Biren Yadav, MD, Bluecom Infotech talks about the company’s focus on the hardware business and specialization on Lenovo products
Q. Briefly tell us about your journey as a distributor of IT products?
I would have not thought of becoming a distributor because 12 years back when I started as a small time system integrator with no finance and was dependent on customer relationships, there came an opportunity where I had to buy some additional quantity to win an order. I then liquidated those additional quantity in the market and from there my journey started into distribution. I know you hardly have any value to add to IT distribution but still your overall attitude and approach towards this business makes the difference. I started with absolute zero and today we are almost a `100 crore organization with only one brand, Lenovo, in only Mumbai territory which means we have a huge potential to grow.
Q. Which best practices should be followed by a distributor to become a leader in the industry?
Besides keeping the basic ethics and principles you need to be on your toes, you cannot afford to relax or be lenient. You have to have a proper system and then have complete control on it.
Q. How much effort have you put in to become one of the most powerful as well as influential distributors in the country? In short, what has been your ‘success mantra’?
I am a first generation entrepreneur and hence I had a lot of excitement towards my work. My work became my first priority and hence I would not feel the tireless effort that I have put. Love and enjoy what you do is the mantra of success, according to me.
Q. Please provide your turnover/revenue as well.
Last year has not been as exciting as I would have wanted it to be but I am looking forward towards this year and coming time to be exciting. We are almost a `100 crore organisation.
Q. Could you tell us about your business operations like your areas of expertise, major clients, vertical focus, number of locations your operate from, partnerships, etc.?
Our strength goes in hardware and we cut across all the verticals in the SME and LE space. As a SI, we are associated with almost all the big brands and our specialization goes with Lenovo products. We are catering to customers across the country but currently we have branches at Lucknow and Pune with head office at Mumbai.
Q. What has been your major achievements / projects in the last couple of years?
We have partnered a couple of core banking solutions for our customers.
Q. What business innovations you have done to stay ahead of your peers in the industry?
We have created banking services solutions.
Q. What are your strengths in terms of core technologies? And how do you constantly innovate to stay relevant in the market?
Our strength lies in hardware, however we keep innovating to support in the BFSI vertical.
Q. What are the challenges that you have to tackle in your day-to-day operations?
As a distributor we have to be very cautious on the payments.
Q. What are your expectations from the vendors you are working with?
They should consider us as partners in the true sense and should not have opportunistic approach.
Q. Please provide us a snap-shot of your future road map in terms of expansion plans, looking at the global market, etc.?
Currently on our radar is geo expansion. We are very soon starting our operations in the south (Bangalore, Chennai) and north (Delhi).
