Faridabad: In need of an IT association

Faridabad, one of the major industrial hubs of Haryana, generates around 60% revenue of the state. It is home to many large-scale companies like Lafarge, Shova, Imperial Auto, Star Wire India, JCB, Escorts, Yamaha, Knorr Bremse, ACE, ABB, ACC, IndianOil (R&D), Havell's, L&T, Mahindra Defence, Bharat Gears, etc. The city is emerging as an IT hub for the small and medium level enterprises providing the resources such as skilled and qualified professionals with a lot of scope of doing business due to proximity to the national capital, New Delhi. Badkhal Lake, Suraj Kund tourist complex, Aravali Golf Club, and Raja Nahar Singh Palace are some of the famous tourist spots of the city.

The Faridabad IT market is growing at a healthy rate of around 20% y-o-y basis. Dealers are of the opinion that market for desktops has slowed down in the SOHO business vertical as people are opting for laptops which are compact, multi-user and portable. "Desktops are selling in the corporate and government segment but when it comes to general users, they prefer to buy laptops," said Nidhi Sehgal of Klassic Computech. Dell, Sony-VAIO, HCL, Acer are some of the brands which are in high demand in the market. The Faridabad IT market has a presence of around 100 resellers and 20-30 assemblers.

Dealers say that multi-brand showrooms have taken away their major chunk of business as these showrooms buy products in bulk, and they provide a better pricing model for the customers besides providing finance facility. One trend in the market is that the customers first visit Nehru Place market in New Delhi to get all necessary details about the product, then they demand the product in Faridabad.

Talking about the vendor-dealer related issues, dealers say that they solve it at an individual level as vendors do listen to their problems.

One major problem with the Faridabad IT market is the absence of any IT association as there is no forum to sit together to discuss various issues. Sanjeev Malhotra of Prolab Computers said, "We consider it as a major disadvantage in the IT business as there are times when we need help to solve a problem and now when there is no help, our business suffers." Echoing similar sentiments, Sehgal said, "We are sad that we don't have any association at the local level. Everybody is fighting the battle on their own."

Interview: Nidhi Sehgal, Klassic Computech

What is the annual revenue of the Faridabad IT market?

It should be around Rs 50-70 crore.

What are your future predictions?

Solution/service-based business should grow more than retail.

Is there any IT association working at the local level?

No, we don't have any association to help us.

Which business vertical do you serve?

We serve mostly to SOHO, corporates, and government.