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Partners in Tamil Nadu have decided to merge their collective strength to
jointly distribute exclusive products and set-up service centers for major
vendors, under the aegis of COM-COM Public Ltd. If this venture takes off it
will be the first of its kind and will soon start a trend for their peers.
Around 400 dealers across Tamil Nadu have shown interest in investing in the
public limited company, and hence will be holding the stakes of the company.
Besides being stakeholders, these dealers are also channels of the company. The
company sources didn't reveal the amount of investment, as it has not been
decided yet due to various reasons. However, the initial investment is expected
to be around one lakh per dealer. COM-COM Public Ltd will start its operations
by distributing exclusive products and the operations would be on a pan-India
basis. Works for registering the company are in process.
PN Prasad, CEO, Microplus Computers would be driving the company.
The newly formed company doesn't have any relation with Confed-ITA, the
common body working for the welfare of IT associations across Tamil Nadu though
Prasad being the VP of this apex body and many other executive members of Confed
are stake holders in this company. Confed will not have any take on the proposed
COM-COM Public Ltd, company sources clarified. Prasad said, “The whole idea of
the company is to take various IT products and services everywhere with huge
visibility, as the dealers have vast presence and need not depend on anyone for
the service and other supports.”
Operations
The company has proposed to distribute the products of ELCOT, which recently
showed interest in taking the channels route along with its endeavor of
increasing the PC penetration process by supplying one lakh desktops and laptops
to educational institution and student community. Prasad said, “We look for
taking it forward legally and working with ELCOT and other vendors to take IT to
new heights. We have the capacity to take forward the project easily with our
strong and vast presence and can extend service support to the consumers in a
more enhanced manner.”
Subsequent to the distribution activities, COM-COM Public Ltd has proposed
to set-up multi-location service centers for major vendors and centers for
training the dealers in cities and upcountry locations. The company has also
planned to undertake AMC of multi-location companies such as banks, Prasad
informed. As a policy, the company will not deal with multi distribution
products and would only undertake exclusive and good products. He also said that
initially COM-COM would not enter the retail format. The company has also
proposed to go for an IPO a few months post launch and the executive members of
the company would be elected after that. Channel partners are very excited about
the IPO but there is another group, which is a bit skeptical about it and
keeping an eye on COM-COM operations.
Millennium Saga
The reason for the skeptical attitude of some TN dealers could be attributed
to the outcome of the Millenium PC, which was apartner initiative along somw
what similar lines as COM COM. This new brand called Millennium was formed in
2000 by a set of Intel dealers in Mumbai. The team just created a brand and not
a company and it was their pet project. The project was backed by major vendors
like Microsoft, Intel, Samsung and came to an end within four-five years of its
launch due to various reasons. DQ Channels spoke to the dealers who were a part
of the Millennium PC project to get their views on why their project came to an
end and how do they see the current venture proposed by the TN dealers.
According to Dharmesh Anjaria, CEO, Dynacons Computers and Solutions, the
concept of Millennium PC was a unique one at that time and it took off well in
the market too. “Our project was critically acclaimed and was backed by major
vendors like Microsoft, Intel and Samsung. The PC did better than expected and
the response was phenomenal,” claimed Anjaria. As the branded PC came to
existent their dream brand couldn't sustain in the market. “Branded PCs started
flooding the market and everyone started to focus on their different things and
the focus on our brand PC got neglected. Had it been a company rather than just
a brand, it could have been more successful,” Anjaria informed. Jagdeep Thukral,
CEO, Thukral Computers echoed the similar sentiments. “We were able to have a
good run after the launch of our brand. Both the brand support and money support
came for us from the vendors and even we invested a lot of money in our product.
Since the partners in the project were focused and tied up with different
things, we couldn't concentrate much on this and slowly it was called off,”
Thukral said.
Mission COM-COM
And how does the Millennium team see the proposed COM-COM venture? This
project seems to have impressed the Millennium dealers a lot. According to
Anjaria of Dynacons, the concept of COM-COM is good and quite innovative. He
felt that the dealers involved in this project should be committed for a long
period. “There should be a meticulous planning done. Initially everyone has a
lot of enthusiasm but with time it subsides. The momentum needs to be sustained.
We too are ready to support the company,” he averred. He also felt that
distribution works on low margins and the dealers need to have a clear long-term
strategy to survive. “The concept is fantastic and dynamic but in order to make
it a success, the company needs to have good backup too. There must be various
options on the future perspective. HR is a major crunch at this point of time
for this industry and it needs to be taken care of,” Anjaria opined.
Chetan Shah, CEO, Xpress Computers too voiced a similar opinion. “There
should be dedicated management and also professional people to take care of the
administration. There is no doubt that the stakeholders will get enough profit
in this venture. But adding more professionalism would always add more value to
these kind of ventures,” said Shah. He also felt that the objectives of the
company need to be clearly charted out in the beginning. “This is a good
concept. If everything is taken care right from the beginning, the company will
have a good run,” Shah noted. Even Thukral said, “When there are 400 members,
anything is possible and they should maintain this unity for success of the
company.”
Tamil Nadu dealers have already tasted the success. The formation of
Confed-ITA itself is a case in point with, which they are enhancing the trade in
the state. Even this proposed COM-COM venture must replicate the same.
NR SETHURAMAN
sethuramannr@cybermedia.co.in Page(s) 1
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