Service centers needed in 'Hill Tippera'

Situated just a couple of miles from Bangladesh is Agartala, the capital of
the state of Tripura. It is a market known for rice, tea, jute and oilseed as
well as the commercial and administrative center for the regions surrounding it.
Agartala also offers some outstandingly beautiful palaces, gardens, hills,
temples and lakes of India.

The market of Agartala has around 50 channel partners including resellers and
VARs. Laptops are in high demand, and brands like Lenovo, Compaq, HP and HCL are
enjoying maximum popularity Subhash Modak, CEO, Computer Link said, “In recent
years, there has been a shift from desktops to laptops. However, there is still
a good demand for laptops in the government sector.”

The city has a number of education institutions, such as ICFAI, Tripura
University and National Institute of Technology (NIT), Agartala, which serve as
important business opportunities for dealers in the region. Siddharth Dey, CEO,
Info Solutions Systems said, “Education sector caters to around 60 percent of
our business, while the remaining 40 percent is neatly divided between the
government and corporate segment.”

Talking about the recent business trends, Rajeev Das, CEO, First Infotech
said, “The business for laptops is definitely increasing at a fast pace. In the
desktop PC category branded PCs are enjoying the upper hand over assembled ones.
But the market for assembled desktops is still high. It accounts for
approximately 40 percent of the total market, the rest are sticking to assembled
ones.”

Service related issues are definitely a cause for concern for some channel
partners. “Currently servicing is the main hurdle for us,” said Dey. “Through
franchisee channels the servicing related problems are solved but the quality is
poor. Sometimes the problems have to be solved from Kolkata and Guwahati. But
that takes extra time and money. Stock, on the other hand, is just enough but
definitely not up to the mark,” he added.

Elaborating further Modak said, “Tripura is a very small state and therefore
it is not possible for any every company to erect service centers here. HP and
Samsung service centers are here and we try and make do with them.”

While the world's IT industry have been struggling to cope with the economic
slowdown, Agartala, too, has witnessed a slump in sales but the situation is
still manageable. Dey of Info Solutions Systems explained that there is lesser
government sector opportunities until the central government settles down.

“Since the economic slowdown, procurement is definitely less. To top it all
off, the election period last month has killed all business opportunities in the
government segment.”

Agartala has a three-year old IT association called IT Association of Tripura
(ITAT). Das of First Infotech, who serves as the Joint Secretary of the
association, said “We formed an association here to deal with regional issues.
However, we are yet to prove our mettle as an association. We are not too
active, but we are here to sort out issues if they arise.” Dey added, “The
association is symbolic. We know that it exists and we rarely meet to discuss
issues. The sheer size of Tripura is so small that an active association can
hardly make much of a difference.

We meet amongst ourselves when we need to and sort our problems out if needs
be.”

The IT market of Agartala is still evolving. With an increase in service
centers in the region and a more active channel association, the partners expect
to witness an encouraging boost in the IT market in the city that lies along the
banks of the Haora river.

Madhura Khasnobis