The DQ169-188

Cambridge Technology Enterprises

While FY 08 was the year when Cambridge went in aggressively for
acquisitions, FY 09 was aimed at consolidating operations and integrating the
acquired entities. This year, CTE also tried to acquire Protege Software
Services; however, the agreement was terminated with mutual consent due to
non-completion of closing formalities within the agreed time frame of January
15, 2009 and due to current market conditions. The
recession impact on the government contracts led CTE to focus on retaining and
growing its business in the key existing accounts. Meanwhile, Krishna Nangegadda
assumed his role as president, North America operations.

Quintegra Solutions

The beginning of FY 09 saw Quintegra significantly strengthening its top
leadership by roping in senior executives from Merrill Lynch who joined the
company in key managerial positions. But the overall recessionary trends and the
companys dependence on the BFS space made the going tough. Quintegras overall
revenues headed south. In FY 08, the company had gone on an inorganic spree in
areas like apps development, education, financial services and testing, but
unfortunately in FY 09, the anticipated growth did not happen.

Atrie Technology

With close to 49% market share, Atrie continued to maintain its leadership
position in the modem market. Though it has sold close to 2,92,500 units, the
growth for the entire modem market itself was subdued due to the slow growth of
Internet subscribers, and that impacted the leader too. The company continued
its relations with some of its marquee customers like Canara Bank, MTNL,
Syndicate Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, HFCL, Union Bank, and Sify. Launched
the GePON OLT 1550, ONU 1400 Series.

WeP Peripherals

As part of corporate restructuring, WeP Peripherals demerged its IT services
business into a separate company called Wep Solutions. Post demerger, this
entity focuses on enterprise security, managed printing solutions and
distribution. WeP Peripherals now concentrates on hardware business that
includes printers and UPS solutions. Having been primarily restricted to the
south till now, the company has now expanded its footprint geographically in
Chandigarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir by tying up with OST
Electronics as its BDAP partner.

Omnitech InfoSolutions

While business availability services brought in the chunk of revenues
(around 40%), BCP and software testing proved to be fast growing segments. The
company signed multi-year contracts with companies from Europe and the US to
offer RIM services and Virtual CIO offerings. After Belgium and the UK, the
company expanded operations in Netherlands and Germany as part of its Europe
strategy. It won fourteen new contracts from leading Indian companies in the
entertainment, financial, and the pharma sectors.

Value Point

Value Point increased its focus on core business areas like data center and
virtualization, remote management, wireless networking and communication
solutions. It also forayed into new service areas like IMS, NOC and IT
consulting. Apart from adding fifty-five new corporate customers, the company
enhanced its portfolio with new industry verticals such as life sciences, bio
technology, clinical research, and SCM. Value Point acquired a small software
product and development company to help build competency on SaaS for SMBs.

GIGABYTE Technology

GIGABYTE Technology became a 100% subsidiary of GIGABYTE Taiwan and this
integration boosted its growth plans. Motherboards continued to be the mainstay
contributing almost 75% of the revenues. Its well established distribution model
and the launch of its new range of motherboards reemphasized its stronghold.
Last fiscal GIGABYTE shifted its focus back to the thin clients segment which
grew by almost 30%. This fiscal, GIGABYTE has major plans to enter the netbook
segment and partner with LFRs across the country.

Google India

Google now treats India as a microcosm of the entire emerging world. It
creates products for these markets based on understanding Indian needs, and
tests them here before taking them at the global level. Google Map Maker, a new
collaborative product the company launched, was created in India. Most of its
mobile work is also happening out of India. It went strong on its rural mission
last year, and launched initiatives like Gram Panchayat Awards. To this end,
Google put its multi-lingual offerings in place and went in for extensive
regional targeting.

Tata Interactive Systems

Its two pronged approach helped: first growing and expanding business to
non-English markets and subsequently cutting down costs through internal
productivity. TIS also saw a much wider uptake for its unique simulation product
StoBLs with clients like British Airways going in for learning modules based on
them. TIS is also working closely with other Tata Group entities like TCS and
Tata Technologies, and is keenly focusing on the domestic Indian market that
accounts for around 5% of revenue as of now.

D-Link India

Restructuring was the order of the day in FY 09. Following the demerger,
the sales and marketing arm formed D-Link India, while the remaining businesses
consisting of structured cabling systems, R&D, manufacturing and service
operations were spun off into another company, Smartlink Network Systems. It was
followed by the resignation of its CEO, Jangoo Dalal. Post demerger, D-Link
increased the number of service centers from eighteen to twenty-five. On the
Smartlink side, fiber cabling business showed good growth. The company got
involved with high-end cabling projects. It also rolled out the videophone
product developed indigenously at its R&D center in Bengaluru.

Blue Star Infotech

During the year, the company tried to position itself as more of a solutions
player than just being an IT services company. To minimize risks, BSIL made
conscious efforts to remain domain specific; focusing on health sciences,
government, manufacturing, travel & hospitality, media & entertainment and tech
components industries. It made forty-seven new customer acquisitions across
verticals including the Government of Maharashtras economics and statistics
department and planning department, Trans Asia, Lonanx, GTL, Mazda, Geetanjali
Gems, and JY Chemicals amongst others.

RS Software

While the market experienced an economic downturn, RS Software continued to
grow its business. The company won some key clients in areas of payment networks
and payment processors. This resulted in a significant increase in its
bottomline. Net profits realized a growth of five times over the previous
fiscal. RS also focused on enhancing and rebuilding its sales engine that helped
the company to reinstate its position as an expert provider for payment industry
solutions.

Logitech India

Over the year Logitech launched some innovative products in the Indian
market. In the Webcam space QuickCam Connect took video conferencing to a new
level with features such as capturing clear video even in low light conditions.
In a significant product diversification strategy, Logitech brought the Labtech
range to India with a slew of PC peripherals like notebook presenter, ultra flat
wireless desktop USB mouse among others. Logitech would also have premium class
products.

Hitachi Data Systems

The business model continued to shift from predominantly hardware to more
software based services. HDS identified storage virtualization and active
archiving markets for stronger focus. There were some significant management
level changes globally, including a new CEO Jack Domme. Closer home, the most
significant appointment was that of S Pushkar as the regional director for
western India. This is a huge market for Hitachi, and it hopes to do well here
with better channel relations. The company in fact added Wipro Infotech as its
platinum partner.

Embee Software

Embee put a conscious effort to focus on providing professional technical
consultation and services to its clients. Although its hardware business
witnessed a flat growth, its Microsoft licensing business grew by 15% and
contributed in a major way. Embees staffing business, however, took a hit.
Notwithstanding recession challenges, Embee still managed to acquire a healthy
bottomline with around 20% growth.

Technocrat Infotech

Technocrat achieved a commendable growth of 27% in FY 09. However, Q3 saw a
dip in the retail business, especially with shrinking footfalls in its showroom.
But its channel distribution remained unaffected, especially in the upcountry
market. Giving shape to its aspiration to go national, this Kolkata based
regional distributor became national distributor for A-Data. It also tied up
with Seagate as its sub-distributor.

PC Solutions

PC Solutions revenue nosedived last year despite having dual focus on
building competency to deliver newer technology based solution as well as
enhancing its IT consultancy business. Business restructuring in a challenging
economy proved too heavy for the company as it halted PCs growth march.
However, it forayed into virtualization, partnering with Vmware and deployed
multiple projects. It became a certified Cisco partner for UC, and deployed
Microsoft based UC solution on 40, 000 connects for eighteen new customers as
well. PC also provided end-to-end IT infrastructure solutions to eight mid-cap
companies.

APW President

In an eventful year, APW President acquired new clients like Cognizant,
Bharat Electronics, RailTel, Barclays Bank, and in the Middle EastQatar
Petroleum and Meydan Project. It also added some new verticals including
broadcasting, entertainment, healthcare, defense, and government. The emphasis
was on customized solutions for SMBs, and SWANs. The company also tied-up with
Global DataCenter Management to distribute its nlyte solution across India.

Rittal India

Rittal managed to withstand the slowdown, but growth was impacted somewhat in
OND 09. Few of the key customer wins for Rimatrix5 Data Center Solution
included Volkswagen, Siemens, etc. On the server and networking front, Rittal
got major orders from Cisco, IBM, ISRO, GM, IGate, ABB, and Times of India. The
company also managed to get regular orders from Ericsson for outdoor enclosures.
Business from Motorola slowed a little.

Spanco

While telecom SI contributed a major chunk to Spancos business, its BPO arm
was also a significant revenue driver. Spanco entered a joint venture with Spice
Group to set up Bharat BPO, that was eventually merged with its entire domestic
BPO operations leading to an entity with 7,000 seats. FY 09 was also the year
when Spanco stepped up its presence in the e-governance space. Among the major
e-governance deals won were the Rs 100 crore contract from Maharashtra
government for setting up 3,689 CSCs as well as the Orissa SWAN project.