15 | HCL Infosystems: Living Digital

The company extended its range of notebooks with the new Non-Stop
Series laptops, besides launching four sleek and ultra-portable desktop PCs
under the HCL Beanstalk 2007 collection. The agency operations complemented the
products: Toshiba laptops (Tecra, Satellite, Portege, Qosmio), Nokia smart
phones (dwindling revenues as Nokia started distributing on its own), Konica
Minolta laser printers, Kodak scannersthe list was impressive.

In personal/home electronics, HCLI entered into national
distribution pacts with Casio (for digicams) and Apple (for iPods). Another
tie-up was with Dish TV, whereby the latter leveraged HCLs distribution and
services support for DTH. To expand the retail reach, HCLI added eight more
Digilife Stores across the country, taking the total to 29.

The digital lifestyle focus paid off too, as the company
retained its position as the leading desktop PC vendor, and was one of the top
players in laptops. However, the sub-10k PC brouhaha started the year before
fizzled out, as the company failed to find a significant number of takers. To
manage the growing demand for its PCs/notebooks, HCLI intended to enhance
overall production capacity to 2 mn PCs per annum and, accordingly, set up
manufacturing operations in Uttarakhand to supplement its existing Pondicherry
facility.

The digital lifestyle thrust "unwittingly" has
resulted in its relative positioning as an integrator weakening in the
marketplace, with smaller, focused players catching up. The one silver lining,
in this area, was a Rs 591 crore order from BSNL. Notwithstanding, the CVC
reservations, HCLI bagged the contract and is currently in the final phase of
deployment. DQ