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CMD: Rajeev Hiralal PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS |
Datapro has doubled its growth rate to 28 percent to reach Rs 84.07 crore in
revenues. With a diverse portfolio, ranging from training and software distribution to
software consultancy and email services, the company has managed to put up a good
performance in almost all its businesses, in the last fiscal year.
While 1996-97 was a bad year for Datapro Infoworld's training division, in 1997, the
company took cautious steps to revive the business without committing too many resources.
The training division brought in revenues of nearly Rs 20 crore. The steps were part of a
new business management system derived from the discipline of transformation technologies.
The movement sought to reengineer some of the business processes but, to a larger extent,
required a change in mindset amongst all employees, including the Board. The movement has
started the revival process of the training business. The company launched a three-year
program, Quest, which has been quite successful. It also added 10 more franchise centers.
This year the company plans to cross 200 centers. Another strategic move that the company
took was to reduce the number of centers owned by it from 24 to seven.
The company's key software distributorship partners are Microsoft, Computer Associates,
SCO, Visio, Corel, APC, and Frontier Technologies. There are 750 active resellers in the
channel and it is one of the strongest software distribution setups in the country. The
year saw the company imposing tighter credit policies. Managing a lean operation to
improve the per person productivity by manpower empowerment using technology has also been
the focus. The outlook for the year is to expand the product line and the company is in an
advanced stage of negotiations with many vendors. In the long run, however, the intent is
to partner with a large and established global distribution company, which can provide
systems as well as products to the company.
In the software consultancy business, the company is totally repositioning itself to
deliver solutions around specific products. The division has developed a product called
'Autoflow' around Visio, an advanced diagramming tool. Another major opportunity area
coming up is IntelliCAD, a product from Visio. Strengthening its relationship with
Israel-based Magic Software, which deals in rapid application development tools, Datapro
formed a new company, Magic Infotech India Pvt. Ltd. The email service, Xee-mail, has done
marginally better in the midst of the trying times in the email market.
Overall, the company is on a good wicket. Its plan to go public has been put on hold
for some time now. Instead, the company has been focusing on increasing scale of
operations with restricted investments.