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Sharad Srivastava
Director of Sales,
India & South Asia,
Western Digital
“We understand the criticality of service to sustain market share”
 Can you elaborate on the Western Digital’s channel journey in India. Till date, what milestones have been achieved?
As you are aware, Western Digital re-entered India couple of years back. Being a channel-focused company it was necessary to establish the channel network. Hence, we focused on educating partners, knowing their issues and market needs. We stressed on the importance of better service, warranty and support to the partners. We launched the nationwide channel program called WD Contact program whereby we covered 50 cities and delivered training programs.
According to you, how is WD’s Contact Program different from other channel programs offered by your competitors?
We highlighted our USPs—reliability and service, which have became the two drivers of our product offerings in the market. We have managed to establish a robust network of 800 certified Select WD partners covering all major cities of India. We have covered 75 cities till date and plan to cover more in the months to come.
Western Digital has moved from a regional to a national distribution strategy. How has this transition helped WD’s positioning in India?
We started out with a regional distribution model in India; now we have 6 national distributors.
In 2006, we launched the regional distribution model with four distributors, each covering different regions. When we started receiving feedback from the partners in mid-2007, we realized the need of having a national distributor rather than a regional distributor. Accordingly, we changed our structure.
You have also floated an exclusive club of partners and adopted a merit-based model for its membership. How will it benefit partners?
Out of our 800 Select WD partners, we reward the best performers. In an acknowledgement of their business outcome, they get an exclusive membership to the club of Select Partners. The merit-based model ensures that this club includes top 100 performers for WD in India, who are entitled to customized incentives. They get the option to choose from a variety of incentives such as international holiday, gifts and many more.
Currently, the external drive market in India is catching up very fast. How is WD going to differentiate itself from others, in order to attract customers?
This market is growing undoubtedly; people prefer to carry an external drive in order to safeguard their data. We consider this as an excellent opportunity. Based on partner feedback, we analysed customer behavior. We realized that customers generally forget to recollect the exact model number of the hard drive. It is easier for them to remember the aesthetics of the product. On the basis of this analysis, we have designed a comprehensive portfolio of external drives—Carrier and Scorpio series of drives.
WD has started targeting the enterprise market. Can you briefly explain your strategy to address this market?
We started addressing the enterprise market since last quarter. We have initiated a WD Contact campaign for the end user. We will educate CIOs and system heads about our portfolio.
You have signed-up a new distributor for the enterprise market segment. Can you elaborate about this tie-up?
Yes, we have signed up with Aditya Infotech; they will be looking after the enterprise market nationally. They will leverage their expertise of surveillance and broadcasting market for our products.
What new opportunities do you foresee for your partners?
I think that the audio video market has many opportunities for our partners. We are looking at this market very closely. All I can say, at this point of time, is that soon we plan to announce an exclusive partner program in this space.
In today’s market where service is a key driver to market adoption, what edge does WD’s service support have?
We understand the criticality of service to sustain market share. In order to cater to customers, we have recently launched a technical support centre for our partners and customers in India. Our tech support program provides our customers with the highest standards of service and support, complimenting WD's high-quality products.
--------------------------------------- As told to Faiz Askari |