This year marks a significant milestone for ConcertIDC, a custom software development company based in Birmingham, as it celebrates its 10th anniversary. Over the past decade, the company has grown from a local startup to an international player in the tech industry.
Tanveer Patel started ConcertIDC in 2013. At the time, the company focused on alleviating the pain of healthcare providers and improving their clinical and operational outcomes with technology.
“Innovation was a focus,” Patel said. “We didn’t want to do just a substandard job or what everyone else was doing, but we wanted to do something which will become innovative and creative, and that will improve the existing products and services of our customers.”
Today ConcertIDC has grown into an international custom software development firm working with different industries and constantly keeping ahead of the curve.
Patel immigrated to the United States when she was 19 years old. Patel spent years working in various corporate environments. This helped her develop a profound knowledge of what corporate America seeks and values.
Patel’s understanding of corporate America combined with her deep appreciation for the culture she was raised in helped her play a pivotal role between India and the US in terms of business, culture, and economics.
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“My mission was to offer a unique value proposition to both countries in their own distinct ways,” said Patel. “My roots in India allowed me to appreciate the nuances of its culture and the intricacies of business practices. My time in the US provided me with insight into the fast-paced, result-oriented innovation for corporate America.”
Patel recognized the cost efficiency obtained by having a highly skilled and cost-effective workforce in India and headquarters in Birmingham. Having teams on both sides of the globe allows ConcertIDC to work around the clock for its customers, bringing products to the market faster.
Patel has partnered with Vinoth Sudaroli and Srinivasan Ganesan, ConcertIDC’s Vice President (India) and Vice President of Business Development and Employee Development, respectively.
Vinoth and Srinivasan had been working together with a small team in India since 2008. When Patel sought out a team of offshore developers, they recognized that it was the right move for their company.
The team prioritized strong leadership, innovation, marketing, sound financial management, scalability, talent acquisition and retention, and adoption of new technology in developing the startup. They also emphasized delegation and the growth of their employees; allowing employees to take on more prominent roles.
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“Keeping employee engagement is key,” Srinivasan said. “We used to conduct a session for the people to show their skills to the entire team so that other people can learn from them.”
“My strengths lie in starting a company and growing it to a certain level where we have worked out all the challenges and issues, the pains and sufferings, to create a model which is sustainable,” said Patel who began upsizing the company after its first six years.
To help do this she brought in Debra Hays as the Chief Operating Officer of ConcertIDC.
Hays recognized that it was necessary to put the proper infrastructure and foundation in place to push the company forward. In 2020, she made the transition from COO to CEO.
Their growth timetable was adversely impacted by the COVID-19 global pandemic in 2020.
The company persevered amidst the macroeconomic crisis and continued to grow steadily, focusing on progressing with their existing customers while adding other turnkey customers.
“We also knew that we were going to have to do mergers and acquisitions to grow,” said Hays.
Hays met with Brandon Barker. At that time, Barker was the CEO of International Development Connection, a software development company headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with an offshore development team.
The two companies focused on VirtuOwl – an online learning company – during the pandemic as a one-off collaboration. The ConcertIDC team owned the backend and the web application, and the IDC team owned the mobile application. The two merged in 2021.
“We were acting as one, at least within this project that we’re doing, so Debra started really analyzing,” Barker said. “The more we started analyzing those components of our businesses independently, we realized when you merge those two teams together, it creates a stronger revenue model.”
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The merger allowed the company to fill in critical gaps that had been identified as things they needed but didn’t have.
“IDC allowed us to grow into other geographies. It allowed us to bring in key management people both in India and the US,” said Hays. “It also allowed us to bring in strategic selling. Brandon is more bent towards sales, whereas I am more bent towards operations and operational growth.”
Hays has focused on strategic elements since the merger, including growing a network in the Middle East, facilitating leadership conferences, and participating in other organizations.
Barker is now the Chief Revenue Officer of ConcertIDC allowing him to focus on driving revenue growth while James Sowder took over as the VP of Operations (US) and Sanjay Bhati as Chief Operating Officer.
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