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Dell Brings ‘Destination Mars’ for Indian Channel Partners /12
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SME SOLUTIONS /31
SME TREND /34
CORPORATE STORY /44
Dell: Move Towards Server Virtualization
AWS : Re-inventing the Game
HP: “Simplifying channel engagements”
A4 MARCHES AHEAD
The India printer market provides opportunities for the print vendors. Players are entering A3 and A4 market with aggressive plans especially tapping the SMB segment. /36
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contents
JAN VOLUME 04 ISSUE 11
2014
ER COV RY STO
india’s first IT magazine for sme business
Publisher: Sanjib Mohapatra Editor: Sanjay Mohapatra Associate Editor: Karma Negi Reporter: Aparajita Choudhury Executive Editor: Smruti Chaudhury Copy Editor: Neil D’Souza Web Designer: Vijay Bakshi Technical Writer: Manas Ranjan Satya Sagar Sinha Lead Visualizer: DPR Choudhary MARKETING Senior Manager: M Raj Marketing Executive: Rajat Kumar Circulation and Printing: Panchanan Bhoi SALES CONTACTS Delhi 6/102, Kaushalya Park, Hauz Khas New Delhi-110016 Phone: 91-11-41055458 / 9313891660 E-mail: raj@smechannels.com Bangalore #28/1, 3rd Floor, Sri Lakshmi Krupa, Near Shamanna Park, Model House Street, Basavanagudi, Bangalore - 560004 Ph. No. +91 88618 21044 Mumbai Tahmeed Ansari 2, Ground Floor, Park Paradise, Kay-Bees CHS. Ltd.,Opp. Green Park, Oshiwara, Andheri (west), Mumbai - 400 053. Ph. +91 22 26338546, Fax +91 22 26395581 Mobile: +91 9967 232424 E-mail: Info@smechannels.com Kolkata S Subhendu BC-286, Laxmi Apartment, Kestopur Kolkata-700101 Phone: 9674804389 EDITORIAL OFFICE
A4 Marches Ahead /36
Delhi: 6/103, (GF) Kaushalya Park, New Delhi-110016, Phone: 91-11-41657670 /
The India printer market provides opportunities for the print vendors. Players are entering A3 and A4 market with aggressive plans especially tapping the SMB segment.
46151993 editor@smechannels.com Bangalore Bindiya Jadhav #28/1, 3rd Floor, Sri Lakshmi Krupa, Near Shamanna Park, Model House Street, Basavanagudi, Bangalore - 560004
CORPORATE STORY Brother International /46
“Bringing affordability printing with top-notch quality”
TECH ROADMAP Intel /41
IBM /47
Ex-IBMers Celebrate 35 Years of Togetherness
Printed, Published and Owned by Sanjib Mohapatra
more inside
“Hosted PBX to be the next big wave”
8
Place of Publication: 6/101-102, Kaushalya Park, Hauz Khas New Delhi-110016
Editorial~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~10
Phone: 91-11-46151993 / 41055458
Snippets~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 12
Printed at Karan Printers, F-29/2, 1st floor,
SME Networking~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 27 SME Biz~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 30
SME CHAT Shreeji Comsec India /42
accentinfomedia.com Skype ID: b1diyajadhav
Intel Outlines 2014 Plans for Enterprise Business
HP India /44
“Simplifying channel engagements”
Ph. No. +91 88618 21044 E-Mail bindiya@
SME Solution~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~31, 42 SME Trend~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 34, 46 Security Corner~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 48 Products~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 50
Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-2, New Delhi 110020, India. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced without the prior written permission from the publisher. Subscription: Rs.200 (12 issues) All payments favouring: Accent Info Media Pvt. Ltd.
SME CHANNELS JANUARY 2014
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PLUS
Kaspersky Small Office Security to Cater to Small Biz Needs /14 www.smechannels.com
india’s first IT magazine for sme business VOLUME 04 | ISSUE 11 | PAGES 54 | JANUARY 2014 | RS. 20/-
SME TREND /46
SME TREND /52
NEXTRA: Optimizing Bandwidth Usage
SHREEJI COMSEC: hosted PBX to be the next big wave
SME BIZ /30 Stellar: Eyes 20% Growth
MY EXPERIENCE EDITORIAL
WILL AAP DELIVER? KARMA NEGI
karma@smechannels.com
AAM AADMI PARTY’S (AAP) stunning debut in the political scenario routing the Congress’ 15-year-rule and winning a resounding victory against the three-time Chief Minister Sheila Dixit was nothing short of a miracle. While the party is lapping its moment under the sun with gusto and trying to fulfil its populist promises made to the billion Indians by delivering on its promises of free water and reduction in the electricity bills, however it yet needs to be seen the feasibility of their announcements. This also brings us to the point what it means for the India Inc. In a press note it hailed the AAP government and expressed its confidence that the new government would be industry friendly; it hopes this government would revive the manufacturing industry and industrial estates in the capital. The responsibility in front of the new government is nothing short of a challenge and they will have to rely on their sagacity rather than fulfilling populist promises. They need to understand that people voted for them because they saw them as a symbol that stood against something that most of us were sick and tired of: corruption, inflation, safety and security etc. However its recent move of withdrawing the approval allowing multibrand retail in Delhi given by the Sheila Dixit led government hasn’t left the Industry impressed. Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry said “going back on an executive or legislative decision was not beneficial to the country.” Taking a cue from AAP’s recent announcement of reduction in water and electricity bill some other states have also followed suit. But will such steps revive the economy or will it prove a disaster as some sides are suggesting. Even the channel community has high hopes with this government and rejoiced when the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced the reduction in the complexities of filing the VAT by traders. Delhi traders have been for long demanding the reduction in the VAT percentage which stands at 13% in Delhi compared to 5% in Noida and Gurgaon. Association like All Delhi Computer Traders Association hopes to take their grievances to Kejriwal which apart from the VAT issue includes problems with the departments, and on the BIS issue which restricts the penetration of imported goods into the market.
HP Slate Voice Tablets THE 15.2 CMS (6-INCH) diagonal HP SlateVoiceTab and the 17.8 cms (7-inch) diagonal HP Slate VoiceTab, designed in Asia, are powered by a quad-core processor, enabling users to multitask at everything from email to web surfing to gaming to streaming announced the release. These tablets are built on Android OS and come equipped with a 3G Dual SIM Dual Standby feature, HD front and rear camera for photos and video chats. The HP Slate6 VoiceTab and HP Slate7 VoiceTab are expected to be available in India next month. It offers front-firing stereo speakers for top-quality sound that delivers an immersive experience that spans social media and gaming to streaming movies, music and more.
SPECIFICATIONS Come equipped with a 3G Dual SIM Dual Standby feature. FINAL WORDING Very good for mobile workers. OVERALL RATING
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SNIPPETS PRODUCT | CHANNEL | CONSULTING | SERVICES
for more log on to smechannels.com
Panasonic Holds Three-city Partner Program Panasonic India conducted an intensive three-city product launch and partner meets program for system integrators and resellers in
New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai this month. The objective of the program was to introduce partners to
the Panasonic high definition visual communication solution business, discuss product USPs, explain new business opportuni-
ties with Panasonic HDVC system, and provide special commercial offer for current financial year. Speaking on the meet, Sumit Sharma, Product Head (HD Communication), Panasonic India, said, “Panasonic 3D HD visual communication solution offers greater real time collaboration and realism which is impossible to experience with traditional 2D video conferencing. As a worldwide leader in 3D technology, we are proud to bring the power of 3D to our advanced HD visual communication solution at a highly affordable price.” He added, “We have taken this initiative to effectively help our channel community understand and explore the great business opportunities in the Panasonic HD visual communication solution business. This focused three-city partner program is indicative of our synergies with distributors in the market. India is an increasingly growing market and with this partner program, we are banking on the distributor’s enviable reach to ensure better market share in India.”
Dell Brings ‘Destination Mars’ for Indian Channel Partners Dell has launched Enterprise Game ‘Destination Mars’ for its Indian channel partners. The game aims at enabling a better understanding of Dell’s enterprise products amongst its channel partners. Dell’s India partner community has grown rapidly over the short period since the launch of its Global
Commercial Channel. With over 2000 partner relationships in the India market, Dell hopes to leverage the popularity of gaming and social media to generate further interest amongst the prospective partners in the industry. The release said that the interactive game for partners,
named ‘Destination Mars’ will run via Facebook and will test their knowledge of Dell enterprise solutions. The contest will run for a period of 15 days and at the end of the contest period Dell will reward the winners with attractive prizes. Ajay Kaul, Director & GM
(Global Commercial Channel), Dell India, said, “Destination Mars is a fun and entertaining way for channel partners to get acquainted with our enterprise offerings. It is also a non-intrusive and engaging way for us to strengthen our relationships with existing and prospective partners.”
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Mobility and Cloud Share within SMB ICT Spend to Rise 45 Percent Cloud computing and mobility are the two major pillars on which India SMBs’ ICT adoption rests. Their combined wallet share is likely to rise from just above 30% in 2013 to almost 45% within the next five years. Mobility-related investments have emerged as key fast-growing areas in terms of ICT deployment and investments, driven by the spiraling rise in tablet and smartphone ship-
ments as well as a significant increase in data plan spending by India SMBs. The combined tablet and smartphone shipments to SMBs have already outpaced traditional PC shipments (the latter now makes up only 45% of the hardware shipment pie). In the next five years, the share of tablets and smartphones is anticipated to escalate to 70%, as the contribution of PCs gradually drops further.
Plextor Unveils ‘Gamermas 2013’ Plextor has announced ‘Gamermas-2013’, a global holiday event where people can nominate friends or relatives to receive gaming-themed holiday gifts courtesy of Plextor. The release informed that this year, 2013 has been very successful for Plextor with particularly strong sales of the high performance M5 Pro Xtreme SSD in the gaming community. Therefore the company sees the Gamermas event as an opportunity to spread seasonal joy to those who love gaming and to thank gamers for their support throughout the world. A wide selection of the gaming hardware will be given away during Gamermas including highperformance Plextor SSDs, gaming mice, graphics cards, and speakers.
Kaspersky Small Office Security to Cater to Small Biz Needs Kaspersky Lab has announced a new version of Kaspersky Small Office Security which is designed for businesses with fewer than 25 employees. This solution includes new features that help small businesses stay ahead of modern security challenges, and includes Kaspersky Lab’s latest anti-malware technologies. Kaspersky Small Office Security is designed to cater solely to the needs of these small businesses, combining powerful protection from cybercrime with the features small businesses need to compete in the global economy. Maxim Mitrokhin, Director (Operations), Kaspersky Lab (Asia Pacific), said, “India is home to around 50 million SMBs currently, of which 10 million are technology-ready. Most SMBs in India do not invest in a full-fledged IT resource. Kaspersky Small Office Security (KSOS v3) will fill this gap owning to the fact that it is easy to install and manage, and provides enterprisegrade security to SMB customers, even providing security to mobile phones that access business content.”
MY POINT
Online Banking Malware in India Surges in Q3 According to Trend Micro Q3 Security Roundup Report, online banking malware infections in India in Q3 witnessed 253% increase as compared to Q2. It spread across the globe and no longer concentrated on certain regions like Europe and the Americas. Trend Micro continued to see this trend, with infection counts going beyond the 200,000 mark, the highest infection number since 2002 announced the release. The report further revealed that Apple-related phishing sites have remained steady throughout Q3 with 4,100 detected in July, 1,900 in August and 2,500 in September. Dhanya Thakkar, MD (India & SAARC), Trend Micro, said, “Threat actors are pouncing on users’ banking transactions, with the likes of FAKEBANK and FAKETOKEN malware threatening users. As with other app types, users may encounter Trojanized or fake apps disguised as legitimate banking apps. Cybercriminals will use different tricks to mimic legitimate apps. They can use the same images and icons or closely imitate the publisher’s name.” As per the release Citadel variants, meanwhile, continued to plague Japan, particularly targeting financial institutions and varied Webmail services like Yahoo! Japan and Gmail, among others. The FAKETOKEN malware meanwhile mimics the token generator app of a financial institution. Users who wind up with this malicious app end up giving out their password to avoid receiving an error message.
Thecus N4510U PRO “The Big Data market SMB Rackmount is expanding rapidly Launched Apical has launched new SMB Rackmount, as large IT companies Thecus N4510U PRO with internal upgrade. The product comes with nearly 15% rise in processing speed owing to the Intel Atom D2701 processor. and start-ups vie Thecus N4510U PRO features Intel Atom D2701 Dual-Core Processor (2.13GHz), 2GB for customers and DDR3 RAM, redesigned front panel, HDMI and VGA output, choice of single or redundant market share.” power supply, six USB ports (including two DAN VESSET,
VP (BUSINESS ANALYTICS AND BIG DATA RESEARCH), IDCW
USB3.0), free McAfee Antivirus, free Acronis True Image license, VMWare ready and iSCSI thin-provisioning. Thecus N4510U PRO comes with warranty of 2 years.
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Eset Announces ‘Get Set Go Tashkent’ for Partners Eset has announced channel scheme for Retail and Paper License Channel Partners, ‘Get Set Go Tashkent’. On earning 8000 points, partners are eligible to win a trip to Tashkent. The scheme will be valid on the purchase of Eset products. Channel partners can avail the retail scheme under Eset’s authorized regional distributors. For East India, partners can contact Link Telecom Pvt. Ltd., for West India with Software Mart, and for South India with R.S. Computers Enterprise Pvt. Ltd. For Delhi, Jaipur and UP, partners can reach Synapse, Vinayak System and Param System respectively. As per the release, partners dealing in paper license can earn points on all Eset paper license products. Each point is worth Rs 50. Pankaj Jain, Director, Eset, said, “We believe this scheme will definitely interest our partners.”
ADITYA UNVEILS DAHUA HDCVI TECHNOLOGY IN INDIA Aditya Infotech Ltd has associated with Dahua Technology to launch HDCVI (High Definition Composite Video Interface) in India, aiming to redefine analog surveillance by providing high definition video transmission over co-axial cable at affordable value. Aditya Khemka, CEO and Director, Aditya Infotech Ltd., said, “With an introduction of Dahua HDCVI technology, we are committed to bring best-of-technologies and products at value for money proposition, thereby, redefining best in the video surveillance industry. We are assured that HDCVI will certainly meet the surveillance requirement from any simple to challenging installations at affordable value.” HDCVI has an over 500m reliable HD million Aditya Khemka, CEO and pixel video transmission distance to break through the Director, Aditya Infotech Ltd. distance limit of existing technology. HDCVI provide a reliable transmission distance of more than 500m over 75-3 or similar coaxial cable by adaptive corrections of signal loss. HDCVI is an analog high definition video transmission standard over coaxial cable.
American Dynamics Unveils Illustra Flex Series of IP cameras American Dynamics, part of the security products business unit of Tyco has introduced the Illustra Flex Series of IP cameras which provides 1MP and 3MP video. The Illustra Flex box, bullet, and mini-domes (indoor and outdoor) include premium features such as 3D dynamic noise reduction (3D DNR), varifocal lenses and triple video streaming. Illustra Flex cameras reduce storage costs by consuming 25 to 75 percent less storage. The release said that the Flex Series also features motion detection for instant alerts of intruders, making the cameras ideal for retail stores, K-12 schools, small bank branches, and other businesses concerned with maintaining a very secure environment while meeting tight budget requirements. The bullet and outdoor mini-dome, with IP66-rated enclosures, ensure the durability necessary for outdoor applications.
Iris Computers Ties-up With Mircom Iris Computers has tied-up with Canada based Mircom Group for their Secutron fire security business expansion in Indian sub-continent. This venture will help boost Mircom’s extended arm through Iris’ network and vast experience in IT distribution announced the press release. It further added that Mircom chose to tie-up with Iris Computers based on its vast geographical pan India presence, advanced logistics facilities, quick credit evaluation, flexibility, friendly attitude of doing business with great personal care.
NETGEAR’s New ProSAFE Plus Switches NETGEAR has expanded its family of ProSAFE Gigabit Plus Switches with the launch of NETGEAR GS108E, GS108PE and GS116E switches. These three new PoE models include eight switches that combine improved management capabilities with Gigabit speeds and enhanced performance. Designed for networks that support 20 or more employees with growing network needs, the 2nd gen NETGEAR ProSAFE Plus Switches offer Gigabit speeds on all models, and new web-based management capabilities available for 16- and 24-port models and available soon for 5- and 8-port models.
Dell SonicWALL NGFW Bags Recommended’ Rating from NSS Labs Dell has announced that its SonicWALL SuperMassive E10800 next-generation firewall (NGFW), running SonicOS 6.0 and integrated Intrusion Prevention Service, has again earned the coveted Recommended rating in the NSS Labs 2013 Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) Security Value Map. During testing, the SonicWALL SuperMassive E10800 blocked 97.6 percent of attacks against server applications, 92.5 percent of attacks against client applications, and 94.8 percent overall. While Dell rates the device at 12 Gbps, the SonicWALL SuperMassive E10800 was measured by NSS Labs at 18 Mbps of real-world throughput. In addition, the SonicWALL SuperMassive E10800 proved effective against all evasion techniques tested. The Dell SonicWALL SuperMassive E10000 Next-Generation Firewall Series, part of Dell’s Connected Security offerings, delivers effective firewall and intrusion prevention to large enterprises, government and universities without the complexity of having to manage separate appliances, GUIs and deployments.
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Eset Releases Threat Trends Predictions for 2014
SANDISK SIGNS GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT WITH AVNET
Eset has released its annual predictions for the threatscape in the upcoming year “Trends 2014 The Challenge of Internet Privacy”. The trends for 2014 are loss of privacy and mechanisms to improve protection on the Internet, computer threats for Android OS, new spread of malicious code in form of ransomware, vulnerabilities in Java, ever-present and more complex botnets, 64-bit threats and malicious codes which try to obtain profits by stealing electronic coins and a variety of non-traditional devices such as smart cars, game consoles, smart TVs and others which introduce the possibility that in a future, threats for this kind of technology may be seen. The report states, “The challenge to internet privacy has not meant a decrease in cases of people affected by any malicious code or other kind of computer threat. It can be asserted that concern about privacy is a good starting point on the user side; however, it is essential for people to be aware of all aspects of Information Security. Otherwise, it is not possible to mitigate the impact of computer threats.”
SanDisk Corporation and Avnet have announced that Avnet will offer a wide portfolio of flash-based hardware and software solutions from SanDisk to its customers throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Asia Pacific and Latin America through its Avnet Electronics Marketing and Avnet Technology Solutions operating groups. Henri Richard, SVP (Worldwide Commercial As per the release, this worldwide distribuSales and Support), SanDisk tion agreement enables SanDisk to leverage Avnet’s global scale, scope and solutions distribution model, making it even easier for CIOs, IT leaders and manufacturing decisionmakers from around the world to purchase and implement SanDisk’s cutting-edge solid-state storage and embedded flash memory solutions. With this agreement, Avnet becomes one of the first global distributors for the SanDisk Commercial Business Channel, which offers client and enterprise-grade solid state drives (SSDs) and embedded flash computing products through channel partners claimed the company. Henri Richard, SVP (Worldwide Commercial Sales and Support), SanDisk, said, “Avnet’s deep understanding of storage and customer-centric approach makes them a logical distribution partner for SanDisk’s flash-based commercial products and enables us to further expand our leadership in this growing market.”
EXECUTIVE MOVEMENT
GLOBAL IT SPENDING TO REACH $3.8 TRILLION IN 2014
Bino George has been appointed by Fortinet as senior manager − channel account management, and will be the single point of contact for Fortinet’s most important system integrator partners, and enable Fortinet to more strategically and cohesively manage them at a country level.
Source: Gartner (January 2014)
320
963
922 Data Center Systems
300
143
140
697
669
Devices
1,653
2014 Spending
1,633
2013 Spending
3,663
WORLDWIDE IT SPENDING FORECAST (BILLIONS OF U.S. DOLLARS)
3,777
SPENDING ON DEVICES (INCLUDING PCS, ULTRAMOBILES, MOBILE PHONES AND TABLETS) CONTRACTED 1.2 PERCENT IN 2013, BUT IT WILL GROW 4.3 PERCENT IN 2014.
Enterprise Software
IT Services
Telecom Services
Overall IT
Srinivas Sitaram has been named Country Manager, Indian Subcontinent by Check Point. As part of his new portfolio, Srinivas will be responsible for Channel Sales, SMB and Distribution. Sanjay Rohatgi has been appointed President (Sales), India, by Symantec.Based in Delhi, Rohatgi will be responsible for leading Symantec’s business and driving growth across enterprise and consumer business by developing and delivering on business strategy.
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Asus Strengthens its Presence in Maharashtra
DIGEST
Asus India has opened another exclusive store in Pune. The new outlet will feature the brand’s entire range of Ultrabooks, Notebooks, Netbooks, Tablets and Phablets that are available in India. Asus marks its strong presence in Maharashtra by launching number of retail stores in Pune. The retail store, Nitin Computers is 6th exclusive store in Pune and will give access to all the latest and forthcoming technologies from Asus in this region informed the release. Ram Nikam, Branch Head (North Maharashtra– System Business Group), Asus India, said, “With numerous educational institutions and Information Technology being key service industry, we have witnessed perceptible growth in Pune. We already have five retail stores in city meeting the demands of our products in the region. In order to timely serve and complement the demand, it was crucial to escalate our presence and assist the technological prowess in Pune.”
Eset has launched the 7th generation of its flagship consumer products, Eset NOD32 Antivirus and Eset Smart Security. Eset offers additional 6 months validity on Eset NOD32 (3 user, 1 year) and Eset Smart Security (1 user & 3 user, 1 year) till March 31, 2014. Eset NOD32 Antivirus and Eset Smart Security feature exploit blocker, advanced memory scanner, vulnerability shield and Eset social media scanner. Exploit Blocker targets the very process of exploitation of vulnerable applications, thus it is generic and independent of the payload or malware that finally infects the machine.
KONICA MINOLTA FORAYS INTO CHANDIGARH MARKET Konica Minolta Business Solutions India Pvt. Ltd has forayed into the Chandigarh market. Collaborating with Webnet Asia-a unit of Jetage Computer Traders, Konica Minolta announced its new partner for the range of A4 printers. Sanjeev Walia from Webnet Asia said, “Konica Minolta was our first and the only choice and we are glad to be associated with them. They have a number of competitive products and its worth being a partner for their range of best-selling A4 Printers. This step of ours will definitely add value to our business and take it to new heights.” Tadahiko Sumitani, MD, Konica Minolta Business Solutions India Pvt. Ltd., commented, “We treasure all our partners and the fact that they trust us by carrying our brand to the market, gives us immense pleasure. All our products are based on cutting edge technology and Webnet Asia’s association with Konica Minolta is sure to go a long way. We will provide them with the best possible printing solutions in India.”
Netstor Appoints Apical as its ND Apical has tied up with Netstor as the national distributor to distribute the entire product range of Netstor across India. Apical will use its strength in the areas of broadcaster, video graphers, animators and Mac users in India for the distribution of Netstor products in India. Bobby Sun, OverSeas Sales Manager, Netstor, said, “We are happy to tie up with Apical for distribution of our product range in India. Promoters of Apical come with large experience in IT and we are confident that the demand of our products will increase in India.”
Cadyce Expands its Solutions Product Portfolio Cadyce has expanded its solutions product portfolio with the introduction of new PoE switches and Fiber media converters. Cadyce is more focused on “solutions integration “and “systems integration” announced the release. Cadyce’s PoE products are specially designed for IP surveillance, VoIP phone, access point and other PoE requirements. Cadyce CA-PS451 is a 5 Port 10/100Mbps Switch with 4 PoE Ports (65 Watt support). The Cadyce’s CA-PS541 delivers enterprise-class features in a compact form. It has total 5 ports of 10/100Base with 4 Ports PSE/ PoE function. It is an IEEE-802.3af compliant switch with 65 watt power output. Cadyce CA-PS800 is a 8 Port 10/100Mbps PoE Switch (120 Watt Support). The Cadyce’s CA-PS800 is equipped with 8X 10/100BASE-T Ethernet ports with IEEE 802.3af PoE standard.
ESET NOD32 ANTIVIRUS AND SMART SECURITY
RAPOO WIRELESS TOUCHPAD KEYBOARD Rapoo has launched its 5GHz wireless touchpad keyboard E9180P for PC and home entertainment. It’s a combination of 5.6mm thin BLADE series keyboard and ultra-slim touchpad having 15 customizable touch gestures to work with. The release said that Rapoo E9180P is also compatible with Windows 8 and offers smooth flow of connectivity. Rapoo E9180P wireless touchpad keyboard is available at a price of Rs.4,629. It comes with 2 years replacement warranty.
SEAGATE LAPTOP ULTRATHIN HDD POWERS LENOVO YOGA 2 Seagate is working with Lenovo to deliver YOGA 2, a new multimode PC powered by the Seagate Laptop Ultrathin HDD. Both companies will demo the YOGA 2 multimode PC at CES 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. “Seagate has had an ongoing strategic alliance with Lenovo for many years. By delivering the technology that enables their YOGA 2 with the Laptop Ultrathin HDD, we have succeeded in delivering a high-capacity, lightweight laptop that addresses the needs of consumers and commercial users,” said Scott Horn, VP (Marketing), Seagate.
SP USB 2.0, USB 3.0 FLASH DRIVES Silicon Power has launched USB 2.0 Ultima U06 and USB 3.0 Blaze B06 which come with 13.14 °angle and are available in aqua blue, peach pink and shell white colour. Ultima U06 provides the interface of USB 2.0 and five options of capacities including 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB and 64GB while Blaze B06 is designed with SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface and available in 8GB, 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.
TP-LINK 802.11AC WIRELESS DUAL BAND GIGABIT ROUTER TP-LINK has launched flagship 802.11ac Archer C7 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router providing 1750Mbps wireless speeds, simultaneous dual band, Gigabit ports and dual USB sharing ports. The release said that TP-LINK’s Archer C7 brings the latest in Wi-Fi technology with gigabit wireless networking. The 802.11ac wireless standard provides wireless devices with ultrafast speeds, up to 3x faster than 802.11n and further wireless coverage.
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SMS “BUYKIS<SPACE>EMAIL ID“ to 56263
301, Tower – A, World Trade Center, Kharadi, Pune – 411 014, India.Phone No: +91-020-65111016, 65111017.
Toll Free No.: 1800-209-2012, Paid Lines:+91-20-65111011, 27012834. SMS “KSHELP<SPACE>EMAIL ID“ to 56263 [For Technical Support], www.sakri.in ,sales@sakri.in
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Asus Bags ‘The Best Pavilion Award’ Asus participated in Eastern India’s biggest tech fair ‘COMPASS Tech Fair 2013’ where the company displayed its Republic of Gamers motherboards Series, graphic cards, compact Desktop Vivo PC, networking and multimedia devices. COMPASS (Computer Association of Eastern India), is an association of IT entrepreneurs of Eastern India that works to create and sustain an environment conducive to the growth of IT industry announced the release. With more than 350 members and partnering industry through advisory and consultative process, COMPASS has been a facilitator and catalyst working closely with government on policy issues, enhancing efficiency, competitiveness and expanding business opportunities through assorted services. The association is headquartered in Kolkata and has members spread all over eastern India.
AFFORDABLE E-COMMERCE SOLUTIONS FOR SMES, SMBS LAUNCHED Manusis Technologies, an e-commerce solution provider, has introduced “Technology enabled and economical E-commerce Solutions for the SME’s and SMB’s”. This innovative venture has been initiated in order to assist budding entrepreneurs and their e-commerce related ventures. Manusis Technologies based out of Gurgaon is a technology packed solution provider which offers web related services to clients across Rajiv Kumar, CEO and Founder, Manusis India and USA at most affordable packages. Technologies The industry of hosted e-commerce platforms is still in its infancy and has a huge potential going forward announced the press release. Manusis endeavors to tap into that potential to create a brand that will become de facto standard in the online e-commerce industry it further added. Rajiv Kumar, CEO and Founder, Manusis Technologies, said, “The SME and the SMB market in India is one the promising segments which is expected to grow year on year. The potential of this segment cannot be challenged and it is in this context that we decided to introduce E-commerce related solutions for the young SME and SMB market.”
ZyXEL Receives SME Channels Award Zyxel Communications Corp has been recognized by SME Channels Award as the “Best GEPON Solution Provider in India”. Speaking on the occasion, Pinaki, Zyxel, said, “We are extremely honored to get this award from SME Channels Magazine. “The award is the recognition of our efforts to align ourselves continuously with the global markets we serve. It’s extremely motivating to be appreciated for our endeavors and we promise to continue working hard in the future.” Pinaki further commented, “We have always valued our customers and to be acknowledged for being the best service provider makes us feel proud about our team work. Innovation has been our core and all our products and services have been coined after a sustained analysis of consumer demands and needs.”
PC Industry a US $200 Billion Market Lenovo highlighted the PC Plus trends in 2014 where the company revealed that the PC industry represents a US$200 billion market and offers substantial opportunity for profitable growth. Rahul Agarwal, Executive Director (Commercial Business Segment), Lenovo India, said, “Lenovo sees great potential to significantly grow the market for convertible PCs as we continue to lead and innovate in this category with products like the Yoga series, having also expanded it to include multimode devices that include the Flex 14 and 15 laptops, as well as Horizon Table PC and Flex 20 All-In-One (AIO). This growth potential will be driven by declining production costs for key components such as processors, storage and touch technologies.”
Channel Partners Appreciates Gigabyte’s AMD 900 Series Mobos Gigabyte announced that its AMD 900 Series Motherboards have made a huge impact among the Indian Do-It-Yourself (DIY) PC consumers who swear by AMD chipset-based motherboards, according to IT resellers across the country. As per the release, channel partners were unanimous in their opinion that sales of motherboards in this series swelled, mainly because of their compelling features coupled with an attractive pricing, which the competing brands have not been able to offer.
D-Link Exhibits mydlink Powered Products at 2014 CES D-Link showcased a full range of new products including many notable firsts for the company and the world at 2014 International CES. D-Link products being showcased are powered by mydlink Cloud services. The products which the company exhibited in the show includes the Wi-Fi Baby Camera (DCS-825L), the mydlink Network Video Recorder (DNR-312L), IP Camera with nextgeneration 802.11ac Wi-Fi, the Wireless AC Day or Night Camera with Color Night Vision (DCS-2136L).
Unistal’s Scheme for Channel Partners Unistal Systems Pvt. Ltd has announced a Winter Chill out Offer for Channel Partners. This scheme is valid on selling Protegent – Antivirus and Internet Security solution. The scheme includes 2N or 3D holiday stay to any of 51 National or International destinations. As per the release, winter chill out offer is a points based scheme, where Protegent Antivirus is 1 Point and Protegent Internet Security 2 Points.
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SNIPPETS
IT Investments by Tier II Cities SMBs to Intensify India-based SMBs (Firms with 1-999 full-time employees) are keen to leverage technology to enhance employee productivity & collaboration, and are forecasted to display a healthy CAGR of more than 15% over the next five years in boosting their ICT infrastructure. SMBs within the Tier-II cities contribute a significant proportion of the all-India SMB IT spending. These findings have emerged from a soon-to-be-released study by New York-based AMI Partners.As the Indian economy gradually shrugs off the effects of the downturn and begin to show a ‘boom’ in many sectors triggered by innovative economic and investment policies, the metros or the Tier I cities are the ones that are primarily inundated with burgeoning investments in the industrial and services sector. The building-up congestion in realty structures and a huge burden on the overall city infrastructure has forced respective governments and many companies to seek out alternative smaller cities for their future, and earmark investments geared towards Tier II and III cities.
Portronics Pure Sound Pro BT
INFOR REITERATES ITS COMMITMENT TOWARDS IPN Infor has announced a new micro-vertical product program for partners based on the Infor Mongoose development framework, demonstrating further investment in resources for the Infor Partner Network (IPN). This program is designed to provide partners with new opportunities to grow a profitable and sustainable business around Infor applications stated the company. The micro-vertical product program allows Jeff Abbott, SVP (Global Alliances and partners to build their own industry-specific Channels), Infor applications using Infor Mongoose, Infor’s leading development platform that enables users to more easily design and deploy applications without knowledge of complex source codes or programming languages. Further, this initiative delivers direct benefits by helping partners to capitalize on existing market needs, providing them with the latest Infor 10x technology, and helping them to establish a new compelling revenue stream for their business. Partners have the opportunity to present the application idea to Infor, and then build and promote their envisioned product with the help of Infor’s technical staff and global sales organization. Jeff Abbott, SVP (Global Alliances and Channels), Infor, said, “We’re giving our partners unprecedented access to our global customer base by allowing them to identify niches where additional industry-specific functionality is needed, and then build or extend an application to address those challenges.”
Portronics has unveiled the upgraded and superior version of its Pure sound Bluetooth series, the Pure sound Pro BT. It features 2.5 W speakers, in built MP3 Media Player, FM, USB playback, SD card, Bluetooth connectivity and more. Facilitating users with an option of enjoying nonstop music for a period of 6-8 hours with a single full charge, the ‘Pure sound Pro BT’ is designed with dual power supply announced the press release. While the detachable Lithium ion battery (generic BL-5 C battery) with special ECO-PLUS works on a power saving design, the signal handling USB offered along with the device makes charging an easy task with other portables like laptops. Priced at INR 4499 only, Portronics Pure sound Pro BT is available in black colour across India.
eScan Bags 16th Consecutive VB100 Award
Zebronics Introduces Totem 2 Wireless Optical Mouse
eScan has bagged 16th consecutive VB-100 award from Virus Bulletin. eScan has achieved the award for their user product, eScan Internet Security Suite with Cloud Security by scoring 100.00% in the on-demand test with a striking RAP of 93.3% announced the release. The company stated that Virus Bulletin is amongst the most widely recognized certifications within the industry which focuses on virus detection rates, scanning speeds and performance. VB100 award is well regarded in malware and anti-virus community for its exacting testing procedures. The solution needs to detect 100% malware sample listed in the ‘Wild list’ and generate no false positives when scanning a set of clean files.
Zebronics has introduced Totem 2 wireless optical mouse based on 2.4 GHz wireless technology. It comes with three colour option. The Zebronics Totem 2 wireless optical mouse comes with its own nano receiver that goes into a standard USB port providing a smooth, interference-free range of up to 10 meters for the mouse. It is switchable between 800/1200/1600 DPI. The Totem 2 has 4 buttons (including the DPI switch). A simple plug-and-play device it works without the need for any installation or software CD on major operating systems like Windows-XP/Vista/7/8. The Zebronics Totem 2 Wireless Mouse is priced at Rs. 499/- which includes a warranty of 1 year. It is available at major IT accessories markets, retail IT outlets informed the release.
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SNIPPETS
Ramco Opts for MS Office 365 for Unified Collaboration Ramco Systems has selected Microsoft Office 365 for unified communication and collaboration with its partners and customers. The solution provides a single platform for its employees in India and across the globe to exchange information, with anywhere anytime access, ensuring increase in productivity, security and mobility announced the press release. Raghvendra Tripathi, CPO, Ramco Systems Limited, stated, “After evaluating cloud solutions from multiple service providers we decided to choose Microsoft solutions as we benefit from their pay-as-you-go model and operationally we can collaborate with our employees, partners and customers who use familiar enterprise applications like Lync, Yammer, SharePoint, Exchange and Office. Moreover, we can now enjoy a consistent and familiar Office experience across 5 devices and be in sync.”
ISODA TO HOST TECH SUMMIT IN THAILAND ISODA Tech Summit – Season 4 in Thailand (Pattaya) is all set to host 75+ delegates from 23rd to 26th January, 2014.This will be the 4th consecutive year of the Tech Summit being hosted to provide a platform for Partners, Distributors and OEMs to interact and discuss both the challenges faced in the past and explore new opportunities in the future. The theme for the ISODA Tech Summit Nityanand Shetty, Chairman, ISODA 2014 is “Phoenix”. According to Greek mythology the phoenix is a long-lived bird that is cyclically reborn or regenerated. Nityanand Shetty, Chairman, ISODA, said, “In the past year, the market scenario, worldwide including India was not conducive to accelerated growth. 2013 can easily be defined as a tough year, dollar fluctuations to global slowdown to tax complexities our industry has faced the brunt in more ways than one. We are on the road back but certainly not there yet.” This year, ISODA North is carrying the torch of organising the Tech Summit 2014 under the guidance of Tech Summit Committee Chairman –Ashok Kumar (Rah Infotech) along with his able team.
SMERA Completes 25,000 MSME Ratings India’s credit rating agency SMERA Ratings Ltd (SMERA) has recently completed 25,000Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises – (MSME) ratings in India. This milestone was achieved by SMERA in 8 years of its operations. SMERA Ratings Ltd., formerly known as SME Rating Agency of India Ltd., is a pioneer in MSME ratings and is also an accredited rating agency by Reserve Bank of India – (RBI) and Securities and Exchange Board of India – (SEBI) announced the press release. Parag Patki, CEO, SMERA Ratings Ltd, said, “The MSME sector is the backbone of any economy, and the heath of the MSME sector is critical to ride the forthcoming wave of economic revival for the country. We expect increasing opportunities for the MSME sector with the Indian Government taking measures to improve investment climate along with initial signs of economic revival in the developed economies.”
Spectrum, Microsoft India Conduct Event IT network and security service company in India, Spectrum network solutions and Microsoft India PL recently conducted an event in Mumbai. The event was mainly conducted for the discussion on the future of IT which is cloud computing and specific focus was mainly on Windows Azure i.e. a cloud computing platform and infrastructure created by Microsoft and Microsoft 365 i.e. subscription based online office and software plus services built around the Microsoft office platform. Speaking on the occasion, Sanjeev Kumar Singh, CTO, Spectrum Group, said, “Spectrum helps in bringing together skilled engineering talent and expertise of cloud services to develop a different solution which helps the organizations acclimatize themselves according to the changing circumstances and counter the rising challenges successfully.”
Foxconn Ties-Up with Mozilla Foxconn has tied up with Mozilla to develop tablets based on Firefox OS. Taiwan-based chipmaker VIA Technologies will be joining the project announced. This partnership is aimed at offering hardware, software and application designers opportunities to develop Firefox OS-based products. Mozilla will provide operating system (OS), development guides and OS upgrades and maintenance, while Foxconn will provide its expertise in developing hardware platforms.
Savera Marketing Appointed as ND by HIS Savera Marketing Agency has announced that it been appointed as exclusive national distributor by HIS (High-tech Information System), an internationally acclaimed graphics cards company. Savera Marketing Agency will be the exclusive national distributor for HIS-ATI chipset Graphics Card for India. With vast distributorship network, Savera Marketing will contribute in pushing HIS-ATI chipset graphics card product line up in the market. It will also be responsible to educate the retailers and dealers about the product and generate sales. The release informed that HIS - High-tech Information System Limited is an internationally acclaimed graphics cards company. It was established in 1987 with the mission to produce the highest quality PC products in the industry. HIS is blessed with leading and award-winning products: IceQ, IceQ X and Turbo Edition. Gopal Pansari, MD, Savera said, “It is our pleasure to be associated with HIS. We will try our level best to provide PAN India distribution of HIS ATI chipset graphics cards. With HIS product line up we will be able to escalate our market share. We are looking forward for a full support from HIS with an assurance of faster sales from our end.”
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SME NETWORKING
TP-LINK TO GROW 80% THIS YEAR India occupies an important position in TP-Link’s global strategy, and serving customers with high quality yet affordable products and friendly user experiences will continue to remains its aim BY KARMA NEGI
karma@smechannels.com
F
or the global provider of networking products and WLAN products TP-Link India occupies an important position in its global strategy. Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Shenzhen, it established India subsidiary in 2010, focusing on the supply of high quality, high value and reliable networking products to the end-users. “While we began from zero, we are growing very fast. We look forward to an increase of 80% by the end of this year, which is very inspiring. This rapid growth would not be possible without the support of all of our business partners and end-users. Without their support and trust, we couldn’t have achieved such impressive success,” informs Jason Xu, Director, TP-Link. With more than 400 distributors worldwide with annual sales volume of over 100 million units IDC named TP-Link in Q1 2013 as the leader in the global WLAN market by unit shipments with a market share of 42.6%, for the 13th continuous quarter. Xu attributes its remarkable global presence to a number of factors: its heavy focus on new technology and product development, cooperation with the world’s best suppliers, such as Qualcomm and Broadcom in the US, in new technology and new product development, maintaining strict standards of its material suppliers to ensure consistently high product quality, manufacturing its products independently, cooperation with top US and European design firms to create new product packaging and product Industrial Design, coordinating global and local market experience.
While the depreciation of the Rupee is being used as an opportunity by local Indian export-oriented enterprises, but for TP-Link which focuses on importing; this is quite a big challenge. “To ensure the stability of our MSRP, we have taken several of measures to reduce our operation and logistic costs, meanwhile we flattened our channel and reduced the cost of sales, which has led us through the shock,” informs Xu. Further he adds that the India with its vast territory and a large population has been an obstacle for them to promoting the Flattening Strategy. “We made an effort to improve our coverage in the channel. At present we have already established cooperative relationships with over 60 regional distributors in all major cities. However, there are also a lot of vacant regions in B and C class cities remaining to be developed.” From a channel perspective, Xu says the aim is to build win-win relationships and create value for its partners. “We have achieved very good results through a series of effective measures. In the future we will go on with our strategy and carry it out thoroughly.” Branding for TP-Link is one of the major missions of its Indian subsidiary. Based on the information gathered about the Indian market and experience from Europe and America, it made several plans elaborately and carried them out. The networking company also cooperates with online retailers for promotions, offering end-users affordable, high quality products; cooperates with media partners for advertising, press outreach and
JASON XU, DIRECTOR, TP-LINK
“THIS RAPID GROWTH WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT THE SUPPORT OF ALL OF OUR BUSINESS PARTNERS AND END-USERS.” product testing to make ourselves known to endusers; it also cooperates with business partners and introduce various activities, such as schemes and dealer meetings, to motivate the channel. All these plans are now in process and will be continued in the future.
Finally… India is an emerging market with high potential, from which TP-Link has very high expectations. In the aspect of marketing, with reference to advanced experience from some mature markets such as USA and UK, and also the understanding of the Indian culture by its local team, the company is able to deploy scientific and detailed marketing strategies. “With regard to our products, we won’t change our attitude of serving customers with high quality yet affordable products and friendly user experiences,” Xu concludes.
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SME BIZ
STELLAR EYES 20% GROWTH Data recovery services market is highly unstructured mostly dominated by small mom-and-pop shops. Stellar Data Recovery still hopes that more organised players from around the world will set shop here. BY KARMA NEGI
karma@smechannels.com
T
he increasing usage of technology has further led to a huge amount of data generation, the loss of which can wreak havoc on one’s mind and business. Data recovery services comes to the rescue of the retrieving the lost data. Established in 1993 Stellar Data Recovery has been providing data recovery software and services; headquartered in Gurgaon, it has 13 other branches all over the country, the latest branch was opened in Kochi last year. It also has service locations in US and Netherlands. Stellar started as a pure product company and then in late 90s when customers also started demanding services it started its services line. And when the Internet scenario happened it again started doing products but realized that at the last mile it was good to have a service reach and in 2008 it opened an office in US and in 2009 it acquired RSE Data Recovery Services BV, Netherlands to increase its services footprint. While the product business contributes 60% the rest comes from the service side, and expects the product business to grow by about 12%. With a robust increase that the services business is witnessing it is further expected to grow 20%, and hopes to garner Rs. 45 crores. The data recovery market in India is mainly unstructured with lots of mom and pop shops which claim to recover data but it often comes at a heavy price. The country still lacks structured competition and as per Sunil Chandna, CEO, Stellar Data Recovery, Stellar remains the only professional data recovery company in the country. “We
SUNIL CHANDNA, CEO, STELLAR DATA RECOVERY are still expecting organised players from around the world to set shop here; though Seagate did start one but due to some reasons it didn’t work out. And these small shops that offer data recovery services are most hazardous.” While the country throws up humongous opportunities Chandna feels they are still not able to tap it and refer to customer awareness as the biggest challenge. He adds that lot of customers make decisions based upon the advice that an IT expert would give. And recovering the data also doesn’t come cheap. While its customers are predominantly enterprise there is an increasing traction of IT deployment in the mid-sized businesses too and Chandna hopes to see more business coming from this sector too. “There is no big deal to have servers in midsized business. But while deploying it is easy but managing it for SMBs is quite difficult as they lack smart IT manager, which they can’t afford. In this situation they don’t have lot of data protection ware and they are not taking backup in the right way hence we see increasing trend where we will see more business happening from the mid-sized companies,” remarks Chandna. Business customers form 90% of its business and the remaining 10% are consumers; out of this 90%, 27% business comes from SMBs. With the volume business on an upswing Chandna hopes to grow about 20% this year and informs that most of this growth comes from smaller cities. “50% of growth is from SMBs and smaller cities,” he informs. With the onslaught of the cloud people are
preferring to store their data on the cloud with the feasibility of accessing it anywhere, anytime. According to some industry reports cloud computing is encroaching on the revenue of this industry. However Chandna retorts he “can’t feel it at this moment”. “For cultural reasons we still like to touch and feel; I don’t see a huge cloud adoption happening and neither has it has affected us.” Expanding its technical ability not only in India but globally too is one of the focus areas for Stellar at present. It’s also toying with an idea to create solutions particularly for consumers in small businesses to make data recovery affordable to them; creating something that can help them de-risk their data from getting corrupted. “We are very close to finalising such a solution” adds Chandna. “We want to ensure that we offer something that’s value for money especially when it comes to small home offices. It’s for the small businesses and professionals that we want to create a solution for.” To expand geographically and add more locations is another focus for Stellar. With presence in 14 locations in India it plans to add two more.
Finally… With the services business growing despite the slow economic growth expectations is high from this segment. While plans are also in the pipeline to expand globally it’s adopting a cautious approach and is closely monitoring the market. “We are taking a careful approach,” signs off Chandna.
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SME SOLUTION
MOVE TOWARDS SERVER VIRTUALIZATION SMBs are increasingly moving towards server virtualization as they demand more performance and flexibility out of the existing infrastructure. BY APARAJITA CHOUDHURY aparajita@smechannels.com
A
ccording to a recent IDC report, the Indian server market has seen a tremendous year-on-year growth of 10% - 12%. The market currently stands at $300 million and is expected to touch $500 million by 2017 and the overall growth is attributed to the x86 servers as it constitutes the majority of server shipments as they are affordable, cost efficient and it is easier to scale up the infrastructure. In SMB market, the need for faster enterprise application among SMEs (which can increase productivity among value chains) seems to drive this market. It is a well known fact that SMB segment is considered as the biggest contributor to the overall growth of a nation. But when it comes to adoption of technologies it differs from segment to segment. In terms of server technology, the smaller SMBs are slow adopters because their usage is restricted only for their basic IT operations whereas the larger SMBs are focused in their IT infrastructure and hence are the early adopters of technology. Amit Luthra, National Manager (Storage and Networking Solutions Marketing), Dell India, says, “SMB has tremendous presence in the Indian market. The number of data transactions across industry verticals such as BFSI, manufacturing, retail and IT/ITeS has been a major influence of growth in the server market. The SMB market has the need to invest in technology either because they are adopting new technologies or revamping their existing technology. Some of the IT priorities such as mobility solutions, business intelligence/ analytics, cloud computing, virtualization are
AMIT LUTHRA, NATIONAL MANAGER (STORAGE AND NETWORKING SOLUTIONS MARKETING), DELL INDIA strong segments of the markets and SMBs see the potential in these IT segments and are influenced to invest in technology to respond to the demands.” SMEs always need an easy to deploy and comprehensive solution which lead them to go for a converged infrastructure. The concept of converged infrastructure can address their endto-end data centre needs with one device. The task of server appears to be very trifle with the emergence of new applications and workload as it has to enable technologies like virtualization and multi-core. Today, the reference of SMEs witness shift from UNIX to industry-standard servers. Maintaining physical servers involves lot of costs, so SMBs prefer to go for cloud services as it justifies its budget because in India, as IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) alters the IT adoption strategy which proved to be very much beneficial for SMBs as it offers infinite scalability, pay as you go price model which lowers the technology costs and upfront investments. As per Luthra, “The Indian SMB market for cloud is $17 billion and it is expected to reach $42 billion by the end of 2016 with an average growth of 35% year on year for the next three years.” When asked about the customized solutions for SMEs Luthra mentions, “We make it our business to understand the needs and requirements of our customers. Being an end-to-end solutions provider with developed capabilities in all aspects of the datacentre, we are consequently able to understand the end-to-end needs of our customers. By explaining to them from a bird eye viewpoint of
their datacentre, they are able to gauge what value the new product or solutions can add to their datacentre.” When it comes to installation and management part, Dell offers access to a wide range of server integration services for SMEs which encompasses data center solutions, remote deployment, standard server installation and optional rack integration. Luthra maintains, “Dell’s PowerEdge range of Servers is targeted specifically at the SMB. The PowerEdge T620 is custom-made for faulttolerance, redundancy and virtualization. Dell’s Power Edge VRTX integrates servers, storage and networking in a compact chassis optimized for office environments.” The credit of reaching out to large number of SMB customers also goes to channel partners because they play a major in influencing SMBs. Today channel partners are no more known as box pushers because they act as a source of information for SMB customers. “Many of our SMB customers exist in tier 2 and tier 3 markets and we are able to tap their potential with the help of our channel partners,” avers Luthra.
Finally… To increasingly reach out to SMB customers in tier 2 and 3 cities, Dell’s Emerging Market Partner Program is aimed at bringing Dell Solutions through partnerships with small and medium business customers in emerging markets.
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“BRINGING AFFORDABILITY PRINTING WITH TOPNOTCH QUALITY” In order to maximize on the opportunities, the printing vendors are aiming to deliver superior value by providing high quality and feature rich products to make a meaningful difference in their customers’ lives and set industry benchmark. BY: NIVEDAN PRAKASH
nivedan@accentinfomedia.com
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or the printing major, Brother International, the success in the Asia Pacific region is very much dependent upon the growth of the Indian market. The company sees India as a long term prospect and there is a huge focus on the domestic market from the parent company. It is evident with the fact that whenever there’s any global initiative being announced, it is launched in India simultaneously. The reason is that the company is extremely confident about its growth path here in India. Brother’s current market share in APAC region (excluding China and Japan) is not as high as developed economies. In the Mono Laser category, it had 11% share in 2012 and by the end of 2013-14 fiscal year (end of March 2014), the figure is expected to be around 15%. And by 2015, it is aiming to achieve 25% share in this region. “Our market shares worldwide clearly show that we are extremely strong as a printer manufacturer and vendor in the developed economies of the world. Though in India, we have been present for a very less time in comparison to where we have been in the global terms, the same lineage we bring to India as well,” says Alok Nigam, General Manager – Sales, Marketing, and Service, Brother International India. “We have been involved in almost all printing technologies ever since they have been established – be it thermal, monochrome black& white, laser, inkjet, and color laser technologies. As a company, Brother has been in the forefront of propagating all these technologies from day one. We are not
a company where R&D is done on a drawing board, make the designs, and then hand it over to an OEM. We not only design and invent our products but also manufacture them under our own umbrella. We have 17 manufacturing units worldwide. This gives us a huge control over quality,” explains Nigam.
The changed set-up In order to adjust to the current market scenario, in May last year, the company brought a fundamental change in its GTM strategy wherein it went direct to the market and started operating without national distributors. There was a need to be closer to the market and hence, the company concentrated its efforts towards making the brand as visible as possible to the customers. He adds, “We believe that the above-mentioned targeted figures can only be achieved if Indian market contributes in a major way. Brother India has adopted a very simplified GTM strategy, as we don’t want many layers between us and the final customer so that we can be nimble and offer quick solutions to our customers.” Under the new scheme of things, the company started dealing with distribution partners called BC1 partners, who take products directly from Brother India. These are basically the city distributors and currently, it has about 100 plus such partners across the country. And these are the partners who form Brother’s sales and distribution framework here in India. They then go on to supply the material to the resellers, who can buy from any of these BC1 partners.
“Within the reseller community, we have tried to develop loyalty programs in terms of providing extra support and incentives. We do so this by giving them an accreditation called Brother Select Partners (BSP). We register them, give the certificates, and run programs to give extra benefits. Our marketing support is also given to them in terms of POP material, in-shop branding, etc. Any reseller who wants to become a BSP can apply and basis on a mutual discussion, they can be a part of this elite league,” asserts Nigam. These BSPs are chosen from the whole reseller community who shows interest in promoting the brand of Brother in a sustained long basis and then the company gives them extra support. What differentiates these BSPs is that they get direct support in terms of promotion and extra benefits within the scheme also. It is the company’s way of incentivizing them for maintaining loyalty towards the brand. Currently, there are around 400 BSPs in the country. He further states, “The way we approach and support these partners (BC1 and resellers) is that we have got sales presence in 17 cities currently. We have also invested a lot in warehouse and logistics management. Until the time when we are dealing through the national distributors, we had only one warehouse in Mumbai. But after adopting BC1 partners’ model, we invested a lot in this area and currently, we have 11 warehouses across the country. This goes to show our commitment towards channel partners in India.” “Channel also looks efficient services support from a vendor. Currently, we are covering the
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entire country through our 146 service centers reaching about 285 locations. We have two-tier service mechanism. One is a national service provider like Accel that gives service in 40 locations and the rest 245 locations is being serviced by the authorized service providers (ASPs). And we have about 145 ASPs on board. Through these initiatives, we want to convey a message to the channel community that though we are Japanese company giving best-of-breed products in the country, Brother is there to provide them a backup in the need of any service requirements. We are a fully integrated sales, marketing, and services organization,” highlights Nigam. The company has set up its own call centers wherein customers can register their complaints through various modes like SMS, email, online and telephone. Call IDs are then assigned and distributed to the service centers. And monitoring of these complaints is done by Brother India itself.
Long-term strategy Even though Brother International was present in India through the importer distributors, it established its legal office only in 2007. After that, it has been growing at a CAGR of 30% year-on-year. Currently, the company’s focus in the country is towards the Mono Laser category. Looking at the growing opportunities in the India, the company wants to achieve over 15% market share in the Mono Laser category by 2015 from the current share of about 3-4%. In order to achieve these figures, Brother India is taking an aggressive approach which is a combination of 2-3 key strategies that includes
ALOK NIGAM, GENERAL MANAGER – SALES, MARKETING, AND SERVICE, BROTHER INTERNATIONAL INDIA
“BROTHER INDIA HAS ADOPTED A VERY SIMPLIFIED GTM STRATEGY, AS WE DON’T WANT MANY LAYERS BETWEEN US AND THE FINAL CUSTOMER...” increasing reach, visibility, and offering products are affordable price points. Firstly, it wants to continuously invest in India in terms of sales, logistics and service infrastructure. It is also increasing its reach in tier II and III cities as well. While the company is not ignoring metros, it is giving a lot of thrust towards the B and C class towns. Secondly, it is putting in a lot of efforts towards making the brand visible now. While Brother is a quite well-known name in the channel, end-customers are still not aware about the brand. The company has come up with lots of promotional campaigns in terms of both Abovethe-Line (ATL) as well as Below-the-Line (BTL). Nigam points out, “Lastly, we also recently launched global strategic models here in India as well. These have been specifically designed for the emerging markets. We have been giving a huge thrust though these models all across the country.
For example, we are giving a single-function printer at an affordable price of Rs.5000, 3-in-1 at around Rs.9,990 and 4-in-1 including fax at Rs.13,100.” The strategy here is very clear – while it increases the reach and promotes the visibility of the brand, the top-notch Japanese quality and reliable products will be given at a really affordable price point. But at the same time, Brother’s products will neither be cheapest nor costliest in the market. “Our history shows that we are very strong towards the enterprise and corporate segments like BFSI. But the piece that was missing from our pie was SOHOs, SMBs, and end users. And that’s the reason why, we have launched products in these price points. Our aim is to provide affordable printers to these segments. We are also enhancing our reach in these segments. Over the last couple of years, there has been a dramatic shift from enterprise/corporate sectors towards SOHO/SMB market through the channels. The sheer range of Brother’s products gives an opportunity to address all the segments,” he adds. Surprisingly, while most of the printing vendors are offering Managed Print Services (MPS) in the marketplace and betting big on this domain, as a strategy, Brother India is not focusing on MPS business as of now even though it is bringing out both the corporate and channel products. But, many of its partners are doing MPS for their customers while pushing Brother’s printers in their business environment. The company does not have any MPS program to support its partners. As part of increasing the footprint in the country, channel expansion is also on anvil for Brother India in the coming years. Depending upon the market size and importance, the company does appoint its BC1 partners and then run programs for their reseller base. Nigam says, “This is an ongoing evolution. At the same time, enablement of partners is also very essential. We continuously provide product trainings to both older partners as well as the new partners on board. We run partner programs giving required training on products and technologies. We also enable them by giving a lot of marketing programs support designed for their local needs like participating in exhibition, media, etc. For Brother, the motto is ‘customer-first’. Customer needs are central for any of our product development.” “Brother International India is committed to introduce products that cater to the needs of Indian consumers. Our strategic alliances, partner recognition and education programs help us achieve objectives of outreach towards masses and enterprises. As a step towards rewarding high performance, we would continue to support our partners with evolved technological products that offer an enriching experience,” concludes Nigam.
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SME TREND
RE-INVENTING THE GAME No doubt, Amazon Web Services has redefined the cloud. Today, it has the biggest share in the public cloud pie but others too are fast catching up. BY MANALI MISRA
manali@accentinfomedia.com
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mazon’s journey from a retailer to expanding beyond books, surviving the dot com bubble, finding new opportunities to becoming the leading provider of cloud services through Amazon Web services has been amazing. The sagaciousness it has shown with the changing business landscape and the business models built around it, is nothing less than exceptional. In seven years, Amazon Web Services has achieved where others have failed; redefining the way cloud computing is being consumed. AWS dominates cloud computing and as per Gartner’s new report AWS offers five times the utilized compute capacity of the other 14 cloud providers in the Gartner Magic Quadrant. Its latest success is the $600 cloud services contract bagged from Central Intelligence Agency US. As per IDC the public cloud services had a market size of $40 billion last year and as per Forrester Research estimates Amazon has a roughly 70% share of the slice of public-cloud market for renting computing capacity and data crunching. Terry Wise, Director Global Alliances & Channels, Amazon Web Services attributes this success to its ‘customer driven approach’. “First and foremost the focus is on the customer; we are majorly focused on listening to customers in terms of what they want, what their pain points are, building services and innovation to meet the specific needs of them.” In addition to this, he adds their focus on driving economies of scale by lowering the internal costs and returning the cost savings to their cus-
tomers in the form of lower prices. The enterprise and government are some of the fastest growing market segment for AWS in the last couple of years. It started with mid-market which Wise asserts is still a terrific business for them and still continues to invest heavily here but lately its the enterprise and public sector which are seeing an accelerated growth. India constitutes one of the most important markets for AWS and is investing significantly in the India market informs Wise. Last year, Amazon revamped its partner program or Amazon Partner Network to enable enterprises to generate additional revenue stream. And at the recently held AWS re:invent held in Las Vegas, it also announced new program solutions competencies and partner benefits. “Channel is important to AWS hence we invest to bring products and solutions to our partners... as well as consultant partners (or SIs) who are very critical when it comes to providing products and solutions. Channel partner is incredibly important for the success of our partners and in this business we invest very heavily,” adds Wise. He informs they have two primary types of partners—technology partners and independent software vendors—who bring their product to AWS like Ramco which brings software as a service hosted model and consultant partners (who tend to be SIs and some are also its channel partners) who provide value added solutions on top of AWS in the form of professional services to support things like managed services. While the channel strategy for India remains
the same as globally, AWS recruits and enables partners who provide value on top of that device anything from managed services to backup archives to hosted share point to enterprise application web application etc. “... we invest in enabling them in their technical resources, getting them up and running with their solutions and if they qualify they can join our channel program which provides a variety of different incentives for them to resell our services into their customer base,” says Wise. Without quantifying the numbers Wise says they have hundreds of partners in India and has been working with India partners for the last six years which he says has grown very quickly. “We have some of the biggest partners in the market and smaller ones too. We are very excited about not only the growth of the partner ecosystem in India but also the growth of the customer base that we are serving together.” Talking about the opportunities for the partners Wise says as more value partners get added on AWS the more revenue opportunity there is. “Some only provide managed services that is managing the AWS services account management; monitoring is definitely a revenue opportunity here. If you go little bit higher in the stack in the application management that’s more value added.” AWS has put in place people specifically focused on enabling and managing the partners; it has also invested significant amount to make sure that they have the skills to succeed to go to market programs to build pipeline and lead generation,
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TERRY WISE DIRECTOR GLOBAL ALLIANCES & CHANNELS, AMAZON WEB SERVICES
“WE ARE MAJORLY FOCUSED ON LISTENING TO CUSTOMERS IN TERMS OF WHAT THEY WANT.”
help the partner close businesses, technical support etc. “It’s not the market share we are focussed on but on the customers,” Wise adds. AWS has also been working with many startups. The AWS Activate enables startups to easily and quickly use AWS platform to grow their businesses. Besides its AWS Global Startup challenge has been running for the last six years. “We have been doing some unique things for a long period of time to support the start-up market place. AWS activate is another kind of next evolution of that effort as well,” says Wise. He adds that Start-up is a market where they
have been investing quite heavily in which has also shown good results. “It’s a significant business for us and we don’t bring our revenue numbers, but we have a very healthy start-up business globally. We invest quite heavily to help start-ups be successful and our platform is a big part of that success; they don’t have to invest capital in infrastructure instead can use it somewhere else,” Wise adds. It’s said that when it comes to SLAs AWS lags, however Wise counters, “Security and operational excellence are the two things we invest the most in before we invest in anything else and our operational track record is quite strong over the years.
When we talk to large customers they look at our operational track record which is better than what they have been able to produce on their own. So we are quite confident in our services and I think the track record speaks for itself.” “We focus on providing innovative services what our customers want. So we always listen to our customer, what features and services they want; we continue to innovate and accelerate our pieces and innovation at our service level,” Wise adds. He further emphasizes that they will continue to expand its geographic footprint; continue to focus on bringing cost out of its environment so as to bring down the cost and continue to lower prices which Wise adds they have done 37 times. He emphatically says that as they reach economies of scale and lower their internal cost are passed on to their customers and partners in the form of lower prices and are committed to continue to do that. Talking further on their GTM Wise replies, “We are investing heavily in our field organisation to help more customers and partners take advantage of these services, so more sales people, more solutions architect, more premium support representatives to make sure that the customers get the support they need.”
Finally… With the market being dominated by the likes of Microsoft and Google cloud services are turning into latest war zones which each side trying to outdo the other. While AWS still dominates but as per the market Microsoft and Google are also catching up. With the launch of Microsoft’s Windows Azure and Google’s Compute engine the market is all set to see some tough fights.
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COVER STORY
PRINTER MARKET
A4 MARCHES AHEAD The India printer market provides opportunities for the print vendors. Players are entering A3 and A4 market with aggressive plans especially tapping the SMB segment BY KARMA NEGI
karma@smechannels.com
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ccording to Gartner the Page A4 MFP segment continued to grow in the third quarter of 2013 and increased 20 percent compared to the third quarter of 2012. The Page A3 MFP segment showed a small increase of 2 percent compared to the third quarter of 2012. This shows that A4 MFP printer is growing at a rapid pace; increasing at a rate higher than that of A3 office printers. Popularity of A4 MFPs in a managed print environment is mainly due to higher scope of usage and reducing the total cost of ownership. The A4 paper size is the most common paper size used; A3 is just a convenience for larger printouts say the industry. “The market is currently brimming with a massive progression owing due to advanced performance of the A4 MFPs. Features of the A4 MFP
like speed range of 31 to 69 PPM, convenient copy and print pages etc. are also one of the major growth drivers,” says Ajay Madan, Product Head (Digital Imaging System), Panasonic. Alok Nigam, GM (Sales, Marketing & Service), Brother International India Pvt. Ltd., iterates, “A3 printers have their own niche, mainly in the architects segment, whereas the scope of A4 MFP usage is much wider. Hence the growth is seemingly large in A4 MFP segment.” Taking an example of a spreadsheet Ram Prasad, DGM (Consumer Products Group), Epson India, says, “If you want a certain number of columns you can’t print it in an A4 you will require an A3; project reports etc. can’t be shown on A4 it requires A3. Hence specialized application environment definitely requires an A3 printer. In general application A4 will be sufficient.”
Earlier some of the advanced features were available only in the A3 printers but in recent years they are available on A4 printers too. Madan says A4 printers have advanced features than A3 printers. With a great speed of 31 to 69 PPM, USB, Ethernet connectivity and a lightweight body, the A4 MFPs serve the customer for a long time. On the other hand, cost of ownership of A3 printers is comparatively much higher than A4 size printers whereas A3 size printing share in merely 20% which is an important evaluating factor while making a purchase decision. K Swethanarayan, MD, Kyocera Document Solutions, says, “Currently the engines used in both the machines are different. A4 machines are cheaper to buy but have higher running costs. A3 machines are more expensive but have extremely low running costs.”
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COVER STORY
Currently, as per the IDC reports (says Kyocera), the ratio of A4:A3 is 10: 1, respectively.
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PRINTER MARKET
“WHILE A4 PRINTERS ARE FINDING MAJOR TRACTION ACROSS HOMES, SOHOS, SMBS AND ENTERPRISES, ‘A3’ PRINTERS FIND PRIME DEPLOYMENT WITH ARCHITECTURE, ENGINEERING, CONSTRUCTION, RETAIL AND OTHER SPECIALIZED VERTICAL BUSINESSES.” NITIN HIRANANDANI, DIRECTOR (PRINTING SYSTEMS), PPS, HP INDIA
The Market Currently, as per the IDC reports (says Kyocera), the ratio of A4:A3 is 10: 1, respectively. Approx 1 lakh A3 machines are sold in India every year as compared to 10 lakh A4 (including low cost inkjets). “The A4 market is almost 10 times the size of the A3 market,” says K Swethanarayan. The percentage of A3 printer required in an office environment is roughly less than 10%, so the 90% of the printing is going to be on A4 format. So if an A4 product can address certain concerns like ink cost, network connectivity, want to connect with wifi on the personal devices, cloud printing and if traditional A3 maybe lacking all those features, then the shift towards the A4 can happen informs Ram Prasad. In the growing multi-function printer market in India, the A4 MFPs dominate compared to the A3 owing to its superb functionality says Madan. Companies have been focusing more on A4 MFPs driven by the need of people moving towards scanning and printing original documents, which can be scaled to fit the paper size available. “This is resulting in the decreasing need for A3 output.
Also, in general, A3 centric copiers occupy more office space where as an A4 device needs lesser space.” He further informs that A3 size laser MFP share is 18% approx. and rest 82% is dominated by A4 size printers. K Swethanarayan adds that the trend is moving towards A4 printers that can print A3 on demand as the typical office environment is 90% A4 with 10% A3 prints. However, in India the change is slow as the basic B to C conversions show that the transformation of the market takes several years to take shape. “If you look even two years back some of the high-end features in terms of speed, connectivity etc. were on some of the high-end A3 machines but now more and more vendors are offering these kinds of features in A4 MFPs,” remarks Ram Prasad. When it comes to opting between the two the industry opines that it depends solely on the work load and output requirements. Both categories of A3 and A4 enjoy their own target customers. Depending on the usage requirements the main
“A4 MACHINES ARE CHEAPER TO BUY BUT HAVE HIGHER RUNNING COSTS. A3 MACHINES ARE MORE EXPENSIVE BUT HAVE EXTREMELY LOW RUNNING COSTS.” K SWETHANARAYAN , MD , KYOCERA DOCUMENT SOLUTIONS
“IF YOU LOOK EVEN TWO YEARS BACK SOME OF THE HIGHEND FEATURES IN TERMS OF SPEED, CONNECTIVITY ETC. WERE ON SOME OF THE HIGH-END A3 MACHINES BUT NOW MORE AND MORE VENDORS ARE OFFERING THESE KINDS OF FEATURES IN A4 MFPS.” RAM PRASAD, DGM (CONSUMER PRODUCTS GROUP), EPSON INDIA
customers of A3 printers are architects, consultants etc., while A4 printers are normally bought by any government segments, SOHO, SMB or even Home. K Swethanarayan says that heavy users should look at the A3 option as the running costs become more important than the acquisition cost. Madan adds that A4 printers are suitable for those who have the requirements of printing paper every day, and would benefit from reduced printing costs. On the other hand, A3 printers are more suitable for those organisations that regularly require printing in A3 sizes and have abundant space to fit in the huge A3 printers. Nitin Hiranandani, Director, Printing Systems, PPS, HP India, “While A4 printers are finding
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COVER STORY
“THE SMALL AND MEDIUM BUSINESS ENTERPRISES HOLD A MAJOR SHARE OF BUSINESS IN TERMS OF A3 AND A4 PRINTERS. THE HOME SEGMENT OFFICES ALSO ACCOUNT FOR A CONSIDERABLE CUT OF THE PRINTER MARKET.” “A3 PRINTERS HAVE THEIR OWN NICHE, MAINLY IN THE ARCHITECTS SEGMENT, WHEREAS THE SCOPE OF A4 MFP USAGE IS MUCH WIDER. HENCE THE GROWTH IS SEEMINGLY LARGE IN A4 MFP SEGMENT.” ALOK NIGAM, GM (SALES, MARKETING & SERVICE), BROTHER INTERNATIONAL INDIA PVT LTD
major traction across homes, SOHOs, SMBs and enterprises, ‘A3’ printers find prime deployment with architecture, engineering, construction, retail and other specialized vertical businesses.” Cost efficiency is a factor which is driving the growth of A4 printers. Panasonic informs A3 size printers are almost two to four times more expensive in cost, depending on the functionality. While Kyocera advises that high volume users should go for A3 machines with low running costs and low volume users can benefit from low acquisition costs. Nigam announces, “A full-function A3 MFP (print, scan, copy), is normally about 50-60% costlier than a comparable A4 MFP.”
The Outlook Printer vendors are highly bullish about strengthening its position in the SMB market. Last year, Xerox had unveiled five eco friendly MFPS in A3 and A4 categories for SMBs with the plan to tap this segment in 200 cities in the country. Samsung too recently forayed into the A3 multifunction printer market to meet the needs of both SME and enterprise in India. Konica Minolta too is target-
AJAY MADAN, PRODUCT HEAD (DIGITAL IMAGING SYSTEM), PANASONIC
ing the SMB space with its foray into the laser printer space and plans to sell 30,000 units of A4 printers. “SMB’s with low print volumes typically buy A4 machines due to their low acquisition costs,” adds K Swethanarayan. Nigam says they are fully aware of the growing potential of SMBs, hence focus on satisfying their need for affordable but reliable machines. “Our latest range of entry level laser printers and MFCs deliver exactly that value.” Madan adds, “The small and medium business enterprises hold a major share of business in terms of A3 and A4 printers. The home segment offices also account for a considerable cut of the printer market.” Ram Prasad adds, “At the end of the day the bottom line is very simple; whichever is a cost effective solution is what the customer will opt for. Running cost will be a recurring expenditure that a company will incur and will be the key deciding factor. Hence TCO will be the critical factor. Nigam says that currently, many channel partners are focussed more on A4 than on A3 simply because A3 sells in specific segments only, which makes its business potential quite less compared to A4 Printers. Owner of DIGIPRO-Xerox Equipment, Sangeeta Rai has opted for A3 printers as she says these products are used for higher volumeshence more challenging to sell. She further adds that A3 MFD market has been growing consistently. “We have seen growth in A3 colour MFD segment over last two years. A4 that sells in Home and SME is usually a one-time box sale, whereas on the other hand A3 is a solution selling, it is a commitment of service for next five years.” K Swethanarayan however opines that both segments have their inherent strengths. It depends
on whether the end customer is looking for low running costs or low acquisition costs. “Both segments have opportunities, but channel partners need to analyse their customers’ profiles and understand which segment they need to focus on,” Nigam informs. Coming to margins for channel partners in A3 or A4 printers depends from case to case. Ram Prasad rationalizes that if it’s sales to SMBs then definitely margins will be higher in A3, but if it’s a tender or a big order the number of unit is going to be more in A4 (though per unit will be less) but the overall value is will be higher.
Looking Ahead Panasonic is strategically in A4 size printer business only due to the growth factor in this segment. It adds that the A3 market is going to diminish in India too as it’s happening in the global market due to need and cost of ownership factor besides the high cost factor of space. Kyocera forayed into the A4 market only a few years back and hence A3 is a major contributor to its top line. “However, with the market trends and pull for our A4 products, we expect A4 to grow at a much faster rate and increase the contribution to become the major revenue stream in the coming years,” K Swethanarayan says. “The A3 printing market is also evolving to face the technological advances and provide enhanced solutions to users.” At present, the A3 contribution is much smaller than A4 for Brother but says it is again due to the size of their respective market segments. “The A3 market is here to stay because its users like architects would continue to have printing and scanning requirements in the larger paper size,” Nigam adds. Talking about the A4 printers, the only hin-
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PRINTER MARKET
“WE HAVE SEEN GROWTH IN A3 COLOUR MFD SEGMENT OVER LAST TWO YEARS. A4 THAT SELLS IN HOME AND SME IS USUALLY A ONE-TIME BOX SALE, WHEREAS ON THE OTHER HAND A3 IS A SOLUTION SELLING, IT IS A COMMITMENT OF SERVICE FOR NEXT FIVE YEARS.” SANGEETA RAI, OWNER, DIGIPRO -XEROX EQUIPMENT
drance faced by Panasonic is the unaffordable prices of their printer cartridges which are likely to come down by 2014. “We will be targeting the enterprise and government segments with an
extended range of A4 printers,” informs Madan. For Kyocera both segments will coexist depending on the usage patterns. Currently in India the movement from mono to color is still
gaining force and A3 color will play a major role here. However, K Swethanarayan expects the technology of A3 machines to also be transferred to A4 and soon there will be products in the market that are primarily A4 but can also print A3 on demand. Ram Prasad says they have seen tremendous growth across its product category in the last one year to more than 50% growth; in fact, he says, growth in A3 will be higher for them. “You can’t replace an A3 printer,” he concludes.
Finally The India printer market is seeing a lot of action with the entry of new players and with the existing ones getting aggressive with its go-to-market strategy. While the need for A3 format has shown a decline in recent years but in certain specialised applications there is still a demand for it. Printer vendors are launching products in both the segments (A3/A4) with the main focus on targeting the SMBs. On the other hand the popularity of A4 especially MFP is witnessing popularity due to cost efficiencies—in reducing the TCO and space required for it.
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PC MARKET
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TECH ROADMAP
INTEL OUTLINES 2014 PLANS FOR ENTERPRISE BUSINESS
In the year 2014, Intel predicts that within the next three to five years, India will see a huge increase in device ownership with one device for every student increasingly being the norm. BY NIVEDAN PRAKASH nivedan@accentinfomedia.com
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t its year end briefing at Mumbai, Intel shared its plans for 2014 and reflected upon the year 2013. As per the roadmap outlined for the business in 2014, the company expects areas like Internet of Things (IoT), High Performance Computing (HPC), and Big Data to be major growth drivers for the business with a continued focus on expanding the footprint on the National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM). Reflecting upon the year gone by, Srinivas Tadigadapa, Director of Enterprise Sales, Intel South Asia, said, “The year 2013 saw Intel take major strides in areas like IoT and HPC with their applications growing across sectors. With specific reference to HPC, India took center stage with the Top500 Supercomputers list recognizing 12 Supercomputers from India and elevating its position to become the 7th country among 27 countries to house the top supercomputers globally. Also, the launch of Intel’s Hadoop version II marked the company’s foray into strengthening its software ecosystem to complement its Hardware capabilities.”
SRINIVAS TADIGADAPA DIRECTOR OF ENTERPRISE SALES, INTEL SOUTH ASIA
“AS THE LEADING HPC SOLUTIONS PROVIDER IN THE MARKET, THE COMPANY WILL CONTINUE ENGAGING WITH RESEARCHERS TO INCREASE THE EFFICIENCY, SCALABILITY OF THEIR CODE.” On the National Digital Literacy Mission, Tadigadapa added, “Since its inception, NDLM has touched 1700 households and has seen major success in three states from the 10 states that
NDLM is expected to roll out in. To add to this, Intel has trained over two million people in 2013 using its Intel Learn Easy Steps digital literacy curriculum and launched an Android based app of the same. Intel also launched a large nation-wide campaign to drive relevance and demand of personal computing devices covering ten states and reaching over 20 million households. Intel’s flagship program ‘My Discoveries’ reached out to over five million youth across the country in 2013.” In the year 2014, Intel predicts that within the next three to five years, India will see a huge increase in device ownership with one device for every student increasingly being the norm. Besides, the Intel Quark technology will help extend the company’s reach to rapidly growing areas, from the Internet of Things to wearable computing in the future. With Intel Quark technologies, Intel is extending the flexibility and scalability of the x86 ecosystems which encompasses more than 40 years of compute innovation and standards into new markets. With ongoing technology innovations in the area of HPC, Intel expects India to have more supercomputers listed in Top500 in the year 2014. As the leading HPC solutions provider in the market, the company will continue engaging with researchers to increase the efficiency, scalability of their code. The company also believes that Big Data will help make companies smarter, more progressive and give them a business advantage. Additionally, in the year 2014, consumers can choose from a range of devices including traditional laptops, 2-in-1s, tablets and portable all-inones (AIOs) with Intel Inside, across varying price points to fit every budget. “We will continue to move full steam ahead into the tablet and 2-in-1 space. Touch it, type on it, or talk to it – these devices are multitasking powerhouses that will offer us new interaction possibilities,” pointed out Sachin Kelkar, Head – APAC Scale Software Program, Intel Software & Services Group.
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SME SOLUTION
TO BECOME $25 MILLION COMPANY IN TWO YEARS
Progressive Infotech believes that reselling adds no value to the business, and hence made the decison to venture into delivering IT transformative services BY APARAJITA CHOUDHURY aparajita@smechannels.com
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he IT industry has undergone a revolution from being product centric to solution centric; the way in which IT is being consumed has witnessed a vibrant move. In brief, this industry has undergone a comprehensive transformation. To move with the changing times Noida-based Progressive Infotech transformed itself from a valued added reseller to IT transformation services company as it believes that reselling no more adds any value and even the customers and vendors do not perceive any value in this. In the earlier part of last decade, Progressive used to help customers build infrastructure but with the economic slowdown in 2008-09, the company revamped its business to stay relevant and emphasized on the IT transformation side. Today, Progressive is strengthening its presence
PRATEEK GARG, MD, PROGRESSIVE INFOTECH
“THIS YEAR RETAIL IS ONE OF THE FOCUS AREAS FOR US. WE WILL CONTINUE GO DEEPER WITH THE MANUFACTURING AND RETAIL.” in the market with three levels of transformation services viz Business Transformation Services, Operations Transformation Services and Cloud Transformation Services.
Business Transformation services are specifically designed to understand the pain points of mid-size corporations in order to help them adopt right technologies as well as IT road maps that align with the today’s business needs as well as scalable into the future at the right investments. Operational Transformative services provide specialist service that use iterative and proactive technique enabling an enterprise rapidly design and deploy with measureable outcomes to covering the people, process, toll, partnership and dimensions. Cloud Transformative services are provided via Cloudnonstop.com which is designed to be a cloud consulting practice based on indepth research on the innovation that is taking place every single day in order to help businesses chose and integrate the right cloud services aligned to where they are today and where they ought to be tomorrow, enabling “Lean IT” while keeping it elastic and sustainable. Prateek Garg, MD, Progressive Infotech, says, “Most companies have invested in IT but it is not running in an efficient manner due to the dearth of processes, governance and clear outcomes, so we are trying to put these structures in organizations. With cloud transformative services, we are looking at their current landscape and see that what out of that can run for the cloud. But there are very few customers whose entire applications stack were moved to cloud because there is no data center and everything is running on cloud. In the application space, the large part of work happens on analytics, application modernization, collaboration, business process automation, so these are things that we are doing which are helping customers automate their businesses processes.”
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In terms of global presence, Progressive Infotech has one subsidiary in Middle East which was established four years ago with an investment of quarter million dollars. Garg says Middle-East offers them great opportunity because it is better, more remunerative, more profitable and is tax free. Whereas he considers India market as very complex in terms of doing business as each region has its own different culture and different ways of doing business. Besides the tax regime, revenue realization, lack of business friendly environment and competitive environment also add woes to India market. Progressive Infotech caters to mid to large corporations by focusing more on deployment and management of IT which is where the services play. In the rapidly changing economic and business environments, the mid-size businesses can benefit hugely by leveraging IT to create a sustainable advantage in their markets. However, more often they are overwhelmed with the complexities involved as well the overall depth and breadth of IT landscape. According to the company, outsourcing is the only viable solution to accomplish the desired business agility, IT availability, improved quality of service, reduced business risk, improved customer and supplier satisfaction at a predictable
and outcome based cost model. Progressive has specially designed modular outsourcing services to suit the needs of various mid-sized businesses across different industries whichever stage of IT maturity they are. When asked about the company’s focused vertical, Garg avers, “We are pretty much vertical agnostic because most of the work that we do is quite horizontal in nature but in terms of our revenue, manufacturing forms the large part of our business and services of all kinds is the next large vertical. Even government is large vertical for us so we are doing a large project with All India Radio which is a radio station modernization project. We are doing 48 modernizations for them and it is a large project. This year retail is one of the focus areas for us. We will continue go deeper with the manufacturing and retail.” Further in order to simplify the business continuity and strengthen the strategy of data recovery, Progressive Infotech has come up with a new offering called “My Data Sync” which is basically a unified backup and data recovery service and will be offered on premise or hybrid model as a service and prevent customers from acquiring licenses. MyDataSync is the combination of de-duplication of data, continuous deltas, compression and
cloud changes the economics of protecting data in businesses favor. Garg maintains, “We have tied up with Amazon and we are a partner for Amazon and Microsoft. We are a solution partner for both and we go very deep with them, we use either Amazon or Microsoft to back up customers’ data if they want it on public cloud and if they do not want it on public cloud then we back it up in their data center. It helps us doing across the globe in fact we deliver customers in Australia, so the good news is that as long as we have the skills, you can do cloud solutions anywhere in the world.”
Finally… Progressive Infotech pursues organic growth in India and Middle East and intends for further acquisition in US. Three years ago, the company used to sell hardware (which used to contribute 60% of the company’s top line) but has now shut down the business. So in the next two years, Progressive Infotech expects to become a 25 million dollar plus company and with the intention to spread awareness about its transformative services, the company is doing a 360 degree plan of marketing. In 2014, company will reach out to more customers.
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CORPORATE STORY
“SIMPLIFYING CHANNEL ENGAGEMENTS” In order to forge a strong and long-lasting relationship with their channel community, the technology vendors have to constantly evaluate their partner programs. These programs should not only offer tailored resources but also boost the overall profitability for the partners BY: NIVEDAN PRAKASH nivedan@accentinfomedia.com
T
owards the end of last year, HP had announced enhancements to its global PartnerOne program, making it easier and more predictable for the channel partners to do business with the company in the long run. HP PartnerOne is a simplified integrated program designed especially for its partners that offer infrastructure they need to grow sales and increase profitability. These improvements into the program clearly suggest that doing business with HP is also now simpler and more profitable for partners. As part of the enhancements, HP offers an intuitive membership structure, wherein new Platinum, Gold, Silver and Business Partner membership levels will be consistent across all
PRADEEP KHEMANI, DIRECTOR – CHANNEL & SMB SALES, HP INDIA
“WE HAVE TAKEN A LOT OF FEEDBACK... BEEN WORKING ON IMPROVING ON ALL AREAS CALLED OUT BY THEM AS CONCERNS AND ONE OF THEM WERE THE CHANNEL PROGRAMS.”
business units to make it easier for HP partners to differentiate their business in the market. The company also provides a predictable compensation by removing all gates and caps so that qualifying partners can earn rebates from their first sale and have unlimited earning potential. HP has also created a consistent compensation model across all business units. Besides, the company is providing new PartnerOne specializations in key growth areas. There are specializations around servers, storage, networking and cloud builder. And specialization gets compensated as a partner goes up the hierarchy and revenue. Talking about this initiative, Pradeep Khemani, Director – Channel & SMB Sales, HP India, says, “With more than 70% of our business conducted through channel partners, strong alignment and on-going dialogue with our channel partners is crucial to our business. HP has more than 30 years of experience in developing profitable and growing channel partner relationships. This translates into a deeper understanding of channel requirements and the development of mutual best practices to drive new opportunities for both parties.” “Core compensation on overall business, Partner Led Business (PLB) rebate, specialization rebate for certifications by each business unit, market development funds for Platinum and Gold partners to leverage HP certified content and marketing material to design demand generation activities and campaigns and finally Strategic Product Bonus for specific business units’ product lines will attract a special rebate for investing in the sales effort of those specific product lines,” adds Khemani. He further states that all of these changes have
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CORPORATE STORY
ensured a much simpler rebate structure that ensures partners see a lot more profitability as they invest in the above areas. In the communication sessions with the partners, these changes have been received very positively and most partners are enthused to drive incremental results quarter on quarter and grow over the previous year. “Partners leverage on our programs as an important avenue to boost their overall profitability. With the majority of our business in India being driven through channel partners, it is imperative we focus on ensuring profitable growth for our partners if we have to continue seeing them invest in our business. We have taken a lot of feedback from our partners across the globe and have been working on improving on all areas called out by them as concerns and one of them were the channel programs,” points out Khemani.
Significant changes HP is fully committed to helping the channels grow their businesses. The company has approximately 100 certified partners in India and they sell products/solutions across business units; and these partners are certified based on the ability to sell products and solutions. The membership is both revenue and competency driven, wherein when a partner signs a contract with HP Enterprise Group, he becomes a Business Partner. As partners invest in sales and technical skills/certifications, and exceed business unit specific revenue thresholds, then they move up to the Silver, Gold and Platinum specialist tiers. Partners will get their overall HP membership designation (Platinum, Gold, Silver, or Business Partner) based on their highest-level achievement with any business group (Printing & Personal Systems, Enterprise Group and Software). HP has also streamlined certification requirements, as it believes that partners with higher numbers of HP ExpertOne certified sales and presales professionals close more deals. In order to simplify the certification process, it has reduced the number of different technical ExpertOne certifications in half. Starting this year, HP will have 3 simplified levels of an individual in partner organization - ATP (Advanced Technical Professional), ASE (Advanced Solutions Expert) and Master ASE (Master Advanced Solutions Expert). These are the 3 simplified levels of an individual in partner organization across sales, presales and integration. “At an organization level, there is Silver certification by each of the 3 BU’s and second level is Gold certification. An organization with Gold level in all 3 BU’s and meeting revenue cut off automatically becomes a Platinum partner for HP EG. The HP ExpertOne team is also rolling out new, more
efficient training and exams to reduce costs and time out-of-office. In summary, there is indeed a lot of simplification here and, as partners earn these specializations, they can more than recover their investments,” explains Khemani. And not only this, the company has also enhanced its partner portal, wherein HP and its partners will get to see updated HP branding and an improved partner portal navigation experience that will require fewer clicks to access important information and tools. He iterates, “The upgrades are also an important foundational initiative to provide the framework for the new HP Unison partner engagement platform that will be rolled out globally in the months ahead. With Unison, HP partners will have a single, pan-HP portal to access enhanced, highlyintegrated and streamlined applications that make it easier than ever before to collaborate, engage and manage their HP sales, marketing, planning, certifications and benefits.”
In alignment with HP’s goals These enhancements to the PartnerOne program are clearly aligned to HP’s motto of being ‘simple, profitable, and predictable’. The new program is so simple that the company has been able to capture it into a single pocket size card and share with its key partners. With no caps, gates and limiting conditions, it is turning out to be a very simple program for partners. It is aligned to profitability because partners can payout from $ 1 sales. There is no upper limit to payout and more payout for more revenue contribution and higher certified partners only enables their profitability, wherein investment is taken care of and there are no caps to what a partner can earn. Lastly, the structure of the program allows partners to run a very simple simulation exercise and calculate how much rebate that they can make on HP EG business. This makes it all the more predictable for partners to plan their business and investment with HP. Khemani asserts, “With this improved program, HP is setting a benchmark in ensuring simplicity, predictability and profitability. Initial partner feedback has been very encouraging and partners across India have welcomed this program and hailed it as a step in the right direction to commit increased investments from them to drive incremental growth.” Meanwhile, this move will help HP’s partners gain competitive advantage as well as increase profitability. The new program structure allows partners to plan their investments on the HP business in terms of sales capabilities as well a certification capabilities and be assured of payout from $1 and a predictable payout at the end of quarter.
For the SMB market On the same lines as PartnerOne program, HP did enhancements to its Just Right IT program to help its partners accelerate time-to-revenue by simplifying design and delivery of HP networking, server and storage solutions for small and midsized businesses (SMBs). The HP Just Right IT program enables resellers to deliver the right IT solution at the right time. Explaining further, Khemani says, “A large majority of SMB customers feel that technology should be simplified for them to make fast and accurate decisions and chose the right combination of products and technologies that work seamlessly. This is exactly what Just Right IT endeavors to achieve. We have segmented our SMB customers into 5 predefined levels - namely 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 seat IT set-ups and also segmented their IT evolution stages into 4 stages i.e. starting out, building momentum, gaining efficiency, and expanding business.” “Thus, there are 5 sizes for each of the 4 stages, which are 20 combinations and for each combination we are proposing a ‘Just Right IT solution’ incorporating server, storage, networking and technology services that is best suited based on HP’s long standing experience of supporting SMB’s across the country. The Just Right IT portal enables both our partners and their customers to navigate across these pre-defined combinations and pick the best fit for their IT needs,” he adds. The company further believes that with its increased focus towards SMB, this program will really help its customers as well as partners to simplify and shorten the decision making cycle while still making the best decision. Just Right IT as a campaign and as a tool will provide information and enablement to channel partners across the country on the solutions to be pitched to SMB and the aggressive bundle pricing will make it an easy process to close the sales and buy the equipment from HP and get into implementation stage faster than with competing brands. Simultaneously, SMB customers will find great value in going for a quicker decision making process and an assurance from HP on the relevance and best fit of the proposed IT solution. “Most SMB customers are much more comfortable looking at single vendor end-to-end solutions and HP is probably the only vendor that presents to the customers the broadest portfolio of cutting edge, market leading technologies across servers, storage, networking and attached services backed by partners who can add additional value around HP Printing and Personal Computing products topped up with additional solutions and services that they can provide,” concludes Khemani.
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SME TREND
OPTIMIZING BANDWIDTH USAGE Nextra Teleservices, an internet service provider, has come up with Nextra Smart ILL (Internet Leased Line) to enable corporate customers to optimize and manage bandwidth usage in the ILL by blocking unproductive traffic and prioritizing mission critical applications. KAPIL DEV KUMAR PRESIDENT, NEXTRA TELESERVICES
BY APARAJITA CHOUDHURY aparajita@smechannels.com
W
ith the vision to improve the quality of internet services through innovation, Nextra Teleservices, an internet service provider based out of Gurgaon, pioneers to satisfy bandwidth needs of the customer and ensures customer satisfaction. The company caters to two customer segments, home customers and small and medium business (SME) or enterprise customers. Nextra Teleservices operates in Delhi and NCR territory. Kapil Dev Kumar, President, Nextra Teleservices, says, “We offer ultra-high speed broadband services, and a wide portfolio of enriching VAS and applications. Under the home/residential segment, broadband services are offered over FTTx network at speeds starting 10 Mbps and soaring all the way to 100 Mbps. Customers are also provided with the choice to customize or create their own plans through our innovative Make Your Own Plan (MYOP) matrix.” Kumar adds, “Nextra Teleservices has also selectively deployed WiFi networks in common areas of residential complexes, market places and campuses to supplement the core fibre broadband services.” The company’s enterprise offerings called Internet Leased Lines are primarily delivered over redundant Fiber Network, but also made available through wireless modes depending on customer’s choice or technical feasibility. Strengthening commitment towards its customers, Nextra Teleservices offers connectivity, networking and application services for enterprise customers which include campus WiFi with
managed authentication and billing, security and surveillance solutions, hosted content delivery network or video apps, hosted applications like Hosted PBX, hosted contact centre, virtual or cloud computing, remote Storage, conferencing, computing capacity on demand, web hosting, content hosting and co-location, OTT box application in select segments – hotels, banks, education, healthcare, advertising & digital signage solutions through remote management. In order to cater to the business segment, the company has come up with Nextra Smart ILL (Internet Leased Line), which enables corporate customers to optimize and manage bandwidth usage in the Internet Leased Line (ILL) by blocking unproductive traffic and prioritizing mission critical applications. It also gives a graphical report of the network usage by protocol, application, URL etc. and comes with the tools to manage, prioritize & optimize the bandwidth usage. Enterprise ILL business contributes to about 20% of the revenues. Kumar maintains, “At Nextra, we do demonstrate the customers’ current bandwidth consumption pattern on their existing ISP set up and advise them on the optimum bandwidth utilization through our team of bandwidth consultants. Nextra’s robust and proven ‘Smart ILL’ offering enables our customers to optimize and manage bandwidth by blocking unproductive traffic and prioritizing mission critical applications.” As per Kumar, customers have seen their ‘dumb’ ILLs evolve into ‘Smart’ ILLs and have got control over their traffic pattern. Nextra Smart ILL
“CUSTOMERS ARE ALSO PROVIDED WITH THE CHOICE TO CUSTOMIZE OR CREATE THEIR OWN PLANS THROUGH OUR INNOVATIVE MAKE YOUR OWN PLAN (MYOP) MATRIX.” promises “value for money” that optimizes their operations, which in turn gives more productivity. Nextra, he emphasizes, has gone beyond the ordinary and taken the innovative approach through enabling their customers to optimize bandwidth usage, instead of the conventional approach of goading customers to increase pipe size to satisfy the needs of power, and at times excessive unfair users. Nextra Teleservices’ trained bandwidth consultants team directly sells the “Smart ILL” innovative capabilities.
Finally… The Nextra Teleservcies’ revenue has grown by 20% which it attributes to the inflow of customers due to uniqueness of the product and the product profitability has also increased by about 30%-35%. In 2014, the company will focus on accelerating its growth and at the same time add more innovations based on customer requirement.
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CORPORATE STORY
EX-IBMERS CELEBRATE 35 YEARS OF TOGETHERNESS After their first get together in 2003 around 60 of ex-IBMers along with their families met once again for a walk down the memory lane BY: NIVEDAN PRAKASH nivedan@accentinfomedia.com
T
hey first got together in 2003 after a gap of 25 long years and the occasion was the celebration of the IBM legacy that they have passionately shared with each other, even after the organization closed down its operations in India way back in 1978. This initiative was the brainchild of K R Naik (Executive Chairman of Smartlink Network Systems), L H Bhatia (MD of Dubai-based Solitaire OAM Services), and K R Trilokekar. Thanks to these three gentlemen, on 22nd December last year, around 60 of ex-IBMers along with their families again met to celebrate 35 years of togetherness. Held at Raheja Exotica, Madh Island, Mumbai, this get-together was quite unusual in the sense that there was no formal agenda but the focus was just on remi-
niscing the nostalgic days, catching up with ‘old pals’, and renewing their bonds. It was quite a moment to cherish for everyone present there, as they were meeting like ‘long lost friends’ while sharing an unbelievable affection and warmth. “It is the most unique and one-of-its kind meeting that doesn’t take place anywhere in the world. Thanks to the IBM legacy that we all share with each other. It’s very astonishing to see all the ex-IBMers still coming together and living those ‘good old moments’. Since those IBM days, we have always believed in giving the personal touch to our relationship and the reason that we all are still together is because of the strong culture that has been imbibed into all of us,” adds Bhatia. Naik further points out, “We initially thought of organizing the meeting to celebrate our 25
years of togetherness but we never dreamt of meeting even after 35 years. In fact, around 50 of us met 5 years back as well to mark 30 years of our strong relationship. We also floated the idea to meet at least once in a year but that seems to look quite impossible, as it’s a very tedious job to contact all these ex-IBMers personally. We need to put in a lot of effort to bring everyone together. In fact, we are skeptical that whether we will be able to hold this kind of meeting and catch up with all these friends five years down the line, as many of them have become very old.” It was quite heartening to see all the former IBM employees, who had come from different parts of the country as well as abroad to reconnect with each other, in the electric mood and cherishing the golden moments.
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SECURITY CORNER
FOR VASCO INDIA MARKET IS GOING GREAT GUNS Despite the challenges in the India market like price-sensitive Indian customers, negotiating at daggers drawn, and lack of vendor loyalty the security company says it is doing well in the market. BY KARMA NEGI
karmanegi@smechannels.com
H
eadquartered in Chicago, Illinois, USA, provider of strong authentication and e-signature VASCO data security started its India operations in 2008, and so far has registered 21 customers in the banking and 51 in the non-banking sector, among which a lot of of them are SMBs. VASCO announced its 43rd consecutive positive quarter in October 2013. The gross profit for the quarter was approximately 64% of the revenue. For the nine months ended September 30, 2013 compared to the same period in 2012, revenues from the banking market were essentially flat while revenues from the enterprise and application security market declined 14%. However, its plan is to reduce costs without jeopardizing the flexibility and the future growth potential of the company. “VASCO’s business in India is going very well. These customers are situated in a lot of different verticals, such as IT, financial services, pharmaceutical and many more,” comments Jan Valcke, COO and President, VASCO Data Security. Talking about the India market he opines that India security market has some specifics that have to be kept in mind when doing business here. Not only the Indian customers’ well-known expertise of technology and the market’s price-sensitiveness are some characteristics, but also the country’s extensiveness and its huge number of various cultures and languages spoken are distinguishing. This has of course implications in terms of buying preferences. Customers prefer, for example, a non-
hardware DIGIPASS, as the costs of distribution is usually very high, due to the wide geography. He further talks about the challenge to persuade the price-sensitive Indian customers. “Negotiating at daggers drawn is perfectly normal. Additionally, there is no vendor loyalty in India. This implies we have to scramble for every deal. And last but not the least, India is a vast market that is not adequately covered, with little VASCO representation in the non-metro cities.” From a more global point of view, he sees some other, more general challenges. More specific laws on privacy and e-identity come up, as well as stronger payments transaction rules which lead to new challenges. Moreover, he adds, the market evolution of the mobile apps in the tablet and smartphone world opens new business opportunities. However, the more apps, the more potential for fraud and the more specific regulations will be put in place. Lately, SMEs have become the major target of cyber attacks. Fraudsters have shifted their field of activity towards the small and medium-sized business. An increasing number of SMEs have experienced losses and harm because of cybercrime. Nowadays, fraudsters consider SMEs as preferred objects, as they tend to be perceived to be less careful in their cyber defenses. “SMEs have more to offer than just banknotes. Hackers also obtain relief from customer information or intelligent property, or they may break into a smaller supplier’s database to use it as a steppingstone to reach a larger company’s information and data. The most destructive outcome though,
is the reputation damage caused by a hack, a cost that cannot be quantified,” informs Valcke. He further adds that unfortunately, implementing security is seen as buying insurance all too often: SMEs pay for it because it is cheaper than the possible disaster informs Valcke. “Nevertheless, an SME ought to see these problems as a challenge to position security – and more in particular strong authentication – as a competitive advantage tool and business enabler.” VASCO believes that two-factor authentication solutions can definitely contribute to boosting one’s business. Security, convenience and scalability are picked at random from the various possibilities. This contributes to a customer’s pleasant online experience, thus strengthening customer relationships. In short, strong authentication makes a company feel better safe than sorry: it prevents a damaged reputation and guarantees strong customer trust. The security company has two traditional markets: banking and non-banking. A large part of this non-banking segment consists of SMEs of all kinds, in a lot of different verticals: IT, HR, food & beverages, to name only a few. The company offers DIGIPASS pack for Remote Authentication, an out-of-the-box solution specifically designed for small and medium size businesses. The box contains all necessary hardware and software to provide a high level of security to organizations with limited resources and budgets. Secondly, it also offers the DIGIPASS Appliance Pack. This solution is a convenient combina-
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SECURITY CORNER
tion of the IDENTIKEY Appliance bundle with DIGIPASS Pack for Remote Authentication. This all-in-one solution offers a highly affordable strong user authentication server with client DIGIPASS authenticators that can be up and running in little time. Another interesting product for SMEs - and more in particular to those having an online platform or online shop - is MYDIGIPASS.COM, its outsourced in-the-cloud offering. “The solution offers a lot of advantages,” says Valcke. First, this platform is protected with one-time password technology, offering more security and convenience. Secondly, the platform offers a single-sign on (SSO) possibility. Once a user has logged on, he can get securely access to the other applications on the platform. The annoying task of having to log on to various different applications is replaced by one single, secure logon process. A third advantage of the online authentication platform is its customizability. A company can use its own colors, logos and corporate identity, which generates user credibility and confirms the corporate brand. A fourth plus of an in-the-cloud solution is its scalability and increased flexibility. If the number of users increases, capacity can simply be added to meet increased demands; if the number of online users dwindles, capacity can easily be reduced without leaving an expensive in-house IT infrastructure unused. VASCO’s business models are focused on the specific needs of the verticals, with a close eye on competitive evolutions and economic circumstances. The core focus is on creating
JAN VALCKE, COO AND PRESIDENT, VASCO DATA SECURITY
“INDIA IS A VAST MARKET THAT IS NOT ADEQUATELY COVERED, WITH LITTLE VASCO REPRESENTATION IN THE NON-METRO CITIES.” awareness for and adoption of our MYDIGIPASS.COM cloud-based strong authentication service. This is accomplished through a topdown and bottom-up approach. The top down approach refers to application recruitment, accomplished through lead generation and nurturing campaigns. The objective is to get the MYDIGIPASS.COM service implemented on as many web applications as possible. The bottom up approach, on the other hand, refers to application user activation, accomplished through dedicated user education and communication campaigns per application. The objective is to activate as many application users as possible on the MYDIGIPASS.COM platform. VASCO works with a limited number of channel partners across the country to avoid any channel conflict. It has about 20 active channel
partners that are serviced via its distributors (Redington and Adweb Techno Trade). VASCO provides full pre and post-sales support offered locally, including participation in proof-of-concepts for customers. Next to that, it claims to have very attractive channel margins along with reseller salesman incentives. Moreover, VASCO can help set up local marketing campaigns in conjunction with the distributors. And last but not least, it also has a comprehensive training package available, called SEAL, VASCO’s Security Experts Academy & e-Learning platform, which hosts a worldwide community of security professionals. “Since VASCO is a security company, we consider it our duty to keep up with the current and emerging IT security trends and online attacks and spread this knowledge to our customers, partners and anybody who needs our advice, through classroom trainings, online and DVD-based modules and forums,” he adds. On channel partners Valcke says, “Our channel partners help us in reaching out to the market at large, and to get qualified opportunities for VASCO. They spread the VASCO word amongst their channel community and through word of mouth. They offer customers the most complete strong authentication solutions for their applications.” When it comes to technology trends in this market Valcke predicts the security of online accounts will remain one of the major challenges for the Internet sector. With the ever continuing growth of the Internet as a sales channel (as well as the growth of online selling applications) and the explosion of social media as communication and business channels, the need for adequate online security has never been more prominent. Consumers and companies worldwide doubt the value of static passwords to secure their accounts. The recent hacking offensive has proven the validity of these concerns. Also the so-called Internet of Things, the universe of objects that are connected to the Internet, calls for a secure way to control these objects. They should be secured to eliminate risks of these data being compromised advises Valcke.
Finally… VASCO’s business models are focused on the specific needs of the verticals, with a close eye on competitive evolutions and economic circumstances. The core focus is on creating awareness for and adoption of its MYDIGIPASS.COM cloud-based strong authentication service. Valcke concludes, “We expect that our revenue from our traditional business, which excludes our new service product offerings, for full-year 2013 will be in a range of $150 million to $155 million.”
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PRODUCT
REVIEW
GIGABYTE FM2+ SERIES MOBOS
QNAP TS-212P
GIGABYTE FM2+ series motherboards based on AMD A88X chipset features the new FM2+ APU socket, and are designed to get the most from
BY MANAS RANJAN
forthcoming Kaveri AMD APUs, while
info@smechannels.com
preserving compatibility for current
QNAP TS-212P TURBO 2-bay NAS is ideal for home and small/home office use. With its 1.6GHz CPU and 512MB DDR3 RAM, it delivers reliable performance for daily tasks such as file storage, sharing, data backup, and serves as an ideal media center for multimedia files across a range of platforms. With QTS 4.0 operating system, the TS-212P makes system operations and multimedia entertainment fully accessible and easy to use. With the OS, users can organize files and backups all in one centralized location; sync files across computers, tablets, and mobile devices; share files across different groups and communities; and access and manage files on the go using tablets and smart phones with mobile apps Qfile, Qmusic, Qphoto, Qmanager and VMobile. The TS-212P makes for an ideal home multimedia hub with its feature-rich multimedia applications including the Photo Station, Music Station and Video Station, where users can easily archive, manage and share all of their media collections. Additionally, with DLNA and AirPlay support, users can enjoy a high-quality TV experience. The TS-212P also supports multiple backup solutions for users to easily back up their data including QNAP NetBak Replicator and Apple Time Machine for Windows and Mac OS respectively. The model also provides disaster recovery solutions such as Real-time Remote Replication for realtime or scheduled data replication backup to cloud storage including Amazon S3, ElephantDrive, Symform, Dropbox, and Google Drive.
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AMD FM2 APUs. FM2+ AMD APUs
n TS-212P
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n 1.6 GHz CPU
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n 512 MB DDR3 RAM
APUs also offer native support for 4K
n 2X USB 3.0
resolution displays on HDMI port.
n 1X Gigabit LAN por
PRICE 18,900/- + tax (MOP)
CONTACT Sanjay Biswal, Email:sanjay@qnap.com, http://www.qnap.com
The AMD Dual Graphics technology allows users to further boost 3D graphics performance by adding an additional discrete AMD Radeon HD 6000 series graphics card to the system. This unique Dual Graphics technology means users can enjoy
WARRANTY
higher frame rates on the latest
Two years
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OVERALL RATING
power of both discrete and integrated graphics processors. Similarly, AMD Eyefinity technology delivers innovative graphics display capabilities enabling massive desktop workspaces and ultra-immersive visual environments for the ultimate panoramic computing experience.
n Price: Rs. 6,100 Warranty: 3 year, Contact: sales@gigabyte.in
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NEW ARRIVALS
PRODUCT
NETGEAR
NETGEAR 3G USB MODEMS/DONGLES PART OF ITS Aircard range of products, NETGEAR 3G USB modems/ dongles are attractively designed candy coloured 3G access devices which are unlocked and compatible with SIM of all compliant 3G service providers. The 3G USB Dongles will provide easy plug and play connection to access 3G in two high speed modes, 7.2Mbps and 21.6 Mbps. It will also double as USB storage and supports upto 32GB MicroSD Memory card (not included). The product also comes with NETGEAR Aircard Mobile Broadband Genie which provides easy device management through a user friendly interface to connect, monitor and control the device. Targeting the 3G/4G access segment, NETGEAR’s Aircard range of products offer advanced access technology in 4G and 3G and we will introduce the entire range of products in India. The great things about these products are that they are easy to use, fast and great looking. The devices are unlocked and any compatible SIM will work and is a great device for students and professionals alike. It also doubles as a storage device as it is capable of taking in MicroSD storage cards of upto 32GB. The 3G USB Dongles/Modems support HSPA+/UMTS 2100MHz, GSM/GPRS/EDGE/850/900/1800/1900 Mhz, etc. and are available in the speeds of 7.2Mbps and 21.6Mbps. n Price: AC327U USB 3G Modem 7.2Mbps – Rs 1590/- AC329U USB 3G Modem 21.6Mbps – Rs 2500/- , Contact: Rashi Peripherals Pvt. Tel: +91-22-61771771; Ingram Micro India Ltd, Tel: 91-22-39894645
VIEWSONIC
VIEWSONIC NEW VDI VIEWSONIC CORP’S virtualized desktop solutions launched at CES 2014 fortifies the company’s already strong VDI product line. These state-of-the-art cloud devices provide complete solutions for companies looking to effectively meet the demands of today’s changing computing environment. In addition, ViewSonic continues to transform the display market with price-competitive 4K Ultra HD devices and touch technology that aligns with today’s consumer expectations and business demands. ViewSonic’s Smart Client solutions enable users to access their desktop accounts from nearly anywhere via a centralized server, and helps a business fully transition to its VDI strategy. The new zero client SC-Z56 is ideal for users seeking the richest possible virtual desktop experience. Certified for VMware® Horizon View™, this highly secure zero client supports advanced 2D/3D applications and can drive up to four simultaneous full HD displays. n Price: On Request, Contact: Girish Mamtani, Tel: +91-1142603195 – 97, E-mail: girish.mamtani@viewsonic.com
ZOTAC
ZOTAC ZBOX NANO ID67 SERIES ZOTAC’S NEW ZBOX NANO ID67 series comes with 4th Generation Intel Core i3 4010U processor. The specialty of the series is that it raises the bar for CPU and GPU performance for that class and form factor. It’s amazing what kind of performance we’re able to extract out of such a tiny form factor. Intel HD Graphics 4400 enhances the ZBOX nano ID67 series with high-definition video decoding acceleration and DirectX 11 compatibility for video playback and snappy system response of GPUaccelerated applications. The ZOTAC ZBOX nano ID67 series come with Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac and bluetooth 4.0 ensure. The series also features 1.7 GHz, dual-core, 3MB L2 cache, Intel HD Graphics 4400, PLUS models available with preinstalled memory and hard drive, 4GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs. n Price: On Request. Warranty: On Request, Contact: Rucha Dhadphale, Mobile: +918600150505 Email: RuchaDhadphale@zotac.com
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SME CHAT
PARAG SOMAIYA, DIRECTOR, SHREEJI COMSEC INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED
“HOSTED PBX TO BE THE NEXT BIG WAVE” Shreeji Comsec India Private Limited provides solutions in the areas of IP and telecom networking solutions. Besides, the Matrix products, the company sells and services security products, Audio-Video and DSA for Airtel.
Brief us about your company? SHREEJI is a 20 year old company. It started its operations in the year 1990-91 and was involved in sales and servicing of Crompton Greaves EPABX systems. Presently we are distributing Matrix range of products as well as other brands. We also sell and service security products, Audio-Video and DSA for Airtel. What is your turnover and growth percentage? We are currently having a turnover of 50 million with an annual growth of 20%. What is your strength in terms of market reach and others? Our strength in market reach is largely by word of mouth, existing customer base and cross selling. Our focus is on providing excellent after-sales service and strong customer relationship. What kind of solutions and products you are dealing in? We provide solutions in the areas of IP & Telecom networking solutions. We deal in EPABX largely in Voice. We also deal in security products like CCTV surveillance, Access Control, Fire Detection and Audio & Video Conferencing. How do you find telecom market in India?
The Telecom market in India is very emerging but is more related to mobility and the EPABX market is slowly moving towards the IP range. Analog and Digital systems will decline in the next few years. What kind of telecom solutions you have? In telecom we are now moving into solutions of IP and Diallers. We feel that the hosted PBX will be the next big wave. How do you find Matrix products in terms of its advantages vis-àvis other brands? Matrix is SUBSTANCE brand. Substance is in the DNA of Matrix solutions. Substance in the form of technology, depth, genuineness and going beyond the mere outer façade and offer more values in all the areas. This is what differentiates Matrix from the lot. Matrix solutions are packed with More. More productivity, more applications, more flexibility, more functions, more features, more cost saving, more reliability, and more support. Matrix positioning is based on offering more of these true inherent values which customers expect from infrastructure solutions. What is the potential and challenge for Matrix in the market? Matrix has a great potential with new products
“IN TELECOM WE ARE NOW MOVING INTO SOLUTIONS OF IP AND DIALLERS. WE FEEL THAT THE HOSTED PBX WILL BE THE NEXT BIG WAVE.” like Office-in-a-Box. In terms of challenges they need to be more aggressive in their marketing approach as compared to MNC products. What the company needs to do to improve the market share? The company will need to be more aggressive in their pricing strategy if it needs to improve market share. Also need to be more aggressive when you launch new products and get the first mover advantage. As a partner what kind of products you want to add this year? We want to strengthen our existing product portfolio this year. Matrix, LE & new range of key phones will make our product range more strong. Integration of unified communication with ETERNITY IP-PBX will enable us to promote software to existing clients.
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RNI NO: DEL ENG/ 2010/ 31962 Postal Reg. No.: DL-SW-1/4145/13-15 Date of Publication: 20 of Every Month Date of Posting: 22 & 23 of Every Month
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Published on Jan 21, 2014
It talks about Printer market in India and the role of channel partners.
