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Acer all set for a revamp

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Abhishek
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Acer India is going through huge transformation internally and follow completely different business model on ways to address market

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Acer's restructuring plan

Reports say Acer's founder Stan Shih has come of retirement to pull the company out of losses and is set for a complete restructuring. In tandem, Acer India has set out restructuring plans to revitalise the dropping market value.

The company's financial year is about to start in the month of January and as part of the plan, Acer India will focus more on accountability.

R Jeganath, chief sales officer, Acer India says that Acer India is going through huge transformation internally and follow completely different business model on ways to address market.

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Jeganath reveals, "It is a new concept as far as the Acer India is concerned which we have not adopted in the last 14 years. The new structure is going to be implemented keeping focus and accountability in mind. It is more of an internal implementation which has to get translated downwards to the field."

 

He adds that now the company will focus more on narrowing down each employee's responsibility but refrained from revealing anything further on the restructuring plans at this point of time.

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In its business in India, Acer slumped from 2nd position-two year ago-to 4th position currently, in terms of PC shipments. Also, Gartner's report states that Acer lost its PC market share in India by 5% when compared Q3, 2013 over Q3, 2013.

The reason, says Jeganath, is that from the second quarter 2013, Acer has been focussing more on value based business over volume.

He adds, "There has been a conscious decision internally to restrict the entry level and plan to move into mid and high end from Q3 onwards, predominantly on the notebook business. On notebook segment 65% of our revenues comes from entry level, now have planned to bring it down to 30%."

Acer India's conscious decision to bring down the number and move up the ladder as far as the mid and high end is concerned and also, the dollar-rupee fluctuation altogether has impacted the business, mentions Jeganath.

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However, he maintains that as far as the desktop is concerned, the company continues with the same strategy.

He adds, "We are doing extremely well as far as the desktop is concerned because the driving point has been the sectors like government, banking and finance where the business continues as usual."

Amidst, Acer India is set to close this financial year-from January to December-with a top line of Rs 650mn.

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"We expect to freeze our turnover at `650mn this year in India with a growth of around 15% over the last year," says Jeganath.

Relationship and transactional mix

Acer's relationship business in India has been predominantly strong in the government and BFSI segment. Earlier, according to Jeganath, relationship business used to be 55% of the total business.

Jegan says, "In the last two years, the new business opportunities from ELCOT and others have increased relationship's overall revenue share to 65%."

We have also been very good in education segment, mentioned Jegan and added, "We have been strong in primary education which comes under Sarva Sikhsa Abhiyan-where GOI's plan is to computerize all primary schools. We play upward 60% share as far as this particular market segment is concerned."

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New initiaves

Acer is also planning aggressive on its internal online portal where it will sell accessories like mouse, adapters in the first quarter of the year 2014. The company is also active on the newer form factor computing.

The company has windows platform tablets, especially for enterprises, in the price range of `32,000. The company also has Android based tablets, but the company does not provide stock and sell option for its partners.

"We will be launching `10,000 android based tablets for consumer market in the second of the year 2014," says Jeganath.

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