BHOPAL DEALERS GIVE MIXED SIGNALS

The market was down during the February-March period and is now recovering
but customers are still cautious about making purchases

John Jacob

Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh, is also known as the city of lakes and
is one of the greenest cities in India. Being the seat of political power, it
houses various government institutions, banks, colleges and has an estimated
population of around 1.5 million as per the 2001 census. According to market
sources, the IT market in Bhopal is worth around Rs 300 crore annually and there
is an average sale of 2,000 PCs a month. As of now, there are mixed signals
about the state of the market with some dealers finding it better post budget
while some others who saw more sales before the budget.

According to Prakash Chandra Gupta of Bootcom Systems, which is a dealer in
assembled PCs, the post-budget season has been picking up with customers who
deferred from purchasing now buying IT goods. “The market was down during the
February-March period but now the market is recovering as those who had wanted
to save and keep their investment in IT in the pipeline to wait and watch what
impact the Budget policy would have are now going ahead with their decision to
buy, especially since there is practically no effect on IT goods,” said Gupta.
For some others though, the pre-budget period was better than what it is now.
Manoj Dadlani of Channel Four said, “March was better than April for us.”
Concurred Manish Sharma of Sharma Computers, “The market before March was better
while now it is slow. Since I deal mainly in the corporate segment, customers
will be more cautious making purchases for two to three months as the fiscal
year begins in April. Usually savings is the name of the game in the first
quarter.”

Talking about some of the major buyers of IT in Bhopal, Dadlani said, “Bhopal
being the state capital has various government HQs, public banks and other PSUs
located here. This makes the Government one of the biggest purchasers of IT
infrastructure. Another upcoming vertical is education with around 60 colleges
being setup here in the last five years. The home segment is also another big
segment in this market.” IT products like PCs, desktops and laptops, peripherals
and printers are most demanded. Major brands include Dell, Compaq, HP and Acer
in the PC segment; Canon, HP and Samsung in the printers and peripherals
segments. From an overall perspective, laptops sell more than desktops in the PC
segment even though the cost of a laptop is more than that of a desktop. “The
cost of maintenance and hardware is more with a laptop. Accessories like battery
cell, charger etc are more expensive than desktop accessories,” said Gupta.
Pramod Talreja of Netlink Distribution said, “For every 100 laptops I sell, 10
are desktop PCs. Students and businessmen are mostly buyers of laptops.” Sharma
sharing his insight on the printers segment in Bhopal said, “SFPs are more in
demand as compared to MFPs and inkjets are sold more than laserjets.”

There are two major associations in Bhopal-Bhopal Computer Dealers
Association (BCDA) and Bhoj Information Technology and Office Automation Dealers
Association (BITOAA). Of the two, BITOAA is bigger with around 120 members while
BCDA has around 40 members. Ironically, the number of members of both
associations is a fairly high percentage of the total number of dealers in the
market which is around 200. This makes the role of both the associations quite
significant in influencing market forces both internal and external.