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North
Challanger Computers, Delhi
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Sanjay Yadav, Country Manager, Distribution, Dell India, presenting the award to the representative of Challanger Computers
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Challanger Computers grew by a marginal 5 percent, posting a turnover of Rs 287.7 crore in FY 2008-09 versus Rs 275.2 crore in the previous fiscal.
Revenues from sub-distribution contributed 75 percent to the company’s revenues, with retail contributing 14 percent and corporate reselling 11 percent.
“We grew despite the slowdown due to our retail tie-up with Lenovo and Sony. These stores contributed 14 percent to our topline. Also, our aggressive push for the LCD monitor business proved to be a boon. We clocked a monthly average of 1,850 units of LCD displays.We also added 270 new resellers in upcountry locations,” said Manoj Gupta, CEO, Challanger Computers. He said that the LCD monitor business alone contributed 40 percent to its topline.
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Performance Highlights
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• Opened Lenovo and Sony stores which contributed 14 percent to the total turnover
• Clocked average monthly sales of 1,850 LCD monitors
• Added 270 new resellers in upcountry locations
• Conducted regular dealer meets and used pamphlets to drive more business
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Company Snapshot
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Company: Challanger Computers
CEO: Manoj Gupta
Year of inception: 1989
Branches: 6
Active Resellers: 1,200
Turnover 2008-09: Rs 287.7 crore
Turnover 2007-08: Rs 275.2 crore
Employees: 65
Certified employees: 23
Principals: LG, Lenovo, Sony, Canon, Airtel
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Besides coming out with regular schemes for the channels, the company also paid a lot of attention to product trainings.
“These products trainings were specifically designed for the sales staff of our partners to help them understand the products in order to sell them,” said Gupta.
Besides this, the sub-distributor also ran advertisements in major dailies with the names of their key partners. “This is the most effective way to liquidate the stocks from our reseller counters. As a result, our partners were able to get a fair share of business, which in turn was our win,” Gupta said. Challanger also conducted regular dealer meets and used pamphlets to drive more business.
With inventory management already in place, the company reaped major benefits from it.
“It helped us to maintain optimum inventory through ageing control and re-ordering. Besides this, it also provided better logistics support and rotation to facilitate the whole system,” informed Gupta.
To further strengthen its systems, the company is now looking at implementing online branch control.
With six branches already in place, Challanger intends to add two new branches in Delhi this year, including one in east Delhi and the other in the NCR region.
Challanger will also add a host of lifestyle products to its existing product portfolio. “Our plans are focused on attaining an overall growth of 20 percent,” said Gupta.
South
Supreme Computers, Chennai
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Rakesh Jain, CEO, Supreme Computers, receiving the award
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Supreme notched up a turnover of Rs 146 crore in FY 2008-09 as compared to Rs 134 crore in the previous fiscal, with sub-distribution contributing 71 percent, retail 18 percent, and corporate reselling 7 percent.
The company attributes this performance to the many vendors it added to its sub-distribution portfolio including Logitech, Samsung and Asus for netbooks and notebooks, Bitdefender for anti-virus, and Sharp and Sanyo for projectors. “We also ensured that we made cash purchases the whole year to get a discount of 1-2 percent to increase our profitability,” said A Rakesh Jain, CEO of Supreme.
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Performance Highlights
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• Added Logitech corporate products,
Samsung and Asus mobile PCs,
Bitdefender anti-virus, and projectors from Sharp and Sanyo
• Implemented Navision ERP to improve logistics and credit
• Organized several marketing initiatives to help generate business for its reseller network
• Made cash purchases the whole year to get discounts and thus improve profitability
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Company Snapshot
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Company: Supreme Computers
CEO: A Rakesh Jain
Year of inception: 1994
Branches: 4
Active Resellers: 400
Turnover 2008-09: Rs 146 crore
Turnover 2007-08: Rs 134 crore
Employees: 11
Certified employees: 33
Principals: Logitech, Samsung, Asus, Bitdefender, Sony, Sharp, HP, Lenovo, LG
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To enhance its relationship with upcountry resellers, the company put more manpower on the field to regularly meet them. “These executives were given push products for demonstration to build rapport with the reseller partners,” Jain informed. “We also printed product leaflets, catalogs and posters for our partners so that they could give these to their customers to create demand for the products.”
Another initiative on the channel front was to organize channel events at regular intervals. “We conducted a channel meet on ‘How to Survive in Tough Times’ which was attended by 150 CEOs from reseller organizations,” Jain said.
Supreme’s tele-sales team also regularly called-up customers and generated leads for partners. Added Jain, “We advertised extensively in major dailies, giving contact details of our resellers to drive business for them. This gave them the confidence to grow their business.” In 2008 the company implemented Microsoft Navision ERP. “It helped us to track our stocks location-wise, and to send sales reports to suppliers and customers with name, price and inventory details,” Jain said.
On the HR side, Supreme gives every team member clear guidelines about his dos and don’ts, his responsibilities, and also the hierarchy to bring in clarity. “We have a system of sending a group e-mail about mistakes made by me so that others in the organization don’t repeat the same mistakes. We also call public-speaking trainers to improve the soft skills of our employees,” Jain informed.
The company intends to add to its four branches with a new one in Trichy and two new retail stores in Chennai this year. It will also expand its product portfolio. Revealed Jain, “This year we are looking at adding new product categories such as networking and storage, and will also get into multi-brand notebook services.”
West
Care Office Equipment,Ahmedabad
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Kamlesh Shah, Director, Care Office Equipment, speaks after receiving
the award
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Care saw a 53 percent growth in its topline by recording a turnover of Rs 104 crore in FY 2008-09 as compared to Rs 68 crore in the previous fiscal. Revenues from the distribution business stood at Rs 62 crore during the fiscal, growing by 92 percent from the previous year’s Rs 33 crore. Nearly Rs 31 crore came from retail, and Rs 11 crore came from corporate reselling.
“The partnership with Dell gave a boost to our business, contributing 40 percent to our topline and 60 percent to our PC sales; we sold 9,000 Dell notebooks and 2,000 Dell desktops. We also added Xerox to our portfolio, and today we are the number one distributor for printers in Gujarat. We expanded into south Gujarat to cities like Vapi, Valsad and Baruch,” said Hemant Shah, CEO of Care.
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Performance Highlights
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• Recorded 92 percent growth in subdistribution and overall topline growth of 52 percent
• Partnered with Dell which helped boost Care’s topline by 40 percent. Also partnered with Xerox as regional distributor
• Set up a tele-support team for channel partners. Beefed up its field support to provide a guaranteed 12-hour support turnaround in any part of Gujarat
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Company Snapshot
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Company: Care Office Equipment
CEO: Hemant Shah
Year of inception: 1998
Branches: 1
Active Resellers: 1,080
Turnover 2008-09: Rs 104 crore
Turnover 2007-08: Rs 68 crore
Employees: 200
Certified employees: 7
Principals: Dell, Acer, HP, Seagate, Intel, Asus, Swan Systems
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The year saw the distributor set up a tele-support team. “Our tele-support provides resellers with information related to products and pricing, and also offers tele-guidance on installing products. We boosted our field support by adding engineers, and created a USP of providing 12-hour support turnaround anywhere in Gujarat,” informed Shah.
The company ran several schemes for resellers during the year, including one that awarded an Alto every month to a reseller who not only met the target but also bought the right product mix and was timely with payments. The company awarded Alto cars to seven dealers.
With a local ERP system in place, Care has a well-designed credit management system which has helped to avert defaults and ensure timely payment collections. “The system has been designed by a CA firm with check points for credit control and collection monitoring. It has a document flow built in which ensures that every concerned person gets an auto-generated daily update about credit outstanding for quick action. We have three people specially designated to monitor credit collection,” Shah informed.
The company has a target of Rs 160 crore for the current fiscal, and plans to achieve it by expanding its retail business and increasing its distribution portfolio. “This year we have added a systems building component to our business, and plan to add LCDs, projectors and security surveillance products.” Care is equally bullish about netbooks. Last year the company sold 1,800, and aims to sell 5,000 this year. With two outlets in Ahmedabad and Baroda, Care plans to open three more outlets this year.
East
Lalani Infotech, Kolkata
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M M Jain, Director, Lalani Infotech, receiving the award
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Kolkata-based Lalani Infotech grew by 25 percent to garner revenue of Rs 100 crore in the last fiscal vis-à-vis the previous fiscal’s Rs 80 crore.
Of last fiscal’s turnover, 25 percent came from the distribution of peripherals, 38 percent from PCs, 17 percent from PC accessories and options and 10 percent each from components and software.
Citing the factors behind the company’s growth, Umang Lalani, the CEO of Lalani Infotech said, “The primary reason has been the expansion of our operations in Chhattisgarh, with a branch in Raipur. We partnered with Dell to add their Vostro and Inspiron ranges of PCs and servers, and with Canon for their projectors. Dell contributed 15 percent of our revenues.”
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Performance Highlights
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• Partnered with Dell for the Vostro and Inspiron ranges which then contributed 15 percent to Lalani’s revenues
• Made significant investments in creating an exclusive service infrastructure for the Kanry brand
• Implemented a local ERP to automate the logistics process for the distribution and servicing of the Kanry brand
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Company Snapshot
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Company: Lalani Infotech
CEO: Umang Lalani
Year of inception: 1978
Branches: 6
Active Resellers: 1,800
Turnover 2008-09: Rs 100 crore
Turnover 2007-08: Rs 80 crore
Employees: 200
Principals: Dell, Canon, HP, Intel, IBM, Microsoft, Asus, D-Link
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The company also added office automation products under its Kanry brand, which was launched in 2007, and has been a major focus for the company over the last fiscal. Lalani already has 28 different products under this home-brand which includes mice, keyboards, Web cams, UPS systems, pen drives and specialty office products such as document laminators and paper shredders.
“In the last fiscal we made significant investments in creating an exclusive service infrastructure for Kanry. This helped the new brand to net 20 percent of our revenues during the year,” Lalani informed.
ISO 9001:2000 certified, the distributor implemented a local ERP in 2008. “The ERP was launched mainly to automate our logistics process for the distribution and servicing of the Kanry brand. The ERP system has helped us immensely in managing the large pool of on-field service engineers and replacement spares across various service centers, and thus helped provide faster warranty and repair turnaround,” explained Lalani.
Giving more thrust to its own brand, over the next two years the company wants to have 100 products under the Kanry name. These products will include IT peripherals, components and specialty office automation products.
“Our plan is to get 70 percent of our business from Kanry, and we are in talks with manufacturers from China to bring more product categories into the country. We may even look at setting up a manufacturing unit in India for some Kanry brand products,” Lalani stated.
With six existing branches, the company plans to expand its presence in the north and south with two new branches in Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.
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 Solutions Provider - Emerging l Sub-Distributor - Emerging l Retailer - Emerging l Managed Services Provider l Solution Provider - Security l
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