TREND SETTER
WIPRO
PRODUCTS ARE THE GENESIS
OF A STRONG SERVICES COMPANY Wipro is known for its product and service capability for the large enterprises that have presence in multiple locations. It does not mean that they are lopsided of the SMEs need. BY NEIL D’SOUZA info@smechannels.com
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US$ 6.841 billion company by 2011, Wipro InfoTech is known for its service and capability. Within this large company there is a group called Wirpo Systems & Technology which is responsible for Wipro’s product capability- be it PC, Notebook, Netbook, Servers, Storage or even solutions. It might not be as glamorous as a name like HP, IBM and HCL for the consumers etc. but yes it has a very strong pool in the enterprises and government. The company’s glory might be stolen by its services and integration arm but the product story is also equally strong and the beginning of the great journey of the great company. Ashok Tripathy General Manager & Head S&T IAS Head Wipro Infotech, says, “Wipro Systems & Technology is the division within Wipro that addresses all the products, services, software and solutions around the premise of the open computing. Any product that we launch or any service that we offer, it revolves around the open computing. That means we work with industry and architecture that is open technology such as open source and industry standard and we take forward it in terms of products and services in the market.” Wipro addresses all the products that come under the tenet of open technology, whether its client systems, data centre Systems and Infrastructure software. So in client system, the company has the entire range of notebooks, enterprise mobility products that goes beyond notebooks and netbooks. In data centre space, the company has servers, storage and other data centre equipment that goes to data centre for enterprise application. In the infrastructure software space
Wipro offers all infrastructure that goes around Microsoft and open source. It means the company covers entire range of products that creates an IT ecosystem for the enterprises. From the product perspective, Wipro offers desktops, Notebooks and enterprise mobility. Further to classify desktops into various ranges the company offers enterprise desktops, lifestyle desktops, slim frame desktops and thin client solutions, In mobility, the company offers commercial mobility products which is sold under eGo brand and the enterprise mobility products which helps to connect enterprise applications to the last mile. So that comprises Wipro’s client portfolio. In data centre system, Wipro offers the entire range of servers and storage. Further to categorise servers, the company has entire range on x86 platform whether it is Tower servers, Rack servers, scalable enterprise servers or even Blade servers. On storage front, the company offers work group storage, modular storage and enterprise -class storage. The company looks at the market in various parameters that most of the other vendors look. Like all vendors, the top customers of the organizations are few in number but are responsible for a quantum of products thus they are addressed directly and the rest of the customers are that the SMEs, who are addressed through a group of channel partners. Wipro has a team who works very closely with its partners. This team takes the entire solutions, stack through the channel partners to the SME market. So the strategy of the company is very clearly divided into two parts. The first part is direct presence of the company
in the top segment of the market, the enterprise and government space and the second part is the SMEs where the company address through channel partners. This base is quite significant to Wipro like the other one. As far as channel distribution is concerned, Wipro has a tiered distribution strategy. Ashok adds, “We work primarily with the large distribution organizations that cater to regional distributors and value added partners. These value added partners have been cornerstones for Wipro for a long period of time.” He adds, “Wipro is the first organization in the IT segment which had got into this indirect model of distribution model in way back 1989. At that point of time, selling PC and Accessories was unheard of but Wipro had started that legacy. So given the background we are fairly well established in terms of the way we addressed our channel partners. So value added partners are the partners who are very closely linked with whatever Wipro has to offer for market space, beyond that we’ve star partners, business associates and reseller community who work very closely with our distributors to take our products and services into the market place.” If Wipro is into the indirect model of IT business then what is the critical differentiation between Wipro and other companies? Ashok adds, “The reason of channel partners to do business with us is the time and energy that we spend in terms of creating the overall portfolio. It is really compelling for our customers. Secondly, we have a huge field force to assist the partners to take forward the solution. As you go forward, the solution needs of the customer becomes more
48 SME CHANNELS AUGUST 2011
Trend Setter_Ashok Tripathy of Wipro.indd 48
8/23/2011 7:46:38 PM