"We would like to assess the return on investment before launching cellular phones in India"

Sandeep

Nair started his career in the manufacturing division of Mahindra & Mahindra

as junior engineer before moving to Tech Pacific as its first marketing manager

for HP products. He later went on to become the country head for Japan’s

Brother International, setting it up from scratch in India, before taking over

as MD, Acer in February 2000. A mechanical engineer with a masters in management

studies from the Mumbai University; Sandeep is still a student at heart and is

currently pursuing his PhD under Dr Santhanam, Director. But he tells DQCI his

priority at the moment is “to shape Acer’s infrastructure to deliver optimum

customer satisfaction in the years to come”.

Why did Acer Peripheral's

change its name to Acer Communications and Multimedia (ACM)?

We changed Acer Peripheral’s

name to ACM because it accurately explains the company's vision. We are no

longer merely a peripherals company. We are also entering the broadband network

business. Communications and multimedia represent the true nature of our

business portfolio today.

Also the expansion of the

company into various products truly reflects that. The share of mobile business

is actually increasing substantially. I think it is in excess of 24 percent plus

in the ACM turnover.

So worldwide, we changed the

name from Acer Peripherals to ACM. We are hoping to grow from $3 billion in 2000

to $ 10 billion in 2005. That is our vision. ACM contributes to almost 75

percent of the total Acer Group business.

What are your core strengths?

Our strength is manufacturing

and time-to-volume. We launch the product, generate volumes and get economies of

scale. Our products are good value-for-money for our customers.

Which are the various ACM

products currently available in India?

We have been launching various

products from our range in India, depending upon the market scenario. Last year

we introduced monitors, keyboards, optical products and imaging products. This

year we launched the projectors. We have yet to launch the mobile phones and the

networking products.

Which products are you going

to concentrate on in the current fiscal?

This year the focus will on

products like LCD monitors and CD writers, as they are very high-growth markets.

Today 24 percent of our business is from wireless, which in 1999 was a mere

eight percent. So a lot of growth has taken place in this region.

Then why have you been so

slow in launching your mobile phones in India?

We have not yet started it

because we need to stabilize our operations for the other key products. It is

very easy to bring in products but what matters is whether the support model is

in place. We need to build on this support infrastructure.

We have launched our mobile

phones in Singapore right now. Our plan is to bring it to India in the second

half of 2001.

Why is there such a time gap

between the products you launch worldwide vis-à-vis India?

Firstly, ACM India is only a

year old in the country and is a much younger player. Secondly, every market has

its own vagaries. We were large OEM manufacturers earlier, we are moving into

branded phones now. We are going region by region and in phases. We would like

to assess the return on investment before launching mobiles in India.

What is the support

infrastructure that you have in place for your other products at the moment?

We have a backbone of three

service centers in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, which support our distributors.

This year we are changing the model a little bit to bring in third party service

providers, which will increase our reach in the country. This fiscal we plan to

have around 21 locations.

But how will you monitor the

quality of service provided by third party service providers?

The best way to do that is

through an effective service system. We are currently in the process of creating

a software solution package for this, which will be duplicated at all the

service locations. This allows us to capture data and get a feel as to what is

happening in the service center at any point of time. If there is a situation

that needs to be handled, it will definitely alert us.

What are the criteria for

selecting these providers?

Their technical capability,

their expertise and the infrastructure they have will matter when we select

service providers. We have identified people in Aurangabad and Mumbai.

Will your distributors

automatically become your authorized service providers too?

It would depend on their merit.

We strongly urge our service providers to work independent of the sales so that

the focus is not lost. Typically looking at the profile of distribution in the

country there are very few distributors offering support facilities. Most of

them do fulfillment for the vendor, which is much different from providing

service. I am not saying all our distributors are focused on order fulfillment,

there are some who are also interested in service and we will definitely

consider them for our service providing initiative.

So what role will the current

service centers play when the third party service providers come in?

There will be a certain

transition period from our service centers to the third party providers. When we

talk of the service providers we are talking about a person who will repair the

product. A lot of things go into grooming and qualifying such a person. So this

will not be an overnight development.

Besides there will be products

which the service provider might not be able to handle and they will be

forwarded to our own service centers.

Why is that Acer is pushing

its scanners more aggressively than its other products?

We made a big impact with our

scanners in the market last year in a very short period of time. I think we have

almost 15 percent of the scanner market in the first year. We wanted to take

maximum mileage out of it. There was an opportunity there and we did not want to

lose that. That is why the activities related to the scanners are much higher.

Your monitor business has not

made a dent in the market. Why is that so?

Monitors was a relatively tough

market and we entered a bit late. People were selling Acer monitors a few years

ago, and then there was no supply. So to the market it was like Acer was coming

and going. So it was very important that we tell people that we are here to stay

as an organization. We are in now and the product is now picking up. And the

reason this is happening is because customers have realized that our products

are more reliable and sturdy.

Vinita Suvarna-Bhatia in Mumbai