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size="2">he last two years have been remarkably sedate for Microland. In fact, last
year’s growth of 15 percent is half of the previous year, but it has managed to
retain its place at # 18 for the second year at a turnover of Rs 181 crore. As a matter of
fact, in a year when corporate buying nosedived, literally, Microland, which has no
presence in either the small and medium business segment or home, should show a growth of
15 percent is indicative of its move into other areas.
In many ways, the diversification of Microland into
areas such as systems integration, facilities management, software, and maintenance,
besides network integration and education, its earlier mainstay, was expected. It has been
talking about it and reorganizing itself in the past two years, given that its topline has
always been under severe downward pressure, thanks to its over-dependence on pushing
products in the enterprise networking market space.
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size="2">Its defocus on pushing products is more than evident in its hardware business
last year. With a unit growth of less than 4 percent, the division was saved from complete
disaster by the sale of workstations, a segment where Microland debuted last year. In a
stark departure from the past, channels’ contribution to system sales last year was
nil. In fact, its Rs 65 crore from system sales is thanks to its alliance with Sun and
acquiring a new one in the form of Hewlett Packard.
More proof of the same comes in the form of revenue from
networking-related products, where the growth in value was simply 13.5 percent over the
previous year. Some of this has also come about as a result of the company’s decision
not to participate in ‘cash less’ accounts–that is, in bids where payments
could have extended beyond
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES: |
the available credit period or even landed as bad
debts subsequently. This has affected the numbers to some extent.
Its move toward providing IT services is what led
Microland to tie up with Computer Associates in the area of enterprise management
solutions. Hence, last year, one saw Microland bagging orders from companies such as
ICICI, Price Waterhouse, Standard Chartered Bank, and HDFC for services involving
planning, deployment, and management of their networks. Earlier, it restricted itself to
planning and deploying of networks.
Similarly, it moved on its plans to leverage on the
network training market, and set up centers in Chennai, Hyderabad, and Pune, in addition
to its existing centers in Mumbai and Bangalore. However, these came toward the end of the
financial year and therefore it did not get reflected in the earnings last year. Microland
plans to do what NIIT has successfully managed—backward integration into software
development and at the same time
creating avenues for its students. In the case of Microland, the model is slightly
different—the students get work on projects in India and the company in turn gets to
deploy the expertise overseas. This will get further accentuated this year with Microland
going in for franchisee centers.
From the outside, Microland seems to have lost focus on
its key business—networking—what with the high-profile launch of planetasia.com
and Micro Media last year. But a closer look at what it has been doing the whole of last
year reveals a different story—that of a company engaged in building a foundation to
manage significant growth: it grew rapidly in the initial years starting 1991, creating
new engines of growth.
For instance, last year was spent on implementing ERP in
the same way as the previous year was spent in getting ISO 9000. This, too, was achieved
in record nine months, with web-enabled SAP running in all locations
simultaneously—making Microland one of the few companies perhaps to be completely
online on VSATs. This will soon be extended to its customers as well.
But, more importantly, the company put together its
Internet strategy and launched Planetasia.com and Micro Media. Microland Software is yet
to be known publicly. All these are complementary to each other and to the future growth
of Microland. For instance, while Planetasia.com will restrict itself in the area of
providing content and enabling companies to get into ecommerce, Micro Media will be
engaged in spreading the awareness through seminars, symposiums, and exhibitions. The
first such event—Internet World—is being held this year in August.
As for Microland, it will become the company that builds
the infrastructure for its customers to enter the Internet-centric world. As for the
little-known division Microland Software, it is currently working with a small start-up
company in the US to build parts of an Internet search engine using Java and ActiveX.
In the International arena. Mileoland won a $ 500,000
contract from Al-Rajhi Bank of Saudi Arabia for migrating from NetWare to NT in 347 of its
branches and a MS Exchange Project in Aranco Oil.
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size="2">After two years of near silence, Microland is ready for another round of rapid
growth. However, one is unlikely to witness it this year. The pay-off is expected to come
not before year 2000. Perhaps it will herald the new millennium.