Sailing through high tide

Along the banks of the Subarnarekha river, lies the city of Ranchi, capital
of Jharkhand. Well-connected through road and railways, it is the center of the
region's agricultural, cotton and tea trade. Silk production, shellac
manufacturing as well as manufacturing of heavy machinary tools are the city's
major industries. With most channel partners from surrounding areas preferring
to open outlets in the city, Ranchi has also become the IT hub of the region.
Government, SOHO and educational institutions are the segments that cater to the
IT business of Ranchi.

NK Sharma of Computek International said, “We have around 60-65 resellers in
the region and we get most of our supplies from distributors like Ingram Micro
and Redington, while vendors like HP and Lenovo are based in Ranchi itself,” He
added that the educational sector caters to around 35 percent of total business,
government around 20-25 percent and the rest comes from the corporate sector.

On talking about the dreaded slowdown and its effect on the Ranchi market, LA
Vision's Kumar Rakesh said, “The retail business in Jan-Feb-Mar (JFM) quarter is
always down. It is right after the festival season, which includes Diwali and
Christmas and it is also the time when tax is deducted. We, the channel
partners, are usually braced for this season and we expect things to remain low
key. However, this year, market is down 15 percent below the expected rate. The
slowdown is truly making its presence felt here.”

Although there is an IT association in Ranchi, Jharkhand IT Association (JITA),
it is not very active. Some channel partners believe that for a market the size
of Ranchi, there is hardly a need for an association. Sharma of Computek said,
“Yes, its true that JITA is not really operational but the channel partners in
the region co-operate with one another as and when it is needed. If an issue
arises, then we co-ordinate amongst ourselves and we try to find a solution to
the problem.”

Rishi Pandey, CEOSigma Computers ONE ON ONE Q. How big is the Ranchi market? Since Ranchi caters to surrounding markets in the region, it is pretty big. Business of Rs 8-9 crore is generated each month. Q. What segments cater to the market and what is the buying trend? We mainly cater to government, SOHO and education. There are a lot of laptops being sold these days, as well as pocket hard drives, printers and USBs. Q. What are the effects of the slowdown in Ranchi? The market has gone down already. We were growing at a pace of 25 percent, but that growth rate has come down to 10 percent now. Q. What problems do channel parters face here? We mainly suffer in the after-sales support arena. Stock, thankfully, is not a problem. We would like vendors to take note and do something about opening service centers here.

One problem that the IT channel faces in Ranchi is after-sales support
provided by the vendors. Since majority of the vendors do not have their service
centers in the city, quick repair of products have become immensely difficult.
Kumar of LA Vision elaborated, “Supplying the product to the end-user is not the
only thing that channel partners need to take care of. In order to earn faith
and trust of the customer, we must ensure that we can provide a complete
after-sales support. This becomes impossible without vendor service centers.”

Market name: Ranchi, Jharkhand, nicknamed 'City of Waterfalls' Location: Eastern India Size of the market: Rs 8-9 crore per month Surrounding markets: Bokaro, Dhanbad, Sindri, Deoghar No of dealers: 65 Prominent dealers: Computek International, LA Vision, Sigma Computers Association: Jharkhand IT Association (JITA) Business verticals: Government, education, retail Business trend: Despite the economic slowdown, Ranchi has been growing at a steady rate of 10 percent. The channel partners are, however, looking for after-sales support from vendors

Kumar further added that constant revision of prices by vendors is another
problem that the channel community was facing. His view was backed up by BF
Mishra, Marketing Manager, Computek International, “Channel is constantly
affected by pricing issues. This often de-motivates the dealers here.”

With the slowdown showing so signs of settling down, the resellers here are
bracing themselves for a difficult AMJ (Apr-May-June) quarter, but they are
thankful that business has not completely halted. “Looking around and the
markets in various regions, we realize that we are in a better position. This is
not the time to complain as its the slowdown,” Kumar concluded.