39. CONTINUING: Consolidation

OA Compserve continued to consolidate its product portfolio as last year also saw it get out of the ´run-rate´ business. The company did away with the so-called fast moving products from its portfolio, because it felt these added to the revenues without contribu-ting much to profits. 

It is therefore no surprise that the company´s revenues dipped to Rs 53 crore last fiscal from Rs 60 crore in 2000-01. Its ranking in the Next 25 Group too took a beating, as it fell seven steps to #39 this year.

The company tied up with IBM and Compaq last year to redistribute their productlines. And that is one area the company is aggressively going to pursue in days to come. Says Gurjeet Singh, Director, "We will further strengthen our redistribution business." It is looking at Wipro, HP and IBM product lines as well as other networking vendors.

After considerable success in net-working, the company last year developed a focus on government and education verticals. "Our efforts of focusing on the government sector paid off," adds
Gurjeet. 

The company landed a number of orders including those from the Ministry of External Affairs, NCAER, Central Water Commission and Ministry of Defense, among others. "We will further improve it this year," he states. 

Besides tapping government segment, the company has developed skills to sell maintenance contracts also.