SAMSUNG INDIA-An Introduction

Samsung India Electronics Private Limited (SIEL) is the Indian subsidiary of the US $55.2
billion Samsung Electronics Corporation (SEC) headquartered in Seoul, Korea. It is the hub
of Samsung’s South West Asia Regional Operations, and looks after its business in Nepal,
Bangladesh, Maldives & Bhutan besides India. SIEL commenced operations in India in
December, 1995. Initially, a player only in the Colour Televisions segment, it later diversified
into colour monitors (1999) and refrigerators (2003). Today, it is recognized as one of the
fastest growing brands in the sphere of digital technology, and enjoys a sales turnover of over
$ US 1 billion in a just a decade of operations in India.

Samsung in India has a presence in the following areas of business:

• Consumer Electronics (CE)/Audio Visual (AV) Business

• Home Appliances (HA) Business
• Information Technology (IT) Business

Its operations are broadly divided into the following key sub-functions:

• Sales & Marketing

• Manufacturing
• Software Centre Operations

THE SALES & MARKETING FUNCTION

Headquartered in New Delhi, Samsung India has a network of 19 branches and 16 Area Sales
Offices (ASOs) located all over the country, and the number is expected to grow, as the
organization continues to expand its horizons.

The Sales & Marketing function at Samsung is primarily divided into two categories:

• Sales & Marketing (IT)

• Sales & Marketing (AV/HA)

Apart from sales to households through its robust distribution channel, SIEL also has a huge
clientele in the Institutional Sales space. Therefore, there is a separate department devoted
completely to this function. It is the VMB (Vertical Market Business) department that is
responsible for making sales to institutions such as airports, hotels, banks, movie theatres, etc.

Another function of the sales & marketing function at SIEL is public relations, also known as
corporate communications. Here, the scope of activities includes maintaining liaison with the

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media, organizing corporate social responsibility initiatives, website management, corporate
literature, etc.

THE MANUFACTURING FUNCTION

SIEL has its manufacturing facility at Noida, U.P. This is the state-of-the-art, high-tech
facility for manufacturing Color Televisions, Color Monitors, and Washing Machines &
Refrigerators. This manufacturing unit consists of sophisticated facilities with latest Auto
Insertion Machines, Auto PCB Tester, High Efficiency Module Conveyor, and all modern
machines geared up for High Speed, High Volume & Very High Quality Production.

We firmly believe that continuous innovation is the key to making path-breaking

improvements in our products & processes and achieve productivity goals beyond
imagination. Samsung uses many tools for innovation such as “Reduced 7 Type of Wastage
& SixSigma”. Our commitment to grow through continuous innovation has helped us
improve our productivity by 200% in the last 5 years.
Samsung India is also instrumental in carrying out Hardware Research & Development at its
Noida R&D Centre. The focus of the R&D Centre is to customize both Consumer Electronics
and Home Appliances’ products to better meet the needs of the Indian customer. From color
televisions designed for higher sound output, to washing machines with special “Sari Wash
Course”, DNIe vision series of Flat CTVs especially designed for the Indian market to
Samsung mobiles with regional languages menus, the Samsung R&D Centre in India is
helping the company to continuously innovate and introduce products customized for the
Indian market.

THE SOFTWARE R&D CENTRE

SIEL Software R&D Center was set up in September 2002 as a Software R & D Centre in
Noida, U.P. SIEL Software Centre is involved in the business of developing embedded and
desktop software for Samsung Electronics Corporation in a variety of areas related to Analog
and Digital TV, Monitors and other Multimedia technologies.

SIEL Software Center has successfully completed more than two hundred projects in
collaboration with Samsung Headquarters Visual Display and Digital Media divisions
( Korea). SIEL Software Center engineers continuously strive to improve the performance
and introduce innovative features to make the end products more efficient and user friendly.
We design and implement some of the critical components for products such as next
generation CRT and Projection TVs, Plasma and LCD TVs, DLP TVs, Digital TV Set Top
Boxes, DVD Players, MP3/Video players, PDAs, 2D/3D Graphics Engines, Camcorders,
Multimedia applications etc., and believe in following optimized and stringent quality
processes to build these world leading products. SIEL Software Center plans to be certified at
SPICE Level 3 by 2005 and CMMI Level 4 by 2006.

Samsung Electronics brings a very enriching entertainment experience to the consumers

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worldwide through its cutting edge technologies. We aim to revolutionize the way and break
the barriers to ride on the frontiers of technology to provide superior quality products to
Samsung's customers. Our Engineers continuously strive to improve the performance and
introduce innovative features to make these products very user friendly. We follow optimized
and stringent quality processes to build these world leading products

For SIEL Software Center to continue to remain a strategic and key R&D Center of Samsung
Electronics, it is important that every employee of SIEL Software Center contributes his/her
fullest potential and capabilities. SIEL Software Center is always looking for dynamic
individuals who are driven by ambition, youth, vibrancy and challenge.

Management information system

Management information Systems (MIS), sometimes referred to as Information
Management and Systems, are the discipline covering the application of people,
technologies, and procedures — collectively called information system — to solving business
problems. Management Information Systems are distinct from regular information systems in
that they are used to analyze other information systems applied in operational activities in the
organization. Academically, the term is commonly used to refer to the group of information
management methods tied to the automation or support of human decision making, e.g.
Decision Support Systems, Expert systems, and Executive information systems

Samsung India moves operations to the Net

Realising the potential of the Internet, consumer

goods major Samsung India Electronics Limited
(SIEL), has not limited its activities to the mere
creation of a website, but has instead used it a
business facilitator. Shipra Arora profiles the
initiatives of the company in this space and finds out
how it is using the medium for brand building as well
as customer retention
Chopra says the company now uses the Net extensively for
At a time when most companies in India are still
communication with vendors and service centres

sceptical about using the Net, and those that have, have limited it to the creation of a website
which merely serves as an disseminator of information, Samsung India Electronics Limited
(SIEL), the consumer electronics major, has been one of the trendsetters in this space. Within
a mere three years since commencement of operations in 1995, the company established its
presence on the Web and has gone from strength to strength to establish itself as an e-
enterprise. Rajesh Chopra, deputy general manager-information systems, SIEL, points out
that the growth of the Internet in the company took place in two distinct phases, namely e-
enabling and e-enhancing.

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Elaborating on the company’s e-business strategy, Chopra points out that it spans across three
areas Business to Business (B2B), Business to Customer (B2C) and Information Channel
(PR). Both B2B and B2C form the core of its innovative e-marketing activities apart from tie-
ups for brand promotion. The applications on the B2B front include ‘GLONET’ for its
vendors, ‘SERVICENET’ for authorised service centres and EDI for custom and bank.
www.samsungemart.com, the e-commerce site for its customers forms the B2C part of
SIEL’s e-marketing program. The significant applications under this include Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) and database marketing. The company’s e-business
strategy comes a full circle with the third angle providing an ‘Information Channel’ through
its website www.samsungindia.com with applications such as Digital World and Call Login.

Business to Business (B2B)

Global Logistics Network Systems

(GLONET) Vendors: With sourcing for
production being done from both domestic and
international markets, SIEL realised the need
for streamlining its processes with its vendors
to lead to more efficient and transparent
functioning. Hence, in 2000, Samsung
launched its B2B initiative. This involved
linking the key vendors, which form the bulk
of Samsung’s sourcing (26 domestic and 30 international) through Samsung’s GLONET.
This marked the company’s first initiative on the B2B front.

Chopra adds that GLONET is being used to effectively purchase Samsung India’s
requirements from its International Procurement Offices as well as vendors in India. As soon
as the purchase order is raised, it is transmitted to the vendor real-time as the system is Web-
based. The EDI Application extends from order placement and sharing of the production plan
(4 weeks fixed and 12 weeks rolling production plan) to invoicing. Account reconciliation
with these vendors is also done online. “The implementation of GLONET has shortened the
business cycle since it has helped us optimise the logistics processes including Just In Time
Delivery (JIT System) and replenishment,” he explains.

The sharing of planning information and automation of business process with its vendors has
also helped the company reduce inventory levels and curtail wastage. The purchases from the
Singapore Spare Parts Centre too are done online. In this way, the GLONET system (an
extranet for SIEL) has evolved beyond being a simple application for business application
transaction with vendors and has become an advanced application supporting complete
business communication between the two parties. Chopra points out that even communication
in terms of material rejection etc are transmitted to vendors online.

SERVICENET Authorised Service Centres: The next B2B project on hand for SIEL’s IT
department was the automation of its authorised service centres (ASC). With more that 550
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service centres, the need to connect them was something the company couldn’t afford to
ignore. Accordingly, in 2001, in an effort to e-enhance the organisation, Samsung India set up
its online B2B application for ASCs called Servicenet. With this, the entire service and
Spares Management of Samsung India was Web enabled. The system essentially translates
into an entire service network being linked through the Net for day to day working. Now,
with the implementation of Servicenet, the ASCs are linked with the Regional Parts
Distributors and the CS Head Office through the Internet. This in turn is linked to Samsung’s
South East Asian subsidiaries as it is integrated at the back-end with SAP R/3 of Samsung
India and Samsung Asia for LPA VISION spare parts Management and automatic planning
of spare parts. Samsung India started using SAP for service from September 1, 2001.

The modules in this package include ASC/ASP

management, inventory management, calls
management, defect ratio and early warning signals
and technical approval system for field defects.
According to Chopra, at any point of time, when the
authorised service centre logs onto ServiceNet, it can
get accurate information on spares availability, order
or follow up on its order for spares, track warranty
claim status and in case of problems, gain access to
Chopra with the IT team at SEIL Samsung personnel directly. Service manuals and
technical bulletins training material, service related manuals and other communication
material are all available online, which the service centre can access at the click of a button.
“In this way, service centres are better placed to respond to customers since Servicenet links
ASC with Samsung’s four regional parts distributors and 15 Gold ASCs,” explains Chopra.

With Samsung India integrating its spares management operations with this system, it can
now draw spares not just from the Singapore depot but from any of the other subsidiaries
depending on its need. Based on the spares stocking and consumption levels at the National
Spares Warehouse, which in turn is linked to the ASCs through Servicenet, the MegaSys
system automatically generates weekly orders to the Singapore regional depot for spares.

The key benefits of Service net include:

a. Transparency in the system since the ASC can check stock availability in the warehouse of
the parts distributor, and hence need not stock-up unless required.

b. Facility to place orders online with the spares made available within the next 24 hours

c. Shifting of the Spare Parts Ordering Cycle from a monthly to a weekly basis and
consequent reduction in spares inventory levels in quantity and amount at ASC by 50 and 35
percent respectively, assisting in realising better return on investment and reduced cost.

d. Reduced obsolescence and manual errors.

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e. Enhanced efficiency in servicing customers in terms of spares management.

f. Facilitating much faster and easier communication

e-banking: As part of its e-banking initiative, the company has automated most of its
financial processes and transactions online. Chopra says, “All applications related to
employees salary such as balance confirmation, reconciliation, accounts status, collection,
withdrawal etc covering the entire gamut of banking applications have been put online.” In
fact, even account reconciliation with vendors is done online. The online banking application
also covers applications related to customs in its purview of functioning. To ensure the
smooth functioning of this system, the company has even tied up with some key bankers.

Information Channel

Though established with the objective of functioning merely as a website for the company,
the portal www.samsungindia.com now leverages the Net to help in brand building and
Customer Relationship Management (CRM), in addition to serving as a complete information
channel for SIEL. The site is linked to samsungemart, in order to facilitate online buying,
online call logging for customers to register their calls with the company, Samsung Digital
world, Samsung’s Customer Club and Samsung Infotainment. The whole idea of creating a
new integrated site is to give Samsung sites across different subsidiaries a synergy in terms of
look and feel and a common brand feel.

Samsung Digital World (SDW): SDW is one of the key applications supported by
samsungindia.com. According to Chopra, SDW acts as a tool for facilitating SIEL’s CRM
activities. Samsung India has made a Samsung Customer Club online called ‘Samsung
Digital World’, which represents an initiative to build and enhance a long-term personalised
relationship with Samsung Customers and reinforce brand loyalty amongst Samsung Product
Owners. “We view Samsung Digital World as a forum for our exclusive customers to interact
with and build a relationship with the company,” Chopra points out.

To improve the robustness of the applications, Samsung has built cross links between the
different properties on the website. For instance, customers buying through Samsungemart
can gain automatic access to Samsung Digital World. Says Chopra, “Since we have
integrated the system at the back-end with SAP, we can even authenticate the serial no of the
product bought by the customer.” Customers who have registered themselves for Samsung
Digital World offline too can check their point status by logging on to the Samsung website.
The success of the initiative can be gauged from the fact that in the first six months of its
launch itself SDW got over 50,000 Samsung customers as its members.

Online call logging: SIEL introduced its online call logging facility with a view to better
serve its customers. The application is linked with Servicenet at the back-end to transfer all
their complaints, service requirements such as product demonstrations etc to the service
centres. At the customer end, Samsung customers can log on to the samsungindia website

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www.samsung.co/india for registering their calls and are given a unique call reference
number for tracking their call. For the ASC which gets the call, it translates into accurate
customer call data, thus making it easier for ASCs to process customer calls leading to
customer satisfaction. According to Chopra, the application also provides for escalation of
calls to the next level if they are not met with satisfactorily within a specific time period.

Infotainment: Samsung Infotainment was created as a special entertainment centre on the

Samsung website in August 2001. Developed with the idea of creating a Fun Zone on the
Samsung website, this section has a mix of games and contests built around the Samsung
Brand. Says Chopra, “The whole idea behind Infotainment is to create a zone where the
Samsung Customer or a visitor on the website gets a chance to interact with the brand and
also learn something new about Samsung products, the advertising and even how the
technology works.” Features include information on the company and its products, working
of technologies, articles, contests designed around products, weekly Quiz and e-Greeting
cards. According to Chopra, the idea is to build the brand value and image through this
channel leading to both offline sales and online sales through samsungemart.com.

Business to consumer(B2C)

Samsungemart.com: SIEL launched its B2C e-commerce application in the year 2000
through its B2C mall, samsungemart.com. Currently, all products of the company are
available through this channel. According to Chopra, a very minuscule portion of company’s
revenues comes from this channel, with most of the sales being gifting orders. However, the
revenues are enough to sustain the expenses for maintaining the application. “Even though
the B2C space has not picked up well, an entry into this space was imminent to prepare
ourselves for the future surge in B2C sales. It is very important to establish and stabilise our
B2C presence by the time this market picks up,” he adds. However, the company is not just
waiting passively for the market to dictate terms. It is in fact aggressively working towards
increasing its online B2C revenues to contribute about 1-2 percent of its total revenues in the
time to come. For this, the IT team is working on features such as introducing more
transaction security in the site to overcome the biggest hurdle to B2C in India.

Further, the application also helps the company in online marketing activities through its
massive customer database. This is being used for promotional activities and direct mailer
marketing. The information in the database is also used for understanding customer
behaviour to build up effective CRM activities.

Enterprise resource planning

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are the nervous system of an organization,
tracking and coordinating vital operational support. They move products, place orders, assist
in decision-making, track projects, and support numerous industry-specific needs.
Implemented primarily in the 1980s and 1990s, most organizations have their ERP
environments firmly in-place and under.

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Ever since its inception in1938, Samsung has continually refined its Mission statement to
respond to changes both in the world, and in itself. Whether it was “Economic Contribution
to the Nation”, “Priority to Human Resources”, or “Pursuit of Rationalism”, each slogan had
the quality of representing the most significant moments in Samsung’s history. Each of them
represented a different stage of Samsung’s growth from a domestic industrial leader to a
global electronics powerhouse.

Samsung Electronics, the flagship company of the Samsung Group currently positioned as a
high technology leader, has the following as its Vision and Mission.

There are two parts of being a "Digital-ε Company", and the first is clearly about being
"Digital" producing not just digital products, but products that inspire digital integration
across our entire company. The second part of being a "ε" is to use ε- Processes connecting
R&D, production, and marketing to customers, partners, and the market-disciplined approach
is the way we bring value to every part of our supply chain, including products data to and
customer relationship through Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

Samsung Electronics Global Mission & Vision would be achieved through nine action
values:

• Continuous Innovation
• Creativity
• Challenge
• Strategic Focus
• Speed
• Simplicity
• Empowerment
• Crisis Awareness
• Customer Focus

Sybase® technology:

Samsung Securities—a company engaged in trading, brokerage and underwriting and

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distribution of securities—needed to build a secure, customer-oriented information system.
Using Sybase® technology, Samsung created a data management solution that improves
productivity and customer satisfaction.

Key Benefits
• Reduces transaction close time from four hours to 30 minutes
• Accommodates a tenfold increase in transactions
• Consolidates view of customer portfolios

Sybase Technology
Sybase Adaptive Server® Enterprise
Sybase Replication Server®
Sybase EAServer

Maintaining the Leadership Position

Samsung Securities, established in 1992, engages in trading, brokerage, trust business,

international securities business, underwriting and distribution of securities. It has 111 branch
offices with 2,549 employees. With the objective of implementing a competitive system as a
comprehensive investment bank, the company was the first in the Korean securities industry
to construct a client/server structure on a large-scale system.

To eliminate inefficiency and inflexibility with contractor-based management of contract

sheets, and to implement a customer-oriented information system, Samsung Securities
undertook the contract sheet transfer project. The project’s aim was to improve customer
satisfaction and productivity by building a secure, customer-oriented information system.

Proven Technology

Using Sybase Adaptive Server® Enterprise (ASE) and Sybase Replication Server®, Samsung
Securities implemented a customer-oriented distribution system and increased the speed of
transaction processing. Sybase EAServer provides the application layer to supply Web-
enabled application access.

With numerous securities firms on Wall Street using Sybase solutions, Samsung Securities
felt that Sybase provided large-scale data management solutions with proven success. Sybase
ASE coupled with Sybase Replication Server was considered to provide fast response speeds.

Improved Speed, Productivity and Customer Service

With the help of Sybase technologies, Samsung Securities now experiences benefits in
numerous areas, such as the reduction of time for daily transactions closure from three to four
hours to 30 minutes. The new system enables customers to perform commodity transactions
with a single integrated card and engage in different online transactions at every branch. And

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for the employees, the new system provides comprehensive account and commodity
information for each customer.

“We could not achieve the desired speed, despite the new server environment, so we had to
take a closer look,” said Junghoon Lee, manager of Samsung SDS’s technical support team
for Samsung Securities. “In the end, we had to perform SQL tuning for a very sensitive
program, which provided a 400 percent speed improvement.”

From the management-efficiency perspective, the Sybase solution provides enhanced

productivity, customer service and system competitiveness.

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

WHILE the introduction of value-added tax (VAT) in the country is still in the offing,
Samsung, like other corporates, is strategising about the changes it would have to make in its
supply chain management to take maximum advantage of the new tax regime.

In fact, the company estimates that if VAT is introduced in the country, it will be able to
bring down the number of warehouses from 25 to 20. "Efficiency will definitely increase with
the introduction of VAT," says Mr Bong Sik Park, Director - Support Division, Samsung
India Electronics.

Agrees Mr Park Sungchil, Senior Vice-President, Corporate SCM Group, Samsung

Electronics (Korea), "In a large country like India, there is a bigger opportunity to save
money on the supply chain management (SCM) side".

Mr Sungchil, who is heading the supply chain operations of Samsung globally, is in India to
conduct training on best practices in SCM utilised by Samsung across the world. "The
executives will be required to take an exam on the subject and pass it too," he quips.

Samsung is running several pilot projects globally to improve efficiency on the supply chain
side and make it more "speedy". "In fact, while most companies are still working on a
monthly system, we switched to a weekly one several years ago and are now running a pilot
in Korea to reduce the cycle to a daily basis," says Mr Sungchil.

IT INITIATIVES:

In Samsung India Limited knowledge and technology are key resources which have helped
the Company achieve higher levels of excellence and efficiency. Towards this overall goal of
technology-driven performance, Samsung is utilizing Information Technology in a big way.
This will help in integrating a vast distribution system spread all over India and across the
world. It will also cut down costs and increase profitability.

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Samsung’s major IT Initiatives

• Migration from Baan and Mfg ERP Systems to centralized SAP ERP system from 1st
April 2006 for all business units.
• Implementation of a country wide new WAN Infrastructure for running centralized
ERP system.
• Setting up of new Data Centre at KCO Head Office.
• Extension of Reach System to distributors for capturing Secondary Sales Data.
• Roll out of IT services to new plants and CFAs.

SmartTran Mainframe-to-Web Integration Tchnology

EnterpriseLink Technology Corporation, a leading provider web-to-host integration tools, has
a partnership agreement with Samsung Information & Telecommunications, a $500 million
division of Samsung Corporation. Under the terms of the agreement, Samsung will market,
sell, service and support EnterpriseLink's SmartTran web-to-host integration software
throughout Korea.
A large percentage of Korean organizations run on mainframes. The SmartTran products
from EnterpriseLink allow Korean companies to quickly and easily add new functionality to
mainframe applications to extend their life. This new functionality can include access to
intranets, extranets and mobile computing. In many situations, the SmartTran approach offers
a lower-cost, rapid-delivery alternative to client/server solutions. The SmartTran technology
is the first to offer Korean corporations a tool that quickly creates customized interfaces with
the power to change the interaction between a user and a legacy application, without
programming.

"In the current Korean economic environment, increasing efficiency, reducing costs and
leveraging current investments are very important," said James Cha of Samsung Information
& Telecommunications. "Korean companies and the government are interested in preserving
and extending the significant investments they have in mainframe systems and applications.
Enterprise Link's SmartTran offers a very cost-effective way to take advantage of legacy
systems."

"SmartTran is the only mainframe-to-web tool that offers full control over mainframe
applications without programming. With SmartTran we can deliver a full range of intranet
and extranet applications that effectively leverage mainframe systems, applications and data.
What is more, with SmartTran, new web applications can be delivered in a much shorter time
than with other tools and approaches," said B.H. Bae of the New Media Division of Samsung
Information & Telecommunications."

Samsung is interested in tapping the significant opportunities in Korea for extranet business-
to-consumer applications in insurance and home banking, as well as supply chain automation
applications in manufacturing companies. Also of interest are a number of intranet
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opportunities: for example, enabling overseas offices of Korean companies to communicate
effectively with headquarters systems. Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance is currently
developing an extranet application and Samsung Life Insurance is working on an
intranet/extranet application.

Conclusion
The MIS automates the Samsung’s daily tasks, as well as providing a fun element for the members to
use outside work hours. The project has covered all the software engineering phases, which are vital
for the successful development of most systems. Many techniques were used and adapted from a
number of methodologies e.g. a rapid application development (RAD). Again, a number of techniques
were applied in the data modeling stages that helped to visually represent the different processes and
data flows in the system. Once the system is installed it is

expected to provide the following features: Facilitate the communication between all members, make
data storage and manipulation more effective and easier information to customers.

Samsung India can now enable growth and scalability of the group’s business and culture, at a faster
rate and help enhance the daily work of the users. The benefit of placing the system on the network
was that the system could be more easily maintained. Updates and all modifications need to be done
only once and every copy of the database accessed by the users is automatically updated too. Also
placing the MIS on the department’s network gave the system more security as Novell’s security
features were applied to restrict the access only to the members.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_information_systems

 http://www.naukri.com/gpw/samsung/oct05/

 http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20020304/ebiz1.shtml

 http://www.sybase.com/detail?id=1033836

 http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/11/29/stories/20041129
00770300.htm

 http://www.naukri.com/gpw/samsung/oct05/vision.htm

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 http://www.samsungindia.com/press_releases/informationsystem/43
00770245.htm

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