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MUMBAI: Accepting the fact that it needs to boost its post-sales service network, Asus Technology Pte Ltd is finally setting up a RMA center in Mumbai. This center is likely to start functioning from April, 2007. The initial service capacity of the facility will be around 1,500 motherboards monthly. Asus is also considering setting up its second RMA center shortly, but is now concentrating on getting the Mumbai facility underway.
“This facility will support our network of 100 service partners,” says Andrew Tsui, MD, Asus Technology Pte Ltd. The first level of support will be delivered through the partners and only motherboards that require onboard or chip-level repair will be escalated to the RMA center.
While agreeing that the initial repair capacity of 1,500 is on the lower side, Tsui reasons that only 20 percent of all service related issues would be addressed by the RMA center. Drawing an analogy to a hospital he says, “Our RMA center is like a hospital and just like hospitals get patients suffering from different illness, we will get mobos with varying degrees of wear and tear. And just like patients with cold can be given immediate discharge, mobos with minimal problems will be repaired and dispatched quicker. This is why we do not expect to have more than 1,500 repair related issues every month.” Asus is aiming at maintaining a turnaround time of seven days.
On the service front, Asus is also planning to have an online portal where customers can log on and be able to resolve some of their support problems themselves. This will reduce their dependence on local service centers for the first level if support.
Asus is also working on coming up with a basic computing device with a screen, keyboard and flash memory. This 'Solution PC' was taken off from Intel's plan to introduce $100 laptops. “We will give the simple computing box and if a customer wants to upgrade it with a HDD or optical device, they can pay for just that upgrade. The device is still being designed and there is no information of when it will be launched.
Source: DQ Channels
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