INTERVIEW

The Indian smartphone accessories market is flourishing at a good pace. Anker group is currently serving the Indian market with its wide product range in this segment. Rajeev Ranjan, Editor, Digital Terminal recently held an exclusive interaction with GOPAL JEYARAJ, COUNTRY HEAD INDIA & SAARC, ANKER INNOVATIONS. Gopal Jeyaraj spoke about their product offerings, market landscape and market strategies to pull the growth opportunities. Read below the excerpts:

RAJEEV: PLEASE TELL ABOUT HOW ALL FIVE BRANDS UNDER THE ANKER GROUP ARE PRESENT IN THE COMPETITIVE INDIAN MARKET.

GOPAL JEYARAJ: Anker Innovations is the umbrella of the five sub-brands: Anker, Soundcore, Roav, Nebula, and Eufy, each of which caters to five distinct product segments with unique and proprietary technologies. Anker’s Smart Charging devices, which are focused on charging, provide superior technology at reasonable price points. Soundcore on the other hand, specializes in audio with a fashionable twist as per the needs of the millennials. Eufy focuses on smart home appliances and smart security, while Nebula focuses on smart projectors that fit a diverse lifestyle. Roav is around smart car technology.

We want to have products that are more robust and technologically competitive. Due to the current situation and demand in the TWS segment as a result of the new-normal working and learning lifestyle, our primary emphasis is now on Soundcore and Eufy for the Indian Markets. In addition, the Robotic Vacuum Cleaners and Handstick segments in India are expanding, and we too have gone aggressive over this, and have launched a Robotic Vacuum and Handstick line in the Eufy Section.

RAJEEV: WHAT OPPORTUNITIES DO YOU SEE FOR SOUNDCORE IN THE INDIAN MARKET? WHAT IS YOUR VISION FOR SOUNDCORE BY THE END OF 2021?

GOPAL JEYARAJ: Since the Pandemic, demand for TWS, Headphones, Speakers, and other audio products has increased. We have done good volumes, and it seems promising too for the future times. To stay on top of the market, we will be coming up with a variety of new products, events, and other initiatives under the brand. Soon, we will announce a new product that will set a significant benchmark in the Indian audio industry. Our goal is to reach out to more people and cover both Metro and Tier 3 & Tier 4 cities with high-quality goods and cutting-edge technology at an affordable price.

RAJEEV: THE AUDIO PRODUCT MARKET IS WITNESSING EXPONENTIAL GROWTH SO HOW ARE YOU PLANNING TO CAPITALIZE ON THE OPPORTUNITIES? PLEASE SHARE YOUR PRODUCT STRATEGY.

GOPAL JEYARAJ: All of our audio items are sold under the Soundcore brand, and we concentrate on three categories: headphones, Bluetooth speakers, and party speakers. With all of these categories, we’re attempting to position ourselves across India on all of the platforms that via which we are currently catering the consumers, so we’ll be concentrating on both the online and offline markets. Offline, we’ll try to build a foothold in Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities. Whereas, via online platforms, we will attempt to reach as many States and Districts as possible. We’ve set a goal for ourselves to obtain a certain market share, and we’re working hard to achieve it. We are covering the entire Audio Segment in the Lifestyle Category starting from Headphone, speaker and party segment with a range of TWS, Neckband, portable and large speakers, along with party speakers and woofers. We shall certainly witness a strong reach this year compared to last year. Aditionally, we have drawn aggressive Roadmaps until 2023 that we will be launching accordingly.

RAJEEV: HOW DO YOU MANAGE THE ONLINE AND OFFLINE PLATFORMS? WHICH PLATFORM CONTRIBUTE MORE TO YOUR REVENUE? GOPAL JEYARAJ: We always prioritize online as well as offline channels because both are important for our development. We do not limit ourselves to one sole channel as both are crucial for us; we also provide exclusive SKU’s to both channels in order avoid any dispute and to have an organic growth.

RAJEEV: DO YOU HAVE ANY INVESTMENT PLANS TO BOLSTER YOUR REACH ACROSS THE COUNTRY?

GOPAL JEYARAJ: In India, we plan to expand our team. Our main emphasis will be on forming separate teams for each brand, which is also one of our major investments. In addition, we will make major marketing investments in order to improve product awareness as well as brand awareness. We aim to maximize our business in Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities as well.

Today organizations are emphasizing on strengthening their data infrastructure with robust technology solutions that help them stay ahead in the competitive business landscape. CIOs and CTOs dive deep, choosing the right solution to pave the way for a rapid digital transformation journey. Organizations understand the need for technology to empower their businesses and plan to deploy new technology solutions to stay in the same order. Dell Technologies helps such organizations assess their data infrastructure and provide the right solutions to boost their growth. Rajeev Ranjan, Editor, Digital Terminal, recently held an exclusive conversation with Mr. Srinivas Rao, Senior Director, Systems Engineering, Dell Technologies. Mr. Rao talked about the current market scenario, their solution offerings and the growing role of cloud solutions. Read the excerpt below:

RAJEEV: WHAT TRENDS HAVE EMERGED IN THE LAST ONE YEAR FOR INDIAN COMPANIES WHO ARE ON THEIR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION WAY?

MR. SRINIVAS: The past year has been a learning curve for industries across sectors. It has made businesses realise that innovation and new-age technology adoption are the key factors for their success in this digital era. Hence, digital transformation has become a necessity for businesses, looking to gain an edge over competitors.

Now, as we move towards the recovery mode, few trends that we have seen emerging in the past one year’s time are increased investments in hybrid cloud operating models, rise in edge computing to harness the true value of data and adoption of new-age technologies like AI to reimagine the division of labour between humans and machines. Not only this, but Indian organisations are also understanding the increasing requirement for real-time analysis of their data to increase efficiency and improve business outcomes.

RAJEEV: HOW DO YOU SEE THE ADOPTION OF EDGE COMPUTING IN THE NEW DATA DECADE?

MR. SRINIVAS: The past year has definitely accelerated the adoption of several technologies which already existed but were long ignored. And edge computing is one such example. It is a distributed infrastructure network that allows data to be analysed and processed closer to its source hence, providing real-time valuable insights to businesses. When combined with existing infrastructure, this technology empowers businesses to receive greater operational efficiencies such as increased performance and cost savings.

Seeing how competitive the business landscape is becoming, we expect a rise in the demand for solutions that provide real-time insights. Businesses that have solutions that can provide them with the ability to churn out valuable insights from their data will have an advantage over others and will be able to move further in their digital transformation journey. Here is where edge computing will come into play and I believe that businesses will continue to see the benefit in harnessing the power of edge. It will ultimately help them shift their focus from maintaining their infrastructure to maintaining their business operations in the long run.

RAJEEV: WHAT ARE THE CORE BENEFITS OF DELL TECHNOLOGIES MULTI-CLOUD FOCUSED SOLUTIONS?

MR. SRINIVAS: We have witnessed a new trend in business operations amid the current situation, wherein the majority of the businesses have adopted hybrid working models. Thus, they are scouting for enhanced multi-cloud solutions that are simple to use and easy to manage. The multi-cloud strategy offers businesses greater levels of automation and selfservice facility, while supporting operational goals like cost efficiency, improved security and flexibility. As we move in the data era, it is important to focus on a cloud strategy and move ahead with a data-first mindset. to understand what cloud suite would be the most appropriate for them by analyzing their business requirements. We offer a robust multi-cloud environment that helps IT teams focus more on driving IT and business innovations while eliminating the need to manage multiple clouds. Moreover, our multi-cloud solutions provide agility, scalability and are cost-effective. In line with the need of the hour, our solution enables businesses to achieve growth, which is difficult to accomplish by using private-only and/or hybrid cloud architectures.

RAJEEV: HOW CAN AN ENTERPRISE / SME MAKE THE MOST OF EDGE AND CLOUD COMPUTING SOLUTIONS?

MR. SRINIVAS: We usually see edge and cloud environments as competing platforms but don’t realise that they are in fact synergistic in nature. Businesses that harness the power of both will be able to extract valuable data in the most intelligent way possible. They will, as a result, be able to reduce their IT spending and maximise their productivity and efficiency.

Through edge environments, SMEs can process their data in real-time and gain valuable insights that can help bring a positive impact on their business processes. This is why edge environments are best suited for those applications that are time-sensitive and require an accelerated response time. On the other hand, while the data that is processed at the edge, loses its value after being analysed, it has the power to regain value once transferred to the private or public cloud.

Cybersecurity remains a major concern for organizations in a digitally changing world. Being one of the most important assets, organizations are vastly improving their strategies to secure data. Since the pandemic has pushed organizations to work remotely, the significance of a robust security strategy has increased significantly. Employees working from home most probably share vulnerable network, posing a risk of a serious data breach.

Keeping all such aspects in mind, Digital Terminal is set to host Virtual DT Conclave 2021 on April 16 at 11:00 am. This informative virtual event will be an important source for the ICT community to gain the much-needed facts and information related to cybersecurity. DT Conclave 2021 is themed at “Cyber Security Evolved: Moving Towards Zero Trust Access”. The event will be streamed live on the Airmeet virtual events platform and other social media platforms including Facebook. DT Conclave will empower Indian businesses by addressing the security challenges proving to be a hindrance in the digital transformation journey of organizations.

DT Conclave 2021 will deliberate cybersecurity, the challenges and the need for how organizations can resolve them. The speaker of the event Ravindra Baviskar, Director - Sales Engineering (India & SAARC), Sophos Technologies Pvt Ltd. will emphasize how organizations can work more actively to strengthen their security framework in the current challenge. Mr. Ravindra Baviskar has 17+ years of experience in IT Security and has been with Sophos for over 14 years. The role of CIOs, CSOs, and CTOs has grown multifold over the years. They now need to pay extra attention to the security of organizations’ data infrastructure and make it more secure than before. In addition, increasing cyber threats forced security officials to bring greater efficiency to their approach and provide additional benefits to their organization. DT Conclave 2021 will play a key role in their brainstorming and will enable them to work in a more efficient manner.

Continuing the mission to acknowledge individuals’/industry leaders for their contribution towards building a safe digital journey, Digital Terminal will also honor the top-performing IT leaders for their praiseworthy initiatives towards cybersecurity. DT will host DT Cybersecurity Leadership Awards 2021 during the virtual event where DT will announce the winner of this prestigious award. Amidst the ever-increasing cyber incidents, the role of IT leaders has increased as they are core strength of any organizations that take initiatives to protect their organizations from any challenge including cyber threats. So your wait will come to an end to know the winners of this prestigious honor on 16th April.