“Consumer electronics will get more storage attention”

Spurred by a promising market scenario, hard disk storage players such as

Maxtor, Samsung, Seagate and now Western Digital (WD) are in the process of

further sharpening their India focus. Once the front face of Seagate India,

Sharad has just joined WD as sales director for India and South Asia. In a chat

with Zia Askari of CyberMedia, he tells how WD is now all set to inject vigor

into its India plans.

Why did you move to WD?



I had moved to Singapore in my job role with Seagate and it was a good

experience. I have always looked up for challenges and this new job is a part of

that endeavor. At the same time, WD wanted to focus on India in a big way and I

saw a challenge in that. In this job role, I will have scope to build the

company's business extensively in the region.

What are your priorities at WD?



First, I want to build up a team within the company and then would like to

streamline the distribution channel strategy. The most important part would be

to enhance our service and support infrastructure in this region. There is a lot

of potential in this market, especially the way the upcountry segment is shaping

up. We feel that this is going to be a major driver for growth. Training and

customer education are the two areas where we would be concentrating on. We have

a wide range of storage products in the offering. We also have products for the

enterprise range of customers.

Sharad Srivastava

Suddenly, there is a lot of activity in the storage space. Maxtor has just

opened its office in Mumbai, Samsung is showing renewed aggressiveness and WD is

strongly focusing on the country.

Why has storage suddenly become so important?



Storage has always been an important aspect of the overall IT scenario. The

sheer size and potential of the Indian market is attracting more and more

companies and that's why we see a lot of activity in this segment. At the end

of the day, it all comes down to the level of customer satisfaction that a

company can bring to the table. Moving forward, as segments like consumer

electronics further open up to storage, I believe this space is going to get

more attention in the near future. Thus, as the market matures at different

levels, there is an activity on the customer awareness front, service front and

this is good for the overall market.

What channel structure would WD put in place for India?



Presently, we have four distributors in the Indian region. We will continue

to enhance our channel network in the Indian region and this will primarily

depend on the market dynamics. At present, we have five service support centers

in all the major metros in the country. We would be enhancing this as we move

forward.