Rohan Ajila, Managing Director, Indiamarkets.com
Indiamarkets.com
is one of the first B2B portals in the country and has helped popularise
industrial cafes. Amrita Ghosh of IT@TT met up with Rohan Ajila, Managing
Director of Indiamarkets to learn more about this 'infomediary'.
IT@TT: Why did you feel the need to set up a B2B portal? Does E-Commerce need that much prodding?
RA: Well, E-commerce definitely requires a lot of hand holding and a certain amount of training. E-commerce is about technology and transfer of that technology to the manufacturers. We are really the facilitators of business transactions. We are a business to business website, which theoretically brings dealers and buyers together. If you go through our site, you'll see that we're an aggregation of 26 different verticals across an umbrella of services.
IT@TT: So, what kind of services do you have?
RA: We have services for the manufacturer, i.e. we have a homepage, storefront, used machinery and surplus inventory. Typically, if somebody wants to dispose off with used machinery for new one, we put it up on our auction section. He may even have inventory that he was unable to sell for some reason. We put it up at the surplus inventory section. The variety of services that is related to his business is available here. This means that he may even have excess capacity for a given month, which he might want to rent out to somebody. This comes under our section of contract manufacturing. Then we also have our business alliances.
IT@TT: So which of your services are availed most?
RA: Definitely our storefront. Our presence to tell the users coming in as to what a company really does. If you really look at our site, every part of our services and modules are fully populated.
IT@TT: Just how did Indiamarkets come2B?
RA: I went to the USA and did my graduation and MBA from the University of Houston, Texas. I worked for the Houston Chamber of Commerce, where my job was to look for exporters and manufacturers in India for large importers. I came back and started working with CRISL (Credit Raising and Information Services Limited) as an industrial analyst. My interaction, academic or professional, has been always with manufacturers and investors . There was never any available real time information about and for manufacturers. That's where the concept of an infomediary germinated.
After CRISL I worked with an investment bank called Times Security Bank. After that I joined the family business which dealt with packaging and bottle manufacturing. During the course of all this, especially when I was working with the family business, I went back to some of my old colleagues at CRISL, especially to Nayantara Kamath. She joined me at a time when this was just an idea.
Two of the first people to join me had solid background in industrial analysis. Our site is very information rich. We have two important features-Press Room and Interface. The latter is all the industry coverage that we've received. But more important is the PressRoom, which talks about everything that's happened.
IT@TT: So when did you start out?
RA: We started out in January 2000 and it took us nine months to launch the site. It took some time to give shape to the idea, to draw out the map, to talk to the technology people. As you know, we have BPL as one of our early investors. It's a new breed of business to business ISP kind of thing. Then we have our business customers. We were very excited over this.
IT@TT: How have you fared in these past nine months?
RA: In the past nine months we've grown from a company that's just started to one that has 35,000 registered users. We have more than (Rs) 2500 crores of inventory in our used and surplus machinery section. Every day, on an average, 2500 companies visit us. We get about 150 buyer-seller inquiries daily. In terms of auction inventory that goes online, we're one of the most active sites today.
IT@TT: Are you moving towards becoming an ASP?
RA: Basically, we're moving towards becoming a MSP; Marketplace Service Provider. We'll be providing B2B services. It means that you give me transaction revenue, you give me a one-time installation fee and you can use my thing and you don't have to put it on your mainframe.
IT@TT: Do you have any partnerships to facilitate this process?
RA: We have a tie-up with Citibank. We've got Channel Partners for almost every function like finance, travel, stock market, insurance, etc., and each channel partner becomes the single or exclusive provider of that service. It's quasi-transaction based and monthly fee-based.
IT@TT: I believe that you spend a lot of money on advertising.
RA: We really don't. That's a misconception. We did start off by creating a brand and creating awareness. Actually, creating a concept.
IT@TT: And have you benefited from this investment?
RA: Absolutely. We've benefited a lot from it. There's been a tremendous amount of awareness and the amount of response that we've received is overwhelming. The brand has to translate into revenue in the end. And the fact is that today wherever we go the doors do open. The truth of the matter is that our brand is so strong that people think that we spend a lot on advertisements. We don't spend the kind of money that used to be spent before. We do invest in the brand because we're very conscious of brand image. A lot of it is also the result of the press coverage that we've received.
IT@TT: What market segments are you targeting?
RA: We are stretched across 26 segments and we believe that each of these segments needs to be strong in order to create liquidity.
IT@TT: Are these mostly small and medium enterprises?
RA: An SME goes all the way from 1 lakh to 500 crores. So that's where we are. Some of our buyers are 500 crore plus buyers. So I guess we're a combination of both. And we have a fairly large supplier base.
IT@TT: Where do you see Indiamarkets a few years down the line? Do you have plans of global expansion?
RA: We have the infrastructure, the service that enables the solutions that we're providing to the manufacturers in a nutshell. Going forward is not really about technology. We are not looking towards global expansion. Primarily, we'll be an India-specific portal. The idea is that people will source from India whatever they require. We intend to be the one-stop shop for anybody around the world, if they want a product from India.
Interviewed
By Amrita Ghosh
[email protected]