Ankur Sarkar is single handedly holding the company's flag in the country and he has worked hard on strengthening the brand's awareness in the nation. Currently, his focus is on taking Plustek to every region and expanding the channel network

How long has Plustek been in the Indian market?
Officially, we established our direct presence in India two and a half years ago. Earlier many Plustek products were available in the Indian market, but they were supplied indirectly.

Ankur Sarkar Country Manager, Plustek Inc (India Operations)

Realizing the great potential in this country, Plustek opened its office in India and is now coming out with aggressive policies. We are in the process of streamlining the entire operations in India in a profitable manner.

Earlier the Taiwan office controlled the entire operations in India. However, with the increase in sales volume, we made our direct presence. Subsequently, we have observed drastic changes in the entire business. The biggest achievement has been our improved relationship with our distributors and end-customers. Plustek has been doing business in Sri Lanka, Bangldesh, UAE, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar but India is the only country in the subcontinent where we have our direct presence. In the other regions, China and Taiwan offices control all the activities.

What are your plans for the Indian market?
When we were based in Taiwan, it was not possible to conduct brand-building exercises in India. But over the past two years, there has been a sea change in our business operations since we are directly present here. Now we are able to directly approach our distributors and channel partners and this has given us real recognition among end-customers.

We are focusing on building our brand across the nation. In the first quarter, our emphasis was on participating in industry exhibitions, business awareness programs with value-added resellers and distributors and various roadshows.

Can you give a brief description of the range of products that Plustek is currently offering in India and the segments you are focusing on?
We have three sets of products for the Indian market. They are volume products, communication products and imaging products. Volume products comprise business card scanners and document scanners. Communication products include IP cameras, video conferencing devices, customized servers and standard Internet protocol servers. Imaging section consists of document scanner in A4 series and book scanners.

Our main verticals are IT companies, factories, banking and financial institutes, home security, multi-national companies, SOHO, logistics, storage and others.

What is Plustek's market strategy for India?
We have our office in New Delhi that controls the entire operation of Plustek in India. We have developed partnership with two national distributors, Telexcell and Fortune Marketing, who have wide reach in the Indian market. We are also planning to tie-up with more distributors in the near future.

Our distributors are logistics as well as business partners who have branch-offices covering important geographies across the nation.

What is the company's expnsion Plan? Wouldn't it make sense for Plustek to have a full fledged team in India rather than doing business through distributors?
Right now, we are not planning to expand our head count in India. Our foremost objective is to get recognition as a strong vendor in Indian IT market among end-customers. Therefore, we are not focusing on establishing a full-fledged office here. We are happy to do our business with distributors. Our aim is to develop a strong brand and increase our marketshare in the country.

But till now, Plustek has not achieved the status of a recognized player. How are you handling that when there are already established brands in the market? Do you think that channel partners would accept your products rather than well-known brands?
It is true that Plustek is not a well-established brand in the country and we have yet to build a strong position for ourselves as we are facing competition from D-Link and Apsis. To create an elevated position, we are offering products with technology that are yet not available in the market, like mobile scanners. Our distributors have a wide presence through channel partners and the latest technology will surely give a boost to their business also. We would be coming up with more off-the-track products.

What is the marketshare of your various products in India?
For business card scanners, we hold 50 percent marketshare and for mobile scanner we have 70 percent marketshare. For other products, we are yet to figure out the marketshare percentage.

What is the next move that Plustek is planning to take in this market?
We have a robust position in northern, western and southern part of the country. We have observed that eastern market is yet to be tapped, and therefore we are in the process of appointing more distributors in the eastern region. In the next phase, we are coming up with region-specific programs that would be focusing on tier-2 and 3 cities.

In India, we have been offering around 10 models in enterprise and four in volume categories. The company aims to triple its turnover from last year's $1 million to $3 million by the end of 2007.

Strategically, India is an important market for Plustek owing to the huge business potential that the country holds in terms of demand for quality scanners.

We are planning to come up with innovative products like A3 flatbed scanners. We also have two different series of mobile scanners as there is no competition in the market for this product. Moreover, going by the IDC report that states that the proportion of mobile customers are increasing, we are sure that we will excel in this category in the coming time.

What sort of training programs are you offering?
We have been offering training programs to the sales and support team of our national distributors, regional distributors and partners in B and C class cities. The training programs are held regularly and that mainly touch upon various aspects including application of products, knowledge, understanding target customers and authentic support.

Amrita Tejasvi

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