10. Iris Computers: Smiling Customers Fuel Growth

CHAIRMAN: Sanjiv Krishen  START-UP YEAR: 1996 NO OF PARTNERS: 750 BRANCHES: 9 PRODUCTS: Printers, scanners and networking products AGENCY OPERATIONS: HP, Compaq, IBM, Acer, Accton and Olivetti ADDRESS: E 69, Vasant Marg, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi - 110 057. TEL: 011-6146806 FAX: 011-6149613 POINTERS TO PERFORMANCE Closer customer interaction Faster response POINTERS TO FUTURE Better credit management Focus on offering personalized   services

Waiting in the lobby of Iris Customers last year was a customer looking for a PC to gift teachers on Teachers Day on behalf of the PTA association of his son's school. He was attended to even before he sipped the coffee that was served to him. "The quotations will be faxed to you within an hour," said the lady from marketing department. Satisfied, the customer walked away knowing that work would soon be done and forgetting about the coffee of course. 

Foremost on Iris' agenda in the past fiscal was working closely with its customers to ensure that they got extremely fast response. "We aim to be more responsive to our customers and want to deliver personalized services", says Sanjiv Krishen, Chairman. 

Iris Computers added clients like Arthur Andersen, Delhi Public School, National Institute of Fashion Technology, IIIT (Kolkata), Indian School of Business, Fibcom to its list in the fiscal gone by. It also expanded its network to Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Cochin, Hyderabad and Pune, bringing the total number of its offices to nine. The billing locations however stood at 14. In addition to this it was recognized by IBM as one of the leading distributors for the northern and eastern regions. 

All these activities gave Iris an entry in the Silver Club at rank 10. The last FY saw its agency revenues getting healthier by 65 percent, from Rs 115 crore in 1999-00 to Rs 190 crore in 2000-01. Of course, this was less as compared to the 71 percent growth in FY 1999-00. 

But then there was the slowdown which affected the company's revenues. And in these slower times, Krishen has been trying up with ways and means to tackle the credit squeeze that most of his partners seem to be afflicted with. Says Krishen thoughtfully, "Partners don't have the liquidity to sustain large orders." And credit management has been among the major challenges that business has seen in the year gone by. 

The slowdown added to Iris Computers' woes because as a distributor it was choked with excess inventory that further eroded existing wafer-thin margins. "While the ideal inventory levels stand at 15 days, we have over a month's stock with us," says

Krishen. 

But proper inventory management is not going unnoticed. "Principals have realized this and are offering incentives to distributors who have maintained a consistent product flow," adds Krishen. In fact the entire organization is working towards proper stock control. 

While Iris added Acer products to its portfolio last year, focus will now be on the two new divisions -- Iris Unified Learning

(IUL) and Iris Care. While IUL will be in the business of training corporate clients on their software portfolios, Iris Care will be the service arm of Iris Computers. "The next year the company's energies directed towards ensuring that the new divisions take off to a good start," says

Krishen. 

He has set some aggressive targets for his company to achieve. While MAIT revised the projected growth for the industry to 30 percent, Krishen wants Iris to beat that by a good 20 percent. "We have targeted a 50 percent growth rate." Services are where he expects that growth to come from. "Government and education are the sectors that will help in company's growth," he feels.