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