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Advance Management Systems

Advance Management Systems has spearheaded the CD-ROM revolution in Calcutta. And have quite a few firsts to their credit, including the Bournvita Quiz Contest CD-ROM-ROM. Amrita Ghosh of IT@TT met Sanjay Chajjer, MD for insights. Here are excerpts:

IT@TT: Tell us something about Advance? How did it all start off?

SC: Advance was a hardware company 4 years back. At that time CD-ROMs were not heard of in Calcutta. I encountered CD-ROMs in Bombay and thought that there is a lot of potential and future market for East India. There is a big market for educational products like books in Calcutta. So I thought of electronic books, that's what CD-ROMs basically are. So we thought that it best to start in Calcutta. And here we are.

IT@TT: How have people reacted to buying electronic books rather than books, since most people from Calcutta love to read?

SC: Electronic books are cheaper than print books, take for example, Britannica would be around Rs 40,000 and we are selling it in 3 CD-ROMs for Rs 1,000. So you see the difference, plus the audiovisual experience. There are also advantages of CD-ROMs like the instant search facility.

IT@TT: What are your own products?

SC: We are basically into distribution of products from all over the world. We get products like Microsoft, Electronic Arts from several different companies and distribute them via our channel. Bournvita Quiz Contest (BQC) is our first venture and our own exclusive distributorship in India as well as abroad.

IT@TT: When was this CD-ROM launched?

SC: In October 2000. We are (now) planning to do something on fashion designing –tie-ups with premier institutions are being processed. So we are getting together a CD-ROM on fashion designing. Since we have the knowledge of distributors, we can easily give our products to them, who can then sell it throughout the world.

IT@TT: What has been the response to BQC in the East?

SC: Reasonably well, actually Siliguri has done quite well. I think because of the concentration of schools there.

IT@TT: Have you had any customer feedback?

SC: People who have seen the product have really liked and appreciated it.

IT@TT: Tell me a little about BQC itself? What is its USP? Why should I use a CD-ROM and not watch it on television?

SC: On TV you do not get simulation, you are merely watching what's happening. Over here you interact and play yourself. The questions are automatically generated and keep on changing, so there is no question of it becoming stale. In the CD-ROM you get audio and video together for a holistic multimedia experience. You can also download questions from the BQC site 3-6 months down the line when the original questions get exhausted.

IT@TT: One of the ads claimed that it lets you participate in the quiz on TV?

SC: No, it actually is an online quiz. It's similar to the quiz that you see on television.

IT@TT: What is the price of a BQC CD?

SC: Just Rs 499.

IT@TT: What has been the response to your efforts?

SC: Basically apart from games CD-ROMs like cricket and football, which are very popular in India, BQC has been very popular till date. The number sold in the first month was around 2000 CD-ROMs.

IT@TT: How does your distribution network work?

SC: We are selling it directly in the country, we are also are selling to several large retail chains such as Musicworld and Landmark and Oxford. We are also catering to large distributors in Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Lucknow.

IT@TT: Do you have any tie-ups or collaboration with other entities for the marketing operations?

SC: We have distributors in places like Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai who operate for us there.

IT@TT: Are you targeting specific market segments?

SC: BQC is definitely targeted at school segments. It actually depends on the products, say for example, fashion designing will be targeted at a different segment all together, say higher professional people in that industry.

IT@TT: How do you generate revenue, what percentage of the profit do you have and what do the retailers get?

SC: At the distribution level we keep 10% - we offer the rest to retailers. This 10% accounts for advertising and promotional activities.

IT@TT: Can you tell me a little about your distribution network in the North-East?

SC: We started in Calcutta first and slowly we moved to Bhubaneshwar, Siliguri, and Gujarat where we have people selling, and these places are developing fast. Calcutta makes up for about 75% of the East Indian market.

IT@TT: What are your future plans? Do you plan to bring out more CDs?

SC: Right now there's a lot of development work going on in Calcutta that we'll be marketing all over the country.

IT@TT: Do you have plans to expand?

SC: Yes, we are expanding, more in the area of multimedia and CD-ROMs. We are also building a new concept of a dedicated Microsoft children’s play zone, in Calcutta and Mumbai.

IT@TT: Who are your main competitors?

SC: We have no competitors in marketing and even in development we don’t have much competition. We have also done some interesting stuff, for which we don’t have any competition, like our business directory on Calcutta.

IT@TT: Could you share with our readers some of your personal favorite websites?

SC: I like the Microsoft (www.microsoft.com) website, especially the games of Microsoft. Another interesting game site is www.ea-fifa.com. Some other favorites are www.milestone.com and www.nationalgeographic.com

Interviewed By Amrita Ghosh
[email protected]

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