Fourth Quarter 2005

Day’s Letter

Dear Colleagues and Friends:
 

As 2005 comes to a close, I would like to take a moment to thank each of you for your hard work and excellent performance. Because of you, we have continued to delight clients in all our markets. At S2Tech, that means going beyond expectations and exceeding “average” or “good enough.” Delighting our customers is critically important because of the competition in the marketplace. We have to surpass customer expectations to stay ahead of our competitors.

Our strong commitment to quality and performance came to mind as I was recently reading the biography of Wal-Mart’s founder, Sam Walton: Made in America. Admittedly, Wal-Mart has its detractors. But there are some laudable business practices Sam Walton adopted that would apply to S2Tech. In particular, Walton would encourage employees at all his stores to give their managers input on which of the hundreds of items the store carried could be specially priced goods that would drive customers into the stores each week. Walton theorized that such “Volume Producing Items” would sell in great numbers if they were priced at just the right level. He relied on employees and managers to sense what those items and prices were in each market, rather than impose them from headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. The strategy was highly successful.

While we don’t have a product to sell as a Volume Producing Item, I want to strongly encourage you to be aware of opportunities for S2Tech to grow among the clients you work with and in the markets you know. Because of the close, personal contact you have with our clients, you are in a unique position to know when a client has a need that S2Tech can fulfill. I also invite you to share more information about best practices you have witnessed at previous employers or at client locations that would help us improve. We value any input you can offer on ways that we can bring more value to our clients and make the S2Tech brand indispensable to our customers.

New Services

To that end, we have added a new offering to the array of services S2Tech brings to the market. We are providing overnight call support at the HDC in Hyderabad. Because of the nearly 12-hour time difference between India and the U.S., S2Tech can provide night call support and relieve the strain on our clients’ own personnel. Call support at the HDC will rest in the hands of our highly trained staff there, which can troubleshoot problems efficiently and more vigorously than technicians awakened from sleep in the United States. I believe this will be a fruitful area of expansion for us in the future.

Similarly, regulations requiring all health-care providers in the U.S. to convert their National Provider Identification number from eight digits to 10 digits hold immense promise for growth in 2006. Before those regulations take effect on May 23, 2007, every physician, hospital, insurance company and health-care vendor will have to make this conversion. In most cases, we estimate the conversions will cost between $2 million and $8 million each for large providers. You will be hearing more about the NPI conversion effort as we move into 2006.

Thanks To All

Finally, we are gratified to welcome two new and substantial clients aboard: EDS and Northrup Grumman. Strong customers such as these will help meet our performance goals for this year and the next. I thank each of you for helping to delight these new customers as well as our existing clients throughout 2005. Without your commitment to excellence, S2Tech would not have posted a 20 percent growth rate this year and show promise for even greater returns for 2006.

Wishing you and your families a joyous holiday season.

Day Veerlapati

Employee of the Quarter

Biswakalyan Goswami is one of those rare individuals who exhibits strong analytical skills alongside a flourishing artistic talent.

It is his skill as a programmer analyst that earned Kalyan, 28, the employee of the quarter award after less than a year at S2Tech. He is noted for going above the rigors of the job at hand, said Todd Marker, his supervisor at ACS Inc. in Raleigh, N.C.

“He consistently meets deadlines and does whatever it takes to get the job done,” Marker said. “Kalyan’s attention to detail is a key characteristic that he displays. He asks detailed questions to ensure he understands the client’s requirements.”

Kalyan said he always looks for the simplest way to do any task, a technique he learned from his team leaders.

“It is very easy to make something hard, but it is more difficult to make it easy,” he said.

Giving credit to all the members of his team is another important aspect of his work philosophy.

“It’s not just about one goal,” Kalyan said. “It’s about a team goal. If you work as a team, at the end we will always come out with flying colors.”

Kalyan gives tremendous credit for what he has achieved in life to the support of his parents as well as his wife and co-worker Bishakha Dhar.

“She is the best friend I’ve ever had. We met as friends, and now we are life partners,” Kalyan said. Bishakha understands when he works late but encourages him to have a healthy home life by leaving work problems at the office.

In his free time, Kalyan paints, takes photographs and writes poetry. Examples of his work can be found at www.geocities.com/biswakalyan.

“I believe that everyone has an artist inside of them,” he said.

Long-term, Kalyan said he hopes to own his own company someday with Bishakha working alongside him.

“Eventually I want to be another Day Veerlapati,” he said.

 
 
Milestones
 
 
Welcome Srilaya Gayatri, born July 29, to Prasad and Kavitha Karavadi. Srilaya weighed 8.14 pounds and was 21 inches long.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Recognition

Bishakha Dhar, Raleigh, N.C. -- Encouragement Award for her proactive attitude, willingness to help, excellent follow up, creative problem solving.

Krishna Damodaran, Raleigh, N.C. -- Be the Light Award for being a model of professionalism and dependability, and for delivering work of the highest caliber.

Raj Kishor, Raleigh, N.C.-- Achievement Award for his considerable effort and great research that made the team’s work easier.

Purna Ilipilla, Albany, N.Y.: The Excelsior Award from Computer Aid. This is the second year Purna won the peer-nominated award, which is based on leadership, communication, attitude and professional relationships.

Happy Birthday

January

Pradipta Kumar Sethi-6

Venu Manda-10
Krishna Chukka-11
Pratap Kumar Jena-25 
Amit Jain-27
Shyam Chilakamarri-29
 

February

Pradeep Kumar-1
Pranav Jha-4
Manoj Kumar Behera-11
Sridevi Tayalur-27
 

March

 Raj Kishor-1
 Hari Chitluri-2
 Shanta Veerlapati-8