The innovations happening across the Indian technology sector is incredible and over the past few years, we have seen significant growth in the storage industry. This growth is highly attributed to the increased demand for storage devices among people due to the more data is being generated each day. Moreover, professional gamers and basic PC users have started switching to SSDs for a better and smoother experience. Industry leader, Western Digital has been producing excellent storage solutions to boost data management capabilities for users across all vertical. Just recently, Western Digital launched its new portfolio of SSDs for the Indian market. DT got the opportunity to interact with Jaganathan Chelliah, Director – Marketing at Western Digital, India. He shared his overall marketing strategies, service offerings, and details about new launch as well.
DT: How do you see the launch of WD Black™ SN750 NVMe™ SSD by Western Digital?
Jaganathan: This launch is very crucial for Western Digital, the portfolio that we have launched is best in class for SSDs market. NVMe Technology provides a significant improvement in terms of performance for PC users. We are extremely happy that we have been able to bring in this product portfolio for Indian consumers. If you look at how the technology has evolved over the past few years, our performance related growth has always been on the CPU’s side of PC technology. This is probably the first time that we are seeing significant improvement in performance from the storage perspective. And this will help the consumers in to have a far more interactive, immersive and productive experience.
DT: What are your SSD offerings for different set of consumers?
Jaganathan: It depends on which type of applications we have brought. For gamers and content creators, we have WD Black SSDs, for mainstream or business PC users, we have WD Blue on NVMe technology and for basic everyday computing, we have an entry-level portfolio under WD Green. So it’s a complete SSD portfolio that we have, WD Green is based on SATA technology, WD Blue and WD Black have got SATA and NVMe technology.
DT: How do you see the transition happening across HDD and SSD market space?
Jaganathan: Today we see a significant transition happening into SSDs primarily because of the consumers think that they get value for money in terms of better performance at affordable price points. We are pleased to see the transition towards SSDs both in the desktop space and in the Laptop space. A good example would be how the laptop upgrades are happening in the service centers as if you go to a laptop service center and enquire so they will tell you that the people are actually asking for the upgrade of their hard disks and SSDs for better computing experience.
DT: What are the options for consumers who want to buy WD SSDs?
Jaganathan: Adopting the SSD technology is a significant benefit for the customer because they are getting into a new technology which is going to give them better performance. So our WD Green portfolio is made for everyday computing and it meets the requirements of basic computing. When it comes to the high-end portfolio, there should be a function that the customer wants so it’s depending on what are their usages they should decide what type of experience and performance they need. Accordingly, they can choose a particular product to meet their requirement.
DT: How do you see your post service support model?
Jaganathan: We have a very robust post-sale service support model and it is fully equipped to take advantage of this new category so they have been trained to handle this very efficiently. We continue to look at how the market is growing and then we take a call depending on what is the need.
DT: How do you take care of partner’s benefit and keep them motivate to perform better?
Jaganathan: We have a very strong model to build the relationship stronger between us. We have various activities on the regular basis across all set of partners. We have calendarized a set of partner training events that happens on quarterly bases. We also use technology to stay connected with the partners and we run a WhatsApp business based interactive communication channel with our surveillance partners and SSD partners so that on real-time bases we can reach out to them and they can reach out to us. We also do various programs with our partners so that we are able to augment value to their businesses. We also have engagement programs as far as partners are concerned. Our ‘My WD partner program’ is highly recognized in the channel community.
