Accord to launch ads4globe.net for SMEs

PUNE: Small and medium enterprises that had to freeze their advertisement

budgets now have reasons for cheer.

Moving onto the ASP space, Pune-based Accord Ventures Pvt. Ltd. has deployed

ads4globe.net version 1.0 for test marketing. This application allows companies

to have a comprehensive Web presence and enables them to conduct e-commerce

through store-fronts (shopping carts, catalogue manager applications and eCRM

applications).

Says Subrata Sen, executive director, Accord Ventures, "This is

essentially a digital marketing tool for SMEs. With this product, a customer

gets a one-stop shop solution. This includes hosting of the Web site and

maintenance. Unlike other companies where customers end up paying for upgrading

or editing their sites, there is no additional cost involved here."

Against large corporate houses, SMEs lose out on reaching to a larger

audience because they cannot afford to pay huge sums for advertising their

products. Says Shubhada Deshpande of Impulse Advertising, a Pune-based firm,

"I have faced problems with the earlier vendor who was developing my site.

I lost Rs 75,000 because my Web site was never completed and the vendor was

nowhere to be traced. However, the software developed by Accord Ventures allows

me to make my own Web site and also offers unlimited editing which is most

interesting."

For Markventelecom, this proved to be a dream come true since the company

successfully built its Web site www.markventelecom.com on the Web site builder.

Customers can opt for any of the three categories - silver series that offers

eight main links on the home page and three email IDs, each of which has 5MB

space. The Goldads4globe.net has eight links on the home page with three

sub-links on link titled "About Us" and three sub-links on the

Catalogue Manager. This also includes five email IDs, each of which has 5MB

space. The platinumads4globe.net offers the shopping cart functionality that

will allow online sales and the payment gateway can be embedded. The pricing for

these services are Rs 7000 for the silver, Rs 9000 for the gold and Rs 15000 for

the platinum.

So far the product has been sold to 20 customers, some of whom are dealers

and manufacturing companies. Sen expects to double this figure soon and touch

revenues to the scale of Rs 4 crore by the end of this year. Vidyadhar Sarfare,

founder of the company, had sold off majority stake from his earlier venture

indiaengineering.com - a B2b exchange to well-known industrialist Baba Kalyani,

in December last year. He has invested Rs 1 crore in this venture.

New products from the company will also be in the ASP space. The inventory

management tool and the sales force automation tool are expected to hit the

market in a few months.