12. HIGH EXPECTATIONS: Unmet

Compuage Infocom had targeted a revenue of Rs 300 crore for 2001-02. But it came nowhere near fulfilling those expectations. It closed the year with revenue of Rs 160 crore, down from Rs 240 crore in 2000-01. This drop of 33 percent places Compuage at #12 in the DQCI Silver Club, down from its earlier #6 position.

At a time when the industry was reeling under the slowdown, Compuage had to drop LG and Kobian from its agency operations. "LG was dropped because we were not comfortable with its new regional distribution policy," says Atul Mehta, MD. "We were given the offer to be one of their regional distributors, but we chose not to be so," he adds. "Mercury was dropped because of the excessively low margins involved," he adds.

With these impediments, Compuage decided to focus on its own brand Odyssey, which was re-launched in the fag end of 2001. It aggressively marketed the brand after expanding its product range, which now includes cabinets, adaptors, keyboards, speakers and mice.

On the alliances front, Compuage entered into a distribution tie-up with Samtel for its monitors and Canon as a western regional distributor for its range of inkjets and scanners.

Consolidation of operations was another focus area for the company. According to Atul, the slowdown period was an excellent time for completing the implementation of its ERP setup. "Implementing an ERP requires lot of time and effort where 

MEASURES THAT BROUGHT MOOLAH: Entered into distribution tie-up with Samtel Consolidated operations and completed implementation of ERP

all the departments are involved. If it was not for the slowdown, we would have had difficulties in putting the ERP system in place on time," he quipped.

The ERP system was implemented after an investment of over Rs 1 crore. "It will be a B2B initiative linked to our ERP base. By doing this we will ensure that partners' needs are served better," says

Atul.