Ramesh Raajamani, BDM, Hitachi GST shares growth plans, strategies, channel partners and much more..

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In an exclusive interview with Pragya Gupta over a cup of coffee, Business Development Manager, Hitachi GST, Ramesh Raajamani, shared his views about company’s products, its partners, services and many more other things.

Few months back, Hitachi GST has introduced external drives and now it possess complete range of the products. GST is purely a hard drive company and solutions like NAS etc., are not part of this unit but of HDS. In an exclusive interview with Pragya Gupta over a cup of coffee, Business Development Manager, Hitachi GST, Ramesh Raajamani, shared his views about companys products, its partners, services and many more other things.

Here are the excerpts:-
Pragya Gupta: There are already several key players in the external storage market. Is Hitachi is late in entering the market?

Ramesh Raajamani: No, we feel theres plenty of opportunity to go around. The acquisition of Fabrik strategically expands Hitachi GSTs market presence and customer base, strengthens our product portfolio, and laid the foundation for the next phase of our business transformation. We believe that our established consumer and professional brands, proven management team, strong prod

uct roadmap and Tier 1 customer base, will help us to move forward in the industry.

PG: How will Hitachi differentiate from other competitors in Indian market?

RR: We believe that innovative players are always there in the market. With our leading edge technology, global reputation and track record as a reliable, high quality storage provider, we are confident to succeed in this new market segment.

PG: Why did Hitachi decide to acquire Fabrik?

RR: As mentioned earlier, the acquisition strategically expands Hitachi GST market presence and customer base, strengthens product portfolio and laid the foundation for the next phase of our business transformation. Fabriks established consumer and professional brands, proven management team, strong product roadmap and Tier 1 customer base integrate well with Hitachi GST.

We are now leveraging our significant scale and resources to launch new products on a glob

al scale using our worldwide sales and distribution channels.

PG: Kindly shed lights on Hitachi GST current product Portfolio?

RR: We have complete portfolio of hard drives and deskstar for desktop and Travelstar for laptops. We also have Ultrastar for servers and Cinemastar especially for Surveillance cameras and other Consumer electronic products, as there need and usage is different from others.

PG: - Visibility of Hitachis external drives is low in comparison with other brands. What are Hitachis plans to manage this situation?

RR: It might be true, however our SIs and consumers know Hitachi and they know that Hitachi represent quality. May be are not selling high in volumes but when it comes to quality SIs names Hitachi first. Nevertheless, to increase our visibility, we are targeting LFRs like Staple, Chroma etc. Later on we will target small retail stores, SIs, Government and GIDC, which are also in our plans.

/> PG: What is your current marketing and distribution structure in India?

RR: We are 100 % Channel Company. We are working with four distributors Cyberstar, Neoteric, Spectra, and Redington as our national distributors. We have reseller partners under the distributors. Apart from these, there are SI partners and resellers, who work for the brand.

Our marketing strategy includes the following elements:

# Extend customers reach to consumer sectors with introduction of external hard disk drives to India

# Capitalize on growth anticipated in 3.5-inch consumer electronics areas like DVR/Set Top Boxes and surveillance applications

# Continue to drive capacity leadership in mobile and desktop hard drives

# Expand our leadership in the 2.5-inch segment and continuing to grow our presence in the 3.5-inch segment

# Continue to build our portfolio strength and presence in enterprise

> We will also explore new business opportunities and extend our product lines. For instance, in December 2008, we formed strategic partnership with Intel to launch the new enterprise class solid-state drives (SSDs) for servers, workstations and storage systems, with the first products expected to be available in 2H 2010. Also, we did acquisition of Fabrik, Inc through which Hitachi can expand into the fast-growing external storage market.

We strive to provide our customers with easy access to our broad product portfolio, and comprehensive channel support. For instance we are organizing campaigns and promotions, availing our end-user products through more retail points, participating in tradeshows, active media outreach, product education for our channel, marketing and sales tools and resources, etc.

PG: What kind of Channel initiatives Hitachi is looking at?

RR: India is an important market for Hitachi GST. There is a huge potential

for the growth in traditional PC, external storage market and emerging non-PC segments.

# We aim to extend the network of partners in the tier 2 and 3 cities, and enhance the brand loyalty of resellers via Hitachi Partners Privilege (HPP) program. Ongoing product trainings will be conducted in tier 2 and 3 cities, besides the tier 1 cities, to educate the channel on our products, create an opportunity for interaction and improve the brand exposure. The training sessions are happening quarterly and our local spokespersons will do the product presentations.

# The enhanced marketing and technical support program is a strategic step, which will help us to get closer to the market, build strong relationships with our channel partners, and enhance our go-to-market capabilities.

# Our channel partners are an extension of our team and we value their feedback. We are open to address issues of our channel partners. Overall, this will help us to bui

ld a better partner program, improve our position in the market, accentuate the existing growth momentum and help them to develop their bottom line.

# We have strengthened our marketing and channel partner programs in India, which provides easier access to our broad product portfolio and offers more comprehensive support to the channel. This plays a key role in building momentum in the market as our channel partners are having support and our high quality hard drives readily available for various applications across the country.

PG: What is Hitachi Partner Privilege Program (HPP)?

RR: Hitachi Partners Privilege program is a long-term customer loyalty program that provides its partners those tools which are needed to grow their business and enhance their bottom line. Providing consistent rewards, promotions and support to its members since 2005, the HPP program first launched in China, followed by Taiwan, India, South Korea, and some ASEAN

countries. We will continue to enhance our HPP program and make it even better and more relevant for our channel customers.

The HPP program has been improved with more features, namely the inclusion of Branded products to the program and the completion of a new Branded rebates table, made available in May 2010 to HPP partners. Theres also an added dedicated HPP fax line support to members starting April 2010 in response to members feedback. These upgrades will help our channel partners to boost their sales and profitability. In Q2 2010, the new Hitachi Branded products will also be included in HPP, besides the existing Deskstar and Travelstar products. This is in line with the companys Branded products development in the country.

We strive to provide our partners with consistent and best-in-class products, services and channel support.

PG: How many partners are members of the HPP program in India?

RR: Im afraid we cannot di

sclose the number. What we can tell you is that Hitachis HPP program is an ongoing, long-term customer loyalty program targeting resellers, system integrators, system builders and retailers in 35 states and territories across India. In 2009, HPP program in India registered an increase of 21 percent in the total number of registered members as compared to 2008, and an increase of 91 percent in the total number of members who consistently reported Hitachi hard drive sales data, as compared to 2008. This followed a revamp of the HPP system in early 2009, to a more robust, online system.

PG: What is the criterion to be a HPP member?

RR: All channel customers (non-OEM) who purchase qualified Hitachi GST hard drives are eligible to join HPP program. Qualified HPP members will be rewarded with debit cards stored with the dollar equivalent of their accumulated HPP reward points, which are earned by purchasing eligible Hitachi desktop, mobile and Branded hard dr