BREAKING/EXCLUSIVE: DIGICARE bags service contract from Intel

DIGICARE, the
service division of Smartlink Network Systems, has been awarded the
Intel PSS (Post Sales Support) business contract for 3 years. Under
this contract, the Intel support service will be launched from May 29
this year for 58 cities for providing pan India support to customers.
DIGICARE had participated in the Intel PSS business bid from
September 2010 to January this year.

“After
going
through the rigorous process of request for quotation (RFQ), we
have finally managed to bag support service contract from Intel. We
are certain that as an Intel Service Partner, we can help Intel RMA
service to emerge as the most flexible and fastest service in India
for its customers,” said Balgond Chougula, VP-service (RMA),
Smartlink Network Systems.

Now that DIGICARE
has got this service contract, it is going to set up a complete pan
India service infrastructure for Intel, which consists of one central
warehouse in Bengaluru with an area of 20,000 sq ft. There will also
be a big repair centre located in it. The company has set up a
50-seat central service centre in this warehouse, which can store
more than 40,000 products. Besides, DIGICARE
has also set up 4 regional warehouses with a focus to reduce
turnaround time as much as possible. From these regional warehouses,
the company intends to supply materials to all service centres
accordingly.

“ style="font-weight: normal;">Apart
from these, we have 25 full-fledged service centres owned by DIGICARE
which will do direct repair and replacement for customers. Also there
would be 33 collection centres, which Intel calls mini service
centres and are service partners of DIGICARE. These collection
centres would do basic warranty validation, who will then send
products to the nearest DIGICARE service centres from where customers
would get their products repaired or replaced,” added Chougula.
Under this
contract, the company has made one more arrangement wherein it will
make use of courier network. Besides the support being available at
58 cities, it will also provide courier pick up points for its
customers in more than 17,450 pin codes and on-demand pick up service
from 1,22,000 pin codes of India.

Chougula further
pointed out, “In order to promote this new support service
contract, we will soon come out with fresh campaigns where there will
be involvement of both Intel sales team and our local service
managers. Our GTM will involve educating all Intel partners about
this support service model. This is a new concept for our customers
which needs to be properly propagated through our partners. With this
strategy, Intel wants to go as near as possible to the customers and
reduce the RMA time to minimal.”

Meanwhile, in the
14 main cities, DIGICARE has set TAT (turnaround time) to be 3
business days or if the stock is available, replacement will be done
in the next business day. And in all other cities, it has set a
target of 7-10 days TAT. However, it is not going to use its
technical call centre, as Intel already has a call centre, which is
working independently. Beside Intel,
DIGICARE also provides service support to DIGISOL, Kingston, MSI,
Zotac, Strontium and Jetway.