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NR Sethuraman
May 14, 2008
Partners in Tamil Nadu have decided to merge their collective strength to
jointly distribute exclusive products and set-up service centers for major
vendors, under the aegis of COM-COM. If this venture takes off it will be the
first of its kind and will soon start a trend for their peers.
Around 400 dealers across Tamil Nadu have shown interest in investing in the
public limited company, and hence will be holding the stakes of the company.
Besides being stakeholders, these dealers are also channels of the company. The
company sources didn't reveal the amount of investment, as it has not been
decided yet due to various reasons. However, the initial investment is expected
to be around one lakh per dealer. The company titled COM-COM Public Ltd will
start its operations by distributing exclusive products and the operations would
be on a pan-India basis. Works for registering the company are in process. PN
Prasad, CEO, Microplus Computers would be driving the company. The new formed
company doesn't have any relation with Confed-ITA, the common body working for
the welfare of IT associations across Tamil Nadu though Prasad being the VP of
this apex body and many other executive members of Confed being stake holders in
this company. The Confed will not have any take on the proposed COM-COM Public
Ltd, company sources clarified. Prasad said, “The whole idea of the company is
to take various IT products and services everywhere with huge visibility, as the
dealers have the vast presence in every nook and corner of the country and need
not depend on anyone for the service and other supports.”
Operations
The company has proposed to distribute the products of ELCOT, which recently
showed interest in taking channels along with its endeavor of increasing the PC
penetration process by supplying one lakh desktops and laptops to educational
institution and student community. Prasad said, “We look for taking it forward
legally and working with ELCOT and other vendors to take IT to new heights. We
have the capacity to take forward the project easily with our strong and vast
presence and can extend service support to the consumers in a more enhanced
manner.” Subsequent to the distribution activities, COM-COM Public Ltd has
proposed to set-up multi location service centers for major vendors and centers
for training the dealers in cities and upcountry locations. The company has also
planned to undertake AMCs of multi-location companies such as banks, Prasad
informed. As a policy, the company will not deal with multi distribution
products and would only undertake exclusive and good products. He also said that
initially COM-COM would not enter the retail format. The company has also
proposed to go for an IPO after few months post launch and the executive members
of the company would be elected after that.
Channel partners are very excited about the IPO but there is another group,
which is a bit skeptical about it and keeping an eye on COM-COM operations.
A year back, something similar thing happened with PC brand called 'Millennium',
which was formed by a set of Intel dealers in Mumbai. Page(s) 1 2
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