Samsung reincarnates Buildurpc.com as BUPC

BUPC website has been around for nearly two years and gets nearly 12 million hits per quarter. This initiative is based on the internal audit done recently and it was decided to leverage this unit more aggressively.

The BUPC site has now been extended offline into a physical manifestation of a BUPC branded PC. These are high-end configurations positioned against various `usages' of a PC (as opposed to the current approach of configurations of most PC brands).

Said Vivek Prakash, GM, SEIIT, "Once the physical manifestation of the BUPC was made available, SEIIT came immediately in the branded PC biz. To avoid conflict with the current marketing channels for our various peripherals (that are also ultimately used by the various OEMs) we have decided to address the PC market in two distinct manners."

Under the first initiative, it will market PC configurations under the BUPC brand in the open market. These will be the high-end configurations with the approach of `best-in-class'. For example, configurations under this brand will have 17 inch color monitor and CDRW as standard fitment at the entry level. This product roadmap continues to evolve and a much more visible and noisier approach may be seen from mid-December.

Secondly, SEIIT has also launched BUPC-branded PC kits in the market. These are being offered to selected PC assemblers who address the corporate and government business aggressively.

The first step in this initiative is the tie up with WEBEL in Calcutta. WEBEL has tied-up with a company called SynTech and formed a joint venture called Web-Tech. SEIIT will be supplying PC kits to this joint venture. These kits are complete in nature and the assembler does not need to source anything from outside.

SEIIT's engagement in the project is limited to the technical assistance to PC assembling process/supply of kits and post-sales service of the `kit parts'.

"We are evaluating more such options across the country--both in the public and private sphere," revealed Prakash. He believes that the PC market has more or less stagnated in the Indian context and the same is reflecting the current business practices of Samsung. Since the BUPC project has now become a PC brand, it proposes to use the PC language to invest in marketing and PC product awareness at the consumer level.

On the marketing initiatives, Prakash said that consumer activation is the key to market growth and the PC as a product gives SEIIT the tool to talk to the consumer. "With a HDD or a CDRW, the same cannot be done so effectively as the consumer ultimately buys a PC and not an
HDD."

Elaborating on the WEBEL tie-up, he said that SEIIT has appointed Syntech as one of the SASIs for east and northeast. On its part, Syntech is assembling the PCs at WEBEL premises.

Shweta Khanna