Spotlight

The grand auto chase

A platform development company dealing with automotive e-retailing solutions, Logix Microsystems has carved a niche for itself, writes Nikita Upadhyay

Established in India in 1997, Logix Microsystems has earned a place in the global market. Its US subsidiary was set up in the year 2000. At around the same time, there was demand for a particular type of software related to the automotive sector. Sanjay Soni and Tej Soni, the founders of the company, felt that there was a gap in the market and that they would be able to fill the same. With their conviction about the market requirements serving as their motivation, the Sonis laid the foundation of Logix Microsystems.

Initial challenges

The company initially started by providing SAP and Siebel implementations across enterprises. However, they discontinued this after a while. The company had trouble in gaining a foothold in the industry as other bigger companies had already taken over the market. The company came into the limelight for the first time when it decided to go for an IPO.

“The challenges in going for an IPO were numerous, especially because ours was a small company and the business model was very different from other service companies. The timing of the IPO was critical since there was a lot of political uncertainty prevailing at that point in time,” said Sanjay Soni, MD, Logix Microsystems. Over the years, the company has successfully lived through the difficult times.

Focal point

Logix has many products, the most important of which is Izmocars, its product suite for the automotive retail market. The suite, consisting of many online solutions, enables automotive OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and retailers to successfully compete and market their products and services online.

The Izmocars product was launched in the US market in the year 2002. “We derive 90% of our revenue from this product and hence Izmocars forms the major part of Logix Microsystems. This product mainly caters to the US auto market offering a full spectrum of Web services,” said Soni.

Another business division of the company sells software made by reputed US companies by acting like a mediator between them and their Indian clients. Hummingbird, Secure Computing, Backbone and Safend are some of the companies from the US, who deal with the Indian market through Logix. “We have a client base of more than 700 customers located all over India. We regularly advertise and hold focused seminars in various cities to educate clients about these products. Thus, from a software services company, Logix has now emerged as a software products company,” stated Soni. The company has 400 employees worldwide. These consist of flash animators, graphic designers and Java and HTML programmers.

Product details

Conceived, developed and serviced in India, Izmocars is targeted at automobile dealer markets in the US and Europe.

The custom design online portals include:

• izmoWeb: It is an e-commerce platform for automobile retail. It is one of the popular automotive virtual showrooms in the US gaining attention worldwide.
• izmoToolkit: It contains graphical animations and images of vehicles catering to online marketing. It includes all the information that a customer would need for a true car-buying experience.
• izmoRainmaker: This caters to online marketing for auto dealers. The Rainmaker product monitors and manages every aspect of the dealership’s business-on-the-net, not only ensuring business growth, but also building an Internet brand visible to customers early on in their buying cycle.
• iConsult: It provides sales performance coaching and media portals. It is an Internet lead management process designed to improve the dealers’ Internet sales capabilities. iConsult puts innovation into selling vehicles and typically allows the dealer to make more profits than the conventional walk-in consumer.
• izmomedia: This is an online media portal solution.
• izmoMobi: It is a mobile website solution taking automotive websites to the hands of millions of consumers worldwide. This provides an advanced functionality allowing viewers to search for vehicles with a single-click contact to the dealer.
• izmoMail: It is an animated e-mail template solution which consists of high quality graphics and animation which captivates the viewers with the visual information, encouraging them to take the next step in the buying process.
• izmoCRM: This provides a Web-based solution tailored to the needs of the automotive dealers. It sets the stage for a customer-centered business that meets the technology needs of every department. It provides tools to manage the customer lifecycle, from obtaining leads to customer retention and beyond.
• AddOnAuto: This is an interactive accessories configurator enabl-ing automotive dealers, retailers, and portals to tap into the $40 billion accessories market, helping them increase their market share.
• izmoLive: By means of this software service package, Logix partners with customers through the developmental cycle for creating rich media interactive tours on the Web. The service aims at making websites more visually attractive by bring interior environments to life and, therefore, targets businesses such as restaurants, real estate, automotive dealers and resort travel destinations.

Izmocars is an established brand name in the US market, with a client base of over 1,200 customers. Logix is proud that it has built up a successful product business from scratch in a short period of five years. Its products are sold at a 40% premium as compared to the products sold by its US competitors.

Projects and developments

The most significant product being Izmocars, the company has undertaken and completed more than 1,200 projects so far. It has implemented the product suite for clients like Galpin Autmotive, Hendrick Automotive Group, Yahoo, etc. It has implemented SAP projects in India, Singapore and the Middle East. The clients are—National Cement Company, ABB India, LG Polymers, Singapore Power, etc.

The company has branches in Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad and New Delhi in India; San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chattanooga in the US; and a branch in Singapore.

The company has following types of clients:

• Automotive dealers
• Auto manufacturers such as GM, Ford, Mitsubishi
• Portals like Yahoo and AOL
• Newspapers groups like MNGI

The contracts have an annual license fee and are renewed at the end of every year. The company has recently acquired Carsite and ReckonUp in the year 2008. “These acquisitions were product acquisitions that helped us to expand our product offering in the automotive retail solutions marketplace. At present we have no plans for any acquisitions in India,” said Soni.

Future roadmaps

The FY08 revenues for Logix were approximately Rs 50 crores, whereas the revenue for the FY09 is estimated to be around Rs 80 crores. The organization has been growing at a rate of approximately 70%-80% annually since the last three years. “The results are yet another affirmation of the strong positive response to Logix products, platforms, services, and solutions in the US automotive retail segment,” said Soni.

The company’s vision is to expand their operations in order to have a presence in the automotive retail product segment of most countries in the world. It is looking forward to be a global automotive multimedia content and solution provider.

The company is targeting the large and untapped European market and expanding into this new market in the current year. Logix is expanding its base in the European market by setting up its wholly owned subsidiary in Brussels, the capital of Belgium. The studio setup is under way and would be completed by October, 2008. This way the company is ensuring its geographical growth.

The company is also keen on consolidating its presence in the US market and moving up the value chain. “We are targeting the large dealer groups in the current year. We’ve already achieved a breakthrough with AutoNation. Two of their leading portals AutoUSA and Luxury Nation have been designed by us. Now our focus is on increasing the revenue from the manufacturer segment. Revenue from Mitsubishi Motors has been steadily increasing and significant business is expected from this client. We are making headway in our talks with other clients such as Mercedes Benz, Chrysler and Nissan,” said Soni.

The company is looking forward to expanding its automotive portal space by signing up clients such as Microsoft and Clear Channel. It is also planning to have an increased focus on the Indian market. With this objective, the company is targeting Indian manufacturers and the dealer market.

nikita.upadhyay@expressindia.com