IT boosts Textile growth in Tirupur

Situated on the bank of Noyyal river, Tirupur is the major important industrial hub in the state of Tamil Nadu. The city, also known as the textile capital of India has gained an international recognition for its best quality knitwear and readymade garment. While writing the success story, the textile industry in Tirupur gracefully embraced the technology and achieved phenomenal success in recent years. IT has truly enabled textile industry in Tirupur flourish and prosper.

Textile embraces IT

Textile is the prominent industry in Tirupur with more than 5000 small and medium business units engaged in the garment production. According to Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA), the city recorded knitwear export worth Rs 18,000 crore in 2013-14. Tirupur supplies garment to some of the top international brands like Walmart, Polo Ralph Lauren, Diesel, ARMY and Tommy Hilfiger. Significantly, the industry was the early adaptor of IT and gracefully integrated the technology in the business.  Many big as well as small business units have embraced technology and have implemented software solutions like ERP in their business. These technology solutions are helping the entrepreneurs to bring down operational costs and compete effectively with international competitors like China and Bangladesh.

Thangamani, owner of Regent Info Solutions, who provides ERP solutions says that integration of the latest technologies has helped the textile industry to achieve optimum utilisation of resources.

“We provide EPR solutions to the businesses and also offer small packages to small firms. Our ERPs make the business processes simpler and cost effective by enhancing productivity”, he says.

Selvaraj owner of Selsoft System says that IT has enabled the industry to achieve multi fold growth in last couple of years. According to Selvaraj with business becoming technologically advanced, the manufacturers have also recognised the importance of technology integration in the business.

Kartik, who runs a small garment unit in Tirupur says, that the ERP solution has helped him to achieve high productivity and efficiency. “We felt a need for an ERP to integrate various processes, reduce inventory cycle and cost. We implemented couple of software solutions in our operations. Since we are getting very good results”, he says.

Not only local solution providers, many big IT vendors eye on the blooming industry. Many textile exporters have partnered with IT giants like Microsoft and Wipro for implementation of the next generation ERP solutions in textile clusters.

Software industry lacks behind...

The booming textile industry provides huge business prospects to the software companies in Tirupur. However, despite of potentials, the city lacks proper infrastructure of the development of software industry. Lack of absence of big software vendors in Tirupur might be a reason for slow growth in the industry.

Pratheesh Mathew, owner, Phoenix Infoways says, “There is no dedicated IT park or IT cluster in the city and majority of IT companies operate from Cochin. We feel that there is a need for serious efforts on part of the government to boost growth of software industry in the city.”

Growth and prospect in hardware...

Tirupur being an upcountry market faces stiff competition from surrounding markets like Coimbatore, Erode and Karur. Like other emerging markets, the IT hardware market has also witnessed stagnancy in Tirupur with sharp drop in margins and decline in demand for desktops. Due to shrinking business in the desktops, many resellers have moved to value added services by widening their portfolio. UPS and surveillance business has given new ray of home to resellers. Resellers prefer UPS and surveillance due to demand and better margins.

Tirupur IT Association is the prominent IT association in Tirupur which addresses the channel related issues. The association also acts as a mediator between vendors and resellers. The association is instrumental in raising the channel related issues.

The way ahead...

The IT industry has lot of prospects in Tirupur. It’s strategic location and multi crore textile industry provides huge opportunities to the IT vendors. Right policies and collective efforts will help the city to emerge as a IT hub in Tamil Nadu in couple of years.

Tirupur at a glance...

Number of resellers: 500 plus

Prominent Brands: Dell, Lenovo, HP, Quick Heal, K7 anti-virus, Kaspersky, Numeric,  Logitech, Acer

Key verticals: Textile, Government, Agriculture, SOHO and SMB, Tourism

Prominent IT Association: Tirupur IT Association

Interview 1

N Ilayaraja, owner, Worldwide System

How do you analyse the growth of IT hardware industry in Tirupur in last one year?

N Ilayaraja: The market is good and growing steadily. However, today margins are less attractive. Earlier the profit margins were nearly 15-20 percent and now it has come down to less than 5 percent. Still the industry is growing and showing slow signs of recovery.

What kind of challenges, the resellers face in Tirupur?

N Ilayaraja: Tirupur IT resellers face direct competition from sourrounding markets like Coimbatore, Erode and Karur. They have to rely on other markets for supply of materials. Scarcity of service centers is another challenge faced by the dealers.

Interview 2

Pratheesh Mathew, owner, Phoenix Infoways       

What are the reasons behind sluggish growth in software industry in Tirupur?

Pratheesh Mathew: The software industry is growing at it’s pace in Tirupur. There are few software professionals who provide ERP solutions to the textile industry. But as if now, there is no dedicated IT park or IT cluster in the city and majority of IT companies operate from Cochin. There is a need for serious efforts on part of the government to boost growth of software industry in the city.

What are the emerging segments in the hardware industry?

Pratheesh Mathew: UPS and surveillance are the two major emerging segments in Tirupur. Many resellers are endorsing security and surveillance solutions as it gives better margins than desktops. These two segments are set to grow in future.