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Auto industry key to NetLink IT expansion
 
IndUS Business Journal/ 15th November 2007
 
By Paul Imbesi
 
 
MADISON HEIGHTS, Mich. – When the University of Michigan’s perennial powerhouse football team lost to the much smaller and lesser-known Appalachian State University earlier this college football season, Dilip Dubey learned a lesson from his alma mater: always be on your toes and never grow too comfortable.
 
Right now, Dubey and his company, Netlink, seem to be on their toes. In late July, Netlink signed a five-year, $50 million IT and business process outsourcing deal with a Detroit-area automotive supplier. Dubey said the new contract is the third largest in Netlink’s 10-year history.
 
Dubey is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Netlink, which is based in Madison Heights, Mich. Anurag Shrivistava, Netlink’s president and chief technology officer, is the company’s other co-founder.
 
Netlink is a IT and business processing outsourcing company that mainly focuses on five sectors: the automotive industry, health care, technology, finance and retail. According to Dubey, his company supports big-name companies like General Motors Corp. and Starbucks, but mid-market companies are Netlink’s bread and butter. Dubey said Netlink can take over all of a mid-market company’s IT needs
 
The difference between GM and a mid-market automotive company is that GM will not outsource all of its business to Netlink, he added, whereas mid-market companies that spend anywhere from $2 million to $60 million on IT have more of an interest in saving money using Netlink, especially during a time when the American automotive industry is going through struggles.
 
Netlink has 150 customers, with about 20 auto suppliers in its portfolio, which Dubey believes is growing due to positive word of mouth within the automotive industry.
 
Netlink pitches companies its “20:20 rule,” which guarantees Netlink customers that they will save 20 percent in costs and will also have 20 percent service improvement, according to the company. Dubey said “very rarely do we hear a no” from clients about Netlink’s 20:20 rule. However, it raises another problem: clients think the deal is too good to be true, and they wonder how Netlink can guarantee it. Dubey said most of the time with their clients is spent explaining how the model works. 
 
The company opened its new headquarters in Madison Heights in August, which created 473 new IT jobs. Netlink currently employs over 1,000 people, half of which work in the company’s Bhopal, India, facility. Netlink also has offices in Southfield, Mich., Miami, Phoenix and Denver.
 
Dubey is originally from Bhopal, and he said he intentionally chose to open a facility in Bhopal over a larger city to help the the city’s growth. Dubey came to the United States about 15 years ago to go to school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he received a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. Prior to Michigan, Dubey received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Regional Engineering College Bhopal.
 
Although Dubey’s company is doing well right now, he said he is aware that Netlink is still a mid-sized company that is striving for sustainable success, so he does not want to fall back into a comfort zone.
 
To avoid this, he keeps in mind his alma mater’s historic football upset and has a new creed: it is better to learn a lesson from others’ mistakes than commit them yourself.