We Aim At Realtime Steel Industry Experience
Anurag Saraf, chief executive officer of steel rx.com, talks about his company's plans and how he plans to take the site forward. Excerpts from an interview with Bipin.
Q. What was the motive behind steel rx.com ?
A. This is a steel relationship exchange -- truly neutral and a complete marketplace for the Indian steel industry. We have started this website to trade with buyers within the country and abroad. Our prime focus is content, commerce and community. We have the right experience about the Indian steel industry and we want to participate in the growing Indian international steel trade industry. We are trying to build realtime steel industry experience in the virtual world.
Q. How does the site work?
A. We aim at changing the way steel trading happens in India. We want to empower the buyers and vendors through the Internet. Apart from providing a complete e-market place, the site has built an extremely strong offline support network. We will also provide comprehensive and relevant information on the steel industry. Steel rx.com will have data on prices, production, regulatory information, logistics information and directory services. It will also include local and international news, opinions of industry spokespersons and relevant writeups from international steel magazines.
Q. What are its main features ?
A. We will have auctions, reverse auctions, demand aggregation and negotiation models. Demand aggregation is a unique service created for small and medium enterprises in the steel industry such as traders, re-rollers, fabricators, automobile companies, and construction companies, among others. The aim is to collate the demand of a certain product type and put it up for auction once it reaches a certain size. This is aimed to help small and spot buyers to get better price realisation.
Q. How does the proposed negotiation model work?
A. This has been worked out keeping in view relationship marketing and need for negotiating various aspects such as delivery schedule and location, quality tests and inspection, payment methodology and so on. Also, we are planning to include the negotiation module to enable buyers and sellers to close deals online. This model allows multiple user IDs and passwords and separate buyers and sellers defined within the same organisation.
Q. What are the value-added services that the site will be offering?
A. We offer a host of value-added third-party services, including online quality, inspection, insurance of materials bought, online payment gateways, member credit rating and logistics support.