Hardware Solutions - Indian Zones
(Hardware Solutions - Indian Zones, Business India, New Delhi, September 6-19, 1999)
Two Indians in America, actually out of Africa, got a bright idea in 1984 - once connected with IT naturally (aren't they all?), but not to develop software. Instead, the company would build systems to enable IT managers to be able to painlessly source all the materials necessary to create IT solutions. Naming their company Multiple Zones International Inc. USA (MZI USA) Sadrudin J. Kabani and Feroze H. Lalji eventually launched tour colourful magazines packed with information about computers and peripherals. The magazines are distributed free, with costs borne by information oriented advertising. Non-paid content is minimal. Unlike other catalogue-based publications, the four Multiple Zone Products focus on separate areas of information - The PC Zone on IBM compatibles and their associated hardware and software, The Mac Zone on Apple Macintoshes, The Learning Zone on education and training, and zone.com on the Internet. It has a strong Asian influence, with its magazines and solutions available throughout South and Southeast Asia.

Ten years later in India, Manpreet Singh was making waves in HCL, having grown from selling PCs and peripherals to launching Frontline Solutions, a successful line of business aimed at the home and small business market, marketing HCL's and its business partners' products. Today Frontline has been absorbed into HCL, since Manpreet quit in 1996 to launch Multiple Zones India Pvt. Ltd at the end of 1996.

MZIndia is different from its US-based patent's earlier launches in that it is a joint venture in India.

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