PC rental business on a roll

PC rental business is
slowly gaining popularity as a lucrative business option with several
channel partners across the country, getting solely into this
business.

Vijay Chabra of
Chandigarh-based Computer Plaza, who is entirely into the rental
business said, “We have been in this business since the last five
years and we have been consistently growing at about 25-35 percent
YoY since inception.” Nirmitee Technologies of Pune is also
dedicated to the rental business. “We have grown at about 20-25
percent over the last fiscal year and have been doing quite well,”
said Milind More of Nirmitee. Kolkata-based Oshan Infotech Solutions
gets around 80 percent of its business from rentals, another ten
percent from hardware sales and the remaining ten percent from
servicing. “We have been growing at ninety percent over last year,”
said

Subhir Mitra of Oshan
Infotech. Delhi's Accrue Online is another specialized player in
the rentals arena. Sonia Joshi of Accrue Online said, “We grew by
100 percent over last year.”

On the other hand there
are a few partners, who found the business to be slow. “Ninety
percent of our business involve rentals but the growth has been a
slow five percent only and this is due to competition,” revealed
Akshay Patwardhan of Mumbai-based Shree Electronics. Chennai-based
Jai Infotech's Inamurughu shared, “About three-fourths of our
business comes from rentals but due to the recession last year, the
growth was slow. However, I expect things to pick up again this
year.”

Highlighting some of the
key reasons as to why customers opt for rentals, Computer Plaza's
Chabra remarked, “Our customers are majorly software development
companies and PSUs and to a lesser extent students and the home
segment. Usually when bigger companies place order for computers, it
takes around two to three months to fulfill that order and so they
prefer to take computers on rent, as a filler in that gap period. For
institutes like engineering colleges, there are short term courses on
offer, and instead of investing in any IT infrastructure for a small
course; they again prefer to take rented PCs for their students.”
More of Nirmitee added, “Among corporate customers we see traction
for rentals because often they want to lease out IT infrastructure
required for projects, that last for six months or so instead of
spending money on the same.”

According to Joshi of
Accrue, “MNCs, who are planning to set up base in India spend their
initial two to three months looking for an ideal location and in that
short span of time, they prefer to take PCs on rent for their work
requirements. Also the established companies here, opt for rented PCs
for their short term projects in order to complete their task in a
more viable fashion.” Jai Infotech's Inamurughu opined, “For me
training institutes are the major customer segment and this is
because they have to keep training their students on the technology
that keeps updating on a frequent basis and so, in order to do this
feasibly, they prefer rented PCs, which prevents them from making the
capital investment needed to buy PCs.”

As far as pricing is
concerned, monthly rentals for a single PC can range from Rs 500 to
Rs 5,000. The rent amount is a factor of various aspects like the
type of configuration required, type of customer, quantity required
and the location of the customer.

Finally, there are
challenges, that dealers face in this market as well. Some of these
include theft of PCs, product damage during handling and also the
customer apathy to rented PCs. “A lot of people feel, that PC
rentals is a risky business and it can be true because often there is
a fear of product loss or damage due to improper handling during
transit and also customers use the PC anyhow they want because they
do not own it,” said Joshi. Agreed Inamurughu of Jai Infotech, “We
cannot tell who are the good guys and the bad guys. Some people can
vanish off with the goods and not return it but in my opinion
fly-by-night operators do more damage to dealers like us as all they
are interested in is in making the quick buck by undercutting our
price and then moving on after spoiling the market. This approach by
them impacts the credibility of other proper dealers like us in a
negative manner.”