'We are concentrating on exports, especially to the European countries.'

Shirish Anjaria has moulded Dynacons Systems and Solutions from being just an

IT consultancy firm to a total IT solution provider. He possesses a degree in

law and a diploma in insurance. He started the company in 1985 after a brief

stint as an administrative executive in an insurance company. For Shirish it is

not important to be known as a premier player. His only mantra is customer

satisfaction which he ensures through effective support. He tells DQCI that he

is looking for faster growth through exports. Excerpts from the interview:

Dynacons had plans to open a chain of retail outlets when you went public

in the recent past. What happened to those plans?



We became public two years ago and are now listed on the BSE and NSE. At

that time the understanding was that we were going to get a lot of funds from

the public issue. But because of the bad market situation and the economic

recession, we could not generate the expected fund flow.

Our issue was for Rs 21 crore, but we did not get this much. So the plans

have been put on the back-burner at the moment. We are currently negotiating

with a couple of franchisees to open retail outlets. However, nothing has been

finalized at the moment.

What is Dynacons currently focusing on?



The focus is on total solutions, not merely hardware or software. In fact

our slogan itself is "From concept to commissioning and beyond".

Dynacons provides its clients solutions involving hardware and software

components on a turnkey basis. The IT solution requires immense amount of

interaction between Dynacons’ team of professionals and the client. From these

interactions only specific solutions emerge that solve their problems.

We do not say that we are price-competitive, but we are definitely strong on

support. We realize that in the end it is support that will increase the brand

value of any company. We have customers for the past decade, who have stuck with

us because of the support we provide.

Which are the different business streams of Dynacons?



We are into systems integration, networking solutions, Web-enabled software

development, intranet and e-mail solutions, enterprise business solutions and

network security. Our main focus has been on providing integrated solutions for

LAN, WAN, inter-networking and intranet solutions. We have also developed Dyna@Net

which is a comprehensive mail, Internet, cache and Web server solution in a box.

Who are your principals?



We are Cisco premium partners, Intel premier providers and ISP program

member as well as Microsoft OEM system builder partners. We are also authorized

partners for Compaq, HP, Red Hat, IBM and Samsung. We have an experienced team

of Novell, Microsoft and Intel-certified professionals and multi-disciplined

consultants.

We have practically partnered with most of the big names in the industry.

However, we do not believe in pushing brands and do not recommend one brand over

another. We give the customer what he wants.

What is your core competency?



Our core competency is our commitment to provide support to customers. We

give customers support on our entire range of product. We are also software and

management consultants. So we also help them set up their entire IT

infrastructure.

What is your customer profile like?



We have corporates, SMEs, educational and government institutions as our

clients. We also cater to the SOHO and the home segment. Our customer profile is

very varied. We sell a single system to a home user as well as 50 systems to

corporates. We have different divisions which look after different customer

segments.

Which customer segment are you most focused on currently?



We have increased our focus in the government space. We cater to most

government departments. Dynacons already services Gujurat State Petroleum,

National Insurance, Maharashtra Prathamik Shikshan and other government

divisions. We give total support to them for software and hardware and sometimes

their entire IT department is run by us.

Do you have plans to expand your manufacturing unit in Goa?



No, we have no plans to expand the manufacturing facility in Goa. However,

sometimes we get export orders where clients do not want branded machines and we

plan to manufacture these in our factory. At the moment we are negotiating on

one such order with the Kuwait government.

You had spear-headed the Millennium PC brand under the GID program. Where

does the Millennium PC stand today?



The concept was very good and even Intel International applauded it and gave

us the required support. Seven GIDs came together and produced the Millennium

PCs and then provided warranty for it also. We maintained quality control and

uniform pricing, so everyone had to sell at the same price.

But then margins went down drastically, and the entire scenario changed. Also

there was a period when the CPUs were not available and that crushed the program

entirely.

So is Millennium PC still available in the market?



Currently, Dynacons and a couple of other GIDs are still selling this brand.

But others have lost focus as they have their own brands. We offer the

Millennium PC in three flavors–Value, Performance and Dream PC–at different

price points.

What are your plans for this fiscal?



We are concentrating more on exports, especially in the European countries.

Our overseas business constitutes 20 percent of our revenue. With the increased

focus on exports, we expect this to double.

We also have unique tie-ups with our overseas partners. For instance, we have

a partner in Japan who service our customers in Japan and we service their

customers in India. We expect more symbiotic relationships like this to come

through.

We also want to focus more on the corporate and SME segment. But at the same

time we will maintain a division which will cater to the SOHO.

VINITA SUVARNA-BHATIA in Mumbai