Each month, we shine a light on a CT Tech Council member to share the innovations they are bringing to Connecticut.
November Member Spotlight is VLink, located in South Windsor, CT. Sharad Patney is their CEO.
About Sharad Patney - CEO
The following is an interview with Sharad Patney.
Sharad founded VLink in 2006 out of a desire to mentor and nurture engineering minds in information technology. He believes in creating an environment where team members feel valued and empowered, which surfaces their strategic and problem-solving capabilities. Under Sharad’s aegis, VLink now services a global clientele with over 400 employees worldwide. The company has a well-earned reputation for delivering innovative technology solutions that help businesses in their digital journey. Most recently, the firm’s SimplyEDI product was named Solution of the Year. On the corporate level, VLink is annually named a ‘Top Workplace in CT’.
What is VLink?
Since our founding in 2006 in the U.S., we’ve been helping clients source the best tech talent across many industries while also providing digital solutions that are improving, transforming, and innovating businesses.
We are an end-to-end global partner that provides consultative to coding services. Our experienced software developers, and on demand dedicated IT teams, enable us to swiftly create affordable and customized technology solutions for our customers onshore/offshore/nearshore.
Our software development teams work with Fortune 500 companies like Stanley Black & Decker, to emerging start-ups and SMBs like Rediker to scale their digital transformation journey with best-in-class tools and the latest technologies.
Our industry knowledge is deep, proudly serving and working in these industries across the American and APAC regions: Healthcare, Financial Services, Ed-Tech, Manufacturing, Telecom, E-Commerce, Media & Entertainment, and Consumer Technology.
Most importantly we listen to the "Voice of the Customer" working tirelessly to serve the needs and exceed the expectations of our clients. The Sun never sets on our projects.
VLink’s adaptability and scalability put us on companies’ short list time and again. And we always deliver! We are driven by what we call "The VLink Way," our 3 Pillars of Success: Trust, Collaboration and Accountability
Who are your competitors and how do you distinguish your company from them?
There are many staffing vendors who provide the same services that we do, but mostly from offshore locations. VLink is headquartered in CT, with our other branch office located in Massachusetts to fulfill client tech talent needs onshore. We also have global talent delivery centers in Canada, India, and Indonesia (APAC region) helping to provide nearshore and offshore technology talent at a competitive price, reducing costs and boosting ROI.
We work to understand by listening. We believe there’s no better way to listen than to put “ourselves” in the clients’ shoes, in the exact place they are” digitally” standing, that’s our starting point and we work from there. The “voice of the customer” is critical to the success of technology or software development projects, and VLink teams assure to build & retain partnerships in 'The VLink Way' with every single customer it serves. We drive innovation and growth through digital transformation and our partners like AWS and Microsoft give us access to the top technology tools and assets we need to deliver solutions and services that produce real ROI.
What are the biggest opportunities in your market over the next year?
Over the last two years, the world has seen a shift in behaviors, which is driving technology to move and evolve at lightning speed. VLink sees opportunities over the next 12 months in providing clients with development services in upgrading and adding features to legacy software, and additionally in app development.
This presents us an opportunity to add in demand, customer-oriented features which did not exist before. All this taking place at rapid pace due to changing behaviors.
We’re finding that companies, large and small do not have the resources needed to keep up with digital transformation. VLink’s services offer options to our clients to save considerably in their IT budget by outsourcing development work to VLink. The work can be outsourced to our top tech talent in our Centers of Excellence in APAC, offering companies an offshore option. Onshore is always available and we see the demand increasing here as companies fight for a shrinking talent pool of IT developers, engineers, and architects. Our fully managed dedicated teams approach recently saved Massachusetts Based, Ed-Tech company Rediker 30% in development costs for upgrades to legacy software.
What do you view as the greatest business challenge facing your
company?
Our biggest challenge is a shrinking IT talent pool, as resources are getting scooped up with offers of huge incentives and salaries that are not sustainable or reasonable. The other challenge is that customers are becoming increasingly touchless in their interactions as everything is going digital and they often have other priorities sometimes. There is a need that companies have a strategy in place that supports their expectations, evolving together for better outcomes. World-class customer service and experiences are at the heart of what we do and we will continue to do so in the face of market challenges.
Learn more about VLink at vlinkinfo.com