eSys now gets into rupee billing mode

October 2002 saw the launch of ePC by Delhi-based distribution major eSys Distribution Ltd. Hailed as the product of the year, this PC was aimed at the price sensitive segment of the Indian PC industry. November 2002 saw the appointment of distributor and announcement that over 100 distributors will be appointed across the nation. In the same league, GS Paul, CEO, eSys, has announced a slew of tie-ups with various companies and the company's expansion plans to enhance the presence of eSys in India.

The new initiatives include tie-ups with Asus and LG. Elaborated Paul, "With Asus we will start our first rupee billing model with the motherboards. It will be the first step towards our expansion as a rupee-billing distributor in India. However, our dollar billing models would remain unchanged."

It is also planning to launch Desknote--a laptop that would have a processor of a conventional desktop but a chassis like a laptop. "Desknote will deliver desktop-level performance and indoor portability. It can be a perfect desktop replacement solution for cost-conscious users. It is aimed at redefining the desktop computing," explained Paul.

Desknote would be launched along with Asus by the end of March 2003. These desknotes would be priced between Rs 55,000 to Rs 65,000 and would be assembled in the assembling units with which eSys has tied-up. Prominent amongst them are Vintron and Millennium, which would do the contractual assembling for ePCs and the
desknotes.

After three months of the soft launch of ePC, eSys now plans to do a formal citywise launch across the north and east of India in the phase one. Disclosed Paul, "We would stick to the conventional distributor, dealer and reseller model for this product, and now on it would be a box product." Talking about value adding the box product, he hinted at a few bundling offers which are in the pipeline. He is planning to start the second phase of expansion in the next quarter to cover the rest of the country.

For these ePCs, the company has tied-up with LG for the 15 inch CRT monitors.

R Manikandan, DGM (Sales and Marketing), LG Electronics India Pvt Ltd, is very bullish about the eSys-LG tie-up. "I am sure this product will be able to create a niche for itself in the market and volumes would soon follow."

Talking about the strategy involved in the ePC sales, Paul said, "Name of the game is customization of this product. We plan to cater to everyone's demand with the same zeal across all the cities. An ad campaign is also in the offing." To fortify the brand equity of this product, eSys plans to give offsite and onsite warranties for this machine. It is also planning to open service centers in all its 10 branches across the nation and would like to expand the service centers across the nation over a period of time.

eSys is also planning to launch its own brand of RAMs in the near future.

Shweta Khanna