DT Year Book 2018

YEAR BOOK 2018 A HAND BOOK FOR ENTIRE IT BUSINESS

P O W E R E D BY

LIVA One

LIVA X CPU Memory Storage

CPU Intel® Baytrail SoC 2GB / 4GB DDR3L eMMC 32GB/64GB mSATA for SSD

Memory Storage

LIVA ZE CPU Memory Storage

Supports Intel® 6th & 7th Gen CPUs LGA 1151 Socket (TDP 35W) 2 x SO-DIMM DDR4 1 x M.2 SSD 1 x 2.5” HDD/SDD

LIVA Q

Intel® Apollo Lake SoC 2x SO-DIMM DDR3L eMMC 32GB/64GB 1 x M.2 for SSD 1 x SATA 2.5" HDD

CPU Memory Storage

Intel® Apollo Lake SOC LPDDR4 2GB/4GB eMMC 64GB/32GB

All LIVA products come with Gigabit Lan, Bluetooth & Wifi, Dual Display output*, USB Ports as minimum specification.

LIVA is the Synonym of New Generation PC. Desktop

Laptop LIVA X Power Consumption

Power Saving Consumes only 1/10th the power of conventional desktop

For further details contact

Rajshekhar Bhatt

Power Extension

OS Pre Installed

WiFi streaming options to extend facility

+91 9820357713

Supports Win 7*/ 8.1/10

bhattrajshekhar@ecs.com.tw

VESA Mount support Space saving more lifestyle

Tiny In Size, Big In Performance

DIGITAL INDIA MAKING NEWS GLOBALLY FOR ITS EXPONENTIAL OUTCOMES

12 30

CONTENT

Shri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister

ICT MARKET PERFORMED WELL IN POST DEMONETIZATION & GST ERA

TOP 9 TECHNOLOGY

WORLD IN 2018

DIGITAL TERMINAL

YEAR BOOK

50 DIGITAL TERMINAL

TRENDS TO CHANGE THE

2018

28 LAUNCH PAD

122

TOP INDIAN ICT BRANDS

Publisher & editor : Rajeev Ranjan Executive editor : Jyoti Janda Vsualiser : Akriti Arora Senior Graphic Designer : Abdhesh Kumar Jha

110

Marketing & Editorial Office 179-A, 4th Floor, Jeevan Nagar, Maharani Bagh, New Delhi - 110014 Email : info@digitalterminal.in, Website : www.digitalterminal.in

Graphic Designer : Jasvinder Singh Administrator Head : Neha Editorial Co-ordinator : Jai Prakash Co-ordinator : Rashmi Production Head : Rajiv Singh Marketing Executive : Balvinder Singh

Image Source: There are few pictures in this book which has been used from www.freepik.com. We don’t claim copyright of such images as these are own freepik.com and they have the complete copyright of these images.

There are also certain images used from google & other websites for which we don’t claim the copyright of images. Even the various logos used are property of their respective companies, who are the actual owner of those logos and holds the intellectual property right for them.

Circulation : Gopal Kumar RNI No. DELENG/2010/31992

Printed, Published and Owned by Rajeev Ranjan from S-560, IInd Floor, School Block-2, Shakarpur, Delhi-92. Magazine printed at Sangat Printers, Naraina Industrial Area, Phase I, New Delhi. Editor Brajesh Kumar. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any manner, is prohibited. Every possible care has been taken to print this magazine as the content have been sourced from in house writers, as well from other reliable sources including freelancers and content writers. We can not be held responsible for any mistakes or errors. We do not take responsibility for its absolute accuracy. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Delhi only.

6

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

www.digitalterminal.in

33 - Tenda 55 - Microtek 69 - Bitdefender 81 - Linksys 91 - Rapoo 95 - Soundbot

18

UY

B

www.digitalterminal.in

13 - Marg ERP 15 - Seagate 17 - D-Link 19 - ESY 21 - Kingston 25 - Smartlink

T

ADVERTISEMENT INDEX

02 & 03 - Dell 04 - ECS 05 - Acer 09 - Sophos 10 - Abacus 11 - SanDisk

122 BES

2018

WORLD’S TOP 30 HIGHEST PAID CEOs

20

ROADMAP

106

T

S

CHANNEL

36 Nikunj Murukutla, Dell 37 Anil Sethi, Dell EMC 38 Chandrahas Panigrahi, Acer 40 Bob Yang, Seagate 42 Sunil Sharma, Sophos 44 Vishal Parekh, Kingston 46 Sudhir Singh, Marg ERP 48 Tushar Sighat, D-Link 50 Dr. VP Sajeevan, ESY India 52 Kuldeep Malhotra, Konica Minolta 54 Manoj Jain, Microtek 56 Rajshekhar Bhatt, ECS 58 Khalid Wani, Western Digital 60 Sunil Grewal, Gigabyte 62 Frank Rao, Tenda 64 Nidhi Markanday, Intex 66 Rajesh Goenka, Rashi Peripherals 68 Zakir Hussain Rangwala, BD Software 70 Bijoy Alaylo, TP-Link 71 Lynn Wang, TP-Link 72 Vipul Modi, Abacus Peripherals 73 Sanjay Kalirona, COMIO 74 Sanjay Parikh, Sterlite 75 Shrenik Bhayani, Kaspersky 76 Rajesh Doshi, Zebronics 78 Tejas Goenka, Tally Solution 79 Deepak Kabu, Ziox Mobile 80 Prabu Subramanian, Linksys 83 Gaurav Dureja, Ambrane 84 Rajesh Gupta, Busy Infotech 85 Gopal Pansari, Savera Digital 86 Marthesh Nagendra, Netgear 87 Vikram Mehta, VR Infotech 88 Ravi Lakshman, Sakri 89 Satish Mantri, Sakri 90 Mukesh Chaudhary, Rapoo 92 Arati Naik, Digisol 94 Govind Rammurthy, eScan 96 Navin Sharma, Portronics 98 Altaf Ansari, PhotoFast 99 Jagannath Patnaik, NNR IT 100 Sudip De, Doel 102 Sunil Srivastava, Sarani 104 Sumeet Kela, Netprotector

PRODUC

134 136

BRAND FOCUS

SOUNDBOT

137 India’ Top 15 Emerging Distributors

97 - Portronics 101 - Doel 103 - Sarani 105 - Netprotector 115 - Ambrane 121 - Zebronics

133 - ESET/Sakri 139 - TP-Link 141 - Kaspersky 142 - Konica Minolta 143 - Gigabyte 144 - Canon

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

7

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

“IT’S BEEN AN EVENTFUL BUSINESS YEAR FOR DT”

DT successfully concluded eight years of successful journey in year 2017. With this New Year we all have geared up to celebrate DT’s 9th Anniversary. It’s been 9 successful years we started this journey in the year 2009 with a mission to serve the ICT industry.

This is not only our success but it’s you all who deserve the appreciation in making this possible. This successful journey is a landmark achievement which could have not possible without unconditional support from all stakeholder. The publication remains pioneer in delivering accurate information and true news to all our readers through its print or digital platform.

It’s been an eventful business year for DT as well. We executed many events in this calendar year and came much closer to key vendors and channel partners. Our flagship events like DT Awards, DT Partner Summit and DT Conclave energises vendors and partners relationship. As a trade publication, we are truly committed to keep working with all stakeholders and provide best platform and environment for overall growth of ICT community. As major policy changes already occurred in the passing year, we are very much sure to have great year for all of us. GST is already here and we all have accepted this as a positive move by our government. Uniform tax system is a boon for manufacturers, brands and partners in our industry as it started helping us in having centralised inventory and one tax across country. Apart from this, result of Digital India mission is also encouraging for the industry as we all are contributing towards this as a key stakeholder.

There is also positive growth in Make In India projects as manufacturing has grown in good numbers. Most of you already started this vision and I am sure in coming days, we may see other brands too follow the same way this year. Cyber security is also one area where government is facing stiff challenge especially securing ADHAR data. Yet government has taken all major to secure these data of Indian citizen. Continuing our mission to bring all required information for ICT industry, we again came up with 2018 edition of DT Year Book. We are really thankful to all stakeholders who extended their support in bringing this Handbook for ICT industry.

I wish you a Very Happy Business Year 2018.

RAJEEV RANJAN PUBLISHER & EDITOR

FOREWORD

“VENDOR SUPPORT DURING GST MIGRATION DESERVES APPRECIATION” We are again pleased to bring next edition of DT Year Book, which has become a complete Handbook for IT Business in India. Through DT Handbook, we aim to bring best required information for channel partners and vendors at the starting of new calendar year. Continuing with the legacy of bringing best from our all resources, DT YEAR BOOK 2018 is here again to set the business tone and growth plans for channel partners. I am sure, you all must be waiting for next edition of Year Book, which has become unique and innovative platform for ICT community.

This edition has brought lots of hope and excitement for ICT market as year 2017 saw a moderate growth despite two big challenges. Impact of demonetisation was felt till first quarter whereas second quarter saw the slow moment of products during transition phase of GST compliances.

Partners and vendors played very safe during these months which resulted in less market demand. One thing we should appreciate about vendors that all of them extended their full support during GST migration. They came up with plans to help channel in clearing stocks and even they agreed to compensate partners in some cases. This excellent bonding between us really worked and in second half, market started picking up. Festive season brought cheers for industry as consumer segment did well in that quarter.

Overall the year ended on positive note, with a hope and excitement to do much better business volume in year 2018.

This edition analyses the reports on key market segment by disclosing the market share for each brands. Enduring their mission, HP remains number one player in PC market whereas in Inkjet printer segment, Epson gained top position from HP. Still HP remains undisputed market leader in laser segment. The entire story on market growth report will give you holistic opinion on overall performance and growth of key players in India.

This edition also compiles the report card of Digital India mission of our Honourable PM Modi. The result is really encouraging for all of us as we all are stakeholder in making India, a Digital Power. The issue is a combination of technology trends, feature stories, interviews, reports, rankings, lists and many more, which surly promises to empower you for excellent business planning in 2018.

JYOTI JANDA EXECUTIVE EDITOR

8

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

www.digitalterminal.in

Everything you need to know to stop ransomware.

Know Your Enemy Ransomware is a $1 billion dollar business that often evades traditional anti-malware.

Stop Ransomware Now Sophos InterceptX is proven to stop ransomware in its track by blocking unauthorized encryption of files.

Stop Ransomware with Sophos Intercept X The proven CryptoGuard capabilities in Sophos Intercept X block ransomware as soon as it starts trying to encrypt your files, returning data to its original state: • Protects endpoints from ransomware attacks • Automatically rolls back encrypted file changes with no loss of data • Stops both local and remote file encryption • Also available for windows server Also available are, our wide range of network and endpoint products that can secure businesses of all sizes. Contact our team for your FREE demo today!

For more details visit www.sophos.com Tel: +91 79 66216838 Email: indiamarketing@sophos.com

© Copyright 2017. Sophos Ltd. All rights reserved.

12

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

www.digitalterminal.in

DIGITAL INDIA REPORT CARD

T

he Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), as a key ministry under the Government of India and the enabler of Digital India programme, has undertaken numerous revolutionary initiatives in the area of IT/ ITeS and electronic manufacturing that have put India on the global map and went on to become case studies for the reputed Universities across the globe.

Having covered over 99% of the adult population of the country through the unique identity Aadhaar, the country is now looking at embracing the second phase of Digital India.

The year saw a 27% jump in the investment on electronic manufacturing where the total volume of investment reached 1.57 lakh crore in 2017 vis-à-vis 1.43 lakh crore in 2016; this was only 11,000 crore in 2014. There has been almost 60% rise on the production of mobile phones to reach 17.5 crore units vis-s-vis 11 crore units last year, adding 4 lakh direct and indirect jobs in the sector; this was only 6 crore units in 2014-15. Digital transactions witnessed a growth of over 300% during this year.

In 2017, the Government of India has introduced many propeople IT initiatives that have transformed the governance system for good. Some of the key initiatives that were pushed forward included India BPO Promotion Scheme, Software Procurement Policy for faster delivery and effective monitoring of services, Tele-Law through CSCs to Mainstream Legal Aid in Rural India, amongst others. The CSCs (Common Services Centers) have been effectively used to reach out to the last miles and bridge the gaps between urban and rural sector, between digital haves and have-nots.

Enlisted below are some of the data points that substantiate the country’s march towards a robust digital economy:

• The Mobile Phone Revolution: Today India is home to 121 Crore Mobile Phone users, compared to 103 crore in 2016.

• Smartphone Users: The number of smart-phone users have grown from 30 crore in 2016 to 40 crore in 2017 • Internet Users: The number of internet users have grown from 40 crore in 2016 to 50 crore in 2017 • GROWTH IN MOBILE PHONE MANUFACTURING:

Jump of 60% in terms of units made.

Manufacturing of mobile phones has reached 17.5 Crore units in 2016-17 from 11 crore in 2015-16.

105 mobile/ ancillary manufacturing units

Created 4 lakh direct and indirect jobs since 2014 of which 2.4 lakh added in 2017

14

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

www.digitalterminal.in

DIGITAL INDIA REPORT CARD

• Investment in Electronic Manufacturing:

Investment in Electronic Manufacturing

2016

2017

% Growth

MSIPS: Number of proposals

217

242

11.5%

MSIPS: Investment involved

1.23 lakh crore

1.57 Lakh crore

27%

• Growth in Digital Payments: There has been a significant growth in various forms of digital payment due to initiatives taken by the Government in the aftermath of demonetization.

The trend can be explained through the following table:

16

Sl No.

Mode

8th Nov 2016

18th Oct, 2017

1

BHIM/ UPI

4000/ day

25.6 lakh/ day

2

Mobile Wallets

22 lakh/ day

88.43 lakh/ day

3

Debit Cards

40 lakh/ day

82 lakh/ day

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

www.digitalterminal.in

DIGITAL INDIA REPORT CARD • Aadhaar: With an objective to empower residents of India with a unique identity and a digital platform to authenticate anytime, anywhere, Aadhaar today is the world’s largest biometrics based digital identity system. Total number of Aadhaar account holders reached 119 Crore in 2017 compared to 104 Crore in 2016. Aadhaar is being used as a digital platform to enhance governance.

Other noteworthy achievements:

Progress of Aadhaar: Sl. No.

Items

Status as per 2016

Status as per 2017

1

Total Number of Aadhaar Generated

104 crore

119 Crore

2

Percentage of Adult Population 86.6% on Aadhaar

99.9%

Total Mobile SIMs issued using Aadhaar eKYC

32 Crore

3

• Jeevan Pramaan: It is an Aadhaar based platform for biometric authentication of the pensioners and senior citizens. Since its launch on 10 November 2014, over 150.15 lakh pensioners have registered on the portal till date, which was 16.54 lakh in 2016.

Implemented from September, 2016.

e-Taal registers 4.5 crores transactions per day which grew from 2.07 crore in 2016 thereby integrating over 3506 e-Services.

• Common Services Centres (CSCs): CSCs are the world’s largest digital service delivery network. These • Digital Locker System (DigiLocker): DigiLocker, launched information and communication technology enabled in July 2016, serves as a platform to enable citizens to kiosks with broadband connectivity has been providing securely store and share their documents with service various governments, private and social services at the providers electronically after giving due permission. doorsteps of citizen.

So far, over 197 crore document have been placed in DigiLocker enabling access to over 88 lakh users. For the Today, around 2.7 lakh CSCs are active and offering first time both CBSE 10th Class results and NEET Results digital services like Aadhaar enrolment, Ticket booking, of utilities and other eGovernance services to citizens were also sent digitally into Digital Locker. from 1.68 Lakh Gram Panchayets, which was only 2.29 • Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) through Aadhaar Payment Lakh 2016.

Bridge (APB): A total of Rs. 2.43 Lakh Crore have been disbursed through Aadhaar based DBT to beneficiaries • MyGov: This is a citizen-centric digital collaboration of 394 government schemes which have led to saving of platform that empowers people to connect with the Rs. 57,000 Crore in the last 3 years by removing fictitious Government & contribute towards good governance. claimants. Through this process a total of 2.33 Cr. bogus Started on July 26th 2014 and with a modest 8.74 lakh ration cards and 3 crore fake LPG connections were users in the first year, today MyGov has over 50 lakh active users under 64 groups who contribute their ideas identified through 756 discussion groups and participate through • e-Taal (Electronic Transaction Aggregation & Analysis 701 earmarked tasks, that has grown from 36 lakh active Layer): There has been a stupendous growth in users in 2016. e-Transactions in various e-Governance services. Today, ( Data / Content Source: PIB ) 18

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

• India BPO Promotion Scheme: 18,160 seats of BPO already allocated.

Another 13822 sect allocation nearing finalisation

• Jan Dhan Accounts: 30 Crore • Jan Suraksha Schemes Registrations: 15 Crore • MUDRA: 9 lakh people got Rs. 4 lakh Crores of loan • Soil Health Card: 9.5 Crore cards made • eNAM: 50 lakh registered farmers; 455 Agri Markets linked • National Scholarship Portal: 1.4 Crore students registered • GeM: 4600 byers, 14,512 sellers registered ( Data / Content Source: PIB ) www.digitalterminal.in

ICT MARKET PERFORMED WELL IN POST DEMONETIZATION & GST ERA Year 2017 saw huge challenges in the history of business so far. Demonetisation being the bigger one which halted the growth trend due to cash crunch especially in first quarter. GST implementation was another challenge which again impacted product movement across country.

The partners became very cautious about the stocks as they were in the middle of this transition period.

Even vendors played safe game along with partners to minimize the impact of GST. But despite these bigger challenges, market bounced back in second half as we observed boost in overall demand across all verticals.

The last quarter remained very interesting as few players managed to grab much more market share and performed quite well. Whereas for some vendors, this year was not good at all as they lost their leading position in Indian market. DT here brings the overall market analysis and vendor market share based on IDC reports across all product segment.

20

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

www.digitalterminal.in

ICT MARKET REPORT

PC MARKET

HP LEADS INDIAN TRADITIONAL PC MARKET WITH 31.1% MARKET SHARE The overall India traditional PC shipments for Q3 2017 stood at 3.03 million units, with a strong growth of 72.3 percent quarteron-quarter (QoQ) and 20.5 percent over the same period last year according to IDC’s latest Quarterly Personal Computing Devices Tracker November 2017. Even after excluding large education projects of over 10,000 units, the market still grew 10.9 percent year-on-year (YoY).

SEGMENT HIGHLIGHTS The consumer PC market was 1.51 million units in Q3 2017, which is 9.5 percent higher compared to the same period last year and a growth of 85.4 percent QoQ. Seasonality and online festive sales drove positive consumer spending throughout the quarter despite declining consumer sentiment on the back of low employment opportunities, income and price levels.

The commercial PC market registered 1.52 million units in Q3 2017. Large education projects improved the commercial PC market share from 45.2 percent a year ago to 50.2percent in Q3 2017. Special education projects in states like Tamil Nadu, Assam, etc. along with pumped-up demand from SMBs after the implementation of the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) has led to growth in Q3.

TOP 4 COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS: 1 HP INC.: HP Inc. maintained its leadership position in the overall India traditional PC market with 31.1 percent share in Q3 2017. HP Inc. recorded a healthy 30.2 percent growth YOY due to a state-owned education project along with strong consumer demand. HP Inc. offered partner-focused, consultative training to address SMBs with new GST-ready solutions which was coupled with invoicing software by KPMG.

2 LENOVO: Lenovo took the second spot, with a 24.1 percent market share in the overall India traditional PC market in Q3 2017.

The consumer PC business grew at an encouraging 30.9 percent YOY, with a focus on expanding online and modern retail channels. Excluding special projects, the company grew by 5.4 percent year on year, aided by GST-ready machines along with increased and spill over spending from enterprises across verticals.

3 DELL: Dell slipped to third position with 20.0 percent market share in overall Indian traditional PC market in Q3 2017. The company saw a growth of 226.3 percent quarter on quarter in overall consumer segment as it rebounded from stock unavailability during the latter half of Q2 2017. But this was still a YOY decline of 2.6 percent in Q3 2017. Commercial volumes declined YOY by 3.5 percent despite spending from its key enterprise accounts along with a large number of back to back orders spilled over from the previous quarter.

22

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

4

ACER: Acer bagged 4th spot in this list securing 10.8% market share in the overall Indian traditional PC market in Q3 2017. This year has been very good for Acer in terms of increasing market share and reaching to more customers by establishing strong channel base and retail stores across country

www.digitalterminal.in

LENOVO CONTINUES TO DOMINATE INDIA TABLET MARKET WITH 26% MARKET SHARE According to International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker, 1.1 million tablets were shipped in India in Q3 2017 with a healthy 46 percent growth from the previous quarter and a marginal 3 percent growth from the same period last year.

Recently launched Tablet Scheme by Gujarat government namely NAMO Tablet Scheme for the college students, was the key driver for the growth within education and government verticals which contributed to the overall commercial growth in Q3 2017. The shipment in the commercial segment almost tripled from the same time last year and crossed the consumer shipments for the first time in India.

After experiencing continuous decline from last

three quarters, consumer shipment witnessed a sequential growth of 24 percent in Q3 2017 and the major contributor to this growth was ongoing lucrative online offers during the festive seasons.

According to Celso Gomes, Associate Market Analyst, Client Devices, IDC India, “In the current market scenario where there is rise in demand for phablets, the replacement cycle for tablets have only lengthened. What helps Tablet as a category to stay relevant is the subsidized or free tablet distribution schemes by state governments to promote use of connected devices across educational institutions. Also, key tablet vendors are aggressively pushing slates to microfinance, food services, and healthcare companies to digitalize their customer interaction points.”

1 LENOVO: Lenovo continues to dominate the India tablet market with 26.0 percent market share as its shipment grew 73.7 percent over the previous quarter. This was majorly attributed to the vendor’s strong presence in the commercial segment, which accounted for 85 percent of its total shipments in Q3 2017. Lenovo also introduced new models in the Tab 4 series primarily targeting a wider audience with its refreshed product line.

2 ACER Acer debuted at the second position on account of an educational project, which accounted for over 90 percent of its total shipments in Q3 2017. The vendor’s shift from consumer to commercial segment helped the vendor to increase its shipments into manifolds in the third quarter of this year.

www.digitalterminal.in

ICT MARKET REPORT

TABLET MARKET

3 SAMSUNG: Samsung slipped to third place as its shipments grew with a marginal 2.9 percent sequential growth in Q3 2017. However, vendor registered a healthy double-digit growth in its consumer segment and Galaxy J Max continues to be the top-selling model for the vendor.

IBALL:

4

iBall continues to lock on to fourth place as shipments witnessed an increase of 25.8 percent sequentially in Q3 2017. Pre-Diwali sales helped the vendor to register a healthy 45 percent sequential growth in its consumer segment. In addition, the vendor also made a comeback in the US$300-US$350 with the launch of its Windows-based detachable tablet in the month of September.

DATAWIND:

5

Datawind further drops to the fifth position as its market share dropped by five percentage points and shipments grew marginally by 1.6 percent from the previous quarter. Datawind’s limited focus on commercial segment and longer refresh cycle are making it difficult for the vendor to make a comeback in the saturated consumer market.

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

23

ICT MARKET REPORT

SMARTPHONE MARKET

XIAOMI BECOMES NO 1 SMARTPHONE BRAND IN INDIA

24

The smartphone shipments in India reached a record high of 39 million units in 2017 Q3 with a substantial growth of 40 percent from the previous quarter and a healthy 21 percent growth from the same period last year as per International Data Corporation’s (IDC) latest Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Q3 2017.

of multiple round of online sales following upto festival months in India. However, it is gradually becoming an integral part of the omni-channel strategy for almost all vendors with online exclusive model launches and partnerships with e-tailers during these sales,” adds Singh.

This has led to several firsts for the India smartphone market. One, the India smartphone shipments accounted for 10 percent of the global smartphone shipments for the first time ever in a quarter. Two, the overall mobile phone registered a 30 percent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) growth, highest sequential growth ever in India with more than 80 million of mobile phone shipments in the third quarter of 2017.

The competition amongst the top five vendors further intensified to capture a larger share of 72 percent of the smartphone market compared to 50 percent a year ago. Samsung and Xiaomi led the smartphone market in the quarter with each having 24 percent market share. Xiaomi’s aggressive pricing made the brand a clear winner in selling devices on eTailers and direct internet platform. The brand’s offline expansion through preferred partner program and mi stores is also getting a good response as its shipments doubled from the last quarter.

The e-tailers’ several rounds of online festivals and sales in the month of August and September led to robust growth in the smartphone category. Thirteen million smartphones were billed to e-tailers with 35 percent annual growth and 73 percent growth from the previous quarter. Also, Xiaomi’s sales through its website continued its growth and helped boost the share of overall online channel from 32 percent to 37 percent compared to a year ago.

“In the coming few quarters, both Samsung and Xiaomi would need to further strengthen their channel play and significantly differentiate their products on technology and quality to sustain and fight for leadership in this hyper competitive smartphone market,” says Upasana Joshi, Senior Analyst, IDC India.

eTailers have popularized many trends in the Indian smartphone market, like making devices more affordable through easy financing options, attractive exchange offers on existing smartphones. On the back of fresh infusion of funds and focus on India market, the eTailers are expected to remain aggressive in 2018 as well.” says Jaipal Singh, Senior Analyst, IDC India.”Online channel in India sees a seasonal spike peaking in Q3 on the back

Raising concern on upcoming offline trend Joshi adds, “The offline channels were enjoying good growth in the past few quarters due to high retail spend by Chinabased vendors to create pull for their brands. But now, when the channel margins and incentives are getting normalised and few other previously online heavy vendors are getting aggressive in offline, the fight for the retail shelf space is expected to further intensify.”

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

VENDOR HIGHLIGHT: Samsung is tied with Xiaomi as the leading brand. However, this quarter has been a record breaking quarter for Samsung after they registered 39 percent sequential growth QoQ and 23 percent year-on-year (YOY). Galaxy J2, Galaxy J7 Nxt, and GalaxyJ7 Max were the key models that contributed to almost 60 percent of Samsung’s volume.

Xiaomi almost tripled its shipments YOY and doubled QoQ in 2017Q3 as vendor increased its focus on the traditional channel for marketing its products. Redmi Note 4 continues to be the best-selling smartphone in India as Xiaomi shipped approximately 4 million units in this quarter.

Lenovo (including Motorola) made it back to the third position after two quarters as its shipments increased 83 percent from the previous quarter. A couple of new launches under the Motorola brand reversed its internal brand share and now Motorola contributes to two-third of its portfolio.

Vivo slipped to fourth position as its shipments declined after a record breaking second quarter, although registered a healthy 153 percent annual growth. Vendor started to bounce back from September onwards as its newly launched V7 Plus and Y69 gained strong initial traction in the market.

OPPO had the biggest sell-in quarter so far in India as vendor shipments increased by 40 percent sequentially and 81 percent from same period last year. Vendor share also noticeably increased as it started participating in the eTailers platform to sell its devices.

www.digitalterminal.in

ICT MARKET REPORT

NETWORKING MARKET

D-LINK REGAINS LEADERSHIP POSITION IN OVERALL WLAN MARKET IN INDIA India networking market which includes Ethernet switch, routers and WLAN segments witnessed a significant year-on-year (YoY) growth of 15.8 percent in Q3 2017 due to increased spending from both enterprise and service providers segments.

According to IDC’s latest Asia/Pacific Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker, Q3 2017, the Ethernet Switch market in India witnessed a significant YoY growth of 18.4 percent in Q3 2017 and stood at USD 119.0 million (by vendor revenue). Majority of the growth was driven by telecommunications, banking, professional services and government in Q3 2017. ADC (Application Delivery Controller) saw a significant YoY growth due to increased spending from telecom and professional services verticals in Q3 2017.

Cisco continued its dominance in the Ethernet Switch market due to increased spending from telecommunications and banking verticals in Q3 2017, followed by HPE and D-Link. Vendors such as Arista and Nokia witnessed a strong triple-digit growth in Q3 2017.

INDIA ROUTER MARKET Q3 2017 Per IDC’s latest Asia/Pacific Quarterly Router Tracker, Q3 2017 the Router market in India witnessed a YoY growth of 30.6 percent in Q3 2017

26

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

and stood at USD 89.4 million (by vendor revenue).

Telecommunications, professional services and government continued to be the key contributors in Q3 2017. Majority of the growth came from High-end router segment due to increased spending from service providers on 4G and VoLTE roll-outs in this space. Other than spending from the telecommunications sector, government initiatives around BharatNet and State datacenter refresh projects would also contribute to further investments in India.

Cisco continued to lead the router market in Q3 2017, due to significant uptake from telecommunication players. Nokia emerged as the second-best vendor due to couple of multimillion dollars deals in telecommunication vertical in Q3 2017.

INDIA WLAN MARKET Q3 2017 Per IDC’s latest Asia/Pacific Quarterly WLAN Tracker, the WLAN market in India stood at USD 46.9 million (by vendor revenue) in Q3 2017 or a decline of 8.9 percent compared to Q3 2016. Consumer and Service providers segment witnessed significant drop YoY in Q3 2017 while Enterprise segment continued to show resilience and grew by 12.9% YoY in Q3 2017. Smart city initiatives and wifi hotspots in central universities are big ticket investments seen in the market. In terms of technology cloud-based

controller technologies is becoming mainstream with multiple vendors offering solutions in this space.

D-Link regained number one position from Cisco in the overall WLAN market they have 24.1% market share in Q3 2017. Cisco, HPE and Ruckus (renamed asBrocade) dominate the enterprise WLAN market segment. D-Link, TP-Link and Netgear are the top three vendors in the consumer WLAN market segment. Indian market continues to see entry of new players with differentiated solutions and is expected to challenge entrenched players in the market.

Sharyathi Nagesh , Senior Research Manager, Enterprise Infrastructure says, “ Even though overall WLAN market has degrown, enterprise segment has shown resilience and grown consistently QoQ. Consumer WLAN segment was impacted significantly even though Q3 was festive season. Enterprise segment is consolidating around few players and the key drivers here has been the differentiated offerings and end to end solutions. Consumer segment is still driven by traditional channels and online sales were not very encouraging in Q3 2017.”

www.digitalterminal.in

EPSON OVERTOOK HP AS LEADER IN INKJET PRINTER MARKET IN INDIA According to the latest IDC Asia Pacific Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker, May 2017, the HCP* market in India registered a 0.5 percent year-onyear (YoY) growth for the first time in six quarters after unit shipment reached 799,164 in 2017 Q1.

The actual numbers for 2017 Q1 are in line with the IDC forecast numbers with only 1% variance in Inkjet HCP and 2% variance in the Laser HCP market.

Ink Tank Printers constitute the lion’s share in the Inkjet market which contributed to Epson’s capturing no.1 LASER HCP* (COPIER - BASED) MARKET position in the category. “Demand from SMEs in smaller cities/towns and home consumers continued to be • Copier market saw a QoQ growth of 45.9 percent after a soft the driving force behind growth of Ink 2016Q4 with demonetization affecting the jobbers segment and Tank Printers shipments in 2017Q1.” low government spending says Abhishek Mukherjee, Senior • Kyocera shot up to the No.1 spot with a market share of 26.8 Market Analyst, IDC India. percent with a YOY growth of 22.8 percent.

INKJET HCP* MARKET

www.digitalterminal.in

ICT MARKET REPORT

• The market overall was robust with the top 3 vendors posting doubledigit growth. HP and Canon posted 11 percent and 13.6 percent YoY growth, respectively.

After demonetization affected 2016 Q4, the printer market bounced back in 2017 Q1 with the inkjet market leading the way with a 15.4 percent growth YOY. Over the past 12 months, the Indian HCP market has witnessed a significant technology shift, with customers showing an ever-increasing inclination towards ink tank printers over entry level laser printers. The main reason behind this shift is the low cost of printing (starting from as low as 7 paise for black and white (B&W) and 18 LASER HCP* (PRINTER paise for color printout) and in-box high page yield BASED) MARKET ink bottles available in the market. There was also a significant marketing push from vendors, which • Laser printer market suffered a resulted in generating high visibility for ink tank decline of 10.2 percent in 2017Q1 compared to 2016Q1. Among the printers. leading vendors, Canon managed to register a growth of 12.6 percent for the same period.

• Epson overtook HP as market leader in terms of unit share for the first time ever after posting a 26.5 percent growth YoY. Epson captured 42.9% of the market while HP had 39.4 percent.

PRINTER MARKET

• HP Inc. continues to be the market leader in laser HCP* with a share of 54.8 percent, followed by Canon and Samsung at the second and third position respectively.

“Laser printer based market continues to face challenges although in 2017Q1 they managed to narrow the shipment gap with inkjet printers quite significantly owing to some good government and corporate deals.” says Manali De Bhaumik, Senior Market Analyst, IDC India.

IDC INDIA FORECAST: “Despite the GST tax slab announcement, some confusion prevails as printers are listed in both 18 and 28 percent respectively.

While the industry waits for clarification on the tax slab, channel partners have already started holding back on inventory stocking, which is likely to bring down the printer shipments in Q2,” says Nishant Bansal, Research Manager (IPDS), IDC India.

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

27

LAUNCH PAD

Canon Thrills Inkjet Market in India with the Launch of Six New PIXMA G Series Printers

Mr. C Sukumaran, Director, Consumer System Products, Canon India, Mr. Kazutada Kobayashi, President & CEO, Canon India, Mr. Sonoda and Mr. Takayanagi and Mr. Eddie Udagawa, Vice President, Consumer Imaging and Information Centre, Canon India, and senior representatives from Canon Inc. unveiling the expansion of Canon’s ink tank printers range by introducing six new PIXMA G Series.

28

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

www.digitalterminal.in

• Canon India closes 2017 with a landmark double digit growth, attributes the success to its partners, customers, employees and the community

• Canon CSP Inkjet Division is aiming to achieve a significant growth with the launch of the new PIXMA G series printers, in the CISS (Continuous Ink Supply Systems) category

• The new PIXMA G series printers offer low cost, high performance printing with improved durability

this launch of the new PIXMA G series printers is another endeavor to provide superior quality printing experience,complimented with low cost, high performance printing with improved durability. We are optimistic that this new line up of products will become an eminent contributor in supporting our vision of doubling our growth this year.”

He further added, “We are proud to have representatives from our head office present amidst us at the launch of the new series. Their presence further amplifies the technological strength of the new models along with testifying the increasing prominence of Canon India in the global map of our organization.”

Mr. Eddie Udagawa, Vice President, Consumer Imaging and Information Centre, Canon India said, “For truly creative photo printing, we offer our customers the world of ‘Canon Creative Park’, an elaborate bank of creative art work and downloadable 3D paper craft materials that enables the users to print a variety of personalized creations. Further enhancing creativity, this launch is being accompanied with a software called Poster Artist Lite, comprising of over 100 free-to-access templates, photos and clip art. This is an optimal tool for home office and small business customers, enabling them to print professional looking creative posters and flyers.”

C

With Canon’s Hybrid ink system the new printers are engineered to achieve high resolution images with incredible photo-quality resulting in vibrant photographs and sharp text documents. The new range of multi-function devices deliver outstanding professional documents, enhancing home and workplace productivity.

Mr. C Sukumaran, Director, Consumer System Products, Canon India, said “Launched in 2015, our PIXMA G series has succeeded in creating a benchmark for itself. Today’s launch is a step ahead in the direction of customer delight and innovation. In today’s constant ‘on the run’ world, it is imperative to empower our customers with the best mobile technology, our new G series among several other features, enables ‘Direct Mobile Printing’, that enables access to printing on the go. Feeding the appetites of businesses with high print volume demands, the new PIXMA G series is enabled to deliver up to 6,000 black-and-white document pages and 7,000 colour document pages on the bundled set of 4 ink bottles. With improved color image quality and high yield and low cost of printing, we are optimistic that the new G series would be significant contributor to our existing growth, in the CISS category.”

Speaking of the latest addition to the organizations’ product portfolio, Mr. Kazutada Kobayashi, President & CEO, Canon India said, “Owing to continuous innovation and enhancement across our product propositions, we have been able to win our customer’s trust over the last two decades. We are glad to announce that we have closed 2017 with a double digit growth, and this success is credited to the constant support of our key stakeholders; including our customers, partners, employees and the community we operate in. Keeping customer delight at the forefront of all our innovations,

Accompanying this launch, Canon India is also announcing interesting consumer promotions on G2000 and G2010 to make this further attractive to home consumers. The G series will be accompanied with new range of Canon photo papers available in several variants. The new G Series printers will be available between the price range of INR 8,195/- to INR 17,425/-.

anon India Pvt. Ltd expands its portfolio with 6 new models, namely G 1010, G 2010, G 2012, G 3010, G 3012, and G 4010, under its popular PIXMA G series. PIXMA G-series printers feature a front-facing, built-in refillable ink tank system, by making it convenient to monitor ink levels and refill when required. Paired with the ink bottle’s spill-resistant tops, the system is designed to provide seamless and clean usability at home and office. Printer durability is also improved, allowing high volume printing businesses to enjoy reduced downtime.

www.digitalterminal.in

LAUNCH PAD

About New Printers:

PIXMA G4010: The powerhouse of the G series. This wireless multifunction machine combines print, copy, scan and fax functions in a compact body. A 20-sheet Auto Document Feeder automates batch scan jobs easily, while a two-line LCD display simplifies common copy and scan functions. The printer supports Wi-Fi and can also be operated easily using the Canon Print Inkjet/SELPHY print and scan application.

PIXMA G3010, PIXMA G3012 (With additional ink bottles): The G3010 is the ideal printer for homes and small businesses. This multifunction printer copies, prints from, and scans easily to mobile phones, tablets and laptops over Wi-Fi. A 1.2 inch segment LCD display delivers on the basics such as making multiple document copies easy, and also enhances ease of use for a variety of printer configuration options without a PC, including Wi-Fi Setup. The printer also supports direct wireless connection to mobile devices and tablets without a router.

PIXMA G2010, PIXMA G2012 (With additional ink bottles): The G2010 delivers on high volume printing needs for users of connected PCs. A 1.2 inch segment LCD panel, similar to that on the G3010, makes it easy to execute multiple copy or scan jobs.

PIXMA G1010: For users and businesses with high volume printing needs, the G1010 is the ultimate low-cost solution.

Crisp text and solid colors show up in every document printout, and photos printed with the G1010 display bright and vivid colors every time.

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

29

TOP 9 TECHNOLOGY

TRENDS TO CHANGE THE

WORLD IN 2018 Some tech trends fizzle out and die a quiet death, while others are so significant that they transform our world and how we live in it. Here are the top nine tech mega-trends that we believe will define 2018 and beyond.

1

Source: www.forbes.com Author: Bernard Marr

TREND 1: INCREASING DATAFICATION OF OUR LIVES From chatting to friends in a messaging app or buying a coffee, to tapping in and out with an Oyster card or streaming music, today almost everything we do leaves a trail of data breadcrumbs. And this increasing datafication of our world has led to an unprecedented explosion in data.

Just in the average minute, Facebook receives 900,000 logins, more than 450,000 Tweets are posted, and 156 million emails and 15 million texts are sent. With numbers like that, it’s no wonder we’re essentially doubling the amount of data created in the world roughly every two years.

30

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

www.digitalterminal.in

TREND 2: HOW EVERYDAY DEVICES ARE BECOMING MORE ‘SMART’

2

The IoT – which encompasses smart, connected products like smart phones and smart watches –is a major contributing factor in this exponential increase in data. That’s because all these smart devices are constantly gathering data, connecting to other devices and sharing that data – all without human intervention (your Fitbit synching data to your phone, for instance).

Pretty much anything can be made smart these days.

Our cars are becoming increasingly connected; by 2020, a quarter of a billion cars will be hooked up to the Internet. For our homes, there are obvious smart products like TVs,and less obvious ones, like yoga mats that trackyour Downward Dog. And, of course, many of us have voice-enabled personal assistants like Alexa – another example of an IoT device.

That’s already a lot of devices, but the IoT is just getting started. IHS has predicted there’ll be 75 billion connected devices by 2020.

TREND 3: RACE TO INTRODUCE COMMERCIALLY VIABLE QUANTUM COMPUTER

3

www.digitalterminal.in

TECH TRENDS

None of this incredible growth in data, nor the billions of IoT devices available, would be possible without the enormous leaps in computing power that we’ve made.

Between 1975 and 2015, computing power doubled at a rate of every two years, before slowing to the current rate of approximately every two and a half years.

But we’re reaching the limits of what traditional computing power can handle.

Thankfully, on the horizon, we have quantum computing. Probably the most significant transformation of computing power ever, quantum computing will see computers become millions of times faster than they are right now. Tech leaders are in a race to launch the first commercially viable quantum computer, capable of solving problems that today’s computers can’t handle. Capable, even, of solving problems that we can’t even imagine yet.

4

TREND 4: THE INCREDIBLE RISE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Computers are now able to learn in much the same way as we humans do, and this leap in AI capabilities has been made possible by the massive increases in data and computing power. It’s the incredible explosion in data that has allowed AI to advance so quickly over the last couple of years; the more data an AI system has, the quicker it can learn and the more accurate it becomes.

This huge step forward in AI mean computers can now undertake more and more human tasks. In fact, it’s AI that allows computers to see (e.g. facial recognition software), read (e.g. analyzing social media messages), listen (e.g. Alexa standing by to answer your every command), speak (e.g. Alexa being able to answer you) and gauge our emotions (e.g. affective computing).

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

31

5 TECH TRENDS

TREND 5: JOB RISK DUE TO RISE IN AUTOMATION The more intelligent machines become, the more they can do for us. That means even more processes, decisions, functions and systems can be automated and carried out by algorithms or robots.

Eventually, a wide range of industries and jobs will be impacted by automation. However, for now, the first wave of jobs that machines are taking can be categorized using the four Ds: dull, dirty, dangerous and dear. This means humans will no longer be needed to do the jobs that machines can do faster, safer, cheaper and more accurately.

Beyond the four Ds, machines, robots and algorithms will replace – oraugment – many human jobs, including professional jobs in fields like law or accounting. From truck drivers to bricklayers to doctors, the list of jobs that are likely to be affected by automation is surprising. One estimate reckons that 47 percent of US jobs are at risk of automation.

6

TREND 6: 3D PRINTING OPENS UP AMAZING OPPORTUNITIES Related to increasing automation, the invention of 3D printing is disrupting manufacturing, and other industries, in many positive ways. In traditional (subtractive) manufacturing, objects are cut or hollowed out of material, such as metal, using something like a cutting tool. But in 3D printing (also known as additive manufacturing), the object is created by laying down, or adding, layers of material.

The materials used in 3D printing can be pretty much anything: plastic, metal, concrete, liquid, powder, even chocolate or human tissue!

With 3D printing, far more complex shapes can be created than in traditional manufacturing – and using less material, too. It also allows for much greater customization of products, without worrying about economies of scale.

32

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

www.digitalterminal.in

TECH TRENDS

TREND 7: INTERACTING WITH TECHNOLOGY IN VERY DIFFERENT WAYS

7

The way we interact with technology has changed dramatically in recent years – and is still changing. Thanks to smart phones and tablets, we can carry out a whole range of tasks on the move simply by touching a screen. Mobile web usage has increased to the point where, in 2016, it overtook web usage through traditional computers. Google has also confirmed that searches on mobile devices now outstrip desktop searches.

We’re also talking to our devices, using voice searches via Siri and the like. Estimates suggest that, by 2020, 50 percent of all searches will be voice searches, and around 30 percent will involve no screen whatsoever. As a result, all kinds of businesses are gradually integrating their products with the likes of Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant. For example, Alexa is being integrated into BMWs from 2018.

Virtual reality and augmented reality represent the next huge leap in interface innovation, transforming how businesses interact with customers.

TREND 9: PLATFORMS ARE THE WAY FORWARD FOR BUSINESSES

9

34

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

A platform is essentially a network (digital or physical) that creates value for participants by facilitating connections and exchanges between people for services, products or information. The platform is rarely the actual service provider; instead, it acts as a facilitator for the crowd, making interactions possible, easy, and safe for participants.

Platforms have given rise to businesses like Airbnb, Uber and Amazon, and are also the foundation of what Facebook and Twitter do.

However, platforms offer growth opportunities across all kinds of businesses, industries and sectors – not just tech companies. Even longrunning businesses with more traditional business models, like Ford, are beginning to develop platform strategies.

8 TREND 8: BLOCKCHAINS COULD CHANGE OUR WORLD Blockchain technology is a very practical solution to the problem of storing, authenticating and protecting data. Think of a blockchain as a decentralized, extremely secure database. Or, to get slightly more technical, it’s a distributed, peerto-peer ledger of records. While nothing is ever totally ‘hack-proof’, blockchain represents a huge leap forward compared to our current data security technology as, unlike a centralized database, there’s no one single point of failure.

The records in a blockchain are called ‘blocks’ and every block is connected to the previous block (hence, ‘block’ and ‘chain’). The whole chain is self-managed, which means there’s no one person or organization in charge of the entire chain. If that sounds familiar, it might be because the virtual currency Bitcoin functions on blockchain technology.

Financial services, insurance and healthcare are just some of the sectors where blockchains are likely to be heavily adopted. In fact, 90 percent of major European and North American banks are exploring blockchain solutions.

www.digitalterminal.in

CHANNEL

ROADMAP

2018 Any brand may get temporary success through online platform but sustaining the sales volume in long run completely depends on how strong offline channel network that brand has across India. The importance of traditional channel partners can’t be ignored in our country. The success of brands completely depends on role of traditional channel in India. Indian IT market has great expectations in Year 2018 as historical tax change ‘GST’ has already placed in system now. Partners are looking toward vendors to fuel their growth with channel friendly business plans in year 2018. They expect from Industry leaders to address their concern and prepare a roadmap which will add value to their overall growth. To start the new calendar year on positive note, DT brings ‘Channel Roadmap’ every year for our partners to know vendor’s entire channel & business plans. With the ‘YearBook’, the channel community does have the advantage of knowing and understanding how IT companies and vendors plan to invest in the New Year. Through the interviews of key leaders it is easy to know about their plans, strategies and roadmaps. This time, we are also bringing personal profile & personal agenda of these industry leaders who are real crusader of Indian ICT market.

www.digitalterminal.in

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

35

CHANNE L R OAD M A P

DELL

“PRODUCT INNOVATION IS AT THE CENTER OF OUR BUSINESS” India’s leading brand, Dell has very successful year 2017 as the company enhanced portfolio by introducing excellent machines for different consumer segment. The company also focused on to boost channel relation in tier-2 & 3 cities by building MBO connect portal.

The brand also came aggressive on gaming markets by launching best gaming machines for gamers in India. In an exclusive interaction with DT for its new edition of Year Book, Nikunj Murukutla, Sr. Director- Sales, Dell Consumer and Small Business, Dell India shared company’s overall journey in year 2017 and his upcoming plans for next calendar year.

MR. NIKUNJ MURUKUTLA, SR. DIRECTOR- SALES, DELL CONSUMER AND SMALL BUSINESS, DELL INDIA tier-2 and tier-3 partners, when the tax regime kicked in. Dell supported them in every activity to ensure a smooth transition- running demand generation activation, assisting with transitions of channel, and design generation activities, to name a few.

What have been the crucial milestone of your company during year 2017?

2017 has been a successful year for Dell in India- the Multi brand outlet portal and the gaming products are worth a mention here. The MBO (multi-brand outlets) connect portal launched by Dell is directly establishing a deeper connect with our partners in tier-2 and tier-3 cities of India. Dell is engaging with them and incentivizing them on target attainment. The MBO establishes direct connect with the brand and target achievement. The portal also guides users on product information and has a redressal mechanism for any queries related to target attainments, payment systems and information on incentives that the partner is eligible. The new products that we launched this year, all have been successful, with Dell gaming needing a special mention. The new gaming products resonated well with the channel as well, making it a big win for both the product and the channel partners.

A

What were the major challenge for your company? How do you fought those challenges?

The transition during the new tax regime was a great opportunity found amidst a challenge. This tax initiative by the government required alignment with our partners. Dell articulately handled the transition of A

36

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

How GST changed your business affair in year 2017? What were your preparation to adopt this biggest tax reform?

GST has removed the tax barrier we had in multiple states; now the taxes are uniform within the country. With the implementation of GST, our operational efficiency in terms of logistics have improved and we are able to move goods faster.

A

What’s your channel strength currently in India? How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

On the MBO connect, Dell has close to 2000 partners, who are doing their quarterly business with us. We are looking to expand to 4000 partners and improve our engagement with our partners and channels.

A

How do you assure your customer excellent service support?

Dell provides excellent customer service through initiatives such as Premium pro support & Dell support. Premium support is a comprehensive support service for consumer PCs that dramatically improves the A

customer experience through simplified and hassle-free support. The service provides 24x7 anytime, anywhere phone access to expert technicians, personalized assistance for complex software issues and the first and only proactive automated support for consumer PCs. Powered by the SupportAssist technology, as an industry first, the service automatically detects both hardware and software issues and proactively alerts consumers when they occur. Support Assist also enables Dell’s technicians to initiate contact with customers and begin resolving the problem, often before they even know an issue exists.

Additionally, there are about 217 Dell service centres spanning within the country to address customer issues, apart from the inbuilt service support technologies.

What will be your key Go-To-Market Strategy for year 2018?

Our existing Go-To-Market Strategy is working well and we would continue to improve our market shares in our segment markets.

A

What will be major products you will be launching in year 2018?

Product innovation is at the center of our business and our partners can expect exciting products coming their way. Keeping track of trends, Dell’s range of sleek and versatile products will keep the channels and customers interested during the coming year.

A

www.digitalterminal.in

DELL EMC

CHANNEL ROADMAP

“ONE OF THE KEY HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS YEAR HAS ALSO BEEN THE UNIFIED DELL EMC PARTNER PROGRAM” As enterprises in India embark on their digital transformation journeys, Dell EMC ensures that their customers find the right digital partner to help them evolve with the changing technology landscape. To evolve digitally, we believe that it is crucial for enterprises not to only focus on digital transformation, but also on security transformation, IT transformation and workforce transformation. They strongly believe that innovation is the core of progress, and this holds true not just for products and services. It is also crucial to ensure there is innovation in relationship with partners. This is because partner community has played a very important role in helping Dell EMC grow and meet the needs of the customers. Anil Sethi, Vice President, Channels, Dell EMC India, talks more on his upcoming business and channel plans with DT.

ANIL SETHI, VICE PRESIDENT, CHANNELS, DELL EMC INDIA

What have been the crucial milestones of your company during year 2017?

This year has been historic for us in more ways than one. At the end of a successful year as a combined entity, Dell EMC has emerged as a holistic solutions provider empowering Indian enterprises to embrace change and transform their IT infrastructure. Dell EMC leads in the technology of today – servers, storage, PCs, virtualization and security – and tomorrow – cloud infrastructure, CI and HCI, PaaS, VR/AR, etc. One of the key highlights of this year has also been the unified Dell EMC partner program. The company now has a consolidated and holistic partner program with more than 4000 registered partners in India, which has strengthened the go to market strategy thereby leaving a positive mark in the partner community. The program has been created from ground up based on a strong feedback mechanism, differentiating it in various ways. Another important milestone has been the continued momentum gathered from India R&D which plays a key role for Dell EMC globally. India’s R&D team stands tall contributing to the overall server systems management software with the ground up engineering of 14G servers touching three key tenets of scalability, intelligent automation and integrated security.

A

How do you contribute for digital transformation journey of any organisation?

A

According to Ravi Shankar Prasad, there is currently www.digitalterminal.in

a 2-4 trillion dollar opportunity in India driven by digital transformation. Indian enterprises have sensed the need to transform digitally and while transformation is not pervasive, it is critical for organizations to follow the leaders and adopt practices that can enable them to ride the wave of the fourth Industrial Revolution. This is a great opportunity for companies like Dell EMC to capitalize on this and help businesses transform. The transformation needs to happen in businesses across the three key pillars: IT, Workforce and Security transformation. Dell EMC is uniquely positioned to address numerous technology touch points for organizations and governments looking to modernize their IT infrastructure, from end point devices to the data center to cloud and with a strong focus on security.

How do you see adoption of Dell EMC solutions by Indian companies?

Presently, Dell EMC leads in the technology of today – servers, storage, PCs, virtualization and security – and tomorrow – cloud infrastructure, CI and HCI, PaaS, VR/ AR, etc. According to IDC in Q1 2017, Dell EMC is #1 in the India storage market with 43.4% market share (by revenue).

We are also at 2nd position in the India mainstream server market (by revenue) with a market share of 26.5. With Indian digital economy to touch $1 trillion in the next 5-7 years, we will continue providing holistic solutions to our partners and customers, as one strong entity, allowing the customer more choice and flexibility without being tied to a single vendor.

A

How do you sell your solution in Indian market?

Kindly share your distribution model.

In 2017, channel has been the key focus for Dell EMC. The unified channel partner program is best in class in the industry. This program has been very aggressive and covers every single product and types of market in India, allowing cross selling across enterprise and commercial.

The program also includes incentives for new businesses.

The main objective of the integrated channel program is to increase reach as well as improve partner profitability.

The new partner program is based on three tenets – Simple, Predictable and Profitable. The erstwhile Dell program was profitable in terms of backend rebates which have now been included as a part of the new program, hence making the program profitable. The legacy EMC system was based on a half yearly target system as compared to a quarterly audit on the Dell side, which has now been incorporated into the program. This makes the program predictable. The earlier EMC program also had a strong training program which has again become a key aspect of this program. There is now a single deal registration system for all partners, thereby ensuring simplicity. The partners now get access to the world’s best portfolio - end to end. All the way from desktops, notebooks, servers and all of EMC’s storage portfolio.

A

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

37

C H AN N E L ROADMAP

ACER

“THE YEAR 2018 WILL BE UNDENIABLY AN ACTION PACKED YEAR” M r . C h a n d r a h as Panigrahi, CMO and Cons u mer Bu sin e ss H e a d, Acer Ind ia

Chandrahas has been influential in building ACER’s consumer business where he has been responsible for overall P&L, sales and marketing across multiple categories in South Asia. He is now responsible for facilitating growth, sales and marketing strategy.

Panigrahi brings with him a go-to-market experience to ensure the continued growth momentum of ACER’s business across the region. During his tenure, Chandrahas led the expansion of ACER into a full service entertainment brand, monitoring market Intelligence and formulating and implementing important policies. Under his leadership, ACER has built strong associations with its channel partners and customers to increase its brand presence across the length and breadth of the country. Mr. Panigrahi comes with 15 years of rich industry experience with leading companies in the technology domain spanning components and personal computing, having worked in different profiles ranging from consumer business, retail management, product management, marketing and distribution.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book:

38

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

Taurus Steve Jobs Google Who moved my cheese

Favourite Sports:

Cricket

Favourite Holiday Destination:

Greece

www.digitalterminal.in

Acer India has been very much in the news this year because of its aggression. The company quickly grab larger market hold with its wellplanned channel strategy. The brand has invested a lot on creating consumer awareness and creating much more exclusive stores across India. With a complete high quality product offerings, they expect lot more in this New Year. Mr. Chandrahas Panigrahi, CMO and Consumer Business Head, Acer India, the man behind all these plans, shares his entire game plan with DT for year 2018.

What have been the crucial milestone of your company during year 2017?

Year 2017 has been another great year for Acer on the back of a successful 2016. We introduced many of our marquee products under our Gaming, Hybrids, and 2in1s segments. Acer Predator Helios 300 received an overwhelming response from the gaming community and during the sale it was sold out within minutes. We also launched series of gaming products, right form budget ones to high end. We also announced the Asia’s biggest DOTA 2 tournament, Predator League 2018. We also had a very strong sales quarter in Q3 2017 where we broke several records and revenue targets. As we enter 2018 we see huge excitement in our new range on products catering from entry to premium as well as full assortment of gaming products including the insanely powerful Predator 21X A

How do you support Government of India’s ‘Make-in-India’ program?

Acer thoroughly supports Government of India’s initiative for ‘Make-in-India’ and ‘Digital India’ programs. We have been committed to Make-in-India long before it became a trend and talking point with our manufacturing hub in Pondicherry, which has made India the manufacturing hub for Southeast Asia for Acer. To amplify the Make in India initiative we have introduced PMA compliant machines on GeM (Government e-Marketplace). With the launch of PMA compliant computers Acer is ramping up manufacturing and local sourcing of advanced components and aggressively working to create more jobs for youth.

A

How GST changed your business affair in year 2017?

GST had a positive impact on our business. It gave a boost to digitalization, which had a major impact on PC sales as traders and business houses needed a PC to ensure GST compliance. We introduced GST ready range of desktops, laptops and AIOs with pre-loaded Tally ERP software, which enabled Smooth transitions for traders and businesses. Beside this, we also rolled A

www.digitalterminal.in

out GST programs for retailers and consumers during the transition period. To adopt this biggest tax reforms we trained our teams and braced our IT infrastructure for smoother transition.

What is your channel strength currently in India? How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

We have 5000+ partners, which include exclusive stores as well as multi-brand outlets and this phenomenal growth and channel base is due to our very channel friendly policies and initiatives. To enhance our channel strength we are aggressively strengthening our partnership with the channel community in tier 2, 3 and 4 cities. Our association with our channel partners has always been extremely rewarding, and further we believe in strengthening and supporting our partners by introducing exciting creative marketing promotion for both the channel partners and end users. We are working closely with partners on financing their purchase, demo programs for high-end models, schemes to focus on portfolio to help them increase average selling price, training to ISPs through mobile app etc.

A

How do you provide excellent service support to your loyal customers?

Acer has taken multiple initiatives in order to provide best services to customers. Our customer service initiatives includes 24x7 support through online technical portal, diagnostic call centres, providing standby unit to customers in case of delay, on-site PAN India support, Priority channel Queue for Key customers at Call Centre for quick access and resolution. We are constantly working towards making our services better and in 2018 one of goals is to sustain this initiatives and introduce simple and quick service solutions for our customers. We plan to invest in our exclusive stores in Tier II and III cities. We have already introduced almost 100 stores in the country and in 2018, we will continue expanding our presence in all across India.

A

What will be your key Go-To-Market Strategy for year 2018?

We are strengthening our partnership as well as customer outreach with intensive engagement programs. We have forged strong partnerships with all the large format retail stores and going forward we are also aiming at increase Acer’s brand presence in tier II and III locations. Our robust distribution network comprises Acer Malls, Acer Points, large format retailers and mulit-brand outlets; we are working towards expand it even further. To keep pace with the dramatic changes in the IT landscape, we have been investing significantly in training, in-store merchandising with apt showcase/display of new highend models, sales enablement, schemes and easy finance options.

A

What all products you will be launching in year 2018? Which will be your key target verticals?

Maintain momentum and build on the core strengths on back of a successful year we plan continuing our efforts to bring something innovative to our customers in 2018. We unveiled upgraded models under the Swift, Predator, Nitro and Switch series this year. Beside this, IoT and VR will be a big focus globally for Acer and we will be seeing these products coming to India. With government moving to a market place like model and encouraging adoption of technology at all levels, we expect 2018 to be an even better year. In corporate segment, as well we will be looking to go deeper and consolidate our position as one of market leaders in the PC and technology space.

The year 2018 will be undeniably an action packed year with the advent of innovations in both hardware and software space.

A

Please share your current revenue and market growth rate. What is target for year 2018?

We are one of the fastest growing PC brand in India and a leader in gaming PCs in a short span.

Our target is to bring in best of innovations to Indian PC market in all segments including gaming, all in ones, convertibles, projectors, monitors etc. We believe that the growing opportunities in the market will help us achieve our target in 2018.

A

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

39

C H AN N E L ROADMAP

SE AGAT E

“SEAGATE COLLABORATING CLOSELY WITH ITS PARTNERS TO DELIVER INNOVATION IN CUSTOMER SERVICE & WARRANTY OFFERINGS” Bob Ya n g, R e g ional Vice Pres id ent f or APAC sa l e s at Se agat e

Earlier this year, Seagate sponsored an IDC whitepaper, Data Age 2025 which predicts that data creation will swell to a total of 163 zettabytes (ZB) by 2025. This study indicates that the decade centered around the conversion of analog data to digital is being replaced by an era focused on the value of data; creating, utilizing, and managing ‘life critical’ data necessary for the smooth running of daily life for consumers, governments and businesses alike.

With this report, Seagate advised global business leaders and entrepreneurs to sharpen focus on data critical to the success of global business impact. Bob Yang, Regional Vice President for APAC sales at Seagate, speaking exclusively with DT shared his upcoming channel plans and overall opinion on growth in Indian market.

40

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

www.digitalterminal.in

What have been the crucial milestone of your company during year 2017?

2017 was also a great year for Seagate in reinforcing its strength in cloud and big data analysis markets, announcing strategic cooperation agreements with Baidu and Tencent Technology.

Seagate and Baidu’s pact renews an existing agreement between the two firms signed in September 2014, which further strengthens their cooperation for big data analysis and advanced storage system development and implementation. With its agreement with Tencent, Seagate and Tencent will carry out an all-round and in-depth cooperation covering products and technology, and will work together to drive market development activities.

A

The year has also been good in terms of new products that were launched such as 12TB IronWolf and BarraCuda Pro drives and SkyHawk AI hard disk drive.

As mentioned, we are experiencing a massive increase in the volume of data created, a total of 163 zettabytes (ZB) by 2025. Seagate’s IronWolf and BarraCuda Pro 12TB drives are designed for growing media storage needs – including augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), 4K resolution and 360-degree videos – and offer scalability for the future with increased space and speed. SkyHawk is the first drive created specifically for artificial intelligence (AI) enabled video surveillance solutions. Building on Seagate’s 10-year track record of delivering surveillance optimized storage performance, SkyHawk AI provides unprecedented bandwidth and processing power to manage always-on, data-intensive workloads, while simultaneously analyzing and recording footage from multiple HD cameras.

What were the major challenge for your company? How do you fought those challenges?

Big data, IoT (Internet of Things), mobility and new computing devices such as AR, VR, drones and automated cars are some of the technology trends that are disrupting the IT infrastructure. In today’s era of data explosion, it has become imperative for organizations to plan for a robust data storage infrastructure to attain business efficiencies, using these technology trends. In India, recent campaigns such as ‘Digital India’ and ‘Smart Cities’ are inescapably calling for the adoption of these technologies in various sectors.

A

In today’s evolving corporate scenario, the need for faster processing of data and getting meaningful results is vital to take key decisions in real-time.

Witnessing the rising demand of simplified data and a corresponding storage solution for it, organizations today are working towards creating solutions that help businesses read the data faster with higher accuracy.

Seagate provides effective and efficient storage solutions that help organizations in transformation of their IT infrastructures in the era of digital storage. www.digitalterminal.in

The rising demand provides Seagate the perfect opportunity and to invest further in R&D, thereby, creating numerous storage solutions across verticals and businesses.

What’s your channel strength currently in India? How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

Channel strength plays an important role in an overall business scenario. They provide us with regular feedback about the requirements of their customers. Based on the feedback we receive from our channel partners, we use this information and accordingly innovate business strategy and product line. Essentially when it comes to understand the feedback from our channels, we expect them to be open with us and we interact with them very closely.

It helps us to streamline our strategies and customize programs according to the market needs and creating more value out of our partnership. Navigating to find and build the right storage infrastructure requires experience, expertise and wisdom. It’s not just about combining the highest-end component available, it’s about knowing what is needed, understanding why it is needed and using the optimal solution. That is why the channel partners play a vital role. We connect with our customers and partners in every local market through the Seagate Partner Program and we will continue to work closely with them in the coming years.

A

How do you assure your customer excellent service support? What are your investment plan to enhance service support infrastructure to cover entire India?

Seagate has been collaborating closely with its partners to deliver innovation in customer service and warranty offerings. The customer support network in India is spread across nationwide, includes walk-in customer warranty support centres in various states and cities. In addition, Seagate had enhanced its reach to remote areas, by offering pickup and return service for the customers who are located far away from the support facilities.

A

What will be your key Go-To-Market Strategy for year 2018?

The storage capacity demands are growing at a high speed. In recent years, we’ve seen significant growth of data creation and consumption, including the enterprise cloud market. Seagate is focused on developing the best-in-class drives and storage solutions to solve our customers’ most critical A

business problems as their storage workload gets heavier than ever before.

Seagate has been continuously building cloudspecialist partner base through this program, providing comprehensive training sessions and seminars as well as working on co-marketing programs. Seagate also continuously educates partners about new opportunities and carries out regular training on the products and technologies that we are introducing, so that they are able to maximize their results by offering best and optimum storage solutions to their customers.

We are also witnessing constant growth in the surveillance market. With the country’s focus on smart cities and the rising need for greater safety and security, the emphasis and relevance of video surveillance is constantly increasing. As a pioneer who developed the industry’s first surveillance drive about a decade ago, Seagate’s has been committed to provide smart, safe and secure storage solutions that is best optimized for surveillance applications.

What will be major products and solutions you will be launching in year 2018? Which will be your key target verticals / market?

Our focus continues to lie in developing innovative technologies such as shingled magnetic recording (SMR), Helium and heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) to build high capacity HDDs that address the needs of our enterprise and hyperscale data center clients who are looking for scalability, reliability, and performance.

A

These innovations enable companies to gain more control over unstructured data, store vastly more information and retrieve it more quickly than ever before without expanding the storage footprint in the data centre.

2018?

Please share your current revenue and market growth rate. What is target for year

For the fiscal year 2017 which ended on June 30, 2017, Seagate reported revenue of $10.8 billion, gross margin of 29.5%, net income of $772 million and diluted earnings per share of $2.58. On a non–GAAP basis, Seagate reported gross margin of 30.5%, net income of $1.2 billion and diluted earnings per share of $4.12. We continue to see growing storage demand in the long–run driven by the proliferation of data growth from new technologies, emerging industries, and growing businesses.

A

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

41

CH ANNE L R OA D M A P

S O PH O S

“WE HAVE STRONG NETWORK OF 2000+ PARTNERS IN INDIA & SAARC COUNTRIES” Sunil S harma, M a n ag i n g D i r e c t o r S a l e s, In d ia & SA A R C, Sop h os

Sunil Sharma joined Sophos in 2015 as vice president, sales, for India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives. He is responsible for the company’s regional sales and channel organization. Sophos acquired India’s prominent network security company Cyberoam, where Sunil was responsible for the entire sales and operations for these regions since 2011. With more than twenty four years of senior sales and channel experience at storage and security companies, Sunil most recently served as National Manager - Channels & Alliances at McAfee. In this role, he helped the company make alliances with Wipro, HCL Technologies & TCS and created the complete base for Tier II partners, which helped the company grow by 450% in 5 years. Prior to joining McAfee, Sunil held the national channel sales position at EMC Corporation.

Sunil has a master’s in business management with specialization in marketing and B.TECH in electronics & communications from the Delhi University.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination:

42

Aquarius Bharti Mittal Google Think & Grow Rich Cricket & Badminton Switzerland

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

www.digitalterminal.in

Sophos is a leader in next-generation endpoint and network security, and as the pioneer of synchronized security develops its innovative portfolio of endpoint, network, encryption, web, email and mobile security solutions to work better together. In India, the company investing heavily in partner enablement, education and training to make sure their partners are taking advantage of the opportunity offered by Sophos; both in terms of more business and with better security for their customers. While interacting with DT, Sunil Sharma, Managing Director, Sales, India & SAARC at Sophos, reveals current market growth and his entire channel roadmap for Year 2018.

What have been the crucial milestone of your company during year 2017?

It has been an exciting year for us. There has been a surge in IT security awareness followed by a ransomware surge fuelled by Ransomware-asa-Service (RaaS) and amplified by the resurgence of worms. Sophos has a unique approach to the massive cybersecurity market, which is really working – i.e. we deliver innovative and highly-effective but at the same time simple cybersecurity solutions to businesses of all sizes that includes such leading edge concepts as AI, machine learning, deep learning, neural networks, and automation. Then we instrument our highly advanced endpoint and network products to talk to each other and work together as a system via Synchronized Security. Our new version of the XG firewall with dynamic application control is surely going to help businesses better protect their environments. Our innovation engine is gaining momentum and we just upped the ante again by applying advanced deep learning neural network technology to the cybersecurity problem; Intercept X v2 just released in EAP. We will continue to offer cutting-edge technology, with robust third-party validation, that is easy to deploy and manage, through a single cloud console.

A

What were the major challenges for your company? How you fought those challenges?

There are more than 60 million businesses in our target market and gaining brand recognition within a vast market is challenging. We compete against big established names and small challenger companies in both endpoint and network security markets. We have made huge progress over the last five years but we still have work to do in continuing to make our brand stand out in this huge market. We are differentiated against the competition and gaining traction with our unique synchronized security vision, which is supported by our comprehensive network and endpoint security portfolio.

A

How do you support Government of India’s www.digitalterminal.in

‘Make-in-India’ program?

Usage of modern technology solutions is pertinent to advance the Government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative in terms of industrial growth. As more Government offices and establishments value IT, power virtualization to accelerate ICT-led socio-economic initiatives, they will gradually understand the need for reliable network security and deep reporting capabilities.

Given that the government and defense vertical is an important contributor to our business, Sophos always aims for a major role in safeguarding their IT ecosystem against targeted new threat actors and cyber criminals.

By empaneling key products of Sophos XG Firewall with the Government eMarket Portal (GEM), we have been facilitating government access to next generation IT security.

A

What’s your channel strength currently in India? How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

Sophos is committed to its highly successful ’channel first’ and ‘channel best’ sales strategy. Out of our 34000 global partners, we have a strong network of 2000+ partners in India & SAARC countries. Being a 100% channel driven company, we put the partner first in conversations with CIOs and CISOs. We constantly strive to empower and equip our team of channel partners via training and certifications programs that helps them provide effective IT security solutions to their customers.

Over the next 12-18 months we intend to increase our active partner base across the regions. We also look forward to develop managed security providers that can offer security as a service to customers via our innovative, simple, and easy to deploy and manage security solutions powered via the cloud.

A

How do you assure your customer excellent service support?

A

We manage the quality of our support very closely using a number of different techniques including

post-incident customer satisfaction surveys, technical and soft-skills audits, coaching and mentoring, and robust training programs. We have made significant investments in our India support operation. Although we already cover all parts of India but we are planning to continue to grow our operation in Ahmedabad. In terms of delivery infrastructure, we will be implementing new, best-inclass case management and telephony tools. Further, we have dedicated support centers around the world and we use a “follow-the-sun” model to provide 24X7 support globally.

What will be your key Go-To-Market Strategy for year 2018?

We continue to consolidate our position as a leading vendor of innovative, simple and highly effective IT security for businesses of all sizes. In the year 2018, we will continue to prioritise our investment in technology and further strengthen our leadership position as the sole security vendor with a balanced portfolio across both enduser and network security. We are committed to our channel-only sales strategy. Delivering cloud-based, highly effective, synchronized security powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities will remain our key priority through FY19. And lastly, we believe that simple, integrated solutions deliver better security that is easier to manage for organizations of any size and particularly those in its chosen markets.

A

Please share your current revenue and market growth rate. What is target for year 2018?

Sophos continues to gain stronghold in all aspects of revenue and growth. In FY17, we reported $529.7 million in total revenue. Our subscription grew by 40,000 and we now serve 260,000 organisations through our IT security products. On the APJ front, where India & SAARC belong, our revenues grew by 9.8% to touch $80 million.

Looking at the current business scenario and the strong user confidence that Sophos enjoys we are expecting a double digit growth next year as well.

A

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

43

C H AN N E L ROADMAP

KING STON

“KINGSTON BELIEVES IN PROVIDING BETTER COMPUTING & GAMING EXPERIENCE TO ITS USERS” V ish a l Pa r e k h , M a r k e ting D irector, K ings ton Technology

Vishal has lead Kingston in India for more than seven years and has been a key architect of the company’s strategic vision. His responsibilities include leadership in the company’s initiatives and operations along with maintaining the strong brand image. Mr. Vishal, with his outstanding leadership skills, has received numerous awards by industry associations and media. He has successfully repositioned Kingston as a lifestyle technology brand.

Being a strong believer of Relationship Management, he has successfully developed a healthy distribution network and channel. He has even managed roadshows in 300 cities in a calendar year with an objective to educate customers. He holds a PGDBM degree in Marketing from CIMR and a B.Com degree from Mumbai University.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company:

Favourite Book: Favourite Sports:

Favourite Holiday Destination: 44

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

Taurus Larry Page, Google I am working with undoubtedly one of the best companies today Business Management Simplif ied Tennis– one of the best ways to relax for me In Love with Barcelona, Europe the rich architecture is a key attraction. www.digitalterminal.in

Year 2017 has been very exciting journey for Kingston, the market leader in manufacturing memory products and brand owner of HyperX brand. Kingston maintained leadership position in memory business whereas HyperX successfully connected with entire gaming community by offering excellent product range for gamers and supporting all key gaming events across India. The company also celebrated its 30th Anniversary in this year with many more achievements adding to their feather. Vishal Parekh, Marketing Director, Kingston Technology, elaborates his journey, achievements and future channel plans with DT.

What have been the crucial milestone of your company during year 2017?

2017 has been a year of excitement for our Memory, Flash and Peripherals business in India. Being one of the best lifestyle technology brands, we made some prominent changes in our business in terms of product line up and service. With these seamless changes to add more value to our customers, we have seen a much happier channel of distribution in 2017. Apart from success in our products, our focused investments in developing the gaming community has borne fruit. Last but not the least, this year also marked our 30th Anniversary globally – A true Milestone for a brand which made its humble beginning with just one product and which today leads the storage, memory and peripherals markets.

A

What were the major challenge for your company? How do you fight those challenges?

The Indian market is dynamic and has given us a good response for our products. The market here is vast and the demand is ever increasing at most regions.

More and more people are getting aware of the benefits of the new technology. We are working on catering the spike in demand for Kingston and HyperX products. We are addressing the challenges with a better and dynamic strategy for 2018.

A

How GST changed your business affair in year 2017? What were your preparation to adopt this biggest tax reform?

More than the tax itself, we have seen the challenge faced by many businesses to understand the implications of GST. Other than a temporary effect due to the transition, there was not much noticeable difference in business. We would hope to see if this change brings more transparency and stability in the infrastructure and government proceedings.

A

www.digitalterminal.in

What’s your channel strength currently in India? How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

Our business is distributed strategically in India to get maximum benefits in different regions.

Developing a network is one of our surest strategies for growing and we have given the channel partners an utmost priority. Kingston has been increasing its channel strength to reach out to various markets. Part of the focus areas for channel partners involves channel engagement and empowerment activities. For instance, we have recently begun with Kingston Retail Super Star, which is an educative campaign for our channel partners.

A

How do you assure your customer excellent service support?

Innovation and quality are the undeniable pillars of an organization. Excellent service acts as a unified keystone, making Kingston stand out in keen competition.

We have partnered with one of the best service partners, which is RP Tech, a part of Rashi Peripherals. Our service and technical teams work hard on solving the queries that come to us from all corners of the country. Not just that, we also provide free technical support to any one with queries relating to our products. This builds confidence in the customer’s mind and helps them make informed purchased decisions.

A

What will be your key Go-To-Market Strategy for year 2018?

Over the years, Kingston has been named in the top 5 spots in terms of market position, revenue and work culture. We even completed our 30th successful year globally this year. A good reason for our success pan-India has been our effective GTM strategies. We have always dealt with business from the consumer or the end user point of view, which gives us an edge in the market.

Our GTM strategies involve a lot of information from our A

channel partners and end consumers. Our priorities are multifold and aim at maintaining our position as one of the best lifestyle technology brand, a position we have held for well over a decade. We will continue improving our reach beyond the metro cities, where the demand for value gaming products is on the rise.

What will be major products to be launched in year 2018?

Kingston believes in providing a better computing and gaming experience to its users and our upcoming product line up is strong for 2018. We have already showcased our Cloud Alpha headset at an international expo and we will be launching it soon. Most reviewers are eyeing the spot to experience what more we have in store. All Kingston products are engineered to bring the latest in technology at the most prudent prices.

Keep in touch with media like Digital Terminal for these announcements.

A

Please share your current revenue and market growth rate. What is target for year 2018?

As most know that Kingston has grown in the market brick by brick. Today, with close to 60% share globally in the memory market, we look forward to continuing the good run. What has been important for our growth in the 30 successful years is our ability to facilitate technology driven inclusive growth for a wide band of customers.

A

India is a key market for us and one of the fastest growing.

For the upcoming product lines, our strategy will be for reaching corporates, enterprises and even the end users here. One can expect more revisions and upgrades to our existing portfolio of products and solutions. Moreover, India is moving towards becoming a hub for e-sports and we happen to be a strong player in the area. We are working with brands and partners to create a favorable ecosystem for gamer and the gaming market on a whole.

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

45

CH ANNEL R OA D M A P

M A RG E RP

“THE COMPANY IS TARGETING TO ACHIEVE 25000 PARTNERS CONNECTED TO MARG

BY MARCH 2018�

Mr. S udhir S in g h , M a n ag i n g D i r e c t o r , M a r g E R P

Sudhir Singh is young and dynamic IT leader known for his passion to lead from the front to bring extraordinary results for organisation.

He is the Co-founder & Managing Director (Sales & Marketing) at Marg ERP Ltd. He has an educational exposure at Premier Indian and global Institutes which have helped building a positive result oriented attitude towards his life. Being an Entrepreneur at heart, he has an extensive knowledge of Branding and Network sharing and has provided knowledge to the individuals in the area of sales and marketing to become independent sales professional and an entrepreneur in their specified domain.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination:

46

Scorpio Ratan Tata & Steve Jobs Google Geeta Golf & Table Tennis Jim Corbett & Maldives

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

www.digitalterminal.in

GST is the biggest tax reform so far in our country which has created a uniform tax ecosystem to boost growth of all sizes if businesses in India. This also opened enormous opportunity for ICT players in India as IT has to play bigger role in its success. Marg ERP Ltd., the leader in offering accounting solutions to Indian business, has worked as crusader in this transition phase. To know more about company’s overall achievement and growth, DT interacted with Sudhir Singh, Managing Director, Marg ERP Ltd. Mr. Singh shared his side of growth story and the plans for him in the pipeline.

What have been the crucial milestone of your company during year 2017?

The GST roll-out from July 1st was a major milestone for the company as it gave Marg ERP Ltd. opportunity to create a new path of development in the accounting and inventory software. A major reformation in the history of taxes where all the businesses had a compulsion to get registered under the new GST regime. This created a brilliant opportunity for Marg to redesign a GST ready software which could fulfill the major need of the SMEs and MSMEs across India. From July 1st the company which was serving only five to six industry segments of the market came up with a newly developed GST ready software which entered in more than 21 different segments of industry. This not only helped the company to raise its overall revenue but also captured a much bigger market.

A

What were the major challenges for your company? How do you fought those challenges?

The GST came into existence to help businesses have ease of doing business and promote efficiency and productivity growth. Some of the major challenges faced with the GST roll-out, included preparation of an adequate IT support and system, which is GST compliant in nature.

Another major need was to create GST awareness & subject knowledge so that the market has GST skilled resources to ensure swift implementation. Post GST, Marg was prepared with its GST ready software and was one of the first few companies to make all its customer base GST compliant in the first month of GST roll-out.

A

The company’s customer care and special GST suvidha kendras were serving the customers day in and out to sort any queries related to the software implementation ensuring easy GST transition. The company organized various webinars to avail online GST information at their level. The company collaborated with various hardware and IT Infrastructure organizations so that the customer could be offered best packages and one stop software hardware solution. We also conducted door-to door activities, group discussions and face-to-face interaction with MSMEs and SMEs. How do you support Government of India’s ‘Make-

www.digitalterminal.in

in-India’ program?

Make in India program by Shri Narendra Modi Ji was aninitiative to give boost to entrepreneurship in India, not only in manufacturing but also other sectors.

Marg ERP a pioneer in inventory and accounting software market supported the Make in India program by helping millions of SMEs and MSMEs across India in ease of doing business by making accounting software available at the most affordable rates. As SMEs were the most effected but with the intervention of Marg ERP and then new GST ready software has helped SMEs and new start up in ease of starting business. Marg has also reached the rural India and have opened various academies to enrich and pass on the GST knowledge. This has helped in creating new job opportunities for rural India.

A

What’s your channel strength currently in India?

How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

Currently our strength lies around 14,000 channel partners across the country. In that the first tier partners are around 1000 partners, second tier partner is approx 13000 plus partners across the country. This year we are actually trying to build three layer of partners. The top most tier which is closely connected with (MSP) Marg Strategic Partner is expected to be 100 in number, the (MMP) Marg Master Partner is expected to be between 1600 to 2000 in numbers. The entire tier two partner is expected to be around 25000. Out of that we want to sell licenses to around 10,000 partners. So the people who will join us as tier two partners as MPs will be around 25,000 to 30,000 approx. This plan will continue and we will be building our strategy around this. By March 2018 the company is targeting to achieve 25000 partners connected to Marg.

A

How do you assure your customer excellent service support?

We have put in a lot of efforts into providing the best customer support services and we are constantly trying to improve them on regular basis. We have been preparing videos and running on Youtube for our product users to make them more and more aware about the usage A

and support. We have a strong service support team and we are making them more enabled so as to be able to support our huge customer base in every possible way. We have distributed the zones of our country into four divisions, North, West, South and East and we have partner and customer help centers. Customer desk was already functioning but we have also created partner support help desks. We keep providing GST awareness along with different business booster tools to ensure maximum benefits to our partners as well as customers.

What will be your key Go-To-Market Strategy for year 2018?

Our efforts and strategy will remain in three layers one is expanding our channel base which we expect will add a great value to us by ensuring a major connect to the market i.e to the prospect base. Our second part is to ensure our partner have been made competent and skilled enough with the product knowledge and the way our product has been sold in the market. The third major strategy will be to boost our local operations. We are presently having seven to eight offices and will be soon adding three to four new offices soon, so that the operations become profitable to all our customers. The customer as well as our partners in that local area should feel the impact of our local offices. Currently, we are having our regional offices located in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad and soon we will be adding Jaipur, Guwahati, Lucknow and Bhopal also. Additionally, we will also be looking to make our global presence in SAARC countries. Apart from that, we are already focusing on Africa as we have our office in Kenya and we plan to open one in Saudi Arabia soon.

A

Please share your current revenue and market growth rate.

The company has registered a 300 per cent growth this quarter compared to the same quarter last year. To begin with, Marg was a slow starter because of the languid pace of business computerization. However, from 2001 the company has had a consistent growth of 20 to 30 per cent year after year with a sudden jump in 2007 with VAT transition when the customer base just doubled.

A

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

47

CHANNEL R OAD M A P

D-LINK

“D-LINK IS ONE OF THE MOST PREFERRED NETWORKING BRANDS AMONGST PARTNERS” Mr. Tus har S igh at, M a n ag i n g D i r e c t o r & C E O, D - L in k ( In d ia ) Lt d.

Tushar Sighat, Managing Director & CEO – D-Link (India) Limited is a committed professional with an experience spanning over 25 years in IT domain. Post completion of B.E in Electronic & Communication, he embarked on a professional journey in IT industry as a Sales Engineer – gaining experiences across various sales engineering practices, technology changes, market dynamics, financial analysis and human psychological as the world progressed towards advancement. Mr. Sighat has been associated with D-Link India for over 15 years & is also a founding team member that gradually led D-Link India to great success. Today he heads D-Link (India) Limited across India & SAARC region. He is also the Chairman of TeamF1 Networks Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of D-Link (India) Pvt. Ltd.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book:

Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination:

48

Libra Steve Jobs Want to build one Wings of Fire: An Autobiography of APJ Abdul Kalam None in particular London

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

www.digitalterminal.in

D-Link has always maintained its leadership position in the Indian networking market not only by offering excellent quality products for consumers in India, but also successfully enjoys best channel support across all region. Brand’s channel strategy always remains growth centric for partners. D-Link stands committed to its partners and resellers who have earnestly endorsed them in India for close to 25 years. Tushar Sighat, MD & CEO, D-Link (India) Ltd. provides insight of company’s overall achievements in year 2017 and his game plan for Year 2018 while interacting with DT.

What have been the crucial milestone of your company during year 2017?

Since last couple of years our focus has been on nurturing organic growth. We continue to lead the market with our Wireless & Switching solution, along with end-to-end network offerings. This year we ventured into CCTV segment and thereby expanded our existing surveillance product portfolio. D-Link CCTV product range includes Analog HD Camera, DVR, DVR Enclosure, and CCTV Cable box. Throughout 2017 D-Link continued with its effort to enhance its focus on enterprise business segment with renewed business strategy. Taking the digital route, D-Link amplified its engagement with System Integrators (SI) through D-Link partner portal (partners.dlink.co.in), a one-stop business tool that helps make business easier for SI’s.

A

How do you support Government of India’s ‘Make-in-India’ program?

‘Make in India’ is a positive step, as it will promote Industries to use the resources available in the country & contribute towards the nation building process.

We are already working in this direction & have also acquired a company Team F1 in Hyderabad last year.

The objective is to use Team F1 expertise in developing software for our hardware. According to me, at present, designing the product in India is more feasible than manufacturing, so right now we do not have any plans to start our own factory. But in future if we get more incentives from the government and conditions become more favorable, we will evaluate and see if we could manufacture in India.

A

What’s your channel strength currently in India? How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

D-Link today can proudly boast of a strong partner network PAN India. Channel community have been crucial propagator of D-Link’s technological advancements, enabling us to reach out to our prospective customers across the length & breadth of the country.

D-Link is one of the most preferred networking brands amongst partners & resellers. D-Link today has a strong business network with healthy mix of National distributor, Business distributor & Channel partner. At present D-Link has 4 National Distributors, 80+ Business Distributors, over 15000+ re-seller reaching out to customers present across the length & breadth of the country. We are building a network of Value Added Distributors (VAD) who can further enhance our market reach. D-Link stands committed to its partner & resellers who have earnestly endorsed us in India for close to 25 years now. Throughout the year we at D-Link introduce various schemes for partners that give them an opportunity to enhance their business value.

How do you assure your customer excellent service support? What are your investment plan to enhance service support infrastructure to cover entire India?

Customer engagement is a long term commitment and after sales plays a crucial role in building a brands credibility. D-Link has made huge investments in developing a state-of-the art service support infrastructure in India. Today D-Link reaches out to its customers in 150+ cities through its own D-Link Service Centers (DSC), which is supported by its wide network of D-Link Service Partners (DSP) and Partner Courier Pickup (PCP). Further D-Link offers ‘Service at your door-step’ for Broadband, Wireless and 3G Lifestyle products with D-Link Direct Service (DDS). Further Advance Replacement Next Business Day Warranty (AR-NBD) by D-Link is a premium support program designed exclusively for enterprise customers, wherein it offers hassle free quick resolution through a dedicated tech support team, along with advance replacement facility to customer location at zero additional cost.

A

What will be your key Go-To-Market Strategy for year 2018?

A

www.digitalterminal.in

It is our unique positioning & brand reliability that has positioned D-Link as the leader in networking space. It is the spirt of ‘Innovation’ that has led to A

introduction of products that provide high-performance and cost-effective solutions to deliver better connectivity, security, efficiency, and cost savings for both home and office. Moving forward we shall continue to maintain our leadership position in the consumer networking segment.

We have a gamut of innovative products that address the growing demand of end-customers. So be it high speed portable 4G devices, or Smart home solution based on IoT technology. D-Link has it all. Another product segment we foresee huge potential is Surveillance & Security, and D-Link is all geared up to meet the market demands with its new CCTV range.

What will be major products you will be launching in year 2018?

D-Link is in the forefront when it comes to delivering efficient technology solution that offer the latest & best in networking domain. D-Link helps both businesses and customers Connect to More. Our enterprise solution enables organizations to connect to their customers; while our consumer range lets people to connect to their friends, family and a plethora of experiences.

D-Link continues to lead the networking industry with innovative products that provide high-performance and cost-effective products to deliver better connectivity, security, efficiency, and cost savings solutions for both home and offices.

A

Please share your current revenue and market growth rate. What is target for year 2018?

D-Link has maintained its leadership position with stupendous growth results. In CY 2016 D-Link clocked a healthy turnover of Rs. 715 Cr. Its D-Link’s focused market strategy & practical business approach that resulted in consistent growth for the company. Infact D-Link has been consistent in its performance over the years with steady growth results. Moving forward our core objective is to sustain the growth rate while maintaining a balance between our revenues, profitability, and stakeholders interests, etc.

A

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

49

C H AN N E L ROADMAP

E SY INDIA

“ESY HAS ALREADY CHANNELLED ITS VISION TO BE THE LARGEST POS MANUFACTURER IN INDIA” D r . V P Sa j e e va n , C EO, ESY Ind ia

Dr. VP Sajeevan is CEO for ESY INDIA which is 100% subsidiary of ESY Group of companies headquartered in Kuala lumpur in Malaysia. VP Sajeevan is one of the top 3 experts in in Digital Imaging industry in Asia and associated with big brands like XEROX, Canon and ESY. He was the Group Director for Canon India and was instrumental in bringing up Canon brand to number one position in India. His special thrust on consumer experience could bring vast change in the market approach in the industry. He holds Master degree in Economics and Post Graduation in Business Administration from the reputed universities in India. Dr. Sajeevan had won many National and International awards for his excellent contribution to IT Industry.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination:

50

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

Aquarius Mr. Fujio Mitarai My own Winning By Jack Welch Golf Kerala

www.digitalterminal.in

Small and large companies in India faced stiff challenge in post demonetisation era. GST compliance hardware and software also became major concern for all players. But for ESY India, it was a great opportunity to revolutionise the entire POS retail ecosystem by educating and providing GST ready POS machines to their large customer base. ESY India is currently undisputed leader in offering excellent quality POS machines at very affordable price point. The company also invested in all areas to enhance its reach across country to help large and small retailers by installing perfect POS solutions for them. Within few years of its establishment, the company has gained leadership position in India. Dr. VP Sajeevan, CEO, ESY India has lead from the front to drive this successful journey. In an exclusive conversation with DT, he shared more information on company’s achievement so far and upcoming future plans.

What have been the crucial milestone of your company during year 2017?

The year 2017 has been phenomenal for us since we could establish ourselves as a full-fledged POS Company in India. Today, we can proudly say that we are one of the few companies in the country to offer a complete POS retail ecosystem to our consumers. The launch of our one of a kind product – ESYPOS ESP 5313, Smart Touch POS Machine has been a game changer in this arena. The Smart touch POS has enabled even a convenience store owner to be connected with the latest technology and superior features along with ease of usage and affordability.

A

What were the major challenges for your company? How did you fight those challenges?

Like many other in the industry, we were also one of those to be hit by the impact of demonetisation in the market, our major product line – ESYINK was stagnant and the movement in our secondary market was almost frozen due to this. However, we put our primary focus on the next big trend that was approaching then which was GST. We were prepared with GST ready POS Machines and also put in efforts to educate our primary and secondary customers who in turn educated the end consumer on the necessity of using a GST ready POS machine in their stores so that the transition would affect them more positively.

Soon, we launched a range of POS products that could make computing, scanning, printing and cloud storing of A

www.digitalterminal.in

GST transactions much more simpler.

How do you support Government of India’s ‘Make-in-India’ program? Do you have any suggestion for government to make this much more attractive?

The Make in India project for us is as big an ambition as for the Government of India, we truly believe that we are entering into the orbit of being a superpower with this project. ESY has already channelled its vision to be the largest POS manufacturer in the country with our plan of setting up a factory. We are working proactively to achieve this vision by the year 2019. Though there are marginal differences visible in the market with the efforts of our government, still much more is to be done by the bureaucracy. The biggest challenge that we will face as a digital imaging company is the lack of a product component manufacturing structure and the difficulty in sourcing it. An efficient component corridor in the country can strengthen the base of our Make in India project.

A

How GST changed your business affair in year 2017? What were your preparation to adopt this biggest tax reform?

ESY started out its journey with products that fall under the consumables and accessory divisions, but GST was one of the biggest catalyst who could establish ESY as a master product company in the POS industry.

For many of our end consumers ranging from small time A

retailers to big chains, we could be a consultant as well as a provider of an ecosystem that could support them in the time of such a monumental tax transition. Since we are an ISO 9001 – 2015 certified company, we are highly process oriented and sorted with our day to day transactions. This made the impact of GST in our day to day billing merely a change of procedure in calculating and filing taxes.

What’s your channel strength currently in India? How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

ESY very early in the stage of being a POS company has understood that POS does not now stand for the clichéd term of Point of Sale instead it is being redefined as Point of Services, an umbrella terminology that covers not only billing but beyond it i.e a receipt of recording , a proof of storing or any device that can process easier outputs. This knowledge has been our biggest strength enabling our channel partners to reach out in a larger way and positioning the application of our product wherever it is required. We have also realised that to understand and reach out to the end consumer, we need to redefine the age old distributor reseller system to the structure of system integrators. They help us in providing a one point of support for hardware, software and service to the consumer. By the end of 2018, we look to retain and develop our existing channel partners to the strength of a system integrator while attracting other existing system integrators of varied sizes to provide wider reach, extended support and healthier profits.

A

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

51

C H A N N E L ROADMAP

KON ICA MIN OLTA

“WE BOAST OF ONE OF THE BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE NETWORK IN INDIA’S PRINTING INDUSTRY SEGMENT” Ku l d e e p M a l h ot r a , V ic e P r e s id ent Konica Minolta Bu s ines s Sol u t ion s In d ia P v t. Lt d.

Mr. Kuldeep Malhotra is the Head of Sales division for Konica Minolta India. He is qualified as B.Com Graduate with Degree in Business Management from YMCA Delhi. He has a vast experience of 35 years in the printing industry in India. He has earlier worked in Xerox India at various positions leading to organization’s growth in the past. He has served in various key positions throughout his career span and worked in various domains from Sales, Business Operations, Marketing, Finance, and Channel Management to Managed Services. Mr. Malhotra has shown tremendous strength in growing turnover for Konica Minolta. Despite of the fact that the printing market in India is not growing, Konica Minolta has shown 30% plus growth year on year, under his leadership in last five years.He is currently positioned as “Vice President (Sales)” and holds an additional key responsibility as “Business Strategist and Advisor to Managing Director”.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination:

52

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

Libra Ratan Tata Konica Minolta The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga Cricket Europe & US

www.digitalterminal.in

Indian printing industry is one of the world’s leading market for all global vendors. They all have specific plans and team for Indian market to grab this enormous opportunities.Konica Minolta has been able to dominate the Indian printing market since they started their operation in year 2010. The brand has maintained its leadership position by offering excellent products for offices, corporate house and large printers across the country. They also witnessed a significant response for their professional Production Printers in India this year which helped them to retain their leadership.

The company with its high quality printing solutions, particularly for SMBs, offers unmatched customer service in India. With ‘Digital Printing’ being the next big thing in the country’s printing space, the company is committed to fetch help businesses transit smoothly from conventional printing to digital printing. Kuldeep Malhotra, Vice President, Konica Minolta Business Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. interacted with DT and outlined his successful journey in year 2017 and also shared his upcoming channel plans.

What have been the crucial milestones of your company during year 2017?

How do you assure your customer excellent service support? What are your investments plans to enhance service support infrastructure to cover entire India?

We have been serving Indian market and creating a wide range of Printing & document solutions requirement for Indian Corporate Customers. In 2016-17 Konica Minolta sold over 20,000 units of B&W and around 2400 units in colour segment. We target to increase these numbers in the coming years to increase our market share. We achieved first milestone of 500 crore revenue in 2016-17 and our target is to increase our double-digit growth YOY.

We boast of one of the best customer service network in India’s printing industry segment to ensure that our esteemed customer fetch last mile customer service support in the country. We plan to invest a significant chunk of our revenue in further bolstering our customer service network via strategic tie ups and collaboration as this comes as one of our key USPs.

What were the major challenges for your company? How did you fight those challenges?

Please share your current revenue and market growth rate. What is target for year 2018?

We plan to increase the number of our partners in the coming year as well as focus more aggressively on training programmes to help them understand the challenges and opportunities prevailing in the market.

In the beginning there are some hiccups in the market due to demonetization in November since most of the customers were in PFP segment.

The Indian printing industry is increasingly being driven by growth in packaging and labels. The print media also continues to grow at a healthy annual pace of four percent. As its growth trends continue to be well over the world averages, in print volume terms, India are set to become the fifth largest market by 2018 moving up largest market by 2018 moving up five notches from its present tenth slot.We at Konica Minolta are growing significantly in India and target to increase our numbers in the coming years. We achieved first milestone of 500 crore revenue in 2016-17 and our target is to increase our double-digit growth YOY.

A

A

How GST changed your business affair in year 2017? What were your preparations to adopt this biggest tax reform?

GST has brought a uniform tax structure for A businesses in India which is helping them to improve on their productivity as well as turnaround time. We can now focus more on innovation as well as expanding our penetration in the country as tax related hurdles have been eliminated. www.digitalterminal.in

A

A

What’s your channel strength currently in India? How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

We have 180 + partners across India. We will focus on strategic tie-ups with new partners across India who can help their customers by offering the most relevant printing solutions to them. We will also organize workshops and training sessions on a regular basis to train our new as well as existing partners about the changing dynamics of the Indian printing segment.

A

What will be your key Go-To-Market Strategy for the year 2018?

We are a partner-driven company and our foremost focus would be to penetrate new untapped regions in India via roping in new channel partners. We will also focus aggressively on digital industrial printing solutions to meet the new age demands, involving high volume jobs and quality printing in India.Our focus is growing more on SMB & Corporate segment under Make in India & other Digital initiatives by government. The key focus is to provide solutions along with MFP to our existing and new customers.

A

What will be major products you will be launching in year 2018? Which will be your key target market?

We will be launching new models in both Black & white and colour. Keeping in view our current strength in jobbers & SMB corporate. Colour will be our focus since colourization is increasing YOY. Some of the key verticals which we will focus on include- Information Technology, BFSI, Healthcare, Hospitality, Government etc.

A

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

53

CHANNE L R OAD M A P

M I CROTE K

“MICROTEK IS THE ONLY BRAND IN INDIA WITH WIDEST NETWORK OF SERVICE SUPPORT” Effective power supply remains a big challenge for Indians majorly if they are living in smaller towns or villages. Our country has been fighting this since so long time. But Microtek, the undisputed market leader in India, has been on a mission to ‘Power’ India since its establishment.

The brand has gained huge reputation among consumers’ mind and nowadays Microtek is preferred choice for all of us. Manoj Jain, Vice President, Microtek International Pvt. Ltd. is the guiding force behind company’s historical journey. Mr. Jain has already planned his market strategy for year 2018 which he shared with DT in an exclusive interaction recently.

MANOJ JAIN, VICE PRESIDENT, MICROTEK INTERNATIONAL PVT. LTD. What have been the crucial milestone of your company during year 2017?

This year we have quite moderate growth in our core business segment. We have been able to maintain our leadership position by offering best quality products to our loyal customer. We have also successfully established our market share in stabilizer and solar panel segment. Our overall growth is very encouraging and we expect huge growth in this New Year as market sentiments have improved.

A

Manoj Jain is Vice President at Microtek International, country’s largest power products manufacturer which has now the largest installation base of more than 11 Crore user’s. He is the core driving force for the company’s growth and responsible for Marketing and excellent company’s operations between all departments, and he has bought excellence to the team working in Microtek. With overall experience of more than 15 years, Mr. Manoj has really worked hard to maintain the momentum of growth for the company.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination:

CANCER

What were the major challenge for your company? How do you fought those challenges?

The main challenge in the year 2017 has been the change in tax regime after implementation of GST. We were required to migrate into new tax system. As we have huge operational structure so shifting all system to new model was time taking. But with excellent team efforts we gradually migrated to all GST compliances. All our network of channel partners are now GST enabled. We have successfully recovered from the slowdown impact of this transition phase. Post GST era has lots of benefit as the process of product movement across country has been simplified.

MOTIVATIONAL BOOKS TABLE TENNIS USA

How do you support Government of India’s ‘Make-in-India’ program?

At Microtek we completely support governments ‘Make in India’ Program and we have been manufacturing most of our wide range of power products in India itself. To make it more attractive government must provide more incentives to the local manufacturer discouraging imports.

A

What’s your channel strength currently in India? How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

A

54

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

How do you assure your customer excellent service support?

Microtek is the only company in India with widest network of 150 own service centers and 355 service points spread all across India empowered with trained and qualified service engineers . We keep on investing for upgrading and expanding our service footprint on a regular basis. This has been the main and unique strength for the success of Microtek Brand.

A

What will be your key Go-To-Market Strategy for year 2018?

A

MUKESH AMBANI RELIANCE INDUSTRIES LTD.

channel partners all across India, and our sales team is continuously working on adding new partners to strengthen it further. They have been given set time bound targets to appoint and add new channel partners.

Our strategy always has been to make available user friendly value for money products for the masses. Microtek continuously work towards bringing best, latest and advanced technology products at an affordable price point for all set of consumers in India.

A

What will be major products you will be launching in year 2018?

We will be adding all types of solutions in renewable solar energy segment in this year.

Also new models in Online Ups segment are also in the pipeline and this year our focus will be on corporate and institutional segment also along with our strength of domestic segment.

A

What is your revenue growth target for year 2018?

Micotek has been successfully maintained its double digit growth trend. We have been growing @15% for last many years and we will try to maintain the same in this year as well.

A

We have a network of more than 35000 www.digitalterminal.in

CH ANNEL R OA D M A P

ECS

“ECS IS ONLY COMPANY WHO HAS 4 MODELS OF MINI PC WHICH ARE BIS CERTIFIED, OFFERING PEACE OF MIND TO CHANNEL PARTNERS” R a j sh e k h a r Bh at t, C ou n t ry M a n ag e r - I nd ia, Elitegrou p C om p u t e r Syst e m s ( E C S)

Rajshekhar Bhatt is currently leading ECS in India as Country Manager. He is currently driving force behind Liva Mini PC business and also for Motherboard business in India. Mr. Bhatt is one of the dynamic business head with work experience of more than 26 years. He has played a very crucial role for the growth and establishment of various companies in India. He is a true veteran and known name for channel community in India. Rajshekhar Bhatt was instrumental in launching and establishing ASUS, Creative, ATI (AMD) business operations in India. He was responsible in Setting-up and Expanding the India business with overwhelming success. His leadership and visionary initiatives have enabled him in setting up Channel and OEM business – and also in enhancing and recreating newer opportunities from the Traditional Channels, System Integrators, Retail and e-tail business.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon:

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

Tata’s & Birla’s giving something back to society or mankind

Dream Company:

A Company which appreciate your effort & company in which you enjoy your work

Favourite Sports:

All Outdoor sports, Cricket in general so common for us Indian I guess

Favourite HolidayDestination:

56

Taurus

My home town, Jodhpur

www.digitalterminal.in

ICT market in India are now fueling due to projects like digital India, Smart Cities, IoT, Make in India and others. GST also played key role in its growth as this has given hassle free business environment for market players. Global players are very much aggressive now in taking advantage of this immense opportunity. ECS, the market leader in offering wide range of innovative products also eyeing Indian market to boost their market share. Year 2017 was very encouraging for ECS in India as their flagship product LIVA Mini PC successfully established its presence in India’s key market and verticals. The company is also planning to support government’s Make in India mission by establishing manufacturing facility in India. Rajshekhar Bhatt, Country ManagerIndia, Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), outlines his ambition and plans for Year 2018. Mr. Bhatt who is very instrumental in growing ECS business India shared his thoughts on overall go-to-market strategy with DT.

What have been the crucial milestone of your company during year 2017?

We see this passing year as major contributor in positioning our key products in India. We have been able to sustain constant growth this year as well. We successfully established ECS mini PC brand LIVA in Indian market. Believe ECS is only company which is offering range of products catering to different applications & verticals.

ECS is only company who has 4 models of mini PC which are BIS certified offering peace of mind to channel partners and authenticating that LIVA mini PC from ECS is suited for Indian conditions.

A

What were the major challenges for your company? How do you fought those challenges?

To develop more verticals of mini PC is the biggest challenge for ECS. In 2017, we see ourselves as an important role to accelerate Digital India. Therefore, we started attending some exhibitions related to smart city, and tried to approach system integrators in different industries.

We expect ourselves to develop solutions and to replicate the successful experiences to different SI partners.

A

How do you support Government of India’s ‘Makein-India’ program? Do you have any suggestion for government to make this much more attractive?

ECS view India as very important market and we believe Indian PC market still has great opportunity to grow. In line with the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, ECS is investing facility and planning to manufacture our motherboard in India. Considering the demand of an ever expanding market, we are really excited about our investment and we hope it would help us to broaden our market and bring our innovative products to consumers much more effectively.

A

www.digitalterminal.in

How GST changed your business affair in year 2017? What were your preparation to adopt this biggest tax reform?

ECS as company and its channel partners are very happy and were looking forward to GST implementation. Beside little slow business just before the launch date, we didn’t face any other challenge. We have been able to shift our billing as per new tax regime to fall under GST compliances. We also supported our partners during this transition period. As GST came into picture we see this as a huge opportunity for us as well. Our Mini PC models are very much suitable and affordable solutions for small and medium businesses in India to help them start their digital journey. We do believe PC hardware industry should see some growth because of GST implementation.

A

What’s your channel strength currently in India?

How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

Channel partners are our biggest assets and strength.

We have very strong presence across India through our key partner. ECS currently reaches in almost 54 cities and town across India. Since Rashi Peripherals Pvt. Ltd. is our exclusive distributor partner, our presence are very strong.

Rashi also takes care of our after sales support. In 2018, we will keep improving our sales volume by educating our partners about our products, guiding them target segment and insuring profitability for all the concerns in value chain.

A

How do you assure your customer excellent service support? What are your investment plan to enhance service support infrastructure to cover entire India?

A

Our exclusive distributor partner Rashi Peripherals Pvt. Ltd. has 54 branches across the country, and we

position our products at suitable & affordable price offering rich features. ECS will be sole brand in India who has not changed its channel structure & support system which confirms that all concerns in value chain are more than satisfied with present setup.

What will be your key Go-To-Market Strategy for year 2018?

ECS is the World’s leading hardware and PC system manufacturer. Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) has the many products, but few quick update are the world’s first mini PC powered by the Intel processor, education notebook as a niche product and intelligent gateways for IoT field.

A

What will be major products you will be launching in year 2018? Which will be your key target market?

ECS’ latest mini PC LIVA Q will be the major product to promote in 2018. LIVA Q the smallest 4K ready mini PC in the world and this is suitable for various industries.

LIVA Q is also a good choice for end user who wants to save power, save space and save money. Additionally ECS will also enhance existing portfolio be launching many more models under mini PC & Motherboards categories. Please watch this space.

A

Please share your current revenue and market growth rate. What is target for year 2018?

ECS has been growing constantly at a healthy pace YoY. We have been able to sustain leadership position where we are able to offer high quality and innovative products to Indian customers. Our target is to be among the top 2 brands in mini PC product category and to be number 1 brand shipping to India if one consider the shipment to SIs & OEMs. A

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

57

CH ANNEL R OA D M A P

WE STE RN DIGITAL

“WE KEEP EVOLVING AND UPDATING OUR CHANNEL ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMS FROM THE TRADITIONAL APPROACH” K hal id Wani, D i r e c t o r o f S a le s, I n d i a , We st e r n D ig ita l C or p or at ion

Khalid Wani is the Director of Sales at Western Digital Corporation. As a young achiever with over a decade of work experience in technology distribution and international sales, Khalid joined Western Digital in 2008 as Regional Sales Manager for Middle East and North Africa and was soon promoted to handle one of the most popular portfolios across India, Middle East & Africa in 2010. Under his leadership, Western Digital, a comparatively late entrant to the region, grew rapidly to be recognized as one of the most trusted and most respected brands in digital storage space. Khalid started his career with Jumbo Electronics, one of the biggest multi-brand retailers in Middle East. Later he joined IBM® in 2003, from where he moved to Lenovo after it acquired the Personal Communications Devices (PCD) division of IBM. Khalid has earned several recognitions for his incisive business insights and outcomes. Channel Middle East positioned him as the first runner up among the top 10 Channel Executives for the year 2010 in the Middle East. He was also nominated among the top three best channel managers at Distree Middle East, the largest reseller event in the region. Khalid has a Master’s degree in International Business from University of Wollongong (UAE).

58

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

www.digitalterminal.in

We observed enormous growth in data consumption in recent years which was primarily fuelled by digital transformation, smartphone usage and internet penetration. Effective data storage solutions are not only important for organisations now, but the end users are also required to enhance their storage solution capabilities. Western Digital, the leader in this domain offers wide range of storage solutions as per consumer’s requirement.

Khalid Wani, Director of Sales, India, Western Digital Corporation, reveals company’s overall performance in year 2017 and his entire channel plans to be executed in new calendar year.

What have been the crucial milestones of your company during year 2017?

looking out for high performance within their small form factor PCs.

This year our focus has been to expand our expertise in different markets and cater to the changing needs of our varied consumer base. There was an extended focus on digitalization for storage needs in the media and entertainment industry, which has been a big business driver this year especially in the Indian market. Digitalization has gradually started to make its way into every industry and the entertainment industry has not shied away from adopting emerging technologies.

Western Digital’s association with various media houses in India and outside has initiated an innovation in the media and entertainment business including multiple production houses in India and globally . A critical part of our business now is to identify the trends in each sector and to grow from there.

In December, we launched our innovative and reliable storage solution called My Cloud Home in India, which will allow consumers to store, save and access all their memories on the go with the one personal cloud storage solution. In the coming year as well our primary focus would be to grow our pillar to pillar strength in the country and ensure that we have a strong core that helps in creating a robust value system for our customers.

A

What are the key products introduced in Indian market?

We have also expanded our product offering by launching the SanDisk Dual Drive series this year, which serves as a solution for quick data transfer from android smartphone to any other devices, thereby resolving the smartphone’s need for more storage space in the most effective manner. We have pushed the borders for mobile storage solutions through the launch resulting in storage coming to the forefront catering to both B2C and B2B market. This change is positive. Along with this, we also focussed on our surveillance and internal SSDs segment. We recently launched the WD Black PCIe SSDs, which is a next generation high performance storage device and the latest offering for PCs. This device unleashes performance for next level computing and is an ideal fit for gamers, developers and other consumers, A

www.digitalterminal.in

What’s your channel strength currently in India?

We have a strong channel base within India. Our channel plans in India have focused on leveraging the existing channel base and transferring to them more enterprise specific knowledge. We keep evolving and updating our channel engagement programs from the traditional approach. We aim to work with our channel partners more closely and continue our associations with system builders, integrators and value sellers that operate in the storage sector.

A

How do you plan product positioning and awareness across all regions?

We also ensure that the channel partners are offered the right product for the setup they may be working on. This is also critical, considering the 1000s of touch points that exists around the country, dispersal of the correct information across geographies and in multiple languages becomes important for ensuring efficiency in a multilingual environment. Channel partners awareness of flash storage products in addition to our hard drive products enables the existing channel base to open more gateways for our products.

A

To ensure that the right information is being fed to the channel ecosystem, training and education programs are scheduled for the channel partners via different mediums which would include, in-person, online and mobile apps. Apart from these programs, get-togethers, programs and workshops are arranged across different regions in the country on regular intervals. This widely spread enablement ecosystem for the channel partners has generally led us to be known as a channel friendly organization.

How do you assure your customer excellent service support? What are your investments plans to enhance service support infrastructure to cover entire India?

We at Western Digital aim to provide our customers with a robust value system and on the same lines we have adapted to service support infrastructures to adhere to the current Indian market. We will have 25 new OTC replacement centres equipped with testing infrastructure that is deployed to ensure over the counter replacements for customers at key locations. These OTC replacement centers would cover a majority of the WD Express and drop point requests. These replacement centers will ensure that customers receive their replacement drives the same day with available inventory in case the necessary product testing confirms a defective drive. Along with this, 50 new drop points with testing infrastructure will be deployed for expediting returns for the customers at key locations. Real time integration with one of the largest electronics manufacturing services company and WD will also be maintained in order to reduce processing time and improve information accuracy. The end result is to help shorten lead time and improve customer satisfaction.

A

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

59

CH ANNEL R OA D M A P

G I G A BYTE

“WE TAKE GOOD CARE OF PARTNERS IN TERMS OF MARKETING AND SERVICE SUPPORT” Su n il G r e wa l , D ir e c t or , G IGA BYTE Technology (Ind ia) Pvt. Ltd

Mr. Grewal, is heading the GIGABYTE Technology India Pvt. Ltd as Director.

Under the leadership of Mr. Grewal GIGABYTE has become the leading Motherboard brand in India, creating a sizeable customer base. Prior to taking over as Director, GIGABYTE India, Mr. Grewal was the company’s Regional Manager, heading the Sales Operations for both North and East India. He has spent over twelve years in GIGABYTE. Mr. Grewal holds a Bachelor of Science (Electronics and Telecommunication) degree from the University of Nagpur, and also a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Administration (PGDBA). Mr. Sunil Grewal with his customer-oriented approach, impressive track record in surpassing the company’s sales objectives consistently, as well as rich experience in the Indian hardware sector, has improved GIGABYTE market share, while enhancing relationships with partners and customers.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination:

60

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

Gemini Bill Gates Kotler’s Management books Cricket New Zeeland

www.digitalterminal.in

PC component business in India witnessed reasonable growth throughout the year. But the emergence of strong gamer’s community has fuelled its growth further which is very encouraging for all players. GIGABYTE, the market leader in PC component business also focused on capturing key market share by bringing high quality products for Indian market.

GIGABYTE gaming premium brand AORUS has already made it’s presence felt in the market in second half of the year. The company seems to be ready with further plans to boost its presence in year 2018. Sunil Grewal, Director, GIGABYTE Technology (India) Pvt. Ltd. shared his overall journey in the passing year as well talked on his upcoming channel plans.

What have been the crucial milestone of your company during year 2017?

Year 2017 remains most exciting for Gigabyte in India as we are able to fuel our growth across India.

Our products did extremely well in the Indian market as we offered excellent products at an affordable for PC users. We observed moderate growth for all product segments in India this year. We also extended full support to promote the industry in India. Gigabyte also organised certain events to promote high end gaming products. We always stay ahead in creating awareness and providing in hand experience for gamers in India. The major highlight was launch of GIGABYTE Gaming premium brand called “AORUS “to its components like motherboard, VGA in 2017. We had successfully positioned this product as high quality premium product in Indian market. It has been also welcomed and well accepted by gaming community.

A

What were the major challenge for your company?

GST and Demonetisation are the two major challenges which were faced by entire market in India this year.

PC market majorly affected by demonetisation in second quarter as demand was very low due to cash crunch but gradually the market sentiments improved almost in second half of this calendar year. Whereas GST brought opportunity along with challenges for entire ecosystem. We considered it is an opportunity to take corrections in terms of Channel inventory to make business more profitable for partners in coming quarters. GIGABYTE also came up with BRIX – mini PC to help business owner implement GST compliances at competitive price. We all are very much sure that GST will surly help our economy and overall business to grow much healthier in this New Year.

A

What’s your channel strength currently in India?

How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

Channel partners are our core strength who help us in retaining the market leader in India. As our company policy, we truly work very closely with partners to A

www.digitalterminal.in

achieve very encouraging results for both of us. GIGABYTE is currently having 100 + premier partners and 800+ value partners spread across A, B, C, and D class cities who do continuous business with us. We take good care of partners in terms of marketing and service support. Our priority always remains to educate them on regular basis as soon we introduce new products for Indian market. Our channel education programs like ‘Chai PeCharcha’ with partners was very much appreciated by channel community which we organise in B & C class cities to make channel aware about GIGABYTE’s latest products and technology innovations. We keeps on running channel incentive programs and loyalty program for partners. We keep on motivating our partners through proper rewards which ultimately helps them in achieving higher sales.

How do you assure your customer excellent service support? What are your investment plan to enhance service support infrastructure to cover entire India?

A As one of the leader in motherboard and VGA card solution providers, we are always in pursuit for fantastic user experience & support. Hence, we have technical support toll free number & non-stop Facebook page to solve user’s doubt and provide required info.

To ensure the service quality, we setup 6 chipset level service hubs offering trouble shooting consultancy &walk-in repair service. With 40+ collection centers throughout India, trying to create a smooth & comfortable reach for users. All the service staff are experience & well trained from vendor side with highest industrial standard.

Technology advance day by day, a good service center is the least now. We just have two service centers upgraded both in hardware and software. Capital investment carry on one step ahead against latest technology & customer’s requirement. To help user cross the barrier of time and geographical limitation. The social network service platform aligns with physical service wing that will be our focus to ensure better reach and in time solution from our team to users.

What will be your key Go-To-Market Strategy for year 2018?

Our GTM has been very consistent during this year which has given immense results despite many challenges. With this New Year, we will have complete PC components under one roof for Indian customers. We now offer complete range of components from motherboard to graphics card, Gaming peripherals, and PSU. Now partners will have much more edge by offering complete PC with GIGABYTE components. Now as the gaming market has started gaining momentum, we will be very much aggressive in this domain by actively participating at any such activity across India. Our aim is to empower gamers by proving high quality products for their better performance.

A

What will be major products you will be launching in year 2018? Which will be your key target verticals / market?

GIGABYTE is the market leader in offering excellent quality products when it comes to PC components. Our focus will be on enhancing the reach of our existing products to it’s target customers. Apart from the regular products, GIGABYTE premium gaming products under AORUS brand will be also our focus area for year 2018. With the rise of gamers in India, we expect AORUS brand to get adopted by gaming community. Additionally, we will continue to focus on BRIX mini PC for education, corporate and banking segments through SIs. A

Please share your current revenue and market growth rate. What is target for year 2018?

GIGABYTE is currently enjoying market leadership position in motherboard segment. We have been leading this market with a constant YoY on growth in last few years. We have been very much thankful to channel partners who had helped us in sustaining this lead over the years. We are very much motivated now to take this successful journey ahead in year 2018 with support of our channel partners.

A

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

61

CH ANNEL R OA D M A P

TE N DA

“WITH INTENSIVE SUPPORT TO OUR PARTNERS, TENDA WILL SURELY BOOST THE CHANNEL STRENGTH IN 2018” Frank Rao, Gen e r a l M a n ag e r , I n d i a & SA A R C, Tenda India

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination:

62

Rabbit (Chinese) Steve Jobs Shenzhen Tenda Technology Co.Ltd Marketing Warfare Badminton Bali

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

www.digitalterminal.in

Tenda has committed to delivering easy-to-install and affordable networking solutions, offering innovative, cutting-edge products to ease people’s intelligent life. Innovation always remains the soul of Tenda technology and they aim to offer top quality products at a competitive price point. In recent times, company introduced various range of wireless routers as per your requirement for better connectivity and user experience. Tenda offers wide range of products like home networking, business networking, switch, broadband CPE, gateway, powerlines, mobile broadband, IP camera etc. Frank Rao, General Manager, India & SAARC, Tenda India outlines his overall marketing strategies and partners plan for year 2018 with DT.

What have been the crucial milestone of your company during year 2017?

2017 saw many reforms in IT Sector and overall Business flow in India, with the impact of Demonetisation and GST, clearly hovering the business environment there was a speed breaker in Tenda’s and overall Networking markets growth in India. but apart from all this Tenda came up as a strong brand where we have built up the Professional team in 2017, we have also started concentrating on the Marketing aspect of the brand as we know it is a vital requirement in the current scenario. On global front, Tenda launched its first ever True Mesh Networking unit, which we are soon going to bring in India and stir the market with it.

A

What were the major challenges for your company? How do you fought those challenges?

Indeed though Technology has remained exceptional and people are upgrading their smart devices, a foremost hurdle we observe is the acceptance of people on investing money on the router.

A

As far as price is acknowledged, yes, the cost is an important part but Tenda’s strength of having its own manufacturing unit with ample resources, help us to attain and sustain the affordable price segment with best quality products in this fiercely competitive market. At present we are operating pretty good and planning to invest more on marketing front to educate our customers and to maintain and build up the brand notable and distinguished Identity in India.

How GST changed your business affair in year 2017? What were your preparation to adopt this biggest tax reform?

Implementation of GST is making business environment in India very healthy and fair process compared to previous reforms. Competition is getting generalised which is eliminating unfair means. In long run, once market is well versed with concept GST will A

www.digitalterminal.in

play and important role for Tenda to make it business boom in coming respective years. We understand that Governments initiative and thus started preparing for it as soon as we got the details, the biggest Tax reform in history of India was not something to be considered as childs play, we revised almost entire price system to suit the market scenario and tried our best to support our partners and maintained the market MOP so that customers and partners don’t feel big chaos due to GST. What’s your channel strength currently in India? How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

Channel Partners and brand can sell more by joining hands to provide the consumer with the better technological products by understanding their requirement. This way partners can sell a better product to the consumer giving both parties benefits on advancing technology and in this it is evenly important to join hands with the Global Brand which gives them technically competent products to service that customer to have better Experience. This way everyone will be having a win-win situation. For maintaining channel strength, we at Tenda prefer to closely cooperate with those determined channel partners who are also ready to put their efforts in Tenda products in his respective region. We make sure that Tenda’s partners get easy sell whenever they are pitching out our product to the consumer, with our continuous Investment in branding which results in customer knowing Wi-Fi, uses of Wi-Fi and how our products can help them in their day to day life. This invariably leads to demand. Not to forget, we make sure that our partners are promoted prominently across channel magazines and our official Facebook page, which gives customer trust on our partner and bonds our relation with our partners. To provide lucrative benefits Schemes and offers are introduced from time to time according to market requirement and status.

A

To put it in simple words Tenda’s channel strengths are products design, R&D support from HQ, one of

few networking manufacturer and reasonable price to products. With intensive support to our partners and building an everlasting bond, Tenda will surely boost the channel strength positively in 2018.

What will be major products/solutions you will be launching in year 2018?

In 2018, you will witness Tenda focusing on Mesh Products, which we believe are future of networking being a perfect whole home WiFi set for large homes & offices. Also as you are dual-band is getting more generalised you will see more AC Standard products from Tenda.

A

Apart from Wireless Market, you will see Tenda strengthening our presence in surveillance market, with our POE & other switches. We will make sure through proper marketing and promotion we educate our users with a vast portfolio of products Tenda is offering from Wireless home units all way to a wide range of networking switches.

Please share your current revenue and market growth rate. What is target for year 2018? How do you plan to achieve this set target?

Due to confidentiality and financial rules we can’t disclose this kind of information. But would like to mention in 2017, due to Demonetisation and GST, all India IT Market was down compared with 2016. Nevertheless, since Sep 2017, the market is gradually improving. We firmly believe that in F.Y. 2018, Tenda India business will see 25% growth and our target of 2018 will be to top the current year by a huge margin. To achieve this forecasted target, we are in process to expand our Tenda India local sales and marketing team, and open more service centers and will invest more marketing fund on Branding also. Meanwhile, all the coming new products will accurately target our customers to provide the right and considerable product as well as service.

A

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

63

CH ANNEL R OA D M A P

I N TEX

“INTEX AIMS TO INCREASE ITS CONSUMER DURABLES REVENUE SHARE FROM THE CURRENT 15% TO 25% BY 2018�

Ni dhi Markanday, D i r e c t o r , I n t e x T e ch n ol og ie s

Nidhi Markanday is Director of one of the fastest growing technology companies in the country, Intex Technologies. In her current role, Nidhi is responsible for driving the business strategy and expanding the product portfolio of Consumer Durables & IT Peripherals vertical that includes LED TVs, washing machines, refrigerators speakers, power banks, headphones and others. Nidhi joined Intex in 2001 after a two-year stint as a coordinator with a health insurance company, E-Meditek Solutions. With over 16 years of extensive experience in strategic business planning, marketing, sales and channel development, Nidhi has played an integral role in transforming the consumer durables and IT business to a significant revenue driver for the company. Having been with Intex for more than 14 years, Nidhi is also instrumental in identifying new channel partnerships and strengthening the distribution network.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book: Favourite Holiday Destination:

64

Scorpio Mr. Narendra Bansal Intex Technologies (I) Ltd The Secret by Rhonda Byrne Prague

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

www.digitalterminal.in

Intex Technologies has diversified its business gradually by enhancing its product portfolio in consumer durables & IT product range. The brand has gained its leadership position across Indian market over the year by offering high quality products at a very affordable price point. Apart from strong channel network, they have been continuously opening Intex exclusive branded stores - ‘Intex Smart World’ as experience zones.

Currently they have 130+ stores running across 90+ cities across 26 states. Intex plans to take take it to 250+ in FY 2018-19. Ms. Nidhi Markanday, Director, Intex Technologies gives her insight about current growth and upcoming business plans to boost overall market share.

What have been the crucial milestones of your company during year 2017?

Year 2017 has been quite eventful for the consumer electronics industry and for Intex itself. Intex Technologies has proved its mettle in the consumer durables space, as recently, according to a GFK report, Intex surpassed Videocon & Micromax in the LED TV business to become the No. 1 Indian LED TV player in the market with a 4% market share. Since the last financial year, Intex has renewed its focus on Consumer Durables with the launch of a plethora of products and taking it further, for FY 2017-18 Intex aims to increase its consumer durables revenue share from the current 15% to 25% by 2018 and up to 50% in the long-term as overall contribution to the company’s revenue.

Intex had sold a record 3 Lakh power banks each in August and September 2017. Intex Technologies became the largest domestic manufacturer of Multimedia Speakers in India, with its Jammu Plant set-up in 2004, ingeniously manufacturing approx 1.5Million speakers that are 100% Make-in-India consumer electronic product. In the mobiles vertical despite the entry of RJio last year and the announcement of demonetization, Intex was able to work around the fast-moving market scenario by being the first domestic smartphone player to have finished its 3G inventory and simultaneously revamped its product portfolio with 4G-Volte models.

A

How do you define the overall expected growth for smartphone market in India?

A Major trends having emerged in Year 2017 saw the shift in consumer preference for higher MP cameras, dual cameras, higher RAM & ROM for performance & storage capacity. The most recent being preference for bigger screens in mobile phones and moving to Bezel-less screens being popular termed as Infinity Display. The smartphone segment is constantly witnessing innovation in features being offered by brands. In year 2017, industry witnessed an overall market growth of 10% - 15% while the online market grew by 45%-50%. Smartphones segment saw

www.digitalterminal.in

models priced in the range of Rs 8K-15K is driving the market with over 40% share in total sales, owing to high conversion rate by consumers to higher price segment due to effective 0% finance schemes availability.

How do you support Government of India’s ‘Makein-India’ program?

In line with the Prime Minister’s Make in India policy, Intex Technologies has been continuously increasing domestic manufacturing. Intex has been manufacturing in India since 2004. The company is manufacturing about 2 million phones per month in India presently. Currently, we have 5 manufacturing facilities – Jammu (1), Baddi in HP (1) and Noida (3) employing over 5000 people. The company is building one of India’s largest manufacturing facility at Kasna, Greater Noida of approx 20 Lac sq ft in size, where mobiles, LED TV, Air Conditioners, Refrigerators will be manufactured. Intex Technologies stepped up its Make in India program recently with the implementation of vertical integration in durables business starting with the launch of ‘LED Panel manufacturing’ of LED TV . The state-of-the-art LED Panels manufacturing set-up in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh will now ingenuously manufacture a critical component LED panel (imported till now) and its accompanying parts as against just assembling them.

performance. Our robust countrywide distribution network and strong retail presence has been our strength. To attain this objective Intex already has 1600+ distributors, 100,000 dealers/retailers overall and have a strong presence in the e-commerce space with several strategic tie-ups. In 2018, we plan on opening an additional 250 + Smart World Stores just so that we are more accessible to our consumers.

A

What’s your distribution strategy currently in India?

Our channel strategy has always been a vital part of our growth plans. With a strong network of partners our focus is in reaching the consumers across the country.

We have 20,000 retail partners in CDIT business and plans to expand the partner base to 50,000 by next year. We have a running program of Distributors meet & training that perfects them in learning about the science that goes behind creating these products. Providing experience with the expertise of in-shop demonstrators, detailing the product specifications are all a part of selling products via these partners and at Intex we make sure that we give them special schemes to motivate and sustain their A

How do you assure your customer excellent service support?

Intex has always been a strong believer of the philosophy ‘Customer is King’. While constantly working towards enhancing, sustaining and reinvigorating customer’s loyalty, one key area of focus for Intex in 2017 is ‘Process for everything and everything with Process’.

With this, the company is increasing its focus on measuring customer voice from various channels and developing a systematic mechanism to sustain customer delight. Intex has started a practice of capturing NPS (Net promoter Score) where one can find the number of customers who are loyal and ready to recommend Intex to their friends or colleagues. With such initiatives, we are transforming Intex services as a Brand Differentiator and a sales enabler. Intex Technologies has about 1500+ service centers across India that cater to even the remotest consumer of the country.

Intex being an Indian brand has always focused on meeting the expectations of its customers by giving them best of everything and hence after – sales has always been one of the most important concern for us. We are looking at opening many more service centers in the remotest parts of India in 2018.

A

Please share your current revenue and market growth rate.

In FY 16-17 Intex Revenue was Rs 4300Cr where Mobile division contributed Rs 3000Cr. We are targeting Rs 6600Cr (approx.) revenue for FY 17-18 with CDIT business will contribute about Rs 2000-2200Cr. We are very much hopeful to attain almost 45% growth in our mobile division.

A

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

65

C H AN N E L ROADMAP

RASHI PERIPHERALS

“WE WERE THE FIRST DISTRIBUTOR TO IMPLEMENT SAP ELEVEN YEARS BACK, WHICH IS TODAY PROVED TO BE A ROBUST BACKBONE FOR OUR CHANNEL STRENGTH” R a j e sh G oe n k a , V ic e P r e sid e n t, Sa l e s a n d Mark eting, Ras hi Perip herals

Mr. Rajesh Goenka serves as the Vice President, Sales and Marketing at Rashi Peripherals. An Engineering and Management graduate, he is known as True Marketer having a rich experience in ICT distribution industry. Under his dynamic leadership, Rashi Peripherals has grown with 25% CAGR since last 15 years. Prior joining Rashi Peripherals, Mr. Goenka served in NVIDIA as the Head of Marketing – India, Middle East & Africa for two years. Winner of “Amongst the top 10 IT Channel Heads in India”, he is one of the most popular faces in IT channel and media. Shortlisted among the BEST CMOs in the Indian ICT industry in 2017 by VAR India, he has received many accolades for his exemplary contribution to the IT channel business from leading publications.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination: 66

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

Virgo Ratan Tata Rashi Peripherals Pvt Ltd B4B Running

Goa and Amsterdam www.digitalterminal.in

Indian IT distribution business is driven by few National Distributors, who help market growing healthy despite all sort of challenges faced by them. Rashi Peripherals, India’s Best National Distributor has lead the IT revolution in India since its inception. Leading IT & Mobile brands have put their trust in Rashi Peripherals to penetrate into the vast Indian market since 28 years. The company helps more than 20 brands in reaching to their target customers. In year 2018, they are planning to add new product lines in TFT monitors, peripherals, and consumer branded PCs in the next fiscal. Talking more on their New Year plans with DT, Rajesh Goenka, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Rashi Peripherals, shared his entire game plan for channel partners.

What have been the crucial milestones of your company during the year 2017?

How GST changed your business affair in the year 2017?

Please share the name of the leading brands who are working with you currently?

The financial year 2017 has been a consistent year for Rashi Peripherals in terms of business growth. We continued to maintain more than 20% CAGR growth yoy despite major transition in the taxation regulations. While continuing our growth momentum, we also expanded our product portfolio by adding new brands. We take a lot of pride to say that out of our 20 brands, 18 brands have grown steadily yoy.

I would say that business has become simpler post GST implantation with uniform taxation regime facilitating a lot of ease in movement of goods across the regions.

However, finance is still struggling to cope-up with the debit and credit of the GST value, but I believe that the overall business has been an upswing in terms of demand.

We are working with all leading brands in India currently. We distribute products of brands like ADATA, AMD, APC, Apple, Asus, ECS, Fitbit, Google, HP, Intel, Logitech, Lenovo, Leadtek, Micron, NVIDIA, Plantronics, SanDisk, Toshiba, Western Digital, VOTO smartphones and many other world-renowned brands.

We have observed an uptake in the demand for desktops from SMBs and Corporates post GST implementation, which has resulted in shoot up in demand for branded Desktops and DIY PCs along with Components. Overall we are pretty optimistic about the uptake in the IT business. The ease of doing business will trigger further demand and upscale in the Components and Peripherals business in particular.

What will be new vendor agreement we may see in the year 2018? Please share if you have any plans to boost product offerings under your distribution company?

A

This year we were also recognized for our stupendous success. We were honoured with the prestigious Indywood IT Excellence Award 2017 by the Telangana Government.

Media publication Digital Terminal conferred us the ‘Best National Distributor Award’ 2017 for the second consecutive year. Mr. Kapal Pansari, Director of Rashi Peripherals won the ‘Most Admired Leader’ award from Herald Global. I was shortlisted among the Top 20 CMOs in India by VAR India.

All these awards and recognitions indeed reflect our growth ambitions in the Distribution space.

What were the major challenges for distribution business in India?

The major challenges have been the change in the Government policies, primarily the demonetization and implementation of GST. However, the impact of both the major events on the businesses has now very much normalized and the businesses are now back on the track.

Another major challenge we see is that grey and refurbished material in some of the product categories continue to affect the MOP of the market and as a result of this, partners are facing a lot of difficulties in earning margins.

A

www.digitalterminal.in

A

What’s your channel strength currently in India?

How do you plan to boost channel strength in the year 2018?

Rashi Peripherals has a robust ecosystem of over 9000 channel partners in about 750 towns in India.

We were the first distributor to implement SAP eleven years back, which is today proved to be a robust backbone for our channel strength and channel development. Our partners are core strength and we believe in growing together. We keeps on running channel training program throughout the year to educate them about latest technology and products coming to Indian market. To motivate them further, we also bring channel schemes and reward program with the support from our brands. We will continue to bring such program in this New Year as well. To boost our channel presence, our first level of plan is to expand our reach to 1000 towns and identify new growth avenues in 2018.

A

A

We believe in growth with every brand and every product line YoY and we maintain 50:50 ratio between an organic and inorganic growth. We are planning to add new product lines in TFT monitors, peripherals, and consumer branded PCs in the next fiscal and we will soon disclose details in the public domain.

A

Please share your current revenue and market growth rate. What is the target for the year 2018?

How do you plan to achieve this target?

Currently we are growing at CAGR of 20% YoY and we will continue to grow at the same pace in FY 2018.

To enable this goal, we will extensively focus on solid marketing, deep Channel engagement and Organic and Inorganic growth to sustain our market growth rate. We have a very aggressive plans for the New Year. With high demands and positive market sentiments, we will continue to grow our business along with our channel partners.

A

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

67

CHANNE L R OAD M A P

B D S O F TWA RE

“I DON’T THINK A STRICT STRUCTURE POLICY WORKS NOW A DAYS AND IT IS TIME TO BE FLEXIBLE IN OUR APPROACH” Cyber security is the major concern in the era of Digital India journey today. Day to day we hear about news of security breaches for our digital assets. There is huge challenge for security vendors to offer much secured solutions to common man and business establishment in India. Bitdefender aims to help Indian customers by offering latest and innovative security solutions to protect them from any cyber threats.

Zakir Hussain Rangwala, Director, BD Software Distribution Pvt. Ltd., is the National Distributor for all range of products from Bitdefender in India. In an exclusive talks with DT, Mr. Rangwala shared his overall growth and channel plans.

ZAKIR HUSSAIN RANGWALA, DIRECTOR, BD SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION PVT. LTD.

Zakir Hussain Rangwala is in IT industry from last 25 years with an experience of more than 21 years in IT products and solutions distribution. Currently working as Director at BD Software Distribution Pvt Ltd. and taking care of company’s overall growth plan pan India. Mr. Zakir Hussain has been very instrumental in building channel and distribution networks of the products he has been involved, in India. Prior to joining BD Software Distribution., he had served with IT secure, Aladdin Multimedia, PC visor, Micro world (ESCAN),Biz Secure Lab and ESS Distribution. He has experience in segmenting channels to sell retail, SMB and enterprise products and solutions.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination:

Taurus Tarun Seth, MD, Micro Clinic Apple Segmentation & Focus Cricket

What have been the crucial milestone of your company during year 2017?

We have settled well in the market and are now becoming choice of many consumers and corporates who are looking to use a better product with value and technologically advanced. We have had a good year as we acquired customers from various industries and semi governments, Universities and colleges and corporate houses. We have increased our reseller base also which is a good sign of progress and as per the plans we have laid out for 2017.

A

What were the major challenges for your company? How do you fought those challenges?

Biggest challenge was GST implementation and the effects it had on every businesses, the rumours and clarity till GST came into existence, made business slow. Distributors and resellers were busy clearing old stocks and not buying new products, made things go very slow. Another challenge was awareness about security solutions. Being into a very competitive market for antivirus, we were able to educate the customers and resellers about the various features and technology which we offerthrough Bitdefender security solutions. This helped in making our brand recognizable across consumers and corporates.

A

How GST changed your business affair in year 2017?

Goa, Dubai, London

GST has changed things and made it easier to follow and understand the system. At the same time it is taxing on the capital one would require to run the business. It means companies who are doing A

68

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

business in proper terms and conditions will prosper, but those who are not following a proper trade practise may find it very difficult to operate. I still feel many companies are still in the period of adjustments and understanding or finding a way they will need to work under the GST. What’s your channel strength currently in India?

After GST, the ways of working and structuring has changed for many including us who are into distribution business. Business does not increase just by adding numbers of resellers in the list. We work with few of them but we make sure to work with the resellers as their partner and equally working towards making business and profits for each other. Our partner base is growing steadily and we have over the period built some good partnership in the market. Our distribution structure is based on the region & needs which change as per the requirements of the channel community and our business process. I don’t think a strict structure policy works now a days and it is time to be flexible in our approach.

A

How do you assure your customer excellent service support?

We provide after sales support via support team which takes care of POC, pre-sales and post- sales approach. We also work with partners to get their engineers trained and certified by vendors which provide confidence among the engineers to offer quality support to their customers. Our product is used by more than 500 million user base worldwide and is easy to use, whether used by a consumer or a corporate.

A

www.digitalterminal.in

OUTSTANDING SECURITY PRODUCT

Solutions available for Consumers and Corporate

2016

For more information: +91 22 27845656 | sales@bdsoft.in | www.bitdefender.in | www.facebook.com/bdsoft.in

CHANNE L R OAD M A P

TP - L I N K

“WE HAVE INCREASED THE TECH SUPPORT TEAM BY 30% MORE FOR CUSTOMER TO ACCESS US EASILY” Networking business in India has been growing Year on Year with healthy growth rate.

The brands are bringing innovative, latest and affordable products for all set of customers.

Even the channel partners have much more options to serve their customer in better ways.

TP-Link has been also bringing the advanced and innovative devices for their customer in India. Bijoy Alaylo , General Manager – Sales , TP-Link India Pvt Ltd, chats with DT and shared his entire channel plans.

BIJOY ALAYLO, GENERAL MANAGER – SALES , TP-LINK INDIA PVT LTD What were the major challenges for your company? How do you fought those challenges?

Of course the major challenge for the overall market was the Demonitisation phase, the JIO launch and the VAT to GST transition phase. The business had taken a lot of bruises in 2017 which of course our team fought bravely to overcome. This year has been a great learning for us as a team since everyone needed to be on their toes to grab whatever business we could as overall business was hit. New ideas and innovative marketing was required along with the basics to extract business during this time.

A

Bijoy is young energetic leader with extensive work experience of over 7 years in IT Networking Business. Along with being an innovative fastpaced person, Bijoy has a deep understanding of the Indian market with diverse experience across the domains of Networking and e-Commerce. Bijoy has also achieved an excellent track record of setting up successful sales teams and delivering significant business growth with proven track records. He has completed MBA in Marketing & International Business.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination:

70

Taurus Jack Ma The Courage to Succeed Cricket Bora Bora

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

How GST changed your business affair in year 2017?

What were your preparation to adopt this biggest tax reform?

GST was a huge change that happened in India tax A history and moreover was a difficult time to do business due to the ongoing confusions and the lack of correct information passed. Atleast a couple of business months were lost in that transition. But in the hope for better future. We have supported our partners overall with the GST loss they might face on their stocks plus after GST we were one of the earliest to revise the prices and get the channel price structure streamlined.

products. In 2018 we will reach to more ISP’s and Retail counters as a marketing initiative those who face the End customer every day.

How do you assure your customer excellent service support? What are your investment plan to enhance service support infrastructure to cover entire India?

We at TP-Link always want to have a reliable service from our part to the customer hence we have double our checkpoints in our focus cities for more customer to reach us easily. Also for the Technical support we have increased the tech support team by 30% more for customer to access us easily.

A

What will be your key Go-To-Market Strategy for year 2018?

Partner reach in depth of the channel has been our focus this year as well and we wish to continue it in 2018 too. The networking market is still in its developing stage and with JIO entering the data market the speed of increase has been tremendous due to the competition.

Hence in 2018 we expect a good requirement generation which would need us to reach out to maximum partners across A

What’s your channel strength currently in India? How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

What will be major products you will be launching in year 2018?

Channel has been an integral part of our growth in A India and we are always striving to get deeper to directly connect to our dealers, retailers etc. We already run the VIP program for the resellers who wish to work together with TP-Link closely by providing better price, better Service support and better margins on our

We are entering into the Smart Home segment with some good products to showcase. In 2017 we had launched products like the Deco M5 (Whole home WiFi Solution), the Smart Plug, Smart Bulb etc. We would be enhancing the same this year too and moving towards the Smart Home through WiFi solutions.

A

www.digitalterminal.in

TP -LINK

CHANNEL ROADMAP

“WE ARE AMONG THE FIRST TO PROVIDE A COMPLETE WIFI BASED SMART HOME SYSTEM” The concept of Smart Home has started picking up in India as well. Global players are tracking this development very closely as this is going to be very huge market for them. TP-Link, who has already established its feet in the Indian market, has great plans for this market in days to come. Lynn Wang, CEO, TP-Link India, interacted with DT and revealed his game plans for Indian market.

LYNN WANG, CEO, TP-LINK INDIA PVT. LTD.

Tell us something about your Smart Home IoT Products. What are your efforts to bring these products in the reach of end-users in India?

We have a separate business division for IoT product A under the category of Smart Homes which enables everyone to reach out to these products making the digital lifestyle easier. By integrating TP-Link’s heritage of industry-leading networking into Smart Home Products, we are among the first to provide a complete WiFi based Smart Home System which is energy saving and easy to use solution to make your life more convenient.

How the Smart Home products changing the way of living? What products you are currently offering to Indian market?

TP-Link has a wide bundle of Smart Home Products available including Smart Bulbs, Smart Switches, Smart Plugs and Smart Routers which enables you to control you home lighting and other electrical devises at the tip of your fingertip using a smartphone. Currently we are offering smart bulbs and smart switches in Indian markets and will be soon launching the entire range of Smart Home Products which makes our life easier.

A

As the availability of a lot of wireless routers creates a lot of confusion among customers, so how you create awareness among users to let them make the right choice?

We currently have a vast range of WiFi Routers belonging to the Archer Series with the router speeds starting from AC750 to AC5400 which provide seamless connectivity, extra processing power and advance software features for online gaming, video streaming. We educate our customers using print and online medium of advertising promoting the usage of the latest AC Technology in our router so that the customer makes the right choice of router to fulfil his WiFi needs.

A

How the Smart Home products changing www.digitalterminal.in

the way of living? What products you are currently offering to Indian market?

TP-Link has a wide bundle of Smart Home Products available including Smart Bulbs, Smart Switches, Smart Plugs and Smart Routers which enables you to control you home lighting and other electrical devises at the tip of your fingertip using a smartphone. Currently we are offering smart bulbs and smart switches in Indian markets and will be soon launching the entire range of Smart Home Products which makes our life easier.

A

How you create awareness among users to let them make the right choice?

We currently have a vast range of WiFi Routers belonging to the Archer Series with the router speeds starting from AC750 to AC5400 which provide seamless connectivity, extra processing power and advance software features for online gaming, video streaming. We educate our customers using print and online medium of advertising promoting the usage of the latest AC Technology in our router so that the customer makes the right choice of router to fulfil his WiFi needs.

A

What are your upcoming products for Indian market?

Future plans will be focusing more on SMB Products Basket, Strengthening our Manpower Infrastructure to leverage various Channel Verticals to reach up to Consumers including Traditional IT Channels, LFRs, SFRs, Online & ISPs easier and faster, Part of Growth Roadmap of B, C & D Class Cities, A

You will also be seeing many new products from TP-Link which will focus on speed and reliability, all new AC standard routers, as well as many new accessories and IOT Products, are in pipeline for India market. We will soon be introducing a range of Home Automation products along with the inclusion of Mesh Networking and Smart Bulb categories been a top priority.

Mr. Lynn Wang is a skilled professional with a progressive career graph, he holds the potential to make business successful. He is leading TP-Link India as C.E.O and under his leadership, TP-Link India has continued to grow across different regions. Mr. Lynn has completed masters as he holds a MBA degree in marketing stream and has great experience in business operations in IT Networking. He has about 3.5 year experience in managing TP-Link business in Australia and a total 7 years of experience in core networking business.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination:

Scorpio Elon Musk The Real Life MBA Basketball Iceland

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

71

CHANNE L R OAD M A P

A B ACUS

“WITH ADDITION OF MORE GLOBAL BRANDS TO THE ABACUS BASKET WE ESTIMATE TO ACHIEVE 30% YOY GROWTH IN 2018.”

Component business in India has again started picking up with rise in gamers and tech enthusiasts. The passing year saw many component brands bringing high end products to cater these emerging needs. But traditional partners hold the success of such brands.

Abacus Peripherals, the leading distribution house in India aims to cater to every need of the customer in all parts of the country in the shortest possible time through wide channel network. Vipul Modi, VP Marketing & Sales shares his overall channel plans with DT.

VIPUL MODI, VP MARKETING & SALES ABACUS PERIPHERALS PVT. LTD. What have been the crucial milestone for your company during year 2017?

Abacus has had a wonderful year in terms of brands associations. We entered the calendar year with the launch of BLAZE DDR4 – An addition to already existing Xtreme Gaming Series from Zion RAM; in Q2 we became the proud distributors of Corsair- The Global leader in Computer components, and have steadily increased the market share of the Inno3D GPU in India. We are overwhelmed with the consumer responses for our channel brands – Antec & Biostar who have launched some impeccable products in the Gaming vertical.

A

Vipul Modi heads the company’s Marketing & Sales Team responsible for planning, development and implementation of all of the marketing strategies of the organization.

Awarded with prestigious degrees, from SP Jain Institute of Management and IIM Ahemdabad, Vipul Modi in his role is successfully driving the distribution and branding of ZION RAMs India’s most successful memory brand. He has driven various strategic and product-level go-tomarket strategies, including several innovative 360-degree marketing campaigns.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination: 72

Capricorn Sam Walton Apple Fountainhead Esports Queenstown, New Zealand

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

What were the major challenges for distribution business in India?

A Talking about distribution, rampant availability of the refurbished products is one of the main reason behind distribution houses suffering a number of exasperating setbacks. The second challenge is channel liquidity. Uncertainty in the market due to implication of new rules and regulations had created liquidity concerns in the market.

How has GST changed your business affair in year 2017?

A GST has created a significant impact in the Indian IT market. One that has worked most in our favour is the import of products through grey channel, due to GST implication the grey channel has been adversely affected which has created a level play-field for business in the IT sector. Going ahead, it will organize the channel and encourage dealers to buy genuine products. Overall for the IT sector it is beneficial because lots of new systems have been bought to keep proper accounting. Furthermore, GST has made relatively smoother flow of business across states for us.

2018.?

What’s your channel strength currently in India?

How do you plan to boost channel strength in

We are currently working with 4000+ channel partners across 300+ cities and towns. With a vision to carter partners present across the length and breadth of the country, we are setting up standard marketing policy for our partners, the plan is to give them revenue rebate on the top of the line products bulk purchases. Alignment of few channel activities has been planned by the marketing team for channel activation. This year however we will engage more and more with the end consumer, but being said that it will indirectly benefit the channel partner.

A

What will be new vendor agreement we may see in year 2018?

Abacus has set an aggressive mindset to increase the Brands in its existing basket. We are already in discussion with few brands and the financials are being set in place and we shall soon announce the news. We are clear that we want to cater only the high-end market where products and brands are associated with games or gaming industry.

A

Please share your current revenue and market growth rate. What is the target for the year 2018? How do you plan to achieve this target?

The fiscal policies and demand for alternate currency has created a significant market demand for high end computer components which has worked well for us.

We have achieved a YOY growth of 25% and with addition of more global brands to the Abacus basket we estimate to achieve 30% YOY growth in 2018. Our focus is to bring more feature rich products and set up a system to help partners in effectively reselling of the High end brands.

A

www.digitalterminal.in

“COMIO AIMS TO HAVE 12% MARKET SHARE WITHIN THE MID-SEGMENT SMARTPHONE CATEGORY”

COMIO

CHANNEL ROADMAP

With surge in smartphone growth in recent times, the battle among smartphone brands have intensified to grab maximum opportunity. COMIO also started its operation in Year 2017 and also began local assembling through contract manufacturers- V-Sun and Hipad Technology.

This step towards local manufacturing further reinforce their commitment for government’s ‘Make in India’ campaign. Sanjay Kalirona, CEO & Director, COMIO Smartphones talks to DT about their market plans.

SANJAY KALIRONA, CEO & DIRECTOR, COMIO What have been the crucial milestones of your company during year 2017?

We have received an overwhelming response for our smartphones in a very short span of time. Within 3 months of our launch, Comio have sold more than 250k devices in market. This has encouraged us to start our local manufacturing in India as well through contract manufacturing with V-Sun and HiPad Technology. COMIO smartphones are available across all major dealers in North and West India. Also, we are planning to enter the East and South markets next year. In terms of smartphone variants, our first launch was with three handsets S1, C1, and P1. And within two months we have launched another new variant named C2.

A

How do you the overall expected growth for smartphone market in India? What are the major fuelling factors?

The market is expected to continue to grow over the next few years as more and more people are switching to smartphones and gradually upgrade to 4G-enabled phones. The growth is fuelled by availability of low-cost smart phones, low rates of data plans and development of smart cities in rural areas.

A

What is the biggest challenge for mobile players in India?

One of the biggest challenge for mobile smartphone A players in a highly cluttered market is to carve a niche for themselves. Reaching out to their target audience and engaging with them one a one-on-one level is critical and can be challenging as well. Right from the beginning, we at COMIO, were very clear that we are a mid-segment smartphone brand for the youth. Therefore, all our activations and campaigns are centred around the youth community in India. www.digitalterminal.in

What’s your distribution strategy currently in India? How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

With a strong network of partners we are reaching consumers across the country. We plan to have 30,000 retailers and 800 distributors to strengthen brand presence in the market. We are also running a program of distributors meet & training that will perfect them in learning about the science that goes behind creating these products. Providing experience with the expertise of in-shop demonstrators, detailing the product specifications are all a part of selling products and via these partners, at COMIO we will make sure that we give them special schemes to motivate and sustain their performance. We are investing 100 crores across Sales, Distribution, Service, and Operational Expenses.

A

How do you assure your customer excellent service support?

COMIO has a very strong after sales service, wherein they are offering 30 days DOA, 1Year+100 Days extra warranty, Buyback offer, Upgrade Offer, One time screen replacement within six months to support their customers.

With a strong base of customer service support which many brands strive to achieve, we plan to build a network of 800+ service touch points held by an even stronger built up of 800+ distributors.

A

Please share your current revenue and market growth rate. What is target for year 2018?

A COMIO aims to have a 10-12% market share within the mid-segment smartphone category. Our aim is to position COMIO as a strong emerging brand in the smartphone segment. At COMIO, we plan to invest close to INR 500 crores for 1.5 years (July 2017 – December 2018).

The revenue figures are 2017-18: 500 Cr., 2018-19: 2000 Cr. And 2019-20: 4000 Cr.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon:

Cancer Mark Zuckerberg

Dream Company:

COMIO

Favourite Sports:

Cricket

Favourite Holiday Destination:

Gold coast in Australia

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

73

CHANNE L R OAD M A P

STE RL I TE

“STERLITE HAS ALWAYS BEEN AT THE FOREFRONT IN BRINGING NEW TECHNOLOGIES” Digital revolution in India has just started with government thrust for making ‘Digital India’ dream a reality. But adequate infrastructure and availability of updated solutions hold the key for success of Digital India mission. All stakeholders are eying this huge opportunity and making their efforts in capturing additional market share. Sanjay Parikh, VP, Sterlite Technology talks on the overall market scenario and also gives an insight of company’s further growth plans.

SANJAY PARIKH, VP, STERLITE TECHNOLOGY What have been the crucial milestones of your company during year 2017?

The year 2017 has been a great year for Sterlite Tech, we are one of the very few companies that designs, builds and manages smarter digital networks for Communication Service Provider (CSPs). Sterlite Tech engages with customers in more than 100 countries, with business spanning across products, services and software.

We have retained our Visionary Position in Gartner Magic Quadrant for IRCM for CSPs. We have also bagged various prestigious awards and recognition during this year. In short, we have successfully maintained our leadership across the verticals by offering excellent product and solutions.

A

Being an IT professional for more than 25 years, Sanjay has earned remarkable recognition in the IT fraternity, especially in ISP and Government-PSU sector. He has won many accolades and laurels for his leadership acumen and technical expertise.

He has also been appreciated with many awards for his communal contributions. Sanjay has spearheaded many large and complex projects with his thorough technical dynamic, proactive & collaborative approach, which further gained him credibility among customers and partners.

Zodiac Sign:

LIBRA

Favourite Business Icon:

Mr. Robin Sharma

Dream Company:

Own Organization

Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination: 74

7 Habit of Highly Effective People Snooker / Billiard Beach Resorts

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

How do you contribute for digital transformation journey of any organisation?

Sterlite Tech has always been at the forefront in bringing new technologies; be it Optical fibre, O/BSS Software or Next-gen IP Communication. With 5G set to revolutionize data speed, there is a need for extremely high bandwidth and low latency. Sterlite Tech is set to disrupt the market as it moves from loose tube to higher fibre count ribbon cable for 5G networks. Sterlite’s BSS of the Future enables CSPs to streamline their digital transformation journey with the unique approach of converging System of Record and System of Engagement and System of Intelligence. Sterlite’s Next-gen IP Communication offers a best-of-the-breed solution to boost IP communication business with Neox IP-PBX, Contact Center and Softswitch solutions that offers next-gen calling features, video conferencing and collaboration.

A

we may see among SMEs & SMBs? SMEs/SMBs today rely on Analog systems running on a copper network with multiple modules. By embracing digital transformation, these businesses are able to compete with larger competitors by achieving all class-5 features along with Unified Communication (UC) capabilities & Value Added Services (VAS) in one box over a single network. It helps eliminate the modular approach for expansion; thereby eliminating multi-vendor lock-in’s.

Way forward, SME/Enterprises may opt for “Pay-as-you-go” cloud based model which leads to reduced CAPEX. A

How do you sell your solution in Indian market?

Kindly share your distribution model.

We sell Neox IP-PBX & Contact Center solution through Partner Channel. For SME/Enterprise, we have a Distributor / Partner model where we have Regional Distributors (RD) and respective territory partners aligned to RD. This model helps clients with local level support, installation and fast replacement. Sterlite plays a major role by providing carrier-grade platform to support end-toend functionalities i.e. O/BSS, Wi-Fi SMP, AAA, PCRF, Neox Softswitch (Hosted platform) for Telcos, MSOs & ISPs. A

Please share your current revenue and market growth rate.

The company in March 2018 is set to surpass all expectations which can be attributed to a robust order booking. Last financial year which ended on 31st March 2017, we had total revenue of Rs. 2,472.30 Cr. and we grew at the rate of 13.74% YoY. A

What will be one of the best technology adoptions www.digitalterminal.in

KASPE RS KY L AB

CHANNEL ROADMAP

“WE HAVE A DEDICATED KASPERSKY LAB CALL CENTRE FOR B2C CUSTOMER SUPPORT WHICH WORKS 24*7” For any size of organisations digital security is a major concern nowadays with growing security threats. Even common consumers are at threat if they don’t use reliable and updated security solutions to protect their devices from any kind of security breaches. Kaspersky Lab, one of the leading brand in offering security solutions to all verticals, is also working towards mission of protecting you always from any kind of security threats. Shrenik Bhayani, General Manager, South Asia- Kaspersky Lab, shared his overall opinion and upcoming channel plans for Indian market.

SHRENIK BHAYANI, GENERAL MANAGER, SOUTH ASIA- KASPERSKY LAB What will be major products you will be launching in year 2018? Which will be your key target verticals?

What’s your channel strength currently in India? How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

For our B2B market we will be launching the Kaspersky Endpoint detection and response solution for businesses. And for our B2C market we have the launch of Antitargeted attack 3.0 which will be a major plan for 2018. The verticals we are focusing on are BFSI/ Government and Public Sector.

Channel is very important to Kaspersky Lab, the partners who sell Kaspersky Lab are very loyal because they are well aware of the perks and benefits of their partnership with Kaspersky Lab. We have currently more than 7000 channel partners across India who sell our security solutions across different market. We are also planning a loyalty program in 2018 which will increase the partners trust in Kaspersky Lab and will also attract more partners to associate with us.

A

How GST changed your business affair in year 2017? What were your preparation to adopt this biggest tax reform?

A

How do you assure your excellent service support?

customer

GST was a major hurdle especially for our retail business, although Kaspersky Lab was prepared for GST but the channel community especially from smaller cities weren’t prepared which had a repercussion.

However, after they got GST compliant with their system things got on track.

We have a dedicated Kaspersky Lab call centre for B2C customer support which works 24*7.

In addition to this the customers can raise a ticket online. We are very much committed towards giving best service support to our customer through all means of communication.

How do you support Government of India’s ‘Make-in-India’ program?

What will be your key Go-To-Market Strategy for year 2018?

We appreciate Government of India’s initiative towards the ‘Make-in-India’ program which is a brilliant step to empower the people of India and we completely support it.

We will keep working on to motivate partners.

As mentioned earlier the Loyalty program will be a major activity. In addition to this, we will be also introducing interesting end customer scheme.

A

A

www.digitalterminal.in

A

A

Shrenik Bhayani is currently General Manager, Kaspersky Lab South Asia, covering India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives. In this role, Shrenik is responsible for further developing the growth of the company in the South Asian SMB and enterprise markets, capitalizing on the demonstrated capability of Kaspersky Lab’s industrial cybersecurity solutions for the critical vertical sectors. With over 17 years of sales leadership experience across the information & communication technology sector in the South Asia market, Shrenik lists channel sales, distribution, business development to solution design, and support services among his areas of expertise. He holds an Engineering degree in Electronics and Communications from Mumbai, India.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination:

Sagittarius Dhirubhai Ambani Kaspersky Who took my cheese away Cricket Goa

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

75

CHANNEL R OA D M A P

Z E B RO N I CS

“OUR CRUCIAL MILESTONE WAS THAT OUR BRAND HAS COMPLETED ITS 20TH YEAR SUCCESSFULLY WITH ITS PRESENCE IN THE MARKET” R a j e sh D osh i, D irector, Z ebronics Ind ia p vt ltd

Rajesh Doshi, Co-founder and Director of Zebronics is a first generation entrepreneur and a ‘visionary’. He is the driving force behind brand Zebronics. He foresaw the growth in the IT peripherals and consumerization 20 years ago and identified a niche for the valueconscious segment of the Indian market. Widely recognised for his farsightedness and contribution to Indian business and commerce, he was honoured with the Rajasthan Yuva Ratna Award by the Rajasthani Association, Tamil Nadu.

76

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

www.digitalterminal.in

Indian IT brands faces stiff challenges against MNCs brand who are global leader and have ample of resources. Sometimes it becomes very difficult for Indian brands to sustain in this so competitive market.

But Zebronics, the leading Indian brand, has conquered all those challenges and successfully established their feet in Indian market. The brand offers innovative, high quality and affordable products to large set of customer base across India. The brand also completed 20 successful years in the market. Channel partners played big role in achieving this milestone as they got continuous support from partners. On top, the customers’ loyalty and trust made this brand, India’s Best Peripheral Brand and the company has maintained their leadership position in the market since last so many years. Rajesh Doshi, Director, Zebronics India Pvt. Ltd. shared his overall journey so far and also revealed his upcoming channel plans with DT.

What have been the crucial milestone of your company during year 2017?

How do you support Government of India’s ‘Makein-India’ program?

We believe in the ideology of ‘Always Ahead’; this very same ideology has helped us won ‘Brand of the year’ in speaker category along with several other awards this year, taking our awards tally to 70. Our crucial milestone was that our brand has completed its 20th year successfully with its presence in the market. We have also signed Bollywood Celebrity Hrithik Roshan as a brand ambassador for Zebronics which fit our brand’s persona, performance and style. 2017 was a year where we launched our premium gaming range which included products like chassis, keyboards and headphones. We also launched mobile accessories like a variety of power banks with fast charge, Type C, 6 in 1 power bank, wireless headphones, headsets, and a vast variety of charging cables. In the speakers segment we launched quite a many products like wireless portable speakers, Hard rock series and DJ speakers has been very well received by the market. Our gifting range has grown vast with new products especially for corporates.

Make in India will help, not only build a product but to create multiple job opportunities in every sector even small to medium scale industries will see a huge impact of this vision in the near future. We feel that manufacturing will see a lot of momentum in India with the increase of manufacturing costs in China and with also its currency appreciating, we look forward to the opportunities of Make in India, which is central government vision of making India self-sustainable. There is a good momentum in the Make In India movement but we feel that we’ll see progress when the government helps building a good supply chain for small and medium level manufacturers, by offering them some special benefits, which is not yet seen in the market.

Many of our speakers and power bank models are Make in India products and we plan to have a wider range in 2018.

What were the major challenges for your company? How do you fought those challenges?

We were one of the first IT companies that was fully prepared right from the first day of GST implementation, it was result of in-house preparation of a few months to make sure we are fully function on day one. Initially the market was on hold awaiting a reaction but after the initial hiccup after everything was put into place it went on smoothly. This being the biggest tax reform after independence, no doubts there were challenges but government machinery has been very supportive in fixing the queries. In the long run we are confident that this healthy reform will be beneficial to all who practice fair trade.

A

The challenges that we face are a thin profit margin in IT peripherals, but due to consumers trust & loyalty in brand for 20 years, Zebronics has advantage over opportunistic brands. IT peripherals segment is stagnant now, which is a major challenge that we’re trying to work with. The newer segments like surveillance, have different set of challenges as there are big MNC brands and many unorganized regional players in the market. There are very few Indian brands at national level. Here Zebronics would carve its own niche as the scope is huge, though it may take time. Value for money good quality products and service would be our strength. Hurdles and challenges are part of every success story, and we are no different. Building the brand was a huge challenge for us, without much of ATL activities. A lot of innovative planning had to be done for the brand to become popular. An immense team support has helped us position ourselves as a trusted brand.

A

www.digitalterminal.in

B, C and D tier cities are one of our most important markets.

We are trying to increase our footprint even further in these cities.

A

How GST changed your business affair in year 2017?

A

What’s your channel strength currently in India?

We have 31 offices and 50000+ of loyal direct and indirect channel partners, resellers making sure than Zebronics products are available in every nook and corner of the country. Our vision is to have a diverse range of products which has suitable premium products for enthusiasts as well value for money products for price conscious consumer without any compromise in quality. Our distribution and channel strategies are customized according to the region.

A

How do you assure your customer excellent service support?

We have 128+ service centers. For certain products we provide on-site service through our toll free no.

We regularly upgrade and add new service centers. We are constantly gathering feedback from customer and partner to improve the experience. We strongly feel it’s one of the major reason that our brand has come so far with customer satisfaction and trust. Having said that service is one area that requires continuous analysis and improvement to meet customers’ satisfaction.

A

What will be your key Go-To-Market Strategy for year 2018?

As always our goal has remained to give best quality products at pocket friendly prices which is backed by performance and style that comes with a warranty. Zebronics EQR mantra, excellence-quality-reliability is our biggest strength. We will be also launching many new products this year, giving the consumers more options to choose from.

A

What will be major products you will be launching in year 2018?

Our focus this year would be on the sound systems, we have put in huge efforts in the speaker segment since many years, but it was in 2017 that the brand has been recognized pan India by the customers and has been accepted very well. We have launched new models in all these categories and different product sizes by trying to cater to the needs of one and all. We are the only Indian brand to have launched the premium range of products like the chassis, headphone and mechanical keyboard that can be compared to the MNC brands and in the process, the customer will benefit as many more products are expected in this segment soon. Last but not the least we will be fully focused in the CCTV segment and expand our footprints with new products as the market demands.

A

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

77

CHANNE L R OAD M A P

TA L LY

“WE HAVE A STRONG FOCUS ON AFTER SALES SUPPORT WHICH WE CONTINUE TO IMPROVE EVERY DAY” If we talk about the passing year, GST remains the major talk point among all business communities. Government’s decision to change the business tax module could not have been realized, if key vendors have not worked hard to develop updated software solution for all business entity in India. Tally, the market leader in India shown their commitment again and brought up all required resources to help business in India for this historical change. Tejas Goenka, Executive Director – Tally Solutions Pvt. Ltd., interacted recently with DT and talked on all aspects of their business growth and upcoming channel plans.

TEJAS GOENKA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, TALLY SOLUTIONS PVT. LTD. and ask them to reach us through help.tallysolutions.com or our toll free number at 1800-200-8859.

What were the major challenges for your company?

What’s your channel strength currently in India? How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

The major challenge in the current environment is to ensure that all our customers are up to date with the changes in the law. We have already come out with 7 releases in the last few months, each release corresponding with the return filing date, and updated within 24 to 48 hours of the changes being announced.

We are walking the GST journey with the customers and this commitment will continue from our end till the economy adjusts to the new law.

We have more than 28,000 partners in India today which include two prominent groups of partners Certified Partners, and Associate Partners. Our focus with the Certified Partner group is to ensure that we strengthen our existing partners via sales training, increase in sales and service capacity, and extended reach. Our focus with the Associate Partners is to help expand their product portfolio with high value addition products like ours so that their businesses can grow even more.

How do you support Government of India’s ‘Make-in-India’ program?

How do you assure your customer excellent service support?

We are a company that has been conceptualised and made in India. The basic premise since our inception is that we are committed to empower businesses in India and provide them with solutions to support their growth.

We strongly believe in the ‘Make-in-India’ program, which is a good step in the right direction.

We continuously focus on simplifying our software for our customers with the intent to make it support free, however there are times when customers do require assistance. We have a strong focus on after sales support which we continue to improve every day. We are able to reach all corners of India through our extensive network of Certified Partners, and are able to ensure high quality telephonic, email and chat support through our TallyCare call centre. We have also recently invested in a dedicated help website, help.tallysolutions.com, where customers can easily find and solve their own issues.

A

A

What have been the crucial milestone of your company during year 2017?

2017 has been an eventful year with the company hitting several milestones. For me, the most important milestone would be that we were able to ensure that almost all of our 1.2 million customers were GST ready within the first month. Given the size and spread of the customer base, this was not an easy task.

We did not anticipate a major rush in the first month and despite initial challenges and hurdles, we were able to serve almost everybody well in time. Extensive Pan-India initiatives were taken to inform our customer base of the changes, effects of these changes on businesses and how they can transition smoothly with the new law. Our efforts have been dedicated to all those we were unable to serve A

78

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

areas to bring better solutions to our customers.

How GST changed your business affair in year 2017?

The implementation of GST in the economy has definitely helped the business grow. While we prepared for this with some serious investment, the preparations weren’t enough for the first month. Some important changes that we made were to size up our service infrastructure between our partners and our direct support, and to increase the responsiveness of our product team to ensure all important changes are responded to quickly. This has helped us significantly in the last few months, and we continue to invest in these A

A

A

What will be your key Go-To-Market Strategy for year 2018?

We will continue to invest our focus on enabling every business in India to easily comply with GST in 2018, and will soon be entering the retail POS market as well.

A

www.digitalterminal.in

“BRINGING LATEST IN TECHNOLOGY AT THE BEST PRICES, HAS HELPED ZIOX CARVE A NICHE FOR THE BRAND”

Z IOX MOBILES

CHANNEL ROADMAP

The Smartphone no longer remains a luxury it is well accepted as the necessity to Indian Homes.

This market has become one of the toughest market to retain as technology changes very fast. Ziox, one of the Indian brands has taken this challenge and committed to offer innovative, updated and affordable smartphone to all customers. Deepak Kabu, CEO of Ziox Mobiles, has already laid down his aggressive plan for the market and hopes to achieve good growth in the New Year.

DEEPAK KABU, CEO OF ZIOX MOBILES What have been the crucial milestones of your company during year 2017?

How do you support Government of India’s ‘Make-in-India’ program?

2017 has been a great year for us. We launched aseries of smartphoneas well as feature phones.

Having Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput as the new face of Ziox Mobiles was the cherry on the cake! Also our smart phone series were widely appreciated and accepted in the market. Bringing latest in technology at the best prices, has helped Ziox carve a niche for the brand. Some of the key innovations we saw this year includes, for the first time in India ‘Wifi Feature’ in a feature phone with an 8 GB internal memory, or Dual Selfie Camera Smartphone with Duopix.

We completely support this initiative, as we believe this will help all Indian brands like us to attain a good market share first on our home ground and then worldwide. The government’s effort to help Indian start-ups is very encouraging for us. We do hope that duties should be cut by 2-3 % and it should be hiked for import so that an apparent difference is created.

A

How do you the overall expected growth for smartphone market in India?

Affordable Handsets and the proliferation of 4G connectivity has helped India overtake the US to become the world’s second-largest smartphone market.

Doubts about India’s market potential are clearly dispelled by this result. After a wobble in the second quarter of 2017, India’s smartphone market recovered quickly with shipments growing 23% year-on-year in the third quarter to reach just over 40 million units. It is estimated that our country’s smartphone market will grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 23% through 2018 and would account for 30 % of the global growth during the period.

A

What is the biggest challenge for mobile players in India?

The biggest challenge for mobile players in India is the highly competitive market. A rapidly increasing market share of Chinese players coupled with fierce competition has adversely affected Indian mobile phone manufacturers’ business profile. The fact that, in the first quarter of 2017, Chinese mobile phone manufacturers’ market share was estimated to be around 51% speaks volumes. Additionally, the industry is currently facing a slowdown in revenue growth and a huge pressure on profit margin.

A

www.digitalterminal.in

A

What’s your distribution strategy currently in India? How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

Ziox is a very channel friendly company. Year 2017 has allowed us to spread our trustworthy tentacles across markets in India.

We have connected to the user through a variety of channels, using a range of marketing intermediaries. We already have 750+ distributors on board with us in all tier 1, 2 and 3 cities. Now the emphasis is to increase our distribution strength and for that we are focussing on far flung areas with right price-good features package so that people in semi urban and rural areas can avail maximum benefits.

A

How do you assure your customer excellent service support?

Going by our tag line, ‘Quality That Speaks’, we assure 100% SERVICE to our end to end customers. For this we have currently opened up 800+ service centres across India. Ziox is perhaps the only brand which has over 125 self-owned service centres to provide after sales services across the country. Ziox is popularly known among its TG for the after Sales Service. A testimony to which remains our 111 Days Replacement Policy for our feature phones.

A

Please share your current revenue and market growth rate.

What is target for year 2018?

Ziox is steadily expanding and growing. We aim to become A a brand to be reckoned with, by hitting more than 10million handsets in the fiscal year 2018. To achieve the same, we will be coming up with more technologically advanced phones. Our current revenue is approx.500 cr. Ziox has attained a significant market share, purely on the basis of an aggressive retail and go to market strategy.

We aim to attain a market share of 5-6 % by 2018.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book:

Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination:

Aries Bill gates Apple Our moon has blood clotsh Table tennis Australia

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

79

CHANNE L R OAD M A P

LI NKSYS

“THE CORE PHILOSOPHY OF LINKSYS IS TO BE A CHANNEL DRIVEN AND A PRO-CHANNEL BRAND” In March 2013, Linksys became a division of Belkin International, Inc. Linksys current consumer product portfolio in India includes Wireless Routers and Gateways, Wireless Range Extenders, USB Network Adapters, and Networking Accessories. For the Small and Medium Business (SMB) Segment, Linksys India currently offers Switches, VPN Routers, Access Points and Networking Accessories.Prabu Subramanian, Sales Manager, Linksys – India and SAARC is currently responsible for company’s overall growth. DT interacted with Prabu recently to know more about his entire roadmap and upcoming channel plans. Read the excerpts below:

PRABU SUBRAMANIAN, SALES MANAGER, LINKSYS – INDIA AND SAARC

Mr. Prabu is a talented professional, with a career graph spanning over 14 years in various roles.

Prior to joining Linksys, he has worked with CPM, handling sales for Microsoft Hardware and Xbox.

Prabu joined Belkin, (the parent brand of Linksys) in 2010 as a Channel Sales Manager to handle the Chennai market and later the entire South India.

He was promoted to Sales Manager, India and SAARC in September 2017.His key responsibilities at Linksys include, Channel Development across regions as well as streamlining the online marketplace for Linksys. Prabu holds a Master’s Degree in Software Engineering.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination:

Gemini Chet Pipkin & Steve Jobs Belkin, Apple tech blogs and online Badminton Vietnam

Q. What have been the crucial milestone of your company during year 2017?

The India launch of our two of our flagship products, the very powerful Linksys WRT1900ACS router and the Linksys EA7500 Max-StreamTM AC1900 router with the MU-MIMO technology were crucial milestones during 2017.

These products have been acclaimed internationally as well as in India with rave media reviews.

A

What were the major challenge for your company? How do you fought those challenges?

In the last financial year we had challenges in launching new products in India which were launched globally because of the restriction on few of the products’ Power & Wi-Fi output. We are currently working on launching products according to Indian standards and we expect to roll out 6 different models in various categories by 2018.

A

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

We are currently working with Compuage Infocom as our National Distributor. Via Compuage, our products are successfully sold in India through a network of 100+ channel partners. Linksys products are available online as well as offline.

A

The core philosophy of Linksys is to be a channel driven and a pro-channel brand. Carrying this vision forward, we plan to invest more resources in training our partners in new technologies, incentivizing them on educating the end customers on Linksys technologies. We also plan to invest in various promotional schemes and campaigns to help them sell Linksys products in a much stronger way.

What will be major products/solutions you will be launching in year 2018? Which will be your key target verticals / market?

Our Major Product launch in 2018 will be our Mesh wireless Router technology and our Gaming router WRT32X. Our new focus vertical is Internet Service providers, Gaming industry and Home automation partners.

A

How GST changed your business affair in year 2017? What were your preparation to adopt this biggest tax reform?

We had an impact of the GST at the retail level where partners were forced to sell products at a higher price or at a loss to liquidate the pre-GST inventory. We worked closely with our partners in helping them sell their stocks without much impact to the end customers. Various support measures and schemes were introduced to ensure smooth transition to the new tax regime to help liquidate or average out the old inventory.

A

What’s your channel strength currently in India?

How do you plan to boost channel strength in 80

year 2018?

Please share your current revenue and market growth rate. What is target for year 2018? How do you plan to achieve this set target?

Although we cannot disclose our local revenue figures, we are positively planning for at least a 20-30% growth in 2018 in India considering factors like positive trends on the broadband growth, more ISP players entering the market and data bandwidth growth. We plan to achieve this by introducing more powerful and innovative Wi-Fi solutions for the home, gaming and small business markets.

A

www.digitalterminal.in

MORE Wi-Fi MORE SCREENS MORE GOALS Experience Next-Gen AC Wi-Fi with breakthrough MU-MIMO technology for powerful streaming and gaming.

MAX-STREAM™

#MoreStreams

AC1900+ MU-MIMO GIGABIT ROUTER

Two dedicated Wi-Fi bands and revolutionary Multi-User MIMO technology let you enjoy your favourite online games and streaming content without lag and buffering, even when lots of devices are connected to your Wi-Fi. It’s easy to set up, easy to keep up, and with Smart Wi-Fi technology, you can control your home network from anywhere with the use of your smartphone.

With four Gigabit Ethernet ports, three removable antennas and connection speeds of up to 1.9+ Gbps, the Linksys EA7500v2 is the streaming and gaming solution you’ve been waiting for.

The Linksys EA7500v2 Max-Stream AC1900+ MU-MIMO – Next-Gen AC Wi-Fi router can stream the action of every game to every device without lag or buffering.

For Sales Enquiries

Prabu.ps@belkin.com

Technical Support (Toll Free)

1 800 419 8899

Belkin, Linksys and many product names and logos are trademarks of the Belkin group of companies. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owner. © 2016 Belkin International, Inc. All rights reserved.

PARTNER

SUMMIT 2018 Moving Towards Consolidation of Channel Business LET’S COME TOGETHER & JOIN HANDS IN PAVING THE WAY FOR NEW BUSINESS AVENUES

COMING SOON

AMBRANE

CHANNEL ROADMAP

“OUR AMBITIONS ARE CLEAR THAT WE WANT TO BE THE LEADER IN THE BUSINESS WE OPERATE” Ambrane maintained its lead in the Indian market. The company has always been a sale driven company with focus on Online Sales. But now, they are shoring up marketing activities targeting new customers and focussing on building the Offline Channel. This year, the company aims to enhance reach and leverage offline channels in order to increase footprint across the country. To let you all know more on their plans, DT spoke to Gaurav Dureja, Director, Ambrane India. Find below the excerpts:

GAURAV DUREJA , MANAGING DIRECTOR, AMBRANE INDIA What have been the crucial milestone of your company during year 2017?

Also, we undertake lot of training to unskilled labour to bring seamless functioning.

The Year 2017 has been a roller coaster ride for the IT segment. Right from Make in India – Demonetization – GST, the Year was exciting. In terms of challenges like every other IT Brand, we too had our fair share of challenges paired with some key milestones which we achieved. Yet again Ambrane remained the undisputed player for Power Banks – No.1 in the Online space.

Diversifying our product range this year saw us entering successfully in Audio & Wearables. We have already launched more than 32 products in audio category and most of them is selling well on all platforms.

How do you support Government of India & Makein- India & program?

A

What were the major challenge for your company?

A We face 3 major challenges from manufacturing perspective.

From clearance to machinery to the import of the machinery or manufacturing these are the key hurdles in terms of operation. Our biggest challenge also remains the unskilled Manpower, the unavailability of raw materials, machines and their parts. Talking about overcoming such challenges, we keep complete control on the operations be it procuring raw material or any other material for manufacturing – it needs to meet our specifications and parameters. www.digitalterminal.in

Ambrane has been one of the early brand to start manufacturing in India even before ‘Make in India’ was initiated by the Government of India. Even when the economy is showing downward trends we look at the Make in India concept as our advantage. We being manufacturer of Power Banks in India have an advantage of local manufacturing and cost, over the several competitive brands.

A

What is your channel strength currently in India?

When it comes to distribution model in India we begun with the online distribution Model, and today we are known as an “No. 1 Online Brand(for IT Accessories)” We have done extensive business with Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal and have consistently been number one with them when it comes to sales which is not only limited to the Festive Seasons but even otherwise. After seeing a steady growth on the online channel, Ambrane aims to establish its footprints also with the Offline Model, we have been very aggressively to set the network. We have working A

upon attractive channel activations and programs, also keeping them the priority and want to become most preferred brand in offline channel.

How do you assure your customer excellent service support?

For keeping the service as the priority, we have tailored a three-tier approach. The first being “No Questions Asked Policy”, if our customer has received a faulty product then they can freely go to the nearest Service Center and get a new product in their hand within 7 days of purchase.

Second, we have a dedicated a tollfree number where our customers can ask queries, register any complaints and it shall be reverted with 48 hours.

Lastly, very recently we are working on a Mobile app wherein you can plug in your details and concerns offline, our service team will get in touch base with you to resolve it. Talking about our plans to boost Service support Currently we have more than 500 service centers all across India and our Target is to build 1000 service point by end of next year.

A

2018?

What is your current revenue growth and target foryear

For current year our target is to achieve 120cr and for the 2018 our target is to double that figure.

A

Gaurav Dureja is the driving force behind the brand Ambrane India, which has evolved to be one of the most trusted and top trending Power Bank Brand in India. Being an initiator, in his relentless pursuit of excellence, he has strengthened the culture of innovation at Ambrane, exploring new markets and extended the brands product portfolio and also the global reach. Ambrane is today the market leader in Power banks and under his able leadership, the brand has grown 300% in less than 3 Years.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book:

Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination:

LEO Ratan Tata Ambrane A Thousand Splendid Sons/Kite Runner – Khaleid Hosseni makes writing come to life.

Cricket Seychelles

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

83

CHANNE L R OAD M A P

B USY I N FOTECH

“GST GAVE US THE BIGGEST EVER JUMP IN SALES IN 2017” GST implementation gave huge opportunity for IT players in India especially who were already there in offering tax and ERP solutions to Indian companies.

BUSY remains one of the key vendors, who took this opportunity quite seriously and succeeded in enhancing overall market share in Year 2017. Rajesh Gupta, Co-founder and CTO, BUSY Infotech Pvt Ltd. shares his entire strategies with DT which helped him in growing their revenue.

RAJESH GUPTA, CO-FOUNDER AND CTO, BUSY INFOTECH PVT LTD What have been the crucial milestone of your company during year 2017?

Year 2017 holds huge achievement for our business as we successfully upgraded lakhs of our existing customers to our new GST compatible product. With great expertise in this domain, we are able to add thousands of new customers in two months.

A

Mr. Rajesh Gupta is the Co-founder & CTO of Busy Infotech Pvt Ltd – a company dedicated to providing business accounting software to Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs). An Electrical Engineering graduate from DTU), he is the mind behind India’s leading Business Accounting Software - BUSY. After completing his engineering, Mr. Gupta joined his elder brother (Mr. Dinesh Kumar Gupta) in his computers sales and maintenance business under the company name Digitronics. With their profound understanding of business processes, they conceived BUSY in 1992. The product was commercially launched in 1994. Since then, Mr. Gupta has been instrumental in the continuous growth of BUSY. Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination: 84

Gemini Larry Page & Sergey Brin Google Change your thoughts, Change your life by Wayne Dyer Cricket My home

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

What were the major challenge for your company? How do you fought those challenges?

Migrating lakhs of customer to new GST regime was huge challenge. It almost became a war like situation. But our better planning in advance and excellent execution helped us in overcoming these challenges. Main challenge was to handle the sudden inflow of lakhs new users both in terms of sales and support. To handle this situation, on one side we worked for extended hours for two months and on another side we expanding our team and infrastructure.

A

How GST changed your business affair in year 2017? What were your preparation to adopt this biggest tax reform?

GST gave us the biggest ever jump in sales in 2017. Our revenue grew almost 3-4 times.

Our preparation started around a year back when we incorporated GST features in our product. Once the product was ready, we came up with program to educate our customers about this historical change in entire tax ecosystem. We successfully concluded hundreds of end user meets and road shows to educate user about GST and BUSY. A

What’s your channel strength currently in India? How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

Channel holds significant role in our business.

As of now our channel strength is around 350 across India. We keeps on working to strength our channel presence.Our business development team is alwayson lookout for new channel partners in unrepresented territories. Our ultimate goal is to boost channel presence which will further help us in serving more customer.

A

How do you assure your customer excellent service support? What are your investment plan to enhance service support infrastructure to cover entire India?

Support to customers is primarily provided by our channel partners who are close to customers. All our channel partners have well trained customer support team which ensures timely support to customers. We also have our own back end support team which provides telephonic and email support to users. This support team has grown upto 3 times in past 6 months and we expect to grow it further in coming times.

A

Please share your current revenue and market growth rate. What is target for year 2018?

This year we expect a revenue INR 60-70 crores which is almost 3-4 times to our last year’s revenue.For 2018 we expect the revenue to remain same as of 2017.

A

www.digitalterminal.in

S AVERA

CHANNEL ROADMAP

“WE HAVE STARTED DIVERTING OUR ATTENTIONS TOWARDS ENTERPRISE SEGMENT” Savera experienced significant growth by achieving a high level of customer satisfaction and staying on top of the technology curve. Gopal Pansari – Director, Savera Digital India Pvt. Ltd. takes us through his last year journey and shares his upcoming plans for further growth.

GOPAL PANSARI, DIRECTOR, SAVERA DIGITAL

What have been the crucial milestones of your company during year 2017?

Year 2017 that started on a low key note due to the demonetisation effect of last November is now on the upswing with positivity around for business. For us as a company, we have been consistently redefining our business strategies since inception and this year was no different. This year we strengthened our focus on regional growth and brands that have India setup. (Canon, TVSE, LG, Sony, Lenovo). This has helped us in gaining foothold in regions where our local presences is strong and that has been helping leverage the growth to other regions as well.

It can be said as a bottom up growth.

A

What were the major challenges for distribution business in India?

With 2 major policy decisions happening with a span of around 6 months, there were some challenges going to be thrown up. The effect of demonetisation could not be anticipated and so it sunk the markets, particularly for the peripherals and component segment. But GST as it was announced before hand – we had anticipation regarding the same and had been well prepared to tackle it.

Overall, apart from the 2 mentioned road blocks, the usual stuff of none and delayed payment cycle is still hindering the distribution business. The implementation and tax structures of GST though initially were a major hurdle, but with quick support and decisions from the government it has smoothened the business in the last quarter.

A

How GST changed your business affair in year 2017?

After the initial hiccups, GST is surely proving to be a game changer and a business enabler henceforth.

With tax structure across the country coming on parity, A

www.digitalterminal.in

companies like us who are not present in each and every nook and corner of the country are finding it easy to gain foothold and do biz with ease. The gray market that uses to thrive on regional price disparity is almost vanished and providing relief to customers by getting the right kind of price and availability across the geography.

What’s your channel strength currently in India?

How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

Currently we have more than 5000 partners enrolled with us across 210 towns and cities with most of them doing business on a regular basis. With margins becoming paper thin and products in components and peripherals segment being available online across the geography, we have started diverting our attentions towards enterprise segment where even though the business cycle may be slow – but returns are much higher and consistent. We hope to continue thriving in this in year 2018.

A

What will be new vendor agreement we may see in year 2018? Please share if you have any plans to boost product offerings under your distribution company.

A

Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company:

This is an ongoing business process and we keep adding new brands as and when the right time permits.

Please share your current revenue and market growth rate. What is target for year 2018? How do you plan to achieve this target?

The previous year we had clocked figures of around 235 crores and plan to achieve around 15 – 20% in 2018. The plan is to keep investing in our partners, manpower, marketing and biz development and the results will fall in place.

A

Zodiac Sign:

Favourite Book:

Libra Suresh Pansari Being like Ingram is what I dream of to make Savera.

Our Iceberg is melting

Favourite Sports:

Badminton

Favourite Holiday Destination:

Switzerland

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

85

CHANNE L R OAD M A P

N E TG E A R

“NETGEAR IS ALL SET TO HIT 200 CRORES FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 2018” NETGEAR, one of the known networking brands also focused on new opportunities to minimise the impact of challenges they face in year 2018. Marthesh Nagendra, Country Manager, NETGEAR, India & SAARC talks on his overall strategy which helped him achieving encouraging results.

MARTHESH NAGENDRA, COUNTRY MANAGER, NETGEAR, INDIA & SAARC What were the major challenges for your company? How do you fought those challenges?

Some of the major reforms were implemented in 2017 by the Government of India. Demonetisation & GST had short term impacts and long term benefits. Task was to minimize any impact on the business and increase revenues. We successfully achieved that by focusing extensively on following product lines: A

a. NETGEAR ReadyNAS storage solutions: We achieved triple digit growth on NETGEAR Desktop & Rackmount solutions. Internet become very cheap which enabled consumers & SMEs to move towards cloud based solutions. b. 10G: Employees are bringing increasing numbers of personal devices, such as tablets and smartphones, which require WiFi access. Businesses are also more often using smart devices like door locks, thermostats, badge machines that are Internet connected. All of this drives increased bandwidth, which 10-Gigabit Ethernet provides.

Zodiac Sign:

Capricorn

Favourite Business Icon:

Jack Ma

Dream Company:

Netgear

Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination:

86

c. Business Wireless: With Insight Managed Smart Cloud Access Points, wireless network discovery, setup, monitoring and management can now be done in the palm of your hand – anytime, anywhere, with NETGEAR Insight app. d. Home Security: Multiple devices, Cheaper internet requires better Coverage & more security. NETGEAR Orbiwifi systems provides max wifi Coverage and complete parental control for your mobile devices

Immortals of Meluha Cricket Venice

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

How GST changed your business affair in year 2017? What were your preparation to adopt this biggest tax reform?

A

distributors were hesitant to stock more. Business were as usual from July onwards. SMB/SMEs have started investing more on computerization which spurred the growth. We welcome GST as the movement of Goods across India have become cheaper & it reduces travel time. Distributor are saving on the warehousing cost & Goods reach faster to the consumers.

What’s your channel strength currently in India?

How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

We are directly or indirectly present in 22+ Cities & working closely with 100+ partners in all major cities. NETGEAR has great field strength which helps the partners to design & deploy Networking solutions at the customer premises. NETGEAR is into manufacturing HiTech networking products & it is imperative to train as many partners as possible to ensure that they provide right solutions to the customers. We also have demo centres in selected cities which enables partners to touch, feel & work on our wide range of products. NETGEAR trains & encourage partners to sell high-end stuff which brings them more profits.

A

What will be major products/solutions you will be launching in year 2018? Which will be your key target verticals / market?

We will continue to focus on Private/Hybrid Cloud solutions, IP Surveillance, VoIP, Backup, Disaster recovery, BYOD, Wired & Wireless Networks & so on A

Please share your current revenue and market growth rate. What is target for year 2018? How do you plan to achieve this set target?

A

NETGEAR is all set to hit 200 Crores for the first time in 2018 which is close to 30% Growth YoY.

May-June 2017 sales were relatively slow as the

www.digitalterminal.in

V R IN FOTECH

CHANNEL ROADMAP

“KASPERSKY REMAINS THE PERFECT CHOICE TO SECURE DIGITAL JOURNEY” VR Infotech, one of the Mumbai based distributor is doing extremely well since its inception in year 1997. The company is National Distributor (Retail) for Kaspersky Security Solutions in India. The company is aggressively working towards reaching to large number of customers to secure their devices from any cyber threat. Vikram Mehta of VR Infotech shares his plans for year 2018.

VIKRAM MEHTA, V R INFOTECH What have been the crucial milestone of your company during year 2017?

Year 2017 has been very good for our business.

Overall we were able to maintain the momentum and achieved substantial growth. We have extended our reach to C and D class of cities. We established our penetration in small towns through new attractive schemes. We also added more partners to sell more in these smaller towns. We also introduced new and updated security products for consumers. We target protection for all and peace for everyone.

A

How do you provide best support to your channel partners?

We remain very true and committed for partners.

We believe in growing with them so we always take care of their interest. We assure profit at all level, continuous supply and transparency in partnership.

The best security for different types of users without making holes in their pocket keeps customers loyal to us. We offer best product quality with new features and affordability.

A

How do you see digital transformation across India?

Digital India has already capability to transform the overall economy for our country. As more people going digital, there is need of security across various devices. Digital journey always start with better protection from a trusted vendors. Kaspersky remains the perfect choice to secure anybody’s digital journey. We have excellent solutions to secure any devices from all security threats. Our mission always remains to protect society from all digital security concern.

A

www.digitalterminal.in

How do you see business after GST? GST is another game changing revolution for Indian economy as it has realised One Tax One Nation dream for all of us. With GST, we are very much transparent to our customers.

The prices of all our products remains same across all regions. As a national distributor, GST has helped in us in managing inventory very well. Now our all branches are very much effective in having uniform stock availability for any size of order.

A

What’s your channel strength currently in India? How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

Channel partners are our core strength. We have very strong channel base who caters to wide geography across India, we have dealers in each cities who ultimately help us in selling Kaspersky security solutions to customers. There is a single price policy which allows us to serve every customer in the best possible way.

A

What will be your key Go-To-Market Strategy for year 2018?

We aim to protect every individual. Our goal will still remain the same - Protection for all. It will help us to take our business to the new level as there is huge opportunities coming up due to devices and connectivity has become much more affordable. More and more people will use PCs. Tablets or Smartphone due to government Digital India mission. We aim to tap all these opportunities.

Zodiac Sign:

A

Please share your current revenue and market growth rate. What is target for year 2018?

The growth in users of smartphones and internet will surly show us growth. Security is going to be key for all users in India as threat landscape is posing more challenges to users on the smartphones and PCs. We expect quite healthy double digit growth for our company in year 2018.

A

Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination:

Virgo Eugene Kaspersky Kaspersky Lab Secret ,Who Moved My Cheese?

Swimming Mumbai

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

87

CHANNE L R OAD M A P

S A K RI

“TO SUPPORT THE DISTRIBUTION NETWORK WE HAVE SALES FLEETS OF AROUND 100+ BUSINESS PROFESSIONAL IN PAN-INDIA” Sakri IT Solutions is a well-known name in the Indian IT distribution system. The company has helped many brands to establish their feet in India by enhancing market presence across all regions. Ravi Lakshman K, CEO, Sakri IT Solution Private Limited outlines his achievements in year 2017 and also shares his upcoming channel plans with DT. RAVI LAKSHMAN K, CEO, SAKRI IT SOLUTION PRIVATE LIMITED What have been the crucial milestones of your company during year 2017?

We have consolidated our product portfolio as we added ESET Technology Alliance products to our products offering in Enterprise and SMB segment. In the consumer product segment we introduced ESET Internet Security and ESET Smart Security Premium (Total Security) in the Indian Market. ESET Internet Security - 3 user pack was successful in tapping tier 2 and tier 3 market especially south India Market. We have added new channel partners in Pan India which includes VARs, SI partners and increased our channel penetration. ESET Consumer products Activation growth has been more than 100% in consumer domain segment.

We successfully achieved 80%+ Enterprise and SMB key accounts retention level. We also gained 40% growth YOY from new cliental business in the enterprise and SMB business.

Particularly in the Mobility Security Solutions we have managed to increase the activation tremendously.

India is no 2 in terms of ESET Mobile Security activations for ESET. A

Ravi Lakshman is the chief executive officer of Sakri IT Solutions – The National Distributor of ESET products in India. Mr. Ravi is a chartered accountant with more than two decades of international experience out of which last 10 years had been in the distribution of IT and related products. He is responsible for the sales and operation activities, supply chain management, building strategic reseller chain and relationship to increase market base.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination:

88

Libra Azim Premji Nestle Not a penny less – Not a penny more

How GST changed your business affair in year 2017?

Biking Nepal – Country Side

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

GST has replaced the complex structure of Central taxes and duties such as Excise Duty, Service Tax, Counter Veiling Duty (CVD), Special Additional Duty of Customs (SAD), A

central charges and cesses and local state taxes that was Value Added Tax (VAT), Central Sales Tax (CST), Octroi, Entry Tax, Purchase Tax, etc. The problem is tax policy is still confusing and has lot of ambiguity with lot of amendments coming in post launch of GST. We expect clarity in the coming days. We expected that the tax component would be lowered on the IT products and this would have boasted the IT sector but the outcome was different. With GST implementation it has slow down the pace of IT Market.

The tax exemption which we enjoyed earlier are not there as of now.

What’s your channel strength currently in India?

We have a well-established distribution network. We have almost 10k-15k partners working directly or indirectly in our distribution network across 400+ location across India. To support the distribution network we have sales fleets of around 100+ business professional in Pan-India. To stay upbeat in the competitive market we are relooking at current distribution landscape, redefining customer segments and aligning the geographies to expand and enhance our businesses in India.

A

How do you keep motivating your partners for better business volume?

A

We keeps on running channel engagement program.

Our

Channel loyalty program has got very good response with 600+ partner registered for the loyalty program and it growing. As digital marketing is gaining momentum we are helping our channel base evolve in the digital marketing segment helping them with all new digital marketing initiatives like Social media campaign, Whats app marketing, so that they can cater to all potential and existing customers who are online. Strategic marketing initiatives in the offline market like mystery shopping, channel meet and training program had been successfully to increase product penetration. Channel Offers and Schemes have been very much successful in the past. We had very good response to our Buy and Fly offer with almost 100+ partners flying to Bangkok, Switzerland and other exotic location on completion of successful sales target.

ESET?

What are the current focused product solutions from

In the consumer product segment we introduced ESET Internet Security and ESET Smart Security Premium (Total Security) in the Indian Market. As our focus is to tap huge opportunity among enterprise segment, we have added ESET enterprise and technology alliance solution to our product portfolio. With the aggressive SI channel network, we hope to increase our footprint in the enterprise segment this year.

A

www.digitalterminal.in

“ESET TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE PROTECT BUSINESSES BY PROVIDING A RANGE OF COMPLEMENTARY IT SECURITY SOLUTIONS”

S AKRI

CHANNEL ROADMAP

Security threats always remains a challenge for Enterprise & SMBs. With growing cyber-attacks, they are much worried about securing their digital journey. ESET, Industry-leading IT security software and services for businesses and consumers worldwide, recently introduced their ESET Technology Alliance solutions for Indian market through Sakri IT Solutions, ND for all range of ESET security solutions.

Satish Mantri, Vice President, Sakri IT Solutions interacted with DT and shared further plans.

SATISH MANTRI, VICE PRESIDENT, SAKRI IT SOLUTIONS How do you assure better security solutions for large enterprises?

We have recently added ESET enterprise and technology alliance solution to boost our presence in enterprise segment also. ESET Technology Alliance aims to better protect businesses by providing a range of complementary IT security solutions.ESET can provide powerful yet flexible solutions that can meet the growing security needs of enterprise. The solution creates an advanced layer of protection for organizations, governments, and the critical infrastructure sector, while also providing rapid detection and response to security breaches and other incident types.This solution offers: A

Data Encryption - Our simple-to-use encryption service for companies large and small. Allows you to meet data security obligations by easily enforcing encryption policies, while keeping productivity high Two factor authentication - Provides powerful two-factor authentication that makes access to your company network and sensitive data safe, but hassle-free.

Data loss prevention with Safetica - Safetica protects you from expensive data leaks and www.digitalterminal.in

unnecessary personnel costs Flexera® - Corporate Software Inspector - Flexera® - Corporate Software Inspector Network Traffic Analysis GREYCORTEX MENDEL helps enterprise, government, and critical infrastructure users make their IT operations secure and reliable.

ESET Threat Intelligence Services How do you see the security challenges for SMBs in India? How do you assure to offer best security solution for them?

Technological innovations and their use in 2017 have produced remarkable possibilities in the digital world, while also exposing users to new kinds of threats. This year we have seen cybercriminals focus their attacks on sensitive and private information.

2018 is the year users need to increase their awareness of cyber threats and manage their digital world more responsibly.With the new ESET SMB product line aimed at SMBs, and we have consciously decided to increase channel focus on B-, C-, and D-class cities. There is an increased interest from partners in smaller cities after they saw our value proposition as a security player in metros.

A

What will be your key marketing strategy for SMB & enterprise market segment?

We also have prime focus on the promotion of SMB and Enterprise solution. India has the highest internet user’s approx. 550 million. Due to this trend, there is a demand for quality cyber protection where ESET Security Solution will have better fitment and we will try to position ESET Security Suites in top 5 AV vendor in India. At the operational level, there will not be much difference in the way the interactions work in the channel ecosystem. We will continue to add more people as we are on an expansion spree. The focus on partners will continue with more emphasis to reach more locations A

What are the major challenges for distribution business in India?

The main challenges today is competition for getting the right distribution channel because when it comes to finances most of the people who were into distribution are moving out of distribution now.

Overall, we always look to work with right set of partners who are moving in value chain and diversifying their business into various verticals.

A

Satish Mantri is the VP, Business Development for the SAKRI Group. He joined SAKRI in 2010 and is one of the primary architects behind the stellar growth of the company. In this role, Satish has established the channel network for SAKRI in the chosen segment. His visionary channel management program and expertise in building an efficient sales force has made SAKRI, the technology partner of choice for businesses and users looking at enhancing competitiveness and driving productivity. Before joining SAKRI, Satish was Business Analyst at Knowledge iGATE. He has also worked with Walsoft, Maxpar and JK Helen Kurtis.

Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination:

Warren buffet Tesla Crime and Punishment

by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Cricket Bora bora, society islands

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

89

CHANNE L R OAD M A P

RA P O O

“WE LAUNCHED OUR GAMING ACCESSORIES BRAND CALLED VPRO FOR INDIAN MARKET” Success in Indian market for IT players depends on many factors. Indian consumers are very sensitive as they now prefer to buy high quality products from the brand which has excellent repot in the market. RAPOO, a global leader has already made their way across various market by gaining great repot among Indian consumers.

RAPOO is dedicated to offering excellent, cutting-edge wireless peripheral products to users. This year company also introduced gaming products for India under brand ‘VPRO’. Mukesh Chaudhary, Country Head-India, SAARC & ME, RAPOO Technologies India Pvt. Ltd summaries current market growth in India and reveals upcoming channel plans.

Mukesh Chaudhary is a dynamic and talented professional with a rich Sales and Marketing career spanning more than 13 years in various organizations. He is currently leading the brand Rapoo in India, SAARC and ME Regions, closely working on enhancing business operations, strengthening partner associations, and ensuring the implementation of the overall growth strategy of Rapoo in his regions. Prior to joining Rapoo, he worked the leading display and monitor brand, AOC and was leading the western region as the Regional Manager. Mukesh Chaudhary joined Rapoo in 2013 as the Regional Manager for the West Region.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination:

90

Libra Jack Ma Google Good To Great – Jim Collin Soccer Kashmir

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

MUKESH CHAUDHARY, COUNTRY HEAD-INDIA, SAARC & ME, RAPOO TECHNOLOGIES INDIA PVT. LTD

What have been the crucial milestone of your company during year 2017?

In 2017, a major milestone that we’ve achieved is that we’ve increased our market share from 5% to 8%. Also, we’ve sold more than 1 Million wireless combo products.

We’ve also decided to focus more on Gaming Accessories and in the beginning of 2018, we launched our Gaming Accessories brand called VPRO. Under the VPRO gaming brand, we will introduce Mechanical Keyboards, Gaming Keyboards and Mice combos, Gaming Mice, Gaming Headsets and Gamepads. While a few of VPRO products have already started selling in the market, in the year 2018, we have planned to introduce many new and exciting products to cater to the needs of the growing gaming community in India.

A

What were the major challenge for your company?

How do you fought those challenges?

Demonetisation and GST roll out did have an impact on business in first half as the buyer’s sentiment A

was negative. We worked closely with our partners to resolve their issues.

How GST changed your business affair in year 2017?

What were your preparation to adopt this biggest tax reform?

The second quarter, Q2 (AMJ) of 2017, was challenging but the Post GST phase was very good for us, our profitability increased and I firmly believe that GST has given a healthy boost to the PC industry. We supported our partners through this difficult period by offering reduced prices and passing on the benefits to them. With the GST rollout and the processes now majorly taken care of, we look forward to a healthy business year ahead.

A

What’s your channel strength currently in India? How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

We have a strong channel network. Creative Peripherals is our National Distributor in India.

We also have 100 Authorized Volume Partners. Also, Rapoo products reach A

end users via more than 1000 Retailers & System Integrators across India. We plan to productively work with them in 2018 to grow our business. We also plan to increase our last mile channel base especially in C & D class cities in order to increase our market share.

Additionally, in 2018, we also plan to engage more with Gaming partners and System Integrators to increase our presence in the Gaming Segment.

How do you assure your customer excellent service support?

We have already 60 ASCs across India in order to give excellent service support to our customers. Apart from that we also have dedicated in-house telephonic and email support resources for our customers.

A

Please share your current revenue and market growth rate. What is target for year 2018?

Our current revenue is 3.85M USD and we are targeting 5M this year. We also aim to double our market share in FY2018.

A

www.digitalterminal.in

CH ANNE L R OA D M A P

DIGISOL

“WE ARE COMMITTED TO WORK CLOSELY WITH OUR PARTNERS & CUSTOMERS TO PROVIDE THEM THE BEST PRODUCTS” A rati Naik, COO, D I G I S O L Sys t e m s Lt d.

Ms. Arati Naik is Chief Operating Officer at DIGISOL Systems Ltd. Arati is responsible for helping DIGISOL scale its operations and expand its presence on a national level.

She is actively involved in Managing Sales, Business Development, Human Resources, Policies, Privacy and Communications. Arati brings a lot of fresh focus for the company with an aim to transform the Brand and reinvent Networking which is her core strength thereby making DIGISOL a household name. Reaching out to newer product markets and creating a niche for each product line is her current focus. She is responsible for creating DIGISOL brand as one of the well known brand in Indian IT industry in short span of two years. She has pursued her graduation in Computer Science and Masters in Science in Networking and Business from The University of Bolton, United Kingdom and is an alumni of IIM Bangalore, having done an executive general management program with the institute.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book: Favourite Holiday Destination:

92

Leo Indra Nooyi Google The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri Portugal

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

www.digitalterminal.in

Broadband affordability and digital India are the key factors which fueled networking market in India. The brands are very much aggressive now to grab the huge upcoming opportunity across India. DIGISOL, the leading Indian brand has been catering the consumers need with high quality networking solutions at a very affordable price point.

Arati Naik, COO, DIGISOL Systems Ltd interacted with DT recently for the next edition of Year Book. She revealed her opinion about the current market conditions and her upcoming channel plans.

What have been the crucial milestone of your company during year 2017?

This year we celebrated one year of successfully launching our Structured Cabling business. We are very excited to see that over such a short period of time we have made tremendous in-roads in this highly competitive market. We are thankful to all our channel partners & SI customers who have believed in us & shown us confidence in DIGISOL SCS solutions. As we move into our 2nd year, we will continue to seek support & co-operation from our customers and channel partners who have shown their preference for DIGISOL SCS. We are committed to work closely with our partners and customers to provide them the best product and performance along with a good post-sales infrastructure.

A

How do you support Government of India’s ‘Makein-India’ program?

We are one of the few companies who want to spearhead our government’s ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digitial India’ initiative. We have been in the manufacturing sector for the last 25 years and have always contributed positively to the Indian economy by locally manufacturing products like the Routers, Modems, Networking Switches, Motherboards, Access points etc. Ours is one of the very few companies which continues to indigenously manufacture IT products in the country with substantial domestic value addition. If need arise, we are open to further investments and scaling up of our manufacturing setup at Goa to cater to larger manufacturing volume. We already expanded our manufacturing facility to include local manufacturing of our new passive range of products and nearly 90% of DIGISOL Passive Networking products are manufactured right here, in India.

A

How GST changed your business affair in year 2017? What were your preparation to adopt this biggest tax reform?

A

GST has definitely modified our business model in terms of the way our logistics and supply chain www.digitalterminal.in

works. Though it boasts of simplification, the compliance requirements have gone up many folds with the number of returns required to be filed each month. States with our sales offices have to be registered under GST and so is the compliance for these offices in terms of filing timely returns making payments.

Keeping abreast with the happenings under GST was the major step especially keeping the concerned personnel of the company as well as the business partners updated on the day to day changes. Thereafter making changes in the accounting structure and the required infrastructure for same.

What’s your channel strength currently in India?

How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

Channel expansion within India is a continuous process. Spread across India, DIGISOL has 26 regional distributors, over 350 DIGISOL Connect Partners (Stockist Partners), over 200 DIGISOL Select Partners (System Integrators) and over 5000 DIGISOL Valued Partners (Resellers). We work closely with our channel partners and system integrators who value the power and quality of our products.

A

How do you assure your customer excellent service support? What are your investment plan to enhance service support infrastructure to cover entire India?

DIGISOL has a Service & Support division under DIGICARE, which gives it a tremendous edge over its competitors. It offers high quality after sales service and support designed to deliver total customer satisfaction.

DIGICARE has built one of the most efficient, skilled and highly professional service infrastructures in the country and provides end-to-end product support. DIGICARE has embarked on a journey of consolidation and improving customer experience through a new model of service network that offers faster turnaround of customer service. Through its easy-to-access DTAC call center and a wide network of A

Partners across the country, DIGICARE has implemented a lean and yet efficient service model where the defective products are over the counter swapped with good units at the customer touch points. This network is supported in the back-end by the state of the art Repair Hubs at Goa, which ensures the repair quality standards are maintained. With this new service management model. DIGICARE is all set to provide the best possible after sales support to DIGISOL and help make DIGISOL the most preferred product.

What will be your key Go-To-Market Strategy for year 2018?

As a regular activity, this year also we will undertake events for our channel community, where we will be having one on one interaction with our channel partners.

We also actively participate in the trade shows, expos, etc.

Apart from these, we will also aggressively promote inshop branding. We will regularly connect ourselves with our partners who have been selling our products through regular marketing updates and marketing brochures. We will invest considerably in training and empowering our channel partners to build their own technical expertise as well as enhance DIGISOL’s brand positioning and visibility in the industry.

A

We will come up with new offers and schemes every quarter.

We offer, loyalty and incentive schemes to motivate the channel partners. There are two parts of profit: One is upfront margin on the sales and the second if they give a certain amount of business quarterly they get some extra incentive.

We have big focus and budget to promote DIGISOL brand on digital media and create customer pull in the market.

With advent of Digitization, Mobility and Social media, the brand presence on digital media is a must. The presence on online channel increases the visibility of the products and some customers who see the product online call the offline stores for products. In other words, online visibility brings business to the traditional channel as well.

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

93

CH ANNE L R OAD M A P

eS CA N

“ESCAN’S CHANNEL PHILOSOPHY IS TO BE AN INTEGRAL PART OF BUSINESS GROWTH” Security remains major challenge for all of us. In recent times, we have seen much more security breaches globally and in some cases we saw impact in India as well. As now we are moving very fast with digital age, we all need a trusted and secured security solutions to safeguard ourselves from any such threats. eScan, the leading security solutions vendor, has been securing the digital assets since long time. Govind Rammurthy, CEO and MD, eScan, shared his growth, achievements and further market opportunities with DT.

MR. GOVIND RAMMURTHY, CEO AND MD, eSCAN What have been the crucial milestones of your company during year 2017? eScan has scaled newer heights with its latest technological solutions to strengthen its product range against the new age cyber attacks such as Ransomware to APT and DDoS attacks with its latest AI based PBAE Technology which is one of the most advanced tools to provide real time protection for enterprise to individual users. We have also launched our Endpoint Protection (EPP), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) and Terminal Services Protection Module (TSPM) solutions which are designed to provide realtime protection with complete control of endpoints to the network administrator. In terms of customer acquisition, we have added many of the Fortune 500 companies to our client portfolio of esteemed customers.

A

What were the major challenges for your company? How do you fight those challenges?

With the fast evolving digital era, vast amount of data is generated from various sources as well as business processes, which needs strong protection and safe guarding be it from hacking to internal stealing or from cyber attacks.

To overcome such challenges, eScan has made its products and solutions designed in such a way with minimalistic human intervention cyber threats can be contained and outbreaks can be prevented. This includes proactive patch management updates/alerts to group wise rules and policies deployment with a central web-based management control to track and mitigate any untoward incident such as ransomware attacks to APTs or targeted attacks.

What’s your channel strength currently in India?

We have about 7000 + active channel base PAN India today. As a part of our Vision 2020 that is to be a brand leader among security products and solutions in India, we are realigning our channel and product policies to increase channel confidence and accelerating growth. We see a great opportunity for channel partners to join hands with one of the fastest growing security solution provider like eScan for mutual business growth keeping in mind the recent threats on Digital India and smart cities along with emerging technologies. Our partner training program is designed to drive value, to strengthen partners’ knowledge, to serve our customers better and build connections for business growth.

We provide 24/7 technical, sales and marketing support to all our channel partners are designed to be proactive. eScan’s channel philosophy is to be an integral part of business growth.

A

What will be your key Go-To-Market Strategy for year 2018?

A

Zodiac Sign:

Cancer

Favourite Business Icon:

Bill Gates

Dream Company:

Microsoft

Favourite Book:

94

Business at the speed of Thought

Favourite Sports:

Cricket

Favourite Holiday Destination:

Monaco

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

How do you support Government of India’s ‘Makein-India’ program? eScan is one of the few IT product companies in last 2 or more decades to have build a fully Indian product and taken to the world, it can boast of itself as the first “ Make In India” product to go global. As an Indian product today we are also having a strong base among Government and PSU segment as our valued customers and we look forward to more such steps by GoI to encourage Indian companies.

A

Our marketing strategy is multipronged, which to simply say is new customer acquisitions through customer awareness and engagement. Our eScan Channel Program includes dedicated training programs for partner sales and technical teams to providing rebates on target achievements and POC support during customer life cycle period.

A

What are your set growth target for year 2018?

A As part of our vision 2020 we look forward to be the top 3 security brands in India in terms of our technological innovations and brand. eScan is today well respected and accepted by the fortune 500 companies in India. We look forward to expand the reach further and add more customers through our growing SI partner networks.

Today we are growing at 40% CAGR and expect to surpass the same with the rising demand due to digital adoptions and smart city projects. www.digitalterminal.in

lose yourself in the beats Top Rated Sound Accessories that are Stylishly Designed to Lve Music Better Everyday.

30

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

www.digitalterminal.in

CH ANNE L R OAD M A P

P O RTRO N I CS

“WE HAVE A WELL-DEFINED CHANNEL SALES DISTRIBUTION SETUP ACROSS INDIA” Portronics is known for its wide range of unique and innovative products. With Pan India presence through strong partner network, Portronics serving to huge customer base across different verticals. Navin Sharma, Head Sales & Marketing, Portronics chats with DT and shared overall plan for company’s further growth.

NAVIN SHARMA, HEAD SALES & MARKETING, PORTRONICS What has been the crucial milestone of your company during 2017?

& Sell demos, effective placement of merchandise in all possible potential dealers.

We have been growing continuously since last so many years by offering high quality and innovative products to Indian customer. Major milestone is to give momentum to company’s longer –term growth potential and strengthen Portronics’ ability to execute on this ambitious target.

How do you assure customer excellent service support?

A

Navin is an Entrepreneurial Professional with vision for Sales & Marketing, New Business development and leadership in both Start-Up and Turnaround situations. He has PAN India work exposure of over 39+ Years in “Sales & Marketing “for FMCG & Consumer Electronic Product Industries. He is very much proficient in New Initiatives and process improvement in sales management. He is a graduate in Science (B.Sc) and also holds Post Graduate Diploma in “Sales & Marketing Management”. He joined the enthusiastic and progressive crew of Portronics in April 2017 as Head Sales & Marketing, spearheading the PAN India operations.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon:

Dream Company: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination: 96

Leo Mr. Adi Godrej and Mr. MadhukarBhai Parekh Nestle India Cricket Himachal Pradesh.

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

What were the major challengers for your company? How do you fought those challenges?

With the implementation of GST tax regime, a number of mushrooming brands entered the Indian market with unethical trade practices. This turnaround situation has been achieved with conviction, perseverance and patience.

A

How GST changed your business affair in 2017? What was your preparation to adopt this biggest tax reform?

GST has a very positive impact on our business.

This brought in price control and Anti-Profiteering thereby completely transformed our business model.

The consumers all across India can now purchase our products at uniform prices.

A

Whats your channel strength currently in India? How doyou plan to boost channel strength in year2018?

Our company has a well-defined channel sales distribution setup across India, having more than 100 distributors and over 5000 satisfied retail partners. We trust our distributor’s strengths and are confident that they would leave no stone unturned to place the products in all relevant retail outlets. We also expect them to actively participate in creating consumers awareness of our products by conducting Tell A

The key to success for any company lies in the after sales service apart from innovative product offerings. Our Company assures excellent support with enhanced service to its consumers through a central support team of highly skilled and efficient engineers, customer support executives, and a nationwide set up of dedicated service tie ups.

A

The company has plans to strengthen this activity further and it is not possible without ploughing of huge resources.

What will be your “Key to Go to Market Strategy for year 2018?

We will be adopting and optimizing Digital Marketing and automation in business processes.

We also plan to launch more innovative lifestyle gadgets in this year. To create brand awareness we are looking for widespread Inshop brandings and developing company’s owned dedicated retail outlets in major cities.

A

What will be major product you will be launching in year 2018? Which will be your key target verticals/ market?

In order to further strengthen our Product range, we are at the verge of launching a series of Innovative Products to suit the demands of the consumers. These products shall be targeted at all segments and profile of consumers. These Product shall be made available in Mobile Shops , Electronic Consumer Durable shops , Music Shops , Computer peripheral selling shops etc. to name a few.

A

www.digitalterminal.in

C H AN N E L ROADMAP

PHOTOFAST

“WE WILL HAVE A FULL RANGE OF PRODUCTS AS COMPARED TO VERY FEW MODELS EARLIER” PhotoFast, a premium smart accessory company based in Taiwan, has started its penetration in Indian market. The brand is well known for offering quality products for Apple devices.

PhotoFast’s storage solutions and mobile accessories have been praised by key industry influencers for their innovation, design and convenience. Company has chalked out very aggressive plans for Indian market as the consumer base of Apple has been soaring since last few years. Altaf Ansari, Regional Business Manager, PhotoFast for Indian market is ready to enhance market presence with exciting plans in Year 2018.

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company:

Virgo Steve Jobs Any place I work, would be my dream place

Favourite Book:

The Goal

Favourite Book:

Soccer

Favourite Holiday Destination:

ALTAF ANSARI, REGIONAL BUSINESS MANAGER, PHOTOFAST

Singapore

What have been the crucial milestone of your company during year 2017?

The year 2017 has been extremely important for us as this is the year when PhotoFast has taken an important step by entering the Indian market directly. Earlier the PhotoFast products that were sold in India were through the distributor and there was no PhotoFast representative in India. Besides in 2018, we will have a full range of products as compared to very few models earlier.

A

What were the major challenge for your company?

How do you fought those challenges?

The major challenge for us was brand awareness. We are trying to overcome this by reaching out to the consumers and channel through PR, social media, print media, product reviews and launches etc.

How GST changed your business affair in year 2017?

GST has been a big game changer for the industry.

Initially the business took a massive hit but as the time is passing by, there is a hope for revival of business gradually. We had worked with our distributors very closely to ensure smooth transition in to the new tax regime by carefully monitoring and implementing the guidelines which was not a very easy task.

A

What’s your channel strength currently in India? How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

Currently the channel is quite ad hoc and unmanaged as earlier, there was no one from PhotoFast to streamline and develop the channel India.

In 2018, we are extremely keen on and are going to put all efforts in developing both the offline &online channels in India. Our target is to appoint at least one sub-distributor in each state in 2018 who has a strong channel partner eco-system under him. We will be supporting and doing business through our channel partners only.

A

How do you assure your customer excellent service support?

A

98

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

A

We consider Customer service as our primary responsibility and lay a lot of emphasis on

providing excellent service to them. We have a very simple yet very effective service model wherein the customer gets a replacement of completely new unit against the faulty unit from the place of purchase. We wish to continue with this same model.

Please share your current revenue and market growth rate. What is target for year 2018?

The mobile accessories market is said to reach a whopping $3545Mn by the end of year 2026 in India according to one study done recently. The factors fueling this growth are the active adoption of smartphones in India and the rapid growth in the internet connectivity speeds which are increasingly getting cheaper and affordable by the consumers in India. The fact that Apple India has doubled its sales revenue compared to last year proves that not only are the entry level phones are gaining momentum but also the high end phones’ adoption is growing quite well.

All these factors are eventually leading to the fact that the amount of data downloaded on the phones is huge and soon run out the internal storage capacity of the phones. This is where we come in to the picture. We offer innovative and premium quality storage solutions to mobile users with lots of important and easy to use functionalities which is not offered by most of the brands. We are planning to do close to $1mn in 2018 in India.

A

www.digitalterminal.in

NNR IT

“WE ARE SLOWLY BUT STEADILY STEPPING INTO SERVICES SEGMENT”

CHANNEL ROADMAP

Every year, we see new opportunities and challenges for distribution business in India. In recent times even big distribution houses close down their business as they might have not taken right step at right time. Traditional Distributors are facing the heat as consumer business is primarily shifting to online platform. But as our economy growing and new development has taken place, we may see huge opportunity but we need to move up in the value chain to grab business in certain different verticals. NNR IT Solutions also plans to follow the same path. Jagannath Patnaik, CEO & Founder, NNR IT Solutions again gearing up for second phase of growth for his company. He has moved into few new product segment and new verticals, which are paving the way for further growth in year 2018. Mr. Patnaik sharing his business plans with DT.

JAGANNATH PATNAIK, CEO AT NNR IT SOLUTIONS What have been the crucial milestones of your company during year 2017?

This year was very much good as we diversified our focus into some new products.

We have added new products into our distribution at Hyderabad and Pune. We have started distribution here for brands like Quick Heal, eScan and Bull Gard, Microsoft in Software and into hardware peripherals.

We are already having Trend micro in Antivirus segment for which we are the national distributor for its consumer product range. We have also ventured into SMB segment in security software. We are slowly but steadily stepping into services segment.

A

What were the major challenges for distribution business in India?

The major challenges in IT distribution business currently is product stocking by partners. In today’s scenario partners are not willing to stock and sell as in traditional way but wants to have back to back working style. Delivery and logistics become very challenging for distributors as partners are not ready with stock as they used earlier.

A

How GST changed your business affair in year 2017?

We as a distribution company see this new tax regime as a historical change in our ecosystem. The operation has become very smooth as system is uniform across the country. There is no doubt it will help all business in India but to get GST registration at every branch is bit cumbersome.

A

www.digitalterminal.in

Government should come out with proper guideline for distributors with multiple branches. There surly certain flaws into current rules which need to address for its much better future impact.

What’s your channel strength currently in India? How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?

Being into this industry since last two decades, I always believe success comes when brand succeeds in establishing efficient partner’s network.

Channel has been core strength for me during these years. NNR IT also work on building excellent channel network across the country. We are having channels across India but now we are planning to venture in to tier 3 & 4 Cities as well. I am willing to add more partners where there is gap in certain region. We will take the partners strength around 5000 for which we are identifying right set of partners across different geographies.

A

Jagannath Patnaik is CEO & founder of NNR IT Solutions, a security solutions Distribution Company based out of Pune. Mr. Patnaik is well known industry leader with an experience of more than 20 years and has helped many security companies to establish in Indian market. Prior to starting his own venture, he has worked as Director Channel Sales, Kaspersky Lab where he worked for more than four years and was man behind establishment of Kaspersky channel work force Pan India. He has also played instrumental role in building Quick Heal security solutions as a brand in India.

Zodiac Sign:

What will be your major business plan in 2018?

Favourite Business Icon:

Time has come for us to diversify our business offerings in various segment. We have identified certain key areas where we can offer best solutions and services. We are working on this and shall announce soon the new agreements. Besides this we are having plans to expand our sphere of business venturing into multi brand security software as well as other software products at our branch levels. We see year 2018 a game changing year for NNR IT to fuel tremendous growth.

Dream Company:

A

Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination:

Saggitarius Shri Narayan Murthy My Own Bhagavatgita Cricket Any Seaside Or Hill Station.

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

99

CHANNE L R OAD M A P

DOEL

“WE ARE ALSO FOCUSED ON EXPANDING OUR BUSINESS IN INDIA AND SAARC” Doel was started by one of the industry veteran in year 2015. The brand offers high quality mobility products currently which are really innovative and received very positive response from consumers. In year 2018, company will be more focused on enhancing sales across all region. Sudip De, Managing Director, Doel International Pvt. Ltd, the man behind this new brand shred his upcoming plans with DT.

SUDIP DE, MANAGING DIRECTOR, DOEL INTERNATIONAL PVT. LTD. What have been the crucial milestone of your company during year 2017?

What’s your channel strength currently in India?

This year has been crucial for our business as we are able to diversify our business in other verticals. We successfully launched Doel Toner Cartridges for Indian market. We believe there is lack of high quality products in our market which is majorly an unorganised sector. Our aim is to offer best quality toner cartridges for printers at an affordable price point. The product has started picking up in the market and in Year 2018, we hope to boost the presence across all major market.

Doel believes in growing with channel partners.

Since our inception, we have always worked to create effective channel base to reach our customers.

Currently we have 35 distributors for our Cartridge business and 14 distributors for Mobility products. We intend to have state and district specific distributors going forward. Our approach in 2018 will be very state intensive.

A

Mr. Sudip De, an industry veteran is currently handling the position of Managing Director, Doel International Pvt. Ltd. which he has founded in year 2015. The venture is sure success as he is very competent professional with over 23 years of total cross functional experience in the areas of Strategic Planning, Business Development with profit accountability. Prior to his own venture, he worked for ADATA Technology as VP SAARC Countries, for almost four years. He was the driving force for brand positioning & channel establishment during his tenure at ADATA. He has worked with leading brands like Moser Baer India Limited, BenQ, Samsung and others.

What were the major challenge for your company? How do you fought those challenges?

The impact of GST migration was one of the major challenge. We observed low business volumes before and post GST implementation. We did our preparation in advance to shift our business module according to new GST ecosystem. Now it’s very simple for us to operate businesses across India.

A

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination:

100

Scorpio Mr. Ratan Tata Doel (Make it Big)

How do you support Government of India’s ‘Make-in-India’ program?

Straight f rom the Gut by Jack Welch Cricket South Af rica / Dubai

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

With Make In India mission, we saw many companies started their manufacturing in India which is very good for our country.

But to promote local manufacturing, I suggest government that import Duties of certain products which are made in India needs to be raised and local manufacturers need to be given incentives.

A

A

How do you assure your customer excellent service support?

We take service support very seriously as this help us in creating excellent brand repot in consumer’s mind. Till now we have successfully managed our service support from our corporate office where we have skilled technical team to give proper assistance to the loyal customers. But going forward we will have pan country service network so that we may serve even much better and resolve the service issue at ease.

A

What will be major products you will be launching in year 2018?

As we are gaining momentum in two verticals so our focus will remain on Portable Power, Toner cartridges and accessories. We have complete plan to bring high quality and innovative products time to time for Indian customers. This year we are also focused on expanding our business in India and SAARC. A

What is your revenue target for year 2018?

A

We have taken baby steps and have grown YoY. We intend to take our 2018 -19 revenue to 25cr. www.digitalterminal.in

CHANNEL R OAD M A P

S A RA N I

“NOW WE ARE EQUALLY FOCUSED ON MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION OF LEADING BRANDS IN INDIA” SARANI Retail & Marketing Pvt. Ltd. is catering to huge emerging opportunity by offering marketing and distribution support to some of the leading brands in India. SARANI Retail & Marketing Pvt. Ltd. A reputed Complete Brand Marketing Solution company is handling Complete/Partial Brand Marketing for few renowned IT brands like RAPOO, Ideakard, 360 Technology, Huntkey, Wacom, Allflex etc. since 2016. Sunil Srivastava, Director, Operations & Marketing, SARANI Retail & Marketing Pvt. Ltd. reveals his current and future plans with DT.

SUNIL SRIVASTAVA, DIRECTOR, OPERATIONS & MARKETING, SARANI RETAIL & MARKETING PVT. LTD. What are the major products you are offering under SARANI distribution?

Zodiac Sign: Favourite Business Icon: Dream Company: Favourite Book: Favourite Sports: Favourite Holiday Destination:

Aquarius Ratan Tata Grow Brand SARANI like TATA Rich Dad Poor Dad

A

What are the major features of Ideakard Smart Power Strips which you are distributing?

Badminton Goa

What were the key achievements in Year 2017 for your company?

We saw very moderate growth in year 2017 as there was impact of demonetisation and GST throughout the year. But last quarter the market conditions improved as we are able to close the calendar year on a good note. We also moved ahead in distribution business by taking the exclusive regional distribution of RAPOO’s wide range of products along with Smart Power Strips from Ideakard and Smart IP Camera from 360 Technology for UP & Uttrakhand. Now we are equally focused on marketing and distribution of leading brands in India. With this new development, I am very excited to have excellent growth for my company in this New Year.

A

102

RAPOO is a very technically strong brand in input devices so we have decided to go with all the products of RAPOO including their gaming brand VPRO. Apart from Input Devices & Audio from RAPOO, Power Bank is also an important product these days in mobility industry so we will be positioning RAPOO’s Power Bank as well. These Power Banks are made under Make In India Initiative. With RAPOO we have added Surge Protected Power Strips from Ideakard and 360 Smart IP camera from 360 Technology.

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

video on your phone as well as you can talk to the person who is in front of the camera. We will be aggressively pushing this product.

A These are Surge Protected Power Strips from a new Make In India brand ‘IdeaKard’, with the growing smart devices in everyone’s life we need more electricity points at home as well as office. Hence the requirement of Power Strip (Extension Strips) is growing day by day. IdeaKard power strips are manufactured with High quality standards with high grade Cable and Sockets with a Surge Protected Reset Switch. This works like MCCB if any kind of power fluctuation, surge and short circuit happens.

What are the major features of 360 Smart IP Camera which you are also distributing?

360 Smart IP Camera is very unique and it works on Wi-Fi and you don’t even need any DVR or bulky Power supply or long wirings, instead it’s sleek, stylish & lightweight camera which can be operated with Mobile DVR Application (Android/iOS). With your 360 mobile application you can monitor the location and you can also add about 99 people per camera to access the live feeds of that particular location like Kid’s Classrooms or School Busses/VANs. This device offers two way communication so you can see the A

What are your future plans to grow the business volume for SARANI? We are also planning to introduce our own brand this year. We are working on to bring own laptop battery and adapter, power bank, mobile chargers and cables. We will be also looking to offer barcode scanner and label printers and their printing consumables.

A

What is your channel expansion plans?

As we are also focused on distribution of products now, we have started building channel network. I would not like to add numbers only but I am looking for quality partners. As we have two states currently, we expect to bill around 200 channel partners by end of March. There will be at least four branches in UP & Uttrakhand to support local partners in selling products.

A

What all marketing services you offer to your clients?

We are also a leading Brand Marketing company in India who are helping many leading brands to execute their complete brand marketing activities across India. We provide end to end marketing services to our clients like from planning till execution, it may be PR, Retails Branding & Merchandising, POP designing, Printing & Placement, EDMs, Events & Meetings, Digital Marketing, All ATL & BTL activities etc. SARANI is serving to more than five brands currently and in year 2018, we will be looking to explore companies who need marketing support to establish new brands in India.

Apart from this we are also owning and running an Online eCommerce portal exclusively for Towel and Towel Items www.towelsforyou.com which is doing pretty good.

A

www.digitalterminal.in

CH ANNE L R OAD M A P

N E T PROTECTOR

“OUR PRIMARY MOTIVE IS TO BOOST CONFIDENCE TO COMPUTING BY DEVELOPING INNOVATIVE SOLUTION” Net Protector is one of the leading providers of Anti-Virus, internet security tools and offers Anti-Virus Technology in India. Net Protector is about 25 year old brand and has a wide range of security solutions. Indiaantivirus was established in Pune and has been actively involved in Research and Development of Anti-Virus software since then. In the interaction with DT, Sumeet Kela, Technical Managing Director – Net Protector tells more about the company’s performance, their business tactics and how they go throw with it.

SUMEET KELA, TECHNICAL MANAGING DIRECTOR – NETPROTECTOR

What have been the key highlights of your company during the year 2017?

The year 2017has beenvery good for us. We are quite happy with overall performance of our company as we have maintained to grow our business.

We have been able to expand our reach PAN India which helped us in consolidating our overall performances. We actively participated in all leading IT exhibition across India to promote our brand. Our brand has become one of the most visible brands in India which offers excellent protection from any kind of security threat. With a good show in year 2017, we are very much hopeful to add more value to our brands by enhancing overall market share in this New Year.

A

What is the strength of Netprotector? How do you boost trust factor among your customers?

We are one of the leading Indian brand in PC security domain. We have earned customer’s trust gradually due to offering best security solutions. Our brand is to be trusted for two big reasons we are today pioneer company in the field of antivirus software. Yes we are in now twenty five year old company and are indeed growing in leaps and bounds. We are very young and full of energy as our average staff age is also between 28-30

years. We are a 100% made in India Company and our scan engines & servers are performance Company. Our primary motive is to “boost confidence to computing” by developing innovative solution for large corporates, small enterprise and individual users.

How do you see the ‘Make-in-India’ program?

Make in India programme by Indian Government A is truly phenomenal and generating anxiety and raising eye brows from all parts of the world. We whole heartedly support this programme as we are also a Make in India manufacturer of antivirus software since last 25 years. We believe that this initiative has already helping in uplifting domestic manufacturing in India.

These all developments ultimately providing lakhs of job opportunities to young professionals. ‘Make in India’ mission will help our economy in growing much better.

With this plan, India will surly become developed nation.

A

104

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

What is the significance of channel Partners in success of Netprotector?

Net Protector is a channel-oriented and channeldriven company since its establishment. With so strong channel reach, we are able to cater the huge opportunities. Our partners are key to our success as A

their contribution is really vital for us. Our partners are our face to customers and they have been doing very well to increase our brand value, we provide every support they want and we are always there for our partners. Our company offers all sort of training to our key partners so that they may perform well and achieve their target. We keeps on running channel schemes and partner program to further motivate them.

How do you see business after GST? We all are very happy to see GST as new tax structure of India. TheGST has helped all business establishments in India as one tax has been applied across all part of country. This has great potential in changing the entire economy and it will help our country in making developed. GST has created transparency in the entire tax system and it gave a relief to all the tax payers as now we don’t need to go throw a lot of tax layers. We as a brand has great relief. Now we may have centralized inventory system as uniform tax law apply across all states. This help all of us in saving some money which ultimately we pass to consumers. Even our partners are very much happy to work under new tax regime. We have already updated our entire accounts and inventory system as per GST compliances.

A

www.digitalterminal.in

WORLD’S TOP 30 HIGHEST PAID CEOs Tech companies now days making lots of money. These companies are led by its CEO who remains driving force behind the company’s massive revenue. But do you know much they earn? Equilar’s ‘200 highest-paid CEO rankings’, the annual survey, done in collaboration with The New York Times brought this interesting list. Check out belowthe list of World’s Top 30 Tech CEOs who are top earners.

12 MARK HURD

Designation: Co-CEO Company: Oracle Total compensation: $41.1 MILLION

SAFRA CATZ

Designation: Co-CEO Company: Oracle Total compensation: $40.9 MILLION

106

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

3

BOBBY KOTICK

4

Designation: CEO Company: Activision Blizzard Total compensation: $33.1 MILLION

MEG WHITMAN Designation: CEO Company: HPE Total compensation: $32.9 MILLION

www.digitalterminal.in

5 GINNY ROMETTY Designation: Chairman & CEO Company: IBM Total compensation: $32.3 MILLION

9

6

7

DION WEISLER

Designation: President & CEO Company: HP Total compensation: $28.2 MILLION

RANDALL STEPHENSON Designation: CEO Company: AT&T Total compensation: $25 MILLION

12 www.digitalterminal.in

HOCK TAN

Designation: President & CEO Company: Broadcom Total compensation: $24.7 MILLION

HENRY FERNANDEZ

Designation: Chairman & CEO Company: MSCI Total compensation: $22.2 MILLION

JAMES PETERSON

Designation: President & CEO Company: Microsemi Total compensation: $28 MILLION

10

8

MARISSA MAYER

Designation: CEO Company: Yahoo Total compensation: $24.7 MILLION

11

KIRILL TATARINOV

Designation: CEO Company: Citrix Systems Total compensation: $22.3 MILLION

JOHN LEGERE

Designation: CEO Company: T-Mobile Total compensation: $20.1 MILLION

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

107

16 15 17 14

TOP 30 CEOs

GARY NORCROSS

Designation: President & CEO Company: Fidelity National Information Services Total compensation: $20 MILLION

SHANTANU NARAYEN Designation: CEO Company: Adobe Total compensation: $20 MILLION

20 108

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

Designation: CEO Company: Intel Total compensation: $19.1 MILLION

Designation: Chairman & CEO Company: NCR Total compensation: $19.2 MILLION

Designation: CEO Company: Applied Materials Total compensation: $19.7 MILLION

18

BRIAN KRZANICH

BILL NUTI

GARY DICKERSON

19 BRAD SMITH

Designation: Chairman & CEO Company: Intuit Total compensation: $18.8 MILLION

PIERRE NANTERME

Designation: Chairman & CEO Company: Accenture Total compensation: $18.5 MILLION

21

SATYA NADELLA

Designation: CEO Company: Microsoft Total compensation: $17.7 MILLION

22 LOWELL MCADAM

Designation: Chairman & CEO Company: Verizon Total compensation: $17.4 MILLION www.digitalterminal.in

25

23 CHUCK ROBBINS

Designation: CEO Company: Cisco Total compensation: $16 MILLION

PATRICK GELSINGER

24

Designation: CEO Company: VMwares Total compensation: $14.8 MILLION

RICHARD TEMPLETON

Designation: Chairman & CEO Company: Texas Instruments Total compensation: $15 MILLION

26

GLEN POST

Designation: CEO Company: CenturyLink Total compensation: $13.6 MILLION

27 FRANK BISIGNANO

Designation: Chairman & CEO Company: First Data Total compensation: $13.8 MILLION

WILLIAM BROWN Designation: Chairman & CEO Company: Harris Corp Total compensation: $13.9 MILLION

30 URSULA BURNS

Designation: Chairman & CEO Company: Xerox Total compensation: $13.1 MILLION www.digitalterminal.in

28

29 MARC BENIOFF Designation: CEO Company: Salesforce Total compensation: $13.2 MILLION

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

109

TOP 50 GLOBAL

TECH BRANDS DT has been listing Best 50 Global Tech Brands each year through DT Year Book since last four year. We aim to recognise based 50 ICT brands which have built reputation due to their healthy line products and services. They have been at the forefront of delivering innovation and setting up new trends. These brands have played a key role in transforming the consumer behaviour from time to time. The list is all about motivating such brands further to work hard and bring best solutions for Indian customers which is completely based on our own parameters and evolution process.

Apple, an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, is a common name in the country today. While most of us may not afford to own an iPhone, we all desire to have one someday. The brand has occupied a special image in the hearts of consumers in the country either through the word of mouth or because of the premium range.

This is the company which made PC available to every individual in the world. Because of Windows OS, the world began to learn how computing can change lives. Today, every individual want to own a laptop or PC which runs Windows OS. Most of the organizations in the world run on Windows OS. Microsoft has diversified its business into cloud and services.

110

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

Without exaggeration, Adobe is part of our everyday life. The magazine or newspaper you read may have been designed using Adobe’s Indesign application. Its Photoshop is world famous as every photographer or photostudio makes use of it. Adobe is the global leader in digital marketing and digital media solutions. Its tools and services allow customers to create digital content, deploy it across media and devices, measure and optimize it over time.

Dell today, is one of India’s leading technology companies. With awardwinning desktops, laptops, 2-in-1s and thin clients, powerful workstations and rugged devices made for specialized environments, monitors, endpoint security solutions and services, Dell gives today’s workforce what they need to securely connect, produce, and collaborate from anywhere at any time. Dell, a part of Dell Technologies, services customers from consumers to organizations of all sizes across 180 countries.

HP Inc is the leading brand in the country. HPI is the number one player in many segments such as notebooks, desktops and printers. HP Inc. creates technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere. Through their portfolio of printers, PCs, mobile devices, solutions, and services, they engineer experiences that amaze.

Cisco is the worldwide leader in IT and networking domain. Its products help companies seize the opportunities of tomorrow. The company has a strong footprint in all industries including telecom, government, manufacturing, BFSI and retail, among others. The company has increased its presence in the server market through its blade servers.

www.digitalterminal.in

ICT GLOBAL BRANDS

Acer is a hardware + software + services company dedicated to the research, design, marketing, sale, and support of innovative products that enhance people’s lives. Its range of notebooks and PCs is quite popular as it is one of the leading brands in this segment. Acer celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2016 and currently among India’s top four PC companies. It employs 7,000 people worldwide and has a presence in over 160 countries.

Founded in 1999, Tenda technology is the recognized leading supplier of Networking devices and equipments.

Tenda has committed to delivering easy-to-install and affordable networking solutions, offering innovative, cuttingedge products to ease people’s intelligent life. Tenda products include Home networking, Business networking, Switch, Broadband CPE, Gateway, Powerlines, Mobile broadband, IP camera etc. Tenda has been aggressively spreading its wing in India currently with huge investment in branding, infrastructure, sales team and service support.

Intel is the leader in the chip market with more than 90% marketshare.

If Microsoft has allowed users to use computers at home, it is all because of Intel. Intel processors gave the speed to computers and allowed heavy applications to run smoothly. Not only notebooks and computers, it also rules the data center market where most servers run on Intel architecture.

Sony India is one of the most recognized c o n s u m e r electronics brand in the country, with a reputation for new age technology, digital concepts and excellent after sales service. With brands names such as BRAVIA, Xperia, Alpha, Headphones, Handycam, Cybershot, Xplod, Sony hi-fi, memory stick and PlayStation, Sony has established itself as a value leader across its various product categories.

SAP is at the centre of today’s technology revolution. SAP is the number one ERP solution provider in India and claims customers in all verticals. SAP rules on-premise enterprise applications market. In recent years, SAP has focused heavily to market the HANA platform for which it has got a fair amount of traction from its existing customers. In India, most of the large enterprises run on SAP.

Lenovo is among top 2 PCs brand in India currently. Its mobile phones and tablets have taken it into the hands of common masses. Its notebooks and desktops give tough competition to players such as Dell, HP and others. Since the company has bought IBM’s server business, it is increasing its footprint in the enterprise and government sector.

Kaspersky Lab is a global cybersecurity company founded in 1997. Kaspersky Lab’s deep threat intelligence and security expertise is constantly transforming into security solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. Over 400 million users are protected by Kaspersky Lab technologies and we help 270,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them.

Founded in 1996, TP-Link is a global provider of reliable networking devices and accessories, involved in all aspects of everyday life.

TP-Link is consistently leading in providing WLAN and broadband CPE devices. They distribute in more than 120 countries and serve hundreds of millions of people worldwide. TP-Link has portfolio of products that meet the networking needs of all individuals.

Now, as the connected lifestyle continues to evolve, the company is expanding today to exceed the demands of tomorrow.

www.digitalterminal.in

More than Apple, Samsung enjoys the highest brand recall for smartphones in India. It is the number one mobile vendor in the country. It continues to lead the market with its strong range of mobile devices. The company is redefining the worlds of TVs, smartphones, wearable devices, tablets, cameras, digital appliances, medical equipment, network systems, and semiconductor and LED solutions.

Kingston is a true market leader currently in India. The brand offers memory products for desktops, laptops, servers, printers, and Flash memory products for computers, digital cameras and mobile devices. Kingston Technology is the world’s largest independent manufacturer of memory products. Through its global network of subsidiaries and affiliates, Kingston has manufacturing facilities in California, Taiwan, China and sales representatives in the United States, Canada, Europe, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, India, Taiwan, China, and Latin America.

Oracle India is a leader in the enterprise IT space and is one of the fastest growing companies in India. After it acquired Sun Microsystems, it widened its portfolio and built engineered systems capability. Today, it offers ERP, CRM, SCM, Middleware and BI solutions to large enterprises in India. In recent years, the company has begun to empower its cloud business in India.

Canon India continues to be a leader in the printing and camera space. The company today has offices and warehouses in 14 cities across India and employs over 1000 people. Canon has over 500 primary channel partners, 14 National Retail Chain partners, and over 6000 secondary retail points. Canon has 248 own retail stores ‘Canon Image’ Square across 118 cities. Canon believes in ‘Delighting You Always’ by offering innovative & high quality products such as copier MFDs, fax-machines, printers, scanners, digital cameras and DSLR.

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

111

ICT GLOBAL BRANDS

The Sophos Group is a leading global provider of cloud-enabled enduser and network security solutions, offering organisations end-to-end protection against known and unknown IT security threats through products that are easy to install, configure, update and maintain. The Group has more than 30 years of experience in enterprise security and has built a portfolio of products that protect more than 260,000 organisations and more than 100 million endusers in 150 countries across a variety of industries.

LG has ruled the display market for all kinds of consumer and enterprise needs. Its monitors captured the significant part of the market.

It is also strong in the mobile space and IT peripherals. LG India delivers electronics that let you embrace life and prepare you for its greatest moments.

NVIDIA has pioneered the art and science of visual computing. It is an undisputed leader in the graphics card space as its products allow animation houses to create life-like animations. The company is focusing big time on machine learning, artificial intelligence and virtual reality. Recently it has rolled out its server for AI and parallel computing.

Seagate is a leading storage player in India and around the world. Its external storage solutions are quite popular in the market. It creates space for the human experience by innovating on how data is stored, shared and used. Seagate enjoys the highest brand recall for external storage devices.

Its biggest revenue comes from the OEM business.

McAfee Labs is a notable security brand which is now named as Intel Security. Because of its fullproof efforts and research, it claims to have cybersecurity solutions. The McAfee Labs has more than 400 researchers who collect threat data from millions of sensors across key threat vectors—file, web, message, and network.

ECS, Elitegroup Computer Systems, was established in 1987. In recent years, ECS’s main focus has expanded from motherboards to All-in-One PCs, notebook computers, Mini PC and other mobile products. ECS is strongly committed to developing cutting-edge technology in order to create innovative products under environmentally friendly designs. In India, company is also thriving the demand of affordable PC solutions through its LIVA Mini PCs.

Trend Micro is a leading security solutions company which pledges to make the world safe for exchanging digital information.

Trend Micro is present in both consumer and business segments and has variety of security solutions for servers, PCs, endpoints, gateways, mobile devices and networks, etc. It closely works with businesses and governments to provide layered data security.

Schneider Electric develops connected technologies and solutions to manage energy and process in ways that are safe, reliable, efficient and sustainable. The company helps several datacenters and offices to work seamlessly. Its power solutions are considered the best in its category. The Group invests in R&D in order to sustain innovation and differentiation, with a strong wireless solutions, networking devices, tablets and smartphones.

AMD is the second biggest computer chipmaker and powers computers globally. The company has endeavoured to become an option for PC buyers globally with its range of processors that even exceed Intel’s.

The company also sells graphic cards and helps consumers to create great digital content. The company is trying to enhance its footprint in the country as it wants to be an affordable alternative.

112

Western Digital is an industry-leading provider of storage technologies and solutions that enable people to create, leverage, experience and preserve data. The company addresses ever-changing market needs by providing a full portfolio of compelling, high-quality storage solutions with customer-focused innovation, high efficiency, flexibility and speed. Our products are marketed under the HGST, SanDisk and WD brands to OEMs, distributors, resellers, cloud infrastructure providers and consumers

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

D-Link is a global leader in connecting people, businesses and cities with over 3 decades of experience. Today, D-Link (India) Limited is a key market player with a nationwide reach, robust product portfolio and superior services in India. The Company is firmly committed towards delivering high quality, efficient and reliable Networking products, solutions and services. D-Link India today has 17 branch offices with State of-the-art service support infrastructure present PAN India.

HyperX is committed to eSports in India currently as it has supported various events in year 2017 across India. HyperX is the highperformance product division of Kingston Technology encompassing high-speed DDR4 and DDR3 memory, SSDs, USB Flash drives, and gaming accessories. Targeted at gamers, overclockers and enthusiasts, HyperX is known throughout the world for quality, performance and innovation. Started in 2002, HyperX began with one line of high-performance memory and has grown over the years to encompass multiple product lines.

www.digitalterminal.in

ICT GLOBAL BRANDS

Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group operates in about 200 countries and regions. In India, Ricoh is a market leader in its key categories and enjoys immense customer confidence in the wide variety of our products and solutions, which includes Office Printers, Digital Duplicators, Production Printers, Projection systems, cameras, IT services, Video conferencing solutions and related software technologies.

Fujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company, offering a full range of technology products, solutions, and services. It has a strong customer base in India. It uses its experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with its customers. It sells services, servers and PCs in India.

Symantec is better known for Norton security solution which has been an undisputed leader for years in the anti-virus space. It was founded in 1982 and since has evolved to become one of the world’s largest security companies. The company is again betting big on security and eying the enterprise business for growth.

Today, Xerox is the global leader in business process and document management, helping organizations of any size be more efficient so they can focus on their real business. Its printer business may have suffered significantly but it has got the benefit of getting into managed print services business. Its customers come from government, healthcare, pharma, real estate and retail, among others.

Panasonic makes available in India its wide range of consumer electronics, home appliances like DVD players, smartphones, cameras, camcorders, car audio systems, and a wide range of system products. It also offers high definition videoconferencing, professional audio-video products like broadcast cameras, projectors and displays.

Founded in 2002, RAPOO is an emerging player in the wireless peripheral domain.

The company follows a simple philosophy “Wireless Your Life”. It has rapidly increased its market share in the market. The RAPOO range of wireless mice, wireless keyboards, and wireless headsets is tailored to meet the needs of PC users. The brand also introduced VPRO Gaming Accessories in India recently.

Toshiba Digital Media Network is responsible for the sales and marketing promotion and support of Toshiba hard disk drives. Toshiba is a famous brand in many categories including computers, servers, storage and other categories. Toshiba is the best partner to enterprise server, storage and notebook computers, as it aims to offer the best service and products.

ASRock was established in 2002, specializing in the field of motherboards. ASRock strives to build up its own brand. With 3C design concepts, “Creativity, Consideration, Costeffectiveness”, the company explores the limits of motherboard manufacturing while paying attention to environmental issues.

www.digitalterminal.in

Konica Minolta Business Solutions comes as a leader in advanced imaging and networking technologies. The Japan headquartered company is the global developer, manufacturer of MFPs, printers, equipment for production print systems and graphic arts, equipment for healthcare systems, measuring instruments for industrial and healthcare applications, inkjet print heads and textile printers for industrial use, and related consumables and solution services. The company with its high quality printing solutions, particularly for SMBs, offers unmatched customer service in India.

Huawei is a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider.

Driven by customer-centric innovation, Huawei has established an endto-end ICT solutions portfolio that gives customers competitive advantages in telecom and enterprise networks, devices and cloud computing. In addition the company sells a lot of consumer products like smartphones that outperform other players in quality and looks. It has gained a good market.

GIGABYTE is a leading brand in the IT industry, with employees and business channels in almost every country. On top of motherboards and graphics cards, GIGABYTE further expanded its product portfolio to include PC components, PC peripherals, laptops, desktop PCs, network communications, servers and mobile phones to serve each facet of the digital life in the home and office.

ASUS is a global consumer notebook vendor and maker of the world’s best-selling, and most award-winning motherboards. The company has a broad portfolio that includes motherboards, graphics cards, optical drives, displays, desktop and all-in-one PCs, notebooks, netbooks, servers, multimedia devices, wireless solutions, networking devices, tablets and smartphones.

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

113

ICT GLOBAL BRANDS

Since 1987, ESET® has been developing record awardwinning security software that now helps over 100 million users to Enjoy Safer Technology. Its broad security product portfolio covers all popular platforms and provides businesses and consumers around the world with the perfect balance of performance and proactive protection. The company has a global sales network covering 200 countries.

Transcend is a key player in storage, multimedia and industrial products. Transcend offers a full line of standard and proprietary memory modules, car video recorders, Apple solutions, flash cards, USB flash drives, solid-state drives, digital music players, card readers, multimedia products and industrial products. As a customer-focused company, Transcend has the ability to quickly respond to the market’s changing needs.

California based brand primarily operates in the wireless personal gadget space. It entered India in 2015 to offer products which match our changing lifestyle. Besides being updated with latest technology SOUNDBOT products are rugged, shock proof and water proof so that they can be carried anywhere. The brand has also introduced wide range of innovative products in India last year. SoundBot began with a simple mission - to develop a premium quality audio accessory portfolio and enhance your overall music listening experience through innovation, quality, convenience, and technology that is inspired by you.

ViewSonic is a key player in the visual display market, driven by the belief that displays have the power to transform everyday lifestyles. ViewSonic has been a market leader with some of the latest visual technologies on the market for more than two and a half decades. Its products are sold in more than 125 countries.

BenQ Corporation is a leading human technology and solutions provider aiming to elevate and enrich every aspect of consumers lives. To realize this vision, the company focuses on the aspects that matter most to people today such as lifestyle, business, healthcare and education.

Bitdefender has been the trusted security provider since 2001. Over 15 years of excellence and 400 million users worldwide, has continued to lead the brand in proactive threat detection. Powered by its depth of security expertise and rapid pace of research and development, the brands long-standing mission is to deliver transformative security technologies to the world’s users and organizations. In India, BD Software Pvt. Ltd. is distributing its wide range of products through extensive partner’s network.

International Business Machines (IBM) is an American multinational technology company with operations in over 170 countries. IBM manufactures and markets computer hardware, middleware and software, and offers hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. IBM is also a major research organization, holding record 9,043 patents in 2017, marking the company’s 25th consecutive year of U.S. patent leadership and crossing the 100,000-patent milestone.

The Linksys brand has pioneered wireless connectivity since its inception in 1988.

Linksys current consumer product portfolio in India includes Wireless Routers and Gateways, Wireless Range Extenders, USB Network Adapters, and Networking Accessories. In March 2013, Linksys became a division of Belkin International Inc. For the Small and Medium Business (SMB) Segment, Linksys India currently offers Switches, VPN Routers, Access Points and Networking Accessories. Linksys products are distributed in India exclusively via Compuage Infocom and are available in online as well as through authorized channel partners.

114

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

www.digitalterminal.in

A

Complete Soluuon for Mobile Accessories

www.ambraneindia.com | ambrane@ambraneindia.com Contact: 011-48089900

TOP 50 INDAN TECH BRANDS

50 DIGITAL TERMINAL

Indian brands are growing their presence in local market and started taking lead position even in certain categories. The local giants continued their healthy growth through the year and gave tough competition to MNCs. Home grown brands have been able to win the trust & confidence of Indian consumers which was traditionally in favour of buying global brands. Indian brands too have significantly improved and many Indian brands today are considered at par with the foreign origin brands in terms of quality, technology, performance and efficacy. We saw brands in core IT peripherals, Mobile accessories, IT Services and smartphone are giving tough time to brands from the stable of foreign multinationals in the Indian market. We have created a list of Top 50 Indian brands who are doing extremely well and getting good responses from Indian consumers.

Marg ERP is a leadinAccounting Software company in India currently. The brand has contributed in successful implementation of GST across India by helping lakhs of Indian businesses in migrating to GST tax regime. It has 700,000+ users, 5000 professionals, 500+ offices and does business with 20+ countries globally. Marg ERP has bagged many awards from India’s leading media house like Economic Times, Dataquest, Digital Termianl and others.

TOP INDIAN ICT BRANDS

HCL Infosystems and HCL Technologies belong to HCL Ltd a company owned by Shiv Nadar. HCL Infosystems has always been close to consumers in India as its PCs had a considerable market share till the last decade. Now it has stopped building and selling PCs. HCL Technologies is a services company with most of the clients in the US and UK. Videocon Industries is a large diversified Indian company headquartered in Mumbai. The group has 17 manufacturing sites in India and plants in Mainland China, Poland, Italy and Mexico. It is the third largest picture tube manufacturer in the world. The group is a US$5 billion global conglomerate. The Videocon group’s core areas of business are consumer electronics and home appliances.

CP PLUS is the global leader in advanced surveillance and security systems. CP PLUS range of solutions and products are installed in millions of locations across the globe. It offers solutions for highly sensitive defence locations, government buildings, vital infrastructures, transportation, hotels, and educational institutes to homes.

CP PLUS claims to be the market leader in the surveillance segment.

116

Tally Solutions Pvt. Ltd. is a pioneer in the business software products arena. Since its inception in 1986, Tally’s simple yet powerful products have been revolutionizing the way businesses run. Today, it caters to millions of users across industries in over 100 countries and continues unchallenged as the industry leader in the enterprise resource planning software domain.

The company is also a qualified GST Suvidha Provider.

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

Wipro has been a multi-pronged company. While it established itself as a major services brand globally, it endeavoured for years with its products such as laptops, desktops and accessories, etc. The company was one of the few home grown companies which developed and designed products for the domestic market.

www.digitalterminal.in

Intex is India’s leading brand currently selling mobile handsets, consumer durables Micromax Informatics Limited is one of and IT accessories across country through the leading consumer electronics company network comprising 1600+ distributors and in India. Over the past decade, Micromax has 80,000+ dealers spread across the country. The pioneered the democratisation of technology Brand exhibits an exhaustive portfolio of 20+ in India - by offering affordable innovations product categories ranging from mobile through their product offerings and removing handsets, mobile accessories, multimedia barriers for large scale adoption of speakers, LED TVs, washing machines, advanced technologies. It gave Indians refrigerators and wearable. The affordable smartphones with company has various statelatest technology. of-the-art manufacturing Quick Heal Technologies is a leading IT facilities in India. security solutions company from India which Microtek is the country’s largest power gives tough competition to global counterparts. products manufacturer having products like Each Quick Heal product is designed to simplify LINE Interactive UPS, online UPS, Digital & Intelli IT security management across the length and Pure Sinewave Inverters/ UPS EB / UPS E²+ and depth of devices and on multiple platforms.

Hybrid UPS 24x7. Microtek has set up StateThey are customized to suit consumers, of-the-art automatic manufacturing plants small businesses, Government equipped with hi-tech machines. Some establishments and corporate of them are SMT, ICT and Automatic houses.

Assembly Lines etc.

Founded in 1997, Zebronics is a true leader in offering Speaker, IT Peripherals, Portronics is a class-leading provider of Accessories and Surveillance Solutions. Ze Innovative, Digital and Portable Solutions They provide products which are great on which help customers transform their Productivity, design, performance yet so easy on pocket that Entertainment and Wellness levels. With over every household in the country can afford. The eight years of solid growth at over 50% YoY, company has 31 offices across India which they are market leader in this market space are backed by strong network of dealers, in India. Today they have more than resellers and integrators adding to ten unique product lines with over retail presence of over 50,000+ DIGISOL is a leading player in the seventy Innovative and high quality locations across length and Active Networking Industry, offering products to choose from. breadth of the country.

TVS Electronics has established itself an integrated value proposition from as a computer accessory major. It designs, design to development and from sales and manufactures and distributes IT peripherals, dot marketing to service and support. DIGISOL set a matrix printers, PoS terminals, printer supplies, and new benchmark in the Converged Communication others. TVS Electronics has today transformed Systems space offering a wide range of product’s into a leading Transaction Automation IT across the IT networking spectrum that Product manufacturer & service provider. includes Wireless LAN, Broadband Routing, They take care of service support Switching, IP Surveillance. DIGISOL has of leading brands like Samsung, now, entered in two new product Xioami, HTC, Lenov, Dell, categories in the year 2016 Micromax, LAVA and BUSY provides business accounting with Passive Networking and others. software for MSMEs in India, South Asia, eScan is a leading anti-virus & content security Lifestyle Electronics.

Middle East Asia and Africa. Leveraging its 2 solution in India for desktops, smartphones decades of expertise in offering business solutions and servers. Developed and marketed by for MSMEs, BUSY has been empowering them by MicroWorld, it is powered by MWL Technology, helping them manage not just their Accounts, DIRC Technology, NILP Technology, and Inventory &Billing, but also their business sophisticated anti-virus heuristic processes and operational controls. algorithms. It has achieved several Enjoying a strong ecosystem globally, certifications and awards from some RDP is IT Hardware & Mobility more than 600,000 users in over of the most prestigious Devices Manufacturing Company. It was 20 countries are using BUSY to testing bodies. incorporated in 2012 to provide simplified manage their business.

In 1997, Abacus started its operations with and affordable computing & mobility solutions, a single product, DRAM modules, in the Indian and has grown rapidly to establish a strong market. Zion has revolutionised the Indian IT presence across India. The company’s Sales & landscape in a way that today Zion RAM has Support Personnel are spread across major cities become the most sought after brand in the in India. RDP’s dealer network comprises of industry. Its partners include HP, Lenovo, nearly 1000+ dealers pan-India and the Sony, HCL and more. The company company has set-up over 170+ Support claims to offer full range of Centres across India.basis for memory products. telephone and IT Companies. www.digitalterminal.in 117 DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

Fenda India is one of the fastest growing sound technology companies in India.

Fenda has diversified itself to an impressive portfolio, which arrays into various range of portable speakers, multimedia speaker system, soundbars, docking station and portable speakers. An in-depth understanding of the market coupled with innovative products further enhances F&D user experience.

iBall is one the top Indian brands today with afforable tablets, laptops and cellphones. The company has a strong pan-India presence with 25 branch offices across the country, with its products available in over 400 cities and towns. iBall products are serviced at its self-owned over 150 service centers spread across India.

Lava International Limited is one of the leading Indian multi-national companies in the mobile handset industry today. Lava family has grown to over 15000 people and become one of the fastest growing handset companies in India.

It continues to lead in the smartphone market and is more popular in the hinterlands.

Accel Frontline is an Information technology services company based in Chennai, India. It was a joint-venture company between Accel Limited of Chennai and Frontline Technologies Corporation Limited of Singapore. Its main business is providing IT infrastructure management, software solutions and warranty management services.

Axis offers intelligent security solutions. As the global market leader in network video, Axis is driving the industry by continually launching innovative network products based on an open platform - delivering high value to customers through a global partner network. Axis has long-term relationships with partners and provides them with knowledge and network products.

Sonata Software is an IT services company, that provides services in business intelligence and analytics, application development management (ADM), mobility, cloud, social media, testing, enterprise services (ERP and CRM), and infrastructure management services. It is headquartered in Bangalore, India.

The company expanded and went public in 1998.

Moser Baer India Limited headquartered in New Delhi, is a leading global techmanufacturing company. At one point, Moserbaer was a leading brand in the IT industry. However, the company gradually diversified its focus.

Over the years the company has entered into exciting areas of solid-state media with the launch of pen drives and flash memory cards, content replication and home entertainment.

Matrix is a leader in telecom and security solutions for enterprises. Whenever you travel abraod, it is probable that you carry along a Matrix SIM. With more than 40% of its human resources dedicated to the development of new products, Matrix has launched cutting-edge products like IP-PBX, universal gateways, VoIP gateways and terminals, GSM gateways, access control and fire alarm systems.

Celkon is a mobile phone manufacturing company in India based in Hyderabad and is involved in the development of mobile phones, Tablet PCs, and wireless technologies. Initially its mobiles and tablet PCs were assembled in Taiwan and China. Later the company established its own state of the art manufacturing facility in the Telangana state of India.

118

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

Uniline is creating milestones by innovating newer avenues of power management. With a humble start about two decades ago, the organization has continuously evolved as one of the key players in Power Conditioning Industry.

Uniline has emerged as top notch player in UPS Manufacturing. With more than 20 branch offices and 250 channel partners all over India, Uniline has its State-of-the-art factories at Delhi & Parwanoo (HP)

Doel International was founded in 2015 to provide trusted and innovative ICT, mobility and CE products to the organizations and end users. DOEL is managed and manned by professionals with over two decades of experience in distribution, marketing, branding and media.

DOEL has its R&D Center in Taiwan and state-of-the-art Manufacturing facilities in China and India.

Headquartered at New Delhi, Quantum Hi-Tech today is the frontrunner in consumer electronics, security solutions and high-quality IT hardware/peripherals, with its unfailing commitment to highest standards of quality at most affordable prices.A meticulously developed network of over 200 distributors, 20,000plus resellers and 20-plus service touch points are the pillars that strengthen Quantum.

www.digitalterminal.in

Net Protector is one of the leading Indian brands of Anti-Virus and internet security tools. India antivirus was established in Pune and has been actively involved in R&D of AntiVirus software since then. The company is a well known brand with reach in all major cities.

Luminous Power Technologies is the leading power and home electrical specialist in India having a vast portfolio comprising of Power back up solutions such as UPS, Batteries and Solar Applications to Electrical offerings such as Fans, Wires, Switches and LED lighting. The company is now owned by Schinieder Electric.

Karbonn is an Indian Smartphone brand that offers a range of user-centric Smart devices to complement the modern consumer’s daily needs. Amongst the top ten Smartphone players in India with a vision to simplify technology, Karbonn has made inroads in the market with a combination of affordable yet innovative devices. Karbonn has a presence across India with over 85,000+ retail partners and 900+ service centres.

Sparsh, part of Samriddhi Automations is perhaps India’s first firm to focus on indigenous design and manufacture of electronic security devices. Sony Singapore picked Sparsh to design and manufacture CCD Board Cameras for the first time in Indian market. Sparsh has revolutionized the Indian security market by being India’s first company to manufacture CCTV cameras in India in 2008 and now having global footprints.

ESY India is a leading digital imaging company in the country headquartered in Gurugram. ESY, incorporated in 2012 , is currently one of the top players in the Indian POS Industry.

ESY the Indian arm of Pineapple Resources Berhad (ESY Group) based in Kuala Lumpur, a listed company in ACE Market of the Bursa Malaysia Securities. The brand is doing extremely well in the Indian market currently.

Aftek is an Indian offshore IT services company headquartered at Mumbai, India. It is a Public limited company, listed in the main stock exchanges of India - Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange. It was founded in 1986 and went public in 1995. Since 2003, its Global Depository Receipts have been listed in the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

Su-Kam Power Systems Ltd. is India’s largest power solutions company which has presence in 90 countries worldwide and holds a record for being the only company in this field to file for over 100 patents. It manufactures more than 200 products including various solar products, UPS, batteries and customized solar solutions.

www.digitalterminal.in

Bartronics India provides IT services and business solutions. The company provides automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) solutions. It manufactures Smart cards and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) equipments, and financial inclusion project and services. Its services include application development, application management, enterprise solutions, IT infrastructure management and strategic sourcing.

Swipe Technologies is an innovationcentric mobility solutions company.

Within a short span of time, Swipe has become the leading tablet and Smartphone maker in India. Swipe was started with an aim to bring exciting devices in the growing Indian market and today, it is the leading consumer brand with key innovations across products, pricing and customer support.

Frontech is a growing brand that sells and markets computer and mobile accessories. The company has a strong customer base in tier 2 and tier 3 towns. The company has a strong distribution network that covers all major towns and cities in India. It has a wide range of solutions in all categories.

Its strong portfolio helps it grow constantly.

3i Infotech (established as ICICI Infotech) is an Indian IT company which was incorporated in 1993. The company provides software products, IT services and business process outsourcing for a variety of industries including insurance, banking, capital markets, mutual funds and asset management. The products of the company incude Premia, MFund, Orion, Kasle ULS and Amlock.

K7 Computing is a privately-held vendor of cyber protection solutions for consumers, SMBs and large enterprises. K7 Computing has provided innovative IT security solutions for the world market. K7 continues to receive awards and recognition for its pioneering technology.

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

119

Infosys, though a services company, deserves to be in the list because its Finacle software which is a core banking solution empowers several banks in the country. The company is setting new benchmarks and trying to establish itself as a product company, although its services continue to be the largest.

Beetel Teletech is a leading distribution and manufacturing company in India offering a wide range of innovative products in mobile handsets and accessories, fixed line telephone, enterprise solutions and IT peripherals.

Beetel’s distribution reach across India includes more than 500 distributors, 10,000 retailers and 28 warehouses.

XOLO has progressed to become a ‘game changer’ in the domestic smartphone market. With a stronghold in the mid to highend smartphone segment, the brand offers fresh design approach and new technologies to take performance and customer experience to The Next Level. XOLO is a mobile brand launched in April 2012 by Lava International in India.

Cranes Software deals with engineering and scientific software tools and products. Cranes Software International Ltd. was founded by Asif Khader and Mukarram Jan in 1991.

Cranes Software offers training in real time embedded systems and an advanced diploma in Digital Signal Processing.

Tata Consultancy Services is India’s biggest IT services companies which has one of the biggest clientle globally. Its strong in the US and UK market.

The compay employs India’s largest engineering talet and so is the leading private employer in the country. The company has gradually increased its presence in the Indian market and works closely with government on many projects such as Passport Seva and JIVI Mobiles was launched in 2011 with others. an aim to offer “Rich on Features, Value for Money” mobile phones to the Indian populace.

The Product Range of JIVI Mobiles caters to every segment of the population, starting with the entry level bar phones with FM to High-end 3G Android based smart phones. Having more than 20 branch offices, 25,000 dealers & 533 distributors under its umbrella, JIVI Mobiles represents the robust growth of a Smart Developing India.

Microland is a key player in the hardware and networking space which in 2005 signed a strategic alliance with Serco Solutions, UK, for providing remote IT Infra Management Services (IMS). In 2007 Microland set up its multi network operations center by setting up six network operations center, six tech labs, four data centers and a penetration testing lab.

120

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

Ziox Mobiles, part of Sun Airvoice Pvt. Ltd., incepted in the Year 2015, with a singular motto to break the boundaries while offering technologically superior products without compromising on quality. Headquartered in New Delhi, Ziox Mobiles has built up an impressive product portfolio of more than 40 distinguished products. The brand has established its presence across India through its wide network comprising of its various branch offices and system integrators across several states in India.

50 DIGITAL TERMINAL

TOP INDIAN ICT BRANDS

www.digitalterminal.in

BEST BUY G DI

AL

B

UY

T

S

T

20

18

BES

2018

I

N

PRODUCTS

IT

TER L M A

PRODUC

Each day we all wakeup with the news of new technology advancement which are changing the way we live today. Each technology has its lifespan which becomes obsolete very quickly. So bringing innovation in the products as per latest technology holds the basic rule for any tech products to succeed in the market. This remains very challenging for all IT & Telecom players. Vendors work very aggressively nowadays to introduce best products for Indian market.India’s IT landscape remains incomplete if the IT products which are doing extremely well and are very innovative with advanced features are not mentioned appropriately. DT Yearbook brings you the ‘Best Buy Products 2018’ which will set the trend and have great potential to rule the market. This list has been rigorously prepared after thorough research by our edit team, expert’s opinion and market feedback. Check out this list below to tally your buying list.

122

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

www.digitalterminal.in

Best Buy Products 2018

DELL

Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming

Dell XPS 13 Dell in India recently introduced XPS 13, a high performance laptop.

Dell’s iconic virtually borderless InfinityEdge display maximizes screen space by squeezing a 13.3inch display in an 11-inch form. With a bezel only 5.2 mm thin, starting at only 1.22kg and measuring a super slim 9-15 mm, the XPS 13 is exceptionally thin and light. The latest 8th gen Intel® Core processors offer increased performance with 4 cores, all in a sleek (9-15mm thin) form.

Dell Dynamic power mode with new 8th generation processors delivers up to 44% improved performance over 7th gen processors.

Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming is a powerful laptop tailor-made to meet the needs of enthusiasts, and raising the bar for Dell’s most aggressive performance design and components offered within the Inspiron Gaming laptop family. It is powered by Intel® Core™ i7 quad-core processing muscle combined with NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 discrete GPU with NVIDIA® Max-Q Design Technology & 6 GB of blazing fast GDDR5 memory, offering overwhelming performance.

Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming sports Thunderbolt 3 port (USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C with support for 40 Gbps Thunderbolt and DisplayPort).

SOPHOS Sophos Endpoint Protection Sophos Endpoint blocks malware and infections by identifying and preventing the handful of techniques and behaviors used in almost every exploit. Sophos Endpoint doesn’t rely on signatures to catch malware, which means it catches zero-day threats without adversely affecting the performance of your device. So you get protection before those exploits even arrive. The protection it provides is totally thrilling as it protect all your devices and it is one simplified management console.

Sophos XG Firewall

Sophos InterceptX Ransomware is the number one malware attack affecting organizations today. It encrypts your files and holds them hostage until the ransom is paid, causing massive disruption to business productivity. Sophos Intercept X features CryptoGuard, which prevents the malicious spontaneous encryption of data by ransomware—even trusted files or processes that have been hijacked. And once ransomware gets intercepted, CryptoGuard reverts your files back to their safe states.

Sophos XG Firewall Blocks unknown threats with a comprehensive suite of advanced protection including IPS, ATP, Sandboxing, Dual AV, Web and App Control, Anti-phishing, a full-featured Web Application Firewall and more. Moreover it automatically responds to incidents by instantly identifying and isolating infected systems until they can be cleaned up. The XG Firewall exposes hidden risks on your network including unknown apps, top risk users, advanced threats, suspicious payloads and much more.

www.digitalterminal.in

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

123

Best Buy Products 2018

ACER Acer Swift 7

Acer Switch 5

Acer introduced its latest Swift 7 laptop.

At 39 inch the Acer Swift 7 is the thinnest laptop you’ve ever laid eyes on. It’s also amazingly light weight too. Powered by a 7th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 processor, it provides incredible performance, a seamless Windows 10 experience and up to 10 hours of battery life. A fingerprint reader allows password-free and more secure sign-in. One of the best things you will experience with Swift 7 is its sound quality, the Dolby Audio Premium and Acer TrueHarmony™ work together to immerse you in clear and bold virtual surround sound.

Acer unveiled its feature rich Switch 5 laptop that caters premium experience to its users through many astonishing features and a stylish design. The laptop presents a true image of Acer as its design is truly awesome and when its screen turns on, its HD screen gives crisp clear perfect viewing experience. With up to a 10.5-hour battery life, your device is designed to stay at your side for the entirety of the day.

Listen to voices and special effects with increased clarity with Acer TrueHarmony™ and Smart Amplifier.

Acer Predator Triton 700 ACER launched its highly anticipated Predator Triton 700 ultrathin gaming notebook. The Predator Triton 700 houses the high-performance NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1080 GPU and 7th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 processors in a svelte 18.9 mm-thin (0.74 inch) aluminum chassis.

Predator Triton 700 offers bright, vibrant visuals on a 15.6-inch Full HD IPS display with 120Hz refresh rate and supporting NVIDIA® G-SYNC™ for buttery-smooth gameplay. Dolby Atmos® surround sound and Acer TrueHarmony™ deliver immersive audio with crisp. Rounding out the notebook’s powerful features are Killer DoubleShot™ Pro networking and Thunderbolt™ 3 connectivity, which provides speeds up to 40 Gbps and supports dual 4K video output.

KINGSTON Kingston DC400 SSD Kingston announced Data Center 400 (DC400) SSD, the latest solid-state drive to its range of enterprise solutions.

DC400 SSD offers superior quality of service for data center customers whose workload environment calls for sustained IOPS and consistent low latency. An expanded on-board DRAM acceleration cache enables high, sustained IOPS to increase performance over a wide range of read/write workloads. DC400 SSD is available in 400GB, 480GB, 800GB, 960GB, 1.6TB and 1.8TB capacities. The 400GB, 800GB and 1.6TB capacities are performance optimized with greater IOPs for faster application performance and reduced storage latency. The 1.8TB capacity read-intensive optimized model is factory-tuned for readintensive workloads.

124

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

MARG ERP Marg ERP9+ Marg Compusoft is an inventory accounting Software Company and having the most economical and affordable software that would provide accounting solutions to the MSMEs and SMEs in the country. Marg ERP9+ is the inventory and accounting software is a complete GST ready software. Marg ERP9+ is an excellent Trade and segment specific software. Marg ERP9+ contains Broker management and brokerage calculations. In Marg ERP9+ you can finalize your accounts upto balance sheet through importing data from any inventory software except bill creation & modification. The solution has been integrated with eBusiness APPs such as eRetail, eOrder, eOwner APPs. It has 1500+ setup for selfcustomization. It has auto integrated email & SMS solutions. Overall this is the best ERP solutions in the market which is affordable, most accurate and assures its customer guaranteed business growth.

www.digitalterminal.in

Best Buy Products 2018

HYPERX

HyperX Alloy FPS Pro Keyboard

HyperX Alloy Elite Mechanical Gaming Keyboard HyperX Alloy Elite keyboard gives users amazing experience and helps to play heavy games more smoothly. Alloy Elite includes HyperX red LED backlighting, an 18 LED light bar with luminous lighting along with custom modes, and 6 preset LED effects. Alloy Elite is built with a solid steel frame for durability, offering dedicated media buttons, and a large volume wheel along with quick access buttons for brightness, lighting effects, and game mode. Alloy Elite also includes a USB 2.0 pass through, titanium colored and textured WASD keys, and full N-Key rollover functionalities.

Pulsefire FPS Gaming Mouse Pulsefire FPS Gaming Mouse is designed to meet the needs of professional and aspiring competitive FPS gamers looking for a precise and consistent gaming mouse. Featuring PixArt 3310 sensor for accurate tracking, Omron switches for fast response times, and 20M click reliability per switch, HyperX’s first gaming mouse is designed to meet the needs of professional and aspiring competitive FPS gamers looking for a precise and consistent gaming mouse. Pulsefire FPS also provides four DPI presets from 400 – 3200 DPI, all available at the touch of a button. Non-slip side grips help secure the mouse securely in your hand.

ESY ESYPOS EBS - 315WL Barcode Scanner One dimensional (ID) CCD wireless barcode scanner with 400 scans per sec, is one of the fastest barcode scanners in the industry. This barcode scanner has a high storage capacity of 1 Lakh (100 thousand) barcodes and can read almost all one dimensional barcodes available in the industry. It is the fastest Wireless 1D CCD barcode Scanner and it can read almost all 1D barcodes available in the industry. The barcode scanner comes with 32-bit ARM Cortex-M3 MCU processor. www.digitalterminal.in

HyperX Alloy FPS Pro keyboard is a solid and affordable fullsized gaming keyboard and comes with authentic Cherry MX keys. HyperX Alloy FPS Pro is a serious mechanical gaming keyboard for serious players. It features Cherry MX key switches, 100% Anti-Ghosting, N-key rollover, Game Mode and dynamic HyperX red backlighting, offering all essentials needed to unleash your full gaming skills. The keyboard is a perfect choice for gamers as it has a solid steel frame, it has a portable stylish design and detachable cable connectivity.

D-LINK D-Link DIR-X6060 The new DIR-X6060 AX Ultra Wi-Fi Router offers premium performance for multiple devices in dense environments. The DIR-X6060 is a dual band router with combined speeds up to 6000 Mbps. Featuring improved coverage and 4x more capacity over 11AC with a 1.8GHz quad-core processor that delivers higher network speed, this is the ultimate router for simultaneous HD and 4K streaming, VR, gaming, and cloud/remote storage. 4x4 MU-MIMO allows more users to perform even more data intensive tasks on more devices with less network congestion. With BSS Coloring and OFDMA, the router delivers more efficient networking for extreme home networks, especially in device-dense environments.

ESYPOS Smart Touch POS The dual printing of label and receipt make this ESYPOS touch POS a state of the art Smart POS machine. The stylish, compact all-in-one touch POS machine will make your life simple, better and faster. ESYPOS Smart POS ESP 5313, prints 3-inch receipts and labels in dual mode with multiple interfaces, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ethernet and USB. It has a built-in 9-inch touchscreen that makes billing or label editing related operations easier.

Since the operating system is Android, printing on cloud and remote managing is enabled. The Quad Core CPU can drive seamless computing and printing.

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

125 125

Best Buy Products 2018

SEAGATE

FireCuda SSHD

Seagate SkyHawk Drive

FireCuda™ drives meld the latest NAND flash technology with a traditional hard drive for a compact blend of capacity and speeds up to 5× faster than typical hard drives, all backed by a 5-year warranty. FireCuda delivers superior performance compared to a standard hard drive, yet provides the high capacity options you’ve come to expect from a hard drive solution. It’s the perfect upgrade for gamers, creative professionals and PC enthusiasts. With up to 2 TB of storage, FireCuda makes deleting games and files — to free up disk space — a thing of the past. Perfect for gamers and creative professionals who want it all, now.

Seagate SkyHawk is optimized for 24×7 workloads in capacities up to 10TB. Equipped with enhanced ImagePerfect™ firmware, SkyHawk helps to minimize dropped frames and downtime with a workload rating 3x that of a desktop drive and can support the razor sharp vision of 64 cameras. SkyHawk drives also come with a data recovery services option for additional peace of mind. SkyHawk’s innovative ImagePerfect firmware enables smooth, clear video streaming for always-on, 24×7 surveillance environments—helping to ensure your business has a formidable layer of protection.

Backup Plus Hub Seagate Backup Plus Desktop drives are available in capacities up to 8 TB and come with a USB 3.0 hub option.

With cross-platform compatibility, exceptional reliability and speed, you can back up just about everything. Plus you can conveniently back up and share your digital favourites with the included cloud storage service. Equipped with two integrated USB ports on the front, you can back up your files, precious photos and videos while connecting to and recharging your tablet, smartphone or camera — even if your system is off or in standby mode.

Muffs Plus Bluetooth Wireless Headphone Muff Plus Headphones lets you enjoy high quality stereo music and take phone calls from your smartphones. It comes with the latest Bluetooth V4.1 + EDR technology and powered by 40mm high intensity drivers which deliver strikingly realistic audio experience. The soft well cushioned ear shells and adjustable headband lets you to adjust right size for a perfect fit. Convenient buttons to control functions like audio and call control make it easy to glide between songs and answer / reject / finish phone calls. The range of the headset is about 33 feet.

PORTRONICS PureSound Plus Portable Speaker PURE SOUND PLUS gives you great convenience of hands-free phone calls. With in-built mic and speakerphone facility so you can take/ reject/end calls coming to your smartphone. Its unique no-nonsense rectangular shape with rounded sides makes it appear a notch above the rest of speakers. It weighs less than 300 grams and is fairly easy to carry around wherever you go. You can also use a 3.5mm AUX port and aux cable to play music from any AUX device. Its powerful industry-leading size of 2200mAh lithium Ion battery can play music for more than 5-6 hours on a single recharge.helping to ensure your business has a formidable layer of protection.

Online UPS

MICROTEK

External Battery UPS Microtek is the country’s Largest Power Products manufacturer for UPS. Microtek UPS are built on IPS technology that saves electricity so that every UPS gets Free in 3 Years. The range of External Battery UPS/ Hi-End Sinewave Jumbo UPS starts from 700 VA to 10KVA. In this segment, the brand has various models like UPS 24x7 HB Models, UPS E2 + Digital Models, UPS SEBz SINEWAVE Models, UPS SW E2+ Sinewave Models and many other models which are perfect choice for Indian consumers.

126

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

Microtek offers Wide Range of Online UPS from 1KVA to 30KVA based on World’s Latest Technology to meet the harsh Environmental and worst Power Conditions for Applications from Small Office requirement to Space Critical Missions with wide variety of Backup Range from 5 minutes to 10 hours to meet the needs of every individual. MICROTEK has won many awards and recognition for its commitment to the industry.

www.digitalterminal.in

Best Buy Products 2018

ECS

ECS LIVA One Mini PC

ECS LIVA Q Mini PC ECS’s new LIVA Q mini-pc is best in the Indian market currently. This is pocket-sized mini-pc featuring Intel Apollo Lake SOC processors, along with 4GB RAM, 64GB eMMC storage and HDMI 2.0.This little monster is capable of handling 4K content playback with ease. The new LIVA Q pocket-sized mini-pc allows you to stay connected with dual network options, a standard RJ45 LAN connector for more stabilized connection and 802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.1 for wireless connections. There’s also a MicroSD card slot that support up to 128GB memory cards for those who seeks more storage and x2 USB slots for peripherals.

ECS Liva Z Mini PC LIVA Z Mini PC is a silent & ultracompact PC for fully-functional computing. LIVA Z Mini PC defines convention and redefines the look of a desktop PC. It is very Simple and elegant, its finish fits right in your living or workspace. LIVA Z Mini PC is the smallest mini PC in its kind. Using just 1/10th power of regular desktop PC while delivering similar performance with fanless design, quiet and cooling, matching home entertainment. LIVA Z Mini PC delivers Wi-Fi speeds that equal or surpass cabled networks to provide the highest network speeds for content delivery, video streaming and productivity.

BITDEFENDER

The sky is the limit for LIVA One fulfilling your desire, imagination and requirement, and driving on your way to endow LIVA One with rich life. One delivers superior disk transfer speed, up to 1GB/s. LIVA one mini PC has a 2.5 inches HDD/SSD bay, provide better storage flexibility. Not only up to 4TB HDD, but fast SSD. With Intel WiDi (Wireless Display) technology, the One can share photos and videos on big screen wirelessly. One mini PC features with three video output: HDMI, DisplayPort and D-Sub. Supports dual displays at same time. In addition, one mini PC provides up to 4K UHD (4096x2160) resolution via DisplayPort, to offer wide business, creativity and productivity.

ECS Z270 Lightsaber Motherboard The Z270 LIGHTSABER can unleash a variety of light color rhythm that will chant the most extravagant players out of their expectation in all aspects. The Z270-LIGHTSABER comes with customizable LED lighting around the board, which is controlled through the system setup. It boasts a 14-phase power delivery and all solid caps, and offers simplified overclocking through the ECS MIB X interface and Intel XMP 1.2 and 1.3 memory support. It is equipped with the Industries Best Killer E2500 Gaming Netcom chip, which can optimize the game packet transmission sorting process to help players get the advantage they need to be on to Top in any online team battle.

Bitdefender Total Security 2018 Bitdefender Total Security 2018 works against all threats – from viruses, worms and Trojans, to ransomware, zero-day exploits, rootkits and spyware. Bitdefender Total Security 2018 uses a technique called behavioral detection to closely monitor active apps. Bitdefender Total Security 2018 sniffs and blocks websites that masquerade as trustworthy in order to steal financial data such as passwords or credit card numbers. With Bitdefender Safe Files you can prevent unauthorized changes to your most important files. You simply add folders to the watch list, and Bitdefender guards the files stored in them against ransomware and other types of malware. Bitdefender Total Security 2018 packs effective anti-loss and anti-theft tools for your Windows laptop or tablet, remotely accessible from anywhere in the world via your web Bitdefender Central account.

www.digitalterminal.in

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

127

WESTERN DIGITAL WD Purple Surveillance Hard Drive WD Purple Surveillance Hard Drive is built for 24/7, alwayson, high-definition security systems. With a supported workload rate of up to 180 TB/yr and support for up to 64 cameras, WD Purple drives are optimized for surveillance systems. This drive has been engineered specifically for the extreme demands of high temperature, 24/7 surveillance systems. WD Purple drives are optimized to support up to 64 cameras, giving you flexibility to upgrade or expand your security system. The WD Purple drive is designed for both DVR and NVR security systems, and is compatible with many of the leading surveillance and security manufacturers.

Best Buy Products 2018 WD Internal SSD Now you can control your own destiny with WD SSDs. WD SSDs are optimized for multitasking, so you can run even the most demanding applications all at once. WD SSDs are developed 3D NAND technology that gives you more power. It has capacity up to 2TB, sequential read speeds up to 560MB/s and sequential write speeds up to 530MB/s. Kill load times and unleash a new level of performance with a WD Black PCIe SSD, featuring write speeds up to 2050MB/s, more than three times faster than a SATA SSD.

WD Blue PC Desktop Hard Drive Give your desktop a performance and storage boost when you combine your hard drive with an SSD to maximize speed of data access and a WD Blue drive for up to 6TB of additional capacity.

With better technology comes bigger storage needs. Digital cameras that record ultra-high definition video at 4K resolution and 30 frames per second require a ton of storage. Handling all that media is a snap with our 6TB drive. WD Blue drives are designed, tested and built to last, and ships with a 2-year limited warranty. WD Blue hard drives are a perfect combination with an SSD to help boost the system performance and capacity offering of your existing PC.

Tenda TEF1118P TEF1118P-16-150W is a Tenda PoE switch that offers 16 10/100 Mbps BaseTX RJ45 ports, 1 10/100/1000 Mbps Base-T RJ45 ports, and 1 1000 Mbps Base-X SFP port. The switch offers a maximum PoE power output of 135 W and can supply power to and exchange data with APs, IP cameras, and IP phones through CAT5 cables. It also provides simple management modes such as CCTV, VLAN, and Extend to help reduce cabling costs of IP terminals like APs and IP cameras.The switch functions as a common unmanaged switch and all the ports of the switch can communicate ith each other.

128

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

TENDA Tenda W15E W15E is designed to provide a wireless network for small office, cafĂŠs, hotels, malls, large house etc premise.

It is compliant with 802.11a/n/ac standard and delivers wireless rate up to 1200Mbps. Integrated with an external power amplifier and 4 high gain antennas, it provides excellent wireless coverage and high-quality wifi connection experience for the mobile user. W15E supports 4 WAN ports.

It can realize bandwidth averaging between two WAN ports base IP Group.

W15E supports multiple VPN protocols including IPsec, PPTP and L2TP in Client/Server mode. It is easy to set up a secure data link between branch and headquarters through LANto-LAN/Clientto-LAN mode for seamless business connectivity.

Tenda Nova MW6 Tenda’s MW6 offers a great experience with whole home Wi-Fi coverage. Nova MW6 is powered with Mesh technology, a set of three units covers home up to 6,000 square feet with strong Wi-Fi signals. Smart Auto-path Selection Technology to ensure a robust wireless network and maximize a faster home internet.

Powered by the cutting-edge Wave2 MU-MIMO technology, nova can communicate with multiple wireless devices at the same time, and significantly outperforms traditional routers in communicationefficiency.

It also comes with Beamforming technology to focus transmit power onto wireless devices for better signal strength.

www.digitalterminal.in

SANDISK

Designed to be the perfect companion for your iPhone, the iXpand Flash Drive offers an easy way to free up space on your iPhone, automatically backs up your camera roll, and even lets you watch popular-format videos straight from the drive4. The drive has both a flexible Lightning connector that works with most cases and a USB 3.0 connector to plug into your Mac computer or PC so you can easily move your stuff where you want it. The iXpand Flash Drive also includes encryption software that lets you password-protect files, so you can share your content while keeping sensitive files secure across your devices5. Take all the photos and videos you want—the iXpand Flash Drive delivers a fast and simple way to free up space on your iPhone so that you’re always ready to capture more memories

DIGISOL DIGISOL DG-HR1070MSE DIGISOL DG-HR1070MSE is a Wireless 4G/3G MiFi Broadband router. It has a compact design, ideal device to carry and connect to Internet instantly. It’s Li-polymer 2000mAh battery makes it Ideal portable device with battery backup. The Micro SD card slot on the router can be used for storage using SD card up to 64GB. It uses the latest wireless IEEE802.11n technology to stream data to its wireless clients. DG-HR1070MSE is truly aPortable 4G/3G MiFi Router with Compact Design, Internet Access, Media Sharing.

ABACUS PERIPHERALS Biostar B250GT5 Biostar B250GT5 motherboard is a perfect motherboard for those who are looking for a motherboard that can work in extreme working loads. It supports 7th Generation Intel® Core™ Processor and HDMI 4K resolution. The B250GT5 Support Windows 10(x64) for Intel 7th Generation Processor.It runs on Intel B250 chipset that makes it more efficient in workloads. www.digitalterminal.in

Best Buy Products 2018

SanDisk iXpand

SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive M3.0 The SanDisk Ultra® Dual Drive m3.0 makes it easy to transfer content from your phone to your computer. With a micro-USB connector on one end and a USB 3.0 connector on the other, the drive lets you move content easily between your devices—from your Android smartphone or tablet to your laptop, PC or Mac computer. The USB 3.0 connector is backward-compatible with USB 2.0 ports.

The SanDisk Ultra® Dual Drive m3.0 is compatible with Android™ smartphones and tablets featuring OTG USB support. The drive is available in memory variant upto 128GB and it makes saves your time as it carries the read speed upto 150 MB/s.

DIGISOL DG-BR5400QAC DIGISOL DG-BR5400QAC, IEEE 802.11ac next generation wireless router provides a better wireless performance for your network.

DG-BR5400QAC use intelligent antenna technology to transmit multiple streams of data which enables you to receive wireless signals faster at your home. The wireless router also includes QoS (Quality of Service) prioritization technology that analyzes and separates multiple data streams based on sensitivity to delay. DG-BR5400QAC supports wireless 802.11b/g/n and the following security protocols: WEP, WPA, WPA2. DIGISOL DG-BR5400QAC wireless router has Quick Install which quickly configures your new wireless router to get you up and running in minutes.

Zion BLAZE DDR4 BLAZE DDR4 is an ideal choice for gamers, overclockers and PC enthusiasts seeking a faster speed, aggressive timing and an overclockable DRAM for their gaming machines. The Zion Blaze DDR4 provides smooth running of multiple application, greater FPS (Frames Per Second) and usage of large files all at the same time.

Zion BLAZE DDR4 provides superior durability and reduced power consumption. Zion Blaze DDR4 RAMs are available in 8GB and 16 GB memory modules and are compatible with all the current AMD and Intel platforms.

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

129

DOEL

Doel CLE0150 15000 mAh Power Bank Doel CLE0150 15000 mAh Power Bank is powered with 15000 mAh lithium-ion battery. The Power Bank comes in different attractive colors; it comes in RoseRed, White and Blue.

It is made with the materiel that provides long durability and it is very light weighted with only 240g weight so you can carry it anywhere.

This power bank is compatible with all smartphones so you don’t need to worry about its compatibility. It has 2 USB ports and it is very secure as it has made with PTC protective circuit. It has a wide dimension of 129 X 67 X 21 Cm.

Best Buy Products 2018

KASPERSKY Kaspersky Total Security

Kaspersky released its powerful solution Kaspersky Total Security to take more control over cyber threats. The new total security prevents you from all types of security breaches and it gives you relief. It is capable is taking care of your privacy, it takes care of your passwords, photos, documents and all other important files. With Kaspersky Total Security you can easily use internet without any hesitation of being hacked.

Moreover the new total security solution boosts your security standards so that you can bank and shop online whenever you need it. It also safeguards your kids online & beyond.

GIGABYTE GIGABYTE Z370 AORUS GIGABYTE Z370 AORUS motherboard is based on the Intel® Z370 chipset. The Z370 AORUS Motherboards are compatible with memory modules rated for 4133MHz. With unique features like an ESS Sabre DAC, Smart Fan 5 and RGB Fusion, there’s no doubt why gamers turn to AORUS for the ultimate gaming motherboard. The Z370 AORUS Motherboards offer RGB Pin Headers on both the bottom and top of the board to ensure convenience for modders and the everyday PC builder. Z370 AORUS Motherboards deliver the highest video quality, 4K UHD, and uninterrupted streaming to users through the use of HDCP 2.2 Technology, a HEVC 10-bit decoder, as well as a VP9 hardware decoder.

LINKSYS

NET PROTECTOR Total Security 2018 Net Protector Total Security 2018 is one of the advanced security solution available in the market for effective internet security.

It gives your complete Internet protection and security. NP Total Security stops the viruses in realtime before they reach your PC. Giving your PC a rock solid & reliable protection. Schedule automatic scanning at specified time to thoroughly check your computer for viruses daily. Lunch time scanner does its job while you are away from your desk. Clean temporary files. Clean registry. Fonts folder, missing folder options, stop auto dial. It offers Anti-Virus, Anti-Malware, Anti-Spyware, Anti-Rootkit, AntiSpam, Automatic Updates, Advertise Blocker, Anti-Spam, OS Firewall, Anti-Phishing, Internet Security, Intrusion File Detection, Email Backup, Cloud Anti Malware and many other features.

AMBRANE

Linksys EA7500 Max-Stream

Ambrane PP-1500 Power Bank

Linksys India has introduced powerful EA7500 Max-StreamTM AC1900 MU-MIMO Gigabit Router. The Next-Gen Max-Stream AC1900 can connect as many as 12 devices at the same time to your Wi-Fi, including 6 screens streaming 4K video. Smart Wi-Fi technology makes it easy to set up. You can control your home Wi-Fi from anywhere using the Smart Wi-Fi app on your mobile device. With four Gigabit Ethernet ports, three removable antennas and connection speeds of up to 1.9 Gbps, the AC1900 is the streaming and gaming solution for the media-intensive household.

PP1500 comes with inbuilt Micro USB cable for connecting the devices, so you don’t need to carry anything extra and manage your demanding lifestyle hassle free. Featuring the large capacity and high-quality Li-Ion Polymer technology the sturdy Power Bank can power up smart phones, MP3, MP4, 1 AMP Tablets and several other devices. The 15000 mAh can full-charge your Smartphone on an average 6-7 times and can also withstand upto 500 times of charge discharge cycle.

Multitasking your needs is the LED Torch Light for the several SOS situations. Be it work or Play, Ambrane Plush Series has the response to it.

130

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

www.digitalterminal.in

TP-LINK

Best Buy Products 2018

Archer C20

LB230 Smart Wi-Fi LED Bulb

TP-Link has launches Archer C20 wireless dual band router that allows user to do more stuff online with its superior wireless coverage. The Router provides up to 750Mbps wireless connection with other wireless clients.

The incredible speed makes it ideal for handling multiple data streams at the same time, which ensures your network stable and smooth. The performance of this 802.11ac wireless router will give you the unexpected networking experience at speed much faster than 802.11n. The Archer C20 is a powerful hub to support a robust and extremely fast wired network.

TP-Link has launched LB230 Smart Wi-Fi LED bulb with some stunning features that will not let you go anywhere. You can change colours according to your mood and if your hands are full or you don’t have your phone, you can use your voice to turn lights off or on, dim them or change their colors. Moreover you can also control your lights from anywhere. It has a brightness of 1000 lumens, and uses 11W of power.

This model can be temperature tuned between 2500K and 9000K, but it’s also an RGB bulb, letting you pick practically any colour.

KONICA MINOLTA A3 bizhub C226 Konica Minolta’s bizhub C226 brightens the future of document production. This mode reduces power consumption to a mere 0.5W by cutting off power to the CPU. When users want to use bizhub C266 again, it switches back to full power in seconds. Boost document impact with full-colour output up to A3 size. Images are beautiful and text is exceptionally clear thanks to 600 dpi output with separate processing of images and text to optimise every pixel. The 7-inch multi-touch screen presents information with clarity in an intuitive user interface that everyone can understand. Wi-Fi Direct allows computers and mobile devices in your office to wirelessly connect with bizhub C226.

A4 bizhub C3351: A4 bizhub C3351 delivers high speed printing at 38 PPM in both color and B/W. Fast output when printing a large number of copies. With its compact design, it can fit in small space in SOHO environment. Using a wireless kit makes it possible to connect to an office Wi-Fi network, further expanding the range for possible place fir installation.

Equipped with 650 sheet large capacity paper unit as standard. The 120 dpi printing mode improves the reproducibility of even small fonts and thin lines. The operational panel’s intuitive design allows user to operate with just the swipe of a finger. Invert display colors of enlarged display screen for a screen view with enhanced color contrast. www.digitalterminal.in

SOUNDBOT SoundBot SB572 Bluetooth Speaker The SB572 is a rare speaker to own because of its capability of connecting with any media device with or without Bluetooth. Equipped with shock and water resistant unique silicon finish, the device is ideal for tough conditions with the extra protection.

It has a 10-hour playback time and a Bluetooth connectivity upto 33feet, giving the user flawless sound output delivering immaculate sound quality anywhere. SB572 comes with a built-in 3.5mm aux port and Deep Bass HD 3 watt loudspeakers. SoundBot SB572 HD Bluetooth Wireless 3W Speaker is easy to charge with a charge time of 3-5 hours, with a playback time of 12 hours wired and 10 hours wireless with Bluetooth connection. It weighs 360 gm and connects at 33 feet clear line of sight.

SoundBot SB521 Bluetooth Speaker SB521- HD Premium Bluetooth, highperformance wireless speaker. This modern, slick, stylish and alluring gadget is perfect for both indoors and outdoors. The SB521- delivers music which is matchless and dynamic, suited for the millennial audiophile who loves to move seamlessly within home, outdoors and nature.

SB521- comes with 1500mAH built in battery for 6 hours of non-stop playback time. This stylish metallic coloured fashionable device will build up the party in any place with its dual membrane of 5W + 5W HD loudspeakers on both ends of speaker to reproduce potent bass, dynamic mid-range and crispy high notes.

SoundBot’s SB521- is the perfect speaker for those who love to explore and travel.

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

131

CANON PIXMA G3010 Printer The G3010 is the ideal printer for homes and small businesses. This multifunction printer copies, prints from, and scans easily to mobile phones, tablets and laptops over Wi-Fi. A 1.2 inch segment LCD display delivers on the basics such as making multiple document copies easy, and also enhances ease of use for a variety of printer configuration options without a PC, including Wi-Fi Setup. The printer also supports direct wireless connection to mobile devices and tablets without a router.

RAPOO RAPOO 8200P Wireless Mouse & Keyboard RAPOO trendy wireless multimedia combo 8200P tributes the business style. This 8200P wireless multimedia combo (set of wireless keyboard & mouse) acquires tiny and help clutter free functioning.

This combo can be used without power interruption of up to 12 months on a single battery. RAPOO 8200P works with reliable 5G wireless transmission results in less interference from other wireless, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi devices.

It’s Spill-resistant sleek keyboard design prevents from any accidental spills on it, hence users need not to worry about accidental spills. Accurate scissorkey mechanical structure distributes pressure on the keys evenly, making every keystroke natural, smooth and correct. It also has Multimedia hotkeys which gives quick access to functions like media player, homepage, volume adjustment and more. It’s Unified 2-in-1 nano receiver occupies minimum space, saving more precious USB ports. One-step plug-and-play setup.

ESET ESET Smart Security ESET Smart Security provides proactive protection against all types of digital threats, including viruses, rootkits, worms and spyware. It blocks malware that tries to lock you out of your personal data and then asks you to pay a ransom to unlock it. The Smart Security protects from threats that attack your computer on a deeper level, even before the start of Windows - on systems with the UEFI system interface.

132

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

PIXMA G2010 Printer

Best Buy Products 2018

The G2010 delivers on high volume printing needs for users of connected PCs. A 1.2 inch segment LCD panel, similar to that on the G3010, makes it easy to execute multiple copy or scan jobs. With built-in integrated ink tanks create a compact printer body. Users can also view remaining ink levels easily at a glance. A new operation panel design makes it easy to perform multiple copies or scans easily.

RAPOO V510 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Rapoo very recently introduced its new gaming brand “VPRO” in the Indian market. Under its gaming label VPRO, RAPOO aims to continue its contribution to the growing e-sports market in India. Here we are talking about VPRO V510 Backlit Mechanical USB Gaming keyboard, This is the perfect choice for gamers as it’s anti-ghosting non-conflict key design for all 108 keys on the keyboard, allows you to press any number of keys simultaneously, ensuring your every command is registered and executed exactly and rapidly. It has spill-resistant keyboard design, so you do not have to worry about the keyboard malfunctioning after accidental spills. The special key layout for gamers, ensures quick and accurate operations in the game.

ESET Internet Security ESET Internet Security® delivers rock-solid protection for everyday web users, built on ESET’s trademark best mix of detection, speed and usability. As well as giving you proven ESET Antivirus, it shields your webcam and helps you bank and pay more safely online. It also lets you check your home Wi-Fi router’s security and test your network connected smart devices. Plus, with License Manager you can manage your connected devices and licenses via my.eset.com platform.

www.digitalterminal.in

India’s

Top 8 National Distributors

T

he biggest challenge which we saw in year 2017 was impact of Demonetisation and GST migration to new tax regime. Along with other businesses, IT distribution also faced the stiff challenge from these two big incidents. But despite all these, distribution business came strong and sustained their growing legacy. Also the discussion revolving around ‘e-commerce will kill distribution’ has come to an end as of now, because traditional distribution still considered backbone of ICT industry which will stay for longer. Most of the distributors have learned to coexist with ecommerce. It is the time when both of them have realized that they complement each other.

Without distributors, it is hard to imagine the fate of big brands which dominate the consumer psyche today. Business sentiment may have improved but a host of distributors continue to face competition and declining demand for traditional IT business.

They all are evolving themselves in providing services and solutions as well. Based on the data available in the public domain and with the distributors, DT has clubbed a list of India’s top 8 national distributors who command the market and are capable of driving of trends.

134

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

www.digitalterminal.in

01

Ingram Micro Managing Director: K Jaishankar

Ingram Micro is by far the biggest distributor in the country and empowers most of the top brands with its strong distribution network spread across the country. It continues to grow and expand its reach. Most of the brands rely on Ingram to enhance sales and reach out to consumers in an appropriate way. Its consumer on the IT side also registered a healthy growth. The growth of its consumer business benefitted players such as Lenovo, HP, Dell and Acer, etc. In addition, Ingram Micro strengthened its commercial/enterprise business as the company got into quite a few government projects.

02

Redington India

05

Chairman: Sanjiv Krishen Iris Computers continue to hold a considerable share in the IT hardware market. With its headquarter in New Delhi, Iris has more than 35 billing locations across countries which have full-fledged offices having sales, operations and finance team to support channel partners in fulfilling their customer orders. Iris claims to distribute more than 1000 laptops & 400 desktops on an average per day to more than 2500 partners across nation through its 35 locations. Today its channel base consists of 2500 channel partners, aggregators, regional distributors & large SI partners to whom we supply high end technological products to passive networking solutions.

06

03

Savex Computers Managing Director: Anil Jagasia

The story of Savex Computer looks no different in the overall market sentiment for distributors. With a Pan India presence and over two decades of expertise in Distribution, Savex offers its Vendors access to more than 7000 channel partners, retailers, corporate resellers, VARs & system integrators. It claims to have a sound vendor relationship based on precise demand forecasts. It claims to have an efficient inventory and receivables management system. Besides, the company has a better logistics, efficiently monitored inventory management, flexible credit financing for dealers, a national channel reach and an excellent reseller account management system. The company needs to look at more segments to enhance its revenues.

04

Compuage Chairman & MD: Atul Mehta

Compuage, despite challenges in the past, is a strong distributor. The company endeavored to reach out to new partners in the country through a new approach. It focused on both the enterprise as well as the consumer business to contain degrowth.

It also added a number of global brands to cater to customers from all segments.

Having a nationwide presence, Compuage claims to be a system-oriented and process-driven company. Headquartered at Mumbai, Compuage needs to realign its marketing and sales efforts. It also needs to focus on quality brands and try to offer customers value.

www.digitalterminal.in

Rashi Peripherals Managing Director: Suresh Pansari

Managing Director: Raj Shankar Redington India, which is the 2nd largest distributor in the country and commands the neck-to-neck position with Ingram Micro, has tried to put its best effort and sustain.

The company is a powerful distributor in the country and is known for delivering innovative products to the masses and businesses. Most of the top global brands rely on Redington India for their growth and outreach in the market. Like Ingram Micro, Redington also witnessed a robust growth in the consumer business. It has learned to wade through digital crises, given its performance in the market.

Iris Computers

Rashi Peripherals is one of the top 5 distributors in the country which claims to have a sound distribution network in all markets in India. This is one of the few distributors which witnessed a healthy growth in FY 16. Rashi has 53 branch offices and 56 service centres spread across A, B, C & D class cities of India and more than 9000 partners/customers in 750 cities/towns. Its distribution brands include market leaders like Adata, AMD, APC, Apple, Asus, Google, HP, Huawei, Intel, Logitech, Lenovo, Netgear, Nvidia, Sandisk and Toshiba. Rashi is known for its various innovative marketing programs with conceptualizing and implementing schemes/rebates being its key strengths.

07

Supertron Electronics Chairman & MD: VK Bhandari

Established in 1993 in Kolkata by Mr. V.K. Bhandari, the Chairman and Managing Director, Supertron claims to have an enhanced supply chain, the ability to reach products acros the country and strong presence in all markets. The company’s flagship business is the distribution of a wide variety of IT products including servers, desktops, laptops, netbooks, PC components, peripherals, memory modules, storage products, networking products and consumer electronic products of international vendors like Lenovo, TP-Link, Asrock, Genius, Dell, Seagate, Acer, IBM, LG, Samsung, Transcend, Cyber Power, Toshiba and Philips, Gionee, among others.

08

HCL Infosystems Managing Director: Premkumar Seshadri

With a mission to enable business transformation and enrich lives by offering technological products and services in chosen markets, HCL Infosystems has proved itself as a leader in IT Services, Distribution and Digital Solutions. It has a wide sales and distribution network in the country and offers value added distribution to partners. It supports its partners in marketing and promotions for Telecom, IT, Office Automation and Consumer Electronics products. It covers more than 15000 towns across 664 districts in India and has a reach of more than 100,000 retail outlets, over 800 Direct and Micro Distributors and over 12400 Channel Partners across India.

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

135

BRAND FOCU S

SOUNDBOT SPEAKERS INSPIRED IN CALIFORNIA AND MADE FOR INDIA SoundBot- A California based brand is focussed on bringing high quality and rugged products to cater to Indian consumers who are gradually adopting a more active lifestyle. Since the product matches the changing lifestyle of Indian consumers, it has seen an excellent entry of brand into Indian market. In first 6 months of its launch it has managed to take 10% share of the segment, it plans to operate in.

SoundBot, entered India in 2016 to offer products which match our changing lifestyle.

Besides being updated with latest technology SoundBot products are rugged, shock proof and water proof so that they can be carried anywhere. The brand has also introduced wide range of innovative products in India last year. SoundBot began with a simple mission to develop a premium quality audio accessory portfolio and enhance your overall music listening experience through innovation, quality, convenience, and technology that is inspired by you.

Based on excellent global repot, SoundBot has had an excellent start in India with 5 of its products already as bestsellers on Amazon India. The passing year was very good for the brand as the products were getting huge attention across different market in India.

Indian consumers really got the taste of a brand, which might be from California but this is truly Made for India. Expressing pleasure over recent market growth, Mr. Howard, Director, SoundBot, said, “India has a diverse landscape of music communities, and users from walks of life, looking for a gadget which is portable and offers a high-performance dynamic listening quality that we bring to the table. The pricing of our products is planned to suit market demand and pocket size. Overall, we saw a massive demand for portable speakers in India, especially with smartphones being the most popular screens, today.”

Technology trends are persistently changing and it is quite difficult to predict what trends will rule the market. Rajesh Bansal, Director, SoundBot India, says, “2018 will be mostly ruled by voice driven smart speaker solutions.

Voice based tech innovations are some of the apex tech industry development till the date.

Voice control feature is an emerging trend in the industry and at the moment it is very 136

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

convenient for users, customers now find such products that gives them reliability with ease of use and this could be the reason why voice control feature is among top priority for tech brands.”

Customer Support Customer service is very important to an organization because it is often the only contact a customer has with a company.

SoundBot has been taking all initiatives to offer best service support experience to loyal customers. Rajesh adds, ‘We are offering our consumers a complete post sale service satisfaction with a pan India in home replacement warranty. We have plans to make this support simpler by digitizing it and making investments in the direction.

We are overwhelmed to see such a massive and positive response towards the brand. It has been a rare and unique experience for the brand and our customer’s loyalties are a testimony to our popularity.”

The brand is further looking to grab more market share by launching quality speakers that gives users splendid experience at affordable price. SoundBot is known for its quality products, good pre sales and after sales services that makes it stand among top market players.

Major Product Offerings: The brand is very selective in launching their products in India. They are gradually spreading their product offerings and currently offers more than 10 different models for Indian consumers.

SB521 - HD Premium Bluetooth Touch Control Speaker Features: · HD Bluetooth Wireless Speaker with stereo sound · Built-in rechargeable 1500mAh lithium-ion batter · 6 hours wireless streaming · Premium Metallic finish with soft touch controls · Connectivity range 33 feet SB517 - Bluetooth Portable Waterproof Speaker Features: · HD Bluetooth Wireless Shower Speaker · 3W output with 40MM speaker driver and accessible control buttons · 6 hours wireless streaming · Premium Military grade IPX Level 7shock-resistant surface

Role of Channel

SB572- HD Bluetooth Wireless Speaker Feature:

Channel Partners are the key to success for any brand, so it is very important for brands to take care of their partners. SoundBot is currently operating with over 1000 offline dealers across top 50 cities and have presence on all major online market places. Increasing online & offline presence is also a key factor that is helping SoundBot to grow in different regions.

· Built in 3.5mm AUX with any media connectivity with or without Bluetooth · Deep Bass HD 3 watt loudspeakers · Sleek silicon design, shock and water resistant · Unique Passive Radiator Bass and a large speaker cavity · 10 Hour playback with solid performance

www.digitalterminal.in

India’s

Top 15 Emerging Distributors

The IT distribution market is very much bigger in India where major businesses are executed by key National Distributors. But there other distributors who are also torch bearer of this industry. They are also the key players in our traditional distribution system. They are also growing up at a rapid pace and have challenged the big ones. Their unabated rise on the distribution space shows that the distribution is not out of fashion. There is more scope left and a long way ahead.

DT has thus prepared a list of top 15 emerging distributors which are driving the distribution space forward.

www.digitalterminal.in

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

137

Abacus Peripherals

Graphline Computers Pvt. Ltd

Abacus Peripherals is the manufacturer for Zion Ram and is a renounced national distributor of various top of the notch computer peripherals and components. It is the only Indian company that manufactures RAM with its unit setup at Daman. Its associations extend with brands such as Corsair, Antec, Nvidia Inno3D, and Biostar for their product marketing and distribution nationally.

Graphline has been continuously growing its feet into distribution of leading computer brands. The company is engaged into marketing and servicing of computer, laptop, UPS, servers, printer, scanner and backup hardware, and is also involved in the networking solutions. Graphline has sold and providing support to various reputed Indian corporates and multinationals.

CEO: Umesh Modi Website :- www.abacusperipherals.com

Managing Director: - D.P Sinha Website: www.graphlinecomputers.com

BD Software

BD Software Distribution is a value added IT security distributor offering industryleading consumer and enterprise-level solutions in Indian market. Together with its channel partners, it focuses on bridging the most comprehensive protection from malware and cyber threats to government and educational organizations, businesses and consumers.

Managing Director: Mr. Zakir Hussain Website: bitdefender.in

Inflow Technologies Founded in the year 2005, Inflow Technologies addresses the growing needs of organizations to manage and secure information more effectively and intelligently. The team at Inflow Technologies are well-versed with latest and the most powerful technologies available today for locating, organizing, managing, retrieving, analyzing, protecting, and presenting information. It offers Value Added Distribution for Information Security, Networking, Automatic Identification and Data Capture & POS, Infrastructure & Application Software, Storage Management, Electronic Security products & related Services. It has direct relation with over 40 global technology vendors and has presence in 18 locations.

President & CEO: Byju Pillai Website: www.inflowtechnologies.com

Creative Peripherals

Incorporated in 1992 with just 3 people Creative Peripherals & Distribution has successfully achieved the status of being a focused player in distribution of I.T. as well as non IT products like telecom and CE with a significant reach across the country.

Within last 18 years the company has successfully transformed itself from a trading organization to a value-added distribution firm.

Chairman & Managing Director: Ketan C Patel Website: www.ecreativeindia.com

Modi Infosol

Modi Infosol Pvt. Ltd. formerly known as Modi Peripherals Pvt. Ltd. is a customer oriented technology aware IT solution Provider Company providing a range of IT products and expert services to create competitive advantage. Modi’s group turnover exceeds Rs. 2000 Million, with its Head Office in Delhi, Registered Office in Mumbai and Branch Offices in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana(Gurgaon) Uttar Pradesh, Punjab & Himanchal Pradesh. 28 years of experience and with work force of 150 people, Modi is ready to setup a network of likeminded people who are ready to create success for them as well as for their customers.

Director: Mr. Shyam Modi

Fortune Marketing

Fortune Marketing was incorporated in the year 1994 with the sole objective of providing electronic security and IT range of quality products in India. It is a 20 years old company and has 22 branches across India. It caters to various verticals like Surveillance- CCTV, Peripherals, Networking, and IT storage (DAS, NAS and SAN).

MD & CEO: Manoj Gupta Website: www.fortune-it.com

138

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

Website: www.modiithub.com

NNR IT Solutions

NNR IT Solutions is Pune based Distribution Company started in year 2014. The company has already achieved huge growth since its inception being into product distribution in software and hardware security solutions, as they have a dynamic team of professionals who strive hard to delight customers through dedicated and hardworking IT resellers.

CEO: Jagannath Patnaik Website: www.nnritsolutions.com

www.digitalterminal.in

India’s Top 15 Emerging

Distributors

Sarani Retail & Marketing SARANI Retail And Marketing Private Limited is one of the emerging distributor in India.

Sarani is currently engaged in Providing Complete Marketing Solutions to MNC IT brands like RAPOO in India. Sarani is exclusive regional distribution of RAPOO’s wide range of products along with Smart Power Strips from Ideakard and Smart IP Camera from 360 Technology for UP & Uttrakhand. SARANI is serving to more than five brands currently and in year 2018, we will be looking to explore companies who need marketing support to establish new brands in India.

Director: Sunil Srivastava Website: www.sarani.co.in

RX Infotech Pvt. Ltd

RX Infotech was established more than a decade back as most promising importer, supplier and distributor of accessories, add-ons and spares to enhance working on a laptop. RX Infotech is driven by the leadership of Mr. Atul Gupta, Director, IT engineer and Mr. Deepak Sachdeva, Director who has immense experience and expertise in the field of trading. The company deals in brands like Dell, Acer, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Liteon, Toto Link, Lapcare, 3M and many other brands.

Director: Atul Gupta Website: www.rxinfotech.in

Savera Digital India Savera Marketing Agency is now in Savera Digital India Pvt. Ltd. emerged to be one of the leading value added distributors in the country with 18 years of presence in IT distribution.

Today Savera Digital India Pvt Ltd has 20 branches offices service centres spread across A, B, C & D class cities of India and more than 2600 partners/customers in 600 cities/ towns. Its distribution brands comprise of AData, AOC, Asia Power, Rapoo, Thermaltake, Gainward, Canon, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Norton, Microsoft, Intel, Seagate, Samsung, Western Digital, etc. Savera has come a long way in distribution and is today rated amongst the best distribution companies in India.

Director: Gopal Pansari Website: www.savera.co.in

Rah Infotech Rah Infotech is India’s leading value added distributor and solutions provider in the Network and Security domain. Rah Infotech is specialists in Enterprise and App Security and Application Delivery. The company is one of India’s fastest growing IT value added distribution (VAD) companies that has been introducing cutting-edge technologies to the market ever since its inception in 2005. RAH Infotech is committed to customer service and technical support with strong ethical values. It is strongly committed to add value and develop the business of our channel partners. We are constantly looking for long-term relationships with both vendors and resellers, based on trust and mutual confidence.

MD & CEO: Ashok Kumar

Website: www.rahinfotech.com

TechnoBind Solution

TechnoBind is a part of large 20 year old business group having a turnover of Rs 200 Cr (USD 40 Million) and has a presence across major cities in India - Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad. TechnoBind is the first Specialist Distributor in the Indian IT channel, offering a hybrid distribution model placed synergistically between broad-based and niche distribution, in order to deliver the highest business values for each of its reseller partners. With the challenges of the rapidly changing facets of technology for businesses, TechnoBind leverages this change as an opportunity – and helps partners implement solutions which solve specific business pain points arising out of these challenges.

CEO: Prashanth G J Website: www.technobind.com

Sakri IT Solutions VR Infotech SAKRI is yet another distributor which has been able to make to DT list of top emerging distributors because of its growth and market presence. SAKRI today has over 300 employees spread over 12 branches across India with a presence in every state. SAKRI has continued to manage high-end complex engagements to build a growth-led and sustainable business.

CEO: K. Ravi Lakshman Website: www.sakri.in

V.R. Infotech claims to be a proven, future-bound distribution house. To address its growing customer’s needs, it makes quick changes to its strategy. It constantly updates its OEM and reseller network to make gainful decisions. Special emphasis is given to resellers and OEMs post-sales services and support functions. V.R. Infotech believes that selling the product is not the end.

Director: Vikram Mehta

140

DIGITAL TERMINAL YEAR BOOK 2018

Website: www.vrinfotech.in

www.digitalterminal.in

Kaspersky for Business

Kaspersky for Busines Mission Unrivalled True Cybersecurity proven by customers 260 000 our customers have chosen our next generation solutions to protect their mission.

Learn more on kaspersky.co.in | sa-corpsales@kaspersky.com

Gartner Peer Insights Customer Choice Award for Endpoint Protection Platforms – Platinum Winner

The Gartner Peer Insights Customer Choice Logo is a trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc., and/or its affiliates, and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner Peer Insights Customer Choice Awards are determined by the subjective opinions of individual end-user customers based on their own experiences, the number of published reviews on Gartner Peer Insights and overall ratings for a given vendor in the market, as further described here http://www. gartner.com/reviews-pages/peer-insights-customer-choice-awards/ and are not intended in any way to represent the views of Gartner or its affiliates. Gartner Peer Insights reviews constitute the subjective opinions of individual end-users based on their own experiences, and do not represent the views of Gartner or its affiliates. Š 2018 AO Kaspersky Lab. All rights reserved. Registered trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners.