Jalan Infotech bags project for Tata Indicom phone booths

Tata Indicom is coming out with its branded local call stations, much like the ubiquitous PCO booths at every street. And Kolkata-based Jalan Infotech will set up these stylized booths, network and maintain 1,000 of these units. Tata Indicom plans to roll out 500 of these phone booths by March 2005. Within one year, over 5,000 of these will be set up all over the country. The entire project is valued at Rs 25,000 crore. 

Tata will also launch pre-paid cards that can be used at these booths. Jalan will stock and distribute these cards as well, which will give in a continuous revenue stream in addition to the maintenance of the booths. Jalan is employing 25 new people to manage this project.

Jalan Infotech is tying up with a US-based company to start a small call center. "We have the manpower and noticing the upswing in the BPO business, we want to enter this field as well," said Arun. The pilot project will have around five executives who will do statistical analysis for the client among Indian customers. 

This initiative will also allow the ISO 9001 certified Jalan Infotech to get into facilities management services. "We have been concentrating only on the disty business, but with the evolution of the channel, we feel there is a need to get into the solutions business as well," said Arun. He expects solutions to contribute 10% to the company's overall revenues in 2005-06.

Jalan Infotech is also on an expansion mode and moved outside the eastern market to open offices in Hyderabad and Raipur. It hopes to open one new office every three month. The company is contemplating this move to establish itself as a national distributor, rather than a regional one; all the more so for its own brand. "With all the governmental taxes, it makes more sense to highlight your brand rather than that of your principal's," stated Arun. 

Jalan was recently appointed as a regional distributor for IBM and Sony, which it will sell through its 300 partners. However, Arun is clear that though he would add more brands into his portfolio, these will not be push products. He would rather distribute pull products, as vendors are not very forthcoming in market building activities and expect the disty to do this on his own.

VINITA BHATIA

MUMBAI