Jahnavi: What growth strategies are followed by VNS and what tactics do you follow to position VNS international product in the market?
Neeraj: As the technology is going forward, we feel that the future is for high-end commute devices where technologies like AI, ML,VR, Data Analytics & Data Science, are becoming common and for sure will be used in the coming future by different business verticals like finance, healthcare, logistics, entertainment and manufacturing and similar. VNS as an organisation has always focused on building skills and sales infrastructure where we can address these requirements which are coming in the near future in high-end devices like HP workstations along with applications which enable these kind of technologies. And so for our growth we are tying up with different ISVs. We are HP workstation Specialist Partner from the last 6-7 years and we have eventually grown this business exponentially. All of our finances and funds are being deployed in this vertical to make this business much bigger and to grow our company to a whole new level. We are already contributing approximately 18-20% of entire HP India’s business in this vertical in the country.
Jahnavi: What is the main idea behind the experience centre which you’re planning to indulge in?
Neeraj: As of today, these technologies which are coming up, no one is very clear, whether we talk about OEM partners, dealers, customers or anyone. No one is very clear as to how these technologies work and what all hardware goes in. All customers, as small as individuals, all have a need for these kind of devices along with software to get their jobs done. Whether it is a video blogger , data scientist, architect or anyone, all of these stake holders lack proper knowledge on new technologies and there is no infrastructure as on date to see and experience it. So , we and HP have together decided on HP Z Customer Excellence Centre which we have been working on for quite some time now. This would be one stop set up for any customer to resolve all of their queries, issues etc. and this centre will demonstrate all solutions wrt VR, Gaming, ML, AI, Data Sciences etc. This would give them the level of comfort they need to understand how these technologies can help them scale up their businesses and end up doing it in a better manner. Customers are keen to upgrade themselves to help them expand their business and solution showcase along with workshop which would give them clarity so that at the end of the day, he is sure that the solution which they are looking at and the timelines they are looking at to get that work done are achieved. Finally once the customer becomes confident on what he wants , he can do sampling at our end and then go ahead and deploy the infrastructure. This type of centre will be first of its kind in India. Huge potential is there and the intent is not to actually try and sell it to the customers but try and enable them to understand what the technology is and if they ever want to upgrade, they can easily go with that.
Jahnavi: What will this experience centre be of major help to the customers of the VNS?
Neeraj: It will basically enable them to understand what hardware they should buy along with the application they are currently using or want to upgrade to. The showcase will open up a possibilities for them which they would not have otherwise perceived. We also do have tie ups with ISVs which will help them enable their decision making process easier.
Jahnavi: Considering VNS international and HP have been associated with each other for over 20
years now, what message would you like to give for the same?
Neeraj: I would say that HP is one of the best companies to work with as far as the IT technology is concerned and they have the biggest portfolio of the products which ranges from consumer, commercial and print. Secondly, they are extremely channel partners friendly and for partners like me, we are very comfortable working with them. HP has the best Service network & HP has been awarded in this category repeatedly over last decade. This association with HP is like my passion. HP is blue and I always say that my blood is also blue. VNS international and HP are like a single entity to me.
Jahnavi: Currently what all products at VNS are at their peak and what is the standard procedure of VNS international to be able to achieve these great heights?
Neeraj: Currently, we as an organisation have been trying to focus on selling products which are latest in technology or which are futuristic. In last 5-7 years, what we have done is that we have went on reducing those portfolios which are run of the mill. We have started avoiding doing these in channel but if our end customers wants it, we do give them. As far as the infrastructure, manpower and the inventories are concerned, we are investing in latest technologies, like the best of the monitors of high-quality, the latest in high-end compute etc as they are the future and this market is growing. Finally our biggest chunk is HP workstations and mobile workstations along-with complete solutions. We ensure that we are stocking enough. So, by far we have been performing the best and have being awarded for the last 4-5 years by HP as their biggest Workstation partner in the country. I think we have something to offer which others cannot think of.
Jahnavi: Will the customers all over the nation will be able to access these experience centres or are you majorly focusing on the NCR region?
Neeraj: We are not limiting any customer to have access to the customer excellence centre. Actually due to the fact that it will be physically based out in Delhi, mostly customers of NCR and rest of North India will come down to Delhi for easy access. Customers from rest of the country can also always fly down and have all their queries answered. We are already addressing channel partners as well as end customers Pan India when it comes to technical assistance and selling. So we expect this centre to be used by all stake holders located anywhere in India.
Jahnavi: Do you think social media can be considered as a tool for marketing? How are you, as a company focusing on the same?
Neeraj: Social Media according to me is a low cost, dynamic and agile platform for marketing. Social media plays a very critical role in the marketing today and we are already very much engaged in it and would love to invest more in it. We also have presence online for our entire portfolio.
Jahnavi: What is the foremost vision of the company and what all factors are to be considered for it to be successful?
Neeraj: Our foremost focus is to give the best of the technologies to our customers and our channel partners. We also have some set of principles which are very clear to our entire team and we tend to work with our customers and partners on these principles …
Just like our initials:.
Visualise – We visualise to materialise
Nurture – We nurture customer relationships and trust
Strive – We strive to give the best, always
These are what you can say are the pillars of our organisation and this is how we transact and we grow. Our Moto is that anyone and everyone with whom we transact, should always come back to us giving more business and references.
