1Mby1M Incubation Radar 2012: InSync, Kolkata, India

In 2006, 1M/1M premium member InSync was established as an IT company to provide software solutions to Indian small and medium businesses (SMBs) from their location in Kolkata. Over the next three years, InSync would acquire more than 500 domestic customers, and make an important discovery. They noted that at a certain volume, it was impossible for customers to manage their e-commerce businesses without an integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Leveraging this knowledge, InSync shifted focus from services to product and released their flagship integration solution, SBOeConnect. Today, the company specializes in solutions that complement enterprise solution products, as well as business intelligence services, including reporting and data warehousing.

SBOeConnect gives InSync a global focus, helping e-commerce merchants worldwide operate more efficiently through the integration of Magento and SAP Business One. The integration connecter provides a secure exchange of data between e-commerce and the ERP system through more than 60 integration points. Crucial information for online businesses, such as customer details, updated information on products, and orders with tax and shipping charges, are synched automatically. SBOeConnect covers even the most complex scenarios by also offering currency conversion, two-way integration of customers, orders and items, and more.

Founder and CEO Atul Gupta began as an entrepreneur in 2003 with a similar IT provider locally focused in Bhutan. An engineer by education, Gupta’s passion for information technology motivated an interest in providing software solutions to local small businesses. After moving to Kolkata in 2006, he founded InSync to continue his work. Through initial customer feedback on InSync’s services and observation of customer needs, he learned that integration was a viable market, and the company began developing SBOeConnect in 2009.

After establishing an initial partnership with SAP, an agreement was reached allowing InSync to resell the product as part of an integrated solution. The company soon published a case study of a successful first integration project with an individual customer. A positive response to the story as well as additional Internet marketing resulted in the acquisition of their first customers. To date, SBOeConnect has already attained 80 paying Magento merchants.

Gupta’s initial research suggested that no other e-commerce solutions currently on the market provide integration with any back-office ERP system. None of InSync’s closest competitors, including zedSuite, eBridge Connections, coresuite, and Orbis Software, provide a compelling integration solution. The company proves similarly competitive in a comparison of performance of sync, number of integration points, and total cost. And for Magento, the fastest-growing e-commerce platform and a desirable product for many small merchants, InSync provides a strong solution for their target market.

InSync addresses a potential customer base made up of 10% of SAP Business One customers, or 35 million – adding MS Dynamics NAV customers, the total potential market grows to 95 million customers. A typical implementation is $7,400 plus an annual maintenance fee of $900, all subject to variation based upon chosen bundled services. InSync and SBOeConnect generate an average of two new leads per day.

The company was initially bootstrapped through Gupta’s private family funds. InSync is now profitable with $500,000 in revenue.

This segment is a part in the series : 1Mby1M Incubation Radar 2012