Q: Isn’t technology cost intensive?

A: Technology is a one-time investment but the return on investment is continuous. For the first three years ROI may not be there but then onwards there is no cost. Many of the large retailers spent crores of rupees on doing up their premises but buy some cheap software at Point of Sale (PoS) for computerised invoicing. I think it is a wrong strategy because it doesn’t help you to find out who your customers are, it doesn’t generate information on stocks and shelf space analysis is very critical. Why do some products move faster while others don’t? Mere PoS computerisation is not going to help in these matters.

Q: If technology is not cost intensive, do you think the problem is with mindset of retailers?

A: True, mindset of the retailer should change. We are in Bangalore today — it supplies technology solutions to the rest of the world. In IT, boundaries are fast vanishing. Whatever technology available in the USA is now available in India also.

Q: What kind of solutions do you have for the tiny, small and medium retailers?

A: Our product LS Retail also has a smaller version called LS Easy Retail mean for mom and pop stores. When these small kiranas become large they can upgrade to LS Retail. It is not that efforts have not been taken to reform local mandis. In Delhi, an effort was made by the state government in association with Microsoft to reform the local mandis. It did not succeed and it will take some more time for such projects to succeed.

Q: What is unique about DVS retailing solutions?

A: DVS was started in May 2006, right now we have fifty clients and installations in over 5,000 stores. When we started the objective was to achieve 1,000 plus stores within a year which we achieved. In terms of our uniqueness, I should say we provide end-to-end solutions to the retailer. Our software for the Point of Sale (PoS), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), merchandising, warehousing all are the same. There is no point of integration as we are providing an integrated product. The points of integration in conventional IT solutions are the joints and they are the weakest links. Therefore, an integrated end-to-end solution is our USP.

Q: Do you have high hopes on reforming India’s retailing operations?

A: Indians are quite innovative. In Jaipur, I was told that vegetable-fruit hawkers who go about selling in their vehicles, were picking up their stock not from the mandis but from nearby Reliance Fresh. So this means economies of scale were working favourably for Reliance as against the local mandis and traders. Offtake of such hawkers rose high so much so that regular customers started complaining that they were not getting any fruits or vegetables as it was bought by street hawkers. Later on, Reliance Fresh started a different outlet for such vendors. The ITC-e-choupal is a very unique model. There the farmers who buy fertilizers and seeds from the e-choupal also sell their produce. No such model exists anywhere in the world. ITC is a forward looking company and is driven by appropriate IT systems.

Q: How do you visualize the future of DVS?

A: We have business presence in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Oman. In Dubai, we have implemented solutions for a hyper market owned by the ruling family there. In the USA, we are providing credit rating management services for a furniture retailer. Our software fills loan applications, processes it and get information from credit bureaus — based on that a customer profile is created for the client. Now, this furniture retailer wants to integrate LS Retail solution into the credit rating programe.

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