One of the greatest challenges faced by mobile workers is integrating the devices they need to stay productive into the vehicles they need to stay mobile. So Panasonic’s fully rugged Toughbook and Toughpad ranges are supported by specialist vehicle mounts, delivering the same levels of quality, reliability and durability as the mobile PCs and tablets they house. In an interaction with Gunjan Sachdev, General Manager, National Business Head (Toughbook Division), Panasonic India about the present initiatives and value proposition of Panasonic Toughbook. Excerpts of the interview:
What is the overall performance of Panasonic in Indian Market?
Our main products are toughbooks and toughpads. In many verticals people are showing interest in our products. Overall industry is growing and we are also growing. Especially after the takeover by the new Govt. at the center, we are seeing positive trends in the market.
Could you describe the different solutions which Panasonic is offering to the security and surveillance sector?
Our solutions are centered on rugged mobile solutions and connectivity. We are providing a gamut of products based on Windows and Android OSs. Users can place their mission-critical solutions on the devices and can enjoy high degree of safety. Now we are working with the police department where we are placing toughbooks in PCR vans, using which police can transmit voice as well as data. These devices will help them to reach crime spot more efficiently. This is a very important project for us. These devices are called Mobile Data Terminal. These rugged devices work well even during rouge conditions such as presence of dust, vibrations, high humidity and temperatures. Our toughbooks and toughpads have all the necessary ports integrated. We have double-ship battery, where you can remove the discharged battery and replace it with a charged battery. And the discharged battery can be connected to charging. Overall failure rate of our devices is less than 2% even in such harsh conditions. We are giving three-year warranty on all our toughbooks and devices.
What is the value proposition that differentiates the Panasonic Toughbook computers from competitors?
Our toughbooks and toughpads can be used safely in harsh environments where falls, dust, vibrations, high temperatures and humidity are common. When our toughbooks fall from up to four feet heights they do not crack or fail, where normal computers fail. The ultimate in durability and reliability, with MIL-STD 810G and IP65 compliance demonstrating they’re capable of operating in the most challenging of outdoor environments. These devices are mainly used for field mobile applications and factory applications. Our devices have GPS port, bar code readers, RFID, in addition to traditional ports like USB. We have batteries with 12 and 16 hours life.
What other organizations, than police departments, use your devices?
Many car service centers, where rough conditions are common, are deploying our toughbooks. Defense, manufacturing, automobiles, aviation, railways, etc are the core verticals we are focusing on, but globally many telecom and healthcare companies also use our tough devices.
How do you think toughbook is useful in Telemedicine sector?
Nowadays, hospitals are opening chains in smaller towns and rural areas where charging sockets are not easily available and our toughbooks with 16 hrs operational battery life will be highly useful in such conditions. Further all our toughbooks come with inbuilt 3G card and there is no need to put a dongle out there. You can just connect anywhere. Next special feature is our devices have screens on which you can read and see things even under sunlight.
What is GTM strategy for your Toughbook?
We want to expand our reach and market through our partners. Recently we launched partner portal program under which we go to every city and organize partner meets and educate them about toughbooks. Partners can register themselves on our portal and can put up queries from the customers. Partners are also guided how to get certifications. Also we have our own team to help our partners in resolving the issues. Our team will go to the end customers along with the partners and educate the consumer about toughbooks.
How much your Toughbook segment contributes to Panasonic’s overall turnover?
Our annual growth rate is over 60% for toughbook segment. But the adoption rate of toughbooks is still less than 1% in India, because in India, 90% of the market does not know that this type of solution exists. That is why we are actively participating in events and expos which are B2B centric. We are also conducting many workshops which are attended by executives of different companies where we give demos and tell them how our solutions are useful to them. People are gradually getting aware of toughbooks. We participated in Survey of India, World Automotive Exhibition, World Police Exhibition, Secure cities exhibition and so on. We give lots of demos during these participations. We also give ads in several magazines, including B2B magazines.
What are your future plans?
We are now moving from providing devices to providing solutions—we are trying to integrate as many useful things as possible into the devices. Earlier there used to be a big time gap in launching a product in India after it was launched in US or UK. Now that gap is thinning down; now we are launching products abroad and in India almost simultaneously.
