CRN May 01, 2012 Issue by UBM India

contents

May 01, 2012 l Volume 1 Issue 13

Cover Story The size of the market is massive, and the rationale of AMS is hard to argue with, yet the ground experience for many partners has been less than satisfactory. We look at how a few partners are successfully leveraging the opportunity

20 NEWS Analyses

Channel Chief

Oracle syncs partner strategy with T4 servers

Canon engages partners for DMS

HP bets on OpenFlow

MyVMware to offer more benefits

Microsoft to double VARs

BenQ eyes growth in smaller cities

Vishal Dhupar, Managing Director, nVIDIA India, speaks about the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s GTM and discusses adoption trends for graphics cards

16 Special Focus The state of ERP in India The ERP market in India is currently pegged at `40,000 crore and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 25 percent in the next 3-4 years

18 Role Model

The turnaround man At one point of time Duckback Information Systems had actually downed shutters. But Asis Chaudhuri, now its CEO, revived the company and transformed it into a leading VAR in east India

Editorial 12 Opinion

Feedback

Channel Buzz

New Products

Shadow Ram

Get Personal

Computer Reseller News

01/05/2012 www.crn.in

Tech Focus

Review: Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 Tab 2 will include an SD card slot, simplifying the movement of files to and from the devices and expanding their storage capacity by 32 GB

Now you can add more

technology to your

Odyssey

Computer Case

UL 1007

3D UL 1020

UL 1008

UL 1009

3D UL 1021

3D UL 1022

UL 1010

UL 1011

UL WS 1020

ULWS 1021

UL 1012

ULWS 1022

starting line MUST

Oracle syncs partner strategy with T4 servers

Canon engages partners for DMS

n RAMDAS S

Read

Canon India is extending document management services (DMS) to SMBs and large enterprises through partners. It has introduced the Capturing Print Share Program for them. “This is our effort to position partners as solution providers and extend DMS to their existing base of enterprises and SMBs,” said K Bhaskhar, Senior Director, Office Imaging Solutions Division, Canon. “We are eying revenue of `75 crore from DMS in 2012 against `50 crore in 2011. We already have 53 large enterprises as our DMS customers, want to add 50 through our partners, and 50 more directly.” “With support from pre-sales and post-sales teams, we expect partners to close at least two deals in the next six months and will engage 11-12 more partners in tier-1 cities,” said Bhaskhar. The company plans to extend its DMS to tier-2 cities in H22013. Canon is engaging partners at the L1 level where it will offer hardware, software solutions and postsales support, and will upgrade them to L2 (L1 + dedicated manpower for infrastrucK Bhaskhar ture management) and L3 levels (L1 + L2 + workflow solutions) gradually. Besides training in DMS, Canon offers presales support such as presentation tools, PoCs, fleet management, fleet design and data collection tools like Rapid Access Key. “We will also introduce in-house financing schemes and deferred payments,” Bhaskhar added. According to the company, mid-market and large enterprises with runs of 80,000-5 lakh prints per month can save 20-35 percent of their print budget spent on purchasing and managing hardware, toners and cartridges. An SMB with a print run of 30,000-40,000 prints per month can save 15-20 percent. As per the Photizo Group, the managed print services (MPS) market in India is growing at CAGR of 51 percent, and is expected to be worth `1,530 crore in 2012. n — Amit Singh

Computer Reseller News

01/05/2012 www.crn.in

Oracle India has unveiled its strategy for hardware partners, and has started publicizing its new SPARC T4 servers. The vendor, which had been rather reticent about its hardware strategy so far though it acquired Sun Microsystems more than two years ago, said that tier-2 partners are central to its plans, and that it is planning to add more partners in Class B cities. Oracle said that over the past six months it has ramped up its hardware business, and now wants partners to start aggressively selling its product line. “We did keep a low profile through the acquisition and later during the integration of the hardware business and other product lines which were acquired as part of the Sun acquisition,” conceded Kapil Sood, Vice President, Systems Business, Oracle India. “However, since the launch of our SPARC T4 servers we are happy that the momentum is back and we have clear performance leadership over other Unix vendors.” Over the past two years Oracle lost considerable market share as well as customer base. IBM and HP made several statements during this period that Sun customers and partners had moved to the IBM AIX and HP Unix platform respectively. Sood responded, “We admit that the competition had a few wins. However, some of their claims have been proven false, and we have forced them to release corrigenda.” Sood said that the Oracle Partner Network (OPN) program is a little different from what Sun used to run, but there is still enough scope for tier-2 partners to build a profitable business around Sun. “We have today over 1,000 partners in the

“Thousands of T4 servers have been shipped to over 800 customers globally. In India the number of T4 shipments has crossed 100” Kapil Sood

Vice President, Systems Business, Oracle India

OPN in the country, and we give access to all channel partners to sell our hardware. Several Oracle software partners have shown interest in selling SPARC hardware, hence we have a mix of old Sun partners and new Oracle partners.” He said that during Q12012 around 20 new partners signed on with OPN to sell hardware. He added that thousands of T4 servers have been shipped to over 800 customers globally. In India the number of T4 shipments has crossed 100. “We have provided customers with a roadmap for the SPARC platform that extends for the next five years. The new T4 line has broken 12 world records for system performance and offers 5X price performance over its nearest competitor.” Meanwhile, for tier-2 partners focused on the SMB market, the vendor is positioning the SPARC T3 line based on Solaris 11. “At present 70 percent of our business is driven by national systems integrators. However, in the next few quarters, we feel that tier-2 partners can do better and bigger business for us.” Oracle, which dropped Ingram Micro from its distributor list in early 2011, now has Redington and Avnet Technology as its distributors. n

starting line MUST

Read

MyVMware to offer more benefits VMware has announced two new initiatives in India—an online license portal named MyVMware, and outcome-based marketing activities for partners. “In MyVMware, we are giving customers the ability to manage their own licenses. We have created a self-service kind of environment where all the information will be available on the Website. Partners will be provided a unique log-in password to access customer data,” said Toni Adams, VP, Global Partner & Alliance Marketing, VMware. Partners will be able to manage licenses, renewals, license consolidation and support status on one platform. (Earlier, this information was available over the phone.) Adams also said that the process for streamlining the licenses will reduce from two weeks to about a day. “We will initially make the license portal available to select partners and then roll it out for other partners gradually. We are currently in the process of conducting user acceptance tests.” According to Adams, partners are increasingly realizing the importance of marToni Adams keting. “Many partners do not have the bandwidth for full-fledged marketing, which is normally enablement-based. What we bring to the table is a change in attitude from enablement-based to outcome-based. In an internal survey we learned that partners are willing to pay for appointments and leads in marketing. We will deliver as per the SLA and work with external agencies (which will be trained) to qualify appointments and leads.” VMware has the foundational structure in place, and it is free. But the outcome is cost-based. “This kind of marketing will be interesting for partners who are dealing with the SMB and upper mid-market segment. However, we are yet to decide on the cost per lead. We are starting a pilot with the top 20 partners in North America. Once it succeeds, we will roll it out globally,” Adams said. n — Sonal Desai

Computer Reseller News

01/05/2012 www.crn.in

HP bets on OpenFlow n RAMDAS S

P is plotting a new strategy to take on market leader Cisco. Central to this strategy will be OpenFlow, a communications protocol and network virtualization technology which gives access to the forwarding plane of a network switch or router over the network, and helps designers implement strong Layer 7-based network policy routines. The company has offered firmware upgrades on 16 switches; this will allow existing users to upgrade free of cost to the new manageability features around OpenFlow. “We are betting heavily on OpenFlow, and by the end of 2012 almost all our managed switches will support OpenFlow. Deploying the OpenFlow standard enables enterprises to reduce the complexity of network devices and automate tasks by using simplified network management,” said Amol Mitra, Director, HP Networking, HP APJ. Mitra also informed that HP has completely integrated the product line acquired from 3Com, and has done away with the ProCurve brand. While there will be no change in the nomenclature strategy, Mitra said that HP product lines will be known by their model numbers—similar to the system Cisco follows—a strategy HP has been using for the past three years. He added, “We were initially telling customers that we were offering the product at a better rate than Cisco for similar performance and features. We are changing that now, and will instead talk of new features such as support for OpenFlow and Virtual Application Networking to demonstrate how we are better.” Another strategy is to align with other vendors to position their enterprise collaborative tools to offer solutions (which are not readily available) through HP Networking—and take Cisco

“Deploying the OpenFlow standard allows enterprises to reduce the complexity and automate tasks by using simplified network management” Amol Mitra

Director, HP Networking, HP APJ

head on. “For example, we have a partnership with Avaya to provide solutions surrounding enterprise IP telephony, branch IP telephony and unified communication solutions,” Mitra said. “Similarly, we have tie-ups with companies like Microsoft, Citrix, Fortinet and Riverbed, all of whom have modules which can be integrated with our routers and switches to offer enterprise networking solutions in areas (including WAN optimization, unified communications and perimeter security) where we do not have ready-to-market solutions under the HP brand.” He said that during 2012 HP will continue working with the partners, educating them about the new features and the reduced TCO of HP networking products. “One of our USPs is that we offer real lifetime warranty, which means customers need not worry about future maintenance costs. Also, our switches and routers are the most power-efficient in the industry today, and are the best for data centers.” Another focus area for 2012 will be the SMB market, where there were complaints of HP lacking consistency in messaging in India. “We are listening to customers, and are ensuring that partners are equipped with the right product training to take on this market,” Mitra stated. n

starting line Microsoft to double VARs n AMIT SINGH

ith a renewed focus on SMBs spearheaded by value added resellers (VARs) offering specialized solutions, Microsoft has appointed Avnet and Redington as its value added distributors (VADs). Avnet will provide complete solutions for virtualization, management, identity and security, while Redington will cater to unified communications, security and cloud services. Microsoft will double its VARs in one year. Rajiv Sodhi, Director, SMB, Microsoft India, said, “We currently have about 50 VARs offering virtualization, identity, security, unified communication and cloud solutions. We want to increase this figure to more than 100 in a year. We will identify VARs from the existing base of the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN), Avnet and Redington.” “We will upgrade their skills and competencies through comprehensive training and certification to deliver these specialized solutions,” Sodhi said. Some Microsoft partners are however sceptical of the move. Said Devesh Aggarwal, CEO, Compusoft, a Mumbai-based Microsoft partner, “We are worried that the introduction of resellers with a box-pushing mind set may commoditize the solutions business and increase the pressure on margins.” Added Pranav Pandya, Director, Dev Information Technology, an Ahmedabadbased Microsoft partner, “Although we welcome this step which will eventually increase the reach of Microsoft solutions, we expect the company to increase the VAR base in a phased manner to cover the country evenly. At the same time, new VADs as well as Microsoft should ensure the sanctity of the solutions business.”

“We currently have about 50 VARs offering our virtualization, identity, security, UC and cloud solutions. We expect to increase them to more than 100” Rajiv Sodhi

Director, SMB, Microsoft India

Sodhi clarified: “The idea is not to make the solutions business broad-based but to ensure the availability of Microsoft solutions to the widely spread SMB customers. We intend to specialize only those partners who can do justice to the solution-driven business and deliver excellent customer experience. This gives partners the opportunity to widen their offerings from just transactional to a solution-driven business with the option to offer solutions onpremise as well as on-cloud.” Though the company is eying opportunities across all verticals, it has identified IT/ ITeS, pharmaceuticals and export-import segments as being aggressive in IT adoption. “Besides supporting VARs through PoCs, demo centers and certifications, we will push the whole ecosystem through our Choosing Tomorrow’s Growth Today initiative designed for SMBs to apprise themselves of the range and benefits of the solutions that Microsoft offers,” Sodhi said. In addition, the VADs will train, educate and help resellers to understand customer requirements and deliver the appropriate solutions. They will also offer post-sales services to enhance the end-customer experience. n

MUST

Read

BenQ eyes growth in smaller cities BenQ is focusing on tier-2 and -3 cities to grow its projector business in 2012. The vendor currently leads the market with a 20 percent share, but is facing competition from Infocus and Epson which, according to FutureSource Consulting, have 12 percent and 10 percent market share respectively. The present size of the projector market is five lakh units, and is growing at a CAGR of 60 percent. BenQ plans to increase its sales from the current 30,000 units per quarter to 50,000 units per quarter in 2012. Rajeev Singh, Country Manager, BenQ India, said, “Tier-2 and-3 cities will contribute 15 percent of our projector revenue. We are optimistic because of the improved infrastructure and connectivity in these cities. Education is the primary vertical. Financial institutions are offering loans to schools and colleges to improve infrastructure, and raise the standard of education.” Among the tier-2 and -3 cities, the company is eying new opportunities in Gorakhpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Agra, Meerut, Aligarh, PuduchRajeev Singh erry, Madurai, Trichy, Erode, Siliguri, Bardhaman, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Nasik, Sholapur, Satara and Amravati. It is also increasing its RDs from the present 100 to 175, and the number of active resellers from 300 to 600 in the next eight months. On the product front, BenQ has launched its Laser LED projectors with a lamp-life of more than 30,000 hours compared to the standard 5,000 hours. It has also launched 10 SKUs of Smart Eco projectors for the education segment. BenQ has allocated budget of `6 crore for marketing activities for 2012. The company also wants to reduce its TAT from the present 72 hours to 48, and hike the number of service centers from the current 75 to 200 by 2012-end. “We are increasing the number of centers for panel repairs and also increasing the buffer stock of spare parts at the branch offices,” said Singh. n — Abhijeet Mukherjee

Computer Reseller News

01/05/2012

www.crn.in

edit opinion Volume 1, Issue 13

My moment of reckoning dhaval valia

ast fortnight, I was invited to attend the annual day of Mumbai-based VDA Infosolutions. My first such experience attending the Annual Company Day of a partner organization. There were over 300 employees of VDA, and nearly 25 of its prime customer CIOs and several of its key vendor managers at the annual day. As a journalist my interaction is largely with the heads of partner organizations—this was different as I got an interesting 360 degree view of what makes up the organization—people, culture, vendors and customers. I sensed that the average age of the 300-odd employees present at the event was less than 30 years, and most of them were technical people who worked onsite to support customers’ IT infrastructure—many could not make it to the event as they were at customer site doing night shift. I happened to speak to one of the under-25 year employee who told me that he spends most of this working time at the customer site and visits his company’s office mostly for weekly and fortnightly training. “While I work for VDA, I am an integral part of the customer team, and the IT team there considers me as one of their members,” he said, of course in Hindi. Interestingly I met up with a couple of customer CIOs of India’s leading companies who came to the event wearing VDA shirt. When I asked them if their company would not object to it, one of the CIO said, “VDA is part of us as they are integral to our IT infrastructure and management, and thus to our business. Everyone in our team including the CEO and CFO acknowledge this fact and I am just expressing my gratitude to the contribution made by VDA to our organizational growth over the years.” It was truly my moment of reckoning. I have been covering the IT channel for over 10 years, but never had the opportunity to get a 360-degree view of the IT channel’s overall contribution in growing the customer business. Had it not been for the IT partner ecosystem, many customers would have hesitated to deploy IT. The critical role that IT plays in businesses today would never have been realized by thousands of companies, and what would have happened to the IT vendors—many would have never grown to the size they are today. So each of the IT channel partner should take pride in what they have achieved not just for themselves or their companies or their customers but for the IT industry as a whole. As for me, I am looking forward to attend more annual day of a partner organization. n E-mail CRN Executive Editor Dhaval Valia at dhaval.valia@ubm.com 12

Computer Reseller News

01/05/2012 www.crn.in

Managing Director Printer & Publisher Director Associate Publisher & Executive Editor Group Commercial Director Contributing Editor Assistant Editor Principal Correspondent Senior Correspondent

: : : : : : : : :

Sanjeev Khaira Sajid Yusuf Desai Kailash Shirodkar Dhaval Valia Salil Warior Ramdas S Sonal Desai Abhijeet Mukherjee (Mumbai) Amit Singh (Delhi)

Design Art Director Senior Visualiser Senior Designer Designer

: Deepjyoti Bhowmik : Yogesh Naik : Shailesh Vaidya : Jinal Chheda, Sameer Surve Marketing Advertising Co-ordinator : Jagruti Kudalkar online Manager—Product Dev. & Mktg. : Viraj Mehta Deputy Manager—Online : Nilesh Mungekar Web Designer : Nitin Lahare Sr. User Interface Designer : Aditi Kanade Operations Head—Finance : Yogesh Mudras Director—Operations & Administration : Satyendra Mehra Sales bangalore Manager—Sales : Sudhir K sudhir.k@ubm.com (M) +91 9740776749 Delhi Senior Project Manager : Sanjay Khandelwal sanjay.khandelwal@ubm.com (M) +91 98117 64515 mumbai Manager—Sales : Ranabir Das ranabir.das@ubm.com (M) +91 9820097606 production Deputy Manager : Prakash (Sanjay) Adsul Logistics Assistant Manager : Bajrang Shinde Subscriptions & Database Manager : Manoj Ambardekar manoj.ambardekar@ubm.com Senior Executive : Deepanjali Chaurasia deepa.chaurasia@ubm.com Head Office UBM India Pvt Ltd, 1st floor, 119, Sagar Tech Plaza - A, Andheri-Kurla Road, Saki Naka Junction, Andheri (E), Mumbai 400072, India Tel: 022 6769 2400; Fax: 022 6769 2426 Printed and Published by Sajid Yusuf Desai on behalf of UBM India Pvt Ltd, 6th floor, 615-617 Sagar Tech Plaza - A, Andheri-Kurla Road, Saki Naka Junction, Andheri (E), Mumbai 400072, India. Executive Editor: Dhaval Valia Printed at Indigo Press (India) Pvt Ltd, Plot No 1c/716, Off Dadaji Konddeo Cross Road, Byculla (E), Mumbai 400027 RNI No. MAHENG/2011/39915 Associate Office - Pune Jagdish Khaladkar, Sahayog Apartment 508 Narayan Peth, Patrya Maruti Chowk, Pune 411 030 Tel: 91 (020) 2445 1574 (M) 98230 38315 email: jagdishk@vsnl.com USA Huson International Media (West) Tiffany DeBie Tiffany.debie@husonmedia.com Tel +1 408 879 6666 Fax +1 408 879 6669 Huson International Media (East) Dan Manioci dan.manioci@husonmedia.com Tel +1 212 268 3344 Fax +1 212 268 3355

Japan Pacific Business (PBI) Shigenori Nagatomo nagatomo-pbi@gol.com Tel: +81 3366 16138 Fax: +81 3366 16139

South Korea Young Media Young Baek ymedia@chol.com Tel: +82 2227 34819 Fax: +82 2227 34866

EMEA Huson International Media Gerry Rhoades Brown, gerry. rhoadesbrown@husonmedia. com Tel: +44 19325 64999 Fax: + 44 19325 64998

Important Every effort has been taken to avoid errors or omissions in this magazine. In spite of this, errors may creep in. Any mistake, error or discrepancy noted may be brought to our notice immediately. It is notified that neither the publisher, the editor or the seller will be responsible in respect of anything and the consequence of anything done or omitted to be done by any person in reliance upon the content herein. This disclaimer applies to all, whether subscriber to the magazine or not. For binding mistakes, misprints, missing pages, etc, the publisher’s liability is limited to replacement within one month of purchase. © All rights are reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Mumbai only. While care is taken prior to acceptance of advertising copy, it is not possible to verify its contents. UBM India Pvt Ltd. cannot be held responsible for such contents, nor for any loss or damages incurred as a result of transactions with companies, associations or individuals advertising in its newspapers or publications. We therefore recommend that readers make necessary inquiries before sending any monies or entering into any agreements with advertisers or otherwise acting on an advertisement in any manner whatsoever.

The Complete Commercial, Homeland Security & Fire Technology Show

Organised by

1 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 3 November 2012 | India Expo Centre, Greater Noida, India

For More Information Please Contact: Mr. Pankaj Jain, Project Director Unit 1604 & 1605, 16th Flr., Narian Manzil, 23 Barakhamba Rd., Connaught Place, New Delhi 110 001 T : +91 11 23765553 F : +91 11 23765552 E: pankaj.jain@ubm.com

edit opinion Compliance is a gold mine Kelley Damore

egulations are not just for big businesses anymore. Today the governments are enacting data privacy laws that mandate companies both large and small to protect the confidential data of their customers. Earlier this month the state of Utah disclosed that 181,000 people who receive benefits from Medicaid and the Child Health Insurance Plan had personal information stolen due to a simple configuration error. These types of disclosures happen all too often. While Windows has been the platform of choice for hackers, the popularity of Apple devices has hackers moving their attention toward the Mac platform. Kaspersky Lab recently said that its analysis of a massive botnet revealed that more than 98 percent of the infected systems were running a version of Mac OS X and more than 600,000 computers had been compromised. If you think anyone or any platform is safe, think again. There is an alphabet soup of regulations out there: PCIDSS for companies that take credit card payments, GLBA and SOX for financial institutions, HITECH and HIPAA for the healthcare sector. Beyond industry regulations, do you know about e-discovery? The official name is the Federal Rules of Civil Procedures (FRCP) and it now states that electronic documents are discoverable. So, theoretically, all businesses involved in lawsuits, IRS actions or HIPAA or SOX violations must respond to an electronic discovery request. This means your customers must retain electronically stored informationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; emails, IMs, text documents, Wikis, blogs, Web transactionsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; and be able to retrieve it and hold onto the electronic record until the matter is settled. And while you do not want to be in a position to be an auditor for your clients, baseline knowledge of the regulations and, more importantly, the technologies that can help, can be added to your arsenal. I would bet that most small businesses are not even aware that they must meet these data protection laws or know much about e-discovery. What is more, there is a lot of sensitive data that small businesses have and need to be protected: Social Security numbers, W2s, payroll information, tax ID numbers, credit card numbers, the list goes on. This could be a gold mine for the partners. Solution providers can install a number of security measures to help small businesses meet the regulations and protect their customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; data. You can help a small business create a document retention and business continuity plan and then map policy-based encryption, email archiving and recovery and data leakage prevention to the strategy. Today there are some hosted models that you can white-label as a service and look like a hero to your client. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. n E-mail Kelley Damore at kelley.damore@ec.ubm.com 14

Computer Reseller News

01/05/2012 www.crn.in

Opportunities in education The cover story on opportunities for partners in education sector in the April 1 edition was informative. I agree that opportunities in the education sector are huge and attractive. Software is a big opportunity for partners as most institutions are deploying licensed software. While vendors are offering their software with heavy discounts that promote the uptake of these solutions, implementing ERP like solutions in education require customization which offers substantial service revenue for partners. At the same time, with many schools and colleges promoting social networking as a communication tool, security is another big opportunity. Apart from UTM solutions, data

loss prevention and content filtering are being taken up by educational institutions that are connected. Ram Singh Delhi

Trends in the display market The market focus on trends in the display market provided an interesting read. The changing market dynamics in the display market is worth noticing. With increased focus from OEMs, partners are also viewing the market with a lot of interest. Immersive technologies like 3D and HD are also driving the market demand for newer technologies. Anurag Jain Tirupati Systems Bengaluru

Send your feedback at editor@ubmindia.com or post your views on www.crn.in

Advertiser Index Company name

Page No Web site

Sales Contact

Smartlink

1 www.digisol.com

helpdesk@digisol.com

Smartlink

2 www.digilite.co.in

helpdesk@digilite.co.in

4 www.hp.com/in/folio13

in.contact@hp.com

Alcatel Lucent

india.mktg@alcatel-lucent.com

Compuage-Odyssey

7 www.compuageindia.com

odyssey@compuageindia.com

Compuage-Edifier

9 www.edifier-international.com

info@compuageindia.com

IFSEC

13 www.ifsecsouthindia.com

pankaj.jain@ubm.com

Interop

15 www.interop.in

salil.warior@ubm.com

Virtual Expo

salil.warior@ubm.com

Unistal

33 www.unistal.in

marketing@unistal.com

Biz

34 www.indiaantivirus.com

sales@indiaantivirus.com

IBM

35 www.ibm.com

response@in.ibm.com

Kaspersky

sales@sakri.in.

www.interprise.alcatel-lucent.com

www.crn.in/virtualexpo

www.sakri.in

MUMBAI October 10 - 12, 2012 // Bombay Exhibition Center

ThoughT LEAdErs unvEiL ThE fuTurE of EnTErprisE iT

Alpna J. Doshi

VS Parthasarathy

CIO, Reliance Communications

Jayantha Prabhu

Vijay Sethi

CTO, Essar Group

Group CIO, EVP – Finance and M & A Services, M&M Group

VP - IS and CIO, Hero MotoCorp

Rajesh Uppal

Umesh Jain CIO, Yes Bank

Executive Officer – IT & CIO, Maruti Suzuki India

TEsTimoniALs Attendees

Exhibitors

“There are a lot of technology infrastructure demonstrations here at INTEROP for the attendees to see as compared to other events.”

“INTEROP is a fantastic show. We participated here to basically showcase our solutions around computer, storage and networking. We got the right kind of audience here.”

Prashant Ghoshal, Director – I T Solutions and Services, Geometric Ltd

Satyen Vyas, Director - Medium Business, Dell India Pvt. Ltd.

“INTEROP presents a great opportunity to get as many solution providers in one place as possible and talk to them. We can see, touch and feel the technologies that can allow us to add more productivity to our business.”

“We had a very nice experience with the organizers - they had systems in place, processes in place, and deadlines in place. We are really happy with the quality of the attendees at our booth. We had a great experience and hope to be back next year at INTEROP.”

David Briskman, VP & CIO, Ranbaxy Laboratories

Anjali Gupta, Demand Program Manager and Brand Champion Systems & Technology Group (India), IBM

“INTEROP gives a great opportunity for the partner ecosystem to come together under one roof, interact, and network through workshops, presentations and exhibitions.”

“At INTEROP, we got a great customer response and came across fantastic technologies displayed by variety of exhibitors. This is a good investment for exhibitors & participants and Siemens has found it worth.”

V S Parthasarathy, Group CIO, EVP – Finance and M & A Services, M&M Group

Rahul Kulkarni, Senior Manager – Marketing, Siemens Enterprise Communications

Submission for speaking at INTEROP closes May 31, 2012. Submit your paper today! Visit www.interop.in Platinum & Gala Reception Partner

Gold & Badge Partner

Bronze & Lanyard Partner

Media Partners

Delegate Kit Sponsor

THE BUSINESS VALUE OF TECHNOLOGY

www.crn.in

www.informationweek.in

Supporting Associations Silver Partner

Online Media Partners

Bronze Partner

www.crn.in

THE BUSINESS VALUE OF TECHNOLOGY

www.informationweek.in

To mark your presence at INTEROP 2012, contact: Salil Warior | +91 99875 80188 | salil.warior@ubm.com

Surajit Bit | +91 98734 45423 | surajit.bit@ubm.com

www.interop.in

channel chief “India is lagging in GPU penetration” Vishal Dhupar, Managing Director, nVIDIA India, talks with Ramdas S, about the company’s GTM and explains why a dedicated GPU is important for a better PC experience even if you are not into gaming What is nvidia’s GTM strategy for India? Our GTM revolves around our relationships with OEMs. We work with two sets of OEMs, the PC vendors and the graphics cards vendors. Since these vendors have multi-tier partners, they also drive our communication, engagement and enablement. We work with the product management teams of MNC PC vendors as well as local Indian OEMs to ensure that at almost all price-points they have an SKU which has an nVIDIA graphics processing unit (GPU). Our global teams work with a Toshiba or HP product team to ensure that we have design wins, then our India sales team works with the PC maker’s local sales team to ensure availability. We work with more than 2,000 system builders who are in our engagement programs. We also have retail chains which sell MNC desktops and notebooks.

How large is the Indian GPU market? What is the estimated growth? There are different estimates. The overall discrete graphics market for desktops has an attach rate of 10-12 percent of motherboard shipments. In the consumer PC segment we estimate that 30 percent of desktops and notebooks sold have dedicated graphics on board. Emerging markets such as Russia, China and Brazil have seen dedicated graphics penetration at 80-90 percent of the consumer PC market, so at 30 percent India is lagging behind considerably. Nevertheless, we are confident that the Indian market will move in that direction. Gartner estimates that the PC market will grow at 17 percent in 2012, and we estimate that the GPU market will grow much faster than that.

India does not have a huge gaming market. How do you ensure that the GPU market grows despite this?

dual-core processor with a dedicated graphics card can deliver better PC experience than a mainstream processor (Core i3/i5) even if you are not a gamer but a business PC user. In fact a dedicated graphics card can give a new lease of life to older PCs and even make them perform faster. Over the past few years we have demonstrated this message through our live road shows.

AMD with APU, and Intel with Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge, have released processors with GPU functionality inside the silicon die. Will this affect your market share? On the contrary it has increased the overall market for discrete graphics. As we improve the GPU functionality, there is richer content being developed whether it is games, high-definition video or business applications that need more GPU power. We have noticed that many customers who have invested in an APU- or Sandybridgebased PC are buying a dedicated graphics card.

What is your product roadmap for the professional graphics market? While we position GeForce for the gaming and mainstream PC market, Quadro is positioned for the professional graphics card market. We have system builders as well as workstation OEMs who use these cards to build professional workstations. About five years back we had introduced Tesla along with a programming paradigm called CUDA. These enabled thousands of scientists, engineers and researchers to get multi-teraflop performance on their desktop computers, significantly cutting their investment costs. We have now introduced the next-generation platform called Kepler. In India we have had many wins especially in the education, defense and R&D segments; we are assisting these segments to transform their applications to take advantage of the Kepler and CUDA platforms.

This year one of the key initiatives from our side is to tell both PC resellers/integrators as well as PC users that the GPU is not just about multimedia and gaming. Today, even popular browsers and office applications are using it to process and deliver rich content faster. An entry-level

Your Tegra processor is fast finding acceptance among both mobile phone makers and tablet makers. Are you targeting the PC market now?

“The GPU is not just about multimedia and gaming. Today, even popular browsers and office applications are using it to process and deliver rich content faster”

Yes. Last year Toshiba had tested the market with a netbook with Tegra inside. We are presently helping PC makers to design low-cost but powerful mobile computers (based on the Tegra platform) which will offer better battery backup. In the next 6-18 months there will be notebooks of different form-factors with Tegra on board hosting different operating systems. n

Computer Reseller News

01/05/2012 www.crn.in

Connect and interact with more than 1,000 resellers at half the cost of a 50-delegate F2F event

May 30-31 & November 21-22

After the successful launch of CRN Virtual Expo in May 2011, CRN brings to you two Virtual Expos in 2012. CRN Virtual Expo 2012 will bring together more than 1,000 channel partners from across 150+ cities, thus making it the largest such virtual initiative in the IT channels in the country. A combination of web and video-based live conference program and an interactive online exhibition, the CRN Virtual Expo promises to be the most cost-effective channel marketing tool for IT vendors. Platinum Partners

For Partnerships contact: Salil Warior | +91 99875 80188 | salil.warior@ubm.com South: Sudhir K | +91 9740 776749 | sudhir.k@ubm.com North: Sanjay Khandelwal | +91 98117 64515 | sanjay.khandelwal@ubm.com West: Ranabir Das | +91 98200 97606 | ranabir.das@ubm.com

www.crn.in/virtualexpo

special focus The state of ERP in India The ERP market in India is currently pegged at `40,000 crore and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 25 percent in the next 3-4 years n SONAL DESAI

ccording to Kalyan Banga, Manager, Product Development, Netscribes India, the Indian ERP market is currently estimated to be worth `40,000 crore and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 25 percent in the next 3-4 years. And a study by AMI Partners reveals that of the 4.1 million Indian SMBs with PC penetration almost a million would consider investing in an ERP solution in the next four years.

Growth drivers Banga says that factors such as reduced product and service cost, enhanced productivity, low time consumption, automation, diminished risk of stock-outs and lower lead-time are attracting SMBs to ERP adoption. Partners attribute the growth in the ERP market to the tech-awareness among SMBs who were earlier dependent on other technology. “They realized that a local ERP cannot cope with changes. Many customers are therefore migrating from local ERP to vendors who can offer them CRM and BI with ERP,” remarks Siddharth Kumar, CEO, Greytrix, a Mumbai-based Sage Premier Partner.

Gen-next push There is a new breed of second-generation entrepreneurs who want to grow fast, expand geographically, and are looking at scalable options, notes Paresh Shah, Partner, PH Teknow, a Mumbai-based Microsoft partner. Vikram Suri, MD, Sage Software, India & Middle East, has a similar opinion. He feels that these new-age CXOs are driving ERP deployments. “They have a good sense of their business, so they will not adopt a technology just for the sake of it but only to enhance their business.” New-age businessmen realize that ERP not only enhances productivity but also results in cost savings. This realization at an early stage is leading start-ups to deploy ERP. For example, the Alila Diwa Goa, a

Verticals at the top Finance, distribution, retail, media and services contribute 30-40 percent to the overall ERP segment. Sensing the opportunities, vendors are introducing vertical-specific templates to enable partners to close deals and deploy the solutions faster. According to a recent Zinnov study, retail is the single-largest vertical by addressable opportunity with two million firms ready for technology adoption and expansion, followed by professional services at 1.9 million and manufacturing at 1.2 million. “By 2015, retail will stand at 2.5 million, professional services at 2.3 million, manufacturing at 1.6 million, and hotels and restaurants at 1.1 million enterprises. The education segment is not far behind, and is expected to grow to 1.1 million units from the current 0.9 million units,” says Kishen Bhat, Engagement Manager, Zinnov. Oracle is working with partners to develop industryspecific solutions. SAP has developed templates for 26

“New-age CXOs have a good sense of their business, so they will not adopt a technology just for the sake of it but only to enhance their business”

“With compliance being the new norm across industries, vendors are embedding industry best practices and standard processes in ERP solutions”

Vikram Suri

Devesh Aggarwal

MD, Sage Software, India & Middle East

5-star hotel and part of the Alila Group of Hotels, had earmarked investment for ERP at the planning stage itself. The company implemented the Sage Accpac ERP at the hotel. Shah of PH Teknow says, “New-age entrepreneurs who have the tech know-how and a detailed process plan in place are our new prospects. These next-generation businessmen are willing to invest in ERP right from the start.” Global best practices also play a major role in influencing new entrepreneurs to opt for advanced technologies. Reasons Devesh Aggarwal, CEO, Compusoft, a Mumbai-based Microsoft partner, “With compliance being the new norm across industries, vendors are embedding industry best practices and standard processes in ERP solutions, and these are a huge draw.”

Computer Reseller News

01/05/2012 www.crn.in

CEO, Compusoft

special focus “We work with partners who are strong in verticals, embed their solutions in our templates, and resell those to end-customers”

“ROI is simple to calculate. Although it differs on a case-tocase basis, for an average on-premise ERP deployment the ROI takes about 18-20 months”

Vivek Singh Rawat

Paresh Shah

Head, Ecosystem & Channel, SAP India

Partner, PH Teknow

industries and is now looking at the auto components, dairy, specialty chemicals, infrastructure, healthcare, sugar, poultry farms and textile sectors. Informs Vivek Singh Rawat, Head, Ecosystem & Channel, SAP India, “We work with partners such as New-Age Business Consultants, SeaSoft Solutions, Highbar Technologies and SpectraSoft Technologies which are strong in verticals, embed their solutions in our templates, and resell those to end-customers.”

Opportunities for partners The Government: has emerged as a serious player. Tally Solutions is targeting ERP implementation at the panchayat level and has already bagged a few orders. The 28,000+ panchayats have been advised by the Central Vigilance Commission to implement ERP for transparency and better productivity. Education: is another big opportunity. With the mushrooming of new schools and colleges, their managements are turning to automation to ease processes, track finances and manage the faculty and students. “The fact that all the vendors have introduced discounted pricing for the sector makes ERP a viable proposition,” Aggarwal points out. Peer-to-peer collaboration: Partners are leveraging the growing trend of peer-to-peer collaboration and executing solutions instead of a pure-play ERP deployment. For a project totally valued at `25 lakh, Aggarwal deployed server, storage, networking and security solutions at a start-up food chain and restaurant in Mumbai. “The hardware requirement was mapped to the components on the ERP application that the hotelier wanted to use. Since I do not deal in hardware, I partnered with an ISODA member for the project, which went live in October 2011.” He regularly collaborates with ISODA members from other regions for projects involving ERP deployment at branch offices. Solution provisioning: Sudarsan Ranganathan, CEO, Veeras Infotek, who does not deal in ERP, has an interesting take. “We gauge the importance an organization gives to ERP, and determine whether it is process-based and has clarity for growth. I then chart out the hardware requirements for the CIO which are based on his growth plans.” Services: Partners say that ERP deployments bring in additional revenue from services. Aggarwal asserts that an IT reseller can make up to 2-5 percent margins, whereas a solutions partner can make up to 25-30 percent on solution selling because the project lifecycle is longer. “Partners can also look at revenue from server

management, storage, database management and MISrelated support (post-ERP deployment).”

On-premise ERP The changing dynamics of the ERP market have brought about changes in the business models. While on-premise deployments still dominate the Indian ERP scene, hosted or cloud-based ERP deployments are slowly gaining ground. Until now, Microsoft offered only on-premise versions of its Dynamics ERP applications though Microsoft partners have had the right to host those applications for their customers under a service provider license agreement. The software giant acknowledges that conversations with customers indicate that interest in on-demand ERP applications has lagged, and that fewer businesses are ready to move mission-critical data and workflows to the cloud. Microsoft, SAP, Tally, Oracle, Epicor and Infor are very strong in the traditional ERP market, which is growing at the rate of 30-35 percent according to industry estimates. e-Recovery, a Mumbai-based ERP provider, charges a one-time fee for the licenses which can be used by multiple users across multiple locations. For example, its ERP for a manufacturing company with revenue from `100 crore to `500 crore costs `10 lakh-12 lakh exclusive of training and customization.

Cloud-based ERP TCS has launched iON, an on-demand service on a pay-per-use model that offers on the cloud applications such as HR, finance, inventory and domain-based ERP solutions, and basic applications like email, document management and Website services. The company has created an ecosystem of more than 100 cloud service partners across India. e-Recovery is currently working with 12 tier-2 partners for cloud ERP. “We allow a trained partner to architect the solution and also do the deployment. This allows him to earn deployment revenue apart from services revenue and commission,” explains Deepak Suryavanshi, SBU Head, e-Recovery. The company, which has 120 successful implementations across India and abroad, charges `4,000 per user per month for the cloud. Microsoft is also developing cloud computing versions of its Microsoft Dynamics ERP applications, and the company is promising to bring its partner ecosystem along as those applications are rolled out over the next several years. n

Computer Reseller News

01/05/2012

www.crn.in

cover story

The size of the market is massive, and the rationale of AMS is hard to argue with, yet the ground experience for many partners has been less than satisfactory. We look at how a few partners are successfully leveraging the opportunity n AMIT SINGH & RAMDAS S

T infrastructure management services (AMS) for Indian IT partners will continue to grow as both partners and vendors explore new opportunities, and delivery models to address potential customers. With customers understanding that IT is becoming mission-critical to their business, they are willing to outsource AMS to partners, who in turn are building capabilities to deliver results by using a combination of remote, on-premise and automated delivery models. While there is no specific data available regarding the precise market size of the opportunity that can be addressed by partners, different vendors and analysts have found ways to encapsulate the market size. According to a recent survey by Forrester Research, the IT managed services market in India is expected to reach $3.8 billion in 2013, growing at a CAGR of 23 percent. Nasscom has projected the AMS opportunity to be around $13 billion-15 billion by 2013. While a large chunk of this opportunity would be addressed by Accenture, Infosys, Wipro, TCS and IBM Global Services, tier-2 partners also have an equal chance. “We have been trying to educate the partners that remote AMS is an opportunity where they can compete with a Wipro or TCS, and can deliver better and more

Computer Reseller News

01/05/2012 www.crn.in

effectively,” says Girish Krishnamurthy, MD, Kaseya India. According to industry pundits, apart from the global outsourcing potential there are considerable local opportunities. “The IT outsourcing market in India in 2011 was valued at $2.4 billion and is growing at 25 percent,” notes Arup Roy, Principal Analyst, Gartner India.

Growth factors Roy believes that a major reason for the growth in the IT outsourcing market is the scarcity of qualified human resources to manage infrastructure. He says that though there is a good supply of engineering graduates, only about 25 percent of them are employable and hence organizations are facing a resource crunch. “Due to the increased competition, companies prefer to outsource their IT infrastructure to experts in managed services. IT outsourcing also offers cost savings of about 5-8 percent.” An important trend that is driving AMS growth is the move by customers to cut down on capital expenditure. “Customers are today spending less on infrastructure, and are more than happy to look at outsourced models with the option to reduce or increase capacity usage. This is driving them to opt for IT-as-a-service which offers,

cover story these two segments looking at proactive support services.”

“Due to competition, companies prefer to outsource infrastructure to experts in managed services. IT outsourcing also offers cost savings of about 5-8 percent”

Endpoint management

Arup Roy

Principal Analyst, Gartner India

apart from cost savings in terms of operational expenses, more flexibility and predictability,” explains Durganadh Venkata, VP, Locuz Enterprise Solutions. Adds Prakash MS, VP, WW Delivery, ITO India Center, HP, “From a technology point of view, trends have emerged around open standards-based solutions which make hosting and managed services extremely easy—from a deployment perspective—and flexible. This has resulted in lower upfront investments and pay-as-you-go models.” The managed services market is seeing many telco vendors making their entry. Leveraging on their infrastructure which has primarily been set up to offer voice and mobile services, telcos have jumped on to the bandwagon. Forecasts Vishak Raman, Regional Director, Fortinet India & Middle East, “Telcos will slowly but surely play a bigger role in IT AMS because the last mile is controlled by them.”

Possibilities for partners Partners confirm that most verticals have expressed keenness to work on opportunities in outsourced managed services. “Except BFSI and IT/ITeS, all the other verticals are open to managed infrastructure services where partners have a chance to compete,” says KV Jagannath, MD, Choice Solutions. This is understandable. While BFSI has stringent rules when it comes to infrastructure outsourcing, IT/ITeS companies have the competencies to manage their facilities themselves, and since IT infrastructure is critical to their business they do not outsource it. While segments such as manufacturing, retail, distribution and pharma have all embraced the idea of managed service providers, government and education are the two new segments considering IT AMS. Comments Ganesh Mahabala, VP, Valuepoint Systems, Bengaluru, “While the government segment has seen tremendous adoption of technology over the years, it still has the challenge of having users with limited technology knowledge. By contrast, the education segment has the challenge of students who constantly experiment with IT infrastructure, thus creating chaos. This has resulted in

“A new trend is around open standards-based solutions that make hosting and managed services extremely easy—from a deployment perspective” Prakash MS

VP, WW Delivery, ITO India Center, HP

Desktop management remains the most common IT infrastructure service in the market today. From simple break-and-fix models under annual maintenance/service contracts to proactive service level agreements, contracts are being signed by partners with their customers. Vendors like Kaseya, PCVisor, MSP1 and TeamViewer are some of the software vendors addressing the market opportunity by selling tools that help partners offer remote infrastructure support to their customers. Even Microsoft has joined the fray with the Microsoft Windows Intune that offers OS-level support for users. Explains SR Nair, MD, Team Frontline, Kochi, “The PC is still a fairly complex tool for an average user in an Indian organization. Enterprises realize that the uptime and the overall well being of a personal computer is the key to ensure that the user remains productive.” That is one of the reasons why virtualization vendors are targeting partners in the facility management services (FMS) and AMS space. Virtual desktop infrastructure

Different models for delivering AMS

ecause the managed services model relies heavily on management and process rigor, customers and service providers are working on several new models that help with the execution of commitments. The choice of models is dependent on project parameters such as price, location, delivery, scale, skills and scope of work. Co-managed Services: A number of partners are saying that many customer IT departments are increasingly preferring this model compared to a fully managed outsourcing model. “One of the reasons is that IT departments do not want to put all their eggs in the same basket by trusting a single entity. In many ways, it also gives the IT department better visibility and flexibility,” says L Ashok, CEO, Futurenet Technologies. The model is also called the Governance model. Staff Augmentation Services: Staff augmentation is an outsourcing strategy which is used to staff a project and respond to business objectives in the work process. In the initial days of managed services this was one of the most common models and essentially involved providing manpower on-premise. The customer need not worry about attrition, retention or other HR-related issues. With the advent of remote AMS, staff augmentation has changed to a hybrid model where minimal staff is provided on-premise while a lot of the work is managed out of a network operations center. Professional services are also being delivered on a hybrid model where experts at a central delivery center coordinate with an onsite delivery professional. Project-based Model: These are fixed-price projects which are either time-bound or task-specific. They may range from simpler tasks such as back-up of a large database, migration from a legacy system and network optimization to complex consultancy assignments such as data center optimization. “If you look at an IT organization from a holistic perspective, you can see all the aforesaid models in operation across projects and support engagements,” says Prakash MS, VP, WW Delivery, ITO India Center, HP. n

Computer Reseller News

01/05/2012

www.crn.in

cover story (VDI) is perceived to be one of the ways to reduce operational costs thanks to the centralized control it provides administrators and the FMS staff. Partners say that both Citrix and VMware are exploring ideas focused on the AMS business to migrate customers to a VDI-based architecture, and are discussing licensing

The Team Computers’ experience

ew Delhi-based Team Computers has been among the most successful partners who have moved to an AMS business. The MSP today manages 100,000+ endpoints and several other assets. In 2009 Team signed on with Kaseya India to automate its managed services. “Unlike the US where customers are willing to pay anything from $40 to $100 per device per month for managing IT, in India the best we were able to generate was `1,500 in a year, which is abysmally low. We also realized that we needed to either bring down our cost of supporting a device or charge a premium,” says Ranjan Chopra, CMD, Team Computers. Chopra says that getting on to the AMS platform was all about keeping customers happy and then expecting customers to pay for better results. “Unfortunately, in the services industry, a customer will remember you for a mistake that has happened and not for the hundreds of days of keeping things absolutely intact. Hence, if a customer is expected to pay extra, he needs to be kept completely happy,” Chopra observes. Chopra’s engagement with Kaseya is through a combination of buying perpetual licenses as well as taking licenses on lease. “After three years of engagement I would say that we are still learning, and that we are still far from our goal. Typically, on a break-fix model, Ranjan Chopra we were averaging the ability to manage about 200 assets per engineer. Today, with a hybrid of break-fix and AMS, we are able to manage 600-700 endpoint assets per engineer. Our ultimate goal is to get an engineer to proactively manage up to 1,000 assets.” He said that though currently on paper Team Computers is making profits with the AMS model, considering the investments which the company has made and the overall management costs they are not breaking even. “We are playing a long-term game. The idea is to charge customers 25-30 percent more from the second year on the track record of all the good work done in the first year. Not all customers will pay that premium, but I am sure many will, and that is when we start making money.” Chopra advises his peers to stay patient. He believes that over the next few years service providers who can create a difference and keep customers happy will survive. n

Unfortunately, in the services industry, a customer will remember you for a mistake that has happened and not for the hundreds of days of keeping things absolutely intact

Computer Reseller News

01/05/2012 www.crn.in

options which are flexible. “Desktop management is still the most cumbersome and least profitable for a partner involved in the FMS business,” observes Harikrishna Prabhu, Director, Technobind, a VAD based in Bengaluru. “We have introduced a completely new model though a partnership with Virtual Computer. This model allows an AMS professional to manage virtual machines remotely without the additional licensing costs associated with traditional VDI.” For the past four years Kaseya India has been promoting the concept of AMS. This essentially involves a software agent which can be pre-configured to perform pre-emptive notification of failure of components, patch management and security updates. Remarks Bob Davis, CMO, Kaseya, “The future of IT management in India is only through automation, and AMS is set to play a larger role. We are on the path of covering the entire IT and ITrelated devices management. The new innovations from Kaseya such as Mobile Device (smartphone and iPad) Management is a step toward the future where more and more information is going to be communicated through these devices.” Mahabala of Valuepoint agrees. “The recent trend in AMS is that customers want us to also monitor, manage and secure mobile devices, including tablets. It is not possible through the traditional model, and this is where AMS, which is proactive and rule-based, helps.” Every partner in this space is going in for some form of automation. According to most service providers, the hybrid model is the way forward. Many of them have also developed home-grown solutions. For instance, Allied Digital Systems, which manages 7.5 lakh-8 lakh endpoints for 400 customers in the country, offers an Integrated Service Delivery (ISD) framework which can integrate with other third-party service tools and provide a dashboard to manage a customer’s IT infrastructure remotely. “We offer L1, L2 and L3 support through the in-house-developed ISD framework, for L4 services we have tools from HP, Landesk, Zyrion and N-able. We have deputed about 270 employees for remote services and 1,500 for onsite services,” informs Sanjiv Patki, COO, Allied Digital.

Network & data center Over the past year and a half many partners have started offering services around network convergence, optimization, data center, storage recovery and back-up. Explains Vikram Sharma, VP, SP, Cisco India & Saarc, “SPs can bundle a managed service with access and connectivity, drive additional revenue, increase customer

“We have introduced a new model which allows an IMS professional to manage virtual machines remotely without the additional licensing costs of traditional VDI” Harikrishna Prabhu Director, Technobind

cover story loyalty and reduce churn. Our partners are offering a wide range of services including MPLS network fine tuning, managed VPN, and network monitoring.” Amitabh Patney, VP, Services Sales, Global Accounts, Cisco APAC, points out, “Many customers need customized reports of their infrastructure, and partners are making decent revenue by providing audit services.” Managed services around unified communications and network optimization offer networking solution providers opportunities to upsell and make additional revenue. “We have generated good margins since we started offering professional services around networking,” informs K Subramanya, CEO, Central Data Systems. “We provide customers with proactive services including information critical to ensure that network usage is optimal.” Sreeharsha Subbanna, VP, Managed Services, AGC Networks, observes that the back-up and recovery market is growing at a very fast pace. “Customers are quickly realizing the importance of data, and are willing to bet on partners to manage it. There is always sensitivity around security and the danger of data being leaked.” Delhi-based Compton Computers offers managed services in the areas of data back-up management, security, infrastructure management (server, data center, clients), load balancing, application management and network management. According to Sandeep Vahi, CEO, the opportunity in managed services exists in remote data back-up services for clients and servers. “In a typical set-up with a data back-up need of 50

“We offer L1, L2 and L3 and L4 support services. We have deputed about 270 employees for remote services and 1,500 for onsite services” Sanjiv Patki

COO, Allied Digital

GB per month of office files and block-level files done automatically by back-up tools in the data center at our side, the charges can be about `1 lakh per month, which offers about 25 percent margin.”

Other services Application management is the big money opportunity that several service providers are seeing. “Competition is intense. Customers are getting smarter and are tightening their purse strings. Some segments do not make sense for us because the customer price expectations are low for endpoint support, hence moving up the value chain is the only way forward,” comments Prakash Chaudhuri, Founder-CEO, MSP1 Services, a Mumbai-based service provider. MSP1 is not the only service provider which is looking beyond endpoint and core infrastructure. “Today, AMS is not just about hardware and networking. It is more about software applications. The next round of monitoring and

From Manual to Automated: Team Computer’s business plan Revenue/Cost items

Manual

Automation (1st year)

1,500

10,000

150,00,000

190,00,000

200

600

Number of engineers required to manage 10,000 PCs

Total cost per engineer per month inclusive of salary, travel, mobile etc. (`)

24,000

144,00,000

48,00,000

10,000

6,000

Nil

60,00,000

144,00,000

108,00,000

6,00,000

42,00,000

Revenue per PC for Annual Serive Contract (`)

Number of PCs managed Annual net revenues for the total number of PCs Nodes an engineer can manage

Total engineer resource cost per annum ( E x F x 12) Call volume: No. of tickets per month for 10,000 nodes Total software license cost for AMS platform (`) Total cost per Year Operational net margins (`)

Automation (2nd year) Comments 1,900 Team Computers hopes to convince customers to shell more because of better customer experience and optimum uptime

1,000 Team Computers aims to reach the optimum figure of 1,000 assets per engineer to manage 10 27,000 Cost of engineer likely to go up because of inflation 32,00,000 5,000 Automation reduces ticket volumes 60,00,000 Annual cost for automation software license: `600 per single license x 10,000 PCs 92,00,000 98,00,000 Margins does not equate profits. Calculations do not factor other managerial overheads and infrastructure costs

Note: All figures are sample calculation and indicative. Management and core Infrastructure overheads not included

Computer Reseller News

01/05/2012

www.crn.in

cover story With the benefit of hindsight Girish Krishnamurthy, MD, Kaseya India, speaks about what Indian partners need to do to excel in managed services How do you evaluate your experience leading Kaseya India, and the overall transformation in the Indian MSP market? It has been a great learning experience, and at the end of the day I feel we have been fairly successful. The MSP market in India was in its infancy when we started the business. Today I can say that partners are aware of the potential, and many of them have a map for the road ahead. It is important for them to scale up from where they have started.

selling services of a better quality and delivering value to customers.

What are the key steps Indian partners need to take to be successful in the MSP business? Most importantly they need to have patience. They need to spend time in understanding the business and customer pain-points. Irrespective of who they are partnering, they need to understand that their MSP business does not belong to their vendor but to themselves. Personal involvement of the business owner is of Girish Krishnamurthy paramount importance till the business actually You had signed up almost 93 partners in 2010, shapes up. I also feel that many among our but then reduced the focus to about 16 over the last year. Why do you think many partners did not succeed? channel fraternity are not willing to take extra risks. For example, no one wants to do a transaction today at a negative margin What is more important to note is how the 15-16 partners though there is an opportunity to make more in future. have succeeded and are continuously investing in their MSP business. Let us ignore Kaseya’s role in their success. Take Do you think the cloud will threaten an Indian MSP? the examples of PC Visor, Team Computers or Valuepoint. It is For an average partner who is dependent on capex revenue, the important to analyze what they did right. The most important cloud would be a potential dampener. A lot of the revenue which step they took was that their CEOs or business leaders took an partners make on server or storage would move to the cloud. active interest in building the business. An MSP business cannot However, if you have already moved to a services model the be built if the business owner is involved in fire-fighting and opportunities are large, and MSPs can create a number of new focused on day-to-day transactions. We had asked our partnervalue added models around the cloud. n CEOs to start spending 10 hours a week on this business. The MSP business is not just about selling licenses—it is about

Many among our channel fraternity are not willing to take extra risks. For example, no one wants to do a transaction today at a negative margin though there is an opportunity to make management will apparently involve applications around Big Data built on Hadoop, Cassandra, Erlang, PHP, Python and Ruby,” says Subbanna of AGC. Meanwhile, Choice Solutions is looking beyond compute infrastructure. “Since competition is tough we are looking at our core strength which is in power, and are looking at offering services around power infrastructure in an enterprise,” says Jagannath. Managed Security Services (MSS) are also evolving. Vendors such as Symantec, McAfee and CA are offering services which can be delivered partly through partners. This aside, UTM vendors like Fortinet, Checkpoint and Array Networks are also exploring partners who could deliver MSS.

Cloud as game changer Partners are expecting the cloud to be a game changer. While some feel that the cloud will cut into their core services, others feel that the cloud is an opportunity. “Depending on the service partner, his GTM and his service offerings, the cloud will be a double-edged sword, creating immense new opportunities but at the same time creating disruption,” predicts AL Srinath, CEO, Shell Networks, Hyderabad. If a customer is keen to move infrastructure to the cloud (and especially a public cloud), then quite

Computer Reseller News

01/05/2012 www.crn.in

a lot of the management of the infrastructure would be with the public cloud services provider. “Cloud hosting would essentially mean that you are not hosting on your infrastructure, and this could cut out a service provider from many rudimentary services. However, that is where a partner needs to scale his own service offering,” advises L Ashok, CEO, Futurenet Technologies, Chennai. MSP1 has already anticipated the cloud reality and moved all its services to the cloud. Says Chaudhuri, “We are doing away with the data center in between, and all deployment and delivery is over the cloud.” “While there would be some attrition in terms of revenue, there are new possibilities,” muses Vahi of Compton. “Moreover, since we cannot completely manage infrastructure remotely, the cloud will not affect basic revenue in client infrastructure support.”

Conclusion IT infrastructure is witnessing a major change. With new computing paradigms emerging, CIOs and IT managers require external support to manage their infrastructure. Also, with the SMB market booming, there are huge addressable opportunities for partners to enter the AMS space. It is not going to be easy, but it is definitely a way to scale up their business. n

market focus Trends in the PC market Sales are expected to climb 17 percent. The netbook is dying. Ultrabooks appear in new avatars. And everybody is waiting for Windows 8 n ABHIJEET MUKHERJEE

he PC market is trying to reinvent itself as an overall slowdown in the market combined with the advent of tablet PCs has reduced demand globally. Though Gartner India forecasts that PC shipments would reach 12.5 million units in 2012, a 17 percent increase over the 10.5 million units sold in 2011, analysts confirm that the growth is largely because some key tenders (such as the Elcot tender for the supply of 9.12 lakh notebooks for students in Tamil Nadu) are expected to be completed this year. So while the outlook is not very bright, PC makers and system builders are trying to ensure that the market continues to grow, and are exploring new first time user segments especially in Class C, D and E markets. “PC penetration in the country is still low, and compared to a market like China we are just one-sixth in size, so there is always the chance for us to grow,” says Vishal Dhupar, MD, nVIDIA India.

Declining assembler share The desktop marketshare has declined more than what was projected in Q42011 due to the HDD shortage as a result of the floods in Thailand. While the availability of drives has certainly improved, HDD prices are still around two and half times the prices of early October 2011. The present projections are that prices will continue to be high for another two quarters. “The HDD shortage has completely upset the system builder market. Many of the assemblers were forced to shift their customers to branded desktops in Q42011, and with HDD prices still remaining high the delta between

an assembled and branded desktop has reduced,” says Sampath Kumar, CEO, Positive Systems, Kochi. Gartner says that in Q42011 the assembler market dipped by as much as 20 percent. While partners say there has been a rebound, it is highly unlikely that the recovery would be complete for assemblers. Comments Vishal Tripathi, Principal Analyst, Gartner India, “White-box PC makers are getting marginalized. While the market is shifting to notebooks, factors such as the HDD shortage and slowing consumer demand are not helping them, and many are shifting base to branded PCs.”

AIO shapes up The AIO has been touted as a potential savior for the desktop market. While its performance has not quite risen to those expectations, vendors and even system builders are hopeful. As per IDC, AIO desktops are gaining traction in the desktop market and are pegged to hit 33 percent growth by 2015. Interestingly, it is not just the consumer desktop market that is driving AIOs; the commercial market has also been taking interest in the product because of the smaller footprint it occupies. Another point to note is that PC building block vendors such as Intel, Asus and Viewsonic have been pushing chassis, barebones and motherboards for the AIO market. Says Suryanarayan B, Director, Sales (West), Intel South Asia, “We feel there is a real opportunity to enable smaller systems integrators with this form factor. The new second-generation Intel

Computer Reseller News

01/05/2012

www.crn.in

market focus “The HDD shortage has completely upset the system builder market. Many of the assemblers were forced to shift their customers to branded desktops”

“Over the next few quarters more mainstream customers will see the benefits of using dedicated graphics, as a result the market for such models will shoot up”

Sampath Kumar

P Raghuraman

CEO, Positive Systems

Director, Transaction, AMD India

Core family of processors would play a major role in this category.”

consider ultrabooks.”

Death of the netbook

With major software platform vendors such as Microsoft, Google, Mozilla and Adobe shipping their latest software to take advantage of the GPU, the number of models which are likely to be shipped with a dedicated graphics card is likely to go up. “We believe that over the next few quarters more mainstream customers—and not just gaming consumers—will see the advantages of using dedicated graphics, and the market for models with dedicated graphics will consequently shoot up,” says P Raghuraman, Director, Transaction, AMD India. At present the market is estimated to be around 10-12 percent for desktops and around 8 percent for notebooks. Raghuraman is also betting on better acceptance of PC models (such as the AMD Brazos and Llano platform) with GPU and CPU within the same silicon die. With Intel launching Ivy Bridge, which has Intel HD graphics in-built, the concept is gaining better acceptance.

The netbook market is all but dead, with manufacturers like Dell and Lenovo virtually dropping out of the segment and even HP cutting down on numbers. Among major notebook players, Acer, Asus and Samsung are still focusing on the netbook market, and are prepared to fight it out. “Since the netbook is our baby we will continue to manufacture the device even if only one unit is sold,” insists Unaez Quraishi, Director, Sales & Distribution, System Business Group, Asus Technology. Others like Mahesh Bhalla, Executive Director & General Manager, CSMB, Dell India, say that netbooks will sooner or later be replaced by tablets because, with similar screen sizes, they serve virtually the same purpose of being an ultra-mobile computing device that is trendy.

Ultrabook promise Ultrabooks are the latest to capture the fancy of highfliers. These machines are presently being shipped with Consumer Ultra Low Voltage (CULV) technology based on the Intel Sandy Bridge architecture. Intel has readied a roadmap to launch in June 2012 the ultrabook version of the recently announced Ivy Bridge architecture. Apart from 80 MB/s speeds on the disk drives, and the new USB 3.0 standard, the new processors (code-named Chef River) are expected to be seen in models with thicknesses ranging from 18 mm to 24 mm. Since these chips are typically powered at around 18W, a 6-cell battery is expected to give five hours of back-up while a 9-cell would provide in the range of nine hours. Prohibitive costs (`45,000 at the base, `60,000 mainstream and `100,000+ for the high-end) remain a dampener. The ODMs and OEMs say that till Intel drops its prices, ultrabooks will be unaffordable for most consumers. Some of the OEMs are trying to release models which are priced in the `35,000 bracket by making compromises yet trying to be as close as possible to the specifications of an ultrabook. Says S Rajendran, CMO, Acer India, “We have recently launched models which come very close to an ultrabook based on the Intel Core i5 platform, and a new market is being created.” Adds Saji Kumar, Director, Product Management, Acer India, “We expect this category to go mainstream and occupy a larger chunk of the notebook segment within the next 2-3 quarters. We believe that customers who are in for a technology refresh will seriously

Computer Reseller News

01/05/2012 www.crn.in

Discrete graphics in PCs

Will Windows 8 rescue? Traditionally, platforms have driven the launch of new PC models and SKUs. In 2012 PC vendors are awaiting the launch of Windows 8 (scheduled for October) to come out with new products. “We are eagerly waiting to launch the Windows 8 version of desktops, notebooks and tablets. We already have 7-8 new tablets and notebooks for consumers in our roadmap based on Windows 8,” informs Quraishi of Asus. On the other hand, the period prior to a new OS shipment is also likely to be dull because customers postpone purchases, and this is a cause of worry for channels in 2012.

Other trends Though 3D screens and touch screens have been around for some time, the market for these technologies is not likely to increase substantially in 2012. However, with the Windows 8 launch, vendors introducing new models with these products is of interest to partners. Says Suresh Balasubramanian, Director, Distribution & Local OEMs, Intel, South Asia, “We expect touch screens to grow in the next one year. The launch of Windows 8 is expected to take touch screen technology to a different level.” n — With inputs from Ramdas S

Role model

The turnaround man At one point of time Duckback Information Systems had actually downed shutters. But Asis Chaudhuri, now its CEO, revived the company and transformed it into one of the leading VARs in east India n Amit singh

sis Chaudhuri ventured into the IT industry through self-determination. He is a first-generation entrepreneur while his father, GN Chaudhuri, a CA by profession, retired from Braithwaite Burn and Jessop Construction. Duckback Information Systems (DIS) was originally founded by the late Debabrata Bose in 1986 as a software development firm that customized applications on Oracle and Microsoft. The operations of the company closed down in 1995 due to losses. However, Chaudhuri as a business partner brought the company back to life in 1996, and DIS is currently regarded as a leading VAR in east India with revenue of `29 crore in FY2011-12. Chaudhuri is now the CEO of the company.

In the beginning After getting a post-graduate diploma in computer applications in 1987, Chaudhuri joined Computronics India, a Delhi-based software development company, as Market Development Executive. After three years he joined Binary Symantics as Senior Executive, Marketing, and established his own venture in 1996. “With my IT skills and experience in marketing, I was determined to start my own venture and fulfilled my dream by collaborating with Bose. I assured him of making the company a success,” recalls Chaudhuri. Apart from Oracle and Microsoft software, Duckback added IBM Lotus and Borland software to its portfolio. According to Chaudhuri, selling IT was not easy at that time because IT awareness was low and customers were not interested in investing in software solutions. He is grateful to his wife Mahua for being extremely patient and supportive especially during his struggling days and darkest hours. “She always acted as a source of

“In 2008 alone we supplied licenses of Rational software worth `1.75 crore to about 50 engineering colleges in east India. This enabled our revenue to reach `14 crore”

hope and energy, and this helped me fight the odds.” The company bagged its first significant project worth `10 lakh in 1996 from the Department of Telecom (DoT), Kolkata, for which it installed and configured Oracle database and SCO Unix licenses. The company also got the AMC to maintain the database and licenses at `2.5 lakh per annum till 2007. “In the first year of operations itself we clocked revenue of `45 lakh, which increased to `60 lakh in 1997,” says Chaudhuri. From 1997 to 2003 the company bagged notable projects from the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation, Calcutta Municipal Corporation, BHEL, DoT and BSNL. “We received repeat orders and service contracts from these clients for software implementation. This enabled us to clock revenue of `98 lakh in 1998 which increased to `3 crore in 2003,” informs Chaudhuri. The company partnered with Citrix in 1998 for application virtualization solutions. In 2005 Duckback executed a project worth `32 lakh at BHEL to implement Oracle database and Unix OS. The same year the company partnered with IBM to sell the latter’s software products such as Lotus, Websphere application server, Tivoli and Rational software. It implemented 350 user licenses of Lotus valued at `18 lakh for Haldia Petrochemicals in 2005. In 2008 Duckback implemented Oracle database and Unix OS in a clustered environment in Chandigarh and at two locations in Kolkata for `40 lakh, for DoT. In addition, the company implemented a Citrix virtual application server project valued at `16 lakh for ITC in Kolkata in 2008. Duckback also took up virtualization projects in Simplex Engineering and BHEL. Leveraging on its partnership with IBM for Rational software, the company started focusing on the education segment and offered the solution under the AICTE curriculum to various engineering colleges in east India. “In 2008 alone we supplied licenses of Rational worth `1.75 crore to about 50 engineering colleges,” informs Chaudhuri. “This enabled our revenue to reach `14 crore.” In 2010 Duckback completed a Real Time Gross Settlement implementation project valued at `1.25 crore for the West Bengal State Cooperative Bank in Kolkata. Also in 2010 the company became aggressive in cloud

Computer Reseller News

01/05/2012

www.crn.in

role model 1995

Bagged project worth `10 lakh from DoT, Kolkata

2003 1998

MILESTONES

Clocked revenue of `98 lakh fueled by service contracts

2005

computing and virtualization. It moved one of its existing customers (part of the Tata Group) to Microsoft Exchange Online; this included moving 2,000 clients to the cloud. In addition, Duckback implemented a virtualization project, valued at `25 lakh, for server, desktop and application virtualization for a bank in Bangladesh. A focus on emerging technologies enabled Duckback to register 25 percent growth with its topline increasing from `20 crore in FY2009-10 to `25 crore in FY2010-11.

Current business

Recorded revenue of `3 crore due to repeat orders Executed project worth `32 lakh at BHEL to implement Oracle database and Unix OS

ing college in the north east. The company won the award for Best Enterprise VAR – Advanced Market – East in from CRN in 2011. DIS also won the Microsoft SMS&P Regional Partner of the Year – India East award for 2009 and 2010, Oracle Partner of the Year – India East award for 2007, IBM Software Best Regional Partner of the Year – India East award for 2006, and Citrix Best Regional Partner – India East award for 2005.

Best practices Chaudhuri’s business philosophy has three pillars: employee satisfaction, work environment and business direction. He explains: “Employees are a crucial part of any organization, and it is the team effort which pushes the organization toward sustainable growth. For that to happen a suitable and conducive work environment is necessary, coupled with proper business direction from the management.”

2011

2010

2008

Bagged project worth `40 lakh The company witnessed 16 percent growth in FY2011-12 with revenue of from DoT and project worth `29 crore. Chaudhuri provides some `16 lakh from ITC details. “Revenue from software reselling and customization contributed Completed an RTGS nearly 50 percent of our turnover. implementation project for Cloud computing and virtualization `1.25 crore projects brought in about 15 percent. Database, storage and back-up added Bagged project worth `3.5 15 percent to the revenue, while sercrore to upgrade software vices brought in another 15 percent.” Future growth infrastructure for an insurance Chaudhuri has set a target of 38 The company became a sub-distributor of Acer commercial notebooks percent growth and aims to clock `40 company in 2011, and this contributed the crore in FY2012-13. remaining 5 percent of the turnover. Having tasted success in virVendor-wise, solutions from Microsoft remained the tualization and the cloud, DIS plans to strengthen its highest contributors with a 35 percent share; IBM stood domain skill-set and focus on targeting more customers second with a 10 percent share. “While Oracle and Adobe in these areas. The company also considers database and contributed `2.5 crore each to our revenue, `30 lakh was storage to be high growth areas. Meanwhile, it’s looking brought in by Citrix,” Chaudhuri informs. at increasing its focus on the education vertical. “With One of the large projects that the company executed solutions in instrumentation, designing, statistics, mein 2011, worth `3.5 crore, included upgrading an insurchanical engineering and civil engineering, we expect a ance company’s Microsoft software infrastructure. This revenue share of 15 percent from educational institutes,” included 1,000 server licenses and 10,000 client licenses says Chaudhuri. of Windows 7 OS and Office 2010; the service component Duckback is also eying projects in business analytics included data and application migration. and business intelligence based on its partnership with Duckback also implemented about 600 licenses for MS IBM for Cognos and SPSS solutions. States Chaudhuri, Office and Windows Server with active directory worth “We see BA and BI as high revenue-generation areas, and `65 lakh for Coal India at seven locations. are targeting the FMCG, pharma and telecom verticals.” Further, the company implemented 1,000 licenses of Office 365 valued at `50 lakh for the Tata Group. On a personal note DIS also supplied and implemented 35 user licenses Being a first-generation entrepreneur, Chaudhuri finds his of Catia, a multi-platform CAD/CAM/CAE academic/comrole model in Bill Gates, who brought his business to the mercial software suite, valued at `50 lakh, for an engineertop of the world from scratch. At home Chaudhuri is a different person who reads comics such as Chacha Chaudhary, Tarzan and Archies with his 11-year-old son Arin. He also likes to read sports “Employees are a crucial part of the magazines including SportsWorld and Khela, a Bengali organization, and it is the team effort sports magazine. His favorite holiday destination is Puri, where he likes which pushes the organization toward to relax on the beaches. “I like Puri so much that we visit sustainable growth. For that to happen a the place twice a year. I have been to Puri more than 50 conducive work environment is necessary” times,” he says. n 28

Computer Reseller News

01/05/2012 www.crn.in

tech focus

Intel Ivy Bridge Chip,

Motherboard Got Game Unlocked and overclocked: Intel unleashes Ivy Bridge chip, motherboard for amazingly high-performance desktop computing n Edward J Correia

ntel continues to push the envelope of processor performance as it attempts to keep up with Moore’s Law. The latest example announced this week is the Intel Core i7 3770K running at 3.5 GHz. This amazing chip incorporates four, dual-threaded processor cores, an 8 MB cache, and Intel HD graphics 4000 in a single die. This is the first part to be released under the name Ivy Bridge, the code name for its latest series of powerful and power-efficient processors to come from its 22nm process, and it is the first to be built with Intel’s revolutionary 3-D Tri-gate technology. The company also has released a new motherboard -- the Desktop Board DZ77 GA-70K with D77 chipset--optimized for its K-series of unlocked processors fit to the LGA1155 socket. On top of the usual array or slots and ports, Intel adds eight USB 3.0 ports (plus 10 of the USB 2.0 variety), four 6.0 GB/s SATA ports (along with four at 3.0 GB/s), a pair of FireWire ports, HDMI output and support for as much as 32 GB of two-channel DDR3 memory running at a maximum of 1600 MHz. Oh, and then there is Intel Visual Bios, an implementation of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). The all new mouse-controlled environment includes an Overclocking Assistant for K-series processors that turns the once-complex practice into child’s play, removing some of the uber-geek mystique. For VARs and everyone else, the environment uses tabs,

For VARs the environment uses tabs, drop-down menus and slider-bars to simplify the system and processor settings configuration

The motherboard’s LGA1155 (H2) socket will support third-generation Ivy Bridge processors, and Intel’s second-generation processors and older parts down the line drop-down menus and slider-bars to greatly simplify the system and processor settings configuration, and it provides a wealth of information about system performance and health, as well as fan speeds and slot status. UEFI was initially developed by Intel and is now managed by a consortium that includes the company and major BIOS makers along with AMD, Apple, Dell, HP, IBM and others. Initial performance results of Intel’s new processor and motherboard are impressive. Out of the box using default clock rate and with only the barest of drivers installed, the system turned in a top Geekbench 2.2.7 score of 16,240. That is about 25 percent faster than its Sandy Bridge predecessor, which turned in a top score of 12,286. In both cases, the test system was running 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate on 4 GB of Dominator GT 2000 MHz DDR3 memory. The CRN Test Center recommends the new Intel Desktop Board DZ77GA and Intel Core i7 3770K processor. The motherboard’s LGA1155 (H2) socket will support not only third-generation Ivy Bridge processors but also Intel’s second-generation processors and numerous older parts down the line. Its $249 list price includes an accessory bundle with a front-panel bracket for mounting a pair of USB 3.0 ports, a Bluetooth/Wi-Fi networking module, SLI bridge connector and software utilities. It also comes with a motherboard-sized mouse pad complete with the silkscreened skull logo. n

Computer Reseller News

01/05/2012

www.crn.in

tech focus Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 Reaches Out Into Space Tab 2 will include an SD card slot, simplifying the movement of files to and from the devices and expanding their storage capacity by 32 GB n Edward J Correia

amsung has unveiled the Galaxy Tab 2, updating its 7-inch model and its award-winning 10.1-inch Android tablet with features that the CRN Test Center believes make them even more versatile than their elders. For starters, Tab 2 devices will include an SD card slot, simplifying the movement of files to and from the devices and expanding their storage capacity by 32 GB. The company told the CRN Test Center at a confidential hands-on briefing that the SD card slot was among the most requested new features. Even more far reaching, the new Galaxy Tabs will now be equipped with an infrared emitter, enabling the tablets to take the place of any number of existing remote control devices, including those for televisions, cable set-top boxes, DVD/Blu-ray players and other home entertainment components. A new version of Samsung’s Smart Remote software, which is based on Peel Technologies’ Smart Remote, learns the media consumption patterns of its users and taps Internet data to display what is on a user’s most-watched channels in real time. It categorizes available television content for easier access based on content. At a briefing, the CRN Test Center saw Smart Remote working well in the confines of the demonstration, but we were unable to configure our review unit for controlling any of our test television sets. However, the software to its credit popped up a dialog box asking for all the particulars of the equipment that it failed to control, and sent the data to Samsung for processing. Galaxy Tab 2 devices now run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on a 1 GHz dual-core processor with 8 GB standard in the 7-inch and 16 GB in the 10.1-inch unit. Both include a 3MP rear camera and 1.3MP front camera. Samsung provided the CRN Test Center with a 7-inch Galaxy Tab 2, and we have been duly impressed. The form factor is comfortable, the 1024 x 600 pixel screen is bright and crisp, Ice Cream Sandwich is intuitive and well-designed, and its apps are fast and responsive. And despite all of its high-performance hardware, the 7-inch unit ran continuously from a single charge for more than

The form factor of 7-inch Galaxy Tab 2 is comfortable, the 1024 x 600 pixel screen is bright and crisp, Ice Cream Sandwich is intuitive and well-designed 30

Computer Reseller News

01/05/2012 www.crn.in

10 hours, during five of which all power saving features were disabled (the default). Also impressive is TouchWiz, Samsung’s Androidenvironment overlay. We are not generally fans of vendor-specific OS add-ons because they often alter the environment’s personality and can lead to fragmentation. Samsungs’ does neither. Instead, it adds a taskbar to apps from which other apps can be quickly accessed, edited and dismissed. For instance, if an email you are reading requires the creation or change of an appointment, two taps on the screen overlays your calendar for editing. Another tap dismisses it. These mini-apps include an alarm

clock, calculator, music player, planner and task manager and can be added or removed. TouchWiz also adds navigational control to the Android desktop. For example, while the five-panel (default) desktop can be paged with finger swipes, it can also be scrolled by using a scroll bar that appears when the page indicator is long-touched. A third option displays the pages -- with seven pages -- as mini-panels that can be reordered by dragging and accessed directly with a touch. Long-touching a blank portion of any panel shrinks the panel and brings up a dialog for adding Widgets, shortcuts and folders, and for changing wallpapers. When deciding where to place objects on a panel, dragging the object near the edge of a panel brings up the next panel. The Samsung 7-inch Galaxy Tab 2 began shipping on April 22 at a list price of $249. The 1280 x 800, 10.1inch Galaxy Tab 2 will list for $399 and be available on May 13. With each new Galaxy Tab 2, Samsung also includes a one-year DropBox subscription with 50 GB of online storage, a $99 value. With their solid performance, intuitive interface enhancements, competitive pricing and extras, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 2 tablets are a solid reseller value and worthy of strong consideration. n

channel buzz TAIT-Kaspersky IT cricket cup

n The toss: Allied Digital won the toss and put HP to bat

or the second year in a row Team HP retained the TAITKaspersky Cricket IT Cup. HP won against Allied Digital with 20 runs. Eight teams including HP, Allied Digital, IBM, ISODA, Insight Business Machine, TAIT and Kaspersky participated in the tournament that was conducted for the last two months. The final match was held at the Matunga Gymkhana grounds in Mumbai. Allied Digital won the toss

n A victorious team HP celebrating the win

and put HP to bat first. The Allied bowlers did a good task in the first 10 overs conceding only 65 runs. The next ten overs saw a run riot by Sunny Singh from HP who was selected as the man of the match. HP eventually finished with over 180 runs in the allotted 20 overs. Allied batsmen started with a strong opening partnership but were unable to continue the momentum and lost wickets at regular intervals. A late flurry of runs could not translate into a winning proposition

n The Man of the Match, and the Man of the Series with their trophies

for the team. The man of the series was Kshitij More of Allied Digital for scoring above 140 runs and picking 6 wickets in 5 matches. ”The tournament is conducted to foster healthy relation between participating teams and to bring the IT fraternity closer. It will be our endeavour to organise more such tournaments in the future with participants from more number of teams,” said Rushabh Shah, Vice President, TAIT. n

Huawei partner meet

uawei Enterprise recently conducted its first partner meet in Mumbai. More than 200 partners participated in the event. The meet was organized as part of Huawei’s roadshow which started from Mumbai and moved to New Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai. The company showcased its networking products and solutions for a hands-on experience and had also created a demo truck that was an integral part of the road show. Huawei featured its horizontal solutions of cloud computing, telepresence, enterprise network solutions and vertical solutions comprising intelligent video surveillance, e-Education and smart governance. Gaurav Mohan, VP Channels, Head, Mumbai, Huawei Enterprise said, “We want to enable our

n From L to R: Anup Nair, Head, Technology Solutions, Neoteric; Alok Sinha, AVP, IT Solutions, Huawei Enterprise; Eric Yu, President, Huawei Enterprise; Naved Shafi Ahmad, VP, SME & Channel Business, AGC Networks; and Gaurav Mohan, VP, Channels & Head, Mumbai, Huawei Enterprise at the enterprise channel meet in Mumbai

partners to perform in the enterprise space and are extremely happy to announce training & certification modules, specially designed for them. These specialized modules will deliver focused product and solution driven training to the

partner community, which would help them in implementing ICT solutions for their enterprise set of customers.” The company also conducted training and certification program for partners during the meet. n

To feature your company’s events in CRN, send write-ups with photographs to editor@ubmindia.com

Computer Reseller News

01/05/2012

www.crn.in

New Products Canon A4 Copier based MFDs

anon has launched new range of imageRUNNER 1700 series MFD. The series comes in imageRUNNER 1730, 1730i, 1740i and 1750i models. It offers A4 black and white printing, scanning and copying and comes with speed ranging from 30ppm to 50ppm, and produces first copies in approximately five seconds. The imageRUNNER 1700 series has a simple and intuitive design, improved user interface, a 5.7 inch touch screen display, and intuitive menu selection. Users can also print from and scan to USB memory sticks. The new compact A4 series is also compatible with Canon’s eMaintenance and iWMC (iW Management Console), granting service providers and administrators easy access to real-time device performance information for maximum uptime and reduced cost of ownership. The price for imageRUNNER 1700 series MFD range from `1,13,750-`1,95,000, comes with 5-year warranty, and is available with Canon authorized distributors.

Xolo X900, first smart phone with Intel processor

ava has launched Xolo X900, the first smart phone with Intel processor. The Xolo X900 is based on Intel’s smart phone reference design featuring the Intel’s 1.6 GHz Atom processor Z2460 with Intel Hyper Threading technology and supporting HSPA+ 3G connectivity. It also features an 8-megapixel camera and includes burst mode that allows 10 pictures to be captured in one second. The tablet is available with a 4.03 inch high-resolution LCD touch screen for crisp text and vibrant images. At launch, the X900 will run on Android Gingerbread, with a planned software upgrade to Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich platform thereafter. The battery life allows up to 5 hours of 3G browsing, 45 hours of audio and 8 hours of talk time. The device is available for MRP of `22,000, comes with 3-year warranty, and is available with authorized Lava distributors.

OCZ launches fourth generation SSD

Sony 4K home theatre projector

ony recently launched VPL-VW1000ES—the world’s first 4K—the image standard for cinema projection which is 4096 x 2160p—home theatre projector. The 3D-capable digital projector can display 4K images. The projector employs a new SXRD 4K panel and can produce 2,000 ANSI-lumens of brightness. When combined with Sony’s Iris3 technology, the projector can achieve 1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast. It can produce screen sizes of up to 200-inches (diagonally). The new projector also features Sony’s exclusive Super Resolution 4K upscaler reality creation. It has a built-in IR transmitter for 4K 3D which drives the projector’s TDG-PJ1 USB-chargeable active shutter 3D glasses; picture position memory which memorises the position of the zoom lens; and also supports 2D and 3D anamorphic films. The product is priced at `13,99,900, comes with a 2-year warranty on projectors and 500 hrs or 90 days, whichever is earlier, on the lamp, and is available with authorized Sony distributors.

CZ Technology Group has launched the Vertex 4 SATA III SSD series featuring Indilinx Everest 2 controller platform. The Vertex 4 delivers the industry’s highest input/output operations per second (IOPS) performance for SATA-based drives across a variety of application workloads. It features sequential bandwidth up to 535 Mbps, random performance up to 120,000 IOPS, delivers 95,000 4K random read IOPS and 85,000 random write IOPS. In comparison to OCZ’s previous generation Vertex 3 SSD, rated at 60,000 sustained 4K random write IOPS, the Vertex 4 doubles typical transactional performance. It generates latency as low as 0.04ms for read operations and 0.02ms for write operations, delivering an improvement of approximately 80 percent over the Vertex 3. In certain scenarios, the Vertex 4 outperforms the Vertex 3 by as much as 400 percent. Powered by its new Indilinx Everest 2 controller platform, featuring Dual Core architecture and 400MHz clock speeds, the Vertex 4 eliminates the need for internal data compression. The 128GB SSD is priced at an MOP of `14,900, comes with 5-year warranty, and is available with OCZ authorized distributors.

The products featured here have not undergone any benchmarking or testing. The trailers contain information provided by vendors and distributors. To feature your company’s products in CRN, send write-ups with photos to editor@ubmindia.com

Computer Reseller News

01/05/2012 www.crn.in

GIFT a copy of your favorite IT CHANNEL magazine If you would like your peers/colleagues from the IT channel to receive a complimentary copy of CRN please key in their contact details: Name

Company Name

Address

Mobile No.

Phone No.

E-mail ID

Please help us update your details: Last Name:

First Name: Department:

Designation:

Company Name:

Business Address: City: Fax:

Pin:

State:

Mobile:

Would you like to subscribe to our daily e-newsletter? (please 3 where applicable) Please provide your official E-mail ID:

Telephone: : E-mail: Yes

No Personal E-mail ID:

You can mail form to: UBM India Pvt. Ltd., Sagar Tech Plaza, A 119, 1st Floor, Andheri Kurla Road, Saki Naka Junction, Andheri East, Mumbai 400072 India. Or Fax on: 022 67692426. Or fill it Online at www.crn.in/free For quick customer service and subscription enquiry E-mail: crn@ubmindia.com or call Deepa at 022 67692436. Note: The people recommended above by you to receive the free copy are supposed to be a part of the IT channel industry. Their details would be verified by us, after which we would start the circulation if they meet our criteria. Complimentary subscriptions are limited to India. The publisher reserves the right to limit the number of free subscriptions, and will only accept applications which meet the qualification criteria for the publication.

COMPUTER RESELLER NEWS

01/05/2012

www.crn.in

shadow ram GET

Lenovo’s momentary blunder

Personal

ast fortnight, many Lenovo Premium Business Partners got a rude shock when they received a letter from the PC maker that it will not offer any ORC (over riding commission) on direct deals. This left many partners agitated. “How can Lenovo do this? We are managing customers, and they are paying us only 1 percent backend. Now they want us to work free of cost,” said an anguished partner from North India. The real story emerged only after the matter was escalated to the Lenovo management. It is learnt that the letter was just a part of the five letters the company had dispatched to explain the change in the incentive program including ORC. Post the escalation, Lenovo immediately dispatched all the communication to partners. “Unfortunately, due to some logistical issue, the letters explaining the revamped partner program was dispatched in parts, which resulted in the confusion. In fact compared to last year, partners can now earn 50 percent more on achieving targets. The matter has now been clarified,” informed Rahul Agarwal, Executive Director, Lenovo. n

“I want to abolish poverty” Sushil Bandi, Country Manager, Western Digital, Indian subconinent joined WD in 2009. He has worked with Kobian Singapore, Cyberstar and ACI InfoTech. If not in the IT industry: I would have become an actor.

Sushil Bandi

Biggest Passion: Cricket. I watch every game I can, and also play whenever I get a chance. Behind the wheels: The BMW

X3 is my dream automobile. Gadgets I can’t live without: My iPod. It has hard-earned collection of my favorite songs. Weekends are for: Fun and entertainment with my family. Favorite holiday destination: Sydney because it is a melting pot of global cultures; Queenstown for the nature lover in me. Hate the most: Liars, lip-service and people with double standards. Favorite Movie: Manoj Kumar’s Purab Aur Paschim is my all-time favorite Bollywood flick. Favorite Stars: Madhuri Dixit and Dimple Kapadia–one a diva, the other a heart throb. Role Model: Mahatma Gandhi, who believed in the maxim where there is a will, there is a way. Ultimate ambition: To contribute for the upliftment and betterment of the poor and the down trodden, and also to preach and to follow lord Mahavir’s words, “Live & Let Live.” Wildest thing I have ever done: Got married! Thing I most want to do in life: I want to build a Jain temple. If I became the PM: I would abolish poverty, corruption and child labor. Celebrity I would like to spend a day with: Sachin Tendulkar. He is a living legend and a source of inspiration to millions of Indians. One person I would like to meet and why: Warren Buffett. To know the secret behind his carefree, simple and non stressful life, and learn his profound investment principles. Deepest and darkest fear: Losing near and dear ones. n

Computer Reseller News

01/05/2012 www.crn.in

— CRN Network

RNI NO. MAHENG/2011/39915 Postal Reg. No. MH/MR/NORTH EAST/193/2010-2012 Posted at Patrika Channel Sorting Office, Mumbai Due Date 2nd, 3rd & 16th, 17th Of Every Fortnight