Orient to invest Rs 10 lakh in branding

MUMBAI, INDIA: Mumbai-based Orient Technologies has ear marked Rs 10 lakh for marketing related activities and has even changed its logo recently.

It also held selective customer events recently to coincide with its 10th anniversary celebrations.

“We want to send out positive vibes to our customers as well as our people highlighting to the former than the slowdown is a phase and there is no need for an organization to completely stop investing in areas which is important to it,” said Ajay Sawant, Director, Orient Technologies.

Besides this, the company has made several strategic changes within to be able to tap the right clientele.

It has identified certain verticals which have not been significantly affected by the slowdown and further filtered this down to clients who are agreeable to invest in IT, provided it adds some value to the business their existing business is being conducted.

Rather than approaching Chief Information Officers (CIOs) for business, the company first works with Chief Finance Officers (CFOs) to see if the company has the bandwidth to invest in the project under discussion.

Only after getting a green signal from the CFO, does it work with the CIO to design the project.

“Often, CIOs consent projects though the company might not have the financial pipeline to pay us on time. By working with CIOs before we sign a contract with the client, we have a clearer idea on when we can expect payments and can base our purchase decisions from distributors accordingly,” Sawant added.

This way, Orient does not have to invest into the project on its own and can thereby manage its funds better.

Besides this, the company can also predict when the payments schedule and can make provisions for its other investments accordingly.

The company has also started taking upfront payments for projects valued over Rs 40 lakh.

“This is to ensure that we stay fiscally healthy and do not have to later invest into the projects on our own, because the client is unable to make payments on time,” Ajay further noted.

The company hopes that these and some other initiatives it has undertaken will help it weather the current slowdown.

The company posted a turnover of Rs 77 crore in 2007-08, which is a 38 percent growth over the previous year’s revenues of Rs 48 crore. Its QoQ business has not dipped yet and it is confident that the next few quarters will be the same helping it achieve the growth target it had planned for this year.