Ramani, the face of digital print, is no more

Viswanathan Ramani, who died at the age of 54, was "someone special", said Vineet Vohra, an industry colleague.

“I first met Ramani at Ipex 2010 in Birmingham. He was the country head at HP India and was selling HP Indigo presses at the HP exhibition stand. His special leadership abilities and charismatic personality were apparent. It was clear that he would have an outstanding career in sales,” said Vohra.

Ramani entered the print industry after spending six years in the digital arena, working with different companies. In September 2008, Ramani joined Hewlett-Packard India as country manager (Indigo) – India and Sri Lanka. In November 2010 he joined Kodak India as the vice president for digital printing solutions – India cluster.

Vohra added that his first encounter with Ramani at Ipex marked the beginning of his professional friendship which turned into collaboration when he along with a partner, was made the value-added solution partners with Kodak for their digital presses Nexpress and Digimaster. “Ramani was a brilliant and visionary leader who achieved national recognition for his work in sales in the print and photo industry while working for big brands like HP and Kodak.”

At a time when digital printing was taking baby steps into the Indian market, Ramani was recognised at CADD Centre for transitioning from Xerox to Oce; and reorganising and realigning the company’s sales and support teams including continuing post-sales support for Xerox products.

In Ramani’s own words, he helped Kodak establish NexPress’ presence within three months of its introduction in India. He implemented an end-to-end inkjet book printing solution including workflow, printing and finishing at Repro India, India’s first. Ramani also helped KL Hi-Tech get started with the UIDAI printing project, its first CS digital solution. KL has produced 340+ million Aadhar cards since then.

During his two-year tenure at HP Indigo, Ramani helped the company grow its installation base from 30 to 80 machines.

Recalling his initial meeting with Ramani in 2009 when Reliable Prints first acquired an HP Indigo press, Dharmesh Mehta, COO of Reliable Prints, said, “The initial memory reminds me of a tall, soft-spoken and mild-mannered but sharp individual.”

Reliable Prints had already been in the digital print industry for more than 15 years and was looking to expand its horizons. “We had a fleet of Xerox machines and a few from Canon to cater to the print needs of our clients. A demo of the HP Indigo had caught the eye of our team at Drupa and once back we had started the process to explore the possibility of acquiring it.”

However at that point in time, HP Indigo was concentrating on the photo market in India and not keen on an installation at a print service provider, says Mehta. “Meenakshi Sapru supported by Ramani did all the groundwork in convincing the HP India team that Reliable Prints had the potential to make a mark in the commercial space for the HP Indigo also.”

Since then HP Indigo has been a part of Reliable Prints’ fleet of digital presses. It's been 14 years now. “The bond between HP and Reliable Prints built by Ramani ensured that we have a long-lasting business relationship which is ably being carried forward by A Appadurai of HP Indigo and his team in recent times.”

The Lord Ganesha frame gifted by Ramani to Reliable after the successful installation of the HP Indigo Press in 2009 is still placed in the press room.

Sunil Chhugani of PODS was introduced to Ramani after he joined Kodak. PODS had installed the Kodak Nexpress, and Ramani became the point of contact for Chhugani. 

His biggest asset was his attitude to finding solutions, whether it was for doing sales of equipment or for finding avenues for the equipment buyers to scale up their business, he was constantly working on it. His zeal for doing business and his energy were infectious. He would always make you introspect. He had a thorough knowledge of the industry and the business with an eye for opportunities,” said Chhugani.

Bhalchandra Nikumb, Ramani’s boss said that he never thought he would have to write an obituary for a colleague who worked along side him.

Bhalchandra Nikumb

Ramani worked with Kodak for four years in the areas of digital printing and was very passionate about his job. “He had in-depth knowledge of the photo book printing business,” said Nikumb. “For the external world, he was aggressive in his sales, but he was equally close to his office colleagues. He was very popular with his teammates and was accepted as a natural leader by the team.”

Ramani is survived by his wife Radhika, and two daughters.