By Jim Baer
The word is out: RamTek Systems of St. Louis is in a growth
mode. The company, which started as a vision and with two employees
in the world of IT consulting has ballooned to 20 employees
and has become a serious player today. The president and CEO
of the company, Ram Bandi has built this company from the bench
up. Insiders in the industry are starting to take notice. The
company has a good performance record and a strong, modern and
sleek image to impress new potential clients. Success begets
new business.
The image is much the same of the corporate headquarters located
in a chrome and glass building situated by a clear sparkling
lake in Creve Coeur. This is not a traditional Wall Street company
where workers arrive wearing wool suits and silk ties. Ramtek
is simple and modern and sleek and on the prowl for more serious
consulting work, world wide. More casual and more serious might
be a better way to characterize the environment at Ramtek Systems.
In 2003, Bandi had a vision to start an IT consulting company.
At that time, he had two employees—he being one of them.
Four years later, Ramtek is poised for its second growth spurt
with 20 full timers on the payroll.
Bandi has one of those dry erase boards on the wall of an otherwise
austere office, and the artwork was a dead give-a-way. Picture
three concentric circles with all kinds of industry buzz words.
Smack in the center is “talent.” The next ring features the
company name—Ramtek and the next circle is for “clients.” The
outer rings are cornered off by “retention,” “motivation,” “acquisition”
and “reputation.”
Bandi is Chief Morale Lifting Officer of the company. His goal
is keeping both employees and clients satisfied and motivated.
“I help with the ideas and the motivation. If there are problems,
I want to find the root of it. Sometimes things don’t work right
and we have to be willing to make corrections,” he says. “My
most important day to day responsibilities are finding more
projects, keeping my employees on track while looking after
the operation in general.”
Bandi is just 35-years-old, a St. Charles resident and a native
of India. He came up through the IT ranks working for a variety
of companies including ABN-Amro Bank of New York City, Telcordia
Technology (the old Bell Corporation), AT&T, IBM, RTI International
Metals, Rockwell Collins, Limited Brands, Moen, Cap Gemini and
Borden Chemicals.
“I’ve seen how consulting works and I know how I want it to
work in a perfect world. I have a good idea how consulting projects
should be managed,” says Bandi. Therefore, he started his own
company. “As a consultant, I was never able to suggest any changes
to do projects in a better way,” he recalls.
“We have a good business modeling plan and we are unique in
the market. We have enough talent to manage a variety of IT
projects,” he reveals. Being a small company, most work goes
through vendors and they handle projects for locals including
Smurfit-Stone, Monsanto, MasterCard and Express Scripts. So
far business has been good. “We’ve been able to achieve 150
percent growth since starting the company,” he says
Hiring and retention is important for Ramtek. He’s particularly
proud of the company benefits package which includes a competitive
based salary—401K program with 100 percent contribution by the
company—liberal vacation and sick leave policy—training and
education reimbursement and occasional social events.
Bandi’s goal is taking his company worldwide. “India is 10 and
one-half hours ahead of us. We have projects for our clients
going 24/7 so when we stop to sleep our clients can take over
and keep it (the project) going.”
Generally speaking, the routine work is shipped overseas, while
local IT engineers work on the more cutting-edge projects. The
company handles data warehousing and OLAP reporting for clients.
They are certified ORACL, SAP and Microsoft Systems trained.
“We’ve defined our clients’ strategies. We build high performance
networks for these clients. We have a unique plan that separates
us from our competition. Our basic approach is building relationships
then working extraordinarily hard to maintain those relationships.”
“For instance we will work closely with agricultural companies.
They are so focused on their core business, they don’t have
time or staff to work on IT projects. We handle that for them,”
says Bandi.
Bandi is most proud of his 20 hires. “They all have IT programming
backgrounds and education with one having a Ph.D. Ramtek has
some of the consultants spread out throughout the U.S. working
in Chicago, Minneapolis and Texas. Supervision is no particular
problem. “Our clients are their supervisors,” he says.
“We have to have a good balance between our clients and our
employees. We have to satisfy both parties. My goal is keeping
our employees happy and motivated so we can meet all the challenges
of our client’s projects.”
Ramtek is a new member of the RCGA and Bandi displays a well-positioned
plaque recognizing him as a “Leadership Circle Member.”
“We attend all the RCGA events. That organization has been very
helpful to us to develop new business,” he says.
The president/CEO is just 35 years old, but he is moving his
company forward rapidly. Ramtek wants to be a major player in
IT circles. Taking good care of clients and employees alike
will get him closer to these goals. The next growth spurt might
be even bigger yet.
