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Kohima, Nagaland
Kohima, the hilly capital of Nagaland, shares its borders with Burma. Besides numerous government schools and colleges in the city, it also boasts of several leading R&D institutions.
Channel Scenario
There are about 30 active resellers in Kohima selling an average 80 PCs per month. It also has a local channel body, the Nagaland IT Association consisting of 25 members. “The association organizes regular training programs and quarterly exhibitions aimed at promoting adoption of information technology in the state,” says N Therie, proprietor of Mek Computers, a leading corporate reseller and retailer in the city.
Opportunities
The IT market in Kohima is growing at a robust 30 per cent year-on-year, largely driven by demand from government sector and increasing demand from education sector.
Being the capital city, it is home to all the government departments that contribute nearly 60 percent to all the IT buying that happens in Kohima. The ongoing insurgency in the state has meant a well equipped police force and according to local resellers, the state police department is the largest IT spender in the state.
E-governance is another major driver for government IT spends. The State IT department has recently embarked on the SWAN project (State Wide Area Network) under which internet connectivity would be provided in remote areas. This is expected to drive growth in the state.
Demand from public and private education sector has been soaring over the past couple of years. While the public schools and colleges have received grants to set up advanced computer labs, the private sector is investing in setting up campus wide Wi-Fi and a few of them have also linked their colleges with others in the country through video conferencing.
Demand from home users and private enterprises amount to less than 10 percent. Therie reasons, “Due to ongoing insurgency in the state, private sector has been reluctant to open their offices or invest in manufacturing. This has also led to lack of new job creations and hence dampened demand from the home segment.”
Challenges
Apart from the ongoing insurgency, the challenges faced in Kohima include vendor apathy towards channel development and providing local warranty support. According to resellers, the lack of warranty support is another reason for the market not growing as per its potential. “The in-warranty faulty products have to be sent all the way to Guwahati in Assam for replacement or repair and the turnaround time is a minimum of 45 days for replacing or repairing any product. In fact, I have sent three notebook batteries for replacement in December and am yet to get the new spares,” rues Therie.
Partner profile
N Therie
Proprietor,
Mek Computers
Uphill road to success
Starting an IT company in Kohima, way back in 1996, was an uphill task. People were illiterate and PCs were costly then. I just scrapped through to sell only one computer that year,” says N Therie, CEO, Mek Computers. Having completed his Diploma in Computer Hardware, Therie had a difficult start to his business in the north-eastern state of Nagaland. However, in the consecutive year. he managed to sell 20 PCs, which instilled confidence in him.
Company Snapshot | | Company | Mek Computers | | CEO | N Therie | | Year of Inception | 1996 | | Brands | Lenovo, HP, IBM, HCL | Primary Business | Retailer | | Employees | 7 | Turnover | Rs. 1 Crore |
“For the first three years, we invested heavily in educating prospective clients about the benefits of computers and trained customers to use PCs effectively. Eventually this investment has worked for us and now we have a good base of customers both in government and retail,” adds Therie.
In these three years, the company grew more than 100 percent and that set the momentum for Mek’s future success. The other major confidence booster for Therie came in 2005 when Mek landed up with a Rs 1.42 crore project from the Public Health Engineering Department to supply 150 nodes, peripherals and provide networking and connectivity solution.
Therie also has a small retail shop that caters to home and SOHO customers which contributed a substantial 20 percent to its Rs 1 crore revenues last year.
According to Therie, his company could have been at least five times its size today, had it not been for his decision to lower the focus on the government tendering business in 2006.
“There is too much corruption in the government tendering process. Most of the tenders are bagged on the basis of relationship with bureaucrats or ministers. As major clients in the city are government departments, allocation of tenders is completely biased,” he opines, adding that he is a member of the opposition party and hence there is an inherent bias against his applications.
Therie is optimistic about the future of IT business in the city and the future of Mek Computers. “Young people are enthusiastic about learning computers. They are really taking interest as they believe computer education is important for their future growth. This attitude assures me that the future of IT in Kohima is bright,” opines Therie, who believes that Kohima has what it takes to become an IT hub of the North-east if insurgency is quelled.
Being a part of a political party, Therie is actively involved in social work and is associated with a non-governmental organization called Hope Production, an NGO that promotes young Naga talent in arts and literature. |