Tech Shout!

WeP Peripherals Limited is one of India’s largest employee-owned companies. They recently launched the TOP.UPS, a unique first-of-its-kind UPS in India. We had a telephonic interview with their Marketing Manager Mr. Ramdin Sanga, who has been with the WeP from the last 10 years and has been instrumental in elevating WeP’s brand awareness, helping in the growth of relevant customer segments while strengthening marketing relationships with existing and new channel partners. Here’s how the whole interview went:

TS: Can you tell us something about WeP?

RS: WeP is a company that is in the peripherals business. We are also into the printing and security products business like information management & protection. Besides, we are also into design services. We have been in the market since September 2000 when we broke away from the company, the Wipro group.

TS: What prompted you to develop something like TOP.UPS? Was it developed in India?

RS: Yes, TOP.UPS was conceived totally in India in terms of the design, in terms of the application, in terms of production, everything was done in-house in India. Our philosophy at WeP Peripherals is that of grooming our consumer’s tech fantasy. Now if you look at the standard products that are available in the market today, many of them are very similar, if you look around, in the way these products are there. Many of them are similarly priced and have similar applications. We want to unearth the unsaid needs of many of our consumers. When you look at TOP.UPS and our target audience, one thing that came across very significantly in our line of business, which is the personal power computer business i.e. of UPS, one thing was very apparent that the UPS was relegated to below the table.

Now it is a product with which consumers don’t interact that much. However, at the same time, if you look at the value, the functionality of the UPS, it is ultimately protecting the earlier investment you have made, that is your PC. We thought why a product like UPS be relegated to under the table. The consumer today is spending so much of his time on the personal computer. If you are talking about the home, office, SOHO and when a person is working at the SOHO, he is also doing a number of activities. Today if you look at any consumer today, most of them have mobile chargers and many times, you are searching for a charger, which fits your specific mobile, whether it is Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung or Motorola, the chargers are completely different. Sometimes you may want to charge your mobile when there is no current. Now today in Bangalore, which is a metropolis, we have a power shutdown that too on daily basis.

TS: What kind of market research did you for it?

RS: We had a lot of focus group discussions with a target audience sample, and discussed with them what they would like in a product. One thing is very clear across India the power cuts are rampant. Now when the power cuts do happen, if you see in many cases, you have emergency lamps and many of them are cheap imports from China. The reason that you use the emergency lamp, is when the current goes off, when you search for the candles, matchboxes or on a PC table you are searching for the keypad, for example, if you are writing a report or typing an e-mail, you are wanting to immediately finish the job, switch off the computer and then wait for the power to comeback on.

The emergency lamp example came across a discussion through a focus group discussion, when a lot of consumers said that this something that they are looking forward too. The focus of the discussions was one of the main places where we got a lot of insights, in terms of the design and functionality.

TS: What about the ergonomically pleasing ‘bio-design’? How did you come about it?

RS: We were fundamentally clear at the beginning of the project that since it is going to be at the top of the table it needs to satisfy three things. One is, it needs to be small, the table only has the PC and usually they have the music speakers. Some places they even have the keyboard. On top of that, you can’t really have a UPS, especially the UPS that are found in the markets. Two, the moment you talk about keeping the UPS on the table, you need to design it in such a way that shape wise it looks attractive, colour wise it blends with the environment, the interior of your room. The third thing, of course is, it cannot be on top of the table just for the sake of it. It needs to have some kind of functionality to it. That’s how we built it into those designs, in terms of the ergonomically designed, we are talking about the shape. The shape is extremely distinct form the normal box-shaped UPS that you get.

Also, if you look at the UPS, we want to bring in relevance to the consumer, if he sees it, he wants to touch it. Now the moment you see something, which is so likeable, the reaction is to go and touch the UPS. So we designed the UPS in such a way, it has a blend of shape and colour which makes it very desirable for the consumer to touch it and feel it and put it on the top of the table. And, when you carry the UPS, it should be something that is very easy to carry. So, we have provided some grips at the back and the side. That is the way we have approached the design and if you can see, also in terms of the functionality, we have also included the CD rack on top of the UPS. The consumer would like to store some of his CDs in them, on the tabletop.

TS: Can you elaborate on the technology used in developing the TOP.UPS?

RS: The key challenges that we had in developing the TOP.UPS was the size. It needs to be small. The moment you keep it on a tabletop, it can have interference with the monitor. So we had to approach how we design a completely different looking UPS and in terms of the functionality of the UPS, I think, one of the most important aspects of the design is the transformer. It is the key component in the UPS, what we got in the TOP.UPS is an iron core transformer. It is a very, very tightly wound design and the advantage is gives you is, it gives you half the size of a standard transformer. It is also half the weight. So you are getting a small and a light UPS. It also gives low electromagnetic interferences, which is important when you keep an electromagnetic product next to your computer.

TS: In case of a power cut, how long can the TOP.UPS function?

RS: It gives 20 minutes of back up in case of a P4 machine and 15-inch monitor. And with a 17-inch monitor, it gives a 15 minute back up. It will give you a ten percent advantage over the UPS that are available in the market. The design gives you one more advantage, suppose if you buy a UPS from the market and you start charging it, there is a certain time between a standard UPS and you charge it up to full capacity, usually, it takes about eight to ten hours of continuous charging. We are able to get a twenty-five percent faster charging time. How is it relevant? For example, supposing if a user faces power cuts very often, on a daily basis. In the evening when he comes home and he is surfing the net or working on his computer, the power goes off, he may not use the PC until the UPS completely discharges. In our case, it would be like twenty minutes, now the moment the power comes on, he may want to start his PC. A TOP.UPS user will be able to start his PC two hours earlier than other UPS users.

TS: What about the pricing? Do you think Indian consumers will accept it?

RS: We have taken TOP.UPS to a couple of exhibitions and we have shown the product to many of our customers and target audience. Their first reaction is not about the pricing, it is about the novelty of it, the looks of it and in fact in many situations we don’t even encounter a price question. For example, we have a professor who had bought it from us and she wanted to see TOP.UPS as we had started advertising about it and she wanted a demonstration, when we did that and then she bought it.

The price is not a question at all. I think the question is in terms of making this product available to the consumers to have a look, touch and feel of the product. I think here what we are talking about is the category; this is not really a UPS. I would call it, ‘This is also an UPS’, in fact this is what we call as a multifunction UPS. So for the consumer, I do think, the pricing is not much of an issue. I think the touch and feel, the looks and the functionality is finally what determines whether the consumer feels need for this product. When you look at a normal consumer’s home today, he has an iPod, microwave, a Sony Erickson and an N72 type of a mobile phone; he has got a music system. Today’s homes are highly wired gadgets homes, what we call as electronic homes today. Now consumers are very demanding in terms of the performance he gets out of the products that they used. I think this product suffices both, in terms of performances as well as in terms of looks.

TS: What are your expectations of the TOP.UPS?

RS: Right now, we have just introduced the TOP.UPS in the market and we are now testing the waters and as far as the numbers go, when you talk about the UPS market at large, what we are facing today, a minimum of 1000 – 1500 is a pretty small number that we can aspire to sell.

TS: Will there be newer versions of the TOP.UPS with more features like fans added to it?

RS: I wish I could share some of these developments, which have happened of late on this line, they are extremely interesting. They are from the same platform. At this point, it is a bit too early, but I can tell you, in about three to four months we should be able to come back to you with new designs, the new variants on the TOP. UPS.

TS: What other devices are you planning to roll out in the future?

RS: We have launched some products from the Tech Fantasy in the last three or four months. One of it is the BP-40, the billing machine.

TS: And what about other countries? Will the TOP.UPS be rolled out in other parts of the world?

RS: We have our counterparts; we have the international team who handle global markets. They are taking the product forward, in fact, we have also participated in a couple of exhibitions outside of India and the response has been wonderful, it has been extremely well received.

TS: What are the future plans of WeP? Can Indian consumers expect more gadgets like TOP.UPS in the next 3 – 5 years?

RS: We have carved ourselves on one thought, which is blooming our consumers’ tech fantasy and for us we want to continuously bring out consumers tech fantasy products in the marketplace. For example, TOP.UPS is a tech fantasy product, which is what we called as a game changer, the creation of a new category all-together that was not available before. Now BP-40, the billing machine was a opportunity to our retailers to automate their operations, to manage their cash flow with a product as low-cost as 8000 rupees. Now people talk about tech fantasy, tech fantasy need not be expensive only. Tech fantasy is something, which provides real working value to your target segment. For example, BP-40 is real tech fantasy for the trading community. Many of them today who do not have any record of their transactions and who at the end of the day don’t know how the cash is being generated. BP- 40 enabled them to do that.

For example, one of our customers, he had three bakeries and in the morning, he goes to the three bakeries and gives his employees a certain amount of money and he goes about his other work. In the evening, he comes and makes the trip to the bakeries in the different parts of the city, collects all the cash whatever they have at the end of the day as well as the BN report, it gives him the entire transactions that have happened in that shop on that day, item wise. For him, it is a very convenient way of knowing how much of cash and business his three shops have generated. So, it enabled it in a very strong as well as a low cost way. At the end of the day, he does not even have to buy a computer to automate his business. He doesn’t even need to spend 28, 000 on a computer plus a printer to be able to know exactly how much money he has made during the day.

We promise our consumers continuous tech fantasy. So, yes there are many more products, which are there in the pipeline. There are other products, which are currently in the process of being launched, and you will see many such products coming out from the WeP.