The performance of Silver Club members does reflect the winds of revival in national channel business during 2002-03.Twenty out of 25 grew ranging from 3% to 184%, against 15 of the previous year. Twelve companies registered a double-digit growth against seven of 2001-02. There was one three-digit star performer as well. With the market showing an all-round upbeat mood, partners expect to perform even better during 2003-04.
A 7% year-on-year growth is no mean achievement for members of the Silver Club, especially in a year that saw gradual revival of the IT business. The super achievers in channel business were all under pressure to achieve targets during 2002-03 and a majority of them did rise up to the challenge. The result was that the overall business of the Silver Club grew to Rs 7,955 crore against Rs 7,433 crore of 2001-02.
The growth comes down to 6% when the revenue of the Next 25 group of companies is added up to that of the Silver Club.
The total revenue of the 50 top performers in channel business across the country add up to Rs 9,062 crore against Rs 8,594 crore of 2001-02, indicating clearly that smaller players were under greater pressure to achieve numbers.
Tulip IT Services, formerly Tulip Software, is the biggest surprise of the Silver Club with an astounding growth of 184%. It is the only three-digit star performer of the Silver Club and this growth has catapulted the company to #13 rank from its earlier #34 position.
WIPRO EXITS THE BIG FIVE CLUB
Wipro has exited from the Big Five Club going down to the rank of #10 from its #4 position last year. The decline is in line with the company's drop in domestic business at 25%, compared to 28% of the previous year.
The Sun server business did grow at a heady pace of 58%, so did the facilities management business at 38%. But a greater focus on promoting its own products brought down revenues from agency business resulting in the 10th place in the Silver Club.
Wipro's place has been taken over by SES Technologies which, at Rs 298 crore, grew a healthy 22% from Rs 244 crore in 2001-02. This is a much improved performance for SES compared to only 3% growth in the previous year.
It was not just Wipro's turn to see a decline in its agency revenues. Even HCL Infosystems had similar a experience. Its agency revenues came down to Rs 296 crore from earlier Rs 352 crore, with a negative growth of 16%.
But HCL Insys continued to maintain its #5 place in the Silver Club because Savex Computers with Rs 221 crore has a lot of gap to cover in revenue terms even though it has climbed up four notches in the Silver Club.
DISTYS ARE THE BIG DADDIES
If Savex makes it to the #5 place in the Silver Club in the current financial year, then the Big Five Club would be made of the
five big daddies of the distribution world, the other four being Tech Pacific, Redington, Ingram Micro and SES Technologies.
| THE MISSING LINKS |
| Compuage and eSys are two of the biggest missing links in the DQCI Silver Club. Compuage has been left out on its specific request and eSys is yet to arrive at figures after resorting to rupee billing. Other biggies missing are
Datapro, Visualan and Color Copi. Datapro has seen decline in its distribution business while Color Copi is no more in business. |
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If the current trend of Wipro and HCL Infosystems losing revenues from agency business continues, then Savex could very well be there this financial year!
Even otherwise, distributors rule the roost in the Silver Club with 16 of them being comfortably placed there. But then, this is not to say that everything is hunky dory with the distribution business.
Compuage Infocom, which was at the 12th position previous year, did not want to participate in the Silver Club Survey for 2002-03. Possibly because revenues saw a considerable dip.
Revenues went down for Priya as well, which was at #7 in the previous year, but stands at #40 in 2002-03. ACI Infocom too had a similar experience though with slightly better figures. Its revenue dropped from Rs 138 crore to Rs 75
crore.
SOFTWARE IN THE SILVER CLUB
A software solution provider and reseller, Softcell Trade and Technologies, finds a place in the Silver Club for the first time.
With a revenue of Rs 90 crore, the company is at #22.
At 44%, Softcell has shown one of the highest growth rates in the Silver Club with revenues of Rs 63 crore in 2001-02. This is a good sign, indicating that business in software solutions is here to stay and partners need to look at this opportunity seriously.
All the four regions of the country have come to be represented in the Silver Club for the first time with Supertron making a grand entry from the East. The company has occupied #19 in 2002-03 with a comfortable growth of 47%. It was at #27 in the previous year .
Overall, the Silver Club is dominated by Western region with 12 companies making their presence from there. Next is South with eight companies, followed by North with four.
THE NEXT 25
If the revival and growth in business is expressly manifest in the figures of the Silver Club companies, this is not the case with the Next 25 group of
companies, where a negative growth is seen when revenue of these is separately added up. With Rs 1,284 crore made during 2002-03 against Rs 1,354 crore of 2001-02, there is a negative growth of 5%.
However, the negative growth is overshadowed by some star performers. Eastern Comnet with a three-digit growth of 131% is outstanding in the group, followed by 38% growth of Challenger Computer.
Allied Digital Services has climbed several notches up to #28 from the previous #40. The company has the ambition to make it to the Silver Club this financial year, going by the big orders that it has implemented in the first half of this financial year.
PC Solutions too has made a mark in the Next 25 group of companies climbing up to the #30 position from an earlier rank of #36. Growth has been steady at 14%, but better things are expected during this financial year with greater focus on solutions.
There are eight new entrants among the Next 25 companies, of which three are from the East. This is a clear indication that there is a growing market in the Eastern region of the country which is yet to be tapped to its fullest potential.
BUSINESS CATEGORY SILVER CLUBS
Continuing with our tradition, we present separate Silver Clubs for distributors; solution providers; hardware and software resellers. There are several new faces in all the four Silver Clubs indicating that business category Silver Clubs are still at an evolving stage.
In a nutshell, the 100 companies listed here in four different Silver Clubs are big-time operators giving breadth and depth to channel business in the country. These are the cremé de la cremé of the channel doing business with all the top vendors forming a critical link between them and the users.
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