Government buying in BIS will be worth Rs 600 crore

How do you see Canon contributing to the e-gov space post restructuring?



The restructuring has led to the new verticalization of the company and has

allowed us to focus more on governance. Our business imaging solutions (BIS)

group, which has a focus on the document management solution, is contributing

significantly to the governance space. We are operating along with the system

integrators through the OEM route. We can provide some reliable rugged solutions

to the government in imaging and document management. There has to be a

mechanism that connects to the people and enables merging images and documents

smoothly.

Som Gangopadhyay, director, Business Imaging Solutions, Canon India

What will be your strategy to tap the e-governance vertical?



Currently, Canons total turnover from the government vertical alone is 45%

to the BIS group. And BIS again contributes close to about 45% to Canons total

turnover in India. So, right now our business from the government is huge. Our

focus gets strengthened primarily because we have tied up with government buying

agencies like the DGS&D, and we are also in touch with NICSI and system

integrators. We have appointed managers focused toward individual accounts. We

are also working with some of the leading SIs. We estimate government buying

will be Rs 600 crore in the BIS addressable domain next year, and we want to

garner Rs 200 crore of business. Also, we expect to do Rs 150 crore in the

government sector in addition to what we are already doing in the current

fiscal.

Apart from government, what other areas are you looking at?



There are two areas where we are very strong: products and graphics (digital

printing and press), and enterprise level solution. We have tied up with global

vendors providing consolidated document management solutions across the world.

Some companies include e-Copy and Planet Press. We have a range of software

suite, called Image Ware Suite, which is a set of software for the BIS. The

industry is growing by 20%, and we have grown by 47% in the first quarter this

fiscal. So, we are doing quite well.

Urvashi Kaul



urvashik@cybermedia.co.in