The CiTizen Thursday, 26 July 2012Business Week20

By Alawi MasareBusiness Week Reporter

Dar es Salaam. Participating at last year’s Top 100 mid-sized survey has brought Mitsumi Computer Garage and Simply Computers many benefits, but the increased imports of coun-terfeit information technology hardware is one of the challenges they face in their businesses.

The benefits the two firms got since becoming one of the win-ners of the Top 100 survey include increased sales due to customers recognition as well as improved accounting and financial report-ing standards.

The survey has also increased chances of access to finance. Top 100 mid-sized company survey is organised by KPMG Tanzania and The Citizen.

The general manager of Mit-sumi Computer Garage Ltd Mr Kartik Shah says the local market ratio is currently 60:40 for fake and genuine ICT products both in software and hardware.

“There is much need to edu-cate people about the two types of products in order to increase efficiency and develop the local market,” says Mr Shah who is information technology expert.

To avoid including the coun-terfeit computers in their stock, Mitsumi deals with major brands only like Toshiba, Dell, HP, Acer and Microsoft software only.

Government austerity mea-sures, which have resulted in reduced spending in IT hardware and related accessories has also impacted the business because the state is the biggest customer on IT products.

The general manager of Sim-ply Computers Mr Rizwan Jaffer says there is a decrease in pro-curement from the government, a situation the company and other ICT firms started to experience after the 50th anniversary.

According to Mr Jaffer, the situation continues to worsen as the national census approaches. “We suspect that the government spent a lot of money to celebrate Tanzania’s fiftieth anniversary and now is expecting to spend again in the coming census in August.

If this is true, I don’t know what will happen in 2015 general elec-tion,” says Mr Jaffer.

Although the company sells in retail, it also serves corporate companies like banks, insurance firms and public institutions in both Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar.

“With the exception of the government case, the market is generally good and we don’t have any plan so far to expand out-side the country. We have agents in almost all regions that ensure that our customers receive gen-uine brands,” Mr Jaffer says.

To help Top 100 survey com-panies to overcome such kind of difficulties the organisers of the survey have launched the Top 100 Mid-Sized Companies Club 2011 forum, which would be a platform for networking and sharing information. Top 100 survey companies would also get an opportunity to meet policy makers.

Simply Computers which is a direct partner to Dell, sells both laptops and desktop computers and other ICT equipment. As far as other winners are concerned, Simply Computers also confirms increasing service confidence from their clients after the Top 100 award last year.

“Our company is generally doing well as we maintain our existing customers and increase new ones. Top 100 Mid-sized Survey is a commendable job because it exposed us to clients and even connects us to various organisations,” says Mr Jaffer.

One of the objectives of the survey include creating industry databases and that would enable medium-sized companies to benchmark themselves against their peers as well as highlighting, to policymakers, their contribu-tion to economic growth.

Mitsumi Group operates in East, West Africa and Middle East (Dubai).

It deals with distribution of various global IT hardware and software brands. It operates in 12 countries and there are plans to expand more.

Mr Shah commends the Top 100 survey in the country but advises to go sector-wise after getting to full list of 100 best com-panies.

“After having a list of 100 win-ners and the overall winner, the

organisers can put us sector-wise so that we can understand who is leading in which sector. It’s good to challenge ourselves that way,” he says.

The company also shares the sentiment that transactions of ICT facilities with the govern-ment are still slow citing reports that the government has no mon-ey currently as it approaches the census this August

Top 100 Mid-sized Company survey is the first ever of its kind in the country to showcase busi-ness excellence. KPMG Tanzania and The Citizen launched recent-ly the second round of the survey in Tanzania.

Awarded computer firms raise salesTOP 100 MID-SIZED COMPANIES SURVEY. A platform has been launched to enable Top 100 survey companies to network, meet policy makers and chart the way forward for their businesses

Simply Computers general manager Rizwan Jaffer says the market is generally good although the government no longer buys as many computers and accessories as it used to do.

Mitsumi Computer Garage Ltd gen-eral manager Kartik Shah is unhappy that the market is awash with fake computers and accessories. PHOTOS/RAFAEL LUBAVA

The Top 100 mid-sized companies survey is an initiative of KPMG Tanzania and Mwananchi Communications Limited aimed at identifying and rewarding Tanzania’s fastest growing medium sized companies in order to showcase business excellence and highlight some of the most successful entrepreneurship stories.

The first survey in the country was launched in December 2010 and winners were picked in October 2011. The second round kicked off this June.

The companies that qualify for the Top 100 Mid-sized Company survey are those whose annual turnover ranges between Sh1 billion and Sh25 billion.

Winning companies are those which rank ahead of their peers in terms of revenue growth, profit growth, returns to shareholders, and cash generation and liquidity. Companies wishing to participate should have audited financial record for the past con-secutive three years and should not be listed on a stock exchange. Banks, Saccos, insur-ance firms, law firms and accounting and financial consulting firms are not allowed to participate. This is because banks are adequately covered by the banking survey, whilst insurance companies require more rigorous analysis than that envisaged by the survey.

more info: top mid-size companies