EASTERN COMNET: Uncompromising Loyalty

Kolkata-based Jatan Baid’s Eastern Comnet has emerged as one of the leading
channel players from the East. What makes him remarkable is that his business
activities include distribution, reselling, retailing, systems integration as
well as imports. The company clocked over 100% growth last year, yet Jatan has
not compromised his loyalty to D-Link, his very first principal.

Channel players are usually involved in a range of ac-tivities–distribution,
reselling, retailing, and systems integration. But rarely does one find a
partner engaged in all these fields and being successful in each of them.
Kolkata-based Jatan Baid is breed of this rarity, whose relentless efforts has
made his Eastern IT Group of Companies a success in various areas of channel
business.

JATAN BAID Single-minded focus on Eastern Group of Companies’ growth

Eastern Comnet, the flagship company of this group, is a leading distributor
of D-Link networking products in the East Indian market. The other two business
divisions are Eastern Infoway, the IT retail plaza and Epitom Networks, its
systems integration (SI) arm.

The company achieved amazing growth in FY 2002-03 with a turnover of nearly
Rs 67 crore, which was a 130% increase from its revenue of Rs 29 crore in the
previous year.

TRY TILL YOU SUCCEED

A commerce graduate, Jatan dreamt of becoming a chartered accountant. But
two unsuccessful attempts at it and he decided a different future for himself.
Jatan turned his attention to the electronics component business and continued
in this line for about three years. It was then that he saw opportunities in the
field of IT business.

With an investment of about Rs 5 lakh, Jatan founded Eastern Computel in
1992. The company started out as a dealer of hardware and networking products.
Even in those days, when IT was new to the Eastern market, Jatan’s company
clocked nearly Rs 1.5 crore in its first year of operation.

The big break for the company came in 1995, when it became the distributor
for D-Link and Cisco’s range of networking products. And since then, Eastern
Comnet (name changed from Eastern Computel in 1997) has been one of D-Link’s
top performing partners in the East.

Even today, though the company is involved in a range of activities, nearly
40% of its revenue comes from distribution of D-Link’s products. "From
the very beginning, D-Link has been our major business and will continue to be
so. Our focus too will remain more on the distribution business," remarks
Jatan.

The size of the organization has grown manifold since its inception. A decade
ago, while there were just 10 people working for Eastern, today nearly 80 work
across four branches in Kolkata and Guwahati.

THE BALANCING ACT

Over a period of time, Jatan realized that there’s much more to IT
business than distribution. He slowly started exploring other opportunities and
diversified into peripheral retailing as well as sub-distribution.

PROFILE START UP YEAR  1992 ADDRESS  16, Ganesh Chandra Avenue,  Kolkata - 700 013. TEL 033-22256162 FAX  033-22373033 E-MAIL jkbaid@easternitgroup.com WEB SITE www.easternitgroup.com SECRET OF SUCCESS  Manages each of his business divisions as a distinct profit center  Relentless loyalty to D-Link and its distribution business  Leverages long-term experience in selling networking products for systems/network integration projects  A strong focus on after-sales support, even in up-country locations of North-East

Envisioning the potential of retailing, Jatan invested towards creating a
retail front at GC Avenue, Kolkata’s IT hub. The idea behind this was not only
to attract end-users but also resellers from other far-flung districts.

Around the same time, the company evinced interest in taking up SI projects.
Jatan put to use his experience in selling networking products to undertake
these new deals. And, to handle this business, Epitom Networks was started,
which provided services in the field of LAN, WAN, telecom and security
solutions.

Over a period of time, the company won prestigious projects and an enviable
client list. Its customer base largely belongs to the defense and oil sector,
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and tea gardens. "Of the many
projects, the one we cherish most is the complete network and systems
integration project that we did for IIT-Kharagpur," states Jatan happily.

Jatan’s feat of doing justice to a diverse range of activities has many
people amazed. "Each of my business division is headed by a
highly-experienced professional. I only sit at the top and manage finances. That’s
exactly my job," explains Jatan smilingly. He says that each business
division is looked as an independent profit center, with its own focus and
business approach.

LOYAL, WE SHALL REMAIN

After tasting success in many fields, Jatan now wants to further strengthen
the company’s systems integration activity. "We have opened up a service
center in Guwahati to provide a strong support backbone to our customers in the
up-country market," adds he. Eastern Comnet also tied up for Liteon range
of optical disk drives this year.

However, Jatan is very clear about his loyalty to D-Link. "As a vendor,
D-Link has been very good and supportive to us and we have only returned their
support through our loyalty," says Jatan.

D-link too is all praises about Eastern Comnet. "What really sets them
apart is their undying focus on providing excellent after-sales support. The
initiatives taken by them to address customer issues, even in North-East
locations is really commendable," states Prabodh Vyas, Director-Sales,
D-Link India.

Jatan has been a very active member of Eastern India’s leading IT
association, Compass and is currently its treasurer. But above all, he is
focused on his company’s growth.

Jatan has now set sights on a 20% growth increase in the coming fiscal, to
clock a revenue of Rs 80 crore. Going by the company’s last year performance
chart, Jatan is confident of achieving this targeted growth.

GOLDIE