Iris Computers, one of the largest distribution houses, has been able to sustain their growth momentum despite many challenges and has concluded year 2019 on high note. The company succeeded in claiming prestigious projects and taking up new product approach. These all well planned strategies helped Iris Computers in getting 30% YoY on growth. Sanjiv Krishen, Chairman, Iris Computers spoke about company’s performance and 2020 plans in an exclusive chat with DT.
Q: How successfully you achieved your target in distribution business in CY 2019?
A: We have been extremely successful in achieving our target for 2019 when we grew our business by 30% in an industry which is going through a slowdown. The PC market in India went down from 9.6 m units to 9.3m, a reduction of 2.3%, whereas the server market witnessed a reduction by 29%. In spite of this slow down we grew our business from Rs 1000 cr to Rs 1300 cr. This year we will reach Rs 1800 cr. This happened because we focused on selling tablets and cloud applications. We concentrated on the area of education for smart city projects. The Government is investing in these projects for the modernisation of India and we actively participated in them.
Q: What is your entire business plan for year 2020?
A: During 2020 we are shifting our focus towards products which are not so capital intensive and give us an opportunity to improve our profitability. For example, we are focusing on LG signage products that can be used in Board Room solutions, jewellery shops, Airports and a host of other areas including retail outlets. We have a team for promoting Power conditioning solutions from APC Schneider. In the coming year we plan to double our business in Ruckus wifi products from CommScope. We will promote tablets and have we created Tab Labs where we have installed our own Iris Tablets. We are looking at overseas projects in 2020. We have already received an order from one of our partners for supplying Tablets, Notebooks and projectors in Mauritius.
Q: What remains your key business challenge while going forward in year 2020 as well?
A: Our key business challenge is extending credit to organisations which are startups or do not have strong balance sheets. They get us big orders running into several crores. We have to procure the material and then supply it knowing that many of our partners do not have their own resources to pay for it. They are dependent on the customer. We overcome this by visiting the customers along with our partners to satisfy ourselves about the project’s viability. We then secure our payment by opening Escrow accounts. We have thus been very successful in controlling our collections.
Q: How do you see overall post sale support from vendors?
A: We are very satisfied with the support we get from our vendors post sales. The major brands have well established procedures and a strong network of Authorised Service Providers. Whenever there is a problem with a machine, our customers log their complaint and our vendors respond promptly. Most of our vendors are offering Care packs for support.
Q: How do you take care of small partners who are doing business with you?
A: We, at Iris, adopt a personalized approach towards our small resellers and we nurture them so that they can grow bigger. We customize their credit limits keeping in mind the opportunities they are working on rather than only looking at their financials. To enhance their skills, we conduct channel events and show case new products so that they can increase their offerings to their customers. We treat our resellers as extensions of our Company. Their success is our success.
