PCS INDUSTRIES: Growth, On The Double

PCS Industries almost doubled its agency revenue to Rs 113 crore in 2003-04,
up from Rs 59 crore the previous fiscal. Though the company's core business
was focused on the manufacturing of its own PCs, this has been excluded to rank
it among pure-play solutions providers. Overall revenues was Rs 307 crore, a 14%
increase over the previous year.

Banking and financial verticals fuelled the growth for PCS in 2003-04, along
with the government segment. The company also spruced up its network presence,
becoming the second largest service network in the country offering direct
service at 155 locations through a channel network of 400 dealers.

It also expanded its portfolio with a tie-up with Italy-based Olivetti to
supply passbook printers for banks. It also tied up with Intel to focus on
solutions for the SME segment.

The IT services division achieved an impressive 40% growth over last year
through renewal of existing maintenance contracts with Air India, Indian
Airlines, besides bagging new contracts from Kodak and the Naval Command of
Vizag, amongst others.

PCS also diversified into a new business of Internet security consulting and
solutions for the fast growing courier industry. It launched the
trackyourpack.com, a software application for this vertical, which is offered in
an ASP model, which is based on transaction fees.

This application has modules on domestic, inter-city and international
shipments, customer billing, service and delivery queries, bundled with real
time tracking. PCS plans to customize this software to sit the needs of other
verticals like transportation.

To focus on the high margin enterprise business, the company has a dedicated
team in place and is offering enterprise solutions through its tie-up with HP
and Symantec.

However, the company continued to focus largely on banking and government
verticals, despite having core expertise which could be employed in other
verticals.