'Pure box-moving business does not have much scope to grow'

Aditya Khemka believes that having made a transition from a box-mover to a
value-added distributor, his organization, Aditya Infotech will enjoy healthier
bottomlines. He is very bullish on the professional multimedia market and is
re-engineer- ing his  team and training the channel in this direction.
Informing that his company will be using a good part of its revenuefor market
development,  Aditya also expresses keenness on increasing the partner base
for its software distribution business. He shares with DQCI his strategies for
the days to come.

How does your AD.IT concept fit in your new business model?

The AD.IT concept and the aditworld.com web site will communicate and
educate end-users about the innumerable things they can do with their PC. It is
concept marketing and therefore it is a long-term campaign for us.

To complete our offering in multimedia segment, we plan to add professional cameras to our portfolio

Aditya Khemka, CEO, Aditya Infotech

We are working towards putting a lot more weight to this campaign, which has
already been very well accepted by both the resellers and end-users. We are
looking at consumer-oriented campaigns also and those will not be limited to
just the IT market locations. The idea is to educate customers so that we enjoy
top-of-the-mind recall and are their first choice whenever they have to make a
purchase.

What are your plans for the year ahead?

On the IT business front we will continue as it is. But we will aggressively
take to market the Labtec range of products, especially the voice access and the
personal audio range. We are also planning a greater degree of push on the
Logitech premium products.

On the Pinnacle PCTV front, we are striving to make the product not only more
affordable but also a basic part of any PC just like multimedia speakers.
Looking at our progress, I see this happening by the middle of 2003.

As far as professional products and packaged softwares are concerned, we will
innovatively take 3D Studio Max to the market. For instance we have tied up with
Arena Multimedia to develop animation programs for school children starting from
the primary level. It will give children an opportunity to learn and showcase
their creative talents through the medium of animation.

In addition to this, we are looking at rejuvenating UPS products under own
brand ´Crusader´.

Services are being touted as the next big revenue earner. How are you
looking at addressing that market?

Services, per se, is a very broad term. For starters, we are building an
in-house tech support center for Pinnacle products.

We will address customer queries including both business and technical
queries through a national helpline. This service however will be free.

Our repair center is equipped to service and repair most products and
especially those that we are distributing. With out-of-warranty products
starting to flow in, we see this as a revenue earner for us.

Another area of services we are planning to get into is offering consultancy
in the multimedia domain. We have made decent inroads in this direction. Our
products have been well accepted in the post-production market and film
producers like Mansoor Khan are also endorsing them. In the next year and a
half, when we have enough acceptance and domain knowledge, we will get into
providing consulting services for studio development.

What are the new tie-ups that you are looking at?

As far as the multimedia market goes, we are already present in the
semi-professional and the home market. We have recently added Pinnacle´s range
of products targeted at the professional segment. So to complete our offering to
this segment, we are looking at adding professional cameras to our portfolio.

But we are definitely looking at expanding our channel to address the
multimedia market better. We are looking at adding a few videography
organizations to our channel. And we will also be training a few of our already
existing value-added partners to make a foray in the multimedia business. We
will tie up with new channel partners to expand the reach for our software
distribution business.

What were some of the highlights of last year for Aditya Infotech?

Last year brought about a lot of re-organizing for us. Most of the time was
devoted to settling the LG issue, after the company did away with its national
distribution model. This saw us getting out of the box-moving business. Our
focus shifted to value-added distribution coupled with a focus on the multimedia
market. This meant re-engineering the team as well as training them and the
channel to be able to fulfill the organizational objectives.

And I must add that the getting into the multimedia business was fruitful for
us. We won the best distributor award from Pinnacle for the entire APac and
Australia regions. It was not only an honor for us but also a proof of the
potential that the Indian market holds in this segment.

How will this shift in focus to value-added distribution impact your
business?

This shift in business focus stems from the idea that an organization must
optimize the use and the allocation of its resources. And optimal utilization of
resources is what we strive for too. Our topline will be impacted, but the
bottomline will become healthier. Business now will be much more focussed.

In the box-moving business our contribution was nothing but credit risk
insurance for the vendor and logistics management. And this is further
threatened with Samsung and LG getting into the PC market. So the pure
box-moving business does not have much scope to grow.

With our increased focus on multimedia and the videographers’ market, that
is no more the case now. So on the whole the business model becomes healthier.

Are there any plans to invest towards growing your new business?

I will not be able to put a figure on our investment plans in marketing, but
I can tell you that a good percentage of our revenues is being pumped into
market development. Now that most of the products are not of the box variety,
investment in marketing is a prerequisite for us. We will not only advertise, we
will ensure that proper demos are given to customers. We will look at schemes
and promotions for both users and the channel and our partners will be
adequately supported with POP material.

In a nutshell, we will be there on all fronts and the marketing efforts will
differ to some extent on a case-to-case basis.

MOHIT CHHABRA in New Delhi