WeP in Overdrive

For a company which was spinned off from the systems division of Wipro

Infotech barely five years back in 2000, WeP Peripherals has come a long way. It

touched the Rs 300 crore mark this fiscal and its third manufacturing facility

is slated to go live in 2006, in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh. And has set itself a

target of Rs 1,000 crore by 2007. However, orchestrating a leap of Rs 700 crore

jump in two years is no cakewalk and CEO Ram Agarwal knows that. Part of his

plan includes restructuring WeP's systems and processes, for which he has been

spearheading a market-alignment initiative since last one year. This July, he

declared it complete.

While the geographical zones continue to exist, the business has been now

divided into two streams: Business Products Unit (BPU) and Consumer Products

Unit (CPU). While the BPU focuses on push products, large deals, and

end-customer interaction, CPU focuses on pull products, distribution business,

and channel development. The company has doubled the headcount in its sales

organization, to 120.

What prompted it?



"Market reality," informed Ranbir Singh, who has recently shifted

base to Bangalore in his new role as head of BPU. Earlier based in Delhi, Singh

was looking after WeP's business in north India. He elaborated that WeP product

portfolio has shown good traction in the end-customer business. When the company

entered distribution business, the product movement showed good growth, but over

time making money became increasingly difficult.

Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhadra Singh laying the foundation of WeP Peripherals's third unit

Clearly, WeP wanted both the revenue streams but the business dynamics

required both these streams to be different. Even though the distribution

business continues to bring in the volumes for WeP, the company expects growth

to come from BPU. "Large deals and complete solution selling, either

directly or in association with partners, is what we are looking at," said

Singh.

WeP is aiming at greater customer engagement and has put in place a CRM

package "Biztrack" to capture each and every customer profile and

related information. The focus in BPU is on the fact that "customer needs

to be known".

Over the Years

On the other hand, CPU focuses on the unknown customer and relies on pull

products backed with a sustained, centralized campaign. "The strategy is to

grow both the business streams systematically in terms of product portfolio as

well as geographical coverage," said Singh. Also, on the horizon are

acquisitions, he added.

The restructuring has enabled WeP to have greater and better end-customer

interaction, besides bringing in high visibility as an added benefit. The

initiative has also added up in the company's game plan on brand building.

This has also lead to a positive upward spiral in its distribution business as

well.

According to Singh, though it is too early to hazard a projection or a

guesstimate on the ratio mix of BPU and CPU revenue, the company is looking

ahead at boosting its product portfolio in the current fiscal.

Nandita Singh