It’s easy to call oneself a ‘Customer satisfaction first’ brand, but how many businesses can say that their current customers are their biggest marketers and often offer to play an active role in closing leads for them? Interesting, isn’t it? I can say now that there aren’t too many, but I know one. Here’s the story of Quark Cyber Systems.

I recently had the chance to speak to Vivek Digambernath, the founder of Quark Cyber Systems, our newest gold partner. It gave me a great opportunity to capture a wholesome and hardworking picture of their journey as a Frappe partner and experience with ERPNext. Our conversation was as candid as it was informative, and their decade-long effort had me increasingly invested in the power of genuine problem-solving through customised ERP implementation

How it all began

It all began with a job hunt in the UAE. After working on SAP for six months straight out of college, Vivek wasn’t too impressed and began exploring a variety of ERP products, eventually leading him to the open-source options, OpenERP (now, Odoo) and Webnotes (now, ERPNext). Seeing potential and use in these products, especially since they were free, he decided to get to know ERPNext better, since it proved to be more accessible and easier to implement

ERPNext training sessions

“The idea was that if I knew the product well, I could find a way to make it useful for somebody else too.”

Although never expecting a full-blown business to boom, Vivek founded Quark Cyber Systems along with Bibin Raphel in 2013. They began operations with smaller projects that focused purely on exact customer needs, which they didn’t know would become the baseline for all the work they did ahead. What got the ball really rolling was the ERPNext conference in 2015, where he had the opportunity to give a talk and meet developers, the Frappe team and other partners.

QCS only works on implementing ERPNext. That has always been the case, and Vivek insists that they never saw value in anything else. He further mentioned that for the first eight years, they weren’t dependent on Frappe, but when they realised Frappe Cloud hosting made it more convenient for them to provide an end-to-end solution to their customers, they went for it, too.

ERPNext's UAE community members

“There are more than enough companies in the UAE implementing ERPNext who are not dependent on Frappe. Moving to Frappe Cloud from self-hosting is a natural next step, but even if they don’t, ERPNext is a product to get excited about.”

Customers at the centre

As the interview went on, we kept coming back to the customer-centric ideology that QCS has assimilated into its operations, and I realised that it was a core value that covers every aspect of their business and team. The QCS team believes that if you let customers experience what they are comfortable with, it sets up the project for success and makes for incredible peer-to-peer promotion.

From many examples, there is Location Solutions, one of their earliest customers, whose revenue quickly tripled post-implementation, and even without an increase in team size, their ERPNext system was already ready to handle it! After this, Location Solutions became QCS’s biggest advocate.

Frappe with Quark Cyber Systems

“In my opinion, the biggest winner is the customer, and then Frappe and third is the partner.”

Speaking about more recent wins, we talked about their deal with Arabian Gulf Mechanical Centre (AGMC), UAE’s BMW dealers. A huge project that went live within 3 months. As of now, close to eight thousand vehicles have gone through the ERPNext as a part of presales and workshop activities.

Vivek mindfully mentions that in the business of ERPNext implementations. It is less about the technology and more about the people. Domain knowledge can be learnt, and so can technology and database management. But to make someone really understand the effect of a system on their business successfully is the real challenge.

This brought the conversation to the team that carries out these projects. QCS is run by a tight group of talented individuals who share a passion for quality services and products. The team focuses on delivery and accountability, and as long as their work generates value for the company, they work as independently as they need to. Vivek emphasises that he looks at his team the way any patient would look at a veteran doctor. Over a decade of experience with a perfect customer satisfaction rate. If anyone dares to question their worth, they’re met with endless proof of capabilities and groundbreaking projects.

The Quark Cyber Systems team

“We take care of them, and they take care of us”

Business in the UAE

Every region has its business climate, so we moved on to discussing how the QCS team dealt with the UAE's environment. Vivek commented that the target group for custom implementations is enterprises. Bigger projects bring about the need for better solutions and the opportunity to develop unique apps. QCS has developed two projects on Frappe Framework; one is an IoT system for Emaar Properties, and the other is an app for automotive management. Both these projects were implemented widely and successfully.

Vivek further observed that the biggest bottleneck for them is perception, iterating that the marketing barrier as a product and business can be argued in various other regions too. Another paradoxical point was that where ERPNext is right now, economic events like recession will have a surprisingly positive impact on business, this is because ERPNext’s cost effectiveness positions it to be the “best option” at that time.

A successful ERPNext project in Dubai

What the future looks like

Towards the end of our conversation, we discussed their upcoming Gold partner status. Vivek highlights that QCS was never interested in chasing a “partner label”, but it comes in handy while pitching new clients. He also insists that saying that they are one of Frappe’s fastest growing partners, bronze to gold in two years, isn't entirely fair since they’ve been involved with ERPNext for almost eight years before that. And I have to say, hearing that reinforced my belief in just how genuine and effort-oriented Frappe’s community is.

Even though right now, QCS’s biggest scale tip-over comes from ERPNext’s affordability, the team doesn’t believe that solutions need to be more cost-effective to be chosen. ERPNext shows industry-leading capabilities, and the cost of implementing that solution should reflect on the partners as well. If partners prosper, then better talent can be brought in, and this domino effect is passed on to Frappe, too.

Our conversation, real and unfiltered, ended with one lasting insight;

“It takes time to be ready for big opportunities. Overnight success is not real. It might not look like it, but the last ten years have gotten us to where we are. It took us ten years to be ready for the big opportunities we’re conquering now. I can’t discount any of these ten years.”