Rashi Peripherals: Getting on the road

It wanted to
get closer to its partner base and spread awareness of the brands its sells and
services it offers.

Rashi Peripherals had a great year, as it added several new vendors to its
portfolio. Netgear was one of its acquisitions, and it also marked Rashi's
entry into the network integration business. The idea was to get into complete
solution providing with consultancy, pre- and post-sales support, especially in
a burgeoning segment like networking.

A major highlight for Rashi was its takeover of Zeta Technologies, a Mumbai-based
distributor. Rashi wanted to get into the audio speaker segment and since Zeta
was a distributor for Altec Lansing, it simply acquired its peer. The takeover
has also made Rashi the exclusive distributor for Altec Lansing, a position it
coveted.

Besides this, Rashi tied up with XFX for its graphics card range. It
discontinued Plextor business as it was already trading into similar products of
Sony and Asus brands. Also, since Plextor was largely sold into the niche
segment, the company took this decision without any regrets. Sony, Logitech and
Asus are the three star brands of the company with each chipping in 20%, 17% and
15% respectively to the overall turnover. IBM is also a profitable principal,
with Rashi selling roughly 1 lakh of its laptops every quarter.

The distribution house also discontinued the Genuine Logitech Dealer (GLD)
program, which it had instituted to counter the fake mice menace. The incidence
of fakes had come down largely, making the popular program redundant.

Another program that Rashi initiated was the Channel Business Forum, which
would tour 35 cities and connect with 2,500 partners nationally. But the unique
aspect about this event was that it was managed from start to finish in-house
and was to be completed within two months. Rashi also improved its Sony
Authorized Program (SAP), which it has started in 2002. The program was begun
with 32 partners and now had over 110 members.

The distribution house boasts of a negligible attrition rate, with only nine
people leaving the company in the entire fiscal. Last year, it added 55
employees taking its total staff strength to 260.

Rashi currently has a dealer network of over 8,000 partners, of which roughly
800 were added last fiscal. This stability in its human resource and channel
network has helped the company project itself positively to its principals.

Last year, the company also held the 'IT Mela' in Maharashtra where it
invited 160 partners from various cities and took them to Mahabaleshwar for
education and setting strategies on how to best sell Rashi's products. This
year, the company plans to have similar programs for the northern and southern
regions as well.

The company won awards from IBM as 'Thinkpad distributor of the year' and
from Sony as 'Best Optical Drive

Distributor for APac'.