Corporate Buying Will Speed Up

That the corporate buying in the second half of 2002-03 drove PC sales to a comfortable growth of 37% is now a well-known fact, brought to light by MAIT’s Industry Performance Review for the financial year gone by. The good news is that corporates will continue buying IT with greater vigor during this financial year as well.

This assertion is bolstered by the fact that more and more companies have cash in hand to go for IT, which was not the case until recently. A recent study by The Economic Times has revealed that 226 companies have recorded a profit during 2002-03 after making a loss in the previous year. 

Only 80 companies had the turnaround story to tell in 2001-02. So, the figures for 2002-03 indicate a leap of 180%. In 2000-01, a meagre 63 companies could boast of turning over a new leaf.

A significant finding from this study is, that of the 226 companies, profits of 32 companies was over Rs 5 crore. These companies come from steel, metals, textiles, and financial services.

So, you know whom to target to better your bottomline during the current financial year! In fact, except for one, these buying segments are in addition to what MAIT has revealed that telecom, banking and financial services, manufacturing and IT-enabled services bought in large chunks during 2002-03. 

Central as well as state governments’ e-governance initiatives should also see good buying of IT during the year. Those focusing on tender business should see their topline grow much better this year compared to the last.

One of the surprises of MAIT’s findings is the steep fall in the marketshare of assembled PCs to 46% compared to 63% found in OND02. The MAIT report justifies this fall in marketshare by saying that the increased buying from corporates during JFM03 brought down the marketshare of the assembled PC.

Small towns and cities will continue driving sales in the current year as they have done in the previous. The total PC sales registered a growth of 63% in class B and C cities, compared to a 30% growth in the previous year. 

Those who are focusing on these cities are certain to reap rich dividends as these have contributed 35% of the toal PC sales during 2002-03. Notebook sales too registered a smart growth of 44% in these cities.

With prices coming down, notebooks are certain to capture bigger market share in these places during the year. So, those partners pushing this piece of hardware in B and C-class cities with adequate support infrastructure, should be looking for healthy growth rates.

The higher growth rate in B and C-class cities had its fallout on four major metros where growth of PCs fell by three percentage points. So, partners in metros will have to look out for alternative strategies to maintain the momentum of their growth.

Sylvester Lobo