The Hindu Business Line : Bid to get IT into small leather units

Chennai, March 12 Imagine this: a German department store chain asks a footwear manufacturer in Chennai to deliver a consignment of shoes to its warehouse in Europe at a specific hour on a specific day. If the exporter misses the deadline, he loses the order.

A request that calls for intricate planning and detailed logistics to ensure that the more than 90 parts that make up a shoe are brought together first by the component manufacturers; then the components are put together to the buyer’s specifications of colour, size and style in a shoe factory; and shipped out by the exporter — all in a matter of days because the overseas buyers are not willing to hold large inventories in these days of uncertain market conditions.

Computerisation and use of information technology tools can help keep track of raw materials, specifications, assembling and delivery, while improving efficiency and controlling costs, says Mr Rafeeque Ahmed, Chairman, Ambur Economic Development Organisation (AEDOL), an industry association that is working with Microsoft Corporation to introduce IT into small and medium leather units.

Mr Rafeeque Ahmed, who heads the Farida Group, one of the largest exporters of footwear in India, says he has 68 small units that do job work for him. These range from units employing a handful of workers to those with more than 300 employees. The Farida Group by itself cannot support the modernisation of all these units and yet it is important that each unit is as efficient and productive as the other.

Coming to the industry’s aid is a Government-supported programme, Project Vikas – competitiveness through IT.

AEDOL and Microsoft Corporation (India) will together facilitate the leather and tannery units in Chennai, Ambur, Ranipet and Vaniyambadi adopt IT tools such as emailing solutions, ERP and CRM.

Making solutions affordable

Mr Rajiv Sodhi, Director – Emerging Geographies, Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt Ltd, says that Microsoft and its partners are ready to roll out the IT products. The challenge was first to spread the awareness of the benefits of IT and then to make the IT solutions affordable.

The IT companies have worked with AEDOL to identify the industry needs to offer tailor-made solutions and build awareness. To get around the issue of costs, Microsoft partner companies have opted for ‘hosted solutions’ for CRM and ERP. Leather units do not buy the proprietary software — they may, if they choose to — but rather the solution is hosted on a common server and is made available to the units for a fee.

For instance, for Rs 1,400 a month, a user can get access to a CRM solution. A key feature of the programme is the E-Readiness Centre to drive introduction of IT and a common portal in association with Indiamart to support market expansion of the leather units.

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