iSyn rises from the east

After a staggering 350 per cent growth in 2003-04, this year, Kolkata-headquartered
Syntech Group is in a super-growth mode-set to touch Rs 100 crore turnover
mark by March 2005.

The company is undertaking a massive expansion to extend its reach to west,
north and south of India. "Our effort is directed towards establishing a
national presence and laun-ching the Syntech brand-iSyn," said Milon
Chakraborty, the group's managing director.

Since its consolidation in 2000, the Syntech Group has taken long strides to
become a dominant player in the East India IT market. Now, the group has aligned
its expan-sion plan with the launch of the company's brand iSyn, schedu-led
for January 2005, informed Chakraborty. The brand iSyn- spanning products
right from servers, PCs, MP3s, laptops to keyboards and mice-will be launched
from Delhi as opposed to home-base Kolkata. "We decided to launch it in
Delhi to promote the national brand perception," said Chakraborty.

All set to build the brand, he is bullish about the future. "We have
recently finalized an office space in Delhi and have appointed personnel. Within
15 days we will finalize our offices in Mumbai and Chennai as well," he
added.

This financial year the company has already touched Rs 60 crore in turnover
as agai-nst Rs 36 crore recorded in FY04. "We are positive about meeting
our target of Rs 100 crore for FY 05," said Chakraborty.

Beginning in 1995, as a third party hardware servicing com-pany the group was
consoli-dated in 2000 and spun off five companies under its wing- Syntech
Informatics, Syntech InfoProjects, Syntech Hard-ware Supports & Services,
Sigma Infotech and IIIM Ltd.

According to Chakraborty, the well-diversified group is poised for its big
leap. He elaborated: "While Syntech Informatics is into retail and
distribution of IT products Syntech InfoProjects takes care of corporate
accounts and Sigma Infotech, acquired last year, takes care of the govern-ment
accounts." The group's IIIM Limited is into learning development services
and has 400 schools in East India on its rolls, where computer learning for
classes VI to XII is aided by the company's 600 on site contract employees.
Besides, the group has recently started operating a 30-seater call center for
Airtel and Hutch.

Syntech growth graph started showing a steep rise after its consolidation in
2000. The company counts Samsung Build-Ur-PC as its one of the first successes.
Credited with the setting up the first PC integration unit with a capacity of
1200 PCs in West Bengal- in association with Samsung and Webel Technology (A
government of West Bengal Undertaking)-Chakraborty looks back with
satisfaction recounting his journey so far.

"With a consolidated emp-loyee strength of 160 barring IIIM Ltd we are
focusing on expanding our reach and penetration," said Chakra-borty. The
maintenance contracts of 16,000 PCs spread across East India is an indicator of
how much the company has grown in terms on penetration in East India in the last
four years.

Spearheading the aggre-ssive growth, Chakraborty believes, "One has to
push for growth." He states: Syntech strength in maintenance and servicing
will hold them in good stead.

Syntech has also strengthe-ned its sourcing by setting up an office in
Shanghai and is considering getting into consu-mer electronics via Syntech
InfoProjects. The company is awaiting the budget to fine-tune its growth
strategy.

Nandita Singh

New Delhi