India's best Enterprise Var

This category witnessed an average growth of 25 percent, keeping pace with its peers in the Advance Market, a sign that economic growth is secular and is percolating down to the emerging markets.

Growth drivers

Education, services, manufacturing, government, IT and BPO have been major growth drivers in the Emerging Markets as well. However, they vary in magnitude from region to region.

Nortech Infotech, the winner from the southern region, benefited from growth in BPO segment and clinched several multi-crore deals from IT and BPO companies. Pune-based Concept Informatics derived its growth from the defence and R&D segments. Secant leveraged on opportunities in the manufacturing sector in Ludhiana.

In the east, IT consumption is clearly being driven by the government, be it Graphic Trades that bagged a project from the Bihar government to computerise its education department, or Sigma Computers that won projects from the government for high-end document management and GIS solutions.

On the application front, ERP seems to be dominating SMB IT spends. Whether it is Veetrag in Sangli or E-Caps in Coimbatore, they rode the ERP deployment boom.

Another technology growth area turned out to be wireless and IP solutions. Manufacturing units deployed wireless connectivity, in some cases with audio and video interfaces.

Business innovations

There is no doubt that enterprise VARs are on par with their peers in Advance Market when it comes to the adoption of best business practices. Nortech Infotech has invested Rs 12 lakh in ERP. Sparx Technologies has Exchange 2003 deployed for workflow and mailing solutions, and the SharePoint Portal Server for its intranet portal and deployment of small applications such as call logging and employee self-service. Companies like Secant, Sigma and E-Caps either have an ERP system in place or are planning to implement one soon. Several of these companies have taken the initiative to make themselves responsive to customer needs. Graphic undertook restructuring of its customer service cell to reduce turnaround time. Concept has set up an automated SLA management system with online complaint logging for customers. Veetrag is readying itself for an ISO certification.

Opportunities and challenges

This year the agenda is to build technical and service capabilities in high-growth areas like storage, network management, managed services, security and IT outsourcing. Plans are afoot to expand to other parts of the country. Concept plans to create a multi-location presence, as do E-caps and Nortech. So don’t be surprised if, next year, some of these companies figure in the Advance Market category.

Enterprise Var - Advance

Infonet Solutions, Chennai

The company recorded revenues of Rs 17.5 crore in FY 05-06, a YoY growth of 46 percent. Nearly half of this came from the systems business; networking contributed 20 percent, while peripherals, enterprise storage and services contributed 10 percent each.

The numbers were achieved due to the company's focus on storage and networking solutions, as well as high-growth verticals like R&D and government, SMBs (manufacturing), and IT and BPO services. AMCs and Facility Management Services also contributed to the company's growth.

Infonet widened its customer base by increasing its sales strength. It added HP's data storage and backup solutions in the last fiscal; this contributed Rs 1.8 crore to its turnover.

The company is a Premium Business Partner as well as an authorised service and delivery partner for HP, a solution partner of APC, and system installer for Molex.

Infonet bagged a project from Ramco Systems involving blade server installation and data centre consolidation. Another large project was bagged from Office Tiger Database Systems for networking their new data centre with fibre backbone across 5,000 information outlets. Further, it bagged Rs 30 lakh worth of deals from government tendering.

To boost sales, the company conducted co-marketing activities such as seminars and road-shows with its principals, HP and Molex. It focussed on deep-selling products such as UPS, printers and bandwidth solutions to existing clients. It plans to open branches in Hyderabad and Bangalore. The focus will be on the bottom-line while concentrating on offering more solution-oriented sales. The company expects an increase in demand for storage and back-up solutions. Another growth area will be the bandwidth segment.

Enterprise Var - Advance

Wizertech Informatics, Kolkata

The company recorded a Rs 25 crore turnover, a growth of 30 percent in FY 05-06 on the back of several large projects and geographical expansion.

It bagged what it claims to be Asia-Pacific's largest notebook order for 2,000 Lenovo notebooks from the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, amounting to Rs 8 crore. The company grabbed another project worth Rs 5 crore to computerise the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and provide customised applications running on Linux to automate KMC's operations.

Another key project was the upgradation of Tata Steel's IT infrastructure for its SAP implementation, valued at Rs 2.5 crore. The strategy of expanding its branch network to Mumbai and Bangalore also bore fruit as it contributed 20 percent to its revenues.

CEO Suresh Mishra attributes the growth to the company's one-vendor strategy. For systems, it is an advanced business partner of IBM and Lenovo; in peripherals, it stocks HP’s products. It set up a technical service desk for IBM last year to provide support to the latter’s clients.

The company expects to grow 100 percent in the current fiscal, and open branches in Chennai, Lucknow, Guwahati and Delhi by August 2006. It already has a presence in Chhattisgarh, Pune, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Bangalore. Wizertech is adding new products such as EMC’s storage solutions, and IBM's software and video conferencing solutions. High on its agenda is the implementation of ERP to automate and streamline its processes in order to manage growth better.

Enterprise Var - Advance

Liberty Automation Systems, Mumbai

In FY 05-06, Liberty Automation Systems recorded a turnover of Rs 18.21 crore, a YoY increase of 25 percent. Of this, nearly Rs 17 crore was contributed by institutional sales and the rest came from re-distribution and consumer sales.

Repeat orders, and reference sales coupled with the addition of new products and services, provided the thrust in revenues. It added seven new large clients to its kitty last fiscal, and enhanced its product offerings with managed security and other managed services such as printing.

The company bagged several large institutional deals including a Rs 50 lakh order from Raymond, Rs 65 lakh from Mahindra Ugine, and Rs 35 lakh from Western Press.

The company implemented a ‘5C’ model for customer satisfaction post-service calls. It provided a touch-and-feel experience by organising regular demonstration sessions for new products, especially in colour laser printers and multi-function peripherals.

The company set a minimum profit criterion and adhered to it for accepting orders. The sales team was given targets of monthly gross margins generated, and not sales value.

It expects to grow in line with the Indian IT industry. The company predicts that the sector will grow at 25 percent YoY, and plans to set up a multi-location support network.

Enterprise Var - Emerging - North

Secant Technologies, Ludhiana

Paramjit Singh

Secant registered a growth rate of 38 percent over the previous year. It recorded a turnover of Rs 9 crore of which Rs 5 crore was contributed by the enterprise solutions business, Rs 2 crore came from IT distribution, Rs 1.5 crore from retailing, and the rest from IT training.

The company attributed its success to focus on technology areas such as enterprise storage, wireless LAN and WAN, data recovery, and security. It introduced new product lines like HP storage, wireless solutions from D-Link and Linksys as well as power conditioning and infrastructure solutions.

Its focus on ERP implementation, and verticals such as education and BPO, paid rich dividends. Secant bagged a couple of major projects, one of which was worth Rs 50 lakh from Punjab Agriculture University for setting up a central computer infrastructure for its research and training department. The solution involved providing an integrated system and supplying all the components thereof including machines, networking, storage and security.

Another major order was the Rs 30 lakh deal from Akal Academies which involved setting up IT training labs at 24 locations in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh providing security and power-conditioning solutions. ERP deployments at Singhania International and JRS Computer Consultants were the other gains.

Secant closely co-ordinates with distributors and vendors for logistics management which ensures timely completion of projects. The company also initiated online support through Live Chat. Besides, it implemented an ERP solution (Disha) which integrated its sales, marketing, finance, HR and support divisions. The company is planning product extensions by adding handheld PCs and mobile (PDA)-based solutions for retail and healthcare, and also registering its presence in CRM and networking solutions. Secant expects a growth rate of 75 percent, and has identified SMBs, manufacturing and retail as key growth drivers. It plans to open offices in Delhi and Jalandhar, and set-up small but independent showrooms of Apple and Sony at upcoming malls in Ludhiana.

Enterprise Var - Emerging - North

Acme Digitek, Lucknow

The company recorded a turnover of Rs 9 crore, growing marginally over the previous turnover of Rs 8.5 crore.

During the last year, the company added Sun servers and workstations, and was appointed as a Cisco premium partner adding the latter’s networking and security products to its line-up. The other major addition was that of Computer Associates for security, storage backup and management solutions. Acme is already an HP authorised partner for systems, storage and services.

One of the largest projects it bagged was for Rs 1.35 crore from HQ Central Command, Lucknow that involved implementation of CA’s security suite and network management solution along with server, storage and firewall solutions. It won another order of Rs 45 lakh from NTPC to deploy Sun servers, provide a LAN an AMC to maintain the same.

Acme has segregated its clients into high-value and average, deploying dedicated manpower in the form of account managers and technical support to focus on the former. It created a dedicated help desk for high-value clients. The company also implemented ERP for in-house processes including PO processing and handling, service calls and escalation handling, procurement, sales, AMC, sales billing and profitability analysis. The company shifted to its new office premises, Digitek House, a 5,000 sq ft area. Acme expects to grow at 30 percent and lists further streamlining of internal processes and maximising profitability as its focus areas.

Enterprise Var - Emerging - North

Impulse Microelectronics, Lucknow

Impulse Microelectronics witnessed a 16 percent growth rate in 2005-06 over the previous year, recording a turnover of Rs 3.5 crore. The company credits its growth to networking solutions, focus on industry verticals such as education and BFSI, and new product and service additions. It added thin clients from Sun Microsystems and Acer, and set up an authorised HP service centre during the last fiscal. Its key principals include HP and WeP.

Impulse bagged several large orders last fiscal including a deal of Rs 30 lakh from Saryu Gramin Bank that involved computerisation of 43 branches on a turnkey basis including installation of server and nodes, and networking and maintenance.

It bagged another project from Nainital Bank worth Rs 50 lakh for installating WeP’s heavy-duty line printers in UP and Uttaranchal. The UP Trade Tax Department awarded Impulse a Rs 18 lakh project to computerise its offices in the state. The company received the ISO 9001:200 certification last year. It has tied up with software development companies such as Viramati for Banker-123, a branch automation software, and with Natural Technologies for banking software and its implementation in banks in UP, Uttaranchal and the NCR. It launched a Web site with a facility for customers to register complaints and make sales enquiries online. The company expects a 100 percent growth rate this year, and plans to achieve this by widening the reach of its network to neighbouring states.

Enterprise Var - Emerging - East

Graphic Trades, Patna

Ajay Maitin

The company recorded a turnover of Rs 12.5 crore in 2005-06, a jump of nearly 40 percent over the previous fiscal. This was driven by several large projects awarded by state governments and PSUs. The company bagged an order of Rs 1.6 crore from Bihar Education Projects covering districts whereby 700 PCs were installed along with software and printers.

Graphic Trades bagged another order of Rs 1 crore from two schools under the Ministry of Defence; it involved computerisation, implementation of VSAT, connectivity and servers. 150 PCs and four servers were installed in the schools. It also won an order of Rs 47 lakh from NTPC, where 300 PCs and a Sun server were deployed.

It signed on with Epson for projectors, and as a result bagged a contract for 40 units valued at Rs 60 lakh. It also partnered with HP for its server and storage products. The company estimates that the tie-up with HP contributed nearly Rs 70 lakh to its turnover. Graphic Trades also ventured into providing HP’s plotters and digital press solution, and signed with a software company for providing rural banking solutions, which the company believes will help it capture Rs 7 crore in revenues over the next couple of years.

Last year Graphic undertook an initiative to restructure its support infrastructure as it realised that the existing set-up was inefficient. Repeat calls were higher, and so was the turnaround time. With the new set-up in place, the company has managed to reduce response time to four hours (city limits) and 24 hours (upcountry) respectively.

Regular updation of its knowledge base, running customer awareness programmes, efficient utilisation of financial resources, strengthening service infrastructure, cost cutting measures, and expansion to 27 districts of Bihar have helped it achieve fast-paced growth. The company’s emphasis has been on building a direct and personal relationship with customers on a long-term basis, follow-up after feedback is received, and periodical meetings of technical experts with business supporters.

The company expects a growth rate of 20 percent, and plans to achieve this by expanding its branch network.

Enterprise Var - Emerging - East

Sparx Technologies, Jamshedpur

The company grew 47 percent to Rs 12.5 crore in 2005-06, with 85 percent of the revenue coming from institutional sales, enterprise solutions and the services business, and the rest from retailing.

A large chunk of its enterprise business comes from Tata Steel and its group companies. It bagged a project for office automation from the Kalinganagar unit of Tata Steel. It undertook several projects for Tata Steel including deployment of External Processing Agents (EPA) information system infrastructure, and PDA-based application for material tracking which is integrated with Lotus Notes and IBM WebSphere for online collaboration and mail services.

Sparx ventured into service packaging of its managed IT services and AMCs built around network uptime. It also launched a Web site—01webservices.com—for hosting, e-mail and chat services. It also signed up as an authorised service partner of HP for servers, desktops and commercial printers, and with Acer for laptop support. Sparx has a 600 sq ft showroom which stocks HP products. 15 percent of the company’s revenues are generated from retailing.

Sparx launched an exchange scheme for select corporate clients to refresh their IT infrastructure. It deployed Exchange 2003 in-house for a workflow and solution, and the SharePoint Portal Server for its intranet portal and other applications like call logging and employee self-services.

Enterprise Var - Emerging - East

Sigma Computers, Ranchi

The company grew by 54 percent, recording a turnover of Rs 4.25 crore in FY 05-06. In addition to this, the company bagged two large dollar-billing contracts worth $550,000 (Rs 2.5 crore).

The company has a strong presence in the government, steel and mining sectors. It won several large projects from the Jharkhand government, including one from the Central Mining Research Institute to deploy high-end servers and networking equipment, and the Central Fuel Research Institute for hardware including servers, desktops and peripherals.

In the steel sector, it bagged a project from the Bokaro Steel Plant for providing document management and GIS solutions for their plants and machinery. Other prestigious projects include one from Nagarjuna Construction for the computerisation of its new operations in the state.

Sigma credits its success to business expansion in new markets with a focus on individual accounts. The company has been smart in spotting trends. For instance, anticipating a huge demand for GIS solutions in the mining and government sector, it recently signed up with a GIS solutions company. Now it expects a major order from the Forest Department.

According to the company, other growth areas have been the sale of large format printers (plotters) for which it has a tie-up with HP.

Enterprise Var - Emerging - West

Concept Technologies, Pune

Rahul Chaudhary

Concept Information Technologies registered an impressive 67 percent YoY growth and recorded a turnover of Rs 20 crore in 2005-06. The company attributes the performance to major breakthroughs in the R&D and defence sectors, plus product additions.

New entries to the portfolio included high-end servers and SAN solutions from HP and IBM, high-end routers, switches and IP products from Cisco and cluster integration services. Following these tie-ups, the company bagged several multi-crore projects. It won a large order from Idea Cellular in Pune worth Rs 6 crore for providing the back-bone to their core telecom applications. Another prestigious project came its way from DRDO, a defence research organisation, to provide a high-performance server and storage cluster specifically designed for computer-aided engineering applications. CSIR Labs contracted Concept to provide a high-performance cluster solution for chemical modelling and other enterprise applications; the project was valued at Rs 3 crore. “Over the last couple of years we have focussed on building strong technical capabilities to evolve from enterprise box-selling to providing solutions and integration services. The efforts paid off last year with several large projects coming our way,” says Rahul Chaudhary, CEO. The company took a customer-centric approach, identifying key verticals and customers and focussing on their needs. In this transition the company’s credo has been simple—concentrate on the bottom-line.

Concept deployed an internal system for service tracking which allows it to track customer SLAs on an ongoing basis. The analysis is used to plot the performance of their service managers vis-à-vis their KRAs. It created a Web-interface for customers for posting their problems with a well-defined turnaround time and escalation mechanism.

Chaudhary expects to grow at a CAGR of 50 percent over the next few years. He is upbeat about the IT, BFSI, services and manufacturing sectors. Plans for growth include better market coverage, adding new products, and focussing on turnkey multiple location projects.

Enterprise Var - Emerging - West

Veetrag Computers, Sangli

The company recorded revenues of Rs 11.5 crore in FY 05-06, YoY growth of 64 percent, with nearly 75 percent of the income coming from enterprise business and the rest from sub-distribution.

The company attributed its impressive growth to several large projects that were bagged and new product additions made during the year. It contracted two World Bank-sponsored projects to set up a centralised computer lab each at two engineering colleges in south Maharashtra—Rajarambapu Institute of Technology and DKTE College of Engineering, worth Rs 1.83 crore and Rs 1.98 crore respectively. For Ghatge Patil Industries, Kolhapur, Veetrag provided IBM i-Series servers for the implementation of SAP in a deal worth Rs 65 lakh.

Another trend-setting project for a local sugar factory involved deployment of a wireless network covering four branches in a radius of 25 km with audio and video interfaces. Veetrag was also appointed as Dell system integration partner, signed up with IBM as its Authorised Service Provider (ASP) for its entire range of servers, and added video conferencing solutions to its kitty.

The company has readied all its processes and systems to enroll for ISO certification this year. It follows a unique practice of having a uniform dress code for its employees from the CEO to the peon. Veetrag expects to grow at a healthy pace of 25-30 percent this year on the back of opportunities in the ERP implementation space and healthcare sector. The company already has many ERP implementations lined up in textile and other manufacturing sectors.

Enterprise Var - Emerging - West

Informatics Technology, Baroda

Informatics Technology registered a growth of 35 percent largely because of the buoyant SMB demand and exponential growth in retail. The company garnered Rs 8 crore from its enterprise business and Rs 3 crore from its retail operations launched in 2004.

It bagged a prestigious project from Larsen & Toubro worth Rs 1.7 crore for providing server and storage consolidation solutions along with desktops and notebooks. The project required the company to implement a SAN solution. It was the first such high-end solution provided by the company. A loyal HP partner, Informatics bagged a project with a local college for providing 90 notebooks and setting up the campus wireless LAN.

The company took a focussed approach to providing solutions in the growing SMB segment, and bagged several office automation projects in the Rs 5 lakh to 10 lakh range. Nearly 20 percent of its enterprise revenues came from this segment whose contribution was negligible in the previous year. Its SMB customers included financial services companies, insurance agents, stock brokers and manufacturing ancillaries around Baroda.

It plans to expand its reach in the industrial belt surrounding Baroda. Last November the company set up a showroom in Surat. It expects growth from notebook sales, SMB solutions, and its retail operations in the next year. The company intends to launch facility management services, along with remote tech support services, for its clients and clients of other companies.

Enterprise Var - Emerging - South

Nortech Infonet, Kochi

Benley Noronha

With an impressive growth of 37 percent in 2005-06, the company recorded a turnover of Rs 35 crore, out of which Rs 28 crore was contributed by the enterprise business and the rest came from SOHO and retail.

A large chunk of enterprise revenues, nearly Rs 14 crore, originated from systems. Rs 10.5 crore came from networking solutions, Rs 5.5 crore from storage and security solutions, and the remaining from the provision of professional services.

The company attributed its growth to geographical expansion into new markets such as Chennai, Bangalore, Coimbatore and Indore. Also, the decision to invest in training and certification in emerging technologies such as data storage, data security and converged networks (IP telephony, wireless networking and so on) paid off.

“We segmented the market vertical-wise, studied the nature and behaviour of each vertical, and provided customised solutions according to requirements and criticality. This resulted in higher hit-ratios and profitability,” says Benley Noronha, CEO. The company intentionally increased the ratio of business from enterprise solutions based on emerging technologies.

Nortech did integration of voice and data on an IP network for an insurance company; the project was worth Rs 7 crore. For a BPO, the company did networking by WAN and LAN integration on fibre by setting up 800 nodes; this project was worth Rs 3 crore.

The company added Annex Gate Surveillance solutions and Syntex Document Management solutions, and became the implementation/support partner for ERP and CRM solutions from 3i Infotech.

In FY 05-06, Nortech implemented an organisational change programme using the services of Training Workz, a consulting firm, across all departments; this contributed to improved customer and employee satisfaction, and in turn impacted profitability.

An ISO-certified company, Nortech invested Rs 15 lakh in internally implementing ERP and CRM solutions from 3i Infotech which helped in streamlining back-office activities.

Enterprise Var - Emerging - South

eCaps Computers, Coimbatore

FY05-06 saw the company grow by 25 percent to record a turnover of Rs 25 crore with equal contribution from enterprise solutions and distribution. The company is an authorised distributor for MroTek, Dax Networks and Simmtronics memory modules.

eCaps attributes its growth to an increase in ERP implementation, turnkey data centre applications and security and storage solutions. It also registered good growth in wireless and networking.

It bagged a mega project from Super Spinning Mills for implementation of the underlying hardware for an ERP system worth Rs 1 crore. The order included four IBM servers and installation of a wireless WAN inter-connecting five branches.

For another project, along similar lines, it provided hardware to LG Balakrishnan with wireless and security solutions amounting to Rs 45 lakh. Lakshmi Machine Works paid eCaps Rs 20 lakh for wireless and security solutions.

The company added Radware security appliances and Kaspersky security and virus software solutions to its kitty. It signed up with VSNL to provide bandwidth solutions. The company deployed a CRM solution. “Subsequent follow-ups done on quality of service given to customers revealed that we achieved a 40 percent increase in customer satisfaction levels and an 80 percent increase in efficiency,” says Suresh G, CEO.

Enterprise Var - Emerging - South

Cyberland Technologies, Kochi

The company registered about 20 percent growth and recorded a turnover of Rs 3.25 crore in 2005-06. Out of these about 78 percent of the revenues came from the enterprise solutions business and rest from distribution of Dax networking products.

FY05-06 saw the company add several enterprise products and solutions—wireless from 3Com, UPS from Numeric, security products from SonicWall and Trend Micro and Facility Management Services with comprehensive maintenance service covering the entire IT infrastructure.

With its focus on SMBs, the company did well to bag several large projects the largest of which came from a local realty firm Infra Housing worth Rs 15 lakh for setting up the entire network on turnkey basis for its corporate office and branches.

Another project was bagged from Lotus8 Hotels for Rs 8 lakh for networking 155 nodes. It was awarded a prestigious government project under the Information Kerala Mission for networking of municipalities across the state.

The company adopted the try-and-buy approach providing live demos at the client’s site and allowing them to use the product before buying. Cyberland converted all its branches into independent profit centres, helping the company minimise costs and maximise profits. The company has an online accounting system with centralised billing for all branches for managing inventory and finances.