INTERVIEW
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“ACER WILL CONTINUE TO LAUNCH PRODUCTS THAT ARE UNIQUE TO THE MARKET” Sudhir Goel, Chief Business Officer, Acer India
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Publisher & Editor : Rajeev Ranjan Executive Editor : Jyoti Janda Assistant Content Manager : Jai Prakash Content Coordinator : Suraj Rawat Office Coordinator : Raju Thapa Consulting Art Direction : Vikas Sharma Visualiser : Akriti Arora Production Head : Rajiv Singh
PRODUCT REVIEW
MOBILE SECURITY
MARKET REPORT
LAPPY CORNER
Marketing Executive : Balvinder Singh
PAGE NO - 06 ACER Thrills Gaming Market With Launch of ‘Predator Helios 300’ & ‘Triton 300’ Laptops
PAGE NO - 09 73% Of Indian SMBs Believe To BounceBack Post COVID: HP Study
PAGE NO - 22 ESET Introduces Version 6.0 of Its Mobile Security Solution for Android
PAGE NO - 30 AVITA PURA Laptop Review
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CORRIGENDUM An industry story with headline "Opportunities & Challenges for IT Business in NEW NORMAL", which was carried in the August 2020 issue was unintentionally printed with the wrong designation of Mr. Vinay Shetty, Regional Director, Components Business – India and South Asia, ASUS. We have rectified this error in the digital edition of the August issue. We at DT, really regret this error.
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LAPPY CORNER
ACER THRILLS GAMING MARKET WITH LAUNCH OF ‘PREDATOR HELIOS 300’ & ‘TRITON 300’ LAPTOPS Acer has expanded its gaming portfolio with two new additions. The newly launched gaming laptops are designed for hardcore gamers and meet all their requirements for high-end gaming. These laptops boast cutting-edge technologies that ensure seamless gaming experience. movies. Acer’s customengineered cooling technology ensures that the device runs at an optimal temperature.
Acer has announced the launch of the latest generation of its Predator laptop in India. The two new refreshed gaming laptops include Predator Helios 300 and Triton 300 in India. The next-generation Triton 300 and Helios 300 are equipped with 10th Gen Intel® Core™ H-series mobile processors and up to NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 2070 Max-Q graphics to deliver outstanding gaming performance. Speaking on the launch Sudhir Goel, Chief Business Officer, Acer India said, “Our latest Predator gaming line-up is powered by the 10th Gen Intel® Core™ processors and some of the most groundbreaking and advanced cooling technologies available today. As one of the leading PC makers in the gaming industry in India, we consistently strive to offer cutting edge technologies to equip gamers who prioritize competitive esports gaming as well as other gamers who want to push the limits of performance, comfort of use, and reassurance.” Commenting on the launch Rahul Malhotra, Director - Retail, Intel India said, “Intel continues to push the frequency envelope to deliver amazing PC gaming experiences. The 10th Gen Intel® Core™ H-series processors power the ultimate portable systems for gamers, delivering performance that enables incredible, immersive game play even while recording and streaming. The Acer Predator gaming range packs desktopcaliber performance that gamers can take anywhere.”
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PREDATOR TRITON 300 – ULTIMATE FOR GAMERS AND CONTENT CREATORS IN AN ULTRA-THIN PACKAGE
PREDATOR HELIOS 300 – FORMIDABLE AND FEATURE PACKED Acer’s Predator Helios 300 has raised the bar high for gaming laptops, offering the best performance. Now available with the latest 10th Gen Intel® Core™H-series processors delivering faster frequencies, with up to six cores and 12 threads to enable immersive gaming experiences, amazing responsiveness and consistent in-game performance. Combined with upto NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 GPU with Max-Q Design, and up to 240Hz refresh, 15.6-inch FHD IPS display with 3 ms overdrive, the newest Helios 300 has paved its reputation as one of the most powerful and feature-packed yet affordably-priced gaming laptop available. Fully connected with Killer’s E26001 Ethernet Controller, Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650i and Control Center 2.0. It also supports up to 32 GB of 2933 MHz DDR4 memory, 2 PCIe NVMe SSDs in RAID 0 configuration along with up to 2TB Hard Disk Drive, delivering the speed and storage necessary to maintain large libraries of AAA games and
Acer’s powerful but slim Predator Triton 300 gaming laptop has been refreshed to include a 10th Gen Intel® Core™ H-series processor packed with incredible performance typically only available from desktops, up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 GPU with Max-Q Design and a 240 Hz display refresh rate. The 15.6-inch FHD IPS display also features a 3 ms response time that supports 100% of the sRGB color space, making it ideal for both gaming and content creation. Stay connected always with Killer Killer DoubleShot™ Pro, it ensure never lose a match due to latency to handle your web woes via Killer Control Center and Killer xTend. Additionally, it supports HDMI 2.0, mini-DP 1.4, USB3.2 Type-C, and upgradeable to 32 GB using two soDIMM modules, up to 3TB SSD through M.2 SSD x 3 (one PCIe, two combo) providing plenty of storage plus the lightning-fast transfer rates and speed that gamers crave. All this performance is housed in a thin and lightweight metal chassis that measures just 19.9 mm (0.78 inches) thin and 1.7 kg making it easy to game on the go.
PRICING AND AVAILABILITY: The Predator Helios 300 gaming laptop is starting at INR 84,999/- and The Predator Triton 300 gaming laptop is starting at INR 89,999/www.digitalterminal.in
CYBER SECURITY
INDIAN COMPANIES ARE FACING MOST CYBERATTACKS IN THE WORLD DURING COVID-19 “The cyberthreat landscape has changed dramatically during the past few years, and in the last six months in particular. Traditional stand-alone antivirus and backup solutions are unable to protect against modern cyberthreats,” said Serguei “SB” Beloussov, founder and CEO of Acronis. “Organizations that modernize their stack with integrated data protection and cybersecurity not only gain greater security, they lower their costs and improve efficiencies. The automation and streamlined management of Acronis Cyber Protect 15 means any business can decrease their risk, avoid downtime, and increase their IT team’s productivity.”
Image Source: https://crimepulse.com/ In the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, companies in India are reporting more cyberattacks than any other country in the world and 56% of them report their IT costs having increased significantly in the past months – exactly two times the global average, reveals the Acronis Cyber Readiness Report 2020. The report further highlights that 92% of the companies globally have adopted new technologies to enable remote work, including workplace collaboration tools, privacy solutions, and endpoint cybersecurity. The survey was conducted by Acronis, a global leader in cyber protection across seventeen countries with India being one of them and 3,400 global companies and remote workers. The challenge for organizations is that managing the protection of data across the company network and all of those new devices using a stack of different solutions is expensive, time-consuming, and complicated. The lack of integration also creates gaps in the organization’s defenses that cybercriminals are exploiting. The Acronis Cyber Readiness Report reveals that as hackers target remote workers, phishing, distributed denial of service (DDoS), and videoconferencing attacks are the most common tactics used.
Below are some of the key findings: • 39% of global companies experienced a videoconferencing attack in the past three months as workers rely on apps like Zoom, Cisco Webex, and Microsoft Teams – India demonstrates the highest rates, with www.digitalterminal.in
66% of local companies reporting having encountered videoconferencing attacks • Malware attacks such as ransomware also have increased during the pandemic, with 31% of companies reporting daily cyberattacks and half (50%) being targeted at least once a week – India reported twice as many attacks as any other country, followed by the US and the UAE. • Phishing attacks are occurring at historic levels, which is not surprising since the report found only 2% of companies consider URL filtering when evaluating a cybersecurity solution. That oversight leaves remote workers vulnerable to phishing sites – while 62% of companies in India report struggling with phishing attempts. These Acronis findings and external research illustrate why organizations need a cyberprotection solution that reduces complexity and improves security to support remote work environments, and the solution must be cost-effective to address the scale of remote workers. Acronis addresses these challenges with the release of Acronis Cyber Protect 15, which integrates backup, disaster recovery, next-generation antimalware, cybersecurity, and endpoint management tools into a single solution. The new product comes at a time when businesses are struggling to safeguard their data and infrastructure against the risks of the new remote work landscape.
The modern cyber landscape demands modern protection
With Acronis Cyber Protect 15’s unique integration of data protection and nextgeneration cybersecurity capabilities – including AI-based behavioral detection that stops zero-day attacks, URL filtering, vulnerability assessments, videoconference protection, and automated patch management – organizations protect against modern cyberthreats while ensuring they can recover their data and systems faster than any other solution. • 10% of users might click on malicious links that lead to phishing attacks, but the URL filtering in Acronis Cyber Protect blocked all of those sites – protecting the users, their devices, and their company’s data. • Videoconferencing protection prevents the exploitation of popular video conferencing solutions. • Testing by independent cybersecurity labs such as AV-Testand Virus Bulletin shows that Acronis Cyber Protect’s antimalware detects 100% of malware attacks with zero false positives. Based on the current cyberattack rate, the unique integration of backup and cybersecurity enables Acronis Cyber Protect to prevent an estimated $150 million in direct losses for its customers each year. The comprehensive cyber protection delivered by Acronis Cyber Protect will continue to be vital in the post-pandemic landscape. With 88% of the remote workers surveyed by Acronis expecting to work from home to some extent even after the pandemic ends, ensuring their protection and cybersecurity will require the kind of integration and automation found only in Acronis Cyber Protect 15. SEPTEMBER 2020
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CHANNEL FOCUS
BD Soft Announces Its Own Cloud Storage Solution Brand ‘Digitware’
Corsair announces the appointment of WPG C&C Computers and Peripherals as their National Distribution partner in India. The agreement involves the distribution of Corsair’s highly innovative portfolio comprising components and peripherals.
BD Software launches Digitware, an inhouse brand for cloud-based storage solutions. With several back to back tie ups with national and international brands like MailVault, Zerospam, and now with the launch of its own brand Digitware, BD Software has successfully paved an aggressive roadmap for the Indian Market. With Covid19, remote working has become the new normal accelerating the transition to the digital world. Online operations via high internet connectivity have put businesses at risk of losing important data. Under these circumstances, the solutions provided by Digitware will play a critical role in the digital safety of businesses. Zakir Hussain, CEO, BD Soft said, “The new work from home mode makes businesses vulnerable to data breaches as the hackers have been taking advantage of the covid situation to tap into devices. Businesses are also prone to a huge risk of data loss with everything shifting to the digital world. This has made us aware of the importance of
Corsair On-Boards WPG as Its National Distributor for India
cloud computing, with organisations looking for an efficient and innovative way of backing up & securing their data. By launching Digitware as BD Software’s own in-house brand, we feel proud to introduce the Indian market to secure, cost-effective cloudbased data protection and back-up solution for businesses as well as individuals.”
IRIS Computers Supplies HP Desktop Computers to Kendriya Vidyalaya Worth Rs 50 Crores
“We are very pleased to align ourselves with a passionate partner like WPG,” said M.A. Mannan, Country Manager, SAARC, CORSAIR. “This move reflects our endeavour to provide greater customer convenience in Indian Market. With WPG’s strong distribution network, deep understanding of local consumers' demands & market trends, we are well positioned to meet the current and future needs of customers. We look forward to further expanding our reach as well as reputation in the region.” Rajeev Bajpai, President at WPG C&C Computers and Peripherals said, “We are excited to collaborate with Corsair, a world leader in enthusiast-grade PC components and peripherals. This tie-up will serve as a getaway for us to venture into the gaming market and help us offer top of the line gaming solutions to our customers. We believe this association will go a long way in enhancing Corsair’s presence and addressing the specific needs of the gaming market in India.”
Cloudian Appoints TechnoBind As Its Value Added Distributor TechnoBind has been named as a Value Added Distributor for Cloudian, the most widely deployed independent provider of object storage systems. TechnoBind, with its highly professional and experienced team, will serve as an official value-added distributor for Cloudian across the country. This strategic sign-up aims to enable users to cost-effectively store, manage and protect massive amounts of unstructured data. IRIS Computers Ltd has gradually coming out of the acute economic depression in view of the National Lockdown imposed to save the Human Lives following the rapid spread of the dreaded Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19). Iris, continues significantly in empowering Digitalization of India, The education sector has been one of its strong forte, Iris has done whooping businesses over 100 crores in the near past. The company has successfully bagged a Rs 50 Crores bid to supply 8,000 Desktop Computers to Kendriya Vidyalaya Schools across the nation including the far flung areas in the North Eastern Region and remote areas of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 8
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Talking to newsmen, Mr. Sanjeev Krishen, CMD – IRIS said, “This demand for computers has suddenly come up in view of the introduction of ONLINE Education so that the children should not lose their academic year in view of the COVID-19” He said in this case, we have been given the charge of delivering these Desktop computers at its respective destinations by us and this is a great job of making it available to them well before time. Mr. Krishen revealed that all these computers are from HP - a leading computer manufacturing company, IRIS has been distributing since many years.
Speaking on the tie-up with Cloudian, Mr. Prashanth G J, CEO at TechnoBind said "We are thrilled to be trusted by Cloudian as a national distributor in India and we are really excited to announce this partnership with Cloudian and strive to maximize Cloudian's' product portfolio presence across various verticals. We look forward to opening new doors, expanding opportunities, and helping customers develop new revenue streams, prepare for the challenges of tomorrow, and lower the costs of business.
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MARKET REPORT
73% Of Indian SMBs Believe To Bounce-Back Post COVID: HP Study Small and Medium Business (SMBs) in India are looking to bounce back after facing stiff challenges due to the ongoing pandemic. The HP Asia SMB Report 2020 – a study conducted among SMBs in the region has revealed that over 73% of SMBs in India are confident that they will survive and bounce back post COVID-19. This number is significantly higher than the regional average, which stood at 60%. This confidence is reflected in the fact that almost two-thirds (64%) of respondents from India believe that this period presents a good opportunity to reformulate the business strategy. And half of the sample believe that the pandemic will ultimately bring opportunity, but in the longer term. More importantly, SMBs in India recognize the importance of going digital to revive their businesses. Three-quarters (75%) of the surveyed businesses believe that digital adoption is essential or very important to their success. “SMBs are critical to our economy as they contribute nearly a third of our GDP and generate employment for millions. The ongoing pandemic has impacted SMBs as much as any other segment. But the agility and flexibility in their operations, coupled with the adaptability to changing business environment and customer needs means they can bounce back far more quickly. However, it is critical to discover their challenges and address their pain points, which was the primary motivation for HP to commission this study,” said Ketan Patel, Managing Director, HP India Market. “A key finding from the research is that the more a company values digital transformation, the more positive they are about future growth, and nowhere in Asia is this reflected as strongly as in India. The results of this study will enable HP in helping them adapt to new agile work environments, providing them the right devices, technology, and tools for them to unlock innovation for customers and drive growth for themselves”, he added.
global instability tops the list of concerns, it is less pronounced in India than the rest of the Asian countries surveyed.
Challenges
As SMBs look to capture future growth opportunities, it has never been more critical to prioritize innovation and work with a partner to drive digital transformation.
The survey also touched upon key challenges that Indian SMBs have identified as roadblocks on the road to recovery. While
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In addition, the research shows that growth correlates with how a company values digital adoption for its success. Of SMBs that reported good business growth in the past year, 56% see digital as a lever for success, with only 14% considering it of low importance.
In total, 1,600 SMBs completed the survey between 26th May 2020 and 7th June 2020, which comprised of 200 interviews in each of the markets: Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Only an Owner, Partner, Managing Director, CEO, COO, CFO, or a Director of a business with less than 200 employees was qualified for the survey. Interviews were split evenly between Micro Business (<10 employees), Small Business (10-49 employees), and Medium Business (50199 employees). Multiple industries were represented including Retail/Wholesale, Manufacturing, Professional Services, Healthcare, Education and Financial Services.
Methodology SEPTEMBER 2020
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INTERVIEW
“ACER WILL CONTINUE TO LAUNCH PRODUCTS THAT ARE UNIQUE TO THE MARKET” SUDHIR GOEL, CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER, ACER INDIA
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has left the worst impact across the industries and the growth target of almost every brand got affected. The market activities are limited even in the post lockdown scenario so brands are putting huge efforts to capitalize upon every opportunity. Consumer behavior has also changed now which has forced the tech brands to rework on their GTM strategies. Acer has been very aggressive throughout this whole period and came out with interesting market campaigns to have maximum engagement with channel partners as well as customers. In order to know how Acer is working currently and what other market plans they have for the upcoming months, Rajeev Ranjan, Editor & Publisher, Digital Terminal recently interacted with Sudhir Goel, Chief Business Officer at Acer India. Mr. Sudhir shared valuable insights and briefed upon Acer’s product strategy, channel engagement activities and support to customers. Read below the excerpts: RAJEEV: HOW HAS BEEN THE LAST QUARTER FOR ACER? WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE NEXT COUPLE OF MONTHS FOR ACCELERATING THE COMPANY’S GROWTH TO END CY 2020 ON A HIGH NOTE? SUDHIR GOEL: Despite the impact of
the COVID-19 pandemic, Acer has seen year-on-year revenue growth for the last couple of months. This could be possible by the swiftness of our actions to capture the rise in demands due to work-from-home and online learning
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needs. In these unprecedented times, Acer India’s focus is on ensuring partners and customers have what they need to build ahead. Acer is pursuing growth and long-term sustainability through its dual transformation, which focuses on its existing PC business while diversifying into new businesses. In the core PC business, Acer’s performance is driven by gaming PCs, thin-and-light notebooks and mainstream notebooks with new use cases like work, learn and game from home. We are establishing the bar high and projecting a slew of innovations in its product line.
Amidst that, the main focus is to further strengthen our gaming as well as our creator's vertical ConceptD series vertical since both the sectors have been growing rapidly and have become an essential growth driver for us. We will be continuing to launch products that are unique to the market.
RAJEEV: HOW IS ACER SERVING TO THE DIFFERENT VERTICALS WITH ITS WIDE PRODUCT LINEUP? WHICH MAJOR VERTICALS ARE YOU FOCUSING ON CURRENTLY? www.digitalterminal.in
LAUNCH PAD
SUDHIR GOEL: As a leading innovative
tech company, it allows us to bring new technologies in time to market quickly, and we are strong with our worldwide channel-reach throughout 160+ countries. To keep evolving in the PC business, we devote to optimizing the existing products, continuously integrating cloud platforms and services by developing software and combine with hardware. Our vertical focus include education, work and game from home in consumer space and SMBs and BFSIs in the commercial space in the short term. Long term our focus remains committed to our entire segments we focus into including IoT, lifestyle technology, accessories, health and more.
RAJEEV: HOW DO YOU WORK WITH YOUR R&D TEAM TO DEVELOP THE CONSUMER (GAMERS, CONTENT CREATORS & WORKING PROFESSIONALS) ORIENTED PRODUCTS? WHAT DIFFERENTIATES ACER FROM ITS COUNTERPARTS? SUDHIR GOEL: Acer has been very strong in the R&D space and that is the advantage as a brand we have. We have a lot of ground-breaking technology in each of our product lines to help our users make informed buying decisions. Our efforts have always been to expand our base and reach out to as many individuals possible to make technologically advanced and affordable laptops available to people. Acer has stood out from the competition by introducing
generation after generation of its advanced thermal cooling solutions to enable its gaming notebooks and desktops to run at peak performance. This is one of the key differentiation with competition as we are able to provide consistent performance longer and keeping the machine cool and quite. It is a vital advantage for gamers and content creators
business customers to get them critical IT infrastructure to keep the business running.
RAJEEV: WHAT NEW ENGAGEMENT ACTIVITIES ARE YOU PLANNING WITH YOUR CHANNEL PARTNERS TO UNDERSTAND THE CHANGING MARKET LANDSCAPE AND WORK ACCORDINGLY?
SUDHIR GOEL: Whether it's technology
SUDHIR GOEL: With changing consumer behavior and offering innovative shopping experience during this period, we have introduced the Omni-Channel experience for our customers to provide a seamless path to purchase and serve better across channels. Acer Omni Channel experience is specially designed to cater to the needs of our Acer Exclusive retail partners in the current COVID-19 scenario. It is Acer’s first step towards a longer-term Omni-channel strategy. This special initiative is built to ensure ease of purchase, keep partners and customers safe, and promote business continuity. Along with our ecosystem of partners, we serve up to 20K plus pin codes through our e-store. Through this service, we also have introduced contactless home delivery solutions from partners to our customers. We are also catering to a lot of
RAJEEV: PLEASE BRIEF ABOUT YOUR SERVICE SUPPORT MODEL IN THE CURRENT PANDEMIC SITUATION. HOW ARE YOU RESOLVING THE GRIEVANCES OF YOUR CUSTOMERS IN THIS CHALLENGING TIME? or helping those most in need, Acer is dedicated to working together to fight this pandemic on every front. With the ongoing pandemic causing public restrictions and health concerns, Acer is offering support to its customers especially WFH and LFH community at large. Upholding these values, we had come up with the Acer Care campaign for our consumers whereby we maintained sensitivity towards the situation and spoke to them during the lockdown in ways where we could together look at tackling the situation. We covered various facets that were going to be part of the new normal and how we felt our consumers could cope with various new scenarios such as work hacks, maintaining social distancing, etc. Through Acer Care we extended warranty free of cost, enabled remote diagnostics and safe and hygienic service We believe in innovation and are continually looking at new and progressive ways that will help our customers transform digitally while providing the right tools and support in their journey. JUST-IN
HERO9 Black Camera from GoPro with Front-Facing Display Now in India GoPro, Inc. announced its new camera, HERO9 Black—featuring “more everything”—including a new sensor that delivers 5K video and 20 megapixel photos, next-generation HyperSmooth 3.0 video stabilization with in-camera horizon leveling, a new front-facing display, a larger rear display, 30% more battery life, and a Max Lens Mod accessory that brings Max HyperSmooth video stabilization and Max SuperView ultra wide-angle photo and video to HERO9 Black. HERO9 Black will be available in India from late October with an MSRP of INR 49,500. GoPro also shared that it has eliminated plastic from HERO9 Black’s packaging and added value by packaging the camera in a high-quality travel case that fits additional www.digitalterminal.in
mounts and accessories. For the third year in a row, GoPro is challenging its users to create the launch highlight reel for its new flagship camera. Open exclusively to owners of HERO9 Black, the Million Dollar Challenge will award an equal share of USD$1,000,000 to entrants whose video clips are chosen for the HERO9 Black Million Dollar Challenge video that will be released in December 2020. HERO9 Black is on sale internationally starting today on GoPro.com and will be on sale in India at select retail partners from late October (Amazon, Flipkart, Chroma and
select imaging stores). HERO9 Black joins GoPro MAX, HERO8 Black and HERO7 Black to round out the full 2020 GoPro Lineup.
SEPTEMBER 2020
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COVER STORY
TECH BRANDS MADE WFH POSSIBLE TO SUPPORT BUS
12 SEPTEMBER 2020 Picture www.freepik.com ICredit:
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COVER STORY
ADOPTION SINESS CONTINUITY
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The world is passing through very worst time due to COVID-19 outbreak and every industry is suffering a lot since last 6 months. The lockdown has been lifted and different phases of unlock has been already announced by the government to bring back business on track. But increase in daily cases of COVID-19 infected people across different part of India is still a bigger challenge and big hurdle in reviving the Indian economy. Even after so long time, there are still uncertainties about when the world will be same as it used to be earlier. Meanwhile, in order to maintain the business continuity, companies have adopted the work from home (WFH) model with the help of technology. This new normal has significantly accelerated the demand for tech solutions and devices across all verticals which as a result has bring huge opportunities for tech players in India. DT has come out with an insightful industry story for the tech business partner on this new emerged segment. The leading industry experts have shared their views on growth & opportunities from WFH, read out this complete story. SEPTEMBER 2020
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COVER STORY
WFH has resulted in better productivity due to many reasons for any organisation. Sharing more on benefits of WFH, SUDHIR GOEL, CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER, ACER INDIA, said, “Led by the Covid-19 pandemic, as more IT companies announce the extension of work-from-home policy, the Indian workforce is witnessing a behavioral shift. The remote working trend saw many employees enjoy greater flexibility and influence on their personal and professional lives including saving on massive commute times. Also due to this shift, work from home applications, devices, cloud solutions, e-commerce, network security, and AI applications are bound to increase in popularity and nimble IT firms can capitalize on this growth. I believe, WFH is poised to become an increasingly acceptable norm as we have seen in many countries even after the pandemic scare fades. Any corporation that would have shied away from it before, would not have a problem now with the IT infrastructure being put in place.” The Work from home model has helped the employees to work with flexibility even though the transition to this new normal was not very easy. The companies are adapting to the new way of working and it might last longer than the expected period. “Working from home in the current situation has turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the IT business and the growth has been healthy. It has changed our conventional method of working and newer products have picked up very good momentum. I’m hoping the business wave continues the way it is but such a surge, realistically, will slowdown going ahead. Many businesses have already moved their current working models to a WFH model till 2021. I wouldn’t call it a ‘trend’ but a big shift in the system that everyone is now adapting to,” commented by VINAY SHETTY, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, COMPONENTS BUSINESS – INDIA AND SOUTH ASIA, ASUS. The current WFH scenario has made one thing clear that customers are relying on PCs more than ever and it 14
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shows that technology matters. ANAND SUBRAMANYA, DIRECTOR, PRODUCT MARKETING, CONSUMER AND SMALL BUSINESS, DELL TECHNOLOGIES, INDIA said, “In the last few months, people have quickly transitioned to remote working, increasing their reliance on digital technologies and tools. Demand for technology devices have gained momentum with increased work from home and learning from home requirements. PCs are at the center of it and are being used for both content creation and consumption. While the demands and preferences may change in days to come, the need for a PC in the WFH segment is here to stay for the foreseeable future.” COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of remote work in the past few months which enabled businesses to maintain operational continuity as the workforce adjusted to living, learning and working from home. SAMEER BHATIA DIRECTOR OF ASIA PACIFIC CONSUMER BUSINESS GROUP AND COUNTRY MANAGER FOR SAARC & INDIA, SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY, said, “Remote working transformed the day-today functions but most importantly it has impacted the movement and management of data. Driven by the massive surge in data volume and the proliferation of connected devices, over the next two years, enterprise data will grow at 42.2% annual rate globally, and 45.2% in India indicating significant growth in the data storage market in the time to come. Remote working is very likely to be the new reality of doing business – across sectors - for the time to come. A new, more connected world is emerging at a pace faster than anticipated and this trend is expected to gain momentum going forward. Businesses – large and small – are keen on embracing digital transformation across every walk of life and business fuelled by data. Companies are leveraging the massive amount of data generated in redefining customer experiences, tapping into new markets, making employees more productive & processes seamless, and create new and sustainable avenues of competitive advantage.”
The technology has played a very crucial role in adapting to the WFH model as the professionals have been in continuous touch with their teams through various collaboration solutions. PAMELA ONG, ESET SALES DIRECTOR FOR ASIA PACIFIC stated, “Businesses have adapted by embracing technology to provide connectivity to networks, video conferencing, collaboration tools and cloud services, so their employees can work from home. WFH is the new norm that has bought about more opportunities for IT products and services including cybersecurity. It has also created entirely different cyber hygiene requirements as employees might be required to use their own devices to telecommute.” Pamela Ong further added, “At ESET, all of our local staff are still working from home, and the remote working trend across various industries will continue till at least the end of the year especially those in IT, as it is mandatory for all IT and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies operating in the country to do so. Beyond that, we believe WFH trend or remote workforce will continue to shape the IT industry in some form or other with several global tech titans and local enterprises have already adopted them as their long-term goals.” In the current environment, businesses are leveraging digital models to minimise physical human interaction. According to JAGANATHAN CHELLIAH, DIRECTOR, MARKETING, WESTERN DIGITAL INDIA, “The WFH scenario has helped the IT industry to gain an image of being “essential services” as it is acting as the backbone for facilitating technological integrations that are enabling WFH and ensuring business continuity without disruption. Data is at the core of a virtual or digital world. The current environment has resulted in a colossal amount of data creation and consumption, whether, at a consumer level or an enterprise. As a result, we are witnessing a good demand www.digitalterminal.in
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for our products as we have a wide product portfolio cutting across consumer, professional as well as enterprise segments.” As organizations adopt work from home (WFH) as a sustainable measure, the role of IT professionals becomes all the more important. KULDEEP MALHOTRA, DIRECTOR & VP SALES AND OFFICE MARKETING & PLANNING, KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS SOLUTIONS INDIA added, “In a bid to serve their customers more seamlessly during these times, companies are training their IT teams via digital webinars and upskilling them to master using various digital tools. The pandemic has shown everyone the potential of digitalization and how businesses can excel in their respective domains with the right strategies and a robust IT infrastructure. Looking at these crucial market factors that helped businesses grow in several ways, WFH is certainly going to stay further, even in the post-COVID world, when things become normal. IT has always played a vital role in any company or business to run smoothly and successfully. The pandemic has perfectly shown its growing potential at present and what lies ahead.” COVID-19 brought many changes in the way of working since it affected our lives. The digital transformation journey for many organizations got momentum and it might go on. SARVESH MISHRA, HEAD OF SALES AND MARKETING, DIGISOL SYSTEMS said, “COVID-19 experiences have thought all of us many life lessons with regard to business. The success of ‘Work From Home’ during lockdown has encouraged many organizations globally to embrace digital transformation and many organizations are looking forward to shifting a chunk of their workforce from office spaces to the virtual workplace. We believe that work from home is operational for many of the roles in our organization and this trend would continue till the end of this year. At Digisol, in the post-pandemic scenario, we have digitized all possible www.digitalterminal.in
manual processes, build an agile supply chain and inventory control, and save big on office spaces. It helped us understand that Home vs office working, save on administrative costs as well as ease the pressure of daily commute on employees, need of smaller offices for branch operations and encourages Flexible working for the corporate and Sales team.” Although, COVID-19 showed the worst results for most of the organizations but at the same time, it helped many IT brands to grow. WFH model forced the remote workforce to adopt best tech solutions and products which resulted in generating the demand for devices or solutions across all markets segment. According to SEEMA BHATNAGAR, REGIONAL BUSINESS DIRECTOR(SOUTH ASIA) AND COUNTRY GENERAL MANAGER(INDIA) – NEXSTGO COMPANY LIMITED, “Though WFH has been tough to adjust for people, IT has emerged as a saviour for nations/ organizations/people to stay connected and helped us pass through this phase with some ease. IT has been growing well and sales have reached their peak during this period. The Indian market has always been a volume-driver for many products and this scenario has been a blessing in disguise for the industry. This trend is bound to continue for a long time since laptops have become a need rather than just a necessity.” The WFH model has been very beneficial for organizations as well as employees. The flexibility to work and save more time to invest on profitable things have made it a good option to work. “The pandemic has forced millions globally to work-from-home (WFH) and so is the case in India. Employers have now begun to discover that with proper systems in place, an employee can work efficiently and sometimes even more effectively due to saved time commuting and balancing out home, health, and work in a proper manner. Since 90% of employees are working from home with 65% of them from homes in metros and the rest 35% from homes in small towns. As many employees
worked from home, the requirements of WFH products and solutions have also increased resulting in the growth of the IT market. I believe WFH is here to stay for a long time as it becomes the new normal in today’s world,” commented SACHIN SHARMA, COUNTRY MANAGER – INDIA, ADATA TECHNOLOGY (INDIA) PVT. LTD. COVID-19 outbreak is unprecedented global health, social and economic emergency where WFH emerged to be the new normal. As per SHIVANGI BHADAURIA, PR & MARKETING EXECUTIVE, MSI, “Adjusting to this shift, we have witnessed a surge in the market demands for laptops be it gaming or content creation. Since most of the business execution and the decision will rely on a conference call or virtual seminar, we observed that searches for WFH laptops have gone up by 2X. Consumers need high performance which is on the go, compact- a setup that does not take up much of your home space and MSI is all about that. How long will this scenario continue? No one knows but what’s certain is it’s here to stay & MSI is prepaid to serve as a one-stop shop for all our customer needs whether it’s a laptop on a budget or uncompromised performance with high productivity.” “We have already seen an increase in ‘Work from Home’ in the last few years. However, there has been an exponential growth in remote working which has been fuelled by the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic. While the pandemic is here to stay for some time, having a greater acceptance of remote working will make way for a hybrid-working model in the future. One big trend is that we’ve seen our customers adopting cloud to a large extent now. Another interesting area has been the EdTech space, where there has been significant adoption of the Flock platform by students and teachers,” said GAURANG SINHA, DIRECTOR, GO-TOMARKET STRATEGY, FLOCK. Gaurang Sinha, Flock further added, “After Google announced that it will allow its employees to work from home up until SEPTEMBER 2020
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mid-2021, Twitter went a step ahead and allowed its employees to work from home ‘forever’. This is primarily because some businesses are seeing some advantages and are witnessing an increase in productivity with work from home. Whether this remote work trend would continue has to be decided by individual organisations. While at Flock, we have already announced that we will be working from home till at least the end of this year.” MAJOR TRENDS POST LOCKDOWN In last few months we have seen drastic change in buying behaviour of consumers due to adoption in New Normal world. SUDHIR GOEL, said, “Work from home has become the new normal as India as the world continues to battle the Covid-19 pandemic. Remote working, however, has not been an easy transition for many people in the country. Also, this trend has impacted consumer buying priorities. One of the best examples is laptops. As mobile phones hit a ceiling in terms of capabilities and the smaller screen to do productive tasks, PCs have become the most important tool for staying productive, connected, and is also paramount for e-learning. While remote working culture is continuing to become mainstream, penetration of devices in each household has gone up. PCs today have become the primary device for millions of work-from-home users. At Acer, we have seen a surge in demand from corporates and enterprises to keep their workforce stay home, safe, and connected. We have also launched our latest range of Mini Affordable PCs and are also equipping organizations with DaaS solutions helping them reduce their Capital expenditure.” Commenting on product trends due to WFH adoption, VINAY SHETTY commented, “WFH actually to a large extent has converted over 80% households, big or small, into small office spaces. Understandably, the requirement for products like routers, large screen monitors, small form factor PCs (SFF), Keyboards and Mice have gone up drastically. Individuals working/studying from home really have had to ensure that their work/academics don’t get hampered. Taking the simple example a router, Consumers have now realised, that anything below 750 Mbps routers will not fulfill the needs of everyone. With multiple users connected to a single device and stretched bandwidth which could include School/College video calls and office goers and members working from home. This has triggered a good change in the segment of WLL business.” “The current situation has shown us that users need a PC that serves various purposes – both work as well as entertainment need of the customers. One 16
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constant factor to consider is the increased screen time. At Dell our portfolio is divided between consumer and gaming line ups. Our Alienware and Dell Gaming series address these needs for gamers, by offering vibrant display options, great performance and functionality that address evolving needs. The XPS 13 is a perfect device for day-to-day use, whether it is for working on personal and professional projects, binging on favorite shows, or video calling. The XPS 15, on the other hand, is for all the creators, artists, and influencers around the world. It offers incredible audio-video capabilities to make processing and editing a breeze. For students, the Inspiron series has been a reliable option. Therefore, we want to offer a PC personalized experience for users. Certain key features that will remain important are innovative designs and flexible form factors like higher screento-body ratio in a compact form, hybrid devices, thinner and lighter designs,” stated by ANAND SUBRAMANYA.
centers looking to digitize and work toward smarter design.”
With businesses rapidly adopting the remote working culture, digital transformation and deploying AI-powered applications and cloud services have gained momentum. Sharing more on this trend, SAMEER BHATIA said, “This is generating a large amount of data every second, requiring an innovative approach to securely store and use data. It has become imperative for organizations to focus on data protection, storage and recovery. Businesses are looking for a solution that is scalable, meets the needs of company using it, and has the ability to adapt to the ever-changing world we live in. Currently, more than 5 billion consumers interact with data on a daily basis; by 2025, that number will be 6 billion, or nearly 75% of the world’s population. A proper data security solution - such as Seagate’s Exos range of drives has features like self-encryption, protection for uploads and downloads, and an efficient, user-friendly interface. Meanwhile, Seagate’s Nytro drives offer real-time business responsiveness and insights that quickly translate into actions – all with the proper security measures in place.
PAMELA ONG continues, “We will continue to strengthen our consumer security products to mitigate evolving cyberthreats. For instance, we have recently introduced a unique feature in our mobile security product to secure banking and payment apps, so consumers can perform financial transactions from their smartphones or tablets knowing their financial data remain protected. The mobile security app also allows consumers to scan their home network - an aspect that is often forgotten for known vulnerabilities, outdated firmware and default passwords that need to be changed.”
SAMEER further added, “Another trend has been the predictive capabilities AI as well as its capacity to crunch large amounts of data and pull out insights has proved invaluable to shaping strategies and staying connected during the COVID-19 outbreak. Doctors in 52 countries including India, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines - are using AI apps like Bot MD to communicate and stay updated on the latest COVID-19 developments and action clinical research across data sources. This lends a hand to short-staffed medical personnel who are used to communicating in team setups. Digital and robotic solutions present a significant development for urban
“Collectively, the product trends that we are seeing emerging in this segment focus on enabling people to work, play and learn from home. In recent months, we have seen online tools, apps and games that gained sudden popularity with consumers and businesses because of the lockdowns. These include a video conferencing platform, which its limelight had helped reveal a rash of privacy and security challenges. Besides, many small businesses have moved online or to an e-commerce platform to supply essential household items, and this means consumers can now buy groceries online and get them delivered right to their door-step. This brings convenience but at the same time, cybercriminals are taking advantage of the situation as many consumers are not aware of the need for cybersecurity when transacting online,” said by PAMELA ONG.
The consumer segment is witnessing an increasing demand for products that enhance productivity and offer backup during work from home. “Also, the risk of malfunctioning of electronic devices has raised the consciousness of having back-ups, especially on external devices. The growing consumption and creation of content has increased the requirement for retail offerings like flash drives, USBs, memory cards, SSDs- both internal and external, and external hard drives. From the technology point of view, consumers are becoming more aware and want storage devices that help improve their productivity and secure their content,” said by JAGANATHAN CHELLIAH. “We are witnessing a trend for PC upgradation among consumers as they are working from home and need a smooth working PC for their daily usage. Consumers are looking for budget-friendly and effective solutions to improve performance. Replacing the hard drive with a solid-state drive (SSD) is one of the easiest and quickest ways to boost the PC performance. The gaming sector is also buzzing as multiplayer www.digitalterminal.in
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PC gaming is gaining momentum. Modern games come with high-quality graphics and motions this has given rise to the growth of our internal and external SSDs as consumers expect a seamless experience today. Western Digital’s internal and external SSD portfolio is designed to meet the emerging needs of consumers in these segments,” further added by JAGANATHAN. “The ‘New Normal’ environment, has led to a massive surge in the use of the internet across India. Lockdowns, social distancing and working from home pushed users to explore new scenarios to maintain business continuity and made internet connection our basic need. This led to driving demands for home-based IT networking products. We have been seeing tremendous growth in our business especially for our FTTH line of products,” added by SARVESH MISHRA. Whereas sharing her opinion about the trend, SEEMA BHATNAGAR, said, “With people increasingly multi-tasking in the phase of WFH, users want to get their hands on the latest tech gadgets to facilitate working without a glitch. Considering this, users are now becoming aware of the modern PC segment and switching to it. Upgradation makes technology obsolete and consumers would want to buy products with the most updated and latest configuration across the category. For the same reason, we can see users switching over to Thin and Light SSD based laptops over HDD.” SACHIN SHARMA commented, “The Pandemic and its after-effects have significantly accelerated the WFH. Employers have now begun to discover that with proper systems in place, an employee can work efficiently and sometimes even more effectively due to saved time commuting and balancing out home, health, and work in a proper manner. WFH has also accelerated the climb towards Digital Transformation and smoothened the curve, resulting in a sustained and faster adoption across. WFH has created more demand for Laptops & Desktop. People have to get their Laptop & Desktop upgraded because of multiple applications of usage now. We have high capacity Laptop DRAM & M.2 & PCie SSD available to meet their requirement.” SHIVANGI BHADAURIA stated, “The lockdown phase has witnessed a major shift in consumer behavior & buying pattern. It’s all about comfort & portability now. With newer technology coming up in the market, consumers now have the power to choose from a wide variety of under a price segment. Steady performance, highquality webcam & excellent connectivity are the 3 key factors while searching for a productivity laptop. The MSI product line up has always brought the latest CPU and www.digitalterminal.in
graphics, along with features like wifi-6, full I/O port support and FHD webcam to the market.”
2000 new companies/teams sign up on our platform each month,” informed by GAURANG SINHA.
Commenting on the current adoption trend and requirement, KULDEEP MALHOTRA commented, “As more and more companies continue to work from home, the role of IT teams in this new world order will only gain significance. Because working from home requires a lot of equipment and infrastructure such as Wi-Fi, laptop, printer, etc. to ensure efficiency and continuity in operations, and there are always high chances that these devices may face issues. Therefore, digitally addressing these challenges is the new necessity that companies will have to focus on. Hence, every business should equip their employees with the right set of tools to resolve customer problems and drive high satisfaction levels.”
BRAND’S CHANNEL PLAN
“As lockdown has enabled home-schooling, it has increased the need for printers among parents to help children complete home assignments. Similarly, parents who are working from home need these devices to scan, store, print and copy documents instead of going out every time for such tasks and breaking the safety protocols. When it comes to product configuration, we have a wide range of Office Multifunctional Printers that can be used for small home purposes such as scan, print and copy. Under Monochrome category, we have machines such as bizhub 205i, 185e and 165e. These products speed ranging from 16 pages per minute (PPM) to 20 pages per minute (PPM) and is a suitable option for copy-print-scan jobs at home.” Besides, in our B2B business, consumer requirements are different, and sometimes it takes longer than expected for them to buy a product. In short, the purchasing cycle is comparatively longer in our case. Hence, we strive to create more customer interactions by frequently conversing with them, thereby addressing their queries. This gives us a better understanding of their psyche and helps us innovate our approach to serve them better,” added by KULDEEP MALHOTRA. “With the pandemic pushing offices off their limits to perform and deliver, a platform like ours saw a surge in usage, up to 600700% within a span of weeks. The number of users, especially paid, have gone up tremendously. Flock’s business objective is to focus on enhancing customer satisfaction and retaining their loyalty. One of the most important focus areas for us is to seek our users’ feedback and build the features and functionality that they require and value. With Flock’s user-friendly platform and intuitive features for businesses and enterprises, we have seen a whopping
Challenging times require innovative and next-gen technological solutions that define newer business models in a new normal. Briefing upon strategies to accelerate growth, SUDHIR GOEL, said, “At Acer, we are reworking our strategies to attract customers on digital platforms along with offline retails to get maximum traction in the upcoming quarter from WFH, LFM, and Gaming from home across sectors. We are focusing more on digital to reach out to our consumers which will not just be limited to promotion but will also be the preferred points of purchase. Also, as the festive season is approaching, we hope to see a rise in demand and have already activated manufacturing units and supply chains to meet the spurt in demand.” VINAY SHETTY commented, “Firstly, I would like to thank all my partners who have stood up and delivered as true loyal partners for Asus in such adverse and risky working conditions. Their health and well-being is of prime importance to us. Their contribution should not be seen merely as a business contribution but as a human being who refused to let the situation pull him down. We are constantly in touch with our partners to ensure their product information, marketing updates, product availability status are all tracked meticulously. We have regular product days to ensure they know and understand the new range of products. We have an Asus Product training for our System integrator partners so that there is no gap in the product feature understanding and we ensure proper marketing engines are active for the end user to know what products are being offered from Asus on a regular basis. We want to ensure that in the coming quarter, which predominantly has always been a promising one in India, will continue to be fruitful and profitable for our partners.” Dell is collaborating more closely with their partners across GTMs to delight customers with the best and safe shopping experience. ANAND SUBRAMANYA reveals, “We continue to maintain our traction via a robust product portfolio and support from trusted technology advisors for our small business customers as they navigate through the new normal. For our channel partners, we have structured our programs to ensure that the partners have improved cashflow, Our new product launches like XPS and Gaming range are at right time before festival sales, we are also providing extensive training to the partners, attractive offers for the end customers to ensure that our channel partners are best equipped SEPTEMBER 2020
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to maximize the sales during the festive period. We have also started our all new TV campaign “Watching is the new everything” coinciding with the IPL this year. This camping focuses on Immersive watching experience that dell laptops deliver to our customers; this will continue throughout the festive period.” “Since lockdown was first announced, we have been consistently hosting webinars, conducting training, and getting in regular calls with our channel partners to stay connected, understand their concerns, and address their queries at every point possible. Our sales team has also started scheduling select one-on-one meetings with key customers to address their problems. In doing so, we realized that they are smoothly able to adopt these solutions and become more confident in the process. So far, we have gained positive traction around this new type of service among our partners, who earlier believed in traditional processes. We are hopeful that continuing this approach will help us drive more positive customer sentiment in the market as we move forward from survival to recovery mode,” said KULDEEP MALHOTRA. “Apart from this, we have also educated our partners and their sales team to look at home and small office segment as an opportunity, and pitch in A3 devices for benefits such as cost effectiveness. We are also reaching out certain professionals whose job involves good print volume documents. In fact, it is easier to read and review hard copies than soft documents. Other important tasks such as reimbursement and GST claims that call for deep scanning also require MFP’s. These tasks are now being done from home both from the standpoint of safety and convenience, and we seamlessly cater to these increasing demands,” KULDEEP MALHOTRA further added.
our ongoing efforts on enabling our channel partners with innovative training modules and the right set of tools. We will continue helping them in keeping pace with the latest product trends and serve their customers with right offerings. We will continue to innovate with the evolving market needs that will help businesses stay competitive and consumers productive,” concluded by SAMEER. As a channel-friendly vendor, ESET believes collaboration creates synergy. This is why they have established relationships with local distributors and partners that understand the landscape and evolving customer needs better. Sharing more on the channel plans, PAMELA ONG said, “In the coming months, we look forward to expanding our partner base to widen the availability of our business solutions and services across India. For the WFH segment, we have introduced new cloud-based bundled solutions that are essential to companies implementing WFH arrangement. Together, these security products will enable customers to remotely secure their endpoints and servers, keep their data encrypted, submit potentially malicious samples as well as to manage their IT security from the cloud. Moreover, we have made the bundled solutions available from a minimum of five seats, providing even the smallest SMB’s access to a wide range of advanced security tools. We foresee WFH will still be a key operational arrangement in the near future, and we will continue developing solutions that would address the business needs.”
The growth trend observed in the Indian market for both consumers and enterprises helped Seagate in creating numerous opportunities for their channel partners. Sharing more on the opportunities, SAMEER BHATIA said, “While storage solutions catering to consumer needs – from everyday users and creative professionals to gamers – primarily drive our business here in India, we are witnessing a shift towards enterprise data and consequently an increase in demand. Seagate is undertaking several ubiquitous and multifaceted programs - empowering our partners and distributors, enabling them with the right set of knowledge and tools. We help them in improving their businesses and delivering compelling results of Seagate’s full suite of enterprise and consumer data solutions.”
WD keeps updating partners about consumer needs and market trends on regular basis. Sharing more details about channel awareness, JAGANATHAN CHELLIAH said, “We keep informing our channel partners to armour them for the changing consumer needs, market dynamics, and educating them on Western Digital products and solutions. We recently virtually organized our annual Partner Summit – our largest customer event – designed to engage and interact with our channel partners (National Distributors, T2, T3 and retailers) across all business segments. This highly engaging event offered an immersive experience and was attended by over 1400 partners. The event featured eight interactive virtual stalls, four on consumer business and four on Devices, to offer a first-hand experience of our vast product portfolio. The partners could live chat with India Sales and Marketing team members at the virtual exhibits. The marketing team also organized a series of training sessions to enable understanding of Western Digital’s complete range of products and solutions.”
“For the upcoming quarter, we will continue
JAGANATHAN CHELLIAH further added
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on the marketing plans, “Our end user marketing campaigns under “work from home” theme to be aimed at creating demand for our partners. We are also equipping our partners with Go Digital Kits to send out relevant information about our products using digital and social media. We have also conducted a series of virtual seminar to train over 1000 partners to keep them abreast of the products on offer and how can these products help their consumer. Our myWD partner rewards program for IT channel partners and Enterprise channel partners have been designed to rewards and benefit partners during their challenging times. According to SARVESH MISHRA, “Channel partners play a critical role in positioning a brand in the market as they represent the brand to the customers. DIGISOL has been strengthening its relationship with partners by engaging with them and introducing them to the DIGISOL’s various aftersales services and programs. We believe in educating partners about upcoming products and services and our association with our channel partners has always been extremely rewarding, and we are looking forward to growing with our partners.” As the demand for PCs have gone up, there is huge opportunity for channel partners in this segment. But making a balance between all channel is very much required for a healthy ecosystem. SEEMA BHATNAGAR said, “We can see relaxation in the WFH trend now and are keen to balance both offline and online channels. The market strategy of Avita is to fill the void with rightly priced models with the best configuration. We have been seeing amazing demand for our PURA/MAGUS series of laptops which are budget-friendly and fulfill the need to stay technically updated.” “Channel partners are the brand ambassadors for ADATA. We at ADATA believe that channel partner is one of the strongest pillars of ADATA’s success. We are now looking forward to furthering increasing its relationships with the channel community and achieving greater heights as they play a vital role in penetrating the market and enhancing existing customer relationships. Regular engagement activities and training sessions with our channel partners help us to establish a strong relationship and work together as a team. We are looking to organize a partner training program to help them understand the specialty of using ADATA products from WFM segments. We are also focussing to work with the KOL, reviewers, and influencers who help us in communicating the benefits of using a good brand and to meet the requirements of our targeted customers,” by commented SACHIN SHARMA. www.digitalterminal.in
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SHIVANGI BHADAURIA looks very concerned about offline channel who have faced very tough time due to complete lockdown. She said, “This year has not been easy when it comes to the offline market. Therefore, this is a time where we as a brand stand with our partners & support them in all means possible. We have been expanding our retail experience zone with another one coming up in Telangana by this Diwali. We aim at creating a smooth & immersive experience for our customers who visit our stores. We keep updating our in-shop branding in every 2 months & make sure our partners have exclusive MSI merchandise to gift to our consumers on every purchase. Another important point is technical education, we make sure all our partners get product training to help educate the end user on how to optimize performance, make system adjustments based on different scenario & performance need thereby easing their WFH experience.” GAURANG SINHA, further concluded, “Initially, we had not relied on partnerships in a big way and had gone directly to our customers, however, that is now changing and we are open to partnerships. Flock is projected to grow by almost 200 percent YoY. In the past few months, we have seen a 2.6x increase in businesses adopting Flock globally coupled with a 3x increase in the Indian market. Additionally, we have seen a 4x upsurge in companies using Flock for messaging colleagues, sharing files, video conferencing and screen sharing. The need for such platforms will further increase, as companies are now realising how easy-towork and user friendly they are.”
All major tech brands have already chalked out their channel plans for the upcoming quarter which is very crucial to conclude the calendar year on high note. But it all depends on how channel is prepared for the adoption required to boost channel business by grabbing the opportunity coming from WFH. We spoke to few of the distributors for the story who seems to be very optimistic but at the same time they see some challenges which need to tackle very wisely. There is no doubt WFH has brought huge opportunities for IT market especially PCs, storage, security, accessories, collaboration solutions and many more. But the getting large cake of such opportunities, partners need to adopt and learn selling these solutions in new normal where customers need has also changed.
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DISTRIBUTION BUSINESSES TAKE ON WFH OPPORTUNITY The IT business has successfully achieved strong growth momentum in the wake of work from home model as this new trend has created new growth opportunities for market players as well as channel partners. According to RAJESH GOENKA, DIRECTOR, SALES & MARKETING, RP TECH INDIA, “Work from Home (WFH) has been the key driver of IT business growth in India since the onset of COVID-19. Organizations are shifting towards WFH and hence they require better notebooks/laptops, PCs, headsets, video conferencing and networking devices and other IT related hardware and software. The surge in demand for WFH solutions has helped not only to grow the business but it has improved overall business hygiene. While distributors work at a nominal margin, partners and retailers are getting advanced payment from Corporates and customers and they are earning decent margins. To conclude, from business angle WFH has helped to maintain the momentum of the IT business in India without which there could have been a disaster in the market.” Technology played an important role in the survival of some verticals during this entire pandemic situation. Organisations adopted the WFH approach in the unprecedented time and now wants to maintain this approach for some more time in the wake of the safety issues. VIPUL BHANDARI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SUPERTRON ELECTRONICS said, “PC penetration in India is very less in comparison to other developed or developing countries. So there is an opportunity for growth and that has definitely opened up with the WFH requirement which is a cultural change for India. With the demand in PC requirement, there are supply chain issues with most of the brands and possibly this continues until there are enough supplies from brands. Supply challenges are also because of rising demand not only in India
but also for most of the Global markets due to this Pandemic. The demand for cybersecurity solutions has increased during this period due to the weak security structure of remote workers. ZAKIR HUSSAIN, DIRECTOR, BD SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION PVT. LTD. commented, “We did not face any major challenge from the sales front on the contrary we have managed to get some good customers during the lockdown and also our consumer business grew. The WFH model had fuelled the demand for Cyber Security because of remote working requirements during the pandemic. Amid the coronavirusled lockdown, cyber-attacks targeting individuals and organisations have increased considerably, resulting in the growing demand for cybersecurity solutions hence it was not really that big of a challenge for us than compared to other businesses. As for our team they were performing 100% during WFH time. We were also able to establish a good relationship with new partners for business growth and did a lot of webinars to demonstrate our solutions.” PARTNER’S PLAN TO BOOST SALES A lot of plan needed to bring back the lost momentum of channel business as opportunities in WFH segment is here to stay. “First and foremost, planning an appropriate inventory and SKUs, which is in demand and required for WFH. Second is making the WHF solutions available pan India through our wide network of 50 branches. We have also improved our logistical efficiency to deliver the products within the same day or the next day. To achieve this, we have tied up with various small/local logistical companies, which are efficient to deliver the goods to partners in the shortest possible timeframe. Apart from this, we are engaged in various digital marketing campaigns to create awareness for mid and premium products which has proven to be a successful effort in terms of business,” said by RAJESH GOENKA. We all know that demand has increased but inventory is not able maintain the same pace due to issues like logistics. VIPUL SEPTEMBER 2020
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BHANDARI added, “When supply is less and demand is more, more focus goes into logistics support rather marketing initiative by most of the brands. But for the premium segment definitely, there is scope to create awareness or marketing activity to scale the mix.”
NEWS BYTE
APPLE LAUNCHES IT’S MOST AWAITED ONLINE STORE IN INDIA
While sharing plans to scale up business growth, ZAKIR said, “We have 10-15% of our team working from office who stay nearby and the rest are working from home. We plan to continue like this till March 2021. We have been able to do a lot of POC and conducting demos of our solution almost daily. Also, the team has come up with very good and lucrative schemes for our loyal partners which have been appreciated by them and have resulted in an increase in business. We have shifted our office to a new location too during the lockdown. Overall we have changed the way we use to work before lockdown and it is resulting in good growth.” CHANNEL PRODUCT STRATEGIES “The biggest trend we see among professionals is the preference for a large client TFTs. Large Client TFTs are currently is in huge demand and its sale has skyrocketed in the past few months. RP tech India has a complete range of products and solutions for both WFH and LFH segments from notebooks to TFTs and accessories such as keyboards, mice, web cameras, headsets and video conferencing solutions,” commented by RAJESH GOENKA. According to VIPUL BHANDARI, “Major trend is seen in PC requirements and also to a large extent large-screen viewing. Since people are spending a good amount of time on Laptops there is strain on the eyes. So to have comfortable viewing with less strain professionals are opting for an additional larger screen. We have seen growth in the gaming category as well and Gaming professionals are investing in highperformance gaming products.” “Because of the lockdown and pandemic, remote working has become the new normal which had also led to a growing wave of cyber-attacks targeting individuals and organisations due to which cybersecurity has become the main concerns for everyone. Since we are into the security domain, we are offering security solutions to work from home. We are also training those buying our solutions on how to use their security solutions to the optimum so that they stay safe from digital threats,” concluded by ZAKIR HUSSAIN.
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Apple has officially launched the ‘Apple Store online’ in India. With the launch of this online store, Apple aims to offer its full range of products and support directly to customers across the country for the first time. The new online store will provide customers with the same premium experience found in Apple store locations around the world. The Apple Store online is the most convenient destination to shop for Apple products, with online Apple Specialists available to help with anything from custom-configuring any Mac to setting up new devices. Customers can get advice, receive guidance, and learn about new products directly from Apple, both in English and Hindi. For the health and well-being of Apple’s teams, customers, and communities, all orders from the Apple Store online will ship with contactless delivery. Orders that do not require a signature will be left at the customer’s door, and those that do will need only a verbal confirmation from a safe distance instead of a written signature.
KASPERSKY ANNOUNCES NEW PARTNER REWARD PROGRAM FOR ITS B2C PARTNERS Kaspersky announced their latest partner reward program for their B2C partners and resellers in India. Apprehending their partners’ ongoing situation in the wake of the nationwide lockdowns and chaos, Kaspersky supports their partners and resellers with the help of their latest initiative – Force 1.0, an application that will help the partners to manage Kaspersky consumer solutions and earn rewards in a very easy and convenient fashion. “We at Kaspersky, have been in constant touch with our partners and resellers since the past 6 months and despite inevitable physical obstacles for the purpose of a secure future, we have developed this app and program to help our resellers embrace the newer technologies and progress further in the digital age. The program would help our partner and resellers create a holistic sales approach and improve inventory sourcing thus increasing their sales and revenue even in the current situation. We believe that this step of taking their business online will also help local businesses expand and grow their profits across the region”, explained Mr. Dipesh Kaura, General Manager for South Asia, Kaspersky.
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11th BEST BRAND & PRODUCT INNOVATION HONOR
Awards 2020 NOMINATIONS TO START FROM 10TH OCTOBER 2020 for Nominations Queries Contact - jyoti@digitalterminal.in, for Sponsorship Contact - rajeev@digitalterminal.i n or Call @ 9899600302 / 9654690377
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MOBILE SECURITY
ESET Introduces Version 6.0 of Its Mobile Security Solution for Android
ESET has launched version 6.0 of ESET Mobile Security (EMS), an award-winning solution that provides protection against a multitude of Android mobile security threats such as malware and phishing, and now has the added feature of Payment Protection for financial transactions. ESET Mobile Security protects users’ data against loss, leakage and misuse through strong malware protection, as well as providing a safe browsing environment with its anti-phishing feature. EMS also protects users from physical loss and theft, connecting to my.eset.com to provide as much real-time information as possible about the status and whereabouts of the device. Version 6.0 of the premium Mobile Security solution introduces a new layer of security for EMS users. The Payment Protection feature safeguards users from applications that utilize sensitive financial information such as banking transactions and online shopping. This feature automatically categorizes all installed applications from the Google Play Store that fall into the Finance category and scans them for potential threats. The user is also able to add other installed apps to the list that may fall outside of the Finance category. A “safe launcher” icon is added to the user’s
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list of applications, and from there, apps pertaining to sensitive financial data can be launched and will be protected from malware or fake apps that may be attempting to steal credentials by replicating login screens. If an app is not launched from the safe launcher module, Mobile Security will continue to run a basic scan for unresolved antivirus issues, open network usage and the root state of the device. To further cement ESET’s commitment to cutting-edge Android mobile protection, the company has been awarded the MRG Effitas Certificate in the Android 360° Assessment Programme Q1 2020 by MRG Effitas, a world leader in independent IT security efficacy testing, research and expertise. As the report highlights, Android devices are used by approximately 2.3 billion people around the globe, and with Android-based malware on a constant rise, it is vital that antivirus solutions protect against 100% of threats. Version 6.0 has also undergone design
changes to improve intuitiveness and ease-of-use features, such as the Call Filter feature that allows users to protect against unwanted incoming calls and a redesign of the Anti-Theft feature to allow for simpler onboarding and the resetting of passwords. Branislav Orlík, Product Manager, ESET states: “Mobile devices are a central part of our everyday lives and go far beyond just the need to call or message our friends and family. Our mobile devices are now a direct pathway to our wallets, our memories and our jobs, and it is vital that personal data is safely secured, especially sensitive financial data. With this latest version of ESET Mobile Security, we want to ensure our users feel completely secure when performing financial transactions on their devices, in addition to being protected from malware and phishing attempts. At ESET, we are dedicated to the safety of technology users across the globe and are proud to be recognized for our innovative and reliable security solutions.” www.digitalterminal.in
OPINION
Remote Work: Is Your Business’s IT Environment Ready For The Challenges Confronting The New Normal?
AUTHORED BY HEWITT LEE, DIRECTOR, SYNOLOGY INC. Panicked responses to the infamous COVID-19 have triggered strange, India has suffered more than 180 days of lockdown, yet substantial adaptation in remote collaboration innovations became an essential in work places for India organizations. However, the transition might not be easy, according to a survey by Barracuda Networks, nearly 66% of Indian organizations have had at least one data breach or cybersecurity incident since shifting to remote working during the pandemic, while 70% are concerned about unknown threats that will cause business disruption in the next six months. Further, it was found that 53% of India organizations do not have an updated cybersecurity strategy and also lack solutions to address vulnerabilities that have been exposed due to the shift. What will be an ideal remote working environment? In hindsight, businesses have been heavily deploying tools such as Microsoft Team, Zoom, Slack, and other remote team collaboration tools for employees to leverage during this difficult time. However, the more concurrent users working online simultaneously, the heavier the resources and loading these service providers have to allocate. Consequently, we have to ask ourselves again, does a good remote and team collaboration environment only constitutes of the applications mentioned above, or there should be more to it? The answer should be more complex than a yes or no. www.digitalterminal.in
Picture Credit: www.freepik.com
An ideal remote working environment is more than just utilizing collaboration tools provided online. The entire IT infrastructure, including networking and storage systems, needs serious reforms in order for businesses to ensure they have the capacity to host multiple users simultaneously, and to provide a stable and secure workflow for employees to operate remotely. Traditionally, companies leverage traditional file server such as Windows file aunless employees access the file servers using VPN, this framework conventionally was designed only for delivering services within the company’s network. Thus, that is why so many companies utilizes the hybrid cloud infrastructure such as the most common combination of Windows server and public clouds drives. Of course, this common practice often is being viewed as overly complicated, not to mention the added data breach risk in terms of unstructured and duplicated data, and resource allocation when adapting third party team collaboration tools. Thus, having a sophisticated on-premise server with built-in remote access may definitely help with eliminating issues with remote team collaboration, unstructured data, and various security issues. The cost benefit that businesses may concern With the recent rising demand in not just corporate remote collaboration mechanism but also stable and secure IT environment, a network attached storage (NAS) may just be
the solution for businesses struggling with the problems mentioned above. Solution such as Synology NAS offers built-in collaboration tool that allows employees to edit files concurrently, and instant messaging app for team communication. Additionally, such solution resonates the benefits of both Windows server and Google Drive, which allow files to be retrieved via mapped network drive, sync client, web portal or mobile app, all without the hassle of using VPN services. Last but not least, what may come as a surprise is the cost benefit that businesses may experience. The accumulative expenses contribute by the Windows server Client Access Licenses (CAL), public cloud storage license, and SaaS licenses could be massive, alternative deploying solutions like Synology Drive may save your company’s limited budget drastically when most features mentioned are completely license free. With a solution that meets all of the criteria for working remotely, SMBs and enterprises may still operate normally even during a difficult time with so many employees work from home protocol without blowing up the budget out of proportion With COVID-19 stirring up so much uncertainty globally, the primary task a company should prioritize is to provide its employees a complete and consistent team collaboration infrastructure to not only ensures the continuation of the business, but also safeguards employees’ and their families’ wellbeing.
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WFH TIPS
TOP 5 CYBERSECURITY TIPS FOR WORKING FROM HOME SAFELY
Paul Ducklin, Principal Research Scientist, Sophos
When most of us have been working from home due to COVID-19 outbreak, the importance of cybersecurity has increased immensely. The cybercriminals have been attacking the vulnerable devices for ransom and other greedy purposes. Also, now its not upto the IT team who used to protect the confidential data with right cybersecurity strategies. The remote works have to be self-reliant in order to secure their official as well as personal data on their device with best precautions. In the wake of increasing cyberattack incidents during COVID-19 era, Paul Ducklin, Principal Research Scientist at Sophos, shares five tips for working from home safely: 1. Make sure it’s easy for employees to get started Many Self-Service Portals (SSPs) allow users to choose between different levels of access, so they can safely connect up either a personal device (albeit with less access to fewer company systems than they’d get with a dedicated device), or a device that will be used only for company work. The three key things you want to be able to set up easily and correctly are: encryption, protection and patching. • Encryption means making sure that fulldevice encryption is turned on and activated, which protects any data on the device if it gets stolen; • Protection means that you start off with known security software, such as anti-virus, configured in the way you want; and • Patching means making sure that the user gets as many security updates as possible automatically, so they don’t get forgotten. 2. Make sure employees can do what they need If employees genuinely can’t do their job without access to server X or to system Y, 24
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then there’s no point in sending them off to work from home without access to X and Y. Make sure you have got your chosen remote access solution working reliably first – force it on yourself! – before expecting your users to adopt it. 3. Make sure you can see what employees are doing Don’t just leave employees to their own devices (literally or figuratively). If you’ve set up automatic updating for them, make sure you also have a way to check that it’s working, and be prepared to spend time online helping them fix things if they go wrong. If their security software produces warnings that you know they will have seen, make sure you review those warnings too, and let them know what they mean and what you expect them to do about any issues that may arise. 4. Make sure employees have somewhere to report security issues If you haven’t already, set up an easily remembered email address where users can report security issues quickly and easily. Remember that a lot of cyberattacks succeed because cybercriminals try over and over again until one user makes an
innocent mistake – so if the first person to see a new threat has somewhere to report it where they know they won’t be judged or criticised (or, worse still, ignored), they’ll end up helping everyone else. 5. Make sure you know about “shadow IT” solutions Shadow IT is where non-IT staff find their own ways of solving technical problems, for convenience or speed. If you have a bunch of colleagues who are used to working together in the office, but who end up flung apart and unable to meet up, it’s quite likely that they might come up with their own ways of collaborating online – using tools they’ve never tried before. The first risk everyone thinks about in cases like this is, “What if they make a security blunder or leak data they shouldn’t?” But there’s another problem that lots of companies forget about, namely: what if, instead of being a security disaster, it’s a conspicuous success? A temporary solution put in place to deal with a public health issue might turn into a vibrant and important part of the company’s online presence. We’re living in tricky times, so try not to let matters of public health cause the sort of friction that gets in the way of doing cybersecurity properly!
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NEW ARRIVALS
Gigabyte BRIX Ultra Compact PC GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd announced the whole new designed ultra-compact PC BRIX. The new ultra-compact PC BRIX adopts the latest 10th gen. Intel® Core™ 6 core processors that deliver intelligent performance. BRIX equips 15W low TDP Intel® Core™ i3/i5/i7 processors with advanced power management, brand new module architecture, and optimized IC design, providing superb performance than previous generation processors. The new BRIX features USB 3.2 Type-C™ connectors which can support for 10 GB/s transfer speed as well as integrate the convenience and practical functionalities by its reversible identity. GIGABYTE BRIX offers various I/O interfaces to fulfill all kinds of commercial applications, featuring RS232 COM Port support which provides stable asynchronous communication between multiple points.
ZEB-Juke Bar 9700 Pro Dolby Atmos Soundbar Zebronics is the first Indian brand to launch a Dolby Atmos® enabled soundbar in India named “ZEB-Juke Bar 9700 Pro Dolby Atmos”. The “ZEB-Juke Bar Pro Dolby Atmos” comes with a 16.51cms subwoofer driver for loud and punchy bass experience. The soundbar comes with quad 5.71cms and dual 5.08cms drivers so that you’re floored with scintillating audio clarity and immersive sound. The soundbar does not only have a hassle free setup but a fairly easy way to connect with multi-connectivity options like; wirelessly stream your music from your phone, using the USB/ AUX, you can connect via HDMI (ARC) or the optical input and connect without a hassle. The Sound bar also comes with dual HDMI input along with one HDMI output. The ZEB-Juke Bar 9700 Pro Dolby Atmos soundbar is available at a price of Rs. 17,999/-.
Tenda MW5G AC1200 Mesh Wi-Fi Router System Tenda introduces its all-new MW5G AC1200 Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi Router System to cover a large space area with consistent Wi-Fi signals while eliminating the dead spots within the house. A Pack of 3 MW5G provides up to 3,500 square feet and a pack of 6 provides 6,000 square feet Wi-Fi coverage range and is also ideal for more than 1-floor houses. Tenda MW5G comes with 2 x 3 dBi built-in Omni-directional antennas and 2 external power amplifiers use both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands to enhance the signal strength and receiving capability. Equipped with patented MU-MIMO and Beamforming Technology features, Tenda MW5G offers unrivalled coverage and stable performance. The mesh router (Pack of 3) is available at a Market Operating Price of INR 12,999/-.
ECS LIVA Q1 Series Mini PCs Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) launched pocket-size yet multi-functional mini PC – LIVA Q1D / Q1L. LIVA Q1D/Q1L are build-in an ultra-power-efficient Intel® Pentium®/ Celeron® processors , equipped with 32/64 GB eMMC and a microSD slot to expand storage space. LIVA Q1 series support Bluetooth 4.1 and 802.11ac enabling greater capacity for faster internet environments. LIVA Q1 series integrate varies kinds of I/O to support all your needs in one tiny PC that smaller than a mouse, including 2 USB 3.2 Gen1, 1 USB 2.0, 1 HDMI and Gigabit LAN. Besides HDMI, LIVA Q1D gears with DisplayPort for users to connect double screens to speed up work efficiency. LIVA Q1L equipped with 2 Gigabit LAN to ensure the stability of your internet access and it can be separated into internal and external internet for security needs. www.digitalterminal.in
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SMARTPHONE SHELF
INFINIX NOTE 7
REDMI 9I
Infinix has launched its much-awaited offering of the season, NOTE 7. Infinix’s NOTE 7 carries its tradition of offering the best in class camera in its price category. OS: XOS 6.1 Dolphin RAM: 4GB Storage: 64GB Expandable Upto: 256 GB Display: 6.95" HD+ Processor: MediaTek Helio G70, Octa-core Rear Camera: 48MP AI Quad Camera Front Camera: 16MP AI Battery Capacity: 5000mAh Form Factor: Display Infinix NOTE 7 in three colours; Aether Black, Forest Green and Bolivia Blue will be available on Flipkart at INR 11,499.
SAMSUNG GALAXY M51 Samsung launched its much awaited M series smartphone, Galaxy M51. Galaxy M51 is the most stylish and powerful M series smartphone for tech savvy millennials.
Mi India announced the latest Redmi 9i as a part of their bestselling Redmi series of smartphones. Redmi 9i aims to break the memory barrier that exists in the sub-10K segment. OS: MIUI 12 RAM: 4GB Storage: 64GB and 128GB Expandable Upto: 512 GB Display: 6.53” HD+
OS: Android v10.0 RAM: 6GB and 8GB Storage: 128GB Expandable Upto: 512GB Display: 6.7” sAMOLED Processor: Snapdragon 730G, Octa-core Rear Camera: 64MP Quad Camera Front Camera: 32MP Battery Capacity: 7000mAh Form Factor: Battery Galaxy M51 is available in two colours – Electric Blue and Celestial Black. Galaxy M51 is priced at INR 24999 for the 6/128GB variant and INR 26999 for the 8GB/128GB variant and is available on Amazon.in, Samsung.com
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Processor: MediaTek Helio G25, Octa-core Rear Camera: 13MP AI Front Camera: 5MP AI Battery Capacity: 5000mAh Form Factor: Battery Redmi 9i is in three colour variants, Nature Green, Sea Blue, Midnight Black in 4GB + 64GB and 4GB + 128GB storage variants for INR 8299 and INR 9299 respectively across mi.com, Flipkart, Mi Homes and Mi Studios.
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GUEST COLUMN
FUTURE OF CYBER SECURITY IN THE TIMES OF WORK FROM HOME Authored by Sandeep Kamble, Founder and CTO, SecureLayer7 Among several things that are now a part of the new normal, work from home has become a prominent one, disrupting the corporate, SME and overall business lifestyle of millions across the globe. Even as the lockdown is being relaxed, the home continues to double up as office space for adults and also virtual classrooms for kids â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a norm that looks like is here to stay for a long time. Under such circumstances, the significance and security of the shared home WiFi has become vital for organisations and individuals. While India continues to remain the second-largest country to experience maximum cyberattacks in the world over the past few years, the pandemic and the lockdown have further exposed the vulnerabilities in the virtual space for one of the largest population of internet users in the world. In this instance, the pandemic has proven to be a huge accelerator for digital transformation across sectors, from business, educations, healthcare, lifestyle and retail. It is now time for a massive cybersecurity transformation, as companies, economies and countries prepare for a long haul of settling into the new normal, for a considerable time in the near future. Some of the key WFH trends related to virtual security domain that is now going to lead the complete re-invention of cybersecurity in the near future are: 1. Mobile appliances: In contrast to the legacy security appliances, traditional cybersecurity setups were always against a mobile network that generally enhanced the cyber threat risks as users moved out of the protected perimeter. Now, however, as an increasing number of users are going to be accessing work and official information on the go, and will also no longer be concentrated to a single geography, the new cybersecurity innovations need to create a vast, all-encompassing set up to manage the same. As multiple employees now spread out across the country and access the data from remote locations, innovations in cybersecurity need to address the mobility factor in the long run. 2. Dependency on Cloud: The security of cloud has always been debated by traditional cybersecurity experts www.digitalterminal.in
with multi-national companies insisting on setting up huge internal servers or data centres to ensure minimum exposure of data on external cloud domains. However, with the use of public domain apps that use general cloud infrastructure, and the increasing use of personal emails or mobile based apps for convenient conversations among colleagues, cybersecurity experts will need to devise strategies that can address safer use of cloud technology for a wider set of users. 3. Encrypted cloud connections: Generally, encrypted connections on a closed network server are standard in case of several of the large businesses. However, with the exponential the rise in bandwidth demand that businesses move to encrypted cloud connections, that offer wider processing ability while managing data security and access to information for a widely spread out set of users. This move can be vital in ensuring a long term, secure network for the WFH structure. 4. Education of employees and constant monitoring:
While the shift in the technology and security measures for data from the CXO/CISO level would be initiated to do the needful, all effort could be lost if employees are not actively made to participate in new procedures. Given the remote working format, there is little to almost no control on the how, when and where the device would be used and also if it would be used for non-official purposes. In such cases, timely educational workshops on basic doâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and don'ts for secure WFH routine needs to be conducted. Additionally, a quick set of tips on what to do in case one suspects a data breach also needs to be shared as a ready reckoner with employees so that in case of a crisis, immediate actions can be taken. In times of the pandemic when the world is increasingly learning to depend on digital innovations and the World Wide Web (WWW) has become the hotspot for business and leisure activities, the role of cybersecurity has become one of the most significant aspects of modern life. Even as IT teams gear up to create solutions, it is now time for cybersecurity teams to create a safe, and efficient background infrastructure for these innovations to be successful and create the transformation in the post COVID world. SEPTEMBER 2020
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TELE MARKET BUZZ
PAYTM PAYMENTS BANK ENABLES AADHAAR BASED BANKING SERVICES Paytm Payments Bank Ltd has enabled banking services through Aadhar Cards by integrating Aadhaar enabled Payment System (AePS). PPBL’s customers can now access to basic banking services such as cash withdrawal, balance enquiry and obtain a mini statement through the business correspondent of any banking & financial institution in the country. Soon, features like cash deposit, interbank fund transfer, etc. will also be made live. This will benefit people in rural & semi-urban areas who have limited access to the physical bank branch and ATM
OPPO DEBUTS COLOROS 11 BASED ON ANDROID 11 OPPO held the global launch for its all-new ColorOS 11 via an online press conference, making history as one of the first OEMs to bring the latest Android 11 update to global users. With its “Make Life Flow” concept, ColorOS 11 maintains the beloved stock Android features while also providing the rich UI customization sought by OPPO users. ColorOS 11 offers an unprecedented level of UI customization to help users unleash their imagination and personalize their experience. Users can essentially create their own Always-On Display, theme, and wallpaper, as well as fonts, icons, and ringtones.
RESEARCHERS FOUND VULNERABILITY IN INSTAGRAM APP Check Point researchers found a critical vulnerability in the Instagram app that would have given an attacker the ability to take over a victim’s Instagram account, and turn their phone into a spying tool, simply by sending them a malicious image file. When the image is saved and opened in the Instagram app, the exploit would give the hacker full access to the victim’s Instagram messages and images, allowing them to post or delete images at will, as well as giving access to the phone’s contacts, camera and location data. Facebook has issued a patch to remediate the issue on the newer versions of the Instagram application on all platforms.
AIRTEL XSTREAM ADDS VOOT’S CONTENT LIBRARY TO ITS PLATFORM As part of its strategy to offer best-in-class entertainment to customers in India, Airtel announced a partnership with VOOT to bring more premium digital content on to its Airtel Xstream platform. Under the partnership, Airtel Xstream users will get access premium VOOT content across multiple screens - on TV over the Airtel Xstream Box as part of the Airtel Xstream Bundle, on smartphone with the Airtel Xstream app, and on PC. With this partnership, Airtel Xstream has added to its premium content library of over 10,000 movies & shows and hundreds of LIVE TV channels.
VIDEO CONFERENCING APP VIDEOMEET LAUNCHES ‘VNOW’ EVENT PLATFORM Data Ingenious Global Limited announced the launch of Virtual Now (VNow), a first-of-its-kind event platform developed to revolutionize the process of hosting virtual events & exhibitions. Demand for this application is evident in education, healthcare, and corporate sectors. It will be a part of the company’s Made in India Video Conferencing Application – VideoMeet, which was among the top ten contenders in Made in India Video Conferencing Innovation Challenge initiated by the Ministry of Electronics and IT, Government of India.
TELEGRAM ROLLS OUT NEW FEATURES FOR USERS Telegram launches bundled new features for their users in its latest update. Features like Search Filters, Channel Comments, Anonymous Group admins, and a few more will now be available to the users. Focused on enabling the group and channel admins to make their forums interactive and safer than before, these features helps in easily managing shared content. The feature Search Filter introduced on the platform for users to search specific messages shared from the past has been further categorized into six different tabs. These include Chats, Media, Links, Files, Music and Voice Messages in order to make a clear segregation while searching any form of content.
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XIAOMI INDIA ANNOUNCES ‘MI STORE ON WHEELS’ Mi India announced the launch of 'Mi Store on Wheels’ (MSoW),an innovative concept that brings exclusive retail experience to the heart of Bharat, closer to the remotest parts of the country. A radical new concept, Mi Store on wheels will operate out of a Van and travel across towns covering a set journey and ensure presence in all the popular weekly haats and markets along the way. The initiative will first pilot in Chhattisgarh, covering places right from Basna to Sankara and Bhawarpur to Pithora. The Mi Store on Wheels will ensure higher footfalls of customers from different clusters of markets.
LAVA UNVEILS PULSE FEATURE PHONE Lava International Limited unveiled its latest feature phone- Lava Pulse. Pulse is the first ever phone in the world to have a Heart rate & Blood Pressure sensor. This unique feature will enable its user to measure their heart health in just a few seconds. Lava Pulse comes with a 2.4 inch display and supports stereo sound. It features a sturdy polycarbonate body and has an expandable memory of upto 32 GB. The handset is embedded with 1800 mAh battery supported with super battery mode, which lasts up to 6 days on a single charge. This one of a kind feature phone is priced at Rs. 1599, and comes in a stunning Rose Gold colour.
TRILLER INDIA APPOINTS RAJ MISHRA AS COUNTRY MANAGER AND HEAD OF OPERATIONS Triller has announced the strategic appointment of Raj Mishra as Country Manager and Head of Operations for India. Over the past 13 years, Raj has built a strong track record of driving significant growth in globally complex business environment. Mishra’s specializations include driving aggressive strategies for Sales & Marketing, Business Growth (Top & Bottomline), and P&L Management for brands that aim for success in the ever-evolving social media landscape in India. In his exciting new role at Triller, he will be leading and furthering the development of Triller’s products, operations, and overall business goals. Moving forward, the app, with currently over a whopping 250MN+ downloads worldwide, will explore strategic associations with key Indian partners and influencers - evident from all the artists and digital celebrities that they have currently onboarded onto the platform.
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BRAND FOCUS
ASUS INTRODUCES COMMERCIAL PC LINEUP IN INDIA
ASUS India announced the launch of a wide portfolio of commercial PC products in India under the brand umbrella of ASUS ExpertBook and ASUS ExpertCenter. ASUS has been the fastest growing brand in Consumer PCs in India in 2020 and has gained entry into the top 3 Consumer PC Brands Club in Q2 2020. With the launch of Expert Series Commercial PCs, Enterprise Customers in India will get a choice of innovative products with cutting-edge technology from ASUS that have been customized for the needs of Indian Enterprise users under ASUS’s Made for India initiative. ASUS Expert Series of Commercial PCs are designed to up the professional standard of enterprise and businesses. Fast-growing businesses encounter challenging IT needs, and these demands evolve rapidly. That is why all ASUS Expert Series commercial products are designed with quality, reliability, and flexibility to meet these challenges with the ultimate objective of increasing the productivity returns for businesses’ IT investments. ASUS Expert Series provide unmatched technology, performance, durability, and design for Business and Professional use. Hence the ASUS ExpertSeries is powered by Intel® Core™ processors. The ASUS Expert Series include:
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• ASUS ExpertBook range of 6 laptops, namely – Flagship ExpertBook B9 (B9450FA), ExpertBook P2 (P2451FB), ASUSPRO ExpertBook P1 series (P1440FA, P1410CJA, P1545FA, and P1510CJA) • ASUSPRO ExperCenter range of 3 Desktops, namely–ASUSPRO ExpertCenter D3(D340MC), ASUSPRO ExpertCenter D6 (D642MF) and flagship ASUSPRO ExpertCenterD8 (D840SA) • ASUS also launched 2 All in Ones, namely the ASUSAiO (V222FA) and ASUSAiO (V241FA) Speaking on the launch, Leon Yu – Regional Director, System Business Group, ASUS India & South Asia, said, “We are extremely delighted to launch our ExpertBook Series in India. With Expert Series, we are offering enterprises the opportunity to experience the cutting-edge technology, groundbreaking innovation, and unparalleled performance of our commercial PCs. ASUS Expert Series Brand has a singular aim to fulfill your vision with our passion. Our Expert series of products will enable you to enhance your performance in whichever area of work you pursue and help you shine as an Expert. We have created a wide range of products under ASUS Expert series that combine the cutting-edge technology of ASUS in PCs with the unique essentials of a Business PC such
as hardware-based encryption and Military Grade durability. This combination creates new superior capability in our products that will enhance your usage experience, productivity, and comfort while using an ASUS Expert Series PC. We understand that serving the needs of the business customers requires much more than just delivering hardware. We will focus on delivering solutions and unmatched customer service. We are confident that our latest offerings will receive a positive response from our customers across the country.” Prakash Mallya, Vice President and Managing Director of Sales, Marketing and Communications Group, Intel India said, “The PC continues to play a critically important role for all types of businesses especially in current times, and these latest Expert series offerings from ASUS, powered by Intel® Core™ processors, deliver the intelligent performance features that enable businesses to work efficiently and accelerate productivity.” Availability and Pricing: Available soon at ASUS Exclusive Stores (only B9 and AiO), Amazon.in, Croma.com, Croma Retail Stores, Flikpart.com, RelianceDigital. in, Reliance Digital Retail Stores, and leading Commercial PC channel partners. SEPTEMBER 2020
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PRODUCT REVIEW : AVITA Pura Full HD Display 8GB DDR4 RAM 512GB SSD Internal Storage AMD R5 3500U Processor AMD Radeon Vega 8 Graphics Pre-Loaded Windows 10 Home
BREAKS THE LIMITS WITH STYLE AVITA Pura laptop is truly a very lightweight (1.34gms) laptop with an elegant and ultrathin design. This laptop impresses you with its wide color options (9) and gives you a premium hand on experience. It comes with a glossy finish and with a strong body, you might find it durable as well.
SEAMLESS CONNECTIVITY OPTIONS There are enough connectivity options in AVITA Pura laptop for modern-day techsavvy consumers. On the right side of the laptop, you get a Full-Sized HDMI port, USB 3.0 Type-A port, USB 3.0 Type C port and a charging point to connect the power cable. On the other side, you get a USB 3.0 Type-A port, 3.5 mm headphone jack and a Micro SD Card Slot with which you can expand storage up to 256GB. These connectivity options help you to effortlessly connect and manage the other devices with AVITA Pura laptop.
COMPACT KEYBOARD AND ULTRA-RESPONSIVE TOUCHPAD When we talk about the keyboard, it is a very essential part of any laptop that is why you must give extra consideration to the keyboard while purchasing Laptop. If you often face trouble while typing on the big sized keyboards then you will definitely have a better keyboard experience with AVITA Pura as it comes with a compact keyboard. With the keys made with suitable size, the typing becomes too easy on this laptop. Moreover, the touchpad of this laptop helps you carry on your work effortlessly.
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The ultra-responsiveness of the touchpad intensifies the user experience.
DISPLAY AND AUDIO The display has a very important role to play when you seek value for money laptop. AVITA Pura has a 14” FHD display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. If you love to watch videos in 4K quality then it meets your expectations as it supports 4K videos. We had a quite nice viewing experience on this laptop and we must say that it provides an incredible experience when you watch high-quality 4K videos on it. Also, the audio output is very smooth as well as powerful. And a very important thing about its display is that it comes with 178 degrees Wide Viewing Angle which helps you to clearly see the content over the display from side angles. The AVITA Pura laptop comes with 0.8W dual speakers that produce outstanding sound to compliment the great display.
ROBUST PERFORMANCE AVITA Pura laptop is built upon AMD R53500U Processor which is probably one of the most suitable processors for high-end computing. AMD’s processor boosts the efficiency of this laptop and enhances the gaming experience for gaming enthusiasts. Moreover, with Vega 8 Graphics, you can have a great computing experience on AVITA Pura. These powerful specifications are totally amazing under this category for consumers, especially youth. For the operating system, you get Pre-Loaded Windows 10 Home that ensures a seamless user experience for you. If we talk about its battery, then you do not
need to worry as the laptop gives you up to 7 hours of battery backup in one charge. During our testing, the performance of the laptop was quite pleasing and the battery provided about 5-7 hours of backup which is very good.
PRICING & AVAILABILITY AVITA Pura laptop comes in 8 GB DDR 4 RAM and 512 GB SSD Storage Option. The price of this laptop is ₹ 32,990 Rupees and it comes with 18 Months Standard Warranty. This is one of the good laptop currently available in the Indian market in this budget segment. AVITA Pura is available both offline and online. You can buy it from the e-commerce platform Flipkart.
DT VERDICT AVITA Pura Laptop is a very good laptop and we used this laptop for around 1 week. During this period, its performance was very good and we did not see any flaw in it. Generally, we see that after 2-3 hours of continuous use, laptops start heating up a lot, but there was no such problem in this laptop. All Because of its Powerful Graphics and Processor. There is one cons, if you are having high storage requirement you will have to use micro SD card option or external storage device to increase the data storage option. But if you have basic requirements, then internal storage is quite enough for your usages. Apart from this, Pura laptop may be your best companion for all your work. Based on our usages and review during these days, we are really impressed with its performance and we give this laptop 4 stars out of 5.
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Premium Lifestyle Laptops Performance meets Style. FHD IPS anti-glare display for comfortable viewing experience and wide-angle view.
Slim and Light build for prompt portability.
10th generation processor for ultrafast and dynamic performance.
Top up camera for better perspective and a bigger screen size.
LIBER V Rediscover Innovation
PURA SIMPLE. SENSIBLE. SASSY
Thin & light design for easy handling.
Slim and light build for easy mobility. Lightning fast SSD for brisk performance.
FHD Touchscreen for interactive innovation. Extended battery life for prolonged performance. 2-in-1 mode (Detachable Keyboard) for work and play.
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FHD IPS bezel-less display for immersive visuals. Extended battery life for unstoppable functioning.
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