HP loses Hartron tender to Samsung

Now Chandigarh-based Dataspec is set to provide 171 Samsung MFPs

to equip Haryana schools

As a direct

impact of news about 'Winning tenders and plumme­ting price points'

published in The DQ Week recently, Hartron, Haryana's nodal agency for

procuring IT hardware and software in the state went in for another round of

negotiations and has awarded the 171 printers contract to Samsung. As a result

of this, HP has lost out on the tender because of the lower price point offered

by Samsung on this.

“There was this second

round of negotiation, which happened some days back and there we decided to give

this contract to Samsung because it is giving us a better L1 now. As a result of

this, we would not be taking the printers from HP for this tender,” informed a

source close to the Haryana government on conditions of anonymity.

Consequently, Chandigarh-based

DS Dataspec will now deliver 171 Samsung's 4,100 multi-functional printers for

Hartron's project to provide the same to different schools spread all across

the state. Earlier it was HP that was being awarded the contract and Chandigarh-based

Alfa Electronics was likely to provide HP printers for the same project.

While for organizations like

Hartron, this could be a usual process of finalizing a number of tenders that

are decided on L1. However, the issue does highlight the huge price parity

between what is sold to end customers and what usually gets quoted for a segment

like government.

As it was in case of HP, the

price difference between the Samsung's 4100 multi-functional printer's

market operating price (MoP) and the quoted price for this tender is quite big.

“This printer is available for Rs 10,990 while for this tender the L1 came out

for Rs 5,999 only,” informed a source on conditions of anonymity.

How it all started



Earlier in the month, it was reported in The DQ Week that HP is on the verge

of winning the same contract as the company quoted its 3010 model for Rs 7,500.

“This report came out just at the right moment and Hartron called in for

another round of negotiations. I think that the story had compelled them to

think about further negotia­ting with the vendors,” explained a prominent

chan­nel player from Chandigarh.

With e-governance and IT

implementation becoming mainstream with most of the state governments in India,

big orders in IT hardware and software are making the government sector more

than attractive for different vendors operating in the Indian market.

As filling of tenders

primarily drives the procurement process in the government segment, critical

decisions are taken just in terms of L1 (or the lowest price point). While on

one hand this could be good for the government saving money, this could also

mean low-quality products being pushed by vendors in the name of fulfilling the

large contract.

Zia Askari New Delhi, Feb 7