Aladdin Multimedia: Genie-us Saga

From a office started in a small house to setting up seven offices
in a decade, Aladdin Multimedia services over 2,000 resellers with products from
over 20 vendors, most of them on an exclusive basis. And now the promoters-
Rajiv Warrier, Zakir Hussain Rangwala and NK Dilip-have an ambitious plan to
take Aladdin to eight more cities to have a pan-India presence.

The Magicians At Work: Rajiv Warrier  and Zakir Hussain Rangwala

It all began in 1996 when two young sales executives
working with IT Secure were toying with the idea of setting up their own business.
Luck came their way when the erstwhile Dr Solomon's Anti Virus decided to expand by targeting home
PC users with its anti-virus packages. It was a task that needed total attention
and a single minded pursuit. IT Secure handed these young men the home segment
utilities and Rajiv Warrier, Zakir Hussain Rangwala, and NK Dilip were on their
way to success.

Having started work from their home offices, the company -
Aladdin Multimedia - has in the last one decade set up seven offices across the
country. Of these two are in Mumbai and one each in Navi Mumbai, Chennai,
Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi and Ahmedabad.

Employing around 60 people, Aladdin today is one of the
leading distributor and publisher of utilities and multimedia software for PCs.
It distributes products to an extensive customer base that includes
distributors, wholesalers, educational resellers, retail outlets, Internet
wholesalers and computer specialist retail stores and international dealers.
Aladdin also gives utility solutions and services to the corporate customer.

Beating expectations

As expected when the trio started out, few believed that
their venture would succeed. "Lot of people expected that we would close
down soon as we had few products to distribute and very meager financial
support," recalls Zakir Rangwala. "But we proved them wrong and some
of them are even doing business with us today."

Rajiv recounts the time when they were in talks with their
first ever international partner for distribution rights of an educational
software. The company was Europe's major, Satsoft and the deal was for a
children's educational software. "Zakir sent an email using the email ID
aladdin@vsnl.com. Satsoft thought VSNL was our company and so scoured through
the VSNL website and were so impressed by it that they faxed the entire contract
to VSNL!" laughs Rajiv.

"At that time we had no website of our own. But, of
course, we did justice to their faith in us and sold more than 20,000 pieces of
their product," chuckles Zakir. Today, one can browse through their
products and even make purchases on their website: www.aladdinindia.com.

"When Aladdin started we had limited products to offer
but we had decided that we would bring more products and we started touring the
country meeting people, getting their feedback. At the same time the SOHO market
was growing and Aladdin decided that it will bring products suited for the SOHO
market which went on to become the company's mission," recalls Rajiv.

Long and successful association

Aladdin is associated with most of the leading brands in the
market and currently distributes products from over 20 vendors, most of them on
an exclusive basis: Symantec Corporation, Executive Software-UK, Microsoft,
McAfee, Trend Micro, Simac Software-Netherlands, Buka Entertainment- Russia,
Plus Factor- UK, Binary Research-USA, Hard Drive Software-UK, Tech
Pacific-India, Ingram Micro-India, Image Online, Hermanex, Wanadoo, Idigicon-UK,
Inca Gold-Switzerland, Xing-Europe, City Interactive-Europe, Secure Synergy,
Focus Multimedia-UK, Introversion Software-UK, E-Press and many others.

Servicing more than 2,000 resellers, corporates and SOHO
users all over India, the company's efforts are well appreciated by its
vendors. Network Associates Inc (NAI) presented the Retail Champion 2000 award
to Aladdin for its excellent efforts in distributing their products.

Since 1999, Aladdin has also focused on publishing,
developing and marketing edutainment software and multimedia games. It has a
total of more than 150 titles and a business that contributes to 20% of its
total turnover.

Aladdin recently introduced EasyOffice-an office suite at a
price of Rs 995 per user. Developed by Canada-based E-Press, EasyOffice is used
by more than three million users, claims the company, making it the second
highest selling office suite in the world.

The promoters are confident that the product is compatible
and comparable with the best out there and it will be a success. They hope to
reach a target sale of more than Rs 5 crore in this product itself. This is
ambitious considering that the company closed 2004-05 with a turnover of Rs 5
crore.

Looking ahead

"The big challenge for us today is to make sure that our
products are reaching the end-consumers and they are happy with our
offerings," Raijv notes. "Also staff welfare is another big challenge.
The task for the future is to build a model where the products reach the
consumer through the Internet and at the same time we keep our channels happy.
It will also save money on deliveries and media and will bring down prices of
the software making it more affordable," says Rangwala.

The name Aladdin has the ring of the common man getting lucky
with the right product. "That is why we chose this Aladdin," he adds.
"It denotes both magic, as well as faith. That is why our employees in
every department are called genies. We have tech genies, sales genies, support
genies and so on," he adds.

The three partners share a cozy relation with each having
their departments marked out for them. Rajiv with his technical background of
computer engineering handles the security solutions business in the company. He
is the MD of the company. The sales and distribution is handled by Zakir as the
Director.

Dilip handles the accounts and prefers to let his work speak
for him. "There are times when there are differences of opinions on work,
but that is what keeps the work exciting," says Zakir. Despite their
differing educational backgrounds, Zakir says they are unified in their belief
in business ethics.

Ask them about the future and each believes the sky is the
limit. After a bit of mulling over, Rajiv speaks of servicing the SOHO and the
SMB segment. "Aladdin wants to focus on publishing and distributing
exciting and useful software at affordable prices to the users and wants to
expand their present reach to more than 15 cities in India. We also have plans
to get into the mobile gaming and software solution for mobile phone
users," he says.

And what is their mantra for success? "Be aggressive but
follow simple business rules and never cheat," says Rangwala. That's
Aladdin for you - an unending magic.