“We work with a philosophy that our partners should not suffer”

In a candid interaction with The DQ Channels, Rajiv Shah, director, Asia Powercom emphasizes on nourishment of channel ecosystem to increase the brand visibility in the market.

What is your product portfolio? What are the key verticals you focus on?

Rajiv Shah: Asia Powercom is a joint venture with Powercom Co. Ltd., Taiwan. Asia Powercom commenced its operations in India in 2003, with a goal to provide quality power solutions to Indian masses. Considering the changing market dynamics, we enhanced our product portfolio over the years. We have grown up with UPS, solar devices, IT peripherals and mobile accessories. Our product portfolio includes Powerbank, Surge Protectors, AVR, SMPS for PCs and Power adapters for Laptop, CCTV, printers, AIO etc. Our products have been highly recognized by customers across the country. Our services have spread across the verticals.

Are you basically a channel driven company? How do you ensure reasonable margins for your partners?

Rajiv Shah: We have indirect presence and all our business is routed through our channel partners. We have presence in 9 states and have around 280 clients across the country. Our dedicated service support centers situated at 70 locations provides effective services customers. We are loyal to our dealers and distributors. We educate the channel,  work with them and take hand shake with them that by selling our products they will get good margins.

How do you differentiate Asia Powercom from other players in the industry?

Rajiv Shah: In India, business happens on the basis of relations. We know people from long time that gives us an edge. We work with a philosophy that our dealers should not lose money and suffer. That is a personal touch I have given to my business. Secondly, we are always into product line where there are hard selling products.  We were never into demand generated product line. We develop a customize products for our partners that is not available anywhere and that’s how we are winning the edge.

It is observed that many hardware vendors are exploring new business opportunities with emerging technologies. Do you have plans to get into software industry?

Rajiv Shah: Though we are not directly involved in the software part, we offer power solutions to software. In simple words, we perform indirect role in the software industry. We are investing in ERP heavily but that is altogether a separate area. We are not directly involved in software solutions, however, we take care of power side of solution.

You have been involved in various crucial government projects. Can you shed a light on which kind of power solutions you are providing for these projects?

Rajiv Shah: We are engaging heavily in the crucial government projects. We are giving power solutions for various education projects in remote and some of the insurgency hit areas in tie up with big software giants like TCS, NIIT and so on. We have deployed 10000 UPS across India for TATAs. We recently completed CCTNS project of Goa police. We worked with TCS and supported for UPS solutions. The software part that is connectivity is done by TCS and the hardware maintenance is done by us. We make sure that all UPS are up and right all the time people are there who support them locally.

Education is the most important vertical for UPS industry. However, this segment is witnessing stagnancy in last couple of years. What reasons do you identify for sluggishness in education sector?

Rajiv Shah: Asia Powercom grew with the growth in the education sector. Some years before Smart classes were a big bang and that time we were at a right place. Educomp gave us a break and we were dealing with Top IT giants. Today, Educomp in bad phase because the maturity that suppose to come in that industry and the funding that suppose to get was not given in a right direction. School business coming down as nobody wants to build a school business. Government is not giving proper money at right time. Good people have gone out due to certain draw backs in the system. If the government gives proper policy for education in the next 20 years, it will grow expeditiously.

How do you align with make in India initiative?

Rajiv Shah: Narendra Modi has very good vision of creating a manufacturing space in the country but it is not viable to manufacture in India. In the electronics industry, we do not have local component manufacturing and therefore, we have to depend on import. Margins are not large enough that big companies will come here and manufacture. For the success of ‘Make in India’, the government should put base for component manufacturing first. Once the component manufacturing comes in India we will be forced to start manufacturing here as all resources are available locally.

Secondly, inverted duty structure is also a critical area which needs to be addressed on a priority basis. When I used to manufacture power solutions for computers, the duties were at 300 percent and now it is at zero percent. How it will make me a sense to manufacture here.

What are your marketing strategies to increase product visibility in 2015?

Rajiv Shah: We will be coming with new products every quarter. We are working on data pads and data cards. We are actively working on surveillance because with women security coming in it is going to be big business. Many more exiting products and variants are in the pipeline and would be launched shortly.