VP Sajeevan, Director-CSP Division, Canon on Growth plans and Strategic moves of the company…

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Jalaj Roy Choudhury talks to VP Sajeevan, who is responsible for company’s brand building, developing IT product group and channel infrastructure in India.

Strengthening its pan-India presence with the launch 15 new products, Canon India is bullish on India market for its future growth. Further to this, these newly launched printers are enabled with Wi-Fi facility. Jalaj Roy Choudhury talks to VP Sajeevan, Director - CSP Division, Canon, who is responsible for companys brand building, developing IT product group and channel infrastructure in India. Apart from this he is also responsible for building exclusive channel network for IT products across the country and bringing consistency in IT business.

In an exclusive interview with IT VAR News, he shared his views about companys growth, strategic plans of the company in the market.

Jalaj Roy Choudhury: Which are the latest products, services and solutions that you are offering in the Printing Segment?

VP Sajeevan: Canon\'s CSP division has launched 15 new products that includes:

* 2 Single Function Laser Printers,
* 3 i

nkjet AIOs,
* 2 inkjet SFPs,
* 1 laser AIO,
* 1 scanner and 6 projectors.

These new products expand our range to 82 IT peripheral products in printing division. At present, the printing division enjoys a market share of 34.5% in the laser printer market across single function and multi function printers.

JRC: Recently you have launched various printers and all of them are Wi-Fi enabled. What compelled you to switch to this Wi-Fi platform?

VPS: These days most of the Indian homes have multiple PC/Laptops with wireless ability and are increasingly becoming WiFi enabled. Infact, now all the laptops that are shipped to India have Wi-Fi as a standard feature. In such an environment, Wi-Fi printers allow consumers to print from anywhere, whether it is from their home or office. This explains our gradual demand driven shift, towards Wi-Fi technology for our PIXMA printers.

JRC: Which are the technologic

al advancements, incorporated in High Precision Wireless printing by you?

VPS: Following are the technological advancements that have been incorporated in High Precision Wireless printing:

* Tray sensors
* Energy saving module
* Network monitoring
* Multiple platform
JRC: To what extent these new range of Printers are power efficient?

VPS: Canon has successfully incorporated energy saving technologies in both laser and inkjet printers. Canon\'s On Demand Fixing Technology for laser printers dramatically reduces overall power consumption. This is demonstrated by the fact that the new range of Laser printers has lowest TEC in its category. Canon is committed to refine these technologies further and provide consumers with convenient and environmentally conscious products. All our products also confirm to EU RoHS and supports international Energy Star program.

JRC: What will be your main focus

area for the year 2010?

VPS: For the year 2010, Canon would like to retain its market leadership in the laser category by offering consumers innovative products, technologies and programs. Canon also aims to capture 50% of Wi-Fi print market with our range of PIXMA Wi-Fi products.

JRC: What are the segments that you are targeting for your products?

VPS: Canon offers a range of products for various customer segments. We have a strong line up of Laser printers and AIOs for large corporate, SMEs and SOHO. Our PIXMA range of inkjet printers and AIOs offer both home consumers and professional consumers a range of products with varied functionalities to choose from.

JRC: These days a lot of Vendors are coming up with new products in Printer segments. What is company\'s strategy to take on competition from other players?

VPS: Apart from its cutting edge technology products, Canon also offers its consumers and channel p

artners, innovative programs and promotions that promotes & strengthen the brand. We have received an overwhelming response for our mobile showroom \"Image Express\" which is currently underway and intends to cover 38 cities across India, showcasing our range of photo printers, laser printers, cameras and camcorders. We have also launched innovative programs like Canon Smiley Program and Pixma Wi-Fi Print Stores to further strengthen our relationship with our channel partners. As a part of Canon social responsibility program we have launched our pilot Greencycle program which aims at collecting used printers and cartridges and disposing them in an environment friendly way. The idea is to take the lead in developing capabilities of our channel partners, own industry issues and ensure quality products to reiterate our leadership position in the Indian market.

JRC: How do you identify the challenges faced by the IT industry and design products accordingly?

VPS: We constantly engage with our consumers and channels through various platforms like Channel Dialogue, Gyan Yatra to understand their specific requirement. Innovation is the key of Canon\'s success. We are world leaders in consumer and professional imaging solutions and we invest approximately 10% of our net sales to R&D investment each year. Canon has also maintained its global ranking in the top five with over 26528 patents granted till date.

JRC: What kind of roadmap channel partners have to sell these products and solutions i.e. is there any pull from consumer side as well or the selling these products and solutions is just about pushing the products?

VPS: Canon products and solutions are designed around customer\'s requirement. We are market leaders in the laser category, which proves that Canon is a favorite brand among consumers. Our channel partners have over 82 products to offer to their various consumer segments as per their requiremen

ts.

JRC: Please brief about your Warranty and services.

VPS: All products have a standard warranty of one year from the date of purchase. We also offer an additional warranty of one year on web registration for select products. Our strong service and after sales network spans across 33 Canon Care Centers and 122 Authorized service centers all over India to ensure seamless implementation of Warranty policy and quick response to customer issues.

JRC: What are your future plans?

VPS: We aim at maintaining our No1 position in the laser category and scanner category and at the same time increasing our market share for inkjets and projectors. In terms of expansion, we are planning to expand our Original Ink Centres (OIC) from the current 690 to 1000 OICs across India. Canon\'s OICs offer entire range of Canon Original cartridges and media.

JRC: What are the new challenges that you face?

VPS: We are fac

ing two major challenges. The first on is keeping track of our expanding consumer base. We have successfully developed a robust system for tracking our secondary sales and customer relationship management. Second one is about our consumables. There are a lot of non-original and counterfeit cartridges currently available in the market. These fake cartridges drastically bring down the performance of our printers and also damage the printing system. We are running multiple programs and also educating our consumers on benefits of original cartridges through our Original Ink Centers across India.

JRC: How are you addressing your focus on B and C class cities?

VPS: There is a huge potential in Tier II and Tier III cities. In fact, contribution from these cities is growing at a rapid phase. We have organized several training programs, channel dialogues in these cities to empower and build their capacities in order to strengthen the Canon brand in our centers, si

tuated in these cities. Moreover, our key objective in launching Mobile Showroom - \"Image Express\" is to showcase our entire range of printers and cameras to the consumer in these cities.

JRC: Your message for the channel partners?

VPS: Channel partners are one of the important pillars of our company. We would strongly advocate the B.I.B.L.E (Before I Buy Live Experience) concept to our partners. Consumers love to see and experience products before they actually buy. Partners can add more value to this by creating a good buying experience for consumers consistent with the brand\'s tagline, \"Delighting you always.\"