clients also includes Amalgated Software of North America, Oblate Missions, Sirius Computer Solutions and Castle Dental Centers.

Start-up

Mukherjee says as a hobby he likes to buy computer gizmos and gadgets and has quite a collection at home.

"My wife kept asking me why I was buying all that equipment. So, I like to joke that I went into business to cover my hobby," he says.

In reality he started his business out of his home, in 1997, when he was made an offer he couldn't refuse.

Steve Cuka, a former West Teleservices executive, turned to Mukherjee after he left West to go to work for Indianapolis-based Transcom International. Cuka asked Mukherjee to develop software for the company.

"The offer was lucrative enough for me to walk away from my job," he says.

At the time, Mukherjee was working at AEC Data Systems, formerly AssetWorks, where he served as project manager from 1995 to 1997. Prior to that, he had worked for West Teleservices at the tender age of 21.

Mukherjee was with West for more than three years, moving up the chain from systems-list specialist to application developer. It was there, he says, he was able to develop his skills and gain experience in software development.

However Mukherjee left the West job because he wanted to work with other people "who did what I did and sold what I did, instead of being in a support position."

When he heard about a job opening at AEC from a friend, he went there and was hired.

"I was hired onto the HP MIDAS development team in 1995. AssetWorks was contracted by Hewlett-Packard to build the InkJet Manufacturing Maintenance software," he says. "I joined the project mid-way and within a few months, I was in charge of this project until I left in 1997."

Then, with the help of the work thrown his way by Cuka, Mukherjee struck out on his own. In retrospective, the 31-year-old executive says making the transition from steady pay to an uncertain thing was not easy.

"It was really tough. You're going from a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly paycheck, to the mode of getting a chunk of money and having to live on that ... when you don't know how long you have to make that last and have a wife and family," he says. "By November (1997), I was pretty much done with the (Transcom) job and was trying to figure out what I was going to do next, when the phone rang."

It was Michael Harwood, who was then working as business development manager for Sirius. Harwood says he sought out Mukherjee and TMG to create a software program to help Sirius track transactions.

"What we needed was a way to track all of our transactions once we received them, internally, ... such as where it's at in the operation, how long it will take to get it done and who's got it," says Harwood, now director of call center sales at Sirius.

Mukherjee had another lifeline, but he says he also realized firsthand that being self-employed was not as glamorous as many thought.

"People think it's great that I run my own business and that I'm my own boss. But that's a fallacy," he says. "I feel like I have 200 bosses who are providing my company money."

Eventually, he says, the work began to trickle in on a steady basis. In the fall of 1997, Mukherjee hired his first employee.

In 1999, business had grown so much that Mukherjee was able to move into a 2,000-square-foot office, where TMG is presently located. Last December the company had six employees. Now it has 11.

Looking ahead, Mukherjee says he'd like to see his company grow and expand throughout the city and South Texas.

"While we have a number of clients all around the United States, our target is the South Texas area. We are also looking to expand into government sales," he says. "In five years, we hope to be the foremost technology provider."

--Reprinted from the San Antonio Business Journal Vol. 16, No. 21 June 14-20, 2002.