Q/A
With its XPS line-up, which caters to the clamshell and 2-in-1 markets, Dell is focusing on providing models that can deliver on both the work and entertainment fronts. With increasing PC penetration in India, the company is also concentrating on consumer experience.
In an exclusive interaction withThe Hindu, Raj Kumar Rishi, Dell Vice President & Managing Director, Consumer and Small Business, India, spoke about the company’s focus on small and medium businesses, the PC market in India, and more.
Edited excerpts from the discussion:
With talk of recession, how do you see the performance of Dell’s XPS line-up panning out?
Raj Kumar Rishi: With the most premium range of devices, the focus is on experience and sustainability. We are trying to enhance the experience for our customers so it not only gives a better experience but also better productivity. Irrespective of how the market goes, we are looking for better productivity, and devices that perform and can do multiple tasks like work and entertainment, and that’s where XPS fits in - and that’s how we are actually looking at enhancing the entire product portfolio.
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As you mentioned, the focus is more on providing devices which fill the gap for both work and entertainment. With that in mind, what kind of launches can we expect?
RK: So, over the years, we’ve been at the forefront of bringing new innovation. The addition of new form factors will happen as and when the need arises, or as and when things evolve.
What is the small business market like in India for tech companies?
RK: Whether it’s small businesses or computing solutions, technology providers like Dell give them a solution and advice on what kind of deployment they should have in their organisation.
We have a team of technology advisors in India, which works directly with small business organisations to understand their computing needs and help them in their technology deployment.
How does the arrangement with businesses work?
RK: For small businesses, it’s like an on-the-phone engagement, where they are in contact with technology advisors or inside sales reps who work on providing the right solution. These are extremely experienced sales reps.
Then you keep growing. In terms of large organisations, we have outside sales reps, and these technology advisors visit customers. Along with the technology consultant or a technical consultant and based on the needs of those customers, they provide support.
And then, we have medium business organisations with varying requirements for the financing organ or technology.
We provide solutions focused on their specific needs. To summarise, it’s the solution itself that varies from vertical to vertical and so does the approach. If you’re a small business, there are separate segments on our website and you can buy online. Some of our customers actually choose to buy online.
We provide choices to the customer and let them decide and since small businesses are right now being seen as the backbone of the economy, there’s a lot of focus on them.
Is there any State-wise categorisation that Dell is looking at? And if so, which states in India perform better in terms of sales?
RK: Besides the organised sector, there’s also the unorganised sector that includes CAs, lawyers, and so on. There are obviously pockets where you have a density of such professionals. For example, Ludhiana has many businesses. Similarly Gujarat has manufacturing, and we keep identifying them.
I can name smaller cities as well, and some of them are shaping up extremely well, but I’ll probably do injustice to the ones I leave out.
We look at these clusters and try to make sure that it’s not only sales for the organisation but even consumer needs for that matter - like large universities - to ensure that our post-sales network and our service sector is available within these clusters.
Have chip shortages affected Dell in any of the segments that we talked about for small-scale businesses, and for personal use for consumers in India?
RK: Yeah, of course, there was a demand-supply gap during the pandemic. Dell has a very flexible supply chain strategy. We work in various countries across the world to optimise our supply chain and I would say we did a reasonably good job on that front.
Each brand was trying to optimise and there were times when there were physical limitations during the lockdown, and if you look at Dell’s results globally, we did a reasonably good job at that.
