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North

 Secant Technologies

Sunil Kripalani, Vice President, Global Sales and Marketing, Microworld, presenting the award to Paramjit Singh Juneja, CEO, Secant Technologies

With a turnover of Rs 20 crore in FY2009-10, Ludhiana-based Secant Technologies witnessed an overall dip of 9 percent over the last year’s topline of Rs 22 crore. However, retail business remained constant at Rs 13 crore.

The company has one exclusive HP World and one multi-brand store. To sustain their topline and bottomline, the company decided to focus on the retail business and put their solutions business—which constitutes 40 percent of the overall business—on hold.

Performance Highlights

• Focused solely on retail, appointed dedicated team and retail managers • Added Norton and Microsoft and Belkin to the portfolio • Integrated sales, support, inventory, HR and CRM package to improve productivity and profits • Introduced several schemes like buy-now-pay-later, interest-free financing options

Company Snapshot

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: 29 Certified employees: 29 Principals: HP, Asus, Sony, Linksys, Microsoft, Logitech, Apple, Netgear

According to Paramjit Singh Juneja, CEO, Secant, last year its lead vendor HP actively encouraged new micro-retailers. Other vendors like Dell and Acer too increased their penetration in Ludhiana market. As a result, the company’s retail business was affected. To counter, the company added Norton, Microsoft and Belkin to its portfolio and enhanced its marketing efforts. The company also appointed a dedicated team and retail managers to bring more focus to the business. It improved its pre and post-sales support. To create a strong differentiation, it started providing late-night support and live Web chats.

The year saw company renew its focus on notebooks, which added 53 percent to the retail revenue. Desktops contributed 18 percent, printers 7 percent, home networking 5 percent, software 5 percent, and the rest came from accessories, services, home UPS and gaming consoles. To generate demand, Secant floated several schemes including joint activities with its vendors, and conducted community events. “We continued with our loyalty and referral programs. Our Sampler Club program, wherein select high-end customers are given new technology products to sample, met with a lot of success. We also offered these customers discount on select product lines,” said Juneja. In a bid to attract customers, the company introduced schemes like buy-now-pay-later, interest-free financing options and discount coupons on future purchases.

The year also saw the company integrate sales, support, inventory, HR and CRM package to improve productivity and profits. “Every enquiry is recorded. The automated system can generate a quotation, invoice, purchase order or detailed specs of a product along with warranty terms in a single click. This led to several up-selling and cross-selling opportunities,” added Juneja.

In FY2010-11, Secant intends to add three more multi-brand stores in Punjab at Bhatinda, Moga and Jalandhar and also plans to include smart boards and digital projectors to its portfolio. In addition, it is planning to set up presence in Himachal and Haryana.

East

 Krishna Agencies

Navin Gupta, Director, Krishna Agencies, receiving the trophy

Patna-based Krishna Agencies notched a turnover of Rs 10.5 crore in FY2009-10, posting a 40 percent growth over FY2008-09 topline of 7.5 crore. Its retail business—consisting of one multi-brand store—clocked in Rs 6.9 crore in FY2009-10, growing by 50 percent over FY2008-09’s Rs 4.6 crore topline.

Corporate reselling business contributed 15 percent, solutions business 10 percent and distribution business accounted for 5 percent of the topline.

Last fiscal, notebooks contributed 45 percent to the company’s retail business, printers contributed 20 percent, software brought in 10 percent, home UPS accounted for 10 percent, desktops 6 percent, accessories 6 percent and broadband connections 3 percent.

Performance Highlights

• Witnessed 50 percent growth in retail business over FY2008-09 • Added new products particularly in the telecom space like Tata Indicom, MTS and Reliance • Organized road shows in Patna and issued direct mailers • Plans to implement CRM system to help generate and manage leads • Plans to launch an online shopping portal for customers

Company Snapshot

Company: Krishna Agencies Director: Sudhir Gupta Year of inception: 1980 Retail stores: 1 Turnover 2009-10: Rs 10.5 crore Turnover 2008-09: Rs 7.5 crore Employees: 15 Principals: Dell, HP, Microsoft, D-Link, APC, Tata Indicom, Compaq, Xerox

According to Sudhir Gupta, Director, Krishna Agencies, the company’s thrust on post-sales services and addition of new products particularly in the telecom space—Tata Indicom, MTS and Reliance—helped it clock in better numbers despite the downturn. The company organized events in Patna, ran direct mailers campaigns and discount schemes throughout the year. “We undertook a series of strategic marketing initiatives to increase the brand recall for our retail store to make it a preferred destination for customers. This was aided by tactical marketing to drive footfalls, ensure better lead conversion, and increase business from repeat customers,” he informed.

“We also invested significantly in manpower. We provided in-house training to our employees, enabling them to market products better. We continue to register them for training program organized by our vendors. Downturn or not, every year we make it a point to increase their salaries and revise their perks,” Gupta said.

Krishna Agencies has deployed Silver Soft, which helps it in maintaining the accounts and inventory. “We have been constantly reaping benefits of deploying inventory management system. During the slowdown, we started assessing demand and supply gaps. We also kept a tab on the market trends. With our inventory and accounts streamlined, we could easily devise plans to act on those findings,” he said. “We are currently in the process of installing CRM system and that will help us generate sales and service-related leads.”In the current fiscal, the company plans to add two new stores in Bihar. It also plans to expand its services business by setting up laptop service center. It will soon launch an online shopping portal for its customers.

West

 Cyber Peripherals

Amit Misra, Country Head, ESS Software Distribution and Consulting, presenting the award to Pramod Dere, Director, Cyber Peripherals

Aurangabad-based Cyber Peripherals registered a turnover of Rs 22 crore in FY2009-10, witnessing an overall growth of 9 percent over the last year’s topline of Rs 20 crore. Retail business grew by 40 percent to Rs 14 crore, constituting 64 percent of the total turnover. Of the remaining, sub-distribution business contributed 28 percent, corporate reselling accounted for 4 percent and solutions business contributed 4 percent.

Performance Highlights

• Retail business grew by 40 percent to garner Rs 14 crore • Nearly 50 percent of retail revenues contributed by notebooks • Added three multi-brand showrooms in Beed, Parbhani and Vaijapur, and an exclusive Toshiba store at Aurangabad • Set up an authorized service centre for Lenovo PCs • Plans to open a new retail outlet in Jalna

Company Snapshot

Company: Cyber Peripherals Director: Pramod Dere Year of inception: 1993 Retail stores: 7 Turnover 2009-10: Rs 22 crore Turnover 2008-09: Rs 20 crore Employees: 18 Principals: HP, Compaq, Microsoft, D-Link, Lenovo, IBM, AMD

The company attributed the high retail growth to the opening of an exclusive Toshiba store in Aurangabad and doubling its multi-brand store count from three to six by launching new stores in up-coming townships like Beed, Parbhani and Vaijapur. “Despite the downturn, adding new stores in upcountry locations helped us grow the market and contributed towards healthy growth of our retail business,” said Pramod Dere, Director, Cyber Peripherals.

Nearly 50 percent of the company’s retail revenue came from notebooks, 20 percent came from desktops, 12 percent from accessories, 8 percent from printers, 5 percent from home UPS, 3 percent from software and 2 percent from networking products.

The company’s entry into post-sales support by setting up an IBM authorized service centre also helped it notch a better turnover. “At our authorized service center we service Lenovo PCs. This acts as a value-add for our retail customers,” he said.

The year also saw Cyber peripherals increase the percentage of revenue spends on marketing and advertising. “Last fiscal we invested nearly 4 percent of our total revenues to conduct events, on print advertising and sent out regular direct mailers to customers.

Aggressive marketing led to a substantial increase in footfalls to our stores,” Dere added.

To further strengthen its retail presence, the company also invested in retaining its trained manpower. “We incentivized the sales targets even further and encouraged healthy competition between our executives for achieving sales targets. We regularly conduct training session for them along with our vendors,” he said. During the last fiscal, the company implemented Tally ERP for inventory management. “The software helped in recording of every sale and enquiry, and thus keeping a track of a customer’s relationship with the company,” he added.

In the current fiscal, the company plans to further its retail business. “We will soon be opening a retail store at Jalna,” said Dere.

South

 Indsys InfoTech Services

Ganesan Valuswami, Director, Technical Services, and Prabhu Mahalingam, CEO, Indsys InfoTech Services

With a turnover of Rs 8.2 crore in FY2009-10, Coimbatore-based Indsys InfoTech Services witnessed a growth of 28 percent over the previous fiscal’s topline of Rs 6.9 crore.

The company’s retail business grew from Rs 3.8 crore in FY2008-09 to Rs 5.2 crore in FY2009-10, constituting nearly 63 percent of the total turnover. Solutions contributed 25 percent to the year’s revenue while the rest came from corporate systems building. Indsys opened an exclusive 1,000 sq ft Apple store in Coimbatore taking the total count of stores to three. The new exclusive store, in addition to the company’s Toshiba store and a multi-brand outlet, contributed towards increase in the topline.

Performance Highlights

• Retail business grew by 40 percent to garner Rs 5.2 crore • Opened an exclusive 1,000 sq ft Apple store in Coimbatore • Deployed open source Sugar CRM to help understand the buying patterns of consumers • Implemented a local ERP system to streamline billing, inventory management, HR • Plans to open three new stores in geographies like Salem and Erode

Company Snapshot

Company: Indsys InfoTech Services CEO: Prabhu Mahalingam Year of inception: 2000 Retail stores: 3 Turnover 2009-10: Rs 8.2 crore Turnover 2008-09: Rs 6.9 crore Employees: 25 Principals: Apple, Canon, Logitech, Reliance, Dell, Sony, Toshiba, Microsoft

Notebook sales contributed 60 percent to Indsys’ retail revenues in the last fiscal. “Our strategy has always been to position ourselves as a one-stop-shop for notebooks. By setting up an exclusive Apple store, we focused on selling higher-end notebook brands,” said Prabhu Mahalingam, CEO, Indsys InfoTech Services. Of the remaining, turnover from retail business, accessories contributed 20 percent, software 7 percent, home networking products 5 percent, and the rest came from printers, gaming consoles and broadband connections. Last year the company expanded its post-sales support services and this year it intends to invest in a chain of multi-brand notebook service centers in every major city of Tamil Nadu.

In addition to investing about 20 percent revenues in marketing and advertising to increase footfalls to the stores, Indsys also introduced a club membership card to further encourage repeat orders and referrals.

Last year, the company introduced one new activity every week to promote products at its retail outlets. “We offered a one-year free insurance coverage for theft and breakage of notebooks purchased from our stores and this was major hit with customers,” said Mahalingam. To create a brand recall, the company gave away personalized photo-print mugs to every retail customer. The company also organized free service camps and training programs for new and existing customers.

Last year the company deployed open source Sugar CRM to help understand the buying patterns of consumers and in early 2010 it implemented a local ERP system to further streamline functions like billing, inventory management, and HR.

In the current fiscal, Indsys plans to open three new multi-brand stores in Tamil Nadu and target geographies like Salem and Erode. The company is also firming up plans to add accessory brands like JBL, iSkin and Gecko to its portfolio.

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