From Wipro e-peripherals to WEP and then to WeP Peripherals Limited, the journey of this company has been more than a decade long, but with every name change the company has come out very strongly and performed very well. In 2000, WeP Peripherals Limited officially separated from Wipro, the premier service company of India, and the company is growing from strength to strengh. With Mr. Ram N. Agarwal at the helm of affairs, as the Managing Director & CEO of the Company, WeP Peripherals is involved in the business of bringing quality products in IT peripherals solutions, supplies and printing services, which happen to be the core competency of the company. Being the chief of the organization, Ram infuses confidence among the workforce as he is an industry veteran for the last 22 years. The vision of the company is to be the providers of the most valuable tech fantasy products, solutions and services. Therefore, WeP concentrates on bringing innovative products in Power Supply Management or UPS, Printing Solutions, Security Solutions, PoS for retails. However, the company is also dealing in networking products, including switches.In mid-2006, WeP unveiled a new corporate identity, signifying a milestone in the company’s history and highlighting an ambitious vision to be India’s most valuable tech fantasy products, solutions and services enterprises. WeP’s identity features a “fantasy berry” with an embedded chip inside the alphabet “O”, with positioning of “Bloom Your Tech Fantasy” emphasizes a focus to create a vibrant and unique B2C, business-to-customer relationship. The chip “Tech” denotes the rational factor of the company’s business. “Bloom Your Tech Fantasy” signifies WeP’s intent to bloom the consumer’s tech fantasy.
According to Jayant Gundewar, Chief Strategy Officer, WeP Peripherals, “WeP Peripherals Limited is one of India’s largest employee-owned companies.”
WeP promises to be consistently proactive and perform with integrity and speed at the cutting edge of technology and innovation to deliver the consumer’s Tech Fantasy.
WeP has spread its wings across different solutions. The company has three divisions, namely, products, Information Management and Information Protection (IM&IP) (Select Technologies) and printing services, which have helped the company in growing business.
The company closed its last financial year at Rs.370 crore, up from Rs.337 crore in the previous year. This year has been a year of investment and reorganization at WeP. Jayant adds, “We have done well in our Information Management and Information Protection business where we have grown at more than 35 per cent, our printing outsourcing business too has grown at a healthy 27 per cent, in power solutions business we have consolidated our number 2 position in the industry, besides coming up with new products in the printing space.”
He adds, “Our internal target is to grow faster than the overall industry growth; this year sales and marketing have been integrated to handle the complete portfolio. The frontline sales will have full ownership of both enterprise and channel accounts.”
The company is extremely bullish about 2007-08 as it will focus on growing its Information Management & Protection (Select Technologies) business, Printing Services business and Retail & Power Solutions business. The growth of network security & data backup across enterprises augurs well for WeP’s IM&IP business. Printing Outsourcing is a major cost control tool being deployed by large enterprises. The retail growth continues to offer huge opportunities. With differentiation for particular segments emerging to be a key driver, WeP, with its large range of specialized printing solutions, stands to benefit in 2007-08.
Today, WeP has a host of products in the categories of Impact Printers, High Speed Printers and Line Matrix Printers. Jayant says,’“Our ‘Tech Fantasy’ products range from next-generation printers for retail applications O WeP Bounti BP40, O WeP Bounti Rainbow – an 80 Column impact printer to multifunctional TOP.UPS. And, the revolutionary invention DCB UPS consolidates our offerings in the products business.”
Print & Save services is another innovation from WeP Peripherals with both On-site and Off-site services. On-site helps to measure your print cost, capital cost, its maintenance free with zero obsolescence with free consumables. Off-site services includes remote printing, secure printing, variety printing and document management. WeP has expanded this service to the tier-II cities to cater to the growing demand.
Traditionally, printing range is the flagship category for WeP. Slowly and steadily, the company is focussing on Information Protection, power and retail products as well. The emphasis is on products invented and patented at WeP. WeP has always come up with products to cater to the changing needs of the customers.
WeP undertakes different channel engagement programmes like periodic communication through electronic mail and by conducting various direct engagement programmes like the Display-n-Win contest to reward and motivate the reseller for their innovative showcasing of WeP products.
Each year, WeP organizes an annual channel partners’ meet called’“Rishtey” for its partners dealing in Security & Storage product lines. This year, Rishtey 2007 was conducted in Colombo (Sri Lanka) from July 4 to 7, 2007. Over 150 global storage and security partners from India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives congregated at the event.
These initiatives provide a forum to share ideas and network with the channel fraternity. It not only helps us to reinforce our network relationships but also helps us decide on our future vision and growth.
The company has a very good OEM relationship. Most of the major OEMs and NSIs procure products from WeP directly for their project related business. As far as the channel is concerned, WeP bills to city distributors who, in turn, sell to resellers. There must be 300 WeP partners both for Products and Solutions business, with whom the company works regularly.
In order to support the entire business, there is a mechanism comprising 500 employees, 1,500 trained partner technology professionals across 14 area offices, which are supported by 17 Warehouses and 19 Warranty Stockists, 252 Authorized Service Providers at 171 locations in the country. The company has two Export Hardware Tech Parks with special privileges for serving International customers. With our service centres and training centres, we provide comprehensive after-sales support to our customers.
WeP has understood the nerve of the Indian business. That is the reason why it is focussing on tier-II cities like Kochi, Coimbatore, Chandigarh, Bhopal and Lucknow to leverage on its power conditioning, retail billing and print & save solutions. However, all across the country, the company has presence but at present south is the largest contributor to the company’s operations. On the other side, from the verticals perspective, WeP is very strong in Banking & Financial services, government, manufacturing and services segments.
Finally…
With strong ethics behind the business, WeP is expected to bring a lot more Tech Fantasy products in the near future. Retail shop-owners can expect a range of products to suit their bill printing needs without spending unnecessarily on PC + Softwares. SMB consumers can expect attractive Anti-Virus and data Backup produ
cts from WeP.
Jayant maintains, “We would like to expand our product portfolio, especially in the retail billing and power conditioning solutions. We are in the process of segment-based customization of our products like the BP 40 to cater to the needs of specific business verticals. With the new innovative products, we have to change the mindset of our target audience and it is a time-consuming process. We are also bullish in positioning our power conditioning solutions, as they are custom-made for the Indian scenario. WeP is also expanding the Print & Save business to the tier-II cities.”
The company is also investing in, and expanding, its manufacturing facilities in Mysore and Himachal Pradesh. With a committed annual expense for R&D, WeP promises to come up with even more innovative and customized products to bloom its customers’ tech fantasy.
