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Indian Summer of 2025: A CEO’s Perspective

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While based in the UK, conversations and meetings with customers, partners and associates happen at its own pace and spread over a period. For the summer of 2025, I planned a conscious effort to do the same in India.

10 days and around 15,000 miles – between London and Delhi, and a few tier one and two cities in between – I had the privilege to meet almost 50 people covering customers, colleagues, partners, and well, old college mates and ex-colleagues. Of course, meeting parents, my sister, and extended family helped recharge for all those air and road trips.

While it is impossible to list everyone whom I met (it was a very busy calendar!), my heartfelt gratitude to everyone for taking time out to meet and greet, and the key highlights below, hopefully gives a perspective and do justice to our interactions.

Meet Customers

There’s no alternate to meeting customers in person and understanding their perspective and views on your services. This was proven again on this trip. The honest feedback and genuine inputs on how we can improve, enhance and improve our services was the highlight of my trip. Good to hear positives as well as seeing Simplex customer focus and agility was really appreciated. It won’t be too farfetched, if I was to say that all our customers were genuine well-wishers and supporters of the overall Simplex Services vision.

Team Simplex is Our Core Strength

We are who we are because of our colleagues and wider associates. Their focus on supporting our customers and each other, is our strength and the passion and energy in each of them was so inspiring. Busy days at work, late evening meetings (and one weekend too), and incessant traffic could not deter their energy levels. Discussion on latest technologies, their career goals, challenges and the solutions gave me just the booster and confidence I needed. They are true Simplex ambassadors!

Partner Ecosystem

Simplex has grown through word-of-mouth and partnerships. I had the privilege meeting existing and new partners, and it was reassuring to see that the partnerships continue to reflect our working relationship and solid foundations as we strive to grow together. Watch this space, as we will soon announce new and extended partnerships forged during the trip and our services will reflect those added capabilities

Delhi Belly

I ate and drank local and fusion food (my consumption of “tea” surpassed my consumption of all other liquids combined, mainly thanks to customers for their hospitality) and trust me the quality and variety of food was just beyond spices. The names, flavours, and presentation – traditional and fancy – and of course the customer service was just impeccable. Add to this, the sheer variety (some of the dishes my mom cooked for me; I hadn’t had them for years)! Clearly, Delhi belly was the least of the worries, since I got so much in return!

Chaos and Contrasts

They say India is not for beginners and they are right. Having been born and brought up in India, every time I go there, I am struck by the contrasts. The noise, the traffic, the weather, the inefficiencies at so many levels. And things rarely happen on time.  Yet, what amazes me most is how people navigate these challenges with resilience, adaptability, and often, a smile. There’s a rhythm to the chaos, and somehow, everything works.

I love my country, so while I was in India, I tried to camouflage with people (customers, colleagues, associates, partners alike!), and tend to listen more, talk a little louder, walk a little slower, and embrace the beautiful unpredictability of it all.

And like every time I return to UK, which has given me so much at an individual, family, and professional level, this time too I came back with increased humility and passion to continue to serve our customers, work and learn with colleagues, and contribute in our little way to the economy and society via Simplex Services.

Namaste India, and thank you for the perspective!

Businesses across the world have relied on their IT service providers to help them transition to remote working in recent months. Across the breadth of requirements of organisations – setting up cloud and productivity services as well as getting the most out of existing ones – the service providers have really been put to the test during this pandemic.

Whether you are in the market for a new partnership or if you’re happy with your existing one, these are the key questions you must delve into to make sure they are the right match for your business.

Do you specialise in an industry?

An IT company will probably work across many sectors, but it’s important to know if they focus on any in particular. Is their business model adaptable to suit different businesses? Could they cope if your business grew? Understanding how they handle individual customer requirements and business sizes will give an insight into whether it could be a long-term partnership.

Who is responsible for taking care of our business and how will we know if that changes?

A good quality IT service provider will have a clear and structured process as an answer to this question. They might assign a specific account manager randomly, or they might match your needs to a particular team member; whatever their method, it’s important that it’s clear who you are to contact both day-to-day and in an emergency. It is also handy to find out how they would transition you to a new contact if your current one left their business.

What’s your customer retention rate?

Do not be afraid to ask to look at retention figures and references at any stage of your relationship with your service provider. Customer retention should be high for IT support companies; if they deliver what they say they will, charge a fair price and are easy to communicate with, they are unlikely to lose customers! If their retention rate isn’t what you would expect, is there a reasonable explanation?

How can you help us decrease our spend?

This has been a key requirement for many businesses lately, thanks to COVID-19. A quality IT service provider will be invested in helping you save money where it makes sense. A good answer should include reviewing your service licencing and usage to ensure you are only paying for what you need. The provider should also take advantage of any offers and discounts and be fully transparent about their pricing. You should also trust them to advise you on what you shouldn’t reduce spend on, like stripping back security layers.

What’s the worst disaster you’ve faced recently?

Every IT service provider has dealt with unexpected disasters; finding out how they dealt with and learned from them will give you some valuable insight into how much they care about their customers. If the provider is happy to go into detail and talk through the positives and negatives, it shows they’re honest, open and realistic.

How can you help our business successfully work remotely?

COVID-19 has changed the way we work and remote working is now front of mind for many businesses. It’s important to find out what the strategy is for supporting businesses with remote working both now and long-term. If an IT service provider has managed to transition seamlessly to remote working themselves and can offer you a structured plan, then you know that remote working is a priority for them.

Finding the right IT support company for your business could be the difference between minimal disruption in the event of a disaster, and potentially losing valuable customers. Talk to us to find out about our transparent customer policy and let us answer these questions in the way they should be answered.

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