F1 servicing growing IT needs of customers

Shammi Moza
Director
F1 Info Solutions & Services Pvt. Ltd.

Carved out of neoteric and launched as an autonomous company in 2012, F1 managed to strike the right cord in terms of both its investments and vision that also makes it one of the largest Service providers for Apple.  Shammi Moza, Director- F1 Info Solutions & Services Pvt. Ltd. shares with VARINDIA how this has been possible for the company to achieve -

Do tell us briefly about the services offered on Apple products by your company? What is your future roadmap? 

We are one of the largest PAN-India Service Providers for Apple on all their products lines. We have a dedicated team of around 60 trained and certified Engineers supporting these products. Our business has been growing rapidlysince the last six months.

We are fully committed in terms of our investments and our vision to see ourselves as the largest and Best-In-Class PAN India Service Provider soon. We ensure that there are standard SOPs (Standard Operation Procedures) across all our service centers. We emphasize on maintaining consistent clarity on warranty guidelines and conveying the same to the channel clearly. We also monitor our turn-around time (TAT) for repairs and all our team members are absolutely aligned with our C-SAT (Customer-satisfaction) goal.

How challenging is the After Sales Service scenario in the country?

Customer expectations in India, especially in the IT and Smart Phone space has grown rapidly over the years. Service providers are gearing up to meet these expectations. Unfortunately, nobody wants to pay for services and expect the same to be bundled with their product. Hence making money purely on services is a challenge. But we see the market evolving and soon,an acknowledged space will specifically emerge for ‘services’.

Majority of the services in the feature phone and consumer products (other than IT and Mobile) are handled by small and individual companies, and competing with them on cost is a challenge. Vendors particularly should look at the total cost of managing services while choosing the right service-partner.

How do you best possibly try to redress the service woos of the Channel? How do vendors address this issue?

We try to improve the service acceptability, Turn-Around-Time for repairs, clarity on warranty guidelines etc.

Additionally, all our service-centers are fully equipped with state-of-the art facilities, well-furnished customer lounges and a uniform ‘look and feel’; we have adopted similar processes across all our locations.

How has been the year 2013 for you? How do you plan for the coming quarters?

2013 has been our first full year of independent operations as ‘F1 Info Solutions & Services Pvt. Ltd.’.Accordingly, it marked our very First Anniversary as an independent 3rd Party neutral service provider. Our revenue has been growing by 15% quarter-on-quarter this year. Also, we have managed to add quite a few vendor lines to our portfolio and managed to establish F1 as a credible service brand.

How many Service centres do you have in the country?What is your growth strategy?

Our reach in India is spread across 117 service locations through 40 plus Branches and 82 Partner Service centers (ASPs), coupled with 500 Field Service Locations.

Our growth strategy is aligned with our vision to be “the customer‘s most trusted choice for service through continuous improvement, ethical practices and commitment towards achieving the highest levels of customer satisfaction.”

We want to be seen as the Best-in-Class / Preferred Third Party After Sales-service Provider for IT/mobile and Enterprise Managed Services.

Our focus is on ensuring Customer Satisfaction(C-SAT) to the last mile. We are investing in Infrastructure, People, Systems and Tools etc. The coming quarter will see us going LIVE with our new ERP system. We are also exploring possibilities of engaging with newer Technologies /services.