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American CyberSystems Inc. has been widely recognized for its astronomical growth, reaching nearly $700 million in revenues since its founding in 1998, largely off its domestic clientele.
Now, the Duluth-based IT consultancy has the luxury of waiting until it hits the $1 billion mark before actively and strategically seeking business internationally.
Still, CEO and Chairman Raj Sardana says the company has already been pulled into exporting its services out of necessity: About 10 percent of sales occur in markets outside the U.S. where its American clients are working, including Canada, India, the U.K. and Mexico.
“A few years ago some of our clients, who are Fortune 500, U.S.-based multinational companies, kind of took us into these international markets because they asked us if we can come over there and help them,” Mr. Sardana said in an interview with Global Atlanta. “Of course, we gladly said yes.”
Most of the services ACS does overseas are in IT and engineering consulting, with a small but growing business in pharmaceutical research. The company employs 10,500 in the U.S., 900 in India and 300 in Canada. The company’s Indian subsidiary is ACS Global Tech, which is registered in New Delhi with offices in Noida, Kanpur and Hyderabad.
“At this time, we have no pressure internally to go elsewhere but our clients’ businesses are so deep, and we are happy that they would rather use us than go to a new supplier in other countries. They expect us to help them in these countries, and we are able to help them,” Mr. Sardana said.
[pullquote]”They expect us to help them in these countries, and we are able to help them.”[/pullquote]
In fact, ACS and Mr. Sardana were recently honored by Ernst & Young in its regional Entrepreneur of the Year Awards for their strategic vision in providing staffing and workforce management solutions. EY pointed out Mr. Sardana’s ambitious start: He brought 125 qualified IT professionals from India to the U.S. in 1999 on H-1B visas to work on the Y2K situation. Fast forward to 2014, and the company was named Georgia’s fastest-growing private firm in the upper middle market by the Atlanta chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth.
ACS’s 10-step recruiting process to ensure quality control in hiring translates well in the other countries, he said.
“We hire locally and use the same control and management systems and guidance that we use in the U.S. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” Mr. Sardana said.
He admits that the one exception where ACS actively sought business was in the Middle East.
“There is a lot of work there. We saw some opportunities because there is a shortage of IT consultants but even so it is in limited countries, such as the (United Arab Emirates), where it is politically stable and safe to travel,” he said.
In addition, ACS has more than 100 disease specialists in 25 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia doing medical research. The company hires workers from around the world and deploys them where there is a threat of a large-scale disease outbreak. This work is done in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through a contract with one of ACS’s wholly owned subsidiaries, he said.
The basic reason why ACS hasn’t pursued an international strategy — yet — is that there is too much business in the U.S.
“At this stage in our company we haven’t even scratched the surface in the United States,” says Mr. Sardana, who has U.S. top-secret security clearance. “It is a $100 billion market and we don’t even have 1 percent of it. We want to grow to a certain size and then we will take going outside the U.S. seriously.”
He expects ACS to hit the $1 billion in revenue mark within three years. “Once we reach at least a billion dollars, we will have enough size in all these different countries to aggressively look for local business outside the U.S.,” he says. “We will have a larger footprint and larger focus. The work overseas that we are doing currently with our clients will also help give us a base from which to launch our business. Reaching $1 billion in our immediate goal and then we’ll go international.”