Stood Out In Mumbai

Since we were the only Malaysian exhibitor surrounded by an ocean of Chinese companies in China Sourcing Fair in Mumbai, the foremost questions we anticipated were, “What are the major differences between FingerTec products and China products?” and “Why should we Indian buy from your company while we are indulged by loads of cheaper China products?”

In fact, we received no such question at all. While thousands of Chinese exhibitors simply transformed the Exhibition Hall a China Town, FingerTec, among a handful of other countries’ booths available, stood out easily with local Indians handling inquiries.

I’m still obliged to answer the questions though. I think some of our partners may like to know since they’re often competing with some China products. I don’t see the necessity to handover detailed comparison list here, but discerning some basics should be sufficient.

With our partner, Compax Industrial System took care of the booth, I had ample time to roam the Exhibition Hall. In summary, the Chinese Sourcing Fair is all about a fleet of Chinese companies that couldn’t wait to part with their products from their manufacturing plant in exchange with cash. It seemed to me they’re more incline to deal with the seeable tangible products, all the invisible intangible added values such as system, software, service, branding, solution, are normally the least of their concerns.

Bhooshan & Imran, Compax handling crowds

Visit Compax office in Pune after the Trade Show

I agree that the intangible value might be less important for electronic components and consumer products, which constitute the larger part of the Sourcing Fair, but it’s hard to believe that security products which supposedly be more holistic in solution; software, the main driver of most security hardware, is also taken lightly by most Chinese players.

Without any doubt, low price is one of the best strategies. But for security and office automation products, it should be more than that because quality and reliability must be second to none. A question for users, do you want to enjoy (the price) first and suffer later? That’s why our partner for seven-year, Compax never turned to sell Biometrics products from China, although repeatedly approached and offered with attractively low price products. However, they did use the price lists from the Chinese competitors to negotiate with us.

In reality, FingerTec sales grew exponentially in India for the past few years. The more pricey Korean products also are in demand in India market. To me, this is a good sign. It proves that the Indian market starts to take other elements besides price into their consideration.

IFSEC India had just ended two weeks ago in Delhi; and now come the China Sourcing Fair in Mumbai. With huge crowds drawn to our booths in the two most populace cities in India, it should keep Compax busy for the coming months.

This is the promo trailer song of 3 Idiots which bombards the MTV channel in India now. The actress, Kareena Kapoor, wow, is so beautiful.

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ