Ban Seng Teh Vice President & Managing Director, Asia Pacific Sales & Marketing Organization, Seagate Technology

At a recent press meet at New Delhi, Ban Seng Teh, Vice President & Managing Director, Asia Pacific Sales & Marketing Organization, Seagate Technology, was ecstatic. After 29 years of consistent dedication tossed with layers of assorted innovations, Seagate accomplished the task of manufacturing and shipping ‘One Billion’ HDDs globally. At this momentous occasion when Seagate touches the billionth mark, the contribution of Asia Pacific region is colossal. Today, close to 44 per cent of Seagate’s revenues come from this region alone with India maintaining its centrality in Seagate’s global scheme of thing.

Over a period of time, HDDs themselves underwent sea changes both in terms of capacity, and performance. In the Seagate reckoning itself, from a mere 5 GB space in 1980, today HDDs can contain an easy 1 Terabyte (1000 GB) data. Indeed, the level of performance has multiplied manifold consuming lesser power conforming to the latest global propensity towards making the planet further greener.

The quest

The saga of ‘Hard Disk Drives’ started in 1956 when IBM, for the first time, came out with an incipient 5 MB product christened IBM RAMAC. The size of that primitive HDD was awesome (6 feet tall, and powered by 50 discs each with a diameter of 24”). Despite its crudity, and archaic outlook, it proved be a ‘sheet anchor’ in the annals of ‘civilizational contours’ of human race. Moving forward, IBM’s revolutionary initiative was carried on by other daring firms that contributed in enriching, and augmenting the technology of HDD. One such company was Shugart Technology (the present day Seagate Technology). In 1979, Al Shugart, a US-based engineer, accompanied by four other brave technocrats (Finis Conner, Tom Mitchell, Syed Iftikar, and Doug Mahon) established a HDD company christened Shugat Technology. In fact, Al Shugart was part of the original team of engineers at IBM that developed the first hard-drive storage system.

In 1980, the then Shugart Technology launched its first HDD in model ‘ST506’ Hard Drive (The first 5.25”Micro-Winchesters). The 5 MB product struck a paradigm shift, as it was the first HDD of smaller form factor (5.25”). Since then, Seagate has never looked back. For Seagate, the area of R&D has been a prime one, and this spirit has been giving the company a cutting edge over some of its global competitors. “Delivering top quality HDD products has been Seagate’s consistent hall-mark”, says an industry analyst. The process of evolution, and further refinement has continued unabated.

For Seagate, touching a billion marks was the out come of several interrelated factors. The first and foremost was the proven technology each time Seagate has been using. “The equilibrium among capacity, form factors, and performance has been maintained by Seagate”, says Ban Seng Teh of Seagate. Having mastered the technology, the next big target was the reaching out to the markets all across the world. “We’ve succeeded in taking the Seagate products to every nook and corners of the world”, adds he.

In that quest, the role of Seagate’s partners has been simply commendable. “One of the major achievements of ours has been the way in which we’ve galvanized such a huge number of distributors, and channel partners all around the world. The partner ecosystem has responded and became an active party to such wonderful results”, says Ban Seng Teh. Throughout these long years, the company introduced numerous programs and initiatives for furthering the relationships with its channel partners.

Newer demands

In an interaction with Digital Edge, Rajesh Khurana, Country Manager, Indian & SAARC, Seagate Technology, says, “It took us 29 years in crossing the billion marks. But now, our resolve is to add another billion HDDs in just five years time”. In that quest, the contribution of the Indian market has been tactical. Given the demographics of the nation and rapid adoption of digital devices, the Indian factor is strategic to Seagate’s log-term programme.

The IT industry itself has evolved to a great deal worldwide. In the digital ecosystem, the importance of HDDs has been important throughout the evolutionary phases of the body IT. Today, the application of HDDs has increased to unimaginable ways. It’s not confined to desktops, notebooks, server, storage, printers, but newer applications like LCD TVs, DVRs, mobile handsets, and cameras. And the number of applications is growing rapidly. On technology fronts, HDDs have undergone massive augmentation. The advent of Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) Technology has added a new chapter in the advancement of HDD technology where the ‘areal density’ is increased to unthinkable level. “Every year, the need for digital space is growing at 30-40 per cent. It means people need more and more of digital space”, says Khurana.

Indian experience

In the Indian perspective, Seagate is well supported, and maintains a leadership position. “Today, we’ve greater network of distributors, and channel partners operational in the country”, says Khurana. “We’ve a 360-degree kind of approach towards market presence in the country. We have great technology, and wider product portfolio with us”, adds he.

This is true that Seagate has maintained a pervasive network of distributors. “We’ve four distributors in Ingram Micro India, Redington India, Fortune Marketing, and Supertron Electronics”, says Khurana. Seagate has a distribution network that enhances the availability of Seagate products across India”, adds he. The four distributors have a combined total of more than 100 offices and about 100 tier-II dealers/channel partners throughout the country.

On the warranty, and post sales services fronts, Seagate offers assured services. Apart from offering 5 years warranty, Seagate’s customer support network in India includes 43 walk-in ‘SeaCare Centers’ manned by trained technical staff where customers can send in faulty drives and collect them after rectification. Typical turn-around time is between two to four days.

Seagate Tecnology launches 1.5 Terabyte HDDs Seagate has come out with its 1.5-terabyte desktop hard drives to meet explosive worldwide demand for digital-content storage in home and business environments. The debut of the Barracuda 7200.11 (1.5TB) hard drive, the eleventh generation of Seagate’s flagship drive for desktop PCs, marks the single largest capacity hard drive jump in the more than half-century history of hard drives -a half-terabyte increase from the previous highest capacity of 1TB, thanks to the capacity-boosting power of perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology.

“We recognize that the market is getting into newer applications that are where challenge of educating and creating more awareness as a vendor comes through. For example if you look at surveillance as a sector (which we’ve been talking about now a days), this segment require wide awareness efforts. The challenge is how to make people aware d about newer applications, and their benefits”, says Khurana. With an aim for engaging and educating channel partners, the company constituted the Seagate Premier Partner (SPP) program. Currently, there’re more than 680 SPP members from India’s major metro cities and smaller towns. “We try our best to keep the partners and channels at large a happy, and educated folks so far as Seagate is concerned”, says Khurana.

Sharad Srivastava’s legacy

In the success story of Seagate in India, the name of Sharad Srivastava (now heading the operations of ‘Western Digital’ in India & SAARC) is taken with due respect. A veteran of HCL India’s R&D division, Sharad Srivastava worked with Seagate Technology for 14 long years. But, his stint as the Country Manager (Indian & SAARC) proved to be a great revival period for Seagate. At the time of his joining the Seagate’s operations here, Samsung was virtually ruling the HDD roost of the tactical Indian market. Due to massive marketing blitzkrieg effected by Samsung, Seagate appeared to be an obvious HDD underdog that time. Sharad Srivastava took up the challenge and delivered his best propelling Seagate onto a rapid revival path in India. Soon, Seagate regained its due position in the Indian market, overstepping the HDD-dominance of Samsung altogether. His successor, Rajesh Khurana, has succeeded in sustaining the momentum gained at Sharad’s time.