Setting up India’s first tech test lab

By Giridhar Rajagopalan, Group Editor, 9.9 Group & Former Assistant Editor, PCQuest & Labs

The early 1990s was an era of plentiful products—from printers, PCs, and UPSs, to spreadsheets, word processors, and PC databases. The market offerings included products from international brands and Indian companies. It was also a time when money was tight, and investment in technology solutions was a decision that was not easily made. Users agonized over every purchase—and wanted value for money for every rupee spent. PCQ used to get regular letters and telephone calls from readers seeking advice on hardware, software, and peripherals. Editors and staff were hard-pressed to provide unbiased advice. So, we decided to verify product features and performance claims. That was the genesis of PCQ Labs.

World-class reviews, despite limitations

Without a doubt, the idea of an in-house lab for technology was not new. US and UK-based publications like PC Magazine, PC World, PC Week, et al were regularly reviewing products. However, few Indian readers had access to these international publications—and to the full range of products that they covered.

However, we had limited resources and expertise at our disposal, and the challenge was to create a review methodology and process that was comprehensive, robust, reliable, efficient, and well documented. We wanted our reviews to be world-class, despite the limitations. So, we started off with modest goals—and a few product categories. First, we analysed how other publications did their reviews—this was in the days before Internet—by reading through hundreds of reviews.

We also sought help from some vendors on how benchmarking tests were done by large customers. For specialized products like UPSs and accounting software, we contacted IIT-Delhi labs and a few knowledgeable technical consultants. Some of our regular technical contributors pitched in as well, to define and identify test processes. It was a unique collaborative effort, often steered by PCQ staff. Discussions often stretched late into the night, and over weekends over what should be included or excluded from a review.

Admittedly, the learning curve for all PCQ staff members was steep—whether reviewers or copy editors. Everyone has had to learn enough about technical jargon and specifications to identify what was relevant—and whether it mattered enough to the user. All the time we were cognizant of the fact that our readers implicitly trusted our judgment and conclusions—and that we could not afford to be wrong.

Few vendors had the courage to send a product for review, without knowing the results until it was published in print. So, a lot of time was spent by editors interacting with the vendor community, and convincing them of our abilities, credential, and review ethics—and we are still grateful to many of them for the trust they reposed in us.

Starting with a lean team

In the initial days, the PCQ review team was very small—three internal people doubling up as reviews and feature writers and some specialist consultants. We started off with office productivity tools like word processors, spreadsheets, PC databases, printers, and PCs—and then slowly took on more advanced products like modems, UPSs, and financial accounting software. For every product category, we had to develop the testing and review methodology—and a 500-word review often represented 20 to 100 hours of work.

As PCQ reviews became popular, vendors began to send us products to review. Products would arrive on floppies, or sometimes in formal packaging. Some of them were simple utilities developed by enthusiasts and small companies. They had limited features and functionality. A quick look and we would send them back with brief comments. Naturally, the developers would be upset and would remonstrate with us. But generally, we would publish the review, warts and all. We were confident that our review process, documentation, and procedures were robust. CyberMedia’s management was fully behind us—and many threats of legal cases never materialized!

PCQ reviews and government tenders

PCQ always had a very loyal reader base—and we were pleasantly surprised to learn how many people in government departments were regular readers of the publication. When we started doing reviews of products like PCs, printers, and other office equipment, these government readers started incorporating the product specifications into tender documents. Some vendors tried to get us to incorporate proprietary features into the review specifications, in the hope of blocking out their competitors from tenders. It was all very hilarious—and sobering for us. To place 20-year-olds at the center of lobbying for tens of crores of commercial contracts was a scary prospect.

This is part of our PCQuest 35 Years Series on the Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow of Technology.