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5. FOCUS ON: Bottomline Growth

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DQC News Bureau
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HCL Infosystems worked through the last year with two main objectives -- gain revenue and add to the bottomline. These objectives were set to take partners along the path to growth.

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HCL Infosystems has grown its agency revenue by over 10 percent from Rs 319 crore in the year 2000-01 to Rs 352 crore in 2001-02. This is no mean feat considering the prevailing market conditions. The company also managed to retain its #5 rank in the DQCI Silver Club.

Sensing that the channel sentiment was at its lowest ebb, HCL used this as an opportunity to bond closer with its partners.

Apart from regular schemes and promotions, it organized feedback sessions to lend a patient hearing to partners' grievances.

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The latter responded well and gave HCL food for thought and come up with encouraging partner programs.

Measuring the performance of its partners differently says Rajendra Kumar, Head, Channel Sales, "Nearly 75 percent of our partners qualified under the foreign travel scheme."

Anticipating growth in mobile computing, HCL trained its partners to upgrade themselves to selling notebooks, even if volumes were as low as three to four notebooks a month. To supplement the training effort, it also launched an incentive program for partners selling notebooks.

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HCL

CEO

:

Ajai Choudhary

START-UP

YEAR
: 1976
NO OF

PARTNERS
: 950
BRANCHES : 15
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

:

Desktops, servers, notebooks, Networking products, Internet access and services
AGENCY OPERATIONS : HP, Microsoft, Oracle, Toshiba, Scansoft, Nokia, SAP, Broadvision, Onyx
ADDRESS: E-4/5/6, Sector 11, Noida - 201 301. TEL: 0118-4550873, 4520977, 4521253 FAX: 0118-4550923 WEB SITE: www.hclinfosystems.com

Further in this direction, the company launched a series of aggressively priced Toshiba notebooks.

MEASURES THAT BROUGHT MOOLAH:
Managed supply chain to ensure minimal blockage of funds
Upgraded partners to sell notebooks and solutions
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And to showcase these products, it kick-started its Mobile PC Carnival, a roadshow designed on the lines of its now regular Grand Computer Carnival.

Roadshows were a very important part of HCL's marketing program. It organized over 1,000 roadshows to cover the entire Indian geography.

This was also a part of the company's mandate to reach out to smaller towns and help its partners strengthen their retail presence.

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Looking back, however, Rajendra said the progress made by partners in selling software had been short of expectations.

"Not too many partners could sell Dragon NaturallySpeaking as effectively as we wanted." And this is what the company looks at addressing for reasons more than one. Most importantly, software helps partners add weight to their bottomline. Also the recent tie-up with Scansoft adds to HCLґs portfolio of imaging and speech recognition packages.

HCLґs point of focus in the days to come will be its software distribution business. Says Rajendra, "We have put manpower in place in small cities to help partners develop the market."

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