Make in India’s big fillip for the IT industry is already fetching dividends. Leading the pack is Iris Global Services, the Rs 2,000 crore Delhi-based, homegrown IT Distribution enterprise.
The chairman cum managing director of Iris Global, Sanjiv Krishen, believes that the concept of Make in India or MII is a very innovative idea and one that encourages the idea of manufacturing in India.
“The objective has been served because all original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of IT products are gearing up to make their products in India. Dell, HP and others have all increased their capacities to meet the demand for IT products,” he said.
According to Krishen, an ex IBMer – the ban on importing products, like laptops, has led to most manufacturers progressing from import to local manufacturing. “The transition has been smooth and local manufacturing is all set to receive a big boost,” he said.
The government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) is propelling the IT industry. Every OEM is at a stage of advanced readiness, putting in place production units, Acer has taken the lead while HP is best equipped with their entire range of laptops being MII.
India will implement import restrictions on laptops, tablets, personal computers (PCs), and other electronic items starting from November 1, 2023 – unless the government shifts its strategy towards import management.
“Despite the November deadline, the government is very flexible. They will re-evaluate the preparedness of OEMs to ensure that they are equipped to introduce the necessary changes so that the supply chain is not impacted in any way,” Krishen said.
Asked how he saw the markets responding, the Iris CMD said that local manufacturers had responded proactively to this change. Most products will start coming in and as a distributor, the company is tying up with local manufacturers.
In the past 27 years, Iris has become the ‘Most Preferred IT Distribution Company’ for their quick response, supply of appropriate products and technologies, prompt order loading, professionally managed logistics, and timely delivery.
Iris has become the Distributor of Choice for channel partners and SIs who rely on them for supplies, support, and services. In the last two years, Iris Global has signed up with many OEMs under the aegis of their Make in India initiative.
The government, including public sector units (PSUs) are major consumers of Make in India products, particularly in the fields of education, surveillance, and IT infra projects. Beginning with computer products like PCs, servers, storage, networking, and anything related to IT – Iris have this range of MII brands and hardware.
Kamini Talwar, Director-Iris Global Services and the company’s co-founder believes that “as MII is mandatory for government sector projects, IT OEMs are aligned in thoughts and processes, as well as regular changes happening at the level of policy,’’ adding however that they “expect clarity on import licensing that will further help all OEMs.”
In her estimate, the intention of the government is clear and the results shall benefit the whole nation. “This shall have a cascading effect; it shall not only help growth in the IT industry but propel ancillary industries as well. Manufacturing shall become more intensive, and it will push employment opportunities,” Talwar, a well-known technocrat, pointed out.
The advantages, according to her, are manyfold. “With all OEMs expanding manufacturing. Indian logistics and transportation will undoubtedly grow as more goods will need to be moved through different parts of the country. Manufacturing will be widespread, adding up to development and growth,” predicted Talwar.
“Since the current manufacturing facilities are too small with limited capacities, the OEMs shall need bigger manufacturing plants and warehouses, which could push the real estate sector into a boom” she pointed out.
In the central government infrastructural sector, Iris has been distributing network products from HFCL and has tied up with Indio to sell their access points and switches. In network security, they have Infinity Labs with their SD Wan and Firewall products.
As far as education is concerned, Iris is distributing LG, Viewsonic, Globus Infocom interactive flat panels, interactive boards, OPS storage devices for content, kiosk podiums, and language software.
In the Surveillance category, Iris has a complete range of CCTV products from Indian OEM Sparsh, INP Desktop, Workstations, and Thin Client, Tablets from Wishtel, UPSs from Microtek and Hitachi Hirel, and BPE.
Their common bond is that they are all Make in India products.
According to Neena Vats, Vice President of the company, “As of now, Iris’s revenue through MII products clocks to 25% share coming from large brands like Acer, Dell, and HP. We see a 100% jump in this cluster in the coming year,” she prophesied.
Adding that Iris is adding additional products into its MII bucket to serve the demands of channel partners, Vats said that Iris always welcomes small MII OEMs that can serve the purposes of channel partners for their projects.
“Most small OEMs have fund issues, Iris can help in structuring their financial augmentation and align them with the right set of partners. Iris provides a safe channel reach, ensuring orders and payments are smooth and secured. Being a lean organization, it is easy to reach Iris’ top management, which does all the due diligence needed in this ecosystem,” she pointed out.
According to the company, this is the right time to invest and grow in this field. Smaller OEMs are bound to come by and grow. Iris has started linking with them. “We will be tying up with small and big OEMs on expanding our MII product portfolio and leverage them through our channel,” pointed out Vats.
With new products being added in Software, Cyber Security, Storage for Data centers, Server Products in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics and Drones are on the exploratory table.
Iris is poised to rise beyond 100% in MII product revenue in the coming year. It will continue to offer a bouquet of MII products for its partners SIs after ensuring due diligence keeping their interests in terms of technology of the product complaints and redressal.
Iris Global has been known as a friendly distributor in handling smaller partners and budding entrepreneurs. It is their ability to understand their difficulties and business hurdles that has made the company approach all genuine orders with righteous 360-degree solutions.
