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North
Secant Technologies, Ludhiana
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Harish Kohli, Chief Sales Officer, Acer India, presenting the award to
Paramjit Singh Juneja, CEO, Secant Technologies
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With a turnover of Rs 23 crore in FY 2008-09, Secant Technologies witnessed overall growth of 10 percent over last year’s topline of Rs 21 crore. The retail business however grew by 75 percent with a revenue share of Rs 14 crore; the rest came from the solutions business.
The company attributed the high retail growth to the opening of an exclusive 1,000 sq ft HP World outlet in Ludhiana, and also to its shift from sub-distribution to retail. “The new store clocked a monthly average of 150 notebooks and 50 desktops, contributing nearly 60 percent of our retail business. Last year we made a complete transition from sub-distribution to retail, which worked well for us,” said Paramjit Singh Juneja, CEO, Secant.
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Performance Highlights
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• Retail business grew by 75 percent on the back of a new 1,000 sq ft HP World store
• The company added the Asus Eee PC and the Sony Vaio notebook to its portfolio; this helped garner good sales among students
• Implemented integrated ERP from
Compass which has helped to reduce
costs and increase lead conversion
• Ran a program whereby on every
customer purchase a certain percentage was donated to an NGO
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Company Snapshot
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Company: Secant Technologies
CEO: Paramjit Singh Juneja
Year of inception: 1988
Retail stores: 2
Turnover 2008-09: Rs 23 crore
Turnover 2007-08: Rs 21 crore
Employees: 31
Certified employees: 9
Principals: HP, Asus, Sony, Linksys, APC, Logitech, Apple, Microsoft, Symantec
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The company’s 600 sq ft multi-brand outlet in Ludhiana also grew well with the addition of new brands like Asus and Sony. “With consumers becoming price-conscious due to the slowdown, the product that we sold the most was the Asus Eee PC netbook,” informed Juneja. “The tie-up with Sony led to a healthy increase in revenues because we saw significant demand for Vaio from students.”
Secant ran several schemes to generate business. “We floated discounts, referrals programs and competitions which ensured a steady footfall throughout the year. For example, we had a scheme whereby customers would get a discount or gift if they brought another customer to the store. This ensured that we not only increased our sales but also had a lot of repeat customers.
In addition, we ran a program wherein on every customer purchase we donated a certain percentage to an NGO,” said Juneja.
Secant also started a Sampler Club program wherein existing customers were given new technology products to sample.
The year also saw the company implement Compass ERP with integrated CRM and inventory management modules. “The software was chosen because it has a strong sales tracking tool that keeps a record of every sale and enquiry, thus keeping a track of a customer’s relationship with the company,” added Juneja.
Targeting a turnover of Rs 25 crore for FY 2009-10, Secant intends to add three more multi-brand stores in Bhatinda, Moga and Jalandhar by the end of 2009, and is also planning to include digital cameras, projectors and security products in its portfolio. In addition, it is planning to bring out a shopping Web site and a 24x7 chat support for its customers.
South
Indsys Infotech, Coimbatore
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Ganesan Valuswami, Director, Technical Services, and Prabhu Mahalingam, CEO, Indsys Infotech Services
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With a turnover of Rs 6.9 crore in FY 2008-09, Indsys Infotech witnessed growth of 33 percent over the previous year’s Rs 5.2 crore. The retail business contributed Rs 3.8 crore, with the rest coming from solutions.
With two stores—an exclusive 400 sq ft Toshiba store and a 600 sq ft multi-brand outlet—Indsys attributed the growth of its retail business to its focus on notebooks. “We sell only mobile PCs because our strategy has been to position ourselves as a one-stop-shop for notebooks with all the possible brands under one roof along with their related accessories. We focus on selling higher-end brands like Mac, Vaio and Protégé,” said Prabhu Mahalingam, Director, Indsys Infotech. Notebook sales contributed 65 percent to Indsys’ revenues in the last fiscal.
Indsys has ventured into post-sales services. “Services brought us more repeat business and also helped lessen the impact of LFRs,” Mahalingam added.
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Performance Highlights
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• The retail business grew 44 percent, contributing Rs 3.8 crore to revenues
• Notebooks contributed 65 percent to revenues
• Implemented SMS software that
increased footfalls by 30 percent and
sales by 15 percent
• Ventured into post-sales services.
• Plans to open a 1,000 sq ft Apple store in Coimbatore
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Company Snapshot
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Company: Indsys Infotech Services
CEO: Prabhu Mahalingam
Year of inception: 2000
Retail stores: 2
Turnover 2008-09: Rs 6.9 crore
Turnover 2007-08: Rs 5.2 crore
Employees: 26
Certified employees: 11
Principals: Apple, Dell, HP, Wipro, Toshiba, Samsung, Epson, Logitech, D-Link, Netgear
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Last fiscal, Indsys implemented an SMS
system to provide customers with an automated response on product availability, pricing and warranty support. “After implementing the software, we saw a 30 percent increase in footfalls at our stores, and our sales climbed by 15 percent. We advertised the SMS service in newspapers, leaflets and hoardings,” explained Mahalingam.
The company also conducted a series of customer promotions. “We either had a free gift scheme or discounts to increase footfalls,” said Mahalingam. “For example, we ran a promotion whereby we gave an existing customer a heavy discount on any notebook accessory for referring a new customer. This helped us get repeat customers as well as new customers.”
In addition, the company deployed the open source Sugar CRM. “This helped us understand the buying patterns of individual customers, and assisted us in arriving at unique discount schemes for them. It is integrated with our SMS system, and captures any inquiries received through SMS, thus giving us good visibility into the demographics of those using our SMS service.”
Targeting a turnover of Rs 4.5 crore from retail in the current fiscal, Indsys plans to open new stores in other cities of TN. “We intend to have one store in every major city of the state, and for this we will work with franchisees,” said Mahalingam. Indsys will also open an exclusive 1,000 sq ft Apple store in Coimbatore within the next 3 months, and will add Belkin and Griffin to its portfolio.
West
Bits & Bytes, Jaipur
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Arvind Modi, CEO, Bits & Bytes
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Bits & Bytes, one of the oldest retailers in Jaipur, registered a turnover of Rs 13.11 crore in FY 2008-09 with Rs 6.1 crore coming from its retail business and the remaining from sub-distribution.
“While our sub-distribution business was almost flat, our retail business grew by a marginal 8 percent. This can be attributed to the addition of new products and the expansion of our retail store. It is also because of a better product mix and aggressive selling, knowing very well that in such times retaining customers is the key to success,” said Arvind Modi, the CEO of Bits & Bytes.
In the last fiscal, the company renovated and expanded its 880 sq ft store to 2,000 sq ft, and added new product categories such as data cards, MP3 players and karaoke systems.
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Performance Highlights
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• Retail contributed 42 percent of the
turnover; the rest came from
sub-distribution
• Expanded and renovated its retail store from 880 sq ft to 2,000 sq ft
• Added new products like MP3 players, karaoke systems and data cards.
• Ran a scheme for customers which generated 10 percent of its total revenue
• Plans to open a new retail outlet in Jaipur
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Company Snapshot
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Company: Bits & Bytes
CEO: Arvind Modi
Year of inception: 1983
Retail stores: 1
Turnover 2008-09: Rs 13.11 crore
Turnover 2007-08: Rs 13.31 crore
Employees: 22
Certified employees: 4
Principals: HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Canon, Samsung, D-Link, Microsoft, Numeric
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Despite the tough economy, the company saw a healthy increase in its bottomline mainly due to innovative marketing and smart inventory management. “We improved our inventory systems to ensure that we have the latest models at all times, and this contributed to increased footfalls,” informed Modi.
With an average of 150 PCs sold per month during the last fiscal, Bits & Bytes ran an innovative customer promotion scheme to attract customers. “Our existing customers are our biggest source of incremental business. In order to retain these customers, we ran a scheme whereby they were given a free data card for every notebook or desktop which they purchased. Another happy result was that this increased the footfall to our store because we also saw a lot of new customers walking in to purchase a notebook or desktop,” added Modi. Little wonder then that this promotion scheme generated nearly 10 percent of the total business done by the company during the last fiscal.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary last year, the retailer also ran a scheme whereby if customers bought notebooks or desktops they would win free products such as wrist watches, alarm clocks and pen drives.
In the current fiscal, the company expects its retail business to overtake its sub-distribution business and contribute 60 percent of the projected total turnover of Rs 18 crore. “We expect our retail business to almost double this year, and for this we will be starting a new store in Jaipur. Also, we plan to add a range of telecom products such as mobile phones, high-end PDAs and wireless broadband products,” said Modi.
East
IT Zone, Patna
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P K Sinha, Advisor, IT Zone, receiving the award
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Despite the slowdown, Patna-based retailer IT Zone notched a turnover of Rs 6.1 crore in financial year 2008-09.
“The primary reasons for this performance were the addition of new categories of products [and services] such as mobiles, PDAs, home networking and broadband; innovative customer campaigns; and our entry into post-sales support by partnering with Accel Frontline. As a franchisee service partner of Accel we service brands such as Viewsonic and Seagate,” said P K Sinha, Advisor, IT Zone.
The company has two retail stores, a 500 sq ft exclusive HP store and a 2,500 sq ft multi-brand store called eMall. The multi-brand store contributed 60 percent to its revenues while the HP exclusive store contributed 40 percent to the revenues.
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Performance Highlights
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• Added new categories to its portfolio, including mobiles and PDAs
• Became a franchisee for Accel Frontline to service Viewsonic and Seagate
• Launched marketing programs that
helped it generate 20 percent business from repeat customers
• Implemented a Web solution to allow customers to track the status of their service requests
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Company Snapshot
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Company: IT Zone
CEO: P K Sinha
Year of inception: 2005
Retail stores: 2
Turnover 2008-09: Rs 6.1 crore
Turnover 2007-08: Rs 6.84 crore
Employees: 19
Certified employees: 12
Principals: Dell, HCL, D-Link, HP, Microsoft, Epson, TVSE, Netgear, Lenovo, Acer, Sony, Logitech, Seagate, Viewsonic, APC
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“We devised a marketing strategy to give us higher repeat business and attract newer customers. We issued customer loyalty cards and ran several early bird and valued-customer schemes. This helped us generate 20 percent business from repeat customers,” informed Sinha.
The other scheme that contributed to revenues was a scratch-n-win where any new or old customer would win a guaranteed prize on every product bought. “Every quarter these customers also became eligible for a lucky draw where they could win everything from notebooks to refrigerators. This scheme was well-advertised in the local media, and through fliers. The scheme increased footfalls by 30 percent,” Sinha said.
IT Zone has a self-developed CRM which helps it create and maintain a database of its sales and service, besides warranty requirements. “During the slowdown we put to use these features for generating sales and service-related leads, and created a sales strategy to convert them. The company implemented a Web solution, especially for its ASP business, which allows customers to track the status of their service requests.
Targeting a turnover of Rs 10 crore in the current fiscal, the company plans to add five new stores in different cities of Bihar. “Our plan is to have at least one franchisee eMall in every district of the state. We plan to open five franchisee outlets initially, and based on our experience we will expand further,” he said.
IT Zone plans to expand its ASP business by setting up multi-branded service centers, and is also thinking of entering the area of IT education and career counseling.
l Methodology l Outstanding Channel Contribution l Company of the Year l Systems Integrator l Solutions Provider - Integrated l Solutions Provider - Networking l Solutions Provider - Software l Corporate Reseller l Systems Builder l Retailer l Sub-Distributor l Solutions Provider - Emerging l Sub-Distributor - Emerging l Managed Services Provider l Solution Provider - Security l
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